About
From the heart of Fez to the world — a beacon of knowledge, spirit and beauty.
﴿ قَدْ أَفْلَحَ مَن تَزَكَّىٰ وَذَكَرَ اسْمَ رَبِّهِ فَصَلَّىٰ ﴾The International Academic Center for Sufism and Aesthetic Studies was founded in Fez, Morocco, in 2014 by Sheikh Dr. Aziz El-Kobaiti Idrisi Al-Hassani.
Every year, month, week, day, hour and minute has been marked by high-level achievements, developments and leaps — in the academic and scientific dimension, in education and training, and in spiritual and behavioural cultivation.
The renewal that distinguishes the Center stems from the renewing vision the Sheikh carries in his message — a vision that meets the age and walks in step with our present time.
Below is an overview of what the Center has accomplished across its scientific, spiritual, educational and media dimensions.
The Center's key achievements
National & International Branches
The Sheikh's message began in Fez, and its echo and light extended nationally to many cities. Branches of the Center were established — organisationally, spiritually and educationally — across the Kingdom of Morocco:
- Rabat–Salé
- Casablanca
- Marrakesh
- Taroudant
- Agadir
- Laayoune
- Tata
- and others
Weekly and bi-weekly men's and women's gatherings are held in these branches for the dhikr and the awrād of the Prophetic Approach.
The branches also organise national conferences and seminars, including:
- A scientific seminar — 'Moroccans and their Love for the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ: Features and Implications', Rabat branch, 5 October 2025.
- A joint women's gathering — Marrakesh and Taroudant branches, 5 October 2025.
- A national seminar — 'The Prophetic Biography and Muhammadi Prayers: Purification of the Human Soul and Loyalty to the Alaouite State', Marrakesh, 21 October 2025.
- A scientific seminar — 'Intellectual and Behavioural Building of Youth through the Tazkiyah Approach', Laayoune, 12 December 2025.
The renewing message has reached beyond the homeland to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Libya, Algeria, Egypt and Jordan, and to several European countries including France, Spain, Italy and Belgium.
The relationship between the national and international branches and the parent Center is shaped by a tight organisational maturity that frames the academic relationship and the transmission of the educational message between the source and its branches. The parent Center continually refines this work — internally and externally — through bodies and structures that operate as units within the internal and external administration, overseen by the Office of the Diwan.
Academic & Scientific Dimension
The Sheikh's renewing vision embraces global expansion in order to convey the Muhammadi message. Represented by him, the Center has been present in Azerbaijan, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Malaysia and many other countries.
It is a vision that seeks to convey the Muhammadi message within a scientific, academic and awareness-raising framework that lifts people from the ritualism of belief into true and correct religious knowledge.
In this context the Center organised a major international conference, followed by seminars hosted by the parent Center and its branches:
International conference — 'The Tazkiyah Approach: Building Humans and Protecting Nations'
Held in Fez on 12–13 August 2025, with more than 300 participants from 30 countries.
National and international seminars from the Fez headquarters
- Grand national seminar — 'The Prophetic Biography and Muhammadi Prayers: A Call to Love the Homelands and Consolidate the Values of Iḥsān', Fez, 29 November 2025.
- National women's seminar — 'The Prophetic Approach and Building the Contemporary Muhammadi Woman', Fez, 3 January 2026.
- International seminar — 'Features of Renewal in the Contemporary Tazkiyah Project of Sheikh Dr. Aziz El-Kobaiti Idrisi Al-Hassani: An Approach to Foundations and Methods', Fez, 15–16 March 2026.
The Center also bears the concern of the homeland and the responsibility of forming generations and conveying the message of renewal from Morocco to other nations, through high-level training courses aimed at building the human being, reforming youth, raising the awareness of women, rooting the love of homelands and inspiring the pursuit of benefit and usefulness.
