Sufism Dervish what are they

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sufism said:

Sufis believe they are practicing Ihsan (perfection of worship) as revealed by Gabriel to Muhammad, "Worship and serve Allah as you are seeing Him and while you see Him not yet truly He sees you."

Classical Sufi scholars have defined Sufism as "a science whose objective is the reparation of the heart and turning it away from all else but God". Alternatively, in the words of the Darqawi Sufi teacher Ahmad ibn Ajiba, "a science through which one can know how to travel into the presence of the Divine, purify one's inner self from filth, and beautify it with a variety of praiseworthy traits".

Click to expand...

In other words: Sufis strive to actively better themselves as human beings, by devoting most of their lives to god. And they teach others how to do that.

Joel M Bridge said:

PS do take vows?

Click to expand...

It depends on the tariqa the mureed (seeker) joins, but there are no vows in the Christian sense that I can think of. The Muqadim or Master usually demands allegiance to him and the tariqa from the mureeds, so you could say that is a type of vow.

It is difficult to say really what Sufism is. Most Muslims on one level or the other practice Sufism, and indeed, even the most strict 'sola-scriptura' sects such as modern day Saudi Hanbalism (so-called Wahhabism) admits what it calls 'legitimate Sufism (Ta'sawuf.) So Sufism is already mainstream and quite populist. It is mostly expressed through invocation (called Dhikr and recommended by all orthodox scholars) but it also manifests through devotional music, the ziyarat or visitation of the graves of saints, and trance dances...etc. The latter expressions are not looked upon favourably by certain sections of Muslim society (and this is not to say that all Sufi tariqas accept them - in fact, the majority of Sufi groups are very orthodox) so you hear often criticisms of Sufi decadence and corruption from these quarters. Still, it is difficult to reify what is a Sufi - most Muslim scholars, across the sects, adopted what could be deemed as Sufi practices, and much of what we know today as the Muslim world was largely converted by the work of tariqas and Sufi groups.

The Derawish Sufis you refer to are not particularly special really - I cant think of any major differences between them and say the Chistis, the Rifa'is, Darqawis, Tayjanis...etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumi

[video=youtube;ZjEnagZSjTA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjEnagZSjTA&feature=youtube_gdata_player[/video]