for that matter, the Hindu yogis. But in spite of the religious injunctions,
asceticism kept on gaining ground within the Islamic community, with a
large number of pious worshippers seeking to secure salvation through
devotional practices (often frowned upon by the orthodoxy), meditation
and withdrawing from society. The worldliness and absolutism of the
Umayyad caliphs and their regime were yet another factor encouraging
pious men to sever their connections with the obviously corrupting world.
Turning away from it, they found strength in contemplating the mysteries
of God, the soul and Creation.
The early ascetics and their spiritual descendents, the Sufis, usually wore,
as already mentioned, the undyed coarse woollen mantles similar to those
worn by the Christian ascetics. That is why the term Sufi is usually
considered to come from the Arabic word
suf,
or wool. Gradually ‘Sufi’
came to designate a very varied group of individuals who differentiated
themselves from others by emphasizing certain specific teachings and practices
mentioned in the Qur’an and the traditions of the Prophet of Islam.
Though originally Sufism was just a pious mystical trend within Islam
with certain individuals being more known than others, there was no attempt
to give it any organizational form. But the twelfth century saw the
crystallization of a number of orders. Now certain chains of lineages through
which different Sufis traced their allegiance were put in place connecting
them with a spiritual hierarchy going back to the Prophet, mostly through
‘Ali and sometimes throughAbu Bakr, giving them legitimacy and enhancing
their popular appeal through a firm connection with a charismatic and
historical predecessor.
7
7
For early Sufism and the development of Sufi orders see for example,
A History of Sufism in India,
Vol. I, S.A.A. Rizvi, Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 1978.
Th e Su f i C on c e p t o f Me d i t a t i on 200
