Kirill Popov. Exclusively to VK
Not only representatives of Christian and other religions, but even branches of Islam are suspicious about Sufism. Representatives of such a radical Islamic flow as Wahabiism call Sufism a heresy which corrupts Koran and enemies who help Russia to destroy the Muslim community.
From the point of view of European civilization, Sufism is not a part of Islam, as it grew together with it due to historic reasons. And in fact Sufism can be found in all religions, because it represents their true deep essence.
Sufism is a mystic flow in Islam. The mysticism of Sufism is that its subject – the way to God – cannot be described in words and is understood by hints and spiritual intuition. The further person moves in the way of Sufism, the more he leaves himself and his bad features, he overcomes dimness of the world and comes close to God who is the only Reality. At the same time, Sufism doesn’t require monakhood like in Christianity. Sufis strive to living in the common world and think that escapism is a wrong way to God. In this sense Sufism is close to fundamentalism, as it urges to return to sources of Islam, to truth and devotedness of Muhammad’s followers.
Therefore, we can find parallels between certain statements of Sheikhs and Buddhism or Christianity. However, these associations are connected with unavoidable similarity of all religious concepts created by humanity. Of course all branches of Islam, including Sufism, are genetically connected with Christianity and Hinduism, but this connection doesn’t mean co-subordination or direct borrowing.
Speaking about Sufism as a separate Islamic flow, one should be careful answering the question on it relations with other movements of this religion and Russia. Some experts who think Sufism is unconscious Islam and equal it to ethnic-mythological views of the Caucasus people seem to mean a peaceful and passive character of this flow. They oppose Sufism to “conscious” branches which deal with consolidation of the Caucasus people and settlement of political tasks. But they forget that during the Caucasian War Sufism was considered as a militant doctrine which encouraged mountain nationalities to fight against the Christian Empire. It means Sufism is many-sided and has no one common opinion in many certain practical issues.
Sufis are not focused on “geopolitical” Islamic concepts which differs them from militant fundamentalists. Thus, the reason for all prejudices and misunderstanding of Sufism is the lack of information and absence of a sober analytical approach to this flow.
