SUFIISM (tasawwuf) is formed from the Arabic word SO, which was applied, in the 2nd century of Islam, to men or women who adopted an ascetic or quietistic way of life. The word Sufi from siif (wool) refers to garments worn by such persons.
Mysticism in Islam goes back to Mohammed who, notwith standing his condemnation of Christian monkery, was led by the example of the hermits and of the Hanifs, to preach the efficacy of ascetic exercises, such as prayer, vigils and fasting. Again, while Allah is described in the Qur'an as the one God working his arbitrary will in unapproachable supremacy, other passages lay stress on his all-pervading presence and intimate relation to his creatures, e.g., "Wherever ye turn, there is the face of Allah" (ii. 109), "We (God) are nearer to him (man) than his neck vein" (1. is). The germs of mysticism latent in Islam from the first rapidly developed in the two centuries following the prophet's death in consequence of Messianic hopes and presages, the luxury of the upper classes and the hard mechanical piety of the ortho dox creed. The terrors of hell, so vividly depicted in the Qur'an awakened in many an intense consciousness of sin, which drove them to seek salvation in ascetic practices. Siifiism was originally a practical religion, not a speculative system, and the early Sifts were closely attached to the Muslim doctrine, but they took up and emphasized certain Qur'anic terms, such as dnikr (praise of God) consisting of recitation of the Qur'an, repetition of the Divine names, etc., and tawakkul (trust in God), now defined as renunci ation of all personal initiative and volition, leaving one's self en tirely in God's hands. Quietism soon passed into mysticism. Towards the end of the 2nd century the doctrine of mystical love was set forth in the sayings of a female ascetic, Rabi`a of Basra. Henceforward the use of symbolical expressions, borrowed from the vocabulary of love and wine, becomes increasingly frequent as a means of indicating holy mysteries which must not be di vulged. This was not an unnecessary precaution, for in the course of the 3rd century, there sprang up a speculative and pantheistic movement which was essentially anti-Islamic. A little later Abu
Sulayman al-Darani in Syria and Dhu'l-Nun in Egypt developed the doctrine of gnosis (inatrifat) through illumination and ecstasy. The step to pantheism was first decisively taken by the Persian Abu Yazid (Bayezid) of Bistam (d. A.D. 874), who introduced the doctrine of annihilation (land), i.e. the passing away of indi vidual consciousness in the will of God.
In the evolution of Sufism, influences outside of Islam made themselves powerfully felt. Christian influence had its source, not in the Church, but in the hermits and unorthodox sects, to whose ideal of unworldliness SUfiism owed much. More than one Sufi doctrine—that of tawakkul in particular—show traces of Christian teaching. The monastic strain which insinuated itself into SUfiism in spite of Mohammed's prohibition was derived, partially at any rate, from Christianity. But Buddhistic influence may also have been at work. Buddhism flourished in Balkh, Transoxiana and Turkestan before the Mohammedan conquest, and in later times Buddhist monks carried their religious practices and philosophy among the Muslims who had settled in these countries. The use of rosaries, the doctrine of fanii, which is probably a form of Nirvana, and the system of "stations" (maqamat) on the road thereto, would seem to be Buddhistic in their origin. The third great foreign influence on Silfiism is the Neoplatonic philosophy. Between A.D. 800 and 86o the tide of Greek learning, then at its height, streamed into Islam. The so called "Theology of Aristotle," which was translated into Arabic about A.D. 840, is full of Neoplatonic theories, and the mystical writings of the pseudo-Dionysius were widely known through out western Asia. It is not mere coincidence that the doctrine of Gnosis was first worked out in detail by the Egyptian Sufi, Dhu'l-Nun (d. A.D. 859), for SUfiism on its theosophical side was largely a product of Alexandrian speculation.