What is Sufism? What is zikr?

Sufism influenced the development of Sikhism and the Baha’i religion. It encouraged the transfer of knowledge from Greek to Arabic development and is influential in architecture such as the Taj Mahal, pioneering the use of coffee, the concept of zero in mathematics, scientific methodology, gardening, medicine, craft, literature and depth psychology.

The original sense of Sufi comes from the word meaning “one who wears wool.” In the 8th century, this word was sometimes applied to Muslims whose ascetic inclinations led them to wear coarse and uncomfortable woolen garments. Gradually it came to designate a group who differentiated themselves from others by stressing certain teachings and practices of the Qur’an and the sunnah. Sufism soon became the name of a mystical path by which people seek the truth of divine love and knowledge through direct personal experience of Allah as Beloved. Two aspects of Sufism well known in western culture are, of course, Rumi and the ‘whirling dervishes’.

Jalaladdin Rumi (1207–1273 CE) went through a most powerful spiritual awakening, influenced by his beloved teacher, Shams of Tabriz. He became a spiritual poet, able to guide others to a love-experience of Allah. Rumi also favored and promoted ‘whirling’, a form of extended rotational dancing to sacred music in formal groups while repeating inwardly the name of Allah. It induces a trance-like state of consciousness, and is a central aspect of Sufi worship. Whirling, meditation, prayer, ‘dhikr’ aka ‘zikr’ (regular study and remembrance of the Qur’an) and reciting poetry, especially love poetry, are all integral to devotional Sufi spiritual practice.

The Qur’an instructs Muslims to remember G!d, whose reality encompasses and pervades both the unmanifest and manifest worlds. Sufis have developed this into the quintessential Sufi practice of silent and vocal dhikr (remembrance). Dhikr typically takes the form of the methodical repetition of certain names of G!d or Qur’an formulae. In communal gatherings, Sufis usually perform dhikr aloud, rhythmically and sometimes with musical accompaniment.

The primary emphasis of Sufi teachers is on the need to love G!d. At the heart of Sufism is the idea of discovering and bringing forth the higher or ‘true’ self, that spark within each person which is constantly attuned to the spiritual dimension, and to purify this higher or ‘true’ self to its highest maximum level and become very close to Allah. They generally stress inwardness over outwardness, contemplation over action, spiritual development over legalism, and cultivation of the soul over social interaction. Theologically, Sufis speak of G!d’s inner qualities, the mercy, gentleness, and beauty, more than of the outward qualities, the wrath, severity, and majesty. Men and, less commonly, women, become Sufis.

While all Muslims believe that they are on the pathway to G!d and will become close to G!d in Paradise--after death and the "Final Judgment"-- Sufis believe as well that it is possible to become close to G!d and to experience this closeness in the here and now. Not only is it possible, it is something one should do. Sufis strive to be aware of G!d’s presence and nearness in both the world and within themselves.

This presence and nearness of G!d is described as intoxication, to be so overcome by the presence of G!d as to lose one’s ability to discriminate the self from the Beloved, the created from the Creator. Sobriety, in contrast, is associated with awe, the sense that G!d is majestic, mighty, wrathful, and distant, far beyond the petty concerns of human beings. The contrast between sobriety and drunkenness, or between the vision of oneness and the vision of manyness, reverberates throughout Sufi writing. Here we again find the concept of dual transcendence.

Most Sufi teachers have attempted to strike a balance between this sense of sobriety and drunkenness. If sobriety is lost, so also is rationality, and along with it the strictures of Islam; if drunkenness is lost, so also is love, spiritual vision, compassion, and union. Drunken expressions of Sufism predominate in Sufi poetry. Strict Muslim opponents of Sufism have been eager to show that Sufism is a distortion of Islam, using any opportunity to associate Sufism with unbelief and moral laxity.

In the U.S., “drunken” Sufism was introduced in the early 20th century by the Chishti shaykh and musician, Inayat Khan (1882–1927 CE). His teachings were continued by his son, Pir Vilayet Inayat Khan (1916–2004 CE). In Europe, “sober” Sufism gained a wide audience among intellectuals through the writings of the French mathematician and metaphysician Rene Guenon (1886-1951 CE).

Sufism is less a doctrine or a belief system than an experience and way of life. In the Western world today, diverse groups exist under the name of Sufism. On the one hand, there are those who would say that no true Sufism can exist without appreciation and practice of the principles of Islam. On the other hand, some groups exist that more or less ignore the Islamic roots of Sufism and take their teachings from “Sufis” who may or may not have had contact with specifically Islamic teachings. In other words, there are those who accept Sufism as both form and essence, and there are others who are Sufi in essence but not in form.

If Sufism recognizes one central truth, it is the unity of being, that we are not separate from the Divine. We are One: one people, one ecology, one universe, one being. The realization of this oneness has its effects on our sense of who we are, on our relationships to others and to all aspects of life. If Sufism has a central method, it is the development of presence and love. Only presence can awaken us from our enslavement to the world and our own ego; only love can comprehend the Divine.

We live in a culture that has been described as materialistic, alienating, neurotically individualistic, narcissistic, and riddled through with anxiety, shame, and guilt. From the Sufi point of view, humanity today is suffering under the greatest tyranny, the tyranny of the ego. We “worship” innumerable false idols, and all of them are forms of the ego. The Sufi response to this is to live a life of presence and selfless love, that more important than what we believe is how we live. In our obsession with our ego-driven false selves, in turning our backs on G!d, we have also lost our essential Self, our own divine spark. In forgetting G!d, we have forgotten ourselves. Remembering G!d is the beginning of remembering ourselves.