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{{short description|Order of Sufism}}
{{Italic title}}
{{more footnotes needed|date=August 2022}}
{{Sufism|Topics in Sufism}}
A '''''tariqa''''' ({{Langx|ar|طريقة|translit=ṭarīqa}}) is a [[religious order]] of [[Sufism]], or specifically a concept for the mystical teaching and spiritual practices of such an order with the aim of seeking {{Transliteration|ar|[[haqiqa]]}}, which translates as "ultimate truth".<ref>Tariqa, Britannica.</ref>

A tariqa has a {{Transliteration|ar|[[murshid]]}} (guide) who plays the role of leader or spiritual director. The members or followers of a tariqa are known as {{Transliteration|ar|[[murid]]in}} (singular ''{{Transliteration|ar|murid}}''), meaning "desirous", viz. "desiring the knowledge of [[God]] and loving God" (also called a ''{{Transliteration|ar|[[faqir]]}}'').
The murshid of the tariqa is also believed to be the same as the ''[[tzadik]]'' of Judaism, meaning the "rightly guided one".

The metaphor of "way, path" is to be understood in connection of the term sharia which also has [[Sharia#Etymology and usage|the meaning of "path"]], more specifically "well-trodden path; path to the waterhole". The "path" metaphor of ''tariqa'' is that of a further path, taken by the mystic, which continues from the "well-trodden path" or exoteric of sharia towards the esoteric ''{{Transliteration|ar|haqiqa}}''. A fourth "station" following the succession of ''shariah'', ''{{Transliteration|ar|tariqa}}'' and ''{{Transliteration|ar|haqiqa}}'' is called {{Transliteration|ar|[[marifa]]}}. This is the "unseen center" of ''{{Transliteration|ar|haqiqa}}'', and the ultimate aim of the mystic, corresponding to the [[unio mystica]] in Western mysticism. ''{{Transliteration|ar|Tasawwuf}}'', an Arabic word that refers to Islamic mysticism, is known in the West as Sufism.

==Orders of Sufism==
{{main|List of Sufi orders}}
[[File:Syariah-thariqah-hakikah2.jpg|thumb|350px|"Tariqat" in the Four Spiritual Stations: The Four Stations are [[Sharia]], {{Lang|ar-latn|[[Ṭarīqah]]|italic=no}}, [[Haqiqa]], and the fourth station [[marifa]], which is considered "unseen" and actually located at ''the center'' of the ''haqiqa'' region. It is the essence of all four stations.]]

The most popular tariqa in the West is the [[Mevlevi Order]], named after [[Rumi|Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi]]. In the same time the [[Bektashi Order]] was also founded, named after the [[Haji Bektash Veli]]. The four most significant tariqas in South Asia are the [[Qadiri]] Order, named after [[Abdul Qadir Gilani]], the [[Chishti]] Order, named after [[Abu Ishaq Shami|Abu Ishaq Shami Chishti]], the [[Naqshbandi]] Order, named after [[Baha' al-Din Naqshband]] and the Mujaddidi Order, named after [[Ahmad Sirhindi|Ahmed Sirhindi]]. The others are, [[Rishi order]] founded by [[Nund Rishi]] in Kashmir and the [[Suhrawardiyya|Suhrawardi]] Order, named after [[Shihab al-Din 'Umar al-Suhrawardi]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gyarvi Sharif |url=http://www.shattariyah.blogspot.com/p/gyarvi-sharif.html |access-date=October 3, 2022}}</ref> The [[Burhaniyya]] becoming popular within the people of Pakistan and India. Large tariqats in Africa include [[Muridiyya]], [[Rifaʽi|Rifa'iyya]] and [[Tijaniyya]]. Sufi orders can have sub-orders within them, such as the Ashrafiyya, named after the 13th century illustrious Sufi saint [[Ashraf Jahangir Semnani]]<ref>'Hayate Makhdoom Syed [[Ashraf Jahangir Semnani]](1975), Second Edition(2017) {{ISBN|978-93-85295-54-6}}, Maktaba Jamia Ltd, Shamshad Market, Aligarh 202002, India.</ref> is a sub-order of Chishti spiritual lineage, the [[Tarika-e-Maizbhandari|Maizbhandariyya]],<ref>{{Cite book|last=Harder|first=Hans|title=Sufism and Saint Veneration in Contemporary Bangladesh: The Maijbhandaris of Chittagong.|publisher=Routledge|year=2011}}</ref> which is a Sufi sub-order established in the Bangladesh in the 19th century by the Shah Sufi Syed Ahmadullah Maizbhandari (1826 AD − 1906 AD), 27th generation descendant of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, and the Warisi sub-order, which was founded by [[Waris Ali Shah]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Administrator |title=Waris Pak |url=http://www.shattariyah.blogspot.com/p/waris-pak.html |access-date=October 3, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hasan |first=Prof M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kTn-XgtlLmcC&dq=warsi+sufi+order&pg=PA183 |title=SUFISM AND ENGLISH LITERATURE : Chaucer to the Present Age |date=2007 |publisher=Adam Publishers & Distributors |isbn=978-81-7435-523-2 |language=en}}</ref>

