The central practice most associated with Sufism is dhikr, the remembrance of God, most often the rhythmic repetition of God's names or of set liturgical formulas, performed individually or communally, sometimes accompanied by controlled breath, movement or music depending on the order. Sufi orders (turuq) organize this and other practices around initiation: a student (murid) is formally accepted by a living teacher (shaykh or pir), who authorizes specific practices, assigns a personal litany (wird or awrad) suited to the student's stage, and guides progress along a graded path historically described in terms of stations and states.
Specific advanced litanies and practices, including some of the greatest and most powerful divine names, are traditionally restricted to initiated members at appropriate stages and are not transmitted through general publication, a restriction scholarship on Sufism describes rather than sets aside. Sufi orders vary considerably in style, from the sober, legally conservative practice of orders such as the Naqshbandiyya to the ecstatic, sometimes musical practice associated with the Mevlevi order's turning ceremony, but the reliance on a living teacher and a specific initiatory chain (silsila) linking that teacher back to earlier masters and, ultimately, to the Prophet Muhammad, is common across the tradition.