Circles of worshippers, their hands intertwined, swayed rhythmically. The drone of their chants, praises and words of exaltation charging the atmosphere with spirituality, imbued with veneration for the occupant of a tomb whose twinkling lights shone out over the heads of a dense crowd of visitors. This is the scene in the courtyard of the Mosque of Saleh Al-Jaafari in the Darrasa district of Cairo. The mosque is the headquarters and focal point of the Al-Jaafariya Order, and one of the major Sufi landmarks in Egypt and the world as a whole. Salah Al-Jaafari was an Al-Azhar scholar and Sufi sheikh who founded a Sufi order that has attracted many devotees. He traced his lineage back to the Imam Hussein, the son of Ali Bin Abi Taleb, a member of the Prophet's family. Born in Dongala, Sudan, in 1910, he memorised the Quran at an early age and joined the Idrisiya Sufi Order. Determined to expand his religious learning, he travelled to Egypt to enroll at Al-Azhar, where he was trained in the Islamic sciences by some of the most eminent scholars of the day, including Sheikh Mohamed Habiballah Al-Shanqiti, Sheikh Youssef Al-Dijwi, Sheikh Mohamed Bakhit Al-Mutiei and Sheikh Mohamed Ibrahim Al-Samaluti. After obtaining the highest diplomas offered by the famed centre of Islamic learning, he was appointed a teacher by decree of the then rector of Al-Azhar, Mustafa Abdel-Razek. Al-Jaafari's study circles, convened at the Al-Azhar Mosque after Friday prayers, soon evolved into a major Sufi educational forum that attracted followers from Egypt and abroad, especially from Sudan. It was in this forum that the features of the order coalesced. The Al-Jaafari Order combines spiritual training with the sciences of Islamic theology and jurisprudence. When Al-Jaafari passed away in 1979, he was buried in the mosque he had built in the Khaledin Gardens in Darrasa. The mosque became his mausoleum and a monument venerated by the members of all Sufi orders and the Al-Jaafari Order in particular. The Saleh Al-Jaafari Mosque serves as the headquarters of an order that has developed dozens of branches in Egypt. There are also Al-Jaafari centres in Libya and Malaysia. Members engage in diverse religious activities: celebrations of religious holidays, commemorations of the anniversaries of members of the family of the Prophet, and pilgrimages to Mecca. The members also hold an annual commemoration of their order's founder. This commemoration, the Moulid of Saleh Al-Jaafari, falls on the first Thursday of the Islamic month of Rajab, and rituals include zikr circles, recitals of religious chants and veneration ceremonies at the Al-Jaafari mausoleum. The Al-Jaafariya is one of dozens of Sufi orders in Egypt. Most fall under the Supreme Council of Sufi Orders, an organisation that oversees the approximately 70 officially registered orders that have branched off from major orders, such as the Rifa'iya. With followers in Egypt, Iraq and Western Asia, this takes its name from the Imam Abu Al-Abbas Bin Ahmed al-Rifa'i, who was born in Iraq and lived, died and was buried there. The famous Al-Rifaai Mosque in Salah Al-Din Square, at the foot of the Citadel in Cairo, is so named because it contains the tomb of sheikh Ali Al-Shabak, one of Al-Rifa'i's disciples. Another major Sufi order is the Ahmadiyya Al-Badawiya, named after Sheikh Ahmed Al-Badawi, whose mausoleum is located in Tanta in the Delta. This order has developed branches in Libya, Sudan, Turkey and a number of European countries. The Shaziliya, Khatmiya and Dasouqiya orders are other examples. The former was founded by Abu Hassan Al-Shazili Al-Maghrabim. The Al-Shazili Order, based in the Humaithara wadi in the Red Sea governorate, has become a place of pilgrimage for thousands of Upper Egyptians unable to travel all the way to Mecca. The Khatmiya Order, founded by Mohamed Othman Al-Mirghani Al-Khatim, has a large following, extending from Egypt southwards to Sudan and eastwards to Algeria, Morocco, Niger and elsewhere in eastern and western Africa. The Dasouqiya Order was founded by Ibrahim Al-Dasouqi, whose famous shrine is located in the governorate of Kafr Al-Sheikh. REGULATING THE ORDERS: Law 118 of 1976 regulates the Sufi orders in Egypt and their Supreme Council. It states that their role is to engage in religious and spiritual education in a manner consistent with