A Sufi pedagogy of community-engaged self-cultivation: contemporary approaches to training, accountability, and religious abuse in Sufism

Abstract

ABSTRACT Contemporary Sufis are addressing the potential danger that stems from asymmetries of power implicit in the student-teacher relationship. This article examines approaches to Sufi pedagogy that acknowledge how gender, power, and abuse can manifest in the tradition. This article posts the emergence of a nascent approach to Sufi training, which I call community-engaged self-cultivation. This approach balances the inviolability of personal conscience (ḍamīr) and moral agency (khalīfah), accountability within community, and rigorous studies under the guidance of a Sufi teacher. The community-engaged self-cultivation model draws from several historical Sufi pedagogies, including the teaching guide (shaykh al-taʿlīm) and training guide (shaykh al-tarbiya) models. The community-engaged self-cultivation model shares three main commitments: 1) resisting patriarchal and oppressive structures discursively and socially, 2) the inviolability of individual moral agency and personal conscience and, 3) practicing shared authority. These three factors work in tandem in mutually reinforcing ways to expand the accessibility of the tradition and foreground accountability as a Sufi value.