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Tariqah (طريقه Template:ArTranslit; pl.: طرق; Ṭuruq or Persian: Tarighat) means "way", "path" or method. In Sufism, it is conceptually related to Haqīqah, truth, the ineffable ideal that is the pursuit of the tradition. Thus one starts with Islamic law, the exoteric or mundane practice of Islam and then is initiated onto the mystical path of a Tarīqah. Through spiritual practices and guidance of a Tarīqah the aspirant seeks Haqiqa or ultimate truth.

A Tarīqah is a school of Sufism. A Tarīqah has a Murshid, or Guide, who plays the role of leader or spiritual director of the organization.

A Sufi Tarīqah is a group of Murīd (pl.: Murīdīn), Arabic for desirous, desiring the knowledge of knowing God and loving God (a Murīd is also called a 'Faqīr' or 'Fakir' (Arabic: فقير ) another Arabic word that means poor or needy, usually used as al-Faqīr 'ilá Allāh, English: The needy to God's knowledge (Arabic: الفقير إلى الله )).

Nearly every Tarīqah is named after its founder, and when the order is referred to as a noun -yah is usually added to a part of the founder's name. For example the "Rifai order", named after Shaykh `Ahmed er Rifai, is called the "Rifaiyyah", the "Qādirī order", named after Shaykh `Abd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī, is called the "Qādiriyyah". Often Tarīqahs are offshoots of other Tarīqahs, for example, the Qadri Al-Muntahi order is an offshoot of the Qādiriyyah order founded by Riaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi, the Jelveti order is an offshoot of the Bayrami order founded by Hajji Bayram in Ankara who are an offshoot of the zahidiyye founded by Pir Zahid al-Gaylani in Iran. The Khalwati order are a particularly splintered order with numerous offshoots such as the Jerrahī, Sunbulī, Nasuhī, Karabashiyyah and others, the Tijaniyyah order prevalent in West Africa also has its roots in this Tariqa.

In most cases the shaykh nominates his 'khalīfah' or successor during his lifetime, who will take over the order. In rare cases, if the shaykh dies without naming a khalīfah, the students of the Tarīqah elect another spiritual leader through a vote. In some orders, it is recommended to take a khalīfah from the same order as their Murshid. In some groups it is customary for the khalīfah to be the son of the shaykh, although in other groups the khalīfah and the shaykh are not normally relatives. In yet other orders, a successor may be identified through the spiritual dreams of its members.

Tarīqahs have a Silsilah (Arabic: ( سلسلة ) meaning chain or, more idiomatically, a lineage of various Shaykhs that eventually leads back to Muhammad. Almost all order except the Naqshbandi order has a Silsilah that leads back to Muhammad through `Alī. (The Naqshbandi Silsilah goes back to Abu Bakr the first Caliph of Sunni Islam and then Muhammad.)

Take the following example, here is the Silsila of the Oveyssi order:

  • Mohammad
  • Ali ibn Abu Talib
  • 1- Oveys Gharani
  • 2- Salman the Persian
  • 3- Habib-ibn Salim Ra'i
  • 4- Soltan Ebrahim Adham
  • 5- Abu Ali Shaqiq Balkhi
  • 6- Sheikh Abu Torab Nakhshabi
  • 7- Sheikh Abi Amro Istakhri
  • 8- Abu Ja'far Hazza
  • 9- Sheikh Kabir Abu Abdollah Mohammad-ibn Khafif Shirazi
  • 10- Sheikh Hossein Akkar
  • 11- Sheikh Morshed Abu-Isshaq Shahriar Kazerouni
  • 12- Khatib Abolfath Abdolkarim
  • 13- Ali-ibn Hassan Basri
  • 14- Serajeddin Abolfath Mahmoud-ibn Mahmoudi Sabouni Beyzavi
  • 15- Sheikh Abu Abdollah Rouzbehan Baghli Shirazi
  • 16- Sheikh Najmeddin Tamat-al Kobra Khivaghi
  • 17- Sheikh Ali Lala Ghaznavi
  • 18- Sheikh Ahmad Zaker Jowzeghani
  • 19- Noureddin Abdolrahman Esfarayeni
  • 20- Sheikh Alaoddowleh Semnani
  • 21- Mahmoud Mazdaghani
  • 22- Amir Seyyed Ali Hamedani
  • 23- Sheikh Ahmad Khatlani
  • 24- Seyyed Mohammad Abdollah Ghatifi al-Hasavi Nourbakhsh
  • 25- Shah Ghassem Feyzbakhsh
  • 26- Hossein Abarghoui Janbakhsh
  • 27- Darvish Malek Ali Joveyni
  • 28- Darvish Ali Sodeyri
  • 29- Darvish Kamaleddin Sodeyri
  • 30- Darvish Mohammad Mozaheb Karandehi (Pir Palandouz)
  • 31- Mir Mohammad Mo'men Sodeyri Sabzevari
  • 32- Mir Mohammad Taghi Shahi Mashhadi
  • 33- Mir Mozaffar Ali
  • 34- Mir Mohammad Ali
  • 35- Seyyed Shamseddin Mohammad
  • 36- Seyyed Abdolvahab Naini
  • 37- Haj Mohammad Hassan Kouzekanani
  • 38- Agha Abdolghader Jahromi
  • 39- Jalaleddin Ali Mir Abolfazl Angha
  • 40- Mir Ghotbeddin Mohammad Angha
  • 41- Shah Maghsoud Mohammad Sadegh Angha
  • 42- Salaheddin Ali Nader Shah Angha