the provisions of Islamic law. The Supreme Council of Sufi Orders is entrusted with supervising Sufi activities in Egypt and is authorised to approve the establishment of new orders, to reject or ban the activities of individuals and groups that are not officially registered, to approve the appointment of, disciplinary measures against or dismissal of the heads of Sufi orders and their deputies, and to supervise shrines and tombs that do not fall under the authority of the ministry of awqaf (religious endowments). The Supreme Sufi Council consists of ten members elected by the General Assembly of Sufi Sheikhs. It also includes a representative of Al-Azhar appointed by the grand mufti, a representative of the Ministry of Awqaf appointed by the minister, a representative from the Ministry of the Interior and another from the Ministry of Culture. The grand sheikh who heads the council is appointed by presidential decree. While these officials sit at the summit of the Sufi hierarchy, each sheikh or leader of a Sufi order oversees the administration and affairs of his particular order with the assistance of deputy sheikhs. These are located across the country in the various governorate and district seats and are responsible for coordinating with government authorities in the organisation of religious celebrations and gatherings. Proceeding down the rungs of the hierarchy, there are the deputies appointed by the sheikh to represent him among his followers. Then come the officials in charge of organising the activities of the order at the level of the neighbourhood or local mosque, and those responsible for supporting the general activities of the order's followers, who are referred to as devotees or muridin. In 2010, following the presidential decree appointing Abdel-Hadi Al-Qasabi as the grand sheikh of Egypt's Sufi orders, the country's Sufi system experienced its first major crisis. A number of sheikhs opposed Al-Qasabi's appointment, and 20 of them issued a formal statement to this effect on the occasion of the Moulid Al-Hussein celebration. The presidential decree had pre-empted the internal resolution of a conflict over the leadership of the Supreme Council, the other candidate being Sheikh Alaa Abul-Azayem, head of the Azamiya Order and president of the International Federation of Sufi Orders. He regarded himself as the legitimate successor to Grand Sheikh Ahmed Kamel Yassin, who died in November 2008. The International Federation of Sufi Orders was founded by 19 Egyptian Sufi sheikhs at a conference held in Paris in November 2013. Sheikh Alaa Abul-Azayem was elected president; Sheikh Ahmed Al-Hafez Al-Tigani, head of the Tiganiya Order, vice-president for foreign affairs; and Sheikh Mohamed Abdel-Khaleq Al-Shobrawi, head of the Shobrawiya Order, vice-president for internal affairs. Abdel-Halim Al-Azmi Al-Husseini was elected secretary-general and official spokesman; Sheikh Omar Al-Bastawisi became general secretary; and sheikh of the Sharnubiya Ibrahimiya Order, Mohamed Abdel-Maguid Al-Sharnoubi, was elected treasurer. Sufi orders from Europe and Asia eventually joined the federation. The conflict between Al-Qasabi and Abul-Azayem wended its way through the courts and the press. The contest escalated into a political tug-of-war, including when Al-Qasabi was appointed a member of the Committee of a Hundred that produced the 2012 Constitution, commonly referred to as the Muslim Brotherhood constitution. Tensions flared again when then-president Mohamed Morsi appointed Al-Qasabi a member of the Shura Council, the former upper house of Egypt's parliament. In spite of attempts to promote reconciliation and the courts' rejection of suits challenging Al-Qasabi's appointment and the cancellation of the Sufi Supreme Council elections, the dispute between Al-Qasabi and Abul-Azayem persisted, one manifestation of this being Abul-Azayem's establishment of an organisation called the Sufi Reform Front. Attempts to use the Sufi orders for political purposes in Egypt have a long history. Before the 25 January Revolution, a group of Sufi sheikhs moved to create a political party to represent the Sufi public in Egypt. In May 2010, the headquarters of the Azamiya Order hosted a conference on Sufism and politics. At the meeting, participants resolved to form a Sufi political party and elected Abul-Azayem to act as