Editing Sufism (section)

===Perception outside Islam===
[[File:Sudan sufis.jpg|thumb|A choreographed Sufi performance on a Friday in Sudan]]

Sufi mysticism has long exercised a fascination upon the Western world, and especially its Orientalist scholars.<ref name=Geaves /> In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, European orientalists treated Sufism and Islam as distinct subjects, leading to "an over-emphasis on the translation of classical Sufi mystical literature" in the academic study of Sufism at the expense of the lived practices in Islam, as well as a separation of Sufism from its Islamic roots in the development of Sufism as a religious form in the West.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Dabistan and Orientalist views of Sufism {{!}} SOAS University of London |url=https://www.soas.ac.uk/south-asia-institute/musa/events/24may2016-the-dabistan-and-orientalist-views-of-sufism.html |access-date=2022-04-30 |website=www.soas.ac.uk |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Geaves |first=Ron |title=Sufism in the West |date=2014 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-sufism/sufism-in-the-west/0E365403019DD6826F782FE0B2C89671 |work=The Cambridge Companion to Sufism |pages=233–256 |editor-last=Ridgeon |editor-first=Lloyd |series=Cambridge Companions to Religion |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-01830-3 |access-date=2022-04-30}}"Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, European orientalists would develop the thesis that Sufism and Islam were separate religious phenomena. The effect on Sufism in the West was twofold. The first impacted on the academic study of Sufism and the second on the development of Sufism as a religious form in Europe and North America. The separation of Sufism from its Islamic roots led to an over-emphasis on the translation of classical Sufi mystical literature at the expense of the lived religion practised throughout the Muslim world and perceived as part and parcel of a normative Islamic worldview, even if deeply contested in the Muslim majority world."</ref> Figures like Rumi have become well known in the United States, where Sufism is perceived as a peaceful and apolitical form of Islam.<ref name=Geaves>{{cite book|first1=Ron|last1=Geaves |first2=Theodore|last2=Gabriel|first3=Yvonne|last3=Haddad|first4=Jane Idleman|last4=Smith|title=Islam and the West Post 9/11 |publisher=Ashgate Publishing|page=67}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Corbett |first1=Rosemary R. |title=Making Moderate Islam: Sufism, Service, and the "Ground Zero Mosque" Controversy |publisher=Stanford University Press |date=2016 |isbn=9780804791281 |url=http://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=23704 |access-date=2019-01-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161029043841/http://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=23704 |archive-date=2016-10-29 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Seyyed Hossein Nasr]] states that the preceding theories are false according to the point of view of Sufism.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Nasr|first1=Seyyed Hossein Nasr|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IgVtq3kNCrYC&q=origins+of+tasawwuf&pg=PA192|title=An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines|date=1993-01-01|publisher=SUNY Press |isbn=9780791415153|access-date=17 January 2015}}</ref> The contemporary amateur historian David Livingstone writes:
{{blockquote|"Sufi practices are merely attempts to attain psychic states—for their own sake—though it is claimed the pursuit represents seeking closeness to God, and that the achieved magical powers are gifts of advanced spirituality. For several reasons, Sufism was generally looked upon as heretical among Muslim scholars. Among the deviations introduced by the Sufis was the tendency to believe the daily prayers to be only for the masses who had not achieved deeper spiritual knowledge, but could be disregarded by those more advanced spiritually. The Sufis introduced the practice of congregational Dhikr, or religious oral exercises, consisting of a continuous repetition of the name of God. These practices were unknown to early Islam, and consequently regarded as Bid'ah, meaning "unfounded innovation". Also, many of the Sufis adopted the practice of total Tawakkul, or complete "trust" or "dependence" on God, by avoiding all kinds of labor or commerce, refusing medical care when they were ill, and living by begging."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Livingstone|first=David|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u91JYdvPfJgC|title=The Dying God: The Hidden History of Western Civilization|date=2002|publisher=iUniverse|isbn=978-0-595-23199-7}}</ref>}}
[[File:Nasreddin.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.8|A 17th-century miniature of [[Nasreddin]], a [[Seljuk dynasty|Seljuk]] [[satire|satirical figure]], currently in the [[Topkapı Palace]] Museum Library]]

