, ,
Haqiqa, and the fourth station
marifa, which is considered "unseen" and actually located at
the center of the
haqiqa region. It is the essence of all four stations. The most popular tariqa in the West is the
Mevlevi Order, named after
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi. In the same time the
Bektashi Order was also founded, named after the
Haji Bektash Veli. The four most significant tariqas in South Asia are the
Qadiri Order, named after
Abdul Qadir Gilani, the
Chishti Order, named after
Abu Ishaq Shami Chishti, the
Naqshbandi Order, named after
Baha' al-Din Naqshband and the
Mujaddidi Order, named after
Ahmed Sirhindi. The others are,
Rishi order founded by
Nund Rishi in Kashmir and the
Suhrawardi Order, named after
Shihab al-Din 'Umar al-Suhrawardi. The
Burhaniyya becoming popular within the people of Pakistan and India. Large tariqats in Africa include
Muridiyya,
Rifa'iyya and
Tijaniyya. Sufi orders can have sub-orders within them, such as the Ashrafiyya, named after the 13th century illustrious Sufi saint
Ashraf Jahangir Semnani is a sub-order of Chishti spiritual lineage, the
Maizbhandariyya, which is a Sufi sub-order established in the Bangladesh in the 19th century by the Shah Sufi Syed Ahmadullah Maizbhandari (1826 AD − 1906 AD), 27th generation descendant of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, and the Warisi sub-order, which was founded by
Waris Ali Shah. Membership in a particular Sufi order is not exclusive, unlike the Christian monastic orders which are demarcated by firm lines of authority and sacrament. Sufis often are members of various Sufi orders. The non-exclusiveness of Sufi orders has consequences for the social extension of Sufism. They cannot be regarded as indulging in a zero sum competition which a purely political analysis might have suggested. Rather, their joint effect is to impart to Sufism a cumulant body of tradition, rather than individual and isolated experiences. In most cases the
sheikh nominates his
khalifa or "successor" during his lifetime, who will take over the order. In rare cases, if the sheikh dies without naming a
khalifa, the students of the tariqa elect another spiritual leader by vote. In some orders it is recommended to take a
Khalif from the same order as the
murshid. In some groups it is customary for the khalifa to be the son of the sheikh, although in other groups the khalīfa and the sheikh are not normally relatives. In yet other orders a successor may be identified through the spiritual dreams of its members. Tariqas have
silsilas (; "chain, lineage of sheikhs"). All orders claim a
silsila that leads back to Muhammad through
Ali, except the
Naqshbandi silsila, which traces its roots to
Abu Bakr, the first
Caliph of
Sunni Islam. Every
Murid, on entering the tariqa, gets his
awrad, or daily recitations, authorized by his
murshid (usually to be recited before or after the pre-dawn prayer, after the afternoon prayer and after the evening prayer). Usually these recitations are extensive and time-consuming (for example the
awrad may consist of reciting a certain formula 99, 500 or even 1000 times). One must also be in a state of ritual purity (as one is for the obligatory prayers to perform them while facing
Mecca). The recitations change as a student (murid) moves from a mere initiate to other Sufi degrees (usually requiring additional initiations). The Initiation ceremony is routine and consists of reading chapter 1 of the
Quran followed by a single phrase prayer. Criteria have to be met to be promoted in rank: the common way is to repeat a single phrase prayer 82,000 times or more as in the case of
Burhaniyya, a number that grows with each achieved rank. Murids who experience unusual interaction during meditation: hear voices like "would you like to see a prophet?" or see visions who might even communicate with the Murid are held dear in the "
Haḍra", the weekly group-chanting of prayers in attempt of reaching spirits as they are likely to experience something unusual and pass it on. This Murid is promoted faster than others. The least common way is to cause a miracle to happen with criteria similar to that of Catholic Sainthood. Being mostly followers of the spiritual traditions of Islam loosely referred to as Sufism, these groups were sometimes distinct from the
Ulma or officially mandated scholars, and often acted as informal missionaries of Islam. They provided accepted avenues for emotional expressions of faith, and the Tariqas spread to all corners of the Muslim world, and often exercised a degree of political influence inordinate to their size (take for example the influence that the sheikhs of the
Safavid had over the armies of
Tamerlane, or the missionary work of
Ali-Shir Nava'i in
Turkistan among the
Mongol and
Tatar people). ==History==