Learn Arabic › B1 › صُوفِيّ
صُوفِيّ
Sufi (a practitioner of Sufism, the mystical branch of Islam) /sˤuːˈfiː/
nounB1#2565 most common
Also: mystic, dervish
Example sentences
هُوَ صُوفِيّ.
He is a Sufi.
أَبِي صُوفِيّ يُصَلِّي كَثِيرًا.
My father is a Sufi who prays a lot.
الصُّوفِيُّ يَعِيشُ حَيَاةً بَسِيطَةً بَعِيدًا عَنِ المَادِّيَّاتِ.
The Sufi lives a simple life, far from material things.
اجْتَمَعَ الصُّوفِيُّونَ فِي الزَّاوِيَةِ لِيُنْشِدُوا الأَذْكَارَ.
The Sufis gathered at the lodge to chant remembrances of God.
يَعْتَقِدُ الصُّوفِيُّ أَنَّ القُرْبَ مِنَ اللهِ يَتَحَقَّقُ بِتَطْهِيرِ القَلْبِ لَا بِكَثْرَةِ الطُّقُوسِ.
The Sufi believes that closeness to God comes from purifying the heart, not from many rituals.
انْتَقَدَ بَعْضُ الفُقَهَاءِ التَّقْلِيدِيِّينَ الصُّوفِيَّ لِتَأْوِيلَاتِهِ الرَّمْزِيَّةِ لِلنُّصُوصِ الدِّينِيَّةِ.
Some traditional jurists criticized the Sufi for his symbolic interpretations of religious texts.
Declension
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | صُوفِيٌّ | صُوفِيُّونَ |
| Genitive | صُوفِيٍّ | صُوفِيِّينَ |
| Accusative | صُوفِيًّا | صُوفِيِّينَ |
| Vocative | يَا صُوفِيُّ | يَا صُوفِيُّونَ |
Word family
صُوفwool
تَصَوُّفSufism, Islamic mysticism
مُتَصَوِّفone who practices Sufism
صُوفِيَّةSufism (collective term); also a female Sufi
Etymology
The word comes from the Arabic root ص و ف, meaning wool. Early ascetics in Islam wore coarse wool garments as a mark of humility and detachment from worldly comfort, and this habit gave its name to the mystical movement, تصوف (taṣawwuf), and to its practitioners, صوفي. Medieval scholars floated other origins, tracing the word to صفاء (purity) or to the ahl al-ṣuffa, a group of poor companions who lived by a bench at the Prophet's mosque, but the wool derivation is the one most widely accepted today.
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