Sufism

Overview

Recall questions on the origins of Sufism and its early figures, its acceptance in Sunni orthodoxy, the tariqas and Sufi practice, Sunni and Shi'a responses, Geaves on Sufism in Britain and Chittick's emphasis.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is Sufism?

   Model answer

   The inward and contemplative current of Islam, known as tasawwuf, concerned with purifying the self and drawing near to Allah. Its practitioners locate it in the third of the three dimensions the tradition names, after submission and faith: ihsan, the quality of worshipping with full awareness of standing in Allah's presence. It is not a sect with a law of its own, and Sufis have belonged to the ordinary legal schools.

2. 2

   Which early figures should a student know?

   Model answer

   Hasan al-Basri, remembered for austere preaching on the fear of judgement; Rabi'a al-Adawiyya, who insisted on loving Allah for his own sake rather than from hope of paradise or fear of hell; al-Junayd of Baghdad, who set out a sober path in carefully orthodox terms; and al-Hallaj, executed in 922 after ecstatic utterances that his judges took as a claim to identity with the divine.

3. 3

   How did Sufism come to be accepted within Sunni orthodoxy?

   Model answer

   Largely through al-Ghazali. He had already made his name as a jurist and theologian when a personal crisis drove him to the Sufi path, and he then argued in his great synthesis that inward transformation is the whole point of the outward law. After him it became difficult to dismiss the discipline as marginal, and most later jurists were themselves attached to an order.

4. 4

   What are the tariqas?

   Model answer

   Organised orders that emerged from the twelfth century, each tracing a chain of transmission back through its founder to the Prophet: the Qadiriyya, Naqshbandiyya, Shadhiliyya, Chishtiyya, Mevleviyya and, later, the Tijaniyya, among many others. A disciple pledges himself to a master who directs his practice. The orders gave the movement institutions, lodges, endowments and reach.

5. 5

   What do Sufis actually do?

   Model answer

   Repeated remembrance of Allah using the divine names, alone or in gathered sessions that may be silent or voiced; retreat; watchfulness over one's own thoughts and motives; recitation of litanies assigned by a master; and, in some orders, listening to sung poetry, with the Mevlevis adding the turning dance. All of it is understood as supplementing the obligatory prayers, never as replacing them.

6. 6

   How far did Sufism penetrate Muslim societies, and by what means?

   Model answer

   Very far. From roughly the twelfth century the orders were woven into ordinary life: shrines of saints became centres of local pilgrimage and healing, orders were tied to craft guilds and endowed by rulers, and their poetry and music carried Islam in vernacular languages. Sufi teachers and traders were central to its spread in South Asia, Anatolia, West Africa and the Indonesian archipelago, often absorbing local forms rather than confronting them.

Other ways to work this

The same content, four other ways.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.