All of these world-renowned heroes were either Ash’aris or Maturidis (Sunnis) in Creed, Followed one of the four Madhabs (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i, Hanbali), and Adhered to a Sufi tariqah (order). Every single one of them. Among the Sufis who aided Islam with the sword as well as the pen were: “Such men as the Naqshbandi Shaykh Shamil al-Daghestani, who fought a prolonged war against the Russians in the Caucasus in the nineteenth century; Darqawi Faqir Al-Hajj Muhammad al-Ahrash, who fought the French in Egypt in 1799; Qadiri Shaykh ‘Uthman ibn Fodi, who led j*had in Northern Nigeria from 1804 to 1808 to establish Islamic rule; Imam Pangeran Diponegoro, The Javanese prince and one of Indonesia’s greatest National Heroes. He fought j*had against the Dutch from 1825 to 1830 and followed the Shattariya tariqah; Qadiri Shaykh ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jaza’iri, who led the Algerians against the French from 1832 to 1847; Tijani Shaykh al-Hajj ‘Umar Tal, who led Islamic j*had in Guinea, Senegal, and Mali from 1852 to 1864; Muridiyyah Shaykh Ahmadu Bamba, who struggled against the French colonial rule of Senegal in the late 1800s; Sayyid Muhammad ‘Abdullah al-Somali, a Shaykh of the Salihiyya order who led Muslims against the British and Italians in Somalia from 1899 to 1920; Qadiri Shaykh Ma’ al-‘Aynayn al-Qalqami, who helped marshal Muslim resistance to the French in northern Mauritania and southern Morocco from 1905 to 1909; Senussi Shaykh Omar al-Mukhtar who led the resistance against the Italian colonization of Libya from 1911 to 1931 and also fought against the French colonization of Chad and the British occupation of Egypt; Shadhili Shaykh Muhammad al-Hashimi who despite his old age joined the ranks against the French colonization of Syria in 1920. He fought alongside many other ‘ulema of Damascus amongst them one of his shaykhs, Shaykh Al-Sharif al-Yaqoubi, who commanded a division of 500 people.” - Reliance of the Traveller - Tasawwuf did not prevent them from serving Islam in any way they could.