Category: Sufism

Muslim suicide bombers attacked the heart of liberal Islam yesterday with two deadly blasts at Pakistan’s most revered Sufi shrine, killing 41 people and injuring 175 more in an attack that appeared designed to inflame sectarian tensions.

Lahore is a sort of mecca for Sufism, the liberal, mystical arm of Islam that rejects the concept of jihad and promotes spiritual enlightenment through music and prayer.

A number of Sufis, who practice a mystical form of Islam, and Sufi groups on both US coasts entrusted millions of dollars to a California lawyer, Richard M. Glantz, who is a member of the Sufi community.

Sufi Order International, North America was invested in one of Glantz’s funds, which had a large portion of its estimated $17 million with Madoff.

Mystical Sect of Islam Finds Its Voice in More Tolerant Post-9/11 Era JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia — A hush came over the crowd as the young man sitting cross-legged on the floor picked up the microphone and sang, a cappella, a poem about Islam‘s prophet Muhammad. His eyes shut tight, his head covered by an orange-and-white turban, he crooned with barely contained ardor of how the world rejoiced and lights filled the skies the day the prophet was born. The men attending the mawlid — a celebration of the birth and life of Muhammad — sat on colorful rugs, rocking gently

Before a group of about 50 students, professor religious studies Carl Ernst discussed Sufism, which is relatively unknown in the Western world, but can be somewhat controversial. In a 45 minute lecture to kick off Islam Awareness Week at Penn the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill professor described Sufism as a spiritual approach to Islam that he termed “controversial in some Muslim circles” today. He described Sufis as “devoted to … Muha-mmed as a spiritual figure in every way.” Sufism has its origins in the founding years of Islam and evolved over time into “communities of knowledge

PARIS, June 21 – Pir Vilayat Inayat-Khan, who headed an international order of Sufis, members of a mystical offshoot of Islam, and wrote books about it, died on Thursday at his home in Suresnes, a suburb of Paris. He was 87. His death was announced by Donald Graham, an official of the Sufi Order International. A teacher and lecturer, Pir Vilayat was the son of Hazrat Inayat Khan, who helped bring Sufism to the West and created the Sufi order. He allowed followers to keep practicing their own religions as they explored Sufi mysticism, though traditional Sufism is a form