The Sufism... between the liberal approach and the confrontation of Islamist streams

Introduction

Sufism has been known throughout its history to withdraw from the political process, which considered one of the Sufism's characteristics in general.

The Arab movement allowed all political streams to form a political identity for the transitional period. Which resulted in the emergence of some new political entities because of their organizational capacity and their political project to lead the state to a safe phase.

The wide masses that have revolt against the previous regimes believed that it is necessary to change the political system and its constituents. Then the Islam's entities emerged and presented themselves as an alternative to these regimes.

The dominant feature during the transitional period was the entry of most of the political streams and forming political parties, which took part in the elections after the Arab Spring revolutions, and achieved great successes at the level of parliamentary and presidential elections at the level of the Arab world.

The Islamist movement (the Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafist Group, the Islamic Group, the Jihad Group) emerged as a strong political streams that won a majority in the elections of the People's Assembly and Shura Council. 

Which later colored the political process with the Islamic character and the intellectual bases of those groups that applied to post-revolutionary societies.

And then turned to political authority of a religious nature only, and introduced new concepts of political life such as the terms of "halal, haraam, takfir,". As well as developing ideas that are contrary to liberal tendencies, and political parties that use the mechanisms of democracy as a tool to gain power.

Islamic streams failed to provide a political model that could lead the Arab countries to achieve Islamic principles and thus achieve the social justice that  these revolutions called for.

And it failed as a system because it is cling to the system of "succession", which necessarily does not work in modern society. Therefore the Sufism trend itself as an ideal system in the leadership of the Muslim world for his belief to separate religion from politics and to submit political theses for the transition to "Secularization of the Islamic world."

Sufism was able to absorb secularism, and as the same time, it is the Islamic manifestation that is capable of carrying the system of democratic values.

  Here we have to distinguish between the Sufism ways. There are ways to keep up with the developments of the modern era, and push symbols in the public work, while there are other methods immersed in popular folklore, and isolated from the public life and practices.

The importance of the study stems from the study of the political formation of the Sufis, the benefit of the large number of its supporters, and the Sufism belief that religion should be in isolation from political life.

 In this study, we will focus on the Sufi direction, as a movement through which an ideal model of Islam can be presented for the qualities in which the political process can be imbued with liberal values.

Firstly: the political employment of the Sufi direction:

There is a set of transformations that have been inserted into the sufism based on the alienation from public life and asceticism in worldly affairs.

The majority of the Sufi movements tend to adopt non-dynamic principles and ideas that are contrary to human nature and are incompatible with the issue of human fragmentation through the principle of asceticism.

But there are trends within Sufism to integrate them into public work, or to employ them to serve the political process, which we can call politicization of the Sufis.

Political employment is an attempt to integrate a particular direction that was not political, to engage in the political process and to start taking all the political mechanisms to empower itself.

These include participation in political action and the establishment of political parties, or participate in it.

- Political formation of Sufism:

The political formation is the process of educating the citizen the political principles and mechanisms. As well as "Sufism" as a process for the formation of the individual to approach God and retire public life. Nor does it play a role in serving the good for the society, which is one of the essential benefits that an individual can offer to society and to God.

Here the Sufi tendency can be combined with engagement within society (political action) since serious action on both sides is brought closer to God.

But there are a set of determinants that correspond to the integration of Sufis entering the concerns of public life: 

The determinant of Sufi thought: The Sufi mind tends to the principles of the social nature of the human nature and is incompatible with the issue of fragmentation in the earth and the architecture of the universe.

The societal determinant: Most Sufi methods are to abandon the communal roles and infiltrate into the affairs of the society and integrate them. It also prefer to work on the outskirts of cities and villages away from urban communities, which reduces their interaction within the political action.

Sufi formation: The Sufism methods are based on the absolute obedience of the Sheikh of the Sufi method, and the validation of all his sayings and opinions.

Apparently, political action and the Sufi direction are contradictory. The political process is a dynamic social process, and the Sufi individual is self-reliant away from life issues. And because political formation is all factors affecting the citizen whether these factors are directly related to political work or indirectly.

