Sufism summary

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Sufi dervishes performing a ritual dance, Konya, Turkey.

Sufism , Mystical movement within Islam that seeks to find divine love and knowledge through direct personal experience of God. It consists of a variety of mystical paths that are designed to ascertain the nature of mankind and God and to facilitate the experience of divine love and wisdom in the world. Sufism arose as an organized movement after the death of Muhammad (632 ce), among different groups who found orthodox Islam to be spiritually stifling. The practices of contemporary Sufi orders and suborders vary, but most include the recitation of the name of God or of certain phrases from the Quʾrān as a way to loosen the bonds of the lower self, enabling the soul to experience the higher reality toward which it naturally aspires. Though Sufi practitioners have often been at odds with the mainstream of Islamic theology and law, the importance of Sufism in the history of Islam is incalculable. Sufi literature, especially love poetry, represents a golden age in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Urdu languages. See also Aḥmadiyyah; dervish; Malāmatiyyah; tariqa.

al-Ghazālī Summary

Al-Ghazālī was a Muslim theologian and mystic whose great work, Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīnIḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn (“The Revival of the Religious Sciences”), made Sufism (Islamic mysticism) an acceptable part of orthodox Islam. Al-Ghazālī was born at Ṭūs (near Mashhad in eastern Iran) and was educated there,

al-Muḥāsibī Summary

Al-Muḥāsibī was an eminent Muslim mystic (Ṣūfī) and theologian renowned for his psychological refinement of pietistic devotion and his role as a precursor of the doctrine of later Muslim orthodoxy. His main work was ar-Ri ʿāyah li-ḥūqūq Allah, in which he acknowledges asceticism to be valuable as

al-Ḥallāj Summary

Al-Ḥallāj was a controversial writer and teacher of Islamic mysticism (Ṣūfism). Because he represented in his person and works the experiences, causes, and aspirations of many Muslims, arousing admiration in some and repression on the part of others, the drama of his life and death has been

al-Mahdī Summary

Al-Mahdī was the creator of a vast Islamic state extending from the Red Sea to Central Africa and founder of a movement that remained influential in Sudan a century later. As a youth he moved from orthodox religious study to a mystical interpretation of Islam. In 1881 he proclaimed his divine