Editing Sunni Islam (section)

=== Mysticism ===
{{Main|Sufism}}
There is broad agreement that the [[Sufism|Sufis]] are also part of Sunnism. This view can already be found in the [[Shafiʽi school|Shafi'ite]] scholar [[Abu Mansur al-Baghdadi]] (d. 1037). In his [[heresiography|heresiographical]] work '' al-Farq baina l-firaq '' he divided the Sunnis into eight different categories (''aṣnāf'') of people: 1. the theologians and [[Kalam]] Scholars, 2. the [[Fiqh]] scholars, 3. the traditional and [[Hadith]] scholars, 4. the [[Adab (Islam)|Adab]] and language scholars, 5. the [[Koran]] – Scholars, 6. the [[Sufism|Sufi]] ascetics (''az-zuhhād aṣ-ṣūfīya''), 7. those who perform the ''[[ribat]]'' and ''[[jihad]]'' against the enemies of Islam, 8. the general crowd.<ref>al-Baġdādī: ''Al-Farq baina l-firaq.'' pp. 272–274. – Engl. Übers. Halkin S. 159–163.</ref> According to this classification, the Sufis are one of a total of eight groups within Sunnism, defined according to their religious specialization.

The [[Tunisia]]n scholar Muhammad ibn al-Qāsim al-Bakkī (d. 1510) also included the Sufis in Sunnism. He divided the Sunnis into the following three groups according to their knowledge (''istiqrāʾ''):
# the people of [[Hadith]] (''[[Ahl al-Hadith|ahl al-ḥadīṯh]]''): Their principles are based on the hearing-based evidence, namely [[Quran|the Book]] (''Qur'an''), the ''[[Sunnah]]'' and the ''[[Ijma|Ijmāʿ]]'' (consensus).
# The people of theory and the intellectual trade (''ahl an-naẓar wa-ṣ-ṣināʿa al-fikrīya''): They include the [[Ash'ari|Ashʿarites]] and the [[Hanafi]]s, the latter of whom consider [[Abu Mansur al-Maturidi|Abū Mansūr al-Māturīdī]] as their master. They agree in the rational principles on all questions where there is no hearing-based evidence, in the hearing-based principles in everything that reason conceives as possible, and in the rational as well as the hearing-based principles in all other questions. They also agree on all dogmatic questions, except for the question of creation (''takwīn'') and the question of ''[[Taqlid|Taqlīd]]''.
# the people of feeling and revelation (''ahl al-wiǧdān wa-l-kašf''): These are the [[Sufism|Sufis]]. Its principles correspond in the initial stage to the principles of the other two groups, but in the final stage they rely on revelation (''kašf'') and inspiration (''ilhām'').<ref>Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad ibn al-Qāsim al-Bakkī: ''Taḥrīr al-maṭālib fīmā taḍammanathū ʿAqīdat Ibn Ḥāǧib''. Muʾassasat al-Maʿārif, Beirut, 2008. S. 40f. [https://archive.org/details/tahreer/page/n47 Digitalisat]</ref>
Similarly, [[Murtada al-Zabidi|Murtadā az-Zabīdī]] stated elsewhere in his commentary on [[Al-Ghazali|Ghazzali's]] ''[[The Revival of the Religious Sciences|Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm ad-dīn]]'' '' that the Sunnis consisted of four groups (firaq''), namely the [[hadith scholar]]s (''muḥaddiṯhūn), the Sufis, the Ashʿarites and the Māturīdites.<ref>Murtaḍā az-Zabīdī: ''Itḥāf as-sāda al-muttaqīn bi-šarḥ Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm ad-dīn''. Muʾassasat at-taʾrīḫ al-ʿArabī, Beirut, 1994. Bd. II, S. 86 [https://archive.org/stream/FP78871/ithafsm02#page/n86/mode/2up Digitalisat]</ref>''

