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Sufism is One of the Most Dynamic and Interesting Dimensions of Islamic religious and cultural expression. It is an umbrella term for a variety of philosophical, social, and literary phenomena occurring within the Islamic world. In its narrowest sense, the term "Sufism" refers to a number of schools of Islamic mystical philosophy and theology, to the phenomenon of religious orders and guilds (tarīqāt) that have exerted considerable influence over the development of Islamic politics and society, and to the varied expressions of popular piety and devotion to shrines found throughout the Islamic world. In a wider sense, Sufism is often seen as the spiritual muse behind much of pre-modern verse in the Islamic world, the idiom of much of popular Islamic piety, the primary social arena open to women's religious participation, and a major force in the conversion of people to Islam in Africa and Asia. The Sufi orders served as educational institutions that fostered not only the religious sciences but also music and decorative arts. Their leaders sometimes functioned as a challenge to the power of the juridic and theological establishment.

Human beings have will, but is it free? According to Sufism, which finds its grounds in religious texts and dominantly the Quran, the body is a cage, and the spirit is like a bird in it. Therefore, free will has dimensions. Sufism suggests going beyond the limits of senses with an effort to know the self and thus become one with the Divine to reach real freedom. This article aims to explain consciousness in terms of Sufism and science.

With the increasing Muslim diaspora in post-modern Western societies, Sufism – intellectually as well as sociologically – may eventually become Islam itself due to its versatile potential. Although Sufism has always provoked considerable interest in the West, no volume has so far been written which discusses this aspect of Islam in terms of how it is practised in Western societies. Bringing together leading international authorities to survey the history of Islamic mysticism in North America and Europe, this book elaborates the ideas and institutions which organize Sufism and folk-religious practices. The chapters cover: the orders and movements their social base organization and institutionalization recruitment-patterns in new environments channels of disseminating ideas, such as ritual, charisma, and organization reasons for their popularity among certain social groups the nature of their affiliation with the countries of their origin. Providing a fascinating insight into how Sufism operates within different spheres of society, Sufism in the West is essential reading for students and academics with research interests in Islam, Islamic history and social anthropology.

Basic concepts of Sufism are introduced along with pointing out that the
cause of occurrence of that original learning should be sought in gradual
distancing of the Islamic state and its leaders from the great moral ideals
and value system set by the Prophet Mohammed and the first caliphs. The
established periodization starts from the classical period dominated by
excessive influence of some scholars and the tendency of respecting local
traditions, continues with the medieval period marked by systematization and
achieving the peak of Sufi thought through acting of a number of great
mystics and ends with the modern period characterized by its prevalence and
enormous global impact, adapting to constantly changing conditions and
efforts for giving an adequate response to the challenges of colonialism,
which inevitably led to gradual weakening of Sufism. Overlapping between
mysticism, Hellenistic philosophy and other religious systems is also pointed
out, as an inexhaustible source of new, original and creative theological
syntheses, that significantly dynamized the already established Islamic
doctrine prone to repeating fixed patterns, as well as a great contribution
of Sufism to the spread of Islam in different parts of the world.

The article examines the phenomenon of "Western Sufi sm", the complex of spiritual practices and movements, widely spread in Europe and the US in the 1960–1970th. The history of the relationship between the Western society and the Muslim esoteric tradition dates back to the Middle Ages, when the Muslim world had a signifi cant impact on Europe, drawing inspiration and knowledge from the Islamic culture. During the colonial era, Sufi sm was viewed by Europeans primarily as "ethnographic exotics", but in the 1960–1970th together with the general interest in eastern mystical teachings and the advent of "alternative" religious movements, Sufi sm (or Neo-Sufi sm) acquires the status of Western cultural category, ceasing to be identifi ed with an exclusively Islamic tradition and taking an increasingly universalistic character. Its new adherents become people of diff erent religious beliefs and nationalities.

