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Welcome to the Rifāʿī path

The Rifāʿiyya is one of the oldest Sufi paths in Islam. It takes its name from Sayyid Ahmad al-Rifāʿī, a twelfth-century scholar and master of southern Iraq, and is still followed across the Muslim world and beyond.

I. What is a Sufi path?

Sufism (taṣawwuf) is the inner dimension of Islam: the work of purifying the heart and coming to know God, alongside the outward practice of the religion. A Sufi path, or ṭarīqa, is a way of doing that work handed down from teacher to disciple. Each has its founder, its chain of masters reaching back to the Prophet, its conduct and its forms of remembrance.

II. Who was the Pîr?

Sayyid Ahmad al-Rifāʿī (512–578 / 1118–1182) was a descendant of the Prophet, a Shāfiʿī scholar, and the guide of a great community at Umm ʿUbayda in the marshes between Wāsiṭ and Basra. His biographers remember a man of striking humility, who called himself “poor little Ahmad.” Read his life.

III. What does the path teach?

Its foundation, the tradition says, is the Qur'an and the Sunna. The rest follows from them: remembrance of God, love of the Prophet, humility, service and courtesy (adab). Read the fifteen principles, then The Path.

IV. One name, two spellings

You will see both Rifâî and Rufâî. They are the same name, from the founder's ancestor Rifāʿa. “Rufâî” is the popular pronunciation; in Türkiye the two are sometimes used for different communities. On this site, Rifāʿī means the whole tradition.

V. How to read this site

Every page is written from the tradition’s own books and from scholarship on it. A few marks help you read:

As the tradition tells itWonders and stories as the tradition tells them — told with respect, and in italic so they are never mistaken for historical reconstruction.
In their wordsA community or teacher describing the path in their own terms.
Accounts differWhere books give different dates, places or chains, every version is shown.
A noteThe editors’ own reflection, kept apart from what the books say.

VI. Three ways in

This site explains the Rifāʿī way; it does not replace a teacher. In every line, the practices are received from a guide.