210 chapter five
the dominance of the Umayyads, those Muslims, who later became
known as flùfìs, turned towards the self in an attempt to purge it
from the worldly influence that caused spiritual corruption and led
to religious distortion (Armstrong, 2000). It was probably a case of
despair that was felt by some as they saw Muslims killing Muslims,
a Muslim governor defying a caliph to the level of bloodshed, the
Prophet’s wife heading an army at the back of a camel with some
of the Prophet’s companions fighting the new caliph. The psycho-
logical shock to those who lived through it and those who came
after them must have been tremendous. The, psychological, answer
to some could have been, “reject all worldly life and turn to God”—
a call for inner salvation.
The term flùfì claims two etymological sources. The first which
is widely known originates from the habit of the flùfìs of deserting
the soft clothing of cotton and similar material to the wearing of the
harsh surface wool, sufin Arabic. The second means purity, safa",
which is claimed by flùfìs themselves who explain, “The flùfìis he
who keeps his heart pure, safi, with God”, and, flùfìsm is the being
chosen for purity, istifa": whoever is thus chosen and made pure from
all except God is the true flùfì”, (said by Bishr al-Hafi, the bare-
footed, who died in 841–42, and Junayd of Baghdad who died in
909–910, respectively, both are cited in Nicholson 1993). A com-
plete denial of self and renouncement of worldly life with an intense
focus on worshiping God: that was the message. The line between
flùfìsm and asceticism may be very fine but it still exists. While
asceticism is the desertion of materialistic wants for the sake of pleas-
ing God and attracting His reward, flùfìsm renounces the same but
for the sake of pleasing Him, motivated by their love to Him, with
no particular expectation for a compensatory reward or avoidance
of His punishment; it is the love of God for the sake of loving Him
(the great flùfì Suhrawardì, cited in Nicholson, op. cit.). flùfìs, by
conviction, worked and earned very little, accepting modest labour
and vocation to earn only enough to keep them alive for the sake
of worshiping the Almighty. No political ambitions or cut-throat com-
petition over worldly positions; their ultimate aim was to worship
the divine deity with absolute love and devotion.
Some names have been cited as the early initiators of what devel-
oped over the first three centuries of Muslim history into the flùfì
school of thought. The first of those was Œassan al-Ba›rì (d. 110
A.H./728 A.C.) who preached the return to asceticism and the