SUFISM- By Peter J. Awn
One of truly creative manifestations of religious life in Islam is the mystical tradition, known as Sufism. The term derives most probably from the Arabic word for wool (suf), since the early ascetics of Islam (sufis) are said to have worn coarse woolen garments to symbolize their rejection of the wool.Origins.
Muslim mystical writers such as Abu Bakr al-Kalabadhi (d. 990/5) and ‘Ali al-Hujwiri (d.1071/2), nonetheless, have proposed a number of etymologies for sufi :
saff, “rank”, implying that Sufis are an elite group among Muslims ; suffah, “bench, ” alluding” to the people of the bench, the intimates of the prophet muhammad who gathered at the first mosque in medina ; safa, “purity”, focusing on the moral uprightness essential to the sufi way of life .
The resolution of the etymological debate is less critical than the recognition that the terms sufi and sufism evoke complex layers of meaning in Islam, including the denial of the world, close association with the prophet and his message, and a spiritual attainment that raises one a rank of unique intimacy with god
Some earlier western scholars of sufism concluded that mysticism is
incompatible with the muslim perception of an almighty, transcendent.
God with whom one shares little intimacy. In their opinion Sufi
mysticism was born on Islam’s contact with other major world religious,
especially Christianity and Buddhism. This theory is no longer
considered viable for two reasons : first, the Qur’anic perception of
the relationship of the individual to god is quite complex, highlighting
both immanence and transcendence, and second, while no one denies that
Islam evolved in a religious pluralistic environment,
