Truth And The Sufi Truth In Disney Film Aladdin

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Aladdin and the (Sufi) Truth:
Don’t You Dare Close Your Eyes The 1992 Disney film Aladdin tells the tale of Aladdin and Jasmine within the fictionalized Islamic sultanate of Agrabah. In this tale both Aladdin and Jasmine are searching for love, truth, and freedom within their lives. In their journey to discover love, truth, and freedom Aladdin and Jasmine are accompanied by supernatural beings, incorrect interpretations, and must face temptations in order to gain what they seek. The story of Aladdin viewed through the lens of Sufi ideas can be used to understand the ways through which Sufi truths are revealed and the path through which those truths are revealed. Both the path of Aladdin and Jasmine, and the Sufi path cannot be walked by all, …show more content…

Jafar attempts to become Sultan himself by hypnotizing the current Sultan into marrying his daughter Jasmine to Jafar regardless of the wishes of Jasmine herself. The attempt of Jafar to illicitly gain power recalls once again a Sufi novice attempting to gain union or closeness with Allah without ridding oneself of other-thans or distractions that separate oneself from Allah. Jafar is able to almost successfully hypnotize the Sultan into marrying Jasmine to Jafar, until Aladdin bursts into the room exposing the schemes of Jafar. It is in this moment that Jafar truly recognizes Aladdin when he sees the genie lamp in the possession of Aladdin. With the help of his parrot Iago, Jafar steals the genie lamp from Aladdin and becomes the master of Genie. Jafar immediately begins to use his three wishes to gain further power. Jafar uses his first wish to overthrow the Sultan and become the most powerful sorcerer in the world. For his second wish, Jafar exposes Aladdin as “a street rat” and banishes him to a frozen wasteland, alongside Aladdin’s monkey Abu and his magic carpet. However, Aladdin, Abu and the magic carpet return back to Agrabah to stop …show more content…

Genie then attempts to reveal that he is unable to force to anyone fall in love. However, before Genie is able to inform Jafar of this, Jasmine begins to pretend she has fallen in love with Jafar, as Jasmine has noticed Aladdin entering back into the palace. Aladdin uses the distraction provided by Jasmine to attempt to steal back the genie's lamp. Jafar catches Aladdin in the act of stealing the lamp and transforms himself into a giant cobra. Jafar then proclaims to Aladdin “You little fool! You thought you could defeat the most powerful being on earth!” It is here from a Sufi reading that Jafar displays the true depths of his ignorance. In presuming himself to be the most powerful being on earth Jafar does not understand himself to be subservient to Allah. Aladdin then reminds Jafar that without Genie Jafar would not have any of his powers. Aladdin then states that Genie is more powerful than Jafar, informing Jafar that he is still second best. Jafar agrees with Aladdin and then wishes to be a genie himself so that he may be the actual most powerful being. Jafar in his ignorance does not understand that Sufi power must be achieved through disciplined and concentrated work. Jafar then uses his third wish to become a Genie. Jafar does not understand the consequences of his wish and after wishing to become a genie is immediately absorbed into a genie lamp. Jafar

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