Shrine of Pir Hadi Hassan Bux Shah Jilani duthro sharf, Sanghar, Sindh Sufism known as Tasawwuf in the Arabic-speaking world, is a form of Islamic mysticism that emphasizes introspection and spiritual closeness with God. It is a mystical form of Islam, a school of practice that emphasizes the inward search for The God and shuns materialism. About 60% Muslims in Pakistan regard themselves as followers of Sufi saints. [1]
Most of the Sufis in Pakistan relate to the four main tariqa ( silsila ): Chishti, Naqshbandi, Qadiri-Razzaqi and Suhrawardi.
There are two levels of Sufism in Pakistan. The first is the 'populist' Sufism of the rural population. This level of Sufism involves belief in intercession through saints, veneration of their shrines and forming bonds with a pir (saint). Many rural Pakistani Muslims associate with pirs and seek their intercession. [2] The second level of Sufism in Pakistan is 'intellectual Sufism' which is growing among the urban and educated population. They are influenced by the writings of Sufis such as the medieval theologian al-Ghazali, the Sufi reformer Shaykh Aḥmad Sirhindi and Shah Wali Allah. [3]
Sufism, a mystical Islamic tradition, has a long history and a large popular following in Pakistan. Popular Sufi culture is centred on Thursday night gatherings at shrines and annual festivals which feature Sufi music and dance. Most Islamic fundamentalists criticise its popular character, which in their view, does not accurately reflect the teachings and practice of the Prophet and his companions. [4] [5]
Since March 2005, 209 people have been killed and 560 injured in 29 different terrorist attacks targeting shrines devoted to Sufi saints in Pakistan, according to data compiled by the Center for Islamic Research Collaboration and Learning (CIRCLe). [6] The attacks are generally attributed to banned militant organisations. [7]
The Sehwan Sharif shrine was the site of a suicide bombing in 2017 carried out by the Islamic State.[ citation needed ]
Sufism, also known as Tasawwuf, is a mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic purification, spirituality, ritualism, asceticism, and esotericism. It has been variously defined as "Islamic mysticism", "the mystical expression of Islamic faith", "the inward dimension of Islam", "the phenomenon of mysticism within Islam", the "main manifestation and the most important and central crystallization" of mystical practice in Islam, and "the interiorization and intensification of Islamic faith and practice".
A tariqa is a school or order of Sufism, or specifically a concept for the mystical teaching and spiritual practices of such an order with the aim of seeking haqiqa, which translates as "ultimate truth".
The Chishtī Order is a tariqa, an order or school within the mystic Sufi tradition of Sunni Islam. The Chishti Order is known for its emphasis on love, tolerance, and openness. It began with Abu Ishaq Shami in Chisht, circa 930 AD in a small town near Herat, a strategic city in then Eastern Persia, which later became independent and then part of Afghanistan.
A wali is most commonly used by Muslims to indicate a saint, otherwise referred to by the more literal "friend of God".
Aḥmad al-Fārūqī al-Sirhindī or Aḥmad ibn 'Abd al-Ahad al-Sirhindī (1564 – 1624/1625), also known as Imam Rabbani and Mujadid-e-Alf-e-Sani, was an Indian Islamic scholar, Hanafi jurist, and member of the Naqshbandī Sufi order.
Sufism is the mystical branch of Islam in which Muslims seek divine love and truth through direct personal experience of God. This mystic tradition within Islam developed in several stages of growth, emerging first in the form of early asceticism, based on the teachings of Hasan al-Basri, before entering the second stage of more classical mysticism of divine love, as promoted by al-Ghazali and Attar of Nishapur, and finally emerging in the institutionalized form of today's network of fraternal Sufi orders, based on Sufis such as Rumi and Yunus Emre. At its core, however, Sufism remains an individual mystic experience, and a Sufi can be characterized as one who seeks the annihilation of the ego in God.
Shahab al-Din Abu Hafs Umar Suhrawardi was a Persian Sufi and nephew of Abu al-Najib Suhrawardi. He expanded the Sufi order of Suhrawardiyya that had been created by his uncle Abu al-Najib Suhrawardi, and is the person responsible for officially formalizing the order. Suhrawardi is the author of the ʿAwārif al-Maʿārif, which is recognized as a masterpiece work in Tasawwuf.
Sufism has a history in India evolving for over 1,000 years. The presence of Sufism has been a leading entity increasing the reaches of Islam throughout South Asia. Following the entrance of Islam in the early 8th century, Sufi mystic traditions became more visible during the 10th and 11th centuries of the Delhi Sultanate and after it to the rest of India. A conglomeration of four chronologically separate dynasties, the early Delhi Sultanate consisted of rulers from Turkic and Afghan lands. This Persian influence flooded South Asia with Islam, Sufi thought, syncretic values, literature, education, and entertainment that has created an enduring impact on the presence of Islam in India today. Sufi preachers, merchants and missionaries also settled in coastal Gujarat through maritime voyages and trade.
