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Tariqah (طريقه transliteration: Ṭarīqah; pl.: طرق; Ṭuruq or Persian: Tarighat) means "way", "path" or method. In Sufism, it is conceptually related to Haqīqah, truth, the ineffable ideal that is the pursuit of the tradition. Thus one starts with Islamic law, the exoteric or mundane practice of Islam and then is initiated onto the mystical path of a Tarīqah. Through spiritual practices and guidance of a Tarīqah the aspirant seeks Haqiqa or ultimate truth.
A Tarīqah is a school of Sufism. A Tarīqah has a Murshid, or Guide, who plays the role of leader or spiritual director of the organization.
A Sufi Tarīqah is a group of Murīd (pl.: Murīdīn), Arabic for desirous, desiring the knowledge of knowing God and loving God (a Murīd is also called a 'Faqīr' or 'Fakir' (Arabic: فقير ) another Arabic word that means poor or needy, usually used as al-Faqīr 'ilá Allāh, English: The needy to God's knowledge (Arabic: الفقير إلى الله )).
Nearly every Tarīqah is named after its founder, and when the order is referred to as a noun -yah is usually added to a part of the founder's name. For example the "Rifai order," named after Shaykh `Ahmed er Rifai, is called the "Rifaiyyah", the "Qādirī order," named after Shaykh `Abd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī, is called the "Qādiriyyah". Often Tarīqahs are offshoots of other Tarīqahs, for example the Jelveti order founded by Aziz Mahmud Hudayi who are an offshoot of the Bayrami order founded by Hajji Bayram in Ankara who are an offshoot of the zahidiyye founded by Pir Zahid al-Gaylani in Iran. The Khalwatī order are a particularly splintered order with numerous offshoots such as the Jerrahī, Sunbulī, Nasuhī, Karabashiyyah and others, the Tijaniyyah order prevalent in West Africa also has its roots in this Tariqa. The Galibi Order founded by Galip Hassan Kuscuoglu in Ankara, Turkey, still coninues today.
In most cases the shaykh nominates his 'khalīfah' or successor during his lifetime, who will take over the order. In rare cases, where the shaykh dies without naming a khalīfah, the Murīds of the Tarīqah elect another spiritual leader through a vote. In some orders, it is recommended to take a khalīfah from the same order as their Murshid. In some groups it is customary for the khalīfah to be the son of the shaykh, although in other groups the khalīfah and the shaykh are not normally relatives. In yet other orders, a successor may be identified through the spiritual dreams of its members.
Tarīqahs have a Silsilah (Arabic: ( سلسلة ) meaning chain or, more idiomatically, a lineage of various Shaykhs that eventually leads back to Muhammad. Almost all order except the Naqshbandi order has a Silsilah that leads back to Muhammad through `Alī. (The Naqshbandi Silsilah goes back to Abu Bakr the first Caliph of Sunni Islam and then Muhammad.) This has led some Western writers on Islam to wrongly assume that many of the Tarīqas have a Shi`ite influence within them, although this idea falls short when it is remembered that all of the founders of the main Sufi orders have been Sunni Muslims: `Abd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī adhered to the Ḥanbalī a school (madhhab) of Sunni Islamic law, and almost all of the famous shaykhs of the Shādhilī order have been staunch Sunni Muslims.
Take the following example, here is the Silsila of the Oveyssi order:
On the other hand there are in many of the silsilas of the Tarīqahs names of Shi'ite Imams; take for example the Qadiri silsila:
However, the differences between Sunni and Shi`ite Islam were not as acute in the first three centuries of Islam as they are today. Indeed, during Ottoman times the Sunni Turkish sultans would use the reverence that they and other Sunni Muslims had for the Shi'ite imams to appease the Shi'ite minorities that lived within their empire and many towards the end of the 19th century believed that a Sunni-Shi'ite unity was impending.
Every Murid on entering the ṭarīqah gets his 'awrād, or daily recitations, authorized by his Murshid (usually to be recited before or after the pre-dawn prayer, after the afternoon prayer and after the evening prayer). Usually, these recitations are extensive and time-consuming (for example the Murid's awrād may consist of reciting a certain formula 99, 500 or even 1000 times). One must also be in a state of ritual purity (as one is for the obligatory prayers to perform them while facing Mecca). The recitations change as a student (murid) moves from a mere initiate to other Sufi degrees (usually requiring additional initiations).
Being mostly followers of the spiritual traditions of Islam loosely referred to as Sufism, these groups were sometimes distinct from the ulema or officially mandated scholars, and often acted as informal missionaries of Islam. They provided accepted avenues for emotional expressions of faith, and the Tarīqahs spread to all corners of the Muslim world, and often exercised a degree of political influence inordinate to their size (take for example the influence that the sheikhs of the Safaviyye order had over the armies of Tamerlane, or the missionary work of Ali Shair Navai in Turkistan amongst the Mongol and Tatar people).
The Tarīqahs were particularly influential in the spread of Islam in the sub-Sahara during the 9th to 14th centuries, where they spread south along trade routes between North Africa and the sub-Saharan kingdoms of Ghana and Mali. On the West African coast they set up Zāwiyas on the shores of the river Niger and even established independent kingdoms such as the Murābiṭūn, or Almoravids. The Sanusi order were also highly involved in missionary work in Africa during the 19th century, spreading both Islam and a high level of literacy into Africa as far south as Lake Chad and beyond by setting up a network of Zawiyas where Islam was taught. Much of central Asia and southern Russia was won over to Islam through the missionary work of the ṭarīqahs, and the majority of Indonesia's population, where a Muslim army never set foot, was converted to Islam by the perseverance of both Muslim traders and Sufi missionaries.
A case is sometimes made that groups such as the Muslim Brotherhoods (in many countries) and specifically the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt (the first, or first known), are modern inheritors of the tradition of lay ṭarīqah in Islam. This is highly contentious since the Turuq were Sufi orders with established lineages while the Muslim Brotherhood is a modern, rationalist tradition. However, the Muslim Brotherhood's founder, Hassan al Banna, did have a traditional Islamic education (his family were Hanbali scholars) and it is likely that he was initiated into a ṭarīqah at an early age.
Certain scholars, e.g., G. H. Jansen, credit the original Tarīqahs with several specific accomplishments:
The last of these accomplishments suggests that the analogy with the modern Muslim Brotherhoods is probably accurate, but incomplete.

