What is sufism??????????
I would like to know because I think people portray sufism as this hippie "ya know all the religions are really the same" religion and not as specifically Islamic.... I just don't think that's a true depiction and I think they twist sufism for their own agenda but that's just my theory
sufis were spiritual seekers who embraced islam.
by the 9th century when information about them was gathered, they were living ascetic type lives.
they were given the name 'sufi' apparently (because it's only speculation) because they wore wool...'suf' and another theory is they were 'pure' and so the word safa indicates purity.
I would go as far as to say the name sufi came from greek word 'sophia' meaning wisdom...and this group were theosophists (not to be confused with modern masonic t theosophy). They found the prophet, asked him questions and accepted islam.
They clearly existed as a group already.
They were definitely orthodox sunnis...ie the foundation of the 4 steps is shariah..so you couldnt become a sufi unless you were a proper practicing muslim.
On initiation, you could only progress depending on your level and obv if you were someone who neglected the rules, you would not progress.
However as time goes on, as you can imagine a lot of pretenders took over and many sufi orders sprang up, many got taken over by the worst type of people. So today, there is barely a sufi islam left.
I think one of the best sufis in the last few decades was Bawa muhaiyadeen..
As for the hippie type sufis, that's in large part due to universal sufism which basically came to the west and took on followers from different religions. The irony is that the founder of universal sufism, was inayat khan...and he is one of my all time fav sufis.
Similar to him, i have an approach to religion that combines ideas from other religions but i am def a muslim just as he was.
