The term sufi, from the Arabic suf is thought to have been derived in the eight century to refer to those who wore coarse woollen garments. Gradually it came to be designated to a group of those who differentiated themselves by stressing certain teachings of the Qur’an and the sunnah. By the ninth century, the term tasawwuff (literally “being a Sufi”) was adopted by some representatives of this group as a designation of their beliefs and practices.
Sufism developed as a reaction against the worldliness of the early Umayyad period (661-749), stressing contemplation and spiritual development. Sufism aimed the individual to gain a deep knowledge of God’s will, therefore, seekers had to embrace a path of devotion and prayer that would lead to a spiritual awakening. Thus, the sharia has a counterpart, the tariqa (‘way’), the journey and discipline undertaken by the Sufi in the quest for the knowledge of God.
In the early stages, Sufism developed into a system of mystical orders, named after their founding teachers, but tracing their spiritual genealogy to the teachings of Prophet Muhammad and Ali Ibn Abi Talib, who they considered to have been endowed with the special mission of explaining the esoteric teachings of the Qur’an. Sufi masters were known as pirs or murshids, while the followers were known as murids, and were bound to the murshid by the baya, oath of allegiance.
Access to the normative, textual Islam based on the Qur’an, hadith, fiqh (jurisprudence), tafsir (hermeneutics) required the knowledge of Arabic, restricting its appeal. The Sufi masters were able to convey Islamic teachings in local languages. The Sufi dhikrs, ceremonies in remembrance of God derived from the Qurʾānic injunction “And remember God often” (sura 62, verse 10), developed spiritual techniques that meshed with practices from local traditions such as ritual dances and controlled yoga-style breathing.
Sufism was influential in spreading Islam to sub-Saharan and West Africa in the ninth to eleventh centuries, where they spread along trade routes. Organized Sufism, however, was consolidated in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, gaining ground rapidly in Asia in the aftermath of the Mongol invasions. Sufism was taken to China in the seventeenth century by Ma Laichi and other Sufis who had studied in Mecca and were influenced by the descendants of the Sufi master Afaq Khoja (1626-1694), a religious and political leader in Kashgaria (present day southern Xinjiang, China).
The mystic writings of the Persian poet Jalāl al-Dīn al-Rūmī (1207–73), also called by the honorific title Mawlānā are generally considered to be the supreme expression of Sufism. After his death, his disciples were organized as the Mawlawīyah (or Mehlevi) order, commonly known as the Whirling Dervishes due to their practice of whirling while performing the dhikr.
The Persian poet Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār Attar, who authored the finest spiritual parable in the Persian language, The Concourse of the Birds, was one of the greatest Sufi writers and thinkers, composing many brilliant prose works.
Nizari Ismailism and Persian Sufism developed a close relationship after the fall of the state of Alamut in 1256. For the first two centuries after the fall, the Imams remained inaccessible to the community in order to avoid persecution. The community concealed their identity under the mantle of Sufism without establishing formal affiliations with any particular Sufi tariqas that were spreading in Persia and Central Asia. At the same time, Sufis employed the batini tawil or esoteric teachings more widely ascribed to the Ismailis. The Nizari Ismaili Imams, who were still obliged to hide their identities, appeared to outsiders as murshids, often adopting Sufi names such as Shah Qalandar adopted by Imam Mustansir bi’llah II (d. 1480).
Sources:
Malise Ruthven, Azim Nanji, Sufi Orders 1100-1900, Historical Atlas of the Islamic World, Cartographica Limited 2004
Azim Nanji, Dictionary of Islam, Penguin Books, 2008
Sufism, Encyclopaedia Britannica (Accessed October 2015)
Compiled by Nimira Dewji
Ismailimail 