There was a time when many Muslims where members of a Sufi order. They would practise what other Muslims do and more. They would try hard to be God-centered on Plant Earth. Sufi orders then flourished throughout the Muslim world. To be a Sufi Muslim, one should practise the basic tenets of Islam but focus more on the discipline of inner purification; struggling against the evil within and without. To know, to love and to serve summarises the Sufi approach to life. The Qur'an instructs believers to know God and to love Him and then to serve Him. The same approach would apply to any of His creation including humanity: to know, to love and to serve. But the Qur'an says that true believers love God more than everything and more than anyone. Sufis led the struggle against injustice in all its forms. Poverty, ignorance, lack of education and healthcare, consumerism, exploitation, idolatry, and ego all are considered forms of injustice; some are against oneself and others are against humanity. They fought invading armies including the Crusaders, the Mongols, the Taters, and later the Spanish, the Portuguese, the British, the French, and the Dutch. In practice, a Sufi Muslim should make Zikr, being aware of God always. Once a week they get together to sing hymns in praise of God and His Prophet. Sufism was, and still is, the door, which millions of none Muslims came to know about and later embraced Islam in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. Although many Sufi Imams articulate and then practise what Islam teaches, Sufism suffers from a bad publicity because some practices of a tiny minority of today's Sufis go against the teachings of Islam. My favourite Sufi Imam is Al-Ghazali (1058-1111) whose many of his books were translated in English. He wrote on law, theology, Sufism, psychology, and philosophy. After all, he was a scholar who was appointed, when he was in his 20s, a professor of Islamic studies at the top university of his time; that of Baghdad. Although he did not himself have a Sufi Order, his writings made a strong impact on Sufism during his life and after his death. As quoted in Al-Ahram weekly: Valerie Hoffman in her book Sufism, Mystics and Saints in Modern Egypt (University of South Carolina Press, 1995) reports that "There were sixty Orders registered with the Sufi Council in 1958, and sixty-four in 1964. In April 1989, there were seventy-three,” but more number of recognised Orders. " She cautions, however, that "the proliferation of Orders may not mean that more people are drawn into Sufism, but that an Order has split in two, as two rival teachers have emerged. The Sufi orders in Egypt, according to Hoffman, are thought to be derived from four qutbs, or great Sufi Imams of the 12th and 13th centuries: Abdel-Qadir Al-Jilani of Iraq (d. 1166), founder of the Qadiriya; Ahmed Al-Rifa'i of Iraq (d. 1178), founder of the Rifa'iya; Ahmed el-Badawi (d. 1276), originally from Morocco but buried in the Egyptian Delta, founder of the Ahmadiya; and Ibrahim el-Dessouqi of Egypt (d. 1297), founder of the Burhamiya. "Of equal importance for Egyptian Sufism," she estimates, is Abul-Hassan Al-Shadhli of Morocco, who died in Egypt in 1258 and was the founder of the Shadhiliya. In addition, one should take into account other smaller Egyptian orders who can command a significant following.
