Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A Muslim mystic.
  • adjective Of or relating to the Sufis.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A Mohammedan mystic who believes that God alone exists, and that all visible and invisible beings are mere emanations from him
  • noun that, as God is the real author of all acts of mankind, man is not a free agent, and there can be no real difference between good and evil
  • noun that, as the soul existed before the body, and is confined within the latter as in a cage, death should be the chief object of desire, for only then does the soul return to the bosom of the divinity; and
  • noun that religions are matters of indifference, though some are more advantageous than others (as, for instance, Mohammedanism), and that sufism is the only true philosophy.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One of a certain order of religious men in Persia.
  • noun A title or surname of the king of Persia.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A mystic denomination in Islam; a Muslim ascetic

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a Muslim who represents the mystical dimension of Islam; a Muslim who seeks direct experience of Allah; mainly in Iran
  • adjective of or relating to the Sufis or to Sufism

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Arabic ṣūfī, (man) of wool, Sufi, from ṣūf, wool (probably from their woolen garments), perhaps from Aramaic ṣippā, ṣuppā, carded wool; see ṣpp in Semitic roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Arabic "man of wool".

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