Egyptian Sufis and the State of Medina: A Case Study on Islamic Civil State

In the aftermath of the ‘Arab Spring’ and the ‘Tahir Revolution’ (2011), Sufis (Muslim mystics) proved to be still a major intellectual and social force in contemporary Egypt, and many of the official and non-official Sufi Ways (ṭuruq; sing. ṭarīqa) active in the country proposed their own answers to the “demands of the Revolution” (maṭālib al-thawra). In this framework, the State-run Supreme Council for Sufi Ways was able to join a flexible “day by day” tactics not to be overcome by the revolutionary process - thus opening up to dialogue with different political players - as well as to elaborate a long-term strategy, mostly in cooperation with al-Azhar, in order to play a leading role in shaping post-revolutionary Egypt.The present paper aims at paving the way for future in-depth analysis of such complex process, by presenting a single but crucially important case study: the debate on the best form of State in Islam that was published in Al-taṣawwuf al-islāmī (“Islamic Sufism”), the official monthly magazine of the Supreme Sufi Council, in such a delicate moment as July 2012, when the political scene was apparently dominated by their longtime enemies the Muslim Brothers. This will hopefully provide some fresh insights into the Egyptian Sufi Council’s long-term ideological orientations, with special focus on ideas on what should be the proper relationships between “religion” and “world” (dīn wa-dunyā) in Islam.