Dr. Chittick will be speaking at McGaw Chapel tonight at 7:30pm. Here he speaks about Sufism. He says “To understand what Sufism is, you must understand Islam. Sufism began when the Quran was revealed although the word was only coined around the second Islamic Century. The Quran is concerned with three major topics: How to act correctly, how to comprehend the world, and the transformation of the soul or how to become closer to God. Around the third century you get specialists in these three areas. The first groups are called jurists, the second are theologians and the third are Sufis. So Sufism is the practice of transformation or becoming closer to God on the basis of Islamic teachings specifically the model of the Prophet Muhammed.” Additional thoughst on women sufis and mysticism are in the video below.