Sufism in United Kingdom

Abstract

In spite of the forecasts of well-known secularism, the movement or trend of Sufism is founding itself as a different or alternative religion in Western culture and in United Kingdom. This paper discovers that how Islamic Sufism was established in modern United Kingdom by concentrating on the practices and philosophy of the Alami Tariqa in Western society. Shaykh from Balkans started Sufism in the period of 1970s. The community is well known and unique because it is comprised of huge number of members who were born in United Kingdom. Moreover, this community is considered to be unique because of its devotion towards Islam and also because of its ethically-diverse membership. This paper will help in understanding that what it means to follow a lifestyle which is religious like a Muslim Sufi in western culture. This paper will also elaborate or describe the literature on the subject of Sufism in United Kingdom and other western cultures through providing complete analysis of the existence and growth of Sufi community in western culture and in United Kingdom. The analysis explores the community tariqa amongst the western Sufi movements and portrays the way it was established in Western culture and in United Kingdom. This paper also analyses the way in which Islamic Sufi movements got used to pluralistic, Western setting through examining the approach of Alami Tariqa to keeping sharia and at the same time providing chances for spiritual growth to women and men of any racial background. This paper aspires to raise understanding of the reason behind joining Sufi movements by Europeans by evaluating the conversion narratives as well as survey responses of present murids.

Sufism in United Kingdom

Introduction

It is essential to understand the development and history of Sufism in United Kingdom or in western culture so as to rightly get a sense of the spiritual tradition's role in the land of diverse religion in the United Kingdom and also in the western culture. Sufism in United Kingdom and the westerns society has gone through many different phases in its growth like a permanent religious ritual in the United Kingdom and the western culture (Karamustafa, 2007). Growth of spiritual tradition is yet extremely versatile in the way it is experienced and the areas of the globe which western Sufi communities invent from. It has been observed that insufficient and almost insignificant attention has been provided to the Sufi movements in United Kingdom and the western culture because they have not been believed an important population in terms of the entire community of Muslims. Term movement has been used for describing Sufi communities (Karamustafa, 2007). In the year 1998, Gabbay provided an explanation of the development and history of Sufism. It also included the introduction of Sufism in United Kingdom and the western culture. Description of western Sufi practitioners has also been offered by Gabbay in which 131 practitioners completed the assessment for evaluating their intervention with Sufism and how their lives are affected by Sufism. All of these studies lead to an ...