History of The Islamic World: Why do Wahabbis oppose Suffism in Islam - Essay Example

As a function of this, the following analysis will engage with a discussion of Sufism and the degree and extent to which the aforementioned questions can be applied in seeking to gain a further understanding of this branch of Islamic beliefs. Furthermore, rather than merely providing a descriptive analysis of Sufism, the research paper will engage the reader with a broader understanding of how different authors, of secondary research texts, have understood Sufism. Accordingly, it is the hope of this particular author that the reader will be able to gain a more informed understanding and interpretation of Sufism and how it relates to a chronological history of Islamic belief as well as how it helps to define the tens of thousands of individuals throughout the world that put their faith behind this particular branch of Islamic understanding.

Interestingly, there remains a great deal of confusion with respect to how Sufism first came to be evidenced throughout the Islamic world. Sufis claim that the cousin of Mohammed, Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib, is ultimately responsible for being one of the first individuals to practice Sufism and pass this religious interpretation down to subsequent believers. However, there is a great paucity of historical documents that reinforce this particular claim. Further, many other scholars have come to understand that it was not until around the first millennium that precepts of Sufism were related and helped to categorize some of the main beliefs of this offshoot of Islamic understanding.

As will be discussed at some depth later within this analysis, one of the difficulties in seeking to define Sufism has to do with the fact that ithis grown so much over the intervening years. For instance, an examination of Sufism within the first millennium will not adequately paint a clear and direct picture of the way in which the practice has evolved and is currently represented in the