The Arabic word tarika: طريقه (pl.: turuq: طرق) means "way" or "path" and, in the Sufi tradition of Islam is conceptually related to Haqiqa, or Truth, the ineffable ideal that is the pursuit of the tradition. Thus one starts at the Sharia, the exoteric or mundane practice of Islam and adopts a tarika towards the Haqiqa.

A tarika is usually a Sufi (i.e. mystical), sometimes semi-secret, order of Muslims (followers of Islam). A tarika has a Murshid, or Guide, who plays the role of leader or spiritual director of the organization.

A Sufi tarika is a group of Murid, pl.: Murideen, Arabic for desireous, desring the knowledge of knowing God and loving God. Evry tarika is named after its founder, usually adding yah to the end of the founder's last name. Tijaniyya for example is the Tijani tarika, or Sufi order. Most tarikas are offshoots of other tarikas. After the founder's death, the Murids of the tarika elect another spiritual leader through a vote. Tarikas have a (Silsilah:سلسله) meaning chain or idiomatically a lineage of various Sheikhs. Evry Murid gets his awrad, or daily recitations, authorized by his Murshid. Usually, those recitations are excessive and time-consuming. The recitations change as a student (murid) moves from a mere initiate to other Sufi degrees (usually requireing additional initiations).

Being mostly followers of the spiritual traditions of Islam loosely referred to as Sufism, these groups were distinct from the ulema or officially mandated scholars, and often acted as informal missionaries of Islam. They provided accepted avenues for emotional expressions of faith, and their takirs or dervishes (not all of whom were Sufi), spread to all corners of the Muslim world, and often exercised a degree of political influence inordinate to their size.

Their history is poorly documented. One could reasonably trace their history at least as far as back as the Sufi military advisors of Tamarlane. They were little known outside the Muslim world even at the end of the 19th century, a mark of their success at concealing their existence and doctrines. Through most of the 20th century, even Islamic scholars were reluctant to discuss their role in Islam, and few sources were available (most of which are listed at end of this article).

A case is sometimes made that groups as the Muslim Brotherhoods (in many countries) and specifically the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt (the first, or first known), are modern inheritors of the tradition of lay tarika in Islam. This is highly debatable since the turuq were Sufi orders while the Muslim Brotherhood in a modern, rationalist tradition.

This characterization is probably unfair. Certain scholars, e.g. G. H. Jansen, credit the original tarika with several specific accomplishments:

1. preventing Islam from becoming a cold and formal doctrine, by constantly infusing it with local and emotionally popular input, including stories and plays and rituals not part of Islam proper. (A parallel would be the role of Aesop relative to the Greek mythos.)
2. spreading the faith in east Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where orthodox Islamic leaders and scholars had little or no direct influence on people.
3. leading Islam's military and political battles against the enroaching power of Christian West, as far back as the Qadiri order of the twelfth century.

The last of these accomplishments suggests that the analogy with the modern Muslim Brotherhoods is probably accurate, but incomplete.

See also

• Turuq
• Sufi
• Tijaniyya
• Sanusi
• Moulids
• Bektashi
• Dervishes
• Mevlevi
• Muslim Brotherhoods

and (for contrast)

• ulema
• mullah
• ayatollah.

References

G. H. Jansen, "Militant Islam", Pan, London 1979

F. de Jong, "Turuq and Turuq-Linked Institutions in Nineteenth-Century Egypt", Brill, Leiden,1978

M. D. Gilsenen, "Saint and Sufi in Modern Egypt", Oxford, 1978

M. Berger, "Islam in Egypt today - social and political aspects of popular religion", London, 1970

J. M. Abun-Nasr, "The Tijaniyya", London 1965

E. E. Evans-Pritchard, "The Sanusi of Cyrenaica", Oxford, 1949

J. W. McPherson, "The Moulids of Egypt", Cairo, 1941

J. K. Birge, "The Bektashi Order of Dervishes", London and Hartford, 1937

O. Depont and X. Coppolani, "Les confreries religieuses musulmans" (the Muslim brotherhoods as they existed then), Algiers, 1897

External links

• Graphical illustration of the Sufi schools (http://philtar.ucsm.ac.uk/encyclopedia/islam/sufi/index.html)