Sufism

Sufism (in Arabic, tasawwuf) is the name given to the spiritual and mystical dimension of Islam, a family of currents that seek inner excellence (ihsan), the purification of the soul and heart (tazkiya), and an intimate relationship with God. The Arabic term refers to the process of attaining ethical and spiritual ideals, and its practitioners are called Sufis or, in some regions, dervishes.

Historically, Sufism was organised around masters who passed their teaching on to disciples, forming orders or brotherhoods (tariqa) with their own meeting places, known as zawiyas, khanqahs or tekkes. Its central practice is dhikr, the constant remembrance of God, often accompanied by chanting, prayer and exercises of concentration. Its origins lie in the early centuries of Islamic history, partly as a reaction against the worldliness of some sectors of the elite under the first caliphates, although its practitioners always regarded themselves as faithful to religious law.

Classical authors describe the Sufi path as a sequence of stations (maqamat) and states (ahwal). Two of its most influential ideas are fana' (the dissolution of the self before God) and baqa' (subsistence in God after that dissolution). Many Sufis also stress the unity of all that exists and an inner meaning of the Quranic text. Al-Hallaj, Rumi and Ibn Arabi illustrate the richness and diversity of this tradition, which has sometimes been viewed with suspicion by more legalistic currents.

Today Sufism coexists with debates about its place within Islam, about whether it should be understood mainly as mysticism or as a tradition of knowledge and practice, and about its spread beyond the Muslim world, where it is sometimes detached from Islam and reinterpreted in universalist terms.