Islam and Change

• Sufi philosophical thought


  About the nature of God and religious experience, which may be realised using parable, the guidance of a Qutb (Sufi spiritual leader) and the cultivation of mystical religious experience as a way of experiencing God
• Variety of Sufi devotional practices and their purpose

  • Dhikr (remembrance)
  • Muraqaba (Sufi meditation)
  • Sama (spiritual listening, specifically whirling)
• Sufism


  • Both a general approach and an organised movement
  • An approach which focuses on the inner, contemplative, spiritual side of Islam
  • Organised through tariqas, led by shaykhs who guide murshids to help their followers, mureeds
• Sufi belief


  • The soul may rise through spiritual stations towards union with God
  • Less focus is given to the outward formalities of religion and more to inner contemplation
• Sufi parables


  Stories with hidden meaning
• Sufi spiritual practices


  1. Daily wird prayers, as directed by their murshid

  2. Thursday evening services of zikr/dhikr, calling out the names of Allah, sometimes using tasbih (prayer beads)

  3. Singing qasida songs and raising their spirits into a state of ecstatic dancing

  4. Whirling, as in the case of the whirling dervishes

  5. Spiritual retreat, to isolate themselves from the world, pray, fast, and meditate to find greater awareness of God
• Some Muslims reject Sufism as, in the worst cases, shirk, because the Sufi may be associating themselves with God too closely