Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: SUFISM |
SUFISMNoun1. A refined mysticism among certain classes of Mohammedans, particularly in Persia, who hold to a kind of pantheism and practice extreme asceticism in their lives. |
Date "SUFISM" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1902. (references) |
Crosswords: SUFISM |
| English words defined with "SUFISM": Sofism, Soofeeism. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "SUFISM" is also a word in the following language with the English translation in parentheses. Swedish (sufism). |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Suf (صوف)is the Arabic word for "wool", in the sense of "cloak", referring to the simple cloaks the original Sufis wore, but the Sufis use the composing letters of the words to express hidden meanings, and so the word could also be understood as "enlightenment".
Sufis teach in personal groups, believing that the intervention of the master is necessary for the growth of the pupil. They make extensive use of parables and metaphors, in such a way that the meaning is only reachable through a process of seeking for the utmost truth and knowledge of oneself.
A large part of Muslim literature comes from the Sufis, who created great books of poetry (which include for example 1001 Arabian Nights, the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, the Conference of the Birds and the Masnavi), all of which contain the profound, and hardly graspable, teachings of the Sufis.
Offshoots of Sufism in Africa include, for example, the Muslim brotherhoods of Senegal.
Sufism is usually seen related to Islam. There is a major line of Sufi thought that sees Sufism as predating Islam and being in fact universal and therefore independent of the Quran and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammed. This view of Sufism has understandably been popular in the West. Major exponents of this view were Hazrat Inayat Khan and Idries Shah.
Sufi cosmology
Although there is no consent with regard to Sufi cosmology, one can disentangle various threads that led to the crystallization of more or less coherent mythic cosmological doctrines. First is based on purely Quranic notions of the Afterworld (Ahiret), the Hidden (Ghayb- sometimes associated with “hidden” or “invisible” dimensions of human existence, but, more frequently with the state of God before creation or Unmanifest Absolute. Another term for the latter is “Amma”, ie. Divine Darkness) and seven-storeyed Universe explicitly referenced in the Qur’an (and cherished in prophet Mohammad’s “Miraj” or ascent to the God’s face- the powerful spiritual motif that inspired generations of later Sufis and ordinary believers). However, these relatively simple Quranic concepts that gave basic structure to Islamic worldview had soon become exposed to Neoplatonist and Gnostic influences, as well as Zoroastrian religious imagery. As a consequence, Sufism developed a welter of frequently contradictory cosmological doctrines. However, one can point out to a few basic features:
The Sufi cosmology is not a uniform and coherent doctrine. But, reading various authoritative texts, one can see that practitioners of Sufism were not much bothered with inconsistencies and contradictions that have arisen due to juxtaposition and superposition of at least three different cosmographies: Ishraqi visionary universe as expounded by Suhrawardi Maqtul, Neoplatonic view of cosmos cherished by Islamic philosophers like Ibn Sina/Avicenna (and later assimilated into majestic metaphysical edifice of Ibn al-Arabi) and Hermetic-Ptolemaic spherical geocentric world. All these doctrines (and each one of them claiming to be impeccably orthodox) were freely mixed and juxtaposed, frequently with confusing results- a situation one encounters in other esoteric doctrines, from Hebrew Kabbalah and Christian Gnosticism to Vajrayana Buddhism and Trika Shaivism.
Universal Sufism
Orders of Sufism
(Add links & info to other orders: such as Bektashi, Nimatalahi, Quaddiri, Rufi, Noori,...)Sufi doctrines
This, as well as other, more orthodox variants of Quranic Sufism, also adopted Hermetic scheme of Ptolemaic spherical cosmos with planetary spheres serving as worlds of the created universe. The fixed stars (originating in ancient Sumero-Mesophotamian tradition) were a sort of limit of Hermetic cosmos: beyond lay the Quranic “Arsh” or God’s throne. Such a picture was integrated into Sufi mythic cosmography and is very similar to the image of the universe one can find in Dante’s “Divine Comedy”.Famous Sufis
Literature
External links
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Sufism."
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Music |
|
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "SUFISM" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "SUFISM" is used about 4 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 4 | 175,879 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
sufism | 174 |
sufism islam | 6 |
reoriented sufism | 3 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "SUFISM"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||
Arabic | تصوف (mysticism, quietism), صوفية تصوف. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||
French | soufisme. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | szufizmus. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | tarekat (especially sufism, path for mystics to follow). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | ufismsay sufism. (various references) đạo xufi (sofism). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||
Misspellings | |
"SUFISM" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Usfws. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "f-i-m-s-s-u" | |
-2 letters: fuss, isms, miss, muss, sims, sums. | |
-3 letters: ifs, ism, mis, mus, sim, sis, sum. | |
-4 letters: if, is, mi, mu, si, um, us. | |
| Words containing the letters "f-i-m-s-s-u" | |
+2 letters: fauvisms, misfocus. | |
+3 letters: futurisms, mudfishes. | |
+4 letters: drumfishes, emulsifies, feudalisms, fremituses, lumpfishes, misfocused, misfocuses, numbfishes, semifluids, sulfoniums, superfirms. | |
+5 letters: circumfuses, disulfirams, emulsifiers, factualisms, furosemides, mindfulness, misfocusing, misfocussed, misfocusses, misfortunes, mistrustful, refugeeisms, ruffianisms, somniferous, subfamilies, uniformness. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Commercial 4. Usage Frequency | 5. Expressions: Internet 6. Translations: Modern 7. Derivations 8. Anagrams | 9. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
