Sufism

The central concept of Sufism is love. It was a reform movement, and believed in mysticism and preached the worship of God through devotional singing. In Sufism, music, dance, meditation and are seen as the spiritual guides in attaining unity with God. At Sufi shrines music help lift the devotees into a state of spiritual ecstasy. The 14th century Muslim mystic Hazrat Nizamudduin Auliya, IndiaÕs most revered Sufi saint, preached the values of prayer, love and unity. He told his followers that love was omnipresent and the route to the divine. The unorthodox methods of worship has divided Sufis from those following more puritanical ways of Islam. Muslims have claimed that the practices followed in Sufism were taken from Christianity and Hinduism.