representative of the founders. They also brought on board two former Al-Azhar officials, Sheikh Mahmoud Ashour and Fawzi Al-Zafaf. The revolution rekindled the Sufis' desire to enhance their political participation, and at one point they tried to unify support behind a single presidential candidate, but internal rifts hampered this drive. At the same time, a number of presidential candidates courted the Sufi leadership, and many paid visits to the Supreme Council in the hope of winning the support of some Sufi sheikhs. More recently, Sufi political participation has taken a curious turn against the backdrop of the long rivalry between Al-Qasabi and Abul-Azayem. The former is now running for parliament on the For the Love of Egypt list, while the latter, along with 11 Sufi orders, declared his support for the Independent National Reawakening Bloc in the first phase of the elections, and is supporting the Republican Alliance for Social Forces in the second phase of the polls. It is difficult to predict Sufi voting trends, but previous experience has shown that the electoral impact of the orders is limited, regardless of the Supreme Council's claim that 15 million to 18 million Egyptians belong to them. The Supreme Council does not possess a complete list of these members, and allegiance to Sufi sheikhs is of a spiritual and devotee-mentor nature and is not political in character. The law regulating the Sufi orders also restricts their activities to educational and spiritual work and the dissemination of good moral behaviour. In fact, some observers believe that the orders are prohibited from engaging in political activities. Even so, while the Sufi electoral impact may be in general limited, it still varies from one governorate to the next. It is higher in Upper Egypt, lower in Cairo and the central Delta, and almost nonexistent in the eastern Delta. Difficult as it is to provide even a rough estimate of the number of members of the Sufi orders, the figures cited by Sufi officials are certainly exaggerated. It does not stand to reason that the officially registered orders could have a total membership of around 18 million people without this bloc having noticeable political, moral or cultural influence. Confirmation of this excessive estimate is also found in the fact that the International Federation of Sufi Orders claims that there are 600 million members of Sufi orders worldwide, or 40 per cent of the world's Muslim population. It requires little effort to see the invalidity of this estimate. The funding of the Sufi orders is also not transparent. Ostensibly, the funds come from donations from members and businessmen. They also derive from state allocations, above all from the 10 per cent of votive funds earmarked for the budget of the Sufi Supreme Council by the law regulating the Sufi orders. However, charges of receiving funds from abroad have been hurled back and forth between the two camps vying for leadership in the Sufi hierarchy. Abul-Azayem has accused the Al-Qasabi front of receiving money from the Gulf (despite Saudi Wahabi ideology that condemns Sufism as heresy) and of making too many visits to Saudi Arabia. The Al-Qasabi camp has accused Abul-Azayem of taking money from Iran and of opening the door to Shia encroachment in the region, proof of which, they say, has been Abul-Azayem's visit to Tehran.
SHRINES AND FESTIVALS: The tombs and shrines of the descendants of the Prophet and holy men are the pillars of all the Sufi orders. Most of their activities revolve around the celebration of the moulids, or anniversaries, of the occupants of such shrines. On these occasions, the monuments are adorned with lights and banners, and they attract thousands of visitors who donate generously to them. There are no accurate figures of the number of holy mausoleums or shrines in Egypt, but some Sufi scholars have estimated that there are around 6,000 such monuments, of which some 1,000 enjoy considerable fame: 294 of these are in Cairo alone. The most famous by far are the tombs of the Imam Al-Hussein and of Al-Sayyida Zainab and Al-Sayyida Nafisa. The most famous tombs outside Cairo are those of Al-Sayyid Bedawi in Tanta, Ibrahim Al-Dasouqi in Kafr Al-Sheikh, Abi Al-Abbas Al-Morsi in Alexandria, Abul-Higag Al-Uqsuri in Luxor and Abdel-Rahim Al-Qinawi in Qina in Upper Egypt. The scale of the