' Islamic Sufism '...

Sufism,, mystical Islamic belief and practice, in which Muslims seek to find the truth of divine love, and knowledge through direct personal experience of God... It consists of a variety of mystical paths. that are designed to ascertain the nature of humanity, and of God, and to facilitate the experience of the presence of divine love and wisdom in the world... .................................................... Islamic mysticism is called taṣawwuf (literally,, “to dress in wool”) in Arabic,, but it has been called Sufism, in Western languages since the early 19th century... An abstract word,, Sufism derives from the Arabic term for a mystic,, ṣūfī,, which is in turn derived from ṣūf,, “wool,”,, plausibly a reference to the woollen garment of early Islamic ascetics... The Sufis are also generally known as “the poor,,” fuqarāʾ,, plural of the Arabic faqīr,, in Persian darvīsh,, whence the English words fakir and dervish... .................................................... Though the roots of Islamic mysticism, formerly were supposed to have stemmed, from various non-Islamic sources, in ancient Europe and even India,, it now seems established, that the movement grew out of early Islamic asceticism, that developed as a counterweight, to the increasing worldliness, of the expanding Muslim community;, only later were foreign elements, that were compatible with mystical theology and practices adopted and made to conform to Islam............................... from Britannica.com