‘Build the Human from Within:' Inside the 5th World Sufism Congress in Fez

Morocco World

2 days ago

Fez — Fez felt like a city leaning in to listen. In Morocco's spiritual capital, the 5th Edition of the World Sufism Congress gathered hundreds of scholars from 30 countries, Sufi shuyukh, and academics from across continents under a resonant theme: 'The Sufi Path: Human Development & Homeland Protection.'
Sessions opened with Quranic recitation and verses of praise, but what followed was as practical as it was devotional: a sustained argument that nations are 'not protected only by soldiers and that societies are secured by purified hearts.'
The organizer, Dr. Aziz El Kobaiti Idrissi Al Hassani, president of the International Academic Center for Sufi and Aesthetic Studies (IACSAS), framed the gathering with clarity. 'We chose Fez because it is the spiritual city of Morocco,' he told Morocco World News.
'Thousands are coming—scholars, academics, and shuyukh from different Sufi orders—to discuss 'tazkiya,' the purification of the self, and how to build the human from inside in order to build peace outside,' he said. It was both a mission statement and a map for the two-day program. 5th World Sufism Congress
That theme—start within—surfaced in talk after talk. Speakers returned to a simple anthropology: the human being is a small universe composed of body, mind, heart, soul, and 'nafs' (psyche.)
Harmonize these parts, and a person flourishes; neglect them, and communities fray. One panel put it bluntly: 'tazkiya' is not a private luxury but a responsibility toward nationhood. Another evoked the 'Muhammadian light,' a shorthand for prophetic character as the measure of ethical life. 5th World Sufism Congress
Tazkyia unites the world
With a perspective from the UK, Sheikh Ahmed Al-Dabbagh reminded participants that the individual can only truly 'flourish through alignment' with revelation and the Prophetic model; purification, he argued, dignifies both the self and public life.
The keynote speeches urged a return to spiritual mastery—self-discipline that refines intention, restrains ego, and channels will toward service. The refrain was unmistakable: 'tazkiya' is the axis of human existence, and without it, civic projects become brittle.
Fez was the right place to make that case. With its centuries of scholarship and living Sufi tradition, the city offered more than a backdrop; it supplied grammar and melody. Between keynotes, participants recited poetic verses and traded stories of local zawiyas that turn faith into something aesthetic—not superficial beauty, but conduct shaped by grace. 5th World Sufism Congress
The Congress also carried a tone of gratitude. In multiple tributes, speakers acknowledged King Mohammed VI as a guardian of Morocco's religious equilibrium—Maliki jurisprudence, Ash'ari creed, and the Sufism of Junayd held in dynamic balance. That framework, they argued, helps inoculate society against the twin temptations of laxity and extremism.
El Kobaiti's scholarship underwrote the event's intellectual spine. His books map how Sufism educates the self and repairs social fabric: 'Islamic Sufism in the Global Context' traces Sufi presence in a Western context, while his other pieces zoom in on Europe and North America—offering cases of diasporic orders and showing how 'tazkiya' scales into ethical citizenship, inter-faith trust, and the civic resilience the Congress set out to champion.
By the closing of the first session, a verse that surfaced early had become a thesis: ' Successful is the one who purifies himself and remembers the name of his Lord, then prays. ' The Congress did not pretend that spirituality alone could solve political problems. It argued something subtler and, perhaps, more demanding: peace is engineered first inside of the soul, and only then does it scale—home, neighborhood, community, nation… Fez , listening closely, seemed to agree. Tags: CongressFezsufismWorld Sufism Congress