The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought

Sufism

Sufism (taṣawwuf) is the mystical current of thought in Islam, the individual mystic being known as a Sufi. Among the Companions of the Prophet Muhammad were persons who wanted to strive for more than the outward observance of the religious law and the customs founded by the Prophet. While fulfilling their religious duties, they also paid attention to what was happening to their souls and tried to harmonize these internal experiences with the external observances through asceticism and renunciation of the world. As a result of the great conquests, secularization of life and luxury, contrary to the ideals of the original Islamic community, became widespread, and the ascetics believed that the truly God-fearing person could save himself from such temptations only by withdrawing from the world.

The representatives of the ascetic movement wore rough woolen cloth (ṣūf) as a visible reaction against people who wore more luxurious clothing and possibly also as an imitation of the Christian monks.

In the eighth century, a fringe group of the movement called ṣūfiyya emerged. They developed views about the love of God, citing the Qur’an (5:54): “He loves them, and they love Him.” They intensified this relation by playing music and reciting and listening to love poems (samā‘). For the ṣūfiyya, God was the beloved celebrated in these poems, and the love relation described in them was their relation to God. Listening to these poems often put them in a state of ecstasy (wajd), brought about in particular by the exercise of dhikr allāh (recollection of God).

A Sufi was poor (faqīr), renounced this world, and devoted himself to the ardent service of God. In his eyes, an even greater enemy was his base self (nafs), experienced as the seat of all evil lusts, which impeded real renunciation of the world and exclusive surrender to God. It was therefore his task to exercise self-training in order to do away with the self and all impulses of its will. The final obliteration of personal activity was experienced as an absorption, a cessation of being, in God (fanā’). A road (ṭarīq or ṭarīqa, the later word for “dervish order”) along which the mystic traveled (sulūk) led to this goal. In the internal experience, it led across a number of way stations (manāzil), locations (maqām), and situations (ḥāl). Already in early times, many interpreted this road as a journey toward God through the macrocosmos.

A center of intellectual mysticism developed in the Abbasid capital of Baghdad under the leadership of Junayd (d. 910), to whose authority almost all later Sufism refers. Other prominent early mystics include Sahl al-Tustari (d. 896) in Basra and the famous Hallaj, whose exaggerated and challenging sayings provoked the state authorities, leading to his execution in Baghdad in 922.

The 10th and 11th centuries were a period of consolidation in which great collections and textbooks appeared that gave Sufism its final orthodox tone. The writings of Sarraj (d. 988), Sulami (d. 1021), and Qushayri (d. 1074) collected information about Sufism and Sufis. Classical Sufism found a certain culmination in the activities of Ghazali (d. 1111). Originally a theologian, he converted to mysticism after a crisis in his life. In his main work, the Ihya’ ‘Ulum al-Din (Revival of the religious sciences), he accomplished a synthesis of theological science and mysticism. Increasingly, the Persian language was also used in Sufi literature, which until far into the tenth century had been written only in Arabic. Sufism was to be of particular importance for the Persian poetry of ‘Attar (d. 1220), Rumi (d. 1273), and Jami (d. 1492) and later in Turkish, Urdu, and other languages.

Since early times, Sufism was enriched by admitting non-Islamic ways of thinking, above all Neoplatonism. A broad influence set in only much later, however, through the works of Shihab al-Din Yahya al-Suhrawardi (d. 1191), who was from Persia, and Ibn al-‘Arabi (d. 1240), who was from Spain but died in Damascus. Suhrawardi joined mystical experiences with older Iranian traditions. Ibn al-‘Arabi drew up a Neoplatonic-Gnostic system dominated by the idea of the unity of all beings (waḥdat al-wujūd). Later, opposition arose against aspects of Sufism, which Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328) considered as abuses.

Mystic life was increasingly cultivated in the orders (ṭuruq), which have been its characteristic home. The orders originated in the 12th and 13th centuries, during which Sufi groups were formed with fixed rules and a hierarchal leadership.

The most important orders, each with suborders and secondary branches, are the Qadiris (found throughout the entire Islamic world, with the exception of Shi‘i Iran); Kubrawis (who were spread throughout Central Asia); Naqshbandis (who arose in Central Asia and spread to India, the Caucasus, Kurdistan, and South Arabia); Khalwatis (who were spread throughout the Ottoman Empire and grew in Egypt and the rest of the Arab world from the 17th to 18th centuries, with branches, such as the Sammanis and Tijanis, that are important to more recent history in Africa); Shadhilis (who arose chiefly in North Africa); Mevlevis, known as “the whirling dervishes” (who traced their origin to Rumi but were founded in the 14th century and were influential within the Ottoman Empire); and Bektashis (who are said to have been founded by an Anatolian saint, Hajji Bektash [d. ca. 1270], and developed in the Ottoman Empire).

