y adequate, Sufi doctrine and practice must be proven to be inherently Islamic in nature, as to suggest that Islamic mysticism is, in fact, a borrowing from outside raises the spectre of denial of the intrinsically spiritual nature of Islam and thence the spiritual nature of Muslims themselves.3 Thus we are left with several controversial, yet critically important questions. First, was Sufism present from the very beginnings of Islam, in the life of Muhammad and the Quran? Secondly, has Sufism borrowed from the outside - from other religions? And finally, how does the evidence for the answers to these questions reflect on the nature of Islam itself? Sufism has influenced many Muslims, and is, especially in the West, portrayed and regarded as a valuable and legitimate part of the Islamic faith. Fazlur Rahman, in his work Islam, says that considerable ink has been spent by modern scholarship on the origins of Sufism in Islam, as to how far it is genuinely Islamic and how far a product, in the face of Islam, of outside influences, particularly Christian and Gnostic.4 Rahman seems to hint that some of this ink has been wasted, as he concludes that outside influences must have played an accessory role and these no one may deny, but they must have supervened upon an initial native tendency. However, aside from a vague reference to the ideas of trust in and love of Allah as being a result of developments within the intellectual and spiritual life of the community,5 Rahman fails to clarify or give any support to his claim that the essential and central basis of Sufism is Islamic. Another Muslim scholar, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, in his work Sufi Essays, expresses his disdain of [scholars of Islam in the West] following the older practice of explaining Sufism away as some kind of alien influence within Islam, and rejoices with the fact that many are now willing to accept the Islamic origin of Sufism and the unbreakable link connecting Sufism to Islam...