The Shattari or Shattariyya are members of a Sufi mystical tariqah that originated in Persia in the fifteenth century C.E. and developed, completed and codified in India. Later secondary branches were taken to Hejaz and Indonesia. The word Shattar, which means "lightning-quick", "speed", "rapidity", or "fast-goer" shows a system of spiritual practices that lead to a state of "completion", but the name derives from its founder, Sheikh Sirajuddin Abdullah Shattar.
Muhammad Amjad, was a legal scholar of Qur'an, Hadith, and the Hanafi school of Islamic law.
Hazrat Mawlana Pir Fazal Ali Shah Qureshi was an Islamic scholar and the leading Naqshbandi Shaikh of colonial India in the early twentieth century. He was born to Murad Ali Shah in 1270 AH in Daud Khel, Punjab, and died at 84 in the first night of Ramadan 1354 AH and was buried at Miskeenpur shareef, district Muzaffargarh, Punjab.
Khwaja Muhammad Sirajuddin Naqshbandi was a prominent Islamic scholar and Sufi shaikh of the Naqshbandi Sufi order in South Asia, and a leader of the Mughal Empire (1897–1899). He was born in 1879 and died in 1915 at Mussa Zai Sharif, Dera Ismail Khan. His legacy and influence are still widespread around the world in terms of his followers and his methodology. He was a descendant of the first leader to build the Taj Mahal.
Khwaja Muhammad Usman Damani was a prominent Muslim scholar and Sufi shaykh of Naqshbandi tariqah of the 19th century (1828–1897) in South Asia.
A Qayyum is a special spiritual position in Sufism, especially in the Naqshbandi tradition. The term was first coined by Ahmed Sirhindi, who was the first qayyum. According to him, a qayyum is a dignitary upon whom the whole order of existence depends. The word is derived from Al-Qayyum, a name of God in Islam that has the same meaning. According to the doctrine, only one qayyum is alive at any particular time.
Lataif-e-sitta are special organs of perception in Sufi spiritual psychology, subtle human capacities for experience and action. Depending on context, the lataif are also understood to be the corresponding qualities of that experience or action.
Sufism in Bangladesh is more or less similar to that in the whole Indian subcontinent. India, it is claimed, is one of the five great centers of Sufism, the other four being Persia, Baghdad, Syria, and North Africa. Sufi saints flourished in Hindustan (India) preaching the mystic teachings of Sufism that easily reached the common people, especially the spiritual truth seekers in India. Sufism in Bangladesh is also called pirism, after the pirs or teachers in the Sufi tradition.
Persecution of Sufis over the course of centuries has included acts of religious discrimination, persecution, and violence both by Sunni and Shia Muslims, such as destruction of Sufi shrines, tombs and mosques, suppression of Sufi orders, murder, and terrorism against adherents of Sufism in a number of Muslim-majority countries. The Republic of Turkey banned all Sufi orders and abolished their institutions in 1925, after Sufis opposed the new secular order. The Islamic Republic of Iran has harassed Sufis, reportedly for their lack of support for the government doctrine of "governance of the jurist".
Western Sufism, sometimes identified with Universal Sufism, Neo-Sufism, and Global Sufism, consists of a spectrum of Western European and North American manifestations and adaptations of Sufism, the mystical dimension of Islam.
Sūfī Islam in Pakistan is represented at two levels. The first is the populist Sufism of the rural masses, associated with unorthodox religious rituals and practices, belief in the intercessory powers of saints, pilgrimage and veneration at their shrines, and a binding spiritual relationship between the shaykh or pir (master) and murīd (disciple). Many Muslims in rural areas of Pakistan, where orthodox Islam has yet to penetrate effectively, identify themselves with some pir, living or dead, and seek his intercession for the solution of their worldly problems and for salvation in the hereafter.
{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)The other strain is that of scholastic or intellectual Sufism, a recent phenomenon based in urban areas and becoming increasingly popular in educated circles. Influenced by the writings of the medieval theologian al-Ghazālī (d. 1111), the Sūfī reformer Shaykh Aḥmad Sirhindī (d. 1624), and Shāh Walī Allāh (d. 1762), and by the spiritual experiences of the masters of the Suhrawardī and Naqshbandī orders, these modern Sūfīs are rearticulating Islamic metaphysics as an answer to Western materialism.
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