Sufism

By: Ian Worthington

Basic TenantsThe Spiritual Journey to God:•Less of a doctrine then a way of life•Way of life that a deeper identity is discovered and lived

•Harmony with all that exists•Seeks a way out of the path of “worldliness”•Developed out of Islam

Ibn Khaldun, the 14th century Arab historian, described Sufism as:... dedication to worship, total dedication to Allah most High, ….(Ibn Khaldun, quoted in Keller, Nuh Ha Mim, The Place of Tasawwuf in Traditional Islam)

A Gathering of Dervishes - India, 17th century

A Gathering of Sufis, Persian 19th century miniature

Span of Influence

The tomb of Khoja Afāq, near Kashgar, China

Sudanese Sufi ceremony

Sufism expanded vastly throughout the Islamic Empire and beyond to many places not under Muslim control

A Qadiri Sufi village in Dongxiang county, Linxia prefecture, Gansu province. The tower is a Sufi tomb

DervishesDervishes are a very ascetic form of Sufi mystics known for their extreme poverty.

Dervishes: Mevlâna mausoleum, Konya, Turkey

A Persian dervish, Qajar era

Persian or Arabic for Dervishدرویش

Dar is Persian means ‘door.’ A Darvesh is one who goes from door to door

Dervishes in Turkey became known for the whirling dances they performed

Sufism in Turkey and Central Asia

Sufism laid the ground work for the Ottoman Empire in Turkey

Sufi presence in Transoxania and Khorasan since its conception

A Sufi dervish, they spread Islam throughout Anatolia

Muslim presence in Iran and Afganistan

Sufism in South and Southeast Asia

Tomb of Shaikh Salim Chisti, Uttar Pradesh, India

Sufi singers in Indonesia

Chisti Sufis and Seljuk invasions helped the spread of sufism into India

18th Century Dutch map of Java, prominent religious groups included Sufi mystics

Spread of Sufism

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2. Sufism spreads into Africa and establishes a community in the larger already present Islamic community3. Sufism moves with the expansion of seljuks into India4. Sufi mystics move along trade routes into China and SouthEast Asia5. Sufism spreads into Indonesia

1.Sufismspreads fromArabian heartlands and moves into Anatolia

Literature

In order to guide spiritual travelers and to express the states of consciousness experienced on this journey, Sufis produced an enormously rich body of literature, often using a specialized technical vocabulary

The Mathnawī of Rūmī

"The Concourse of the Birds" painted by Habib Allah

Comprising six books of poems that amount to more than 50,000 lines, it pursues its way through 424 stories that illustrate man's predicament in his search for God.

Bibliography

• Nasr, Syed Hossein. (1991). Islamic Spirituality II: Manifestations. New York: Crossroad.

• Dr. Alan Godlas, University of Georgia, Sufism's Many Paths, 2000, University of Georgia: http://www.uga.edu/islam/Sufism.html

• Dr. Zubair Fattani, "The meaning of Tasawwuf", Islamic Academy. See: http://www.islamicacademy.org/html/Articles/English/Tasawwuf.htm

• Haddad, Gibril Fouad: Sufism in Islam LivingIslam.org: http://www.livingislam.org/k/si_e.html

• Geaves, Theodore Gabriel, Yvonne Haddad, Jane Idleman Smith: Islam and the West Post 9/11, Ashgate Publishing Ltd., p. 67

• Muhammad Emin Er, Laws of the Heart: A Practical Introduction to the Sufi Path, Shifâ Publishers, 2008

• "Ṣūfi literature." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 07 Oct. 2008 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/719922/Sufi-literature