Question
Mention the contribution of Sufis to the religious world.
Solution
A group of religious- minded people in medieval Islam, known as Sufis, sought a deeper and more personal knowledge of God through asceticism (rahbaniya) and mysticism. The more society gaveitselfupto material pursuits and pleasures, the more the Sufis sought to renounce the world (zuhd) and rely on God alone (tawakkul).
In the eighth and ninth centuries, ascetic inclinations were elevated to the higher stage of mysticism ( tasawwuf ) by the ideas of pantheism and love.
Pantheism is the idea of oneness of God and his creation which implies that the human soul must be united with its Maker. Unity with God can be achieved through an intense love for God ( Ishq), which the woman-saint Rabia of Basra (d. 891) preached in her poems. Bayazid Bistami (d.874), an Iranian Sufi, was the first to teach the importance of submerging the self (fana) in God.
Sufis used musical concerts (sama) to induce ecstasy and stimulate emotions of love and passions.
Sufism is open to all regardless of religious affiliation, status and gender. Dhulnum Misri (d.861), whose grave can still be seen near the Pyramids in Egypt, declare before the Abbasid caliph, al-Mutawakkil, that he ‘learnt true Islam from an old woman, and true chivalry from a water carrier’.
By making religion more personal and less institutional, Sufism gained popularity and posed a challenge to orthodox Islam.