The Islamic Institute in Mannheim, Germany, which works towards the integration of Europe and Muslims, sees Sufism as particularly suited for interreligious dialogue and intercultural harmonisation in democratic and pluralist societies; it has described Sufism as a symbol of tolerance and [[humanism]]—nondogmatic, flexible and non-violent.<ref>Jamal Malik, John R. Hinnells: ''Sufism in the West'', Routledge, p. 25</ref> According to [[Philip Jenkins]], a professor at [[Baylor University]], "the Sufis are much more than tactical allies for the West: they are, potentially, the greatest hope for pluralism and democracy within Muslim nations." Likewise, several governments and organisations have advocated the promotion of Sufism as a means of combating intolerant and [[Islam and violence|violent strains of Islam]].<ref>{{cite news|first1=Philip|last1=Jenkins|author-link1=Philip Jenkins|title=Mystical power|url=https://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/01/25/mystical_power/?page=full|publisher=Globe Newspaper Company|access-date=26 June 2014|date=January 25, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140708011457/http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/01/25/mystical_power/?page=full|archive-date=2014-07-08|url-status=live}}</ref> For example, the Chinese and Russian<ref>{{cite news|first1=Tom|last1=Parfitt|title=The battle for the soul of Chechnya|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/nov/22/chechnya.tomparfitt|access-date=26 June 2014|agency=Guardian News and Media Limited|date=23 November 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140914003527/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/nov/22/chechnya.tomparfitt|archive-date=2014-09-14|url-status=live}}</ref> governments openly favor Sufism as the best means of protecting against Islamist subversion. The British government, especially following the [[7 July 2005 London bombings]], has favoured Sufi groups in its battle against [[Muslim extremist]] currents. The influential [[RAND Corporation]], an American think-tank, issued a major report titled "Building Moderate Muslim Networks", which urged the US government to form links with and bolster<ref>{{cite news|title=Sufism: Of saints and sinners|url=http://www.economist.com/node/12792544|newspaper=The Economist|access-date=26 June 2014|date=Dec 18, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140516212549/http://www.economist.com/node/12792544|archive-date=2014-05-16|url-status=live}}</ref> Muslim groups that opposed Islamist extremism. The report stressed the Sufi role as moderate traditionalists open to change, and thus as allies against violence.<ref>{{cite web|title=MUSLIM NETWORKS AND MOVEMENTS IN WESTERN EUROPE|url=http://www.pewforum.org/2010/09/15/muslim-networks-and-movements-in-western-europe-sufi-orders/|website=Pew Research Center|access-date=26 June 2014|location=Government Promotion of Sufism|date=September 15, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140623113335/http://www.pewforum.org/2010/09/15/muslim-networks-and-movements-in-western-europe-sufi-orders/|archive-date=2014-06-23|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|first1=Angel|last1=Rabasa|first2=Cheryl|last2=Benard|first3=Lowell H.|last3=Schwartz|first4=Peter|last4=Sickle|title=Building Moderate Muslim Networks|url=https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monographs/2007/RAND_MG574.pdf|website=RAND Corporation|access-date=26 June 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140531114438/http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monographs/2007/RAND_MG574.pdf|archive-date=2014-05-31|url-status=live|year=2007}}</ref> News organisations such as the BBC, Economist and Boston Globe have also seen Sufism as a means to deal with violent Muslim extremists.<ref>{{cite news|first1=ALI|last1=ETERAZ|title=State-Sponsored Sufism|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/06/09/state_sponsored_sufism|access-date=26 June 2014|agency=FP|date=June 10, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140914003445/http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/06/09/state_sponsored_sufism|archive-date=2014-09-14|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Idries Shah]] states that Sufism is universal in nature, its roots predating the rise of Islam and Christianity.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Munn|first=Richard C.|date=January–March 1969|title=Reviewed work(s): The Sufis by Idries Shah |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |publisher=American Oriental Society|volume=89|issue=1|pages=279–281 |doi=10.2307/598339 |jstor=598339}}</ref> He quotes [[Abu al-Najib al-Suhrawardi|Suhrawardi]] as saying that "this (Sufism) was a form of wisdom known to and practiced by a succession of sages including the mysterious ancient [[Hermes Trismegistus|Hermes of Egypt]].", and that [[Ibn al-Farid]] "stresses that Sufism lies behind and before systematization; that 'our wine existed before what you call the grape and the vine' (the school and the system)..."{{sfn|Shah|1970|p=28-29}} Shah's views have however been rejected by modern scholars.<ref name="britannica"/> Such modern trends of neo-Sufis in Western countries allow non-Muslims to receive "instructions on following the Sufi path", not without opposition by Muslims who consider such instruction outside the sphere of Islam.{{sfn|Shah|1964–2014}}