Paper short abstract:

Shaykh Abdal-Qadir-As-Sufi heads a global Sufi order that works to restore the gold dinar as a new global currency. The goal is to make ‘real’ money the bridge between the rules that govern the outer world and the path to mystical unity with God. The paper explores the paradoxes of this goal and its links to other anti-capitalist forms of protest.

Paper long abstract:

Shaykh Abdal-Qadir-As-Sufi heads a global Sufi order that works to restore the gold dinar as a new global currency. The rebirth of a gold-based economy is, according to the followers of the order, the only way that Islam can be restored and the proper conditions for unity with God be realised. The road to God depends, in other words, on gold. The paper describes the movement's goal of mystical union with God through a revolution of the world economy - a goal of making 'real' money the bridge between the rules that govern the outer world (fiqh) and the path to mystical unity with God (tawhid). The paper explores the paradoxes of this goal and how it, in a wake of a global financial crisis, is forging unlikely links to other anti-capitalist forms of protest.