Al-Kalābādzī's Concept of Zuhd as Structural Antithesis to Machiavellianism: Integrating Classical Sufism and Contemporary Personality Psychology

Kholid Karomi; Rizal Hanafi Putra Miswanto; Rahmat Ardi Nur Rifa Da’i; Ulfatun Wahidatun Nisa

doi:10.21580/tos.v15i1.33320

Authors

Kholid Karomi Department of Aqidah and Islamic Philosophy, Postgraduate Program, Universitas Darussalam Gontor, Ponorogo, Indonesia
Rizal Hanafi Putra Miswanto Department of Aqidah and Islamic Philosophy, Postgraduate Program, Universitas Darussalam Gontor, Ponorogo, Indonesia
Rahmat Ardi Nur Rifa Da’i Department of Aqidah and Islamic Philosophy, Postgraduate Program, Universitas Darussalam Gontor, Ponorogo, Indonesia
Ulfatun Wahidatun Nisa Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Universidad de Sevilla, Spain

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21580/tos.v15i1.33320

Keywords:

zuhd, Machiavellianism, al-Kalābādzī, Islamic psychology, structural antithesis

Abstract

Machiavellianism describes a strategic interpersonal orientation marked by manipulation, self-interest, and moral expediency. Contemporary research has clarified how it is measured, what it correlates with, and how it manifests across contexts, but it pays less attention to the normative and spiritual orientation that guides strategic capacities. This study reconstructs the concept of zuhd in Abū Bakr al-Kalābādzī’s al-Ta’arruf li-Madhhab Ahl al-Taṣawwuf and examines its relationship to Machiavellianism through a structural-antithesis framework. Using qualitative library research and conceptual comparison, the study analyzes four shared domains: motivational orientation, self-regulation, moral evaluation, and interpersonal orientation. The findings reveal a systematic opposition across these domains. Whereas Machiavellianism prioritizes strategic advantage, instrumental self-regulation, moral expediency, and manipulative interpersonal relations, zuhd redirects motivation away from worldly acquisition, disciplines self-interested desire, grounds moral evaluation in divine accountability, and promotes giving and social solidarity. This opposition reflects three reconstructed psychospiritual mechanisms: value reorientation, motivational purification and limitation, and relational restructuring. These findings establish a conceptual distinction without claiming empirical evidence that zuhd reduces Machiavellian traits.

Contribution: This study develops a non-reductive structural-antithesis framework that connects classical Sufi ethics and contemporary personality psychology, distinguishes their moral orientations, and provides a foundation for future interdisciplinary and empirical research.

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