Therefore, the way is the most important environment for the education of the sufi individual, some of the political concepts and terms, which are necessarily not separated from the principles of Sufism and the principles of the Islamic religion. In addition to spiritual isolation and closeness to God, it is necessary to do the things for the people you are responsible for.

Secondly: Liberal determinants of Sufi Empowerment

 Sufism tends to distance from the world, while other Islamist movements seek to link the world with the hereafter, and the need for society to follow the same principles and way of life in the early days of Islam. As if Islam was created to guide man in a monolithic way of life. Cohabitation did not develop living patterns as they change over the ages.

The Middle Ages in Europe, the Umayyad and Abbasid periods in the history of Islamic civilization; all are examples that the fusion of politics and religion is to harness religion to the interests of rulers and kings.

The end of the Middle Ages in Europe was the first start of the need to separate religion from politics in Europe, after dark ages. And that the formation of the state is based on the concept of nationalism and the exercise of religious rites within the church, and then Europe began to devote the efforts of its scientists to progress in preparation for the scientific revolution in the eighteenth century.

In the course of the Islamic caliphate it is a policy that distorted religion and systems, then worked to adapt the religion to serve its goals and interests and retain the rule for them and their children.

Therefore, we find that the relationship between religion and politics causes a sedition. Such as, what happened during the Islamic caliphates beginning from the death of the Prophet peace be upon him.This was manifested in the great strife after the death of Uthman ibn Affan and the Muslims fighting each other.

The integration of religion into politics in Europe entered it in the dark ages, and Europe was progressed only when it confined religion within the church and restricted the church and pope power. As well as, gave each nation the freedom to choose the system of government it wanted in accordance with its interests.

The most important reasons for secularism (means separation of religion from all walks of life), emergence is facing the power of the priests of the Church in Europe after their interference in everything.

Following the Arab Spring, Islamist movements (the Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafists) seized parliamentary and presidential elections. But they quickly failed due to their adherence to the concept of the Islamic caliphate and to the restoration of the living conditions of the Prophet Muhammad and his companions fourteen centuries ago.

 The problem arose between an Islamist movement that failed to lead the transitional phase and a secular model rejected by the society for not taking into account the Islamic and Arab privacy of its citizens.

Therefore, the Sufi trend was manifested as an Islamic trend that believes in Islamic principles and avoids engaging in public life altogether.

The following is a link between Sufi thought and liberal integration within the process of political employment, and the implications of liberal parties adopting the Sufi direction as follows:

- Facing the Islamic organizations of the Islamic movement in an anti-Islamic tone. That tone calls for those movements of the application of the principles of the principles of Islamic law and the system of succession, and other principles of such organizations.

Which differ with the tendencies of the principles of democracy and liberalism in the need to separate religion from the state. On the grounds that Sufism does not differ in its political principles of separation of religion from the state, and take a negative situation on the application of Islamic law.

- Encourage the integration of Sufi values ​​with the values ​​of civil society in different educational stages, especially the basic stages that represent the basic formation of the citizen. In addition to reviving the sufi culture and arts.

- The coalition of liberal parties with Sufism can be deployed in facing of  Islamist movements, especially confronting terrorist organizations, and the response to their violent beliefs through Islamic law will have a profound impact.

- After the failure of dynamic Islam in the Arab region, the Sufi trend has become the destination of dissidents and those who separated from other groups. In addition to the accession of large numbers of the sect who were part of the islamists streams. Which provides momentum and a popular background to confront the dynamic Islam through which it can gain reasonable votes in the parliamentary elections.

- The secular movement (liberal) characterised by pluralism and freedom, and that the interpretation of Sharia and Islamic law is a flexible interpretation of many conflicting tendencies. Therefore the application of Sharia represents a unified view and perception of groups and parties of Islamist movements.

And that everyone has the freedom to embrace their religion, and that the national community is a fabric that combines contradictions in a single framework that governs all under one nationality.

And therefore it completely rejects the principle of asceticism advocated by Islamist streams. It is a principle that is consistent with what Sufis go to.

- Islam, in its various doctrines and laws, its main place is in the heart of man, and does not exceed the limits of the mosque. If it tries to enter into politics, power and governance, it will distort religion and paint it with political variables.

