Some ignorant or biased people say that Tasawwuf or Sufism came from Buddhist-hindu-christian traditions in to Islamic society. Well, the actual fact is that the Sufiya took inspiration from Quran and Sunnah and the lives of the sahaba and the salaf.
It is mentioned in Siyar A`lam al-Nubala by Imam Dhahabi ra, the famous Muhaddith and student of Imam Ibn Taymiya, that Hadrat Hasan Al-Basri (r.a) (who was a Tabaie) used to conduct an open class in which he used to teach tafsir etc. in the masjid during the day. At night he had a 'special class' where he used to speak about 'ridding oneself from the base qualities' It is mentioned that if anybody were to ask a question of tafsir, hadith etc. during this class he would reprimand them saying that 'such a question should be asked during the day in the tafsir class.'
This was the origination of a khanqah.
As for the origin of the term Tasawwuf, like many other Islamic discliplines, its name was not known to the first generation of Muslims.The historian Ibn Khaldun notes in his Muqaddima: “This knowledge (Tasawwuf) is a branch of the sciences of Sacred Law that originated within the Umma. From the first, the way of such people had also been considered the path of truth and guidance by the early Muslim community and its notables, of the Companions of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), those who were taught by them, and those who came after them.
It basically consists of dedication to worship, total dedication to Allah Most High, disregard for the finery and ornament of the world, abstinence from the pleasure, wealth, and prestige sought by most men, and retiring from others to worship alone. This was the general rule among the Companions of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) and the early Muslims, but when involvement in this-worldly things became widespread from the second Islamic century onwards and people became absorbed in worldliness,those devoted to worship came to be called Sufiyya or People of Tasawwuf” (Ibn Khaldun, al-Muqaddima [N.d. Reprint. Mecca: Dar al-Baz, 1397/1978], 467).
In Ibn Khaldun’s words, the content of Sufism, “total dedication to Allah Most High,” was, “the general rule among the Companions of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) and the early Muslims.” So if the word did not exist in earliest times, we should not forget that this is also the case with many other Islamic disciplines, such as tafsir or “Qur’anic exegesis,” ‘ilm al-jarh wa ta‘dil or “the science of the positive and negative factors that affect hadith-narrators acceptability,” ‘ilm al-hadith or “the science of the prophetic traditions,” or even Islamic tenets of faith, the name for which, ‘aqida, is not mentioned even once in the entire corpus of the Qur’an or hadith. All of these sciences proved to be of the utmost importance to the correct preservation and transmission of the religion, yet none were known by name in earliest Islam, well illustrating why traditional scholars have said, La qadh fi al-istilah, or “There is no objection to terminology.”
As for the origin of the word Tasawwuf, it may well be from Sufi, the person who does Tasawwuf, which seems to be etymologically prior to it, for the earliest mention of either term was by the famous Tabaie imam Hasan al-Basri, who died 110 years after the Hijra, personally knew many of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace), and who said, “I saw a Sufi circumambulating the Kaaba, and offered him something, but he would not take it, saying, ‘I have four daniqs; what I have suffices me’” (al-Tusi: al-Luma‘, 42).
And the early Sufi masters were none other than Hazrat Junayd Baghdadi, Fudhayl bin Ayaz, Rabia Basri RA etc. The close connection between Shari‘a and Tasawwuf is expressed by the statement of Imam Malik, founder of the Maliki school, that "he who practices Tasawwuf without learning Sacred Law corrupts his faith, while he who learns Sacred Law without practicing Tasawwuf corrupts himself. Only he who combines the two proves true."
And regarding the objection that the word "Sufi" is not found in Quran or Hadith, it doesn't prove anything as even the words" Tawhid" and "Aqeedah" and a lot of other terms we use now in Islamic studies are not found in the Quran and Hadeeth!
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