Sufism

Refers to the branch of Islam founded on the central tenet that divine love and knowledge can be attained through direct personal union with Allah. This branch is characterized by an aversion to traditional theological law and reason, advocating, instead, the scheme of antithetical categories to achieve the synthesis of the external and internal, by the establishment of dervish orders that emphasized intense emotionalism and spiritual rapturous states, and by the teaching of the spiritual technique of recitation known as dhikr based on phrases from the Qur'an. The branch is also known for the popularization of its mystical love poetry composed in the Persian, Turkish, and Urdu languages.