Contemporary Sufi spirituality of the middle classes - global forms and regional peculiarities

Sufism has shaped the lives of people from a wide variety of geographical regions, cultural contexts and social milieus almost from the beginning of Islam.

While old and new forms of Sufism continue to exist, one can identify an interesting phenomenon in various geographical contexts since the middle of the 20th century: In various metropolises around the world, new Sufi authorities detach Sufism from its traditional organisation in “brotherhoods” (ṭuruq) and start spreading it through new media such as Sufi foundations, teaching institutes, lectures and workshops as well as through countless Sufi books and guides.

An educated middle-class audience worldwide appropriates Sufism through these new forms and adopts it as a way of life that is perfectly compatible with modern urban contexts, whether secular and pluralistic or strongly dominated by a particular (state) religion.

Whereas European, Arab and South Asian specificities shape the emergence of these new spiritual offerings, there seem to be formal and content-related elements that characterise a new offer of Sufi spirituality on a global level and in a cross-current manner.

This study will contribute new knowledge of regional peculiarities, but also of global and cross-group aspects in this new modern Sufi spirituality and thus provide us with valuable insights into the structures, themes and institutionalisation forms of modern, global and highly successful spiritual offerings, which in a second step will allow us to understand the gaps that such offerings fill in our societies.

In a detailed analysis shaped by a discourse theoretical perspective, I will compare the content, form, dissemination strategies and institutionalisation of the work of six important Sufi authors of the late 20th and early 21st century, which are embedded in different regional contexts and Sufi currents.