The history of Sufism can be divided into four main phases: the first phase took place in the first two Islamic centuries (AD 622-814), In the essay of Sheikh Ibn Taymiyya entitled al-Sufiyya wa al-fuqara’ (Sufism and the poor) which was published in the eleventh volume (al Tawassuf) of his Majmou El-Fatawa al-Kubra (Collection of the big Fatwas), he states: That the word Sufi was not very known in the first three Islamic centuries but the usage of the word became stronger after that. A few Imams and Sheikhs spoke about the subject, such as Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Abu Sulayman al Darani. It has been related that Sufyan al-Thawri used it. Some have also mentioned Hasan al Basri. Tasawwuf’s place of origin is Basra in Iraq where the great Imam al-Hasan al-Basri lived. He was famous for his knowledge, his austerity, his fearless protest of the authorities, and his power of attraction in discourse and appearance. he left behind a white cloak made of wool which he had worn for twenty years, in winter and in summer, and that when he died it was in a state of cleanness and quality. This early phase was characterized by the Sufis of which strict to the Shariah.

The second phase took place from the third to the sixth Islamic century (AD 815-1202). That time was the change in which sufism became one of the religious sciences, it had its own terminology, and its own place outside of the mosques were Sufists used to gather to hear (Sama`) the poems and songs that tells about the love of the human to his Mighty God. Sufism at this phase got a bit far from the original Islamic Sharia law and was influenced by other cultures, religions, and philosophy especially Christianity, and Greek philosophies. There are two elements that characterized this phasee: First, most of the great names of Sufism history appeared in it. Second Sufism became unaccepted by part of the traditional Islamic scholars and was pointed at as an innovation (Bid’ah).

The third phase took place from the seventh to the eleventh Islamic centuries (AD 1203-1686), the seventh century can be described as the Golden Age of Sufism as at this phase it expanded all over the Islamic world, in the middle of the sixth Islamic century and reached Andalusia “after the invasion of the Iberian peninsula by the Moors in 92 AH/AD 711 , the southern half of Spain was Arabised under Islamic rule and the Arabic language became the common language of intellectual from different religions. In Al-Andalus Muhammed Ibn ‘Ali Ibn ‘Arabi was born in Murcia in 558 AH/ AD 1165, at the time of the flowering of the Hispano-Arab culture. The third phase was characterized by the division of Sufism into two schools. One which started by the reformer Sheikh Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad Al-Ghazali al-Tusi al-Nisaburi who exterminated the Greek thoughts so as to remove their effect from Muslims’ minds, and return Sufism to its Shariah’ origins. The second was the school that continues to be affected by Greek philosophers.

The fourth Phase started in the late Middle Ages, it was significantly supported by the Sultans of the Ottoman Empire, who helped the Sufis to build their establishments in most parts of the Empire and gave them financial support.

Sufism in the common era is targeted and attacked by Salafi groups who believe that Sufism is an innovation which entered Islam from other religions and that according to them “true” Muslims must fight it. The Saudi Wahabist scholars led this attack, while Sufists still defended it.