Islamic Sufis

Hauck, Dennis William. Islamic alchemy the Sufi vision. rhttp //www.alchemylab.com/islamic.htm1. 

Mahdihassan, S. Sufi as meaning philosopher, in the light of history of alchemy. Sci Tech Islamic World A, no. 2 (1986) 91-99. 

The eighth century Arabian alchemist, Jabir ibn Hayyan (circa 721-815), known in medieval Europe as Geber, was a member of the mystical Islamic movement known as Sufism. Sufis incorporated many... 

However practical its uses, though, cannabis was always consumed recreationally. Marijuana became popular in the Moslem world, partly because the Islamic faith forbade the use of alcohol. The Sufis, a mystical Islamic sect, used marijuana as part of their religious rituals. Over the centuries, Arab traders brought cannabis to east Africa, and from there it spread throughout the continent. 

The first great Islamic alchemist is Jabir ibn Hayyan, known in Latin as Geber, and he is often cited as the greatest of all Arab workers in the art. Jabir was born in the town of Tus in Khorassan (near the modern city of Meshed) around the year 721, and may have lived for some time in the city of Kufa, on the western banks of the Euphrates. The young Jabir was educated by Bedouin, and also seems to have been a member of the Sufis, the mystical branch of Islam that rejected the luxuries of court life for an austere life of prayer, contemplation and ecstasy. Many prominent Arab alchemists — such as Jabir and Ibn Arabi — were Sufis, and their influence on the development of alchemy and the dissemination of alchemical ideas cannot be overestimated. 

Of avoiding mixing materially with others, with the profane crowd, with futile preoccupations. This is why Islam which, in its Sufi heresy, teaches the necessity of these four roads, and separates men and women in everyday life, in many respects like Christian monastic ism. 

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