The orders generally have fixed, written rules, which usually include the following points:

The order’s affiliation. They state the order’s affiliation (silsila), which is traced back from the present leader to the Prophet Muhammad and may comprise 30 to 40 degrees. These affiliations are frequently not very historical; in the various orders, they often coincide from the Prophet onward to the foundation of the specific order in the 13th to the 15th century, but after that date, differentiation appears.

The conditions and rituals for admission into the order. Some orders take men and women, some only men. The novice owes the shaykh unconditional obedience in the affairs of everyday life.

Instructions for the use of the formulas for the dhikr (remembrance of God). These deal with the regulation of breathing, the rhythms in which these formulas must be recited, and the speed at which they must be performed.

Instructions regarding seclusion (khalwa). The Sufi often withdraws for a length of time, which may span weeks, in a special, screened-off, small room in order to devote himself to dhikr exercises. Precise instructions are given for the site and the arrangement of space, the length of the seclusion, the sequence of the formulas and litanies, the prescriptions for posture, and practical points such as maintenance and cleanliness.

Advice. Often advice is also given concerning the relations between the members of the order.

The most important practice of the Sufis and of the Sufi communities is the dhikr, and with some orders music and dance play a large role. These were rejected by the theologians, as well as by Ibn Taymiyya and his school; others, like Ghazali, accepted music (samā‘) but rejected dance.

In early times, even during the Prophet’s lifetime, dhikr could involve picturing God in one’s mind and thinking of Him, for which purpose meetings were held. The early ṣūfiyya recited certain formulas in common. Later, dhikr means to have God’s name (allāh) always present and to pronounce it while paying attention to certain breathing techniques. This recital of God’s name could lead to a state of ecstasy accompanied by visions. At times, the schools or orders developed specific methods for remembering God. Upon admission into the order, these methods were “implanted” into the novice by the teacher (talqīn al-dhikr).

Many prominent teachers and personalities of Sufism attained sainthood soon after their deaths, some even during their lifetimes. They were said to have supernatural knowledge and the power to work miracles, and their tombs often became places of pilgrimage. Garlands of stories and legends developed about their lives and works, forming the basis of hagiographies.

The model for miracle-working saints was the Prophet Muhammad himself, to whom supernatural features were ascribed by the Sufis. The Prophet’s life (sīra) and his sayings and actions (sunna) were an example to follow. The Sufis not only imitate the Prophet with body and soul (imitatio Muhammadi) but also exert theselves to keep Muhammad ever-present in their thoughts and feelings, and this practice could be so intense that the Sufis thought they saw Muhammad in person and heard his words and advice. They were convinced that Muhammad lives on after his death in a transformed existence, and in later times the term “Muhammad’s path” (ṭarīqa muḥammadiyya) was used in this context.

The mystical path is in principle open to every Muslim. According to the Sufis, therefore, anyone can arrive at higher forms of religious knowledge. On the other hand, Shi‘is, for whom religious authority and knowledge are associated with degrees of consanguinity with the Prophet Muhammad through the imams, were hostile to the “democratic” idea of knowledge upheld by the Sufis.

Groups founded on the basis of strong “ideological” ties were capable of developing strong sociopolitical powers. For example, a shaykh with a charismatic personality could receive from worldly rulers rich gifts that he might use to further the worldly influence of his order. He might win the loyalty of entire tribes if, as often happened, he succeeded in the role of peacemaker in tribal society. He might establish a community around his rule that swore allegiance to him. The state of Sanusi in Libya, for instance, emerged on the basis of its peacemaking function. If the power of the order was directed outwardly in military undertakings, such as was the case with the Safavids at the end of the 15th century in Iran, it was even possible for an empire to form.

European observers in the 19th century, especially colonial officials whose job it was to watch over Islamic opposition movements, noticed this strong group solidarity. They noted that Sufi shaykhs and groups often supported resistance to European colonialization. One example is the famous Shamil in Daghestan, who organized resistance to the Russian conquest. In North Africa, there were the Sanusis and the amir ‘Abd al-Qadir, who was a member of the Qadiris. The so-called littérature de surveillance produced by the colonial officials created the image of a dark conspiracy across an immense international network led by secretive Sufi shaykhs against European civilization. This literature, often based on the most unreliable sources, exerted a considerable influence on European scholarship.

In contemporary times, many Western-oriented Muslim reformers see dervish orders as a cause of weakness and decadence in the Muslim world. In Turkey, orders have been prohibited since 1925. For the so-called fundamentalists, such as the Wahhabis, who are dominant in Saudi Arabia, Sufism is an aberration of what they see as the true form of Islam. The Wahhabis view the veneration of shaykhs, an essential feature of the orders, as a form of idolatry, the suppression of which they consider to be pleasing to God. Consequently, Sufi orders are also forbidden in Saudi Arabia, and the Saudi regime spends sizable sums of money throughout the Islamic world to combat the influence of Sufi orders. Several orders have moved their center from postrevolutionary Iran to Western countries, especially England and America. The internal Sufi discussion concerning this double challenge by Western rationalism and Islamic fundamentalism has scarcely begun.