The Harmony Between The Sufi Concept Of Spiritual Perfection And The Constructivist Approach
Keywords:
Sufism, spiritual perfection, constructivism, learner-centred pedagogyAbstract
This article explores the methodological convergences between the Sufi concept of spiritual perfection and the constructivist approach that has shaped much of contemporary learner-centred pedagogy. Classical Sufi authors describe education as a gradual unfolding of the spiritual capacities already deposited in the human heart, a process that requires a competent guide, dialogical companionship, constant self-observation and participation in a value-saturated community. Constructivism, building on the works of J. Piaget, L. Vygotsky and J. Bruner, likewise maintains that the learner is not a passive receiver of information but an active constructor of meaning whose prior experience, social interaction and reflective activity condition all genuine learning. By placing these two traditions in a conceptual dialogue, the article shows that both give priority to process over product, to inner motivation over external pressure, to guided interaction over authoritarian transmission and to the holistic formation of the person over narrow cognitive achievement. At the same time, the paper underscores the different teleological horizons of Sufism and modern constructivism and proposes a way to integrate Sufi-inspired values into learner-centred curricula in Muslim educational contexts.
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