Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Carl Ernst
Reli 180,
Introduction to Islamic
Civilization
Outline
Problems of definition
Modern European and fundamentalist
concepts of Sufism
Quick vocabulary check on Sunni/Shi`I
Ibn Khaldun on Sufism
Institutional development of Sufism, post
1200
Arabic definitions
The derivations of Sufi
suf, wool, garment of ascetic denial
Safa, purity
safwa, the elite
Ahl al-suffa, the people of the bench (early
Muslims who shared everything in common)
Human face
composed of
Allah,
Muhammad,
Ali
11
13
5. Institutional development of
Sufism, post 1200
Saints or living friends of God
Problems with using the term saint
15
16
Conclusion
Problems of definition:
Once Sufism was a reality without a name;
now it is a name without a reality
-- Abu al-Hasan Fushanja (11th century)
19