Membership in a particular Sufi order is not exclusive, unlike the Christian monastic orders which are demarcated by firm lines of authority and sacrament. Sufis often are members of various Sufi orders.{{Citation needed|date=May 2014}} The non-exclusiveness of Sufi orders has consequences for the social extension of Sufism. They cannot be regarded as indulging in a zero sum competition which a purely political analysis might have suggested. Rather, their joint effect is to impart to Sufism a cumulant body of tradition, rather than individual and isolated experiences.<ref>Sufi martyrs of love By Carl W. Ernst, Bruce B. Lawrence. Pg 28</ref>

In most cases the [[Sheikh (Sufism)|sheikh]] nominates his ''khalifa'' or "successor"<ref>{{Cite book|last=Mohammad|first=Taher|url=|title=Encyclopaedic survey of Islamic culture. evolution and practice|date=1997|publisher=Anmol Publications Pvt. Ltd|isbn=|oclc=}}</ref> during his lifetime, who will take over the order. In rare cases, if the sheikh dies without naming a ''khalifa'', the students of the tariqa elect another spiritual leader by vote. In some orders it is recommended to take a ''[[Khalif]]'' from the same order as the ''[[murshid]]''. In some groups it is customary for the khalifa to be the son of the sheikh, although in other groups the khalīfa and the sheikh are not normally relatives. In yet other orders a successor may be identified through the spiritual dreams of its members.

Tariqas have ''[[silsila]]s'' ({{langx|ar|سلسلة}}; "chain, lineage of sheikhs"). All orders claim a ''silsila'' that leads back to Muhammad through [[Ali]],<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lloyd.|first=Ridgeon|url=|title=Sufism|date=2008|publisher=Routledge|isbn=|oclc=}}</ref> except the [[Naqshbandi]] silsila, which traces its roots to [[Abu Bakr]], the first [[Caliph]] of [[Sunni Islam]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hisham.|first=Kabbani, Muhammad|url=|title=Classical Islam and the Naqshbandi Sufi tradition|date=2004|publisher=Islamic Supreme Council of America|isbn=|oclc=}}</ref>

Every ''[[Murid]]'', on entering the tariqa, gets his ''[[Sama (Sufism)|awrad]]'', or daily recitations, authorized by his ''murshid'' (usually to be recited before or after the pre-dawn prayer, after the afternoon prayer and after the evening prayer). Usually these recitations are extensive and time-consuming (for example the ''awrad'' may consist of reciting a certain formula 99, 500 or even 1000 times). One must also be in a state of ritual purity (as one is for the obligatory prayers to perform them while facing [[Mecca]]). The recitations change as a student (murid) moves from a mere initiate to other Sufi degrees (usually requiring additional initiations). The Initiation ceremony is routine and consists of reading chapter 1 of the [[Quran]] followed by a single phrase prayer. Criteria have to be met to be promoted in rank: the common way is to repeat a single phrase prayer 82,000 times or more as in the case of [[Burhaniyya]], a number that grows with each achieved rank. Murids who experience unusual interaction during meditation: hear voices like "would you like to see a prophet?" or see visions who might even communicate with the Murid are held dear in the "[[Haḍra]]", the weekly group-chanting of prayers in attempt of reaching spirits as they are likely to experience something unusual and pass it on. This Murid is promoted faster than others. The least common way is to cause a miracle to happen with criteria similar to that of Catholic Sainthood.

Being mostly followers of the spiritual traditions of Islam loosely referred to as Sufism, these groups were sometimes distinct from the ''[[Ulema|Ulma]]'' or officially mandated scholars, and often acted as informal missionaries of Islam. They provided accepted avenues for emotional expressions of faith, and the Tariqas spread to all corners of the Muslim world, and often exercised a degree of political influence inordinate to their size (take for example the influence that the sheikhs of the [[Safavid]] had over the armies of [[Tamerlane]], or the missionary work of [[Ali-Shir Nava'i]] in [[Turkestan|Turkistan]] among the [[Mongol]] and [[Tatars|Tatar]] people).