On the other hand there are in many of the silsilas of the Tarīqahs names of Shi'ite Imams; take for example the Qadiri silsila:

However, the differences between Sunni and Shi`ite Islam were not as acute in the first three centuries of Islam as they are today. Indeed, during Ottoman times the Sunni Turkish sultans would use the reverence that they and other Sunni Muslims had for the Shi'ite imams to appease the Shi'ite minorities that lived within their empire and many towards the end of the 19th century believed that a Sunni-Shi'ite unity was impending.

Every Murid on entering the ṭarīqah gets his 'awrād, or daily recitations, authorized by his Murshid (usually to be recited before or after the pre-dawn prayer, after the afternoon prayer and after the evening prayer). Usually, these recitations are extensive and time-consuming (for example the Murid's awrād may consist of reciting a certain formula 99, 500 or even 1000 times). One must also be in a state of ritual purity (as one is for the obligatory prayers to perform them while facing Mecca). The recitations change as a student (murid) moves from a mere initiate to other Sufi degrees (usually requiring additional initiations).

Being mostly followers of the spiritual traditions of Islam loosely referred to as Sufism, these groups were sometimes distinct from the ulema or officially mandated scholars, and often acted as informal missionaries of Islam. They provided accepted avenues for emotional expressions of faith, and the Tarīqahs spread to all corners of the Muslim world, and often exercised a degree of political influence inordinate to their size (take for example the influence that the sheikhs of the Safaviyye order had over the armies of Tamerlane, or the missionary work of Ali Shair Navai in Turkistan amongst the Mongol and Tatar people).

The Tarīqahs were particularly influential in the spread of Islam in the sub-Sahara during the 9th to 14th centuries, where they spread south along trade routes between North Africa and the sub-Saharan kingdoms of Ghana and Mali. On the West African coast they set up Zāwiyas on the shores of the river Niger and even established independent kingdoms such as the Murābiṭūn, or Almoravids. The Sanusi order were also highly involved in missionary work in Africa during the 19th century, spreading both Islam and a high level of literacy into Africa as far south as Lake Chad and beyond by setting up a network of Zawiyas where Islam was taught. Much of central Asia and southern Russia was won over to Islam through the missionary work of the ṭarīqahs, and the majority of Indonesia's population, where a Muslim army never set foot, was converted to Islam by the perseverance of both Muslim traders and Sufi missionaries.

A case is sometimes made that groups such as the Muslim Brotherhoods (in many countries) and specifically the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt (the first, or first known), are modern inheritors of the tradition of lay ṭarīqah in Islam. This is highly contentious since the Turuq were Sufi orders with established lineages while the Muslim Brotherhood is a modern, rationalist tradition. However, the Muslim Brotherhood's founder, Hassan al Banna, did have a traditional Islamic education (his family were Hanbali scholars) and it is likely that he was initiated into a ṭarīqah at an early age.

Certain scholars, e.g., G. H. Jansen, credit the original Tarīqahs with several specific accomplishments:

  1. Preventing Islam from becoming a cold and formal doctrine by constantly infusing it with local and emotionally popular input, including stories and plays and rituals not part of Islam proper. (A parallel would be the role of Aesop relative to the Greek mythos.)
  2. Spreading the faith in east Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where orthodox Islamic leaders and scholars had little or no direct influence on people.
  3. Leading Islam's military and political battles against the enroaching power of the Christian West, as far back as the Qadiri order of the 12th century.

The last of these accomplishments suggests that the analogy with the modern Muslim Brotherhoods is probably accurate, but incomplete.

Tariqah in the Four Spiritual Stations

The Four Stations, sharia, tariqa, haqiqa. The fourth station, marifa, which is considered 'unseen', is actually the center of the haqiqa region. It's the essence of all four stations.

Orders of Sufism

Traditional orders

PHILTAR (Philosophy of Theology and Religion at the Division of Religion and Philosophy of St Martin's College) has a very useful Graphical illustration of the Sufi schools.

Non-traditional Sufi groups

See also

References

G. H. Jansen, "Militant Islam", Pan, London 1979
F. de Jong, "Turuq and Turuq-Linked Institutions in Nineteenth-Century Egypt", Brill, Leiden,1978
M. D. Gilsenen, "Saint and Sufi in Modern Egypt", Oxford, 1978
M. Berger, "Islam in Egypt today - social and political aspects of popular religion", London, 1970
J. M. Abun-Nasr, "The Tijaniyya", London 1965
E. E. Evans-Pritchard, "The Sanusi of Cyrenaica", Oxford, 1949
J. W. McPherson, "The Moulids of Egypt", Cairo, 1941
J. K. Birge, "The Bektashi Order of Dervishes", London and Hartford, 1937
O. Depont and X. Coppolani, "Les confreries religieuses musulmans" (the Muslim brotherhoods as they existed then), Algiers, 1897

Orders

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