The Corruption of Arab Morality by the Sufistic Heritage and the Sufism-Shiism Connection (Consideration and Critique of Claims Made by Mohammed Abed al-Jabri)

Mohammed Abed al-Jabri, a well-known Moroccan philosopher, wrote numerous books concerning human sciences, through which he could secure a significant place for himself in the Arab and parts of the Western world. He believed that the Arab world is far from its early Golden Ages, and is deep in moral, cultural, and economic crises. Thus, having considered five heritages—Persian, Greek, Sufistic, pure Islamic, and pure Arabic—he concluded that all the underdevelopment of the Arab world is rooted in the thoughts represented by the Persian heritage (Ardashir), which have corrupted the Arab morality in the form of the doctrines of what he refers to as two “fabricated” denominations: Shiism and Sufism. In this paper, we provide a brief account of al-Jabri’s claims concerning Sufism—including the origination of Sufi asceticism in Manichaeistic aversion of this world, connection between Sufism and Shiism, and the origination of the Sufistic notion of wilāya (guardianship) in the Shiite notion of Imamate, and the impact of the Shiite heritage on Sufi states and stages as well as Arab morality.