随着伊斯兰文明的崛起，苏非主义哲学在伊斯兰文化中也开始广泛传播。苏非主义的传播被认为是伊斯兰传播、形成一个完整的伊斯兰文化进程中起到决定性作用的因素，特别是在非洲[23]和亚洲。其中，在利比亚和苏丹的赛努西（英语：Senussi）部落是苏非主义的忠实信徒。鲁米、纳霞堡的阿塔（英语：Attar of Nishapur）等苏非诗人、哲学家极大强化了伊斯兰文化在安纳托利亚、中亚和南亚的传播。[24][25]苏非主义在奥斯曼帝国文化的创建和传播，[26]以及北非、南亚地区抵抗欧洲帝国主义中也起到了关键作用。[27]
^Al-Bīrūnī: commemorative volume, Hakim Mohammad Said, Pakistan. Ministry of Education, Unesco, Hamdard National Foundation, Pakistan, 2010
^The memoirs of Sufis written in India: reference to Kashaful-mahjub, Siyar-ul-auliya, and Siyar-ul-arifin, Mahmud Husain Siddiqui, Dept. of Persian, Urdu, and Arabic, Faculty of Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, 2009
^Introduction to Sufi Doctrine, p.3, Titus Burckhardt, Kazi Publications,ISBN 978-1-56744-217-5, 1976
^Hodgson, Marshall G.S. The Venture of Islam, Vol 1: The Classical Age of Islam. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. 1958: 394.
^The most recent version of theRisâla is the translation of Alexander Knysh,Al-Qushayri's Epistle on Sufism: Al-risala Al-qushayriyya Fi 'ilm Al-tasawwuf (ISBN 978-1-85964-186-6). Earlier translations include a partial version by Rabia Terri Harris (Sufi Book of Spiritual Ascent) and complete versions by Harris, and Barbara R. Von Schlegell.
^For the pre-modern era, see Vincent J. Cornell,Realm of the Saint: Power and Authority in Moroccan Sufism,ISBN 978-0-292-71209-6; and for the colonial era, Knut Vikyr,Sufi and Scholar on the Desert Edge: Muhammad B. Oali Al-Sanusi and His Brotherhood,ISBN 978-0-8101-1226-1.
^Leonard Lewisohn, The Legacy of medieval Persian Sufism, Khaniqahi-Nimatullahi Publications, 1992.
