Sufi practice is textured, embodied and often communal; it includes prayer, remembrance (dhikr), liturgical singing, communal gatherings, pilgrimage to saints' tombs, and a range of ascetic disciplines. These practices are enacted in diverse spaces: the mosque, the zawiya or khanqah (Sufi lodge), rural shrine precincts, and private houses. The organization and appearance of these spaces vary by region and historical period. In Anatolia and the former Ottoman domains, for example, tekkes (also called khanqahs) from the early modern period frequently combined a mescit (small mosque), a dershane (teaching room), guest cells and a kitchen for communal meals; material traces of this pattern survive in seventeenth‑ and eighteenth‑century complexes across Anatolia and the Balkans. An immediate, concrete detail is the Sema ceremony of the Mevlevi order in Konya — a ritual form involving music, poetry and whirling dance that crystallized in the thirteenth century under the influence of Jalal al‑Din Rumi (d. 1273) and his successors, and which later became emblematic in public representations of Sufi ritual. In the Mevlevi Sema practitioners wear symbolic garments (a tall felt hat and a long white robe), listen to ney flute and percussion, and recite Rumi’s poetry; adherents hold that these elements facilitate spiritual turning toward God.
Dhikr is the core devotional practice in many Sufi communities. It may take forms ranging from silent, breath‑focused repetition to loud, communal chanting that uses rhyme and rhythmic movement. Some orders prescribe specific formulas — names of God, phrases from the Qur’an, or specialized litanies (awrad) — recited a certain number of times. Classical manuals and legal‑theological treatises record fixed counts and sequences; examples cited in such sources include counts of thirty‑three, ninety‑nine, or a hundred repetitions and the use of beads (tasbih) for repetitive recitation. Many contemporary orders maintain written protocols detailing these exercises, and some preserve long chains of transmission (silsila) that record who authorized a given form of dhikr. Adherents typically understand these chains as carrying baraka (spiritual blessing) from teacher to student; critics of particular practices, historically and today, sometimes argue that such emphases stray from what they consider the Qur’anic and prophetic model of worship.
Meditative practices in Sufism include muraqaba (watchfulness or contemplative awareness), khalwa (spiritual retreat), and specialized breathing and posture exercises practiced under a teacher’s supervision. Manuals from the medieval period — for instance, manuals associated with the Shadhiliyya and Naqshbandiyya currents and compilations such as the Risala literature (for example, the eleventh‑century Risala Qushayriyya) — describe forms of inner watchfulness and the disciplining of passions. The practice of khalwa, often undertaken for forty days, is repeatedly attested in medieval manuals and continues in many contemporary orders; the “forty‑day” retreat has received attention in ethnographic studies of North African and South Asian communities as a recurrent pattern. A recurring comparative theme is the contrast between silent, inward practices (often emphasized in Naqshbandi circles, which historically valorize silent dhikr and continuity with a particular silsila) and more musical, outward forms of devotion (favored in many Qadiri or Chishti contexts), demonstrating the plural ways Sufism trains attention.
Music and poetry hold a prominent place in many Sufi milieus and have been the subject of sustained theological debate. In South Asia, the Chishti order became closely associated with qawwali — a repertory of devotional song performed by singing parties and instrumentalists that traces part of its modern repertory to the medieval shrine culture around figures such as Moinuddin Chishti (d. 1236). In the Arab world and Iran, samāʿ (listening) traditions associated with figures such as al‑Ghazali (d. 1111) and later Persian poets were institutionalized in various ways. Proponents of musical forms generally argue, as their texts and saints state, that music and poetry can awaken love (mahabba) and ecstasy (wajd) and thus serve as legitimate means to remembrance; opponents, including conservative jurists from different periods and contemporary movements such as Salafism, charge that certain musical practices distract from canonical worship or infringe liturgical propriety. These conflicting positions are attributed by scholars to differing readings of scripture and tradition and to competing concerns about orthopraxy and spiritual efficacy.
