A Critique of Parameters of Relation between Shiism and Sufism in Muhammad ‘Abid al-Jabiri’s View

Muhammad ‘Abid al-Jabiri (1936-2010) is a contemporary Arab intellectual who particularly contributed to developments of understanding the history of Islam. Al-Jabiri’s Shiite studies are results of his research about Shiism which can be found here and there in his work. This paper seeks to answer the following question: What are parameters of relation between Shiism and Sufism in al-Jabiri’s view? The paper aims at providing an articulation of al-Jabiri’s view of the identity of factors leading to origination of Shiism and Sufism, as well as his identification of Shiism and Sufism. Then we embark on a critique of al-Jabiri’s view. The method of this paper is to formulate al-Jabiri’s view of Shiism-Sufism relation and to criticize it by providing an analysis thereof. Al-Jabiri has a flawed understanding of Shiism, and as a consequence, his account of Shiism is defective. He enumerates certain parameters of the two intellectual currents in order to ground their identification, but his parameters do not suffice to support the identification claim. Therefore, al-Jabiri’s conception of Shiism and Sufism is susceptible to serious objections.