This paper explores Indian Sufi influences in Shye Ben Tzur's music. Ben Tzur is a Jewish Israeli musician who composes Sufi poetry in Hebrew and plays it to qawwālī music, the traditional North Indian Sufi music. Ben Tzur's songs are devotional and there are many Sufi references that invoke Islamic terminology. His music has been reviewed in numerous newspapers and his Jewish identity, coupled with Sufi themes, evokes questions regarding religious belonging. Even though Ben Tzur openly discusses Sufi influences, his music has remained uncontroversial. This article interprets this as a sign that the symbolic repertoire of Ben Tzur's music evokes associations with India and not with Islam and more specifically with India as a spiritual rather than religious space. The image of India as a spiritual land manages to subsume references to Islam and render them part of the "mystical East" allowing Ben Tzur's audience to consume Muslim themes outside Middle Eastern politics. ; Dieser Aufsatz fragt nach Einflüssen des indischen Sufismus auf die Musik von Shye Ben Tzur. Ben Tzur ist ein jüdischer Israeli, der auf Hebräisch sufistische Poesie schreibt, welche er zu qawwālī Musik, der traditionellen nordindischen Sufi-Musik spielt. Ben Tzurs Lieder haben devotionalen Charakter und spielen mit sufistischen Referenzen und islamischen Konzepten. Obschon die sufistischen Elemente in Ben Tzurs Musik deutlich sind, hat seine Musik zu keinen Kontroversen geführt. Dieser Aufsatz interpretiert diesen Umstand als ein Zeichen dafür, dass Ben Tzurs Musik nicht in erster Linie mit dem Islam, sondern mit Indien, und zwar mit Indien als einem spirituellen Land assoziiert wird. Das Bild des mystischen Indiens schließt dabei islamische Referenzen ein. Diese Spiritualisierung der Musik Ben Tzurs hat einen entpolitisierenden Effekt auf die Musik und ermöglicht damit einer jüdisch-israelischen Zuhörerschaft den Kontakt mit dem Islam außerhalb des Nahost-Konfliktes.

Today there is a substantial and rapidly growing Muslim population in Europe and North America. Here, as elsewhere, many of the Muslims are Sufis. This book focuses mainly on issues of inculturation or contextualisation of Sufism in the West.

Résumé Le soufisme est un courant mystique de l'islam, une voie spirituelle basée sur l'élévation de l'esprit et de l'âme et la recherche de la purification du cœur. Il a joué un rôle prépondérant dans la propagation de l'islam en Afrique subsaharienne, dont le Mali. Sa résistance au colonialisme, armée puis pacifique, le crédite pour jouer un rôle politique et social dans le Mali indépendant, bien que parfois contre le développement des mœurs sociales. L'objectif de cet article est de montrer la centralité du soufisme dans la propagation de l'islam dans le Mali précolonial, sans avoir eu nécessairement recours au « djihad ». La problématique de cette recherche s'articule autour de la rapidité et l'assertivité avec laquelle les Maliens ont adopté l'islam populaire. Nous émettons l'hypothèse que c'est d'abord la simplicité de la foi musulmane prônée par le soufisme par rapport à l'islam institutionnel et scripturaire qui en est la cause principale. Nous postulons ensuite que c'est également la forte ressemblance entre l'organisation hiérarchique des zaouias soufies et l'organisation hiérarchique païenne qui existaient au Mali qui ont affirmé la place de l'islam populaire dans les mœurs maliennes. Mots clés : Mali, soufisme, colonisation, indépendance, laïcité, charia. Abstract Sufism is a mystical current of Islam, a spiritual path based on the upliftment of mind and soul and the pursuit of purification of the heart. It played a major role in the spread of Islam in subSaharan Africa, including Mali. Its resistance to colonialism, armed at first then peaceful, gives it credit for playing a social and political role in independent Mali, although sometimes going against the development of social mores. The aim of this article is to show the centrality of Sufism in the propagation of Islam in precolonial Mali, without necessarily resorting to "djihad". The problematic of this research revolves around the speed and assertiveness with which Malians adopted popular Islam. We hypothesize that it is mainly due to the ...