Digital Media Dimension
The renewing vision the Sheikh's message carries is a contemporary one, keeping pace with the times and their media and digital developments. A global media body has therefore been established, run by competent mureeds who carry the burden of the message and serve this great project with sacrifice and dedication, working through a structured and tight program of multi-disciplinary committees that bring this good to the mureeds and the wider public through:
- Establishing presence and pages across digital platforms
- Developing applications that ease enrolment, subscription and follow-up
- Building programs, platforms and spaces that move the Center's work into modern digital workflows
- Covering the Center's activities internally and externally
- Producing awareness-raising programs and series rooted in the Sheikh's books and educational vision
- A strong, effective presence in all of the Center's projects
Behavioural & Educational Dimension
The Center is also a prophetic educational approach, for its message brings together knowledge and learning with cultivation and guidance — all under the supervision of Sheikh Dr. Aziz El-Kobaiti Idrisi Al-Hassani, President of the Center and Sheikh of the Prophetic Approach.
The method of cultivation rests on kamāl — the union of jamāl (beauty) and jalāl (majesty) — leading the mureeds to their goal and to companionship with the noble Messenger Muhammad ﷺ.
The Sheikh personally tends to the mureeds through framing, guidance and direction — organising weekly lessons, awareness councils and educational retreats that he oversees in an integrated manner and from which mureeds benefit in person — alongside seasonal programs designed to bind mureeds spatially to the zawiya, a house of Allah.
In this context the Sheikh leads a global da'wah team with men's, women's and Francophone sections, helping to frame the mureeds behaviourally and to assist them in overcoming the obstacles of dhikr and tazkiyah — together forming a worldwide da'wah body that carries the renewing message.
Spiritual Dimension — The Spiritual Council
The renewing vision of the Prophetic Approach embraces the spiritual aspect as well, for the Sheikh of the Approach is a spiritual guide in addition to his other duties. He has dedicated a spiritual body called the Spiritual Council, working under his direct supervision and devoted to the spiritual dimension, composed of specialisations open to those of strong spiritual connection.
Among the most prominent features of renewal: the Sheikh has moved healing from mere ruqyah and the handling of dark, satanic illnesses into a science that is studied, knowledge that is taught and a precise training that qualifies the practitioner to specialise in the field of the soul through knowledge and spiritual experience.
The Council's work is divided between two teams: a brothers' team that handles men in diagnosis, treatment and spiritual follow-up, and a sisters' team that cares for women in the same way — preserving the limits of Sharia and tending to women's spiritual states with a dedicated team.
A further sign of renewal is that treatment also extends to the luminous illnesses that affect the soul — such as jadhb (overwhelming attraction) and the imbalance of spiritual lights — a matter almost absent from the field, since prevailing knowledge, however advanced, has not gone beyond dark illnesses and so remains incomplete. The Spiritual Council has identified the luminous illnesses by category and traced the paths of their treatment. Its methods include spiritual treatment, energy work, hijama, massage and the use of oils.
The Council's healing work runs between diagnosis and treatment, in private sessions and in general purification-and-treatment sessions open to all who seek benefit. Beyond healing, the Council attends to spiritual matters in their full detail: guidance and direction, interpretation of visions and witnessings, transmission of sciences and knowledge, the granting of retreats in person and remotely, and the close follow-up of each mureed's spiritual journey.
Economic Dimension & Projects
From here we open further horizons and a new beginning that marks a renewing point of departure in the path of this Prophetic Approach. The current future vision includes:
- 01The Digital Academy of Religious Sciences — full or partial enrolment, in-person or remote tuition, in Arabic, French and English.
- 02The Quranic Kuttab — memorisation of the Holy Qur'an and its texts, in person and remotely, for Arabic speakers and non-Arabic speakers alike.
- 03The Specialised Scientific Body — devoted to the academic, scholarly and documentary dimension of the Prophetic Approach.
- 04The Burkina Faso Project.
- 05The Green Project.
A continuation of the Prophetic Approach
The vision of the International Academic Center for Sufism and Aesthetic Studies is a continuation of the Prophetic Approach that has passed through stages since the time of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ — through the masters of cultivation: Sayyiduna Ali, Sayyiduna Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, Sayyiduna Abd al-Salam ibn Mashish, Sayyiduna Abu al-Hassan al-Shadhili, our Sheikh Sidi Abd al-Aziz al-Dabbagh, our Sheikh Sidi Ahmed ibn Idris and Sheikh Sidi Ahmed al-Dabbagh — down to the time of Sheikh Aziz El-Kobaiti Idrisi Al-Hassani, who completes the message of the Prophetic Approach with a renewing perspective.
The Center in videos
Glimpses of the Center's life and activities