SUFISM. One of the truly creative manifestations of religious life in Islam is the mystical tradition, known as Sufism. The term derives most probably from the Arabīc word for wool (ṣūf), since the early ascetics of Islam (Ṣūfīs) are said to have worn coarse woolen garments to symbolize their rejection of the world.

Origins

Muslim mystical writers such as Abū Bakr al-Kalābādhī (d. 990/5) and ʿAlī al-Hujwīrī (d. 1071/2?), nonetheless, have proposed a number of etymologies for Ṣūfī: ṣaff, "rank," implying that Ṣūfīs are an elite group among Muslims; ṣuffah, "bench," alluding to the People of the Bench, the intimates of the prophet Muḥammad who gathered at the first mosque in Medina; ṣāfaʾ, "purity," focusing on the moral uprightness essential to the Ṣūfī way of life. The resolution of the etymological debate is less critical than the recognition that the terms Ṣūfī and...