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Sufism
Body of mystical practice within Islam
Sufism (Arabic: التصوف, romanised: al-Taṣawwuf) whose practitioners are known as "Sufis" (from صُوفِيّ, ṣūfīy), is a mystic body of religious practices within Islam that is characterised by a focus on purification, spirituality, ritualism, and asceticism. Sufism has been defined in various ways —incorporating the dimension of Islamic belief— as mysticism, "the inward dimension of Islam", "the internalization and deepening of Islamic belief and practice" or Islamic esoterism.
From Wikipedia
Sufism (Arabic: التصوف, romanised: al-tasawwuf) is a diverse Islamic spiritual and ethical discipline concerned with spiritual excellence (ihsan), purification of the self and heart (tazkiya), sainthood and closeness to God (wilaya), remembrance of God (dhikr), ethical transformation, ardent love of God and what reflects it (mahabba/ishq), and spiritual striving along the path towards God (suluk). Central to its spiritual life and tradition is the role of saints, or friends of God (awliya'), who are understood to embody and transmit this path across generations and to teach it as Khidr-like masters. The wayfarer (salik) is traditionally described as progressing through various stations (maqamat) and states (ahwal) along a path of spiritual purification and closeness to God. Sufi literature gives particular importance to fana' and baqa', describing spiritual transformation in terms of the effacement of the ego and subsistence through God, while distinguishing these concepts from hulul, the doctrine of divine indwelling. The culmination of this path is associated with ma'rifa, or direct experiential knowledge of God, and dhawq, the mystical "taste" of spiritual reality. While commonly described as "Islamic mysticism", this designation captures only one dimension of the broader discipline. Nile Green notes the "narrowing and prescriptive tendencies" of the model of "mysticism", arguing that it can "castigate or exclude much of what it was meant to explain." He therefore proposes understanding Sufism as "primarily a tradition of powerful knowledge, practices and persons," rather than reducing it to the "mysticism of a marginal party of God-seekers." William C. Chittick describes Sufism as "the interiorisation and intensification of Islamic faith and practice", anchoring it to ihsan, the third dimension of religion in the Hadith of Jibril, alongside islam and iman. Annemarie Schimmel defines Sufism as "an interiorization of Islam" and "a personal experience of the central mystery of Islam", namely tawhid, the Oneness of God.
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