The "Socialistic Sufism" of Naguib Mahfouz : Modernization and Islam

Naguib Mahfouz is a famous Egyptian novelist. He has a big influence not only in the sphere of literature, but also in other cultural and social fields. One of the biggest problems the Islamic world has faced in these two centuries is the one of modernization and Islam. In the process of modernization, such questions have been asked as : what is the essence of Islam? and how can we keep our identity as members of the Islamic world? The "Socialistic Sufism" of Naguib Mahfouz is an answer to those questions. The core of this thought is what he understands about Sufism, namely Sufism as the essence of Islam. It enables him to build a bridge between Islam and liberalism and nationalism, which were the banner of the 1919 revolutionary spirit he supports. Mahfouz doesn\u27t belong to the Azhar circle, the leadership of Islam in Egypt. He is a lay Moslem and educated in the western style. But at the same time, he is strongly attached to the traditional culture and values. His thought helps us to understand what Moslem people think about their own religion