-The integration of the Copts with the Sufis in one system to confront the Islamists on the pretext of establishing the foundations of national unity between the sectors of the people (Muslims and Christians). Addressing extremist ideology and emphasizing the state's civilization, and expelling the superiority and inferiority that it adopts for Islamists movements.

 Thirdly: Political practice of the Sufi stream after the Arab Spring

  The post-Arab movement and the rise of Islamist streams leading the Arab political scene, revealed the marginal role played by the Sufi stream because of the crisis of Sufi thought and its closure of political life.

Most of the Sufi methods have become a political tool in the hands of the ruling regimes in the Arab region, whether the countries that have experienced revolutions and popular uprisings or those who have not.

In contrast to the silent attitude of some methods towards the Arab revolutions, others have tended to issue statements and slogans supporting the popular uprising.

  The Sufi movement in Egypt took a clear situation towards the revolution, as some of these methods participated in the Egyptian revolution. It is worth mentioning here that what these movements called for to emphasize the "civil state of Egypt" through many of its statements and political mobilization for what it called at that time a group "in love of Egypt" to highlight the political principle that believes in " Religion of the state. And opposed other Islamic streams (the Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafist Group, the Islamic Group) from the need to establish the Islamic caliphate.

However, the Sufi role in the political process following the Arab Spring during the 2012 parliamentary elections (the Brotherhood and the Salafi group won the majority of the seats in the House and Shura Council) has been marginal or failure due to the fragmentation of the Sufi movement in several directions. One sees the necessity of participation and confronting other Islamist streams. And the lack of agreement on a single list of Sufi youth, as well as the preference of some individuals to support other liberal political parties in the election campaign.

- common denominators between the Sufi and liberal streams.

In spite of the marginal role of the Sufi during the Arab Spring, it resulted from what was mentioned earlier, the existence of common ground between the Sufi and liberal current, for their belief in the need to separate religion from the state and work against other Islamist currents. That take the system of the Islamic Caliphate as a basic principle of governance in the region Arabic, and the principle of classification among members of society and the preference of the individual belonging to it to others.

The main danger of these ideologies is the "mechanisms of change by violence." The political opposition of these groups is characterized by murder or atonement, and the resultant establishment of a wide network of extremist groups in the Arab region that transformed them into anarchy. That threatened to form states in the region,  it even has reached the threat of Western countries.

 After the failure of the Islamic movements in the transitional period, a number of voices within the scientific and research circles, called for the search for a moderate Islamic alternative. The Sufi trend was an ideal alternative due to its distinctiveness from other streams with the peaceful means of the opposition, the acceptance of the other, rejection of the Islamic caliphate principle.

In order to support this trend towards the development of the Sufi role, it is necessary to encourage Sufism to play a role within the political corridors. To disseminate information tools to disseminate their ideas and their interaction within the society. The necessity of activating the role of Sufi methods across the Arab region.

Conclusion: Sufism is the future of the Islamic streams

After explaining politics in the Sufi direction and turning to this direction from the background of ideology. One of its basic principles is the spiritual preoccupation with the moral reform of the soul, the self-liberation of the soul, and thus it is the gateway to the secularization of the Islamic world.

The ruling regimes in the Islamic world are begging Sufism to fight the politicized Islamic phenomenon, which enticed the West to adopt the same method. The German orientalist Stephan Reichmut even goes so far as to say that the future of the Muslim world will inevitably be the Sufi stream.

Recently, Western countries aspired to find an alternative to the radical Islamist trend. A number of research centers, after the events of September 2001, ignited the need to block radical streams through several strategies, including support for liberal currents that are an extension of Western culture. And support traditional religious groups represented in Sufi methods. The West seeks through Sufism to adopt its idea of ​​separating religion from the state and the religious arena in the Sufi current as an alternative to the Salafist and Muslim groups, and supported a number of international conferences to spread Sufi thought in the Arab world, including the conference "Sufism is an Authentic Approach to Reform" "Together to Activate the Role of Sufi Roads in Africa", 2005.

"The Sufi stream, by focusing on common Islamic principles, can become a deterrent to other streams of  Islam," says Farina Alam, a Sufi representative in Europe.