Enacting Mysticism in the World: Practical Sufism in the Tariqa Karkariyya and Alawiyya
Religions January 22, 2025 John C. Thibdeau
Mysticism requires ethical work to cultivate experiences of the divine, and those experiences in turn enable new ethical relationships with oneself, others, and the divine. The article connects ascetic practices (zuhd) with Sufi mystical experiences through the concept of tarbiya, understanding taṣawwuf as an ongoing process rather than an end. It argues for an 'inner-worldly' mysticism absent from Weber's analysis, which does not fit his passive–active distinction between mysticism and asceticism. Drawing on fieldwork with two related Shadhiliyya Sufi orders in Morocco—the Karkariyya and the Alawiyya—the author examines how direct experiences of the divine are made possible by ethical work and how those experiences enable ethical engagement and action, showing mystics as deeply concerned with changing their social worlds.