Renewal of Contemporary Sufism

The brotherhood-based Sufism described in this book is undergoing growth, expansion and renewal, led by charismatic masters who go beyond the original cultural–geographical framework to attract new disciples. All brotherhoods we have seen are in the process of expanding their prayer centres to accommodate new disciples. In addition, these brotherhoods are engaged in a number of social, cultural and political activities.

One of the common traits of these brotherhoods (except for AIS) is that they promote a ‘Sufism for all’ which, as we have seen, does not denote a Sufism without Islam or without religious norms, but rather a Sufism more focused on welcoming newcomers and embracing otherness and less focused on asceticism and the spiritual elite. This ‘Sufism for all’ in the ʿAlāwiyya, Būdshīshiyya and Naqshbandiyya brotherhoods is promoted as true Islam – its essence – as well as an Islam capable of facing the challenges of modernity. What is the extent of this revivification? Is it a significant change like the one that occurred in the eighteenth– nineteenth centuries? Will Sheikhs Khaled Bentounes, Nāzim ʿAdil and Hamza al-Būdshīshī have the same historical resonance as Ahmadou Bamba, Aḥmad ibn Idrīs and Aḥmad al-Tijānī? It is probably too soon to say.