Mohammad
Ali ibn Abu Talib
1- Oveys Gharani
2- Salman Farsi
3- Habib-ibn Salim Ra'i
4- Soltan Ebrahim Adham
5- Abu Ali Shaqiq Balkhi
6- Sheikh Abu Torab Nakhshabi
7- Sheikh Abi Amro Istakhri
8- Abu Ja'far Hazza
9- Sheikh Kabir Abu Abdollah Mohammad-ibn Khafif Shirazi
10- Sheikh Hossein Akkar
11- Sheikh Morshed Abu-Isshaq Shahriar Kazerouni
12- Khatib Abolfath Abdolkarim
13- Ali-ibn Hassan Basri
14- Serajeddin Abolfath Mahmoud-ibn Mahmoudi Sabouni Beyzavi
15- Sheikh Abu Abdollah Rouzbehan Baghli Shirazi
16- Sheikh Najmeddin Tamat-al Kobra Khivaghi
17- Sheikh Ali Lala Ghaznavi
18- Sheikh Ahmad Zaker Jowzeghani
19- Noureddin Abdolrahman Esfarayeni
20- Sheikh Alaoddowleh Semnani
21- Mahmoud Mazdaghani
22- Amir Seyyed Ali Hamedani
23- Sheikh Ahmad Khatlani
24- Seyyed Mohammad Abdollah Ghatifi al-Hasavi Nourbakhsh
25- Shah Ghassem Feyzbakhsh
26- Hossein Abarghoui Janbakhsh
27- Darvish Malek Ali Joveyni
28- Darvish Ali Sodeyri
29- Darvish Kamaleddin Sodeyri
30- Darvish Mohammad Mozaheb Karandehi (Pir Palandouz)
31- Mir Mohammad Mo'men Sodeyri Sabzevari
32- Mir Mohammad Taghi Shahi Mashhadi
33- Mir Mozaffar Ali
34- Mir Mohammad Ali
35- Seyyed Shamseddin Mohammad
36- Seyyed Abdolvahab Naini
37- Haj Mohammad Hassan Kouzekanani
38- Agha Abdolghader Jahromi
39- Jalaleddin Ali Mir Abolfazl Angha
40- Mir Ghotbeddin Mohammad Angha
41- Shah Maghsoud Mohammad Sadegh Angha
42- Salaheddin Ali Nader Shah Angha
Muhammad
The Caliph Ali ibn Abi Talib
Imam Husayn
Imam Ali Zayn al-Abidin
Imam Muhammad Baqir
Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq
Imam Musa al-Kazim
Imam Ali Musa Rida
Ma'ruf Karkhi
Sari Saqati
Junayd al-Baghdadi
Sheikh Abu Bakr Shibli
Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Tamīmī
Abu al-Fadl Abu al-Wahid al-Tamīmī
Abu al-Farah Tartusi
Abu al-Hasan Farshi
Abu Sa'id al-Mubarak Mukharrami
Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani
Preventing Islam from becoming a cold and formal doctrine by constantly infusing it with local and emotionally popular input, including stories and plays and rituals not part of Islam proper. (A parallel would be the role of Aesop relative to the Greek mythos.)
Spreading the faith in east Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where orthodox Islamic leaders and scholars had little or no direct influence on people.
Leading Islam's military and political battles against the enroaching power of the Christian West, as far back as the Qadiri order of the 12th century. Orders of Sufism
PHILTAR (Philosophy of Theology and Religion at the Division of Religion and Philosophy of St Martin's College) has a very useful Graphical illustration of the Sufi schools.

Ashrafi
Azeemia
BaAlawi
Badawiyyah
Bektashi
Chishti
Darqawa
Halveti
Hurufi
Idrissiyyah
Ismaili
Jerrahi
Kibruyeh
Mevlevi
Naciri
Naqshbandi
Naqshbandia Owaisiah
Nimatullahi
Oveyssi-Shahmaghsoudi
Qadiri
Rifa'i
Galibi
Safaviyeh
Sanusiyya
Sarwari Qadiri
Shadhili
Suhrawardiyya
Tijani
Zahediyeh Non-traditional Sufi groups

Sufi
Category:Sufi orders
suluk
salik
Moulid
Dervishes
List of tariqas