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The Daily Insight

What is the role of Sufism in Islam?

Author

Christopher Harper

Updated on April 04, 2026

Sufism, mystical Islamic belief and practice in which Muslims seek to find the truth of divine love and knowledge through direct personal experience of God. By educating the masses and deepening the spiritual concerns of the Muslims, Sufism has played an important role in the formation of Muslim society. …

Who is the first Sufi saint?

According to the late medieval mystic Jami, Abd-Allah ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah (died c. 716) was the first person to be called a “Sufi”.

What does Sufi saint teach?

They laid emphasis on love and devotion to God. The Sufi saints were known as pirs. They did not believe in rituals or ceremonies. They were religiously tolerant and hence attracted a lot of Hindus into their silsilas.

What is Sufism What are the main features of Sufism?

“Sufism is a religion of intense devotion; Love is its manifestation, poetry, music and dance are the instruments of its worship and attaining oneness with God is its ideal.” In other words, it implies that the ideal before an individual should be to be one with God.

What are the basic practice of Sufism?

Other practices or rituals that Sufis engage in, which vary from order to order, include prayers and fasting, the celebration of the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday, the visitation of, and performance of rituals at shrines and graves, meditation, and abstinence.

What are the three principles of Sufism?

Outlining the four principles of Repentance, Sincerity, Remembrance, and Love, it traces the fundamental stages and states of the spiritual novice’s transformative journey, emphasizing the importance of embracing both human limitations and God’s limitless love.

What is the significance of Sufism in Islam?

Significance. Sufism has helped to shape large parts of Muslim society. The orthodox disagree with such aspects of Sufism as saint worship, visiting of tombs, musical performances, miracle mongering, degeneration into jugglery, and the adaptation of pre-Islamic and un-Islamic customs; and the reformers object to the influences…

What is the meaning of Sufi saints?

List of Sufi saints. Sufi saints or Wali ( Arabic: ولي ‎, plural ʾawliyāʾ أولياء) played an instrumental role in spreading Islam throughout the world. In the traditional Islamic view, a saint is portrayed as someone “marked by [special] divine favor [and] holiness”, and who is specifically “chosen by God and endowed with exceptional…

Did Muslim kings patronise Sufis in South Asia?

The role of Sufism in South Asia and the relationships between Muslim rulers and saints has been widely explored 1. It has been often remarked that, as a rule, Muslim kings patronised Sufis, regardless of the latter’s attitude towards political power.

What is a saint according to Islam?

In the traditional Islamic view, a saint is portrayed as someone “marked by [special] divine favor [and] holiness”, and who is specifically “chosen by God and endowed with exceptional gifts, such as the ability to work miracles .”