The origins of Sufism Sufism is the name given to the mystical move[1]ment within Islam; a Sufi is a Muslim who dedi[1]cates himself to the quest after mystical union (or, better said, reunion) with his Creator The name is Arabic in origin, being derived from the word suf meaning “wool”; the Sufis were distin[1]guishable from their fellows by wearing a habit of coarse woollen cloth, in time when silks and brocades had become the fashion of the wealthy and mundane-minded, symbolic of their renunci[1]ation of worldly values and their abhorrence for physical comforts. Mystical awareness was certainly present in the Prophet Mohammad’s attitude to Allah, and “mystical” is an entirely appropriate adjective to describe his many experiences of supernatural Presence making contact through him with a message to mankind. The Koran, the book of Allah’s revelations to Mohammad, contains numerous passages of a mystical character which the Sufis seized upon eagerly to buttress their own claims to personal trafficking with God
And when My servants question
thee
concerning Me—I am near to answer
the call of the caller, when he calls
to Me; so let them respond to Me,
and let them believe in Me: haply so
they will go aright.
Sura 2: I82
We indeed created man; and We know
what his soul whispers within him,
and We are nearer to him than the jugular
vein.
Sura 50: 5I
All that dwells upon the earth
is perishing,
yet still abides the Face of thy Lord,
majestic, splendid.
Sura 55: 26
One pregnant context was taken to refer to a pre-eternal covenant between God and man, the re-enactment of which became the earnest aspi[1]ration of the enthusiastic Sufi. And when thy Lord took from the Children of Adam, from their loins, their seed, and made them testify.
touching themselves, “Am I not your Lord?”
They said, “Yes, we testify.”
Sura 7: 171
The ascetic outlook and practice, an indispensable preparation to mystical communion, characterized the life not only of Mohammad himself but of many of his earliest followers. Even when the rapid spread of Islam and the astonishing military conquests of neighboring ancient kingdoms brought undreamed-of riches to the public exchequer, not a few of the leading men in the new commonwealth withstood all temptation to abandon the austere life of the desert, and their example was admired and emulated by multitudes of humbler rank. Nevertheless with the passage of time, and as Islam became increasingly secularized consequent upon further victories and rapidly augmenting complications of state craft, the original ascetic impulse tended to be overwhelmed in the flood of worldly preoccupation.
Towards the end of the eighth century AD pious Muslims who remained faithful, through all trials and temptations, to the high ideals of the fathers began to form themselves into little groups for mutual encouragement and the pursuit of common aims; these men and women (for there were women amongst them of a like mind), opting out of the race for worldly advancement, took to wearing wool to proclaim their other worldliness and were therefore nicknamed Sufis. These circles of devotees, and many isolated anchorites besides, appeared simultaneously in various parts of the Muslim empire; anecdotes from their lives and conversations, such as are told in the following pages, constitute the hagiography of Islam. A strong tradition connects the growth of this movement with the Prophet through his cousin and son-in-law Ali ibn Abi Taleb, the fourth caliph whose abdication led to the greatest schism in the history of the faith, the separation between Sunni and Shiite. According to this version, the Prophet invested Ali with a cloak or kherqa on initiating him into the esoteric mysteries, imparting to him therewith the heavenly wisdom which transcends all formal learning. In his turn Ali invested his own initiates, and through them the senseless or chains of affiliation passed on the inner lore of mystical truth to succeeding generations. Another prominent figure in some versions of introduction xiearly Sufism is the Persian convert Salman, who is said to have taken part in the great siege of Medina. If any credence can be attached to this legend, Salman would certainly be the first Persian Muslim to become a Sufi; he was the forerunner of a great multitude of Persian Sufis.
Sufism and Persia.
The cities of Basra, Kufa, Damascus, Cairo, Baghdad feature, along with the desert wastes of Arabia, Sinai, and Mesopotamia, as centers where the Sufi movement took root and flourished. At the same time a “school” of mysticism of extraordinary vitality and influence came into being in the distant province of Khorasan, the bridgehead between the Middle East and the Far East. The earliest semi-historical figure in this gallery of Persian saints is Ebrahim ibn Adam, “Prince of Balkh, whose conversion to the mystical life has been not inaptly compared with the legend of Gautama Buddha. It may be noted in this connection that in pre-Muslim times Balkh was the center of a large Buddhist community, and the ruins of the massive Buddhist monastery called Naubahar were still pointed out centuries after the coming of Islam. Ebrahim travelled from Balkh to Syria in quest of “honest toil” and