==History==
The tariqas were particularly influential in the [[Islamization of Sudan|spread of Islam in the sub-Sahara]] during the 9th to 14th centuries, where they spread south along trade routes between North Africa and the sub-Saharan kingdoms of [[Ghana Empire|Ghana]] and [[Mali Empire|Mali]]. On the West African coast they set up Zawiyas on the shores of the river Niger and even established independent kingdoms such as ''al-Murabitun'' or [[Almoravids]]. The Al Hakika Mizaan Mizaani Sufi order deals with heavy internalization and meditations, their spiritual practice is called Al Qudra Mizaan. The [[Senussi|Sanusi]] order was also highly involved in missionary work in Africa during the 19th century, spreading both Islam and a high level of literacy into Africa as far south as Lake Chad and beyond by setting up a network of ''[[Zawiya (institution)|zawiya]]s'' where Islam was taught.

Much of [[Central Asia]] and southern Russia was won over to Islam through the missionary work of the Tarīqahs, and the majority of [[Indonesia]]'s population, where a Muslim army never set foot, was converted to Islam by the perseverance of both Muslim traders and Sufi missionaries. [[Sufism in India]] played a similarly crucial role in the diffusion of Islam at the élite and popular levels; its [[Sufi music|music]], [[Islamic art|art]], and [[Sufi poetry|poetry]] flourished in a highly sophisticated [[Persianate society]].

Tariqas were brought to China in the 17th century by [[Ma Laichi]] and other Chinese Sufis who had studied in [[Mecca]] and [[Yemen]], and had also been influenced by spiritual descendants of the [[Kashgar]]ian Sufi master [[Afaq Khoja]]. On the Chinese soil the institutions became known as ''[[menhuan]]'', and are typically headquartered near the tombs (''[[gongbei (Islamic architecture)|gongbei]]'') of their founders.<ref name=dillon113>{{cite book |publisher=Routledge |year=1999 |isbn=0-7007-1026-4 |title=China's Muslim Hui community: migration, settlement and sects |author= Michael Dillon |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=hUEswLE4SWUC |pages=113–114}} One of Dillon's main sources is: {{cite book |
script-title=zh:中国伊斯兰教派与门宦制度史略 |title=Zhongguo Yisilan jiaopai yu menhuan zhidu shilue |trans-title=A sketch of the history of Chinese Islamic sects and the ''menhuan'' system |language=zh |author= 馬通 (Ma Tong) |place=Yinchuan |publisher= 宁夏人民出版社 (Ningxia Renmin Chubanshe) |year=1983 }}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Dargah]]
* [[Dervish]]
* [[Khanqah]]
* [[Zawiya (institution)]]
* [[Noble Eightfold Path]]
* [[Sampradaya]], a similar concept in Indian Religions

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*J. M. Abun-Nasr, "The Tijaniyya", London 1965
*M. Berger, "Islam in Egypt today - social and political aspects of popular religion", London, 1970
*J. K. Birge, "The Bektashi Order of Dervishes", London and Hartford, 1937
* Clayer, Nathalie, [http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0159-2011050932 Muslim Brotherhood Networks], [http://www.ieg-ego.eu/ EGO - European History Online], Mainz: [http://www.ieg-mainz.de/likecms/index.php Institute of European History], 2011, retrieved: May 23, 2011.
*O. Depont and X. Coppolani, "Les confreries religieuses musulmans" (the Muslim brotherhoods as they existed then), Algiers, 1897
*E. E. Evans-Pritchard, "The Sanusi of Cyrenaica", Oxford, 1949
*M. D. Gilsenen, "Saint and Sufi in Modern Egypt", Oxford, 1978
*G. H. Jansen, "Militant Islam", Pan, London 1979
*F. de Jong, "Turuq and Turuq-Linked Institutions in Nineteenth-Century Egypt", Brill, Leiden,1978
*J. W. McPherson, "The Moulids of Egypt", Cairo, 1941
*[[Mateus Soares de Azevedo]], "Ordens Sufis no Islã: Iniciação às Confrarias Esotéricas muçulmanas no Irã xiita e no mundo sunita", São Paulo, Polar Editora, 2020

==External links==
* PHILTAR (''Philosophy of Theology and Religion'' at the Division of Religion and Philosophy of St Martin's College) has a very useful [https://web.archive.org/web/20041025101220/http://philtar.ucsm.ac.uk/encyclopedia/islam/sufi/index.html Graphical illustration of the Sufi schools].
* Infographics on the evolution of Tasawwuf and notable Sufi masters in history.  [https://sagateller.com/unveiling-the-mystical-world-of-tasawwuf-and-sufi-stories-personal-experiences-and-perspectives/ Unveiling the Mystical World of Tasawwuf and Sufi Stories: Personal Experiences and Perspectives]

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