What is Sufism?

Sufism — التَّصَوُّف · at-taṣawwuf — is the spiritual, inner or esoteric dimension of Sunni Islam. It is the living heart of the Quranic revelation. Arising from the very dawn of Islam, Sufism rests on the contemplation of the inner realities of the world, of religion, and of the human soul.

For the Sufis, Reality is not reducible to its appearances. In the Quran, God presents Himself both as al-Ẓāhir — the Outward, the Apparent — and as al-Bāṭin — the Inward, the Hidden. If the human being is created in the image of God, he cannot be made of outwardness alone: he must set out in quest of his inwardness.

A founding text explains, in few words, the place of Sufism within Islam. One day, the tradition recounts, a man clothed all in white appeared before the Prophet. He asked him three questions, then vanished. The Prophet then revealed: “That was the angel Gabriel, come to teach you your religion.”

The man had asked three things, which form three successive degrees:

It is with this third degree — iḥsān — that Muslim spirituals have explicitly identified Sufism. To worship God as if one saw Him: this is the quest.

The word صُوفِيّ · ṣūfī appears neither in the Quran nor in the sayings of the Prophet. Its terminology takes shape in the 9^th century. Three etymologies coexist — all of them illuminating:

If one had to sum up Sufism in a few essential words, one would say that it rests on five central ideas:

• God is not only an object of belief, but a Presence to be realised.
• The heart القَلْب is not merely the seat of the emotions, but a spiritual organ of knowledge.
• The path calls for a purification of the ego النَّفْس, of disordered desires and of the illusion of separation.
• Love الْمَحَبَّة is a higher form of knowledge.
• Practice gradually transforms the whole being: speech, gaze, conduct, intention, relation to others.