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Sufism
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Sufism is the heart of Islam. Its key is an inner light and awakening, an outer courtesy and service to humanity. It relates to Islam much as the mystical tradition does to Christianity, but far more prominently. Sufism is increasingly acknowledged as a spiritual answer to modern materialism. This introductory guide describes its origins and background, the relationship with Islam, and its spread throughput the world. It covers what it means to be a Sufi and the relevance of Sufism in modern life.
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In its first stages Sufism had been the prerogative of a limited spiritual elite. From the twelfth century onwards it succeeded in involving the Muslim masses on a large scale in its network of orders. Sufi hospices, (Zawiyas in Arabic, Khanagas in Iranian, Ribat in the Maghreb and Tekkes in Turkish) were founded all over the Muslim world from Morocco to Central Asia. The Sheikh of each order, a successor of the original founder, presided over the hospice. In this centre he taught his disciples (Murids) and performed with them the Sufi rituals of Dhikr and Sama'.
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There is little to find in the Koran that sustain the tradition of Sufism, and therefore Sufism have normally had big problems being accepted by the religious as well as the learned elite. Sufism has ... had problems with surviving during modernization processes that have taken place in most of the Muslim world. Today Sufism will normally be performed in the countryside, and by people in the outskirts of towns that are so big that there are several cultures co-existing. Sufis are also often of a high average age, as recruiting among the young proves difficult.
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Sufism has some roots in the Shamanic traditions of Middle Asia , and is flexible in terms of religious materiality. These two characteristics of Sufism attracted the nomadic people of middle-western Asia (mainly the current Iranic and Turkic republics of Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan). Sufism ... spread quickly among the Anatolian Turkmen and among Balkan peoples of modern Albania, Bosnia, Macedonia, and Bulgaria.
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Besides Sufism’s “appeal to the heart” at the higher spiritual level, it unfolded a tendency of compromise with the popular beliefs and practices of the half converted and even nominally converted masses. It allowed a motley of religious attitudes inherited by the new converts from their previous backgrounds, from animism in Africa to pantheism in India. Although this strong tendency to compromise with local ideas and customs of the converts has assisted tremendously in the spread of Islam by Sufism, it has ... divided Islam into a variety of religious and social cultures, and militated against the forces of uniformity represented by the orthodox Ulama. Thus Sufism proved the greatest channel for the spread of Islam precisely by the virtue of the same compromise. In India, Central Asia, Turkey and Africa, it brought millions within the fold of Islam with astonishing rapidity and still a proselytizing force in Africa. Further, the fact that Sufism came to be linked with Sunni Islam caused a severe diminution in the ranks of the Shia.
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The contemporary Shaykh Hisham Kabani the leader of the Naqshabandi Sufi Order in North America, said in an interview with Joseph Roberts at the "Commom Ground Magazine" (August 1996), that the term "Sufism" came from four different Arabic sources. The first "Ahlu al -Sufa": The people of the bench. During the time of the Prophet, there were many people who were attracted to him and were trying to achieve spiritual advancement. The Prophet used to meet with them in the evenings, and after he left, his followers would stay behind, sitting until morning on benches in the mosque located near his house, trying to recite and memorize what he had told them trough the day. The second source is: "Safa" (very clear like crystal, and transparent like water). The third source is "Sufatul Kafa": the bath sponge, which describes the soft heart of a Sufi.
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Sufism