RITUALS AND DEVOTIONAL PRACTICES IN SUFISM

Abstract

Sufism, also known as “tasawwuf “- Islamic manifestation of mysticism, has been one of the most discussed topics between Muslim and non-muslim world. Historically there emerged serious argumentations around Sufism sm and in every possible aspect of it, including origin of the name of Sufism, which directly concerns the problem of Sufism`s background and divergent opinions about the late Sufism schools, within the traditional Islamic scholars and the muslim society, especially in middle ages. At some point the doctrine of Sufism might seem contradictory to the traditional Islamic creed, sometimes due to misinterpretation of esoteric conceptions and occasionally because of the appropriated concepts brought in to the Sufism by pseudo-sufisms. The late caused considerably major deformations to the original appearance of Tasawwuf, whereas these shifts changed the views towards Sufism, of not only ordinary people amongst the Muslim society and non-Muslims, but Islamic scholars as well. Mostly, such kind of misrepresentations are observed in the praxis and rituals of Islamic mysticism. Besides, the multiplicity of Sufism orders, each offering different approaches to Sufism, make it even more complicated for a research.