Hollowed Whirls: The Capitalist Corruption of Sufism and the Eclipse of Ḥaqq
This short essay explores how contemporary global Sufism, particularly in its diasporic and Western iterations, has been subsumed by the logic of global Capital and neoliberal subjectivity. It is also a general outline for more to come in the future, where the arguments detailed below will be expanded upon and augmented one by one. Drawing simultaneously from Marxian, postcolonial, and decolonial critiques (via Karl Marx, Talal Asad, Saba Mahmood, and Byung-Chul Han) and from an internal Sufi metaphysical-epistemological framework, the argument is made that much of what passes as Sufism today is a tarīqa of the nafs rather than the tarīqa of ḥaqq. What remains is not the path of self-effacement, but a spiritual consumerism that affirms and amplifies the ego under the guise of mystical refinement.
The Disfigured Mirror of Modern Sufism
Modern Sufism, especially as it manifests in the West, stands as a mirror no longer polished to reflect the Real (al-ḥaqq) but rather distorted to reflect the egoic self (al-nafs). What was once the path of annihilation in God (fanāʾ) has become the path of affirmation—not of God, but of the neoliberal ego. The global spiritual marketplace, under the soft violence of capitalism, has domesticated and commodified the radical metaphysics of Sufism into a digestible, marketable brand.
Now, as Karl Marx noted in his Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right (1844), religion under capitalism becomes an expression of real distress and an instrument of alienation—not only of labor but of consciousness. In this context, Sufism becomes not a ladder to transcend alienation but a narcotic that veils it. The whirling dervish becomes a logo; the dhikr becomes a mindfulness seminar. Talal Asad, in Genealogies of Religion (1993), critiques how modernity imposes a Protestant model of ‘religion’ as belief and private practice, distorting non-Western traditions. Saba Mahmood, in Politics of Piety (2005), further illustrates how secular-liberal expectations reshape pious subjectivities, especially under regimes of governance. These insights reveal how Sufi turūq in the diaspora rebrand themselves in ways compatible with NGO frameworks, interfaith commodification, and therapeutic spirituality—ultimately reflecting the post-Enlightenment epistemic violence of colonial modernity.
Byung-Chul Han, in The Burnout Society (2015), diagnoses the neoliberal subject as a self-exploiting agent of positivity and performance. The Sufi adept is no longer the broken vessel seeking annihilation in the Beloved, but the optimized seeker of curated, Instagrammable transcendence. The tariqa becomes therapy; the murshid becomes a life coach; fanā’ is replaced by spiritualized self-branding.
The Inversion of Sufi Epistemology and Between the NGO and the Selfie: The Conditions of Spiritual Captivity
From within the Sufi metaphysical tradition itself, this condition represents not merely a sociological degradation but an ontological inversion. The path of Sufism (tarīqa) was never meant to be a project of identity, empowerment, or self-care as understood by contemporaries. It was the negation of the self (nafs), the burning of veils, the descent into the annihilating fire of tajallī (divine self-disclosure). Today, however, we witness a path that feeds the ego under the illusion of its refinement. For example, modern ‘Sufism’ affirms:
- The permanence of the self, not its contingency
- The marketable persona, not the hidden essence
- Aesthetic affectation (samā’) without inward shattering
This is not tarīqa al-ḥaqq, but tarīqa al-nafs: a counterfeit path where the seeker seeks not God but a spiritualized image of themselves. The very light (nūr) that was meant to unveil reality now dazzles the self in a hall of capitalist mirrors.
On top of this, Global Sufi institutions increasingly align with state agendas, non-profit funding, and interfaith branding projects designed to produce ‘safe mystics’ compatible with surveillance capitalism. This is what Talal Asad would call the reconfiguration of Islamic subjectivity under colonial secularism: the transformation of mystic into mascot. Rather than cultivating sainthood, today’s Sufi infrastructures often produce spiritual entrepreneurs and visibility influencers. Even claims of fanāʾ, maqām, or wilāya are embedded in the matrix of performativity. The silsila is broken not genealogically but energetically—because it no longer transmits ḥaqq, only spectacle.
