Tasawuf is the word used in the East for the word we call Sufism. Tasawuf is a reference to coarse wool. And it was the garb of sufis in the ancient days to wear coarse wool robes. Coarse wool, of course, has the implication that they were uncomfortable. And the point being that the ones involved in Tasawuf were renunciates to the comforts of the world. In today’s world there still exist in the West or there now exist in the West tariqats (ritualistic methods for spiritual attainment). And these tariqats are remainders of what existed in the East, carrying on similar traditions in an attempt to maintain and sustain the ideals and the path that was Tasawuf. The West, however, has taken it on a little bit differently than it used to be, and even in the East, it’s taken it on a little differently than the way it used to be.
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