The Place of Sufism within State-Run al-Azhar Islamic Centre in Egypt

What is it about?

This study will explore the role played by the religious organs of the state in promoting the Sufi path under President Husni Mubarak, with the growing challenges to religion-state relation during this period. It will also assess the contribution of popular preachers, many of whom were graduates of al-Azhar, to this mystical discourse. It will demonstrate that the popular preachers shared with the Azharite scholar some form of identification with theoretical mysticism, together with a cautious approach towards its esoteric dimension, reflecting a broad inclination towards Sufism within Egyptian society. The religious officials sought to prove the compatibility between spirituality with its esoteric basis and Islamic law with its more worldly and structured dimension, by incorporating a theosophical debate, within an apologetic exchange with Western thought. The novelty of this mystical discourse was in its political direction, in which a Sufi-oriented worldview became a tool to strengthen the regime’s position in its struggle against Islamist movements. While many of the popular preachers backed moderate Islamism, the religious officials of al-Azhar relied on mysticism to support a highly supervised state-sponsored Islam. Consequently, the reliance on the spiritual path to support diverse political trends demonstrates the all-encompassing and dynamic nature of theoretical mysticism as it was infused with rationalism, new knowledge, politics and a Shari‘a-based worldview._x000D_ _x000D_

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Why is it important?

This article is important to understand the significance of the moderate Sufi trend within Egyptian society and within the state-run Islamic centre of al-Azhar.