Sufism and Islamic Spirituality
The inward tradition: early ascetics, the scholars who brought law and mysticism together, the masters of the Sufi orders, and the poetry and music through which Sufi thought was expressed.
Start LearningBegins with Rabia al-Adawiyya: The Mystic Saint of Divine Love
Learning Sequence
Articles are ordered so each builds on the one before. You can also read them in any order that suits you.
- Rabia al-Adawiyya: The Mystic Saint of Divine LovepersonAbbasid CaliphateRabia al-Adawiyya (717-801 CE) was one of the most influential Sufi mystics in Islamic history, renowned for her teachings on divine love and rejection of worship motivatβ¦
- Al-GhazalipersonIslamic Golden AgeAbu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058β1111 CE) was among the most influential thinkers in Islamic history. His Ihya Ulum al-Din synthesized law, theology, and mysticism, while his cβ¦
- Abdul Qadir GilanipersonAbbasid CaliphateAbdul Qadir Gilani (c. 1077-1166 CE) was a Hanbali jurist and preacher of Baghdad whose sermons drew large audiences and whose works combine legal instruction with spiritβ¦
- Ibn ArabipersonIslamic Golden AgeMuhyi al-Din Ibn Arabi (1165-1240 CE) was an Andalusian mystic whose writings, above all al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya and Fusus al-Hikam, form the most influential and most disβ¦
- Mu'in al-Din Chishti: The Shaikh of AjmerpersonSouth Asian IslamMu'in al-Din Hasan Sijzi (d. 1236 CE) settled at Ajmer in Rajasthan and is held by the Chishti order to be its founder in India. His shrine became the most visited Muslimβ¦
- Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki: The Saint of MehraulipersonSouth Asian IslamQutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki (c. 1173-1235) was a Chishti Sufi from Farghana who settled in Delhi under Sultan Iltutmish after training under Mu'in al-Din Chishti. His grave aβ¦
- Bahauddin Zakariya: The Suhrawardi Shaikh of MultanpersonSouth Asian IslamBaha al-Din Zakariya (d. 1262 or 1265 CE) was sent from Baghdad to Multan by his master Umar Suhrawardi and, with Jalal al-Din Tabrizi, established the Suhrawardi order iβ¦
- RumipersonIslamic Golden AgeJalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi (1207β1273 CE) was a Persian poet, Islamic scholar, and Sufi teacher in Konya under Seljuk patronage. His Masnavi β six books and some 25,000 vβ¦
- Nizamuddin Auliya: The Chishti Master of DelhipersonSouth Asian IslamNizam al-Din Awliya (1239-1325 CE) was the Chishti master whose hospice outside Delhi became the centre of Sufi life in the subcontinent. He outlived a dozen sultans, defβ¦
- Amir Khusraw: Poet of the Delhi Sultanate, 1253β1325personSouth Asian IslamAmir Khusraw (1253β1325) was a Persian-language poet of Delhi who wrote at the courts of the Balbanid, Khalji and early Tughluq sultans, and a disciple of the Chishti shaβ¦
- Baha' al-Din Naqshband: The Master of Silent RemembrancepersonMedieval Islamic WorldBaha al-Din Naqshband of Bukhara (1318-1389 CE) gave his name to the Naqshbandi order, one of the most widespread in Islam. His insistence on silent remembrance and his rβ¦
- The Sufi Orders in South Asian IslammovementSouth Asian IslamFour Sufi orders shaped religious life in the Indian subcontinent: the Chishti, Naqshbandi, Qadiri and Suhrawardi. This article traces how they functioned there in the eiβ¦
- Islamic Poetry: The Literary Soul of Islamic CivilizationartAll ErasIslamic poetry encompasses diverse forms from Arabic qasidas to Persian ghazals, exploring themes of divine love, spiritual longing, and human experience. For fourteen ceβ¦
- Islamic Music: Sacred Sounds and Cultural TraditionsartAll ErasIslamic music encompasses diverse traditions from sacred Quranic recitation to classical and folk expressions, reflecting cultural synthesis across Arab, Persian, Turkishβ¦