Sufism

Answer 1: Sufism is controversial in Islam. The vast majority of Muslims are either Sunni or Shi'a (or Shia). Some see Sufism as just another Islamic denomination, like Sunni or Shia; but others see it as anywhere from simply a valid way of practicing Islam, all the way to being outside of the Islamic faith tradition altogether. For those who believe that Sufism is not really even a form of Islam, then, obviously, Sufis have made no contribution to Muslim literature.

All Muslims believe that they're on a pathway to a closeness with God in the afterlife, but Sufis believe that it's possible to embrace The Divine Presence in this life, by means of achieving the primordial state of "fitra." Sufis are trained to use "intuitive and emotional faculties" to focus on the more spiritual aspects of religion, and to thereby strive to find divine love and knowledge through the direct personal experience of God by means of a variety of mystical and ascetic techniques and practices. Sufis believe that the angel Gabriel revealed to the Prophet Muhammad a perfection-of-worship practice called "Ihsan," which called upon Muhammad to "[w]orship and serve Allah as you are seeing Him, and while you see Him not, yet truly He sees you."

Some Muslim scholars think of Sufism as a "science" through which one may seek "reparation of the heart and [the] turning [of] it away from all else but God," or "through which one can know how to travel into the presence of the Divine, purify one's inner self from filth, and beautify it with a variety of praiseworthy traits." Sufism, to such scholars, simply describes Islam's inner and more esoteric dimensions... a perfection of worship.

Sufism, then, as defined by its adherents (and the scholars who have written about it), is not so much an Islamic denomination as it is the inner, mystical dimension of Islam in which any Muslim may engage. Therefore, some Sufi orders (called tariqas) consider themselves either Sunni or Shia; while still others claim to be neither, and refer to themselves, intentionally, as distinctly Sufi Muslims. The latter, then, are more likely to either be seen as, or to think of themselves as, more than merely those who practice a more perfect form of Muslim worship, but a Muslim denomination, as well.

Many scholars believe that the basic roots of Sufism are ancient, indeed, and pre-date not only Islam, but also most other modern religions except, perhaps, for Jainism and Buddhism. The word "sufi" is thought to derive from the Greek word "sophia," meaning "wisdom." After Gabriel's revelation of Sufi Ihsan's perfection of worship to Muhammad, the 7th century Muslim Conquests and expansion of the Muslim empire from the Middle East across China and the Indian subcontinent, into Central Asia, across North Africa, Sicily, and the Iberian Peninsula to the Pyrenees mountains caused thousands of adherents and practitioners of other faiths (specifically Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism) to fall under Muslim control. It is believed (though disputed, especially by those who believe that Sufism falls outside the sphere of true Islam) that during those years Muslim clerics were influenced in their refinement of Sufism by the mysticism and esoterism of Buddhism and Hinduism (and even Christianity), and the example, techniques and methods of Christian hermits and monks who continued their daily faith practices despite their being under Muslim rule. The vast writings, both ancient and modern, about just these early aspects of Sufism have contributed in no small way to the body of Muslim literature.

During the first millennium, several manuals intended to help the Islamic world to understand Sufism were created, the two most famous of which were "Kashf al-Mahjûb" of Hujwiri, and the "Risâla" of Qushayri... both considered important Sufi contributions to Muslim literature. Because some Islamic purists see Sufism as outside Islam (because, as the Salafi sect puts it, Sufism "contains unjustified religious innovation") Sufism's vast writings of simply apologia, which defend and explain it in the face of its critics (and also the works inspired thereby) are also great contributions to Muslim literature. Of course, again, if a given Muslim happens to believe that Sufism is outside of Islam, then s/he will not agree.

Sufism's contribution to other fields of both literature and other endeavor is not insignificant. For example, Sufism's Lataif-e-sitta, or "the centers of subtle cognition" and the awakening of spiritual intuition are thought to have helped to refine such as Hinduism's notion of chakras. Additionally, both Sunni and Shia traditions recognize Sufism's three concepts of nafs, qalb and ruh; and the three resulting spiritual types of tyrant, spiritual moderate, and those lost in love for God. The perfection of Sufi practice stives for the latter.

Sufism has also made no small contributions to general Muslim literature in the area of metaphysics, and the notions of Wahdat al-Wujud (unity of existence), and Wahdat al-Shuhud (unity of witness); or cosmology, based on the Quran's words regarding immaterial beings, the afterlife, the soul, the seven heavens, God, etc. Sufi writings about deeply spiritual approaches to "dhikr" (explained in the next paragraph) are also a huge contributions to Muslim literature.

One of the common practices among Sunni Muslims who call themselves Sufis, is something called "dhikr," which is an Islamic devotional act following prayers in which one typically (and usually silently) recites Islam's 99 Names of God, as well as supplications from the hadith and the Quran. One of the most both beautiful and famous examples of Sufi dhikr is the Sama Ceremony of the Mevlevi Sufi Order in Turkey... also famously known as the "Whirling Dervishes." In 2005, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared the Mevlevi Sama Ceremony to be one of the world's "Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity."

If that, and the considerable writings about it, are not a huge Sufi contribution, to not just the Muslim world and literature, but also to the entire world, then it's difficult to imagine what else would be.