Sufism’s Attention to Pilgrimage to Baqīʿ Cemetery and the Burial of the Sufis There

The pilgrimage to Baqīʿ Cemetery and the burial of Muslims there are known subjects. But we know less about the attention of the Sufi orders (ṭuruq) to the pilgrimage to Baqīʿ and the burial of the Sufis there. This descriptive-analytical and library-based study of the historical sources and Muslims’ travelogues shows that the Sufi sheikhs and their followers pay special attention to attending Baqīʿ and visiting the tombs to obtain spiritual blessings from the Imams (as) buried there. While attending Baqīʿ, the Sufis mention the Imams (as), buried in Baqīʿ, with titles such as “The Sources of the Truth of Sufism” and “The Great Mystics of Time”; and holding a circle of remembrance (dhikr) near their shrines, they experience mystical ecstasy. The tomb of Ibrahim (the Holy Prophet’s son (PBUH), the tombs of the Ahl al-Bayt (as), and the tomb of ʿUthmān (the third caliph) are some of the main places of the burial of the Sufis in Baqīʿ, and the places for pilgrimage and obtaining blessings by the Sufis and other people. The Sufis, buried in Baqīʿ, were affiliated with the Naqshbandi, Qadiriyyah, Chishti, Shadhili, Darqawiyyah, Alawite and Samaniyyah orders (ṭuruq). Some of these Sufis were from Ḥijāz and others went from different Islamic lands — such as Iran, the Levant, Iraq, and the Islamic Maghreb — to Medina where they passed away and were buried in Baqīʿ.