Talk:Sufism

What appears to be a highly inappropriate line

Actually Sufism gained a position in Islamic history by growing power of Turkic and Mongolian people who were Buddhist-Zen Buddhism- before. Especially in Turkey, most religious Turkish cities(Konya,Bursa,Istanbul) are very very Sufi. Or in Egypt by Mamluk(Turkic) influence Sufism is very strong. In Saudi Arabia and other southern Arabic countries there is no sufism.

"The Indian government has likewise praised Sufism as the tolerant face of Islam though many believe that Sufis like Naqshbandis have been fanatical and that some of the Sufi traditions like dancing, copied from native Indian traditions help in camouflaging Islamic extremism."

the accusation of "copying", rather than adopting, and "camouflaging Islamic extremism" are very accusative lines, I find. Tolerant face of Islam? This whole fucking thing is just totally offensive and patronising, as though the Indian government is taking some high ground and talking down to Islam. I'm getting rid of it, it's offensive. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.206.117.24 (talk) 22:04, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Persecution section expansion

This section has been expanded as part of dealing with this proposal for deletion: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Sunni Sufis and Salafi Jihadism --BoogaLouie (talk) 00:10, 8 March 2013 (UTC)

IRAN

Iran's section is quite depressing although true. But could we possibly mention some of the greatest Sufi names that are of Iranian origin as well? Iran is after all the greatest of all Muslim lands in the history of Sufi mysticism (this can hardly be exaggerated).

Stephen Schwartz, Executive Director, Center for Islamic Pluralism of The Huffington Post writes:

"It is often asserted that the Sufi author Jalalad'din Rumi (1207-73 CE) is the most widely-read poet in the U.S. Rumi is among the supreme literary figures for Iranians. He is joined in the Iranian consciousness to such Sufis as Bayazet Al-Bastami (804-874), Husayn bin Mansur Hallaj (858-922), the great Al-Ghazali (c. 1058-1111) -- known as the Muslim equivalent of Thomas Aquinas, Faridud'din Attar (12th-13th centuries), Saadi Shirazi, from the generation after Attar, Hafez Shirazi (1325/26-1389/1390)... the list is spectacular in its extent.

Western enthusiasm for Sufis like Rumi is not new. The philosopher G.W.F. Hegel was influenced by Rumi. In America, Ralph Waldo Emerson became a lover of Saadi Shirazi, describing him as "like Homer, Shakespeare, Cervantes, and Montaigne ... perpetually modern."

Henry David Thoreau, our great idealist, was also devoted to Saadi Shirazi, writing of him in 1852, "A single thought of a certain elevation makes all men of one religion; I know, for instance, that Saadi entertained once identically the same thought that I do, and therefore I can find no essential difference between Saadi and myself. He is not Persian, he is not ancient, he is not strange to me. By the identity of his thought with mine he still survives."

Walt Whitman was similarly affected. He began his poem "A Persian Lesson," "For his o'erarching and last lesson the greybeard sufi,/In the fresh scent of the morning in the open air/On the slope of a teeming Persian rose-garden..."

http://www.iranfocus.com/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=27543:iran-continues-crackdown-on-sufis-&catid=5:human-rights&Itemid=27 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.84.68.252 (talk) 07:40, 3 May 2013 (UTC)

Idries Shah: contention that "sufism" predates Islam

I added the cite to Munn 23Jun13. I believe my cut-paste of the same cite from the Article in Shah's book "The Sufis" is adequate, but please correct if not as I am not a stuided wikipedia contributor. Shah makes the case that the term 'sufi' is an invention of western scholars and that one who knows does not need or use labels. Each teaching is addressed to specific people, in specific circumstances for specific needs, and a real teacher does not need to recycle the approach(es) applied in other circumstances. In any case my recollection is that he said, in effect, it is ironic that Muslims claim sufism to be the essence of Islam, since it took an intentional effort by "sufis" over the course of a thousand years (including many martyrs) to infiltrate (my word) Islam. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wiki mn (talk • contribs) 22:02, 23 June 2013 (UTC)