Sufi Saint, Saintliness and Holymanworshiping

Abstract

Sufism is a strictly Islamic current whose followers devote themselves to the practice of an ascetic-based mysticism in a religious environment of great rituality. A fundamental characteristic of Sufism is the indispensable participation of a master of spirit who assumes the role of guide in the formation of the devout novice, facilitating his progression on the Way. Some of these characters, possessors of great charisma and possessors of extraordinary and exemplary virtues, came to arouse, first in their students and then in the followers of their doctrines and teachings, such a level of admiration that they came to be considered saints. The article analyzes the characteristics and circumstances that concurred in these singular people, as well as the essence of the quality that adorned them, holiness. In addition, a related phenomenon, which occurred in rural and suburban areas of Morocco and elsewhere in the Maghreb, is also addressed: santonismo. The latter would be the cult that would be given to a certain person, the saint, by sectors of the population that were not very Islamized in which certain pre-Islamic atavisms would survive.