Ideas and tips on any subject: Differences in the two religions, Islam and Sufism

While investigating more information on Sufism I found some very interesting things. I want to share that with my readers of this blog in coming few posts. Here I shall list the differences in Islam and Sufi ideologies.

Name of God - Islam – Allah, Sufism - Khudaa

There are 99 names of Allah mentioned in Koran however Khudaa is not in that. That means Sufis have a separate identity, apart from Islamic nomenclatures for Allah. These 99 names of Allah approved by Prophet are actually names of 99 deities pre-Islamic Arabs were worshiping. When he was propagating Islam in Arab tribes there was resistance from these Arab tribes and they insisted that names of their gods be included in, as alternate names of Allah on that condition they accepted Islam. Other tribes were not so much insistent so other names were not included. Total names were 360 out of these 99 were treated as alternate names of Allah and other 261 names were dually discarded.

Worship only Allah - Sufism worship the inner spirit or Khudaa otherwise liberal about whom to worship.

Islam believes, Allah is in haven, Sufism believes inner spirit is the Almighty. To search Almighty one must look into inner spirit or Khudaa.

Islam believes that to please Allah the follower shall pray five times a day. Sufism does not believe in prayers to please Khudaa, to please Khudaa seeker shall purify his/her mind of sinful thoughts, pray or no pray. Sufism prefers meditation and not prayer. Technically the difference in these two is described as, Allah is Almighty without and Khudaa is Almighty within. That means they are not same but different in types.

Five pillars of Islam

Testimony - To believe in Allah and only Allah and nothing but Allah, accept Mohammad as its messiah.
Prayer - To pray for five times in the day
Fast - To fast for one month of Ramadan
Alms giving - To donate in the name of Allah to poor people
Pilgrimage – to visit Mecca

Sufism has no such pillars. Sufism does not believe in a singular claim that Allah is the God. They insist that the almighty is in one self and to seek it by meditation is the only method.

Islam rejects worshiping saints and building their mausoleum or Dargas. Sufism encourages it and appealing to enlightened saints is highly recommended.

Sufism does not insist for any particular pray time and number of prayers daily but suggests that the seeker should continuously keep in remembrance (rumination) of the inner spirit. Inner spirit is Khudaa.

Islam insists on Sharia. Sufism does not insist for any such regulations.

Islam says by praying for five times to Allah all sins are, washed away. Sufism believes in not sinning at all; building up of strong inner voice so that the desire to sin will never arise. Righteousness is the only way to live and nothing else is compulsory.

Fasting is not essential to Sufism at any time at all.

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