Some ''[[Ulama|ulema]]'' wanted to exclude the Sufis from Sunnism. The Yemeni scholar ʿAbbās ibn Mansūr as-Saksakī (d. 1284) explained in his doxographic work '' al-Burhān fī maʿrifat ʿaqāʾid ahl al-adyān '' ("The evidence of knowledge of the beliefs of followers of different religions") about the Sufis: "They associate themselves with the Sunnis, but they do not belong to them, because they contradict them in their beliefs, actions and teachings." That is what distinguishes the Sufis from Sunnis according to as-Saksakī their orientation to the hidden inner meaning of the ''Qur'an'' and the ''Sunnah''. In this, he said, they resemble the [[Batiniyya|Bātinites]].<ref>ʿAbbās ibn Manṣūr as-Saksakī: ''al-Burhān fī maʿrifat ʿaqāʾid ahl al-adyān.'' Ed. Bassām ʿAlī Salāma al-ʿAmūš. 2. Aufl. Maktabat al-Manār, az-Zarqā', 1996. p. 101. [http://www.archive.org/stream/agi09/087#page/n101/mode/2up Digitalisat]</ref> According to the final document of the Grozny Conference, only those Sufis are to be regarded as Sunnis who are "people of pure Sufism" (''ahl at-taṣauwuf aṣ-ṣāfī'') in the knowledge, ethics and purification of the interior, according to [[Tariqa|Method]] as practiced by [[Junayd of Baghdad|al-Junaid Al- Baghdadi]] and the "Imams of Guidance" (''aʾimma al-hudā'') who followed his path.<ref name="Grosny"/>

In the 11th century, Sufism, which had previously been a less "codified" trend in Islamic piety, began to be "ordered and crystallized"<ref name="Seyyed Hossein Nasr 2007 p. 76">Seyyed Hossein Nasr, ''The Essential Seyyed Hossein Nasr'', ed. William C. Chittick (Bloomington: World Wisdom, 2007), p. 76</ref> into ''[[Tariqa]]hs'' (orders) which have continued until the present day.<ref name="Seyyed Hossein Nasr 2007 p. 76" /> All these orders were founded by a major Sunni Islamic [[Saint (Islamic)|saint]], and some of the largest and most widespread included the [[Qadiriyya]] (after [[Abdul-Qadir Gilani]] [d. 1166]), the [[Rifa'i]]yya (after [[Ahmed al-Rifa'i]] [d. 1182]), the [[Chishti Order|Chishtiyya]] (after [[Moinuddin Chishti]] [d. 1236]), the [[Shadiliyya]] (after [[Abul Hasan ash-Shadhili]] [d. 1258]), and the [[Naqshbandi]]yya (after [[Baha-ud-Din Naqshband Bukhari]] [d. 1389]).<ref name="Seyyed Hossein Nasr 2007 p. 76" /> Contrary to popular [[Orientalism|Orientalist]] depictions,<ref name="Martin Lings 1983, p.16">Martin Lings, ''What is Sufism?'' (Lahore: Suhail Academy, 2005; first imp. 1983, second imp. 1999), p. 16</ref> neither the founders of these orders nor their followers considered themselves to be anything other than orthodox Sunni Muslims,<ref name="Martin Lings 1983, p.16" /> Many of the most eminent defenders of Islamic orthodoxy, such as [[Abdul Qadir Gilani|'Abd al-Qadir Jilani]], [[Al-Ghazali]], Sultan Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Al-Ayyubi ([[Saladin]]) were connected with Sufism."<ref>Titus Burckhardt, ''Introduction to Sufi Doctrine'' (Bloomington: World Wisdom, 2008, p. 4, note 2</ref> The [[Salafi]] and [[Wahhabi]] strands of Sunnism do not accept many mystical practices associated with the contemporary Sufi orders.<ref>Jeffrey Halverson, ''Theology and Creed in Sunni Islam'', 2010, p. 48</ref>