Rites of passage in Sufi circles often include public initiation (bayʿah, or pledge) to a spiritual guide, the bestowal of a cloak (khirqa) signifying transmission, and graduated instruction through stations and states (maqamat and ahwal). The khirqa tradition is widely attested in medieval sources and functions, in the testimony of many manuals and biographical dictionaries, as a symbol of a teacher’s authorization to transmit particular practices. In the Tijaniyya, an order that emerged in the Maghreb and West Africa with significant expansion in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, written descriptions of bayʿah ceremonies record specific invocations and obligations recited upon initiation; ethnographers of West African Islam have documented how these pledges are often accompanied by a public reading of the order’s litanies (wird) and the registration of names in community records. Different orders maintain differing emphases: some stress a formal public pledge, others emphasize ongoing apprenticeship and daily praxis.
Pilgrimage to saints’ shrines constitutes another major practice and links devotion to particular places. Shrines such as the mausoleum of Imam al‑Bukhari in Bukhara, the dargah of Nizamuddin Auliya in Delhi, and numerous local tombs across West Africa and North Africa attract devotees who seek baraka and perform almsgiving, vows (nadhr), and communal prayer. Such shrine‑centered practices intertwine with local customs: in South Asia, for example, urs festivals commemorate the death anniversary of a saint and commonly blend remembrance, charity and music; in parts of West Africa and Morocco, annual ziyarat and mawlid gatherings shape local calendars. Some reformist movements critique such practices as innovations (bidʿa), while adherents defend shrine visitation by citing historical precedents in Sufi hagiography and jurisprudential opinions that permit certain devotional acts.
Ascetic practices persist in Sufi life: fasting beyond the canonical Ramadan fast, prolonged vigil (sahriya or iltizam in some contexts), and deliberate poverty or simplicity recur in manuals and hagiographies. These ascetic patterns draw lineage from early figures such as Hasan al‑Basri (d. 728) and appear in ethical treatises like al‑Ghazali’s Ihyaʾ ʿUlum al‑Din, which advises ethical pruning of desires. Equally, many orders historically and today establish charitable institutions—hospices, schools (madrasas), and hospitals—reflecting an ethic that spiritual cultivation should produce social benefit; examples include Ottoman tekkes that ran soup kitchens and West African zawiyas that provided basic education and dispute mediation.
The sensory environment of Sufi worship is noteworthy: incense, patterned textiles, devotional music, and poetic recital create heightened atmospheres conducive to altered states of attention. The tactile symbol of the turban or cloak worn by a sheikh, the use of prayer beads, and architectural features such as a small inner cell (hujra) for retreat shape the embodied experience. A verifiable feature is the architectural foundation of Ottoman tekkes in the seventeenth century, whose combined program of lodging, communal dining and ritual spaces illustrates how material culture supports spiritual life.
Contemporary practice also adapts to new media. Recorded qawwali performances—some attaining international circulation in the late twentieth century through figures such as Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan—online lectures by contemporary shaykhs, and virtual dhikr circles have become part of modern Sufi repertoires, especially in diasporic communities in Europe and North America. This introduces new questions about authenticity and authority: some adherents insist that spiritual transmission requires embodied, in‑person initiation, while others maintain that mediated forms can convey guidance and communal solidarity. Scholars note continuity with earlier debates about textual versus embodied transmission, observing that new media have renewed old questions about what constitutes valid tariqa practice.
Finally, Sufi ritual life is marked by plurality: different orders emphasize divergent practices, and even within an order there may be local variations adapted to language, culture and political circumstance. Major orders with widespread followings include the Qadiriyya (linked historically to 12th‑century Abd al‑Qadir al‑Jilani), the Chishtiyya in South Asia, the Naqshbandiyya with its emphasis on silent dhikr, the Mevlevi and Rifaʿiyya currents in Anatolia and Iran, and the Tijaniyya in parts of North and West Africa; each has distinctive repertoires, legal opinions and social roles. These variations illustrate the comparative point that Sufism is best understood as a constellation of localized practices unified by shared aims as understood by adherents: moral reform, remembrance, and the cultivation of intimacy with the Divine.