Toward a Recovered Ḥaqq
A Sufism rooted in resistance must begin with a double refusal:
1. The refusal of capitalist individuation disguised as mysticism.
2. The refusal of a secular epistemology that turns ḥaqq into heritage.
Instead, it must return to al-ḥaqq baynaka wa baynahu—that the Real is that which stands between you and your illusion of selfhood. Until the Real is re-centered as annihilating presence, contemporary Sufism will remain a choreography of delusion, a path not toward the Beloved but toward the commodified mirror of the self. This is why a genuine Sufism must become revolutionary and therefore reject the archetype of Seyyed Hossein Nasr for that of ꜤAlī Sharīatī (d. 1977 CE). Thus, what is needed is not revival but combustion and revolutionary praxis.
From Bayʿa to Brand, and Gender, Commodification, and the Feminization of Mysticism
That said, these days where once the aspirant would enter into bayʿa (a sacred covenant with the shaykh grounded in spiritual obedience), we now find allegiance given to brands, logos, and curated social capital. The shaykh is reimagined as a charismatic entrepreneur, and the aspirant becomes a subscriber or donor. The sacred intimacy of spiritual companionship has been diluted by the metrics of digital engagement. And in this the capitalist Sufi market often targets women as consumers of spiritual healing. While this opens paths for genuine feminine spiritual leadership, it also commercializes trauma narratives and collapses wilāya into therapeutic branding. Feminine mysticism becomes a resource to be extracted, not a site of divine manifestation. As Saba Mahmood reminds us, piety must not be reduced to empowerment rhetoric alone.
The Aestheticization of Emptiness and the Erasure of Esotericism
In these times mystical gestures—whirling, chanting, calligraphy—are increasingly emptied of metaphysical gravity and repackaged as aesthetic experiences. What should rupture the ego becomes a performance of exoticism. This aestheticization erases the ascetic ethics that once undergirded the practice. Zuhd becomes lifestyle minimalism; samā’ becomes spectacle.
In adapting to secular-friendly forms, many contemporary Sufi spaces intentionally erase esoteric teachings deemed too theologically or politically ‘problematic,’ such as the rich occult technology Sufi orders once transmitted. The result is a shallow surface mysticism bereft of symbolic depth or cosmological rigor. The divine names are uttered, but the realities they signify (ḥaqā’iq) are no longer explored. Additionally, the ethos of ‘radical inclusivity’—a virtue in public life—becomes a distortion in the initiatic context. The gate of the ṭarīqa is now wide open, but its thresholds are gone. Everyone is welcome, but no one is transformed. Without testing, discipline, or unveiling (kashf), the Sufi path becomes a circle of affirmation rather than transfiguration.
Toward a New Miʿrāj: Reclaiming the Journey Beyond the Self
To rescue Sufism from capitalism’s metaphysical capture, we must re-anchor it in the vertical ascent—the miʿrāj—that begins in annihilation and ends in divine vision. But we must simultaneously anchor it in a revolutionary praxis that takes the transformation of society seriously and as acting in tandem with the transformation of the individual self. This demands a critique not only of political economy but of inner veiling such that palingenesis acts on two fronts: the inner self and the outer social locus. It is not enough to denounce capitalism; we must reconstitute the metaphysical grammar of resistance by acting in the world as social agents of its transformation. However, as long as the egoic self remains central and is pacified by exotic optics of the pseudo-spiritual, the path is blocked.
The Return of the Hidden Pole
Let those who still burn for the Real seek not market, platform, or crowd. Let them turn inward toward the axis of fire, the quṭb, hidden among the ashes. The true tariqa is not registered with the state nor listed on Instagram—it is etched in the heart by the pen of the Merciful.
Let it ignite again.
