As part of our Sufi Perspectives section, which preserves the words of researchers of the Way, we present here the reference work by Karim Ben Driss (may Allah preserve him), sociologist and director of the Institut Soufi de Montréal, devoted to Sidi Hamza al-Qadiri Boutchich (may Allah sanctify his Secret) and to the renewal of contemporary Moroccan Sufism.
Among the works that have made the Qâdiriya Boutchichiya Way known beyond the circle of its disciples, the book by Karim Ben Driss holds a singular place. Published under the title Sidi Hamza al-Qâdiri Boudchich : le renouveau du soufisme au Maroc, it is one of the first to have studied, with the tools of sociology and anthropology, the phenomenon of a living Sufism which, far from dying out in modernity, has grown considerably under the guidance of Sidi Hamza.
A researcher who walks the path
Karim Ben Driss does not write as a spectator. A disciple of the Way, he knows from within what he describes: the transmission from master to disciple, the work of the Dhikr, the discipline of the heart. This intimate familiarity, placed at the service of a rigorous method, gives his work an accuracy that purely external studies rarely achieve. He knows how to name the Presence without betraying it, and how to describe spiritual states without reducing them to objects of analysis.
What the book brings to light
The book traces how Sidi Hamza, from the zaouïa of Madagh, made an ancient way into a radiant centre, welcoming disciples from Morocco and from all over the world: students, intellectuals, men and women from every walk of life. Where some foretold the decline of the brotherhoods, the Way showed a renewed vitality, founded on spiritual education (tarbiya) and the love of God.
Ben Driss also examines the relationship between Sufism and contemporary society: how a tradition of inwardness finds its place in a secularised world, how it speaks to new generations without yielding anything of its depth. He does not raise these questions as a distant theorist, but as a witness who has seen the Way transform lives.
Why this voice matters
At a time when Sufism is attracting growing interest (sometimes superficial, sometimes sincere), the work of Karim Ben Driss offers a serious point of reference. It reminds us that the Way is not a spiritual fashion, but a living transmission, rooted in a lineage, carried by masters, and turned wholly towards the purification of the heart and the knowledge of God.
This piece presents the book by Karim Ben Driss, Sidi Hamza al-Qâdiri Boudchich : le renouveau du soufisme au Maroc (Archè / Al-Bouraq). Karim Ben Driss is a sociologist and director of the Institut Soufi de Montréal. His work is available through the Institut Soufi de Montréal and on Cairn.info.
