Sufism: Teachers Notes
It is important to give pupils some awareness of the diversity within Islam. This module gives
a brief introduction to the Sufi Muslim tradition. Sufism is notoriously hard to define and
itself covers a diverse range of beliefs and practices, but a working definition would be
A mystical tradition within Islam in which believers seek direct personal
experience of Allah.
This module contains;
• a short introduction to Sufism pitched at KS2 pupils,
• A performance of Sufi whirling, with a comentary.
• A sequence of Sufi worship.
As always, the use of these materials depends on the Agreed Syllabus being followed and
the stage the learners are at, but the task of analysing similarities and differences with videos of other acts of worship would make for some strong higher-order learning.
The sequences were filmed at a Lancashire SACRE event during which several activities
were occuring in the same room: there is the option of displaying subtitles to aid understanding. The user can also switch to a larger format video.