festivities and the size of crowds vary from one moulid to another. Some attract hundreds, others thousands, while the major moulids are attended by hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions of people, especially on the last night — or the Al-Laila Al-Kabira — of the celebrations, which last for a week. After the 25 January Revolution, some Sufi shrines and monuments were attacked or burned by Islamist extremists, these increasing in tandem with the rise of extremist trends during the rule of deposed former president Morsi. Sheikh Abul-Azayem accused “Salafist extremists” of being behind the attacks, though he did not name particular individuals or groups. The danger was so great during the last months of Muslim Brotherhood rule that Sheikh Abdel-Khaleq Al-Shobrawi called for the creation of a “jihadist Sufi” drive to protect the holy shrines as the police at that time were not performing this function. “Sufi security teams are ready to intervene and respond to any attack, even an armed attack, against any shrine of the descendants of the Prophet or any tomb of a holy man in Egypt,” Al-Shobrawi said. The threat was real, as Abdel-Rahman Al-Birr, known as the Muslim Brotherhood's mufti at the time, had called for the “liberation of Egypt from the ideology of shrines.” Fortunately, his call was never implemented due to the 30 June Revolution that ended Muslim Brotherhood rule. Official revenues from votive boxes at registered shrines are in the neighbourhood of LE10 million a year. However, millions more are dedicated to unregistered shrines, some of which are little more than domes or an empty tomb. These are not supervised by the Ministry of Awqaf and fall directly under the authority of the Sufi Supreme Council. There are many of them, as each Egyptian village may have a shrine or two, and some may have dozens. In April 1979, when Sheikh Saleh Al-Jaafari passed away, the members of the order he founded confirmed his eldest son as his successor, in accordance with the tradition stipulated in the law regulating the Sufi orders, which states that the eldest son has precedence in the order of succession. His son, Sheikh Abdel-Ghani Al-Jaafari, was an official in the Public Education Department in Sudan at the time. When his father died he came to Egypt to devote himself full-time to the affairs of the Al-Jaafari Order. When he in turn died on 20 July 2012, he was succeeded by his eldest son, Mohamed Saleh Abdel-Ghani Al-Jaafari. Abdel-Hadi Al-Qasabi, the grand sheikh of the Sufi orders, has been campaigning to amend the law in order to abolish the principle of hereditary succession and introduce criteria of merit instead. Although the grand mufti of Al-Azhar, Ahmed Al-Tayeb, supported this idea even before Al-Qasabi, the Abul-Azayem camp has adamantly opposed any attempt to change the law. It argues that any change would pave the way for strife and divisions within the ranks of all the Sufi orders in Egypt. The Al-Jaafari Order maintains that religious hymns and chants praising the Prophet Mohamed and the members of the House of the Prophet are the best means to refine the soul and approach God. Al-Jaafari Sufi circles rely in particular on verses written by the order's founder and collected in the Diwan Al-Jaafari, a vast anthology of poetry of religious eulogy, asceticism and spiritual and moral refinement. The minarets of the Saleh Al-Jaafari Mosque resemble those of Al-Azhar, where the Al-Jaafari Order was first formed, and they also resemble those of the Mosque of Al-Hussein, to whom the founder of the Al-Jaafari order traces his lineage. Close by is the headquarters of the Supreme Council of Sufi Orders, which is only a small flat in an apartment block in the Al-Hussein district. Naturally, this gives cause for wonder, and it is not surprising that many Sufi sheikhs have been calling for the construction of new and more appropriate headquarters. The Sufi orders remain, as they have always been, an authentic cultural and religious component of Egyptian society. They have always been characterised by ideological moderation. There is no record of them ever having given rise to any individual advocating violence, engaging in terrorism or espousing any form of religious or ideological fanaticism or extremism. They are one of the most formidable barriers to the Salafist jihadist tide.
