Sufism is a mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic purification, spirituality, ritualism, asceticism, and esotericism.
The Hanbali school or Hanbalism is one of the four major schools of Islamic jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. It is named after and based on the teachings of the 9th-century scholar, jurist and traditionist Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and later institutionalized by his students. It is the smallest and most strictly traditionalist of the four major Sunni schools, the others being the Hanafi, Maliki and Shafi'i schools.
Mohammedan is a term for a follower of Muhammad, the Islamic prophet. It is used as both a noun and an adjective, meaning belonging or relating to, either Muhammad or the religion, doctrines, institutions and practices that he established. The word was formerly common in usage, but the terms Muslim and Islamic are more common today. Though sometimes used stylistically by some Muslims, a vast majority consider the term archaic or a misnomer.
Tafsir refers to exegesis, usually of the Quran. An author of a tafsir is a mufassir. A Quranic tafsir attempts to provide elucidation, explanation, interpretation, context or commentary for clear understanding and conviction of God's will in Islam.
Esoteric interpretation of the Quran is the allegorical interpretation of the Quran or the quest for its hidden, inner meanings. The Arabic word taʾwīl was synonymous with conventional interpretation in its earliest use, but it came to mean a process of discerning its most fundamental understandings. "Esoteric" interpretations do not usually contradict the conventional interpretations; instead, they discuss the inner levels of meaning of the Quran.
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.
Sufi philosophy includes the schools of thought unique to Sufism, the mystical tradition within Islam, also termed as Tasawwuf or Faqr according to its adherents. Sufism and its philosophical tradition may be associated with both Sunni and Shia branches of Islam. It has been suggested that Sufi thought emerged from the Middle East in the eighth century CE, but adherents are now found around the world.
Sufi literature consists of works in various languages that express and advocate the ideas of Sufism.
Christopher Melchert is an American professor and scholar of Islam, specialising in Islamic movements and institutions, especially during the ninth and tenth centuries. A prolific author, he is professor of Arabic and Islamic studies at the University of Oxford's Oriental Institute, and is a Fellow in Arabic at Pembroke College, Oxford.
Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centered on the Quran and the teachings of Muhammad, the religion's founder. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number approximately 1.9 billion worldwide and are the world's second-largest religious population after Christians.
Margaret Smith was a British orientalist specializing in comparative religion and Sufism.
Wael B. Hallaq is the Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University, where he has been teaching ethics, law, and political thought since 2009. He is considered a leading scholar in the field of Islamic legal studies, and has been described as one of the world's leading authorities on Islamic law.
Kashf "unveiling" is a Sufi concept dealing with knowledge of the heart rather than of the intellect. Kashf describes the state of experiencing a personal divine revelation after ascending through spiritual struggles, and uncovering the heart in order to allow divine truths to pour into it. Kashf is etymologically related to mukashafa "disclosure"/ "divine irradiation of the essence", which connotes "gain[ing] familiarity with things unseen behind the veils". For those who have purified their hearts, and who come to know the Divine Names and Attributes to the fullest of their individual capacities, the veils in front of the purely spiritual realms are opened slightly, and they begin to gain familiarity with the unseen. In Sufism, an even further revelatory capacity exists by which the Divine mysteries become readily apparent to the seeker through the light of knowledge of God. This is called tajalli "manifestation".
Joseph E.B. Lumbard is an American Muslim scholar of Islamic studies and associate professor of Quranic studies at the College of Islamic Studies at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar. He is the author, editor, and translator of several scholarly books and many articles on Islamic philosophy, Sufism, and Quranic studies.
Muhammad Abdul Haq Ansari was an Islamic scholar from India. He was the Amir (president) of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) from 2003 to 2007. He was the member of Central Advisory Council of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind. He was also the Chancellor of Al Jamia Al Islamia, Shantapuram, Kerala. His book Sufism and Shariah is a synthesis of Sufi and Shariah thought, especially a Tatbiq of Shaikh Ahmed Sir Hindi and Shah Waliullah's thought. It grew out of his in-depth engagement with kalam, tasawwuf and fiqh in Islamic history. His other major contributions are a book on Mishkawah's philosophy and an English translation of Ibn Taymiyyah's fatwas with an introduction. He also wrote 'Learning the Language of Quran' it is one of the best English guides for the beginners learning to read the Qur'an. In New Delhi he established the Islami Academy, aimed at training graduates from secular educational background in Islamic Sciences based on the madrasa curriculum.
Hamid Algar is a British-American Professor Emeritus of Persian studies at the Faculty of Near Eastern Studies, University of California, Berkeley. He writes on Persian and Arabic literature and contemporary history of Iran, Turkey, the Balkans and Afghanistan. He served on the UC Berkeley faculty for 45 years. Algar remains an active scholar and his research has concentrated on the Islamic history of the Perso-Turkish world, with particular emphasis on Iranian Shi'ism during the past two centuries and the Naqshbandi Sufi order. Algar is a Shia Muslim.
Qutb ud-Din Ahmad ibn ʿAbd-ur-Rahim al-ʿUmari ad-Dehlawi, commonly known as Shah Waliullah Dehlawi, was an Islamic Sunni scholar and Sufi of the Naqshbandi order, who is seen by his followers as a renewer. He emphasized the importance of following Sharia and believed in the unification of Hanafi and Shafi'i schools of law, aiming to reduce legal differences.
Tahsin Yazıcı was a Turkish literary scholar who was active in the latter half of the 20th century, when he produced his critical edition of Aflākī's Manāqib al-ʿārifīn, a hagiography of the Mevlevi Order, and other works focused on Persian mystic literature. He was also chief editor of the Turkish İslâm Ansiklopedisi for more than two decades.
Victor Danner was a Mexican-American author, researcher, and translator specializing in comparative religion and Islamic mysticism.
