Sufism

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Given its open tolerant philosophical and musical nature, why has Sufism not won more Western converts? apart from the popularity of Rumi's poetry Sufi thought seems to have had little impact on peoples perceptions of Islam.

I saw a great program in the Faith & Music series which mentioned a site where Hindus Muslims and Sikhs all give respect to a Sufi saint together, and energetic devotional music is played every night. Seemed very inspiring to me..
 
One of the Spiritual Shopper (?) programmes included Sufism, including some of the music and dancing.

I would recommend Omar Faruk Tekbilek to check out, he's a Sufi and is a multi-instrumentalist on several traditional instruments. I've got "Crescent Moon" but he's got quite a few albums out.:)

Snoopy.
 
Sufism is way too unknown in the West to gain a significant number of followers. I hardly know anything about it myself. It would probably help if there was some key book or doctrine that was readily available to people...there isn't one, is there? Because I totally missed it.
 
It seems there a various sects of Sufism as with most religions. And these appear to travel the gamut like the rest. I thoroughly enjoy taking part in the Dances for Universal Peace, which is part of a Sufi tradition that embraces all religions. Various scripture and chant is combined with movement to create a very 'moving' meditation. In the process you learn something about the other religious traditions, some of their native language, and connect with others in celebration and meditation...

If you can find a dance near you, I highly recommend giving it a shot. Also attending various dances with different dance leaders also leads to more experience.

My daughter and her cousin spent a week at the Creative Arts for Peace Camp held at a Sufi retreat center in West Virginia, home grown organic food, the dance, the experience...great stuff.
 
Snoopy said:
I would recommend Omar Faruk Tekbilek to check out, he's a Sufi and is a multi-instrumentalist on several traditional instruments. I've got "Crescent Moon" but he's got quite a few albums out.:)
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I'll second that, Snoopy. I too have that album. I also recommend Googling Reshad Feild, formerly Richard Field of the sixties pop group The Springfields, and especially his first book the Final Barrier. This gives a very readable and fascinating account of his introduction to Sufism.
VC
 
It seems there a various sects of Sufism as with most religions
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They are not exactly sects , they are schools . Like suppose you do a BE degree from UK , & do the same degree in US , both will teach the same thing, but in a different way .

Sufism is way too unknown in the West to gain a significant number of followers. I hardly know anything about it myself. It would probably help if there was some key book or doctrine that was readily available to people...there isn't one, is there? Because I totally missed it.
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I dont think there is any key docterine , mainly because there is no key founder. The first Sufis who started to make themselves heard were in a time when muslims had too much money/land/slaves in their hands , there was an emerging trend of putting extreme stress on rituals , & people were forgetting the spiritual dimensions of Islam . Later on it got mixed with "Persian philosopho-metaphysical" concepts & Greek philosophy. And later on with "Baba flavour of India" & to some extant with Chinese Tao.

When I think deep into whats the core of Sufism , I think it might be "pure devotion to God, & pure devotion to people", or may be "know yourself, know God", or may be "cultivate the inherent goodness in self/poeple" . Beyond that there are cosmologies, lataif ( more or less sufi version of chakras ) , philosophies , breathing practices , & a whole spectrum of Zikr ( chants ) & meditations.

For a good intro try these books

What is Sufism - Martin Lings
http://www.amazon.com/What-Sufism-Islamic-Texts-Society/dp/0946621411

Essential Sufism - Robert Frager
http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Sufism-Robert-Frager/dp/006251475X

The Knowing Heart: A Sufi Path of Transformation - Kabir Helminski
http://www.amazon.com/Knowing-Heart-Sufi-Path-Transformation/dp/1570625662/ref=pd_sim_b_5/102-3464155-2328141?ie=UTF8

Basic meditation techniques

Muraqaba: Art and Science of Sufi Meditation - Shamsuddin Azeemi
http://www.amazon.com/Muraqaba-Art-Science-Sufi-Meditation/dp/0975887548/ref=pd_ecc_rvi_3/102-3464155-2328141?ie=UTF8
 
Hello Farham, thanks for that info.
Are you a sufi?
Any web link where I can learn a bit a about sufi history?


