Community of Sufism
The tariqa.
Sufism travels as orders: a seeker takes the hand of a sheikh, the sheikh holds a chain reaching back centuries, and the practice moves person to person like a lamp flame.
How you joinTaking hand (bay'a) with a sheikh of a lineage
Who leadsThe sheikh, holding a chain of transmission back to the Prophet
The unitThe tariqa — the order: Mevlevi, Naqshbandi, Qadiri, Chishti, and hundreds more
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held
A tariqa is an order, and the word means path: initiation is by taking the hand of a sheikh who holds a documented chain of transmission (silsila) back through generations to the Prophet. The major orders — Qadiri, Naqshbandi, Chishti, Shadhili, Mevlevi, Tijani — spread with trade and often did the actual work of conversion in West Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. In the modern era they have been suppressed by both secular states (Turkey banned them in 1925) and Salafi movements.
The same ground, other faiths
claims that share this one's ideas
P
Padmasambhava — the second buddha.
Buddhism · figure
Meet them →
The tariqa.
Islam
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Empowerment (abhisheka).
Vajrayāna · rite
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The Seal of the Unity of the Three.
Taoism · scripture
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T
The Masters of Sirius.
The Order of the Solar Temple · figure
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Sound rightly spoken has power.
Vedic Religion · core tenet
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