The word sufi is derived from the term sahafa. In the times of the Holy Prophet Hazrat Mohammed (peace be upon Him), the message of Islam was spreading far and wide by missionaries and conquests. The sahafa was one band of men who were totally devoted to prayer and meditation. Worship and search for spiritual perfection was their only aim. Over the centuries the sahafa became those holy men who are now called sufis.

Sindh is known as �the land of 124,000 saints and dervishes, both Muslim and Hindu. It is because of the sufis that Sindh is called the cradle of love and peace. The sufi saints have large following among Muslims and Hindus of every strata. A number of Hindus come from India and other parts of the world to pay homage to different shrines.

There is no place for religious differences among Sufis- and hasn't been since the centuries old link between the people of Sindh and Sufism.

This spiritualism offers a world without sectarian, ethnic and communal difference. It is due to this hold of mysticism on Sindh culture, there is hardly any religious or sectarian frenzy in the interior of Sindh as compared to other parts of Pakistan.

Sufism has no room for fundamentalism or fanaticism because it has challenged the institution of the mullah. Thus we see that the clergy and the rulers joined hands to crush the world of religious and social co existance, which existed in Jhoke Sharif under Shah Inayat Shaheed.