Thanks
 
Slaam,

I want to explain the reality of SUFISM

SUFISM: ITS ORIGINS


The word Sufi is most likely to be derived from the Arabic word "soof", meaning wool. This is because of the Sufi habit of wearing woolen coats, a designation of their initiation into the Sufi order. The early Sufi orders considered the wearing of this coat as an imitation of Isa bin Maryam (Jesus). In reply to this, Ibn Taymiyyah said: "There are a people who have chosen and preferred the wearing of woolen clothes, claiming that they want to resemble al-Maseeh ibn Maryam. But the way of our Prophet is more beloved to us, and the Prophet (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam.s) used to wear cotton and other garments."1

Sufism is known as "Islamic Mysticism," in which Muslims seek to find divine love and knowledge through direct personal experience of God2. Mysticism is defined as the experience of mystical union or direct communion with ultimate reality, and the belief that direct knowledge of God, spiritual truth, or ultimate reality can be attained through subjective experience (as intuition or insight)3 Both the terms Sufi and Sufism and Sufi beliefs have no basis from the traditional Islamic sources of the Qur'an and Sunnah, a fact even admitted by themselves. Rather, Sufism is in essence a conglomerate consisting of extracts from a multitude of other religions with which Sufi's interacted.

During the primary stages of Sufism, Sufis were characterised by their particular attachment to zikr (remembrance of Allah) and asceticism (seclusion), as well as the beginning of innovated practices to 'aid' in the religious practices. Yet even at the early stage of Sufism, before their involvement in innovated rituals and structured orders, the scholars warned the masses of the extremity of Sufi practices. Imam Al-Shafi' had the opinion that "If a person exercised Sufism (Tasawafa) at the beginning of the day, he doesn't come at Zuhur except an idiot". Imam Malik and Ahmad bin Hanbal also shared similar ideas on this new movement which emanated from Basrah, Iraq. Although it began as a move towards excessive Ibaadah, such practices were doomed to lead to corruption, since their basis did not come from authentic religious doctrines, but rather from exaggerated human emotions. Sufism as an organised movement arose among pious Muslims as a reaction against the worldliness of the early Umayyad period (AD 661-750)4. The Sufis exploited the chaotic state of affairs that existed during the fifth and sixth centuries A.H. and invited people to follow their way, alleging that the remedy to this chaos was conformity to the guidance of their order's Sheikhs. Dar al-Hikmah was established during the reign of Khalifah Ma'moon, where he invited the scholars of the Romans and Greeks to meet with the Muslims and 'discuss' their respective positions. This provided the perfect breeding ground for the synthesis between Islam and Pagan theology, to produce the Sufism of the like of Ibn Arabi.


see this link
SUFISM: ITS ORIGINS
 
moseslmpg said:
Sufism is way too unknown in the West to gain a significant number of followers. I hardly know anything about it myself. It would probably help if there was some key book or doctrine that was readily available to people...there isn't one, is there? Because I totally missed it.
Click to expand...

Have you read the book "The Sufis" by Idries Shah?
 
Here are a few links about Sufism

http://www.sufiway.net/sec4=ORigSUF811326.html

http://www.nuradeen.com/Reflections/ElementsOfSufism1.htm

http://sunnah.org/tasawwuf/tasawwuf.htm

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A few very important scholars of Islam on Sufism

Imam Abu Hanifa (85 H. - 150 H) "If it were not for two years, I would have perished." He said, "for two years I accompanied Sayyidina Ja'far as-Sadiq and I acquired the spiritual knowledge that made me a gnostic in the Way." [Ad-Durr al-Mukhtar, vol 1. p. 43]

Imam Malik (95 H. - 179 H.) "whoever studies Jurisprudence (tafaqaha) and didn't study Sufism [tasawwafa] will be corrupted; and whoever studied Sufism and didn't study Jurisprudence will become a heretic; and whoever combined both will be reach the Truth." [the scholar'Ali al-Adawi , vol. 2, p 195.)

Imam Shafi'i (150 - 205 AH.) "I accompanied the Sufi people and I received from them three knowledges: ... how to speak; .. how to treat people withleniency and a soft heart... and they... guided me in the ways of Sufism." [Kashf al-Khafa, 'Ajluni, vol. 1, p 341.]

Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal (164 - 241 AH.) "O my son, you have to sit with the People of Sufism, because they are like a fountain of knowledge and they keep the Remembrance of Allah in their hearts. they are the ascetics and they have the most spiritual power." [Tanwir al-Qulub p. 405]

Imam Nawawi (620 - 676 AH.) "The specifications of the Way of the Sufis are ... to keep the Presence of Allah in your heart in public and in private; to follow the Sunnah of the Prophet (s) ... to be happy with what Allah gave you..."[in his Letters, (Maqasid at-tawhid), p. 201]

Ibn Khaldun (733 - 808 AH.) "The way of the Sufis is the way of the Salaf, the preceding Scholars between the Sahaba and Tabi'een of those who followed good guidance..." [Muqaddimat ibn al-Khaldun, p. 328]

Tajuddin as-Subki (727 - 771 AH.) "May Allah praise them [the Sufis] and greet them and may Allah cause us to be with them in Paradise. Too many things havebeen said about them and too many ignorant people have said things which are not related to them. And the truth is that those people left the world and were busy with worship. ... They are the People of Allah, whose supplications and player Allah accepts and by means of whom Allah supports human beings" [Mu'eed an-Na'am p. 190, the chapter entitled Tasawwufl

Jalaluddin as-Suyuti (849 - 911 AH.) "At-Tasawwuf in itself is the best and most honorable knowledge. It explains how to follow the Sunnah of the Prophet (s) and to put aside innovation." [Ta'yid al-Haqiqat al-'Aiiyya,p 57]

lbn Qayyim (691 - 751 AH.) "We can witness the greatness of the People of Sufism, in the eyes of the earliest generations of Muslims by what has been mentioned by Sufyan ath-Thawri (d. 161 AH), one of the greatest imams of the second century and one of the foremost legal scholars. He said, "If it had not been for Abu Hisham as-Sufi (d. 115) 1 would never have perceived the action of the subtlest forms of hypocrisy in the self... Among the best of people is the Sufi learned in jurisprudence." [Manazil as-Sa'ireen.]

Abdullah ibn Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab (1115 - 1201 AH.) "My father Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab and I do not deny or criticize the science of Sufism, but on the contrary we support it, because it purifies the external and the internal of the hidden sins, which are related to the heart and to the outward form. Even though the individual might externally be on the right way, internally he might be on the wrong way. Sufism is necessary to correct it." [ad-Dia'at mukathaffa did ash-Shaykh Ibn Abdul Wahhab,p.85 ]

Ibn 'Abidin (1198 - 1252 AH.) "the Seekers in this Sufi Way don't hear except from the Divine Presence and they don't love any but Him. If they remember Him they cry, and if they thank Him they are happy; ... May Allah bless them." [Risa'il Ibn'Abidin p. 172 & 173]

Muhammad 'Abduh (1265 - 1323 AH.) "Tasawwuf appeared in the first century of Islam and it received a tremendous honor. It purified the self and straightened the conduct and gave knowledge to people from the Wisdom and Secrets of the Divine Presence." (Majallat al-Muslim, 6th ed. 1378 H, p. 24].

Abul Hasan 'Ali an-Nadawi (1331 AH b.) "These Sufis were initiating people on Oneness and sincerity in following the Sunnah of the Prophet (s) and to repent from theirsins and to be away from every disobedience of Allah 'Azza wa Jail. Their guides were encouraging them to move in the way of perfect Love to Allah 'Azza wa Jail. "...In Calcutta India, everyday more than 1000 people were taking initiation into Sufism. "...by the influence of these Sufi people, thousands and thousands and hundreds of thousands in India found their Lord and reached a state of Perfection through the Islamic religion."[Muslit-ns in India, p. 140-146]

Ibn Taymiah on Sufism

Ghazali on Sufism

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Sufi cosmology and psychology

Muraqaba
 
Salaam
I AM SUFI and have been studying sufism for about 2-3 years i took bayat this time but i have been in presence of my Shiekh and Qibla Alam ra since the age of 10 mashallah it is such a blessing and qibla Alam RA came to the uk and he lifted the vails and spread the words of islam and there love for the deen really did show through may ALLAH grant them the highest rank in jannet
 
The garden of
Love
is green without
limit
and yields many
fruits
other than sorrow
and joy.
Love is beyond either
condition:
without spring,
without autumn,
it is always fresh.
-- Jelaluddin Rumi
 
Hi,

The Retreat (Mondays BBC2 - British telly!) is about 6 people of varying backgrounds on a (Sufi) retreat in Spain. There are two more episodes and I personally found the programme very interesting...

s.
 
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