UNDERSTANDING SUFISM
What is Sufism: Introduction. That Sufism is a contentious doctrine in Islam is to state the obvious. The reason for this postulation is not unconnected to the fact that scholars cannot pin-point to a verse of the Glorious Qur'an or an Hadith of the Holy Prophet where the term is specifically mentioned, though, there are inferences. The hostility suffered by some of the Pristine Sufi Scholars cannot be quantified because of this controversial nature. Subsequent discussions will address this. To unveil the dark veil, tasawwuf is an Arabic term of the doctrine, Islamic Mysticism is the English translation while Sufism is the anglicised term for it. Having gotten the position and term of the doctrine, we shall proceed to the etymology of the term tasawwuf in our next lesson.