Saturday, June 30, 2007

Second Day of the Tijaniyya Meeting in Fez

[From the French language press]:

Quarante millions d'hommes et de femmes convertis à la religion musulmane à travers le monde, telle est la contribution de Baye Niasse et de sa descendance à l'expansion de la Tarikha Tijane, selon l'imam Hassan Cissé qui introduisait hier après-midi (deuxième journée de la rencontre des Tijanes de Fès) une conférence sur le rôle social de la Tijania en Afrique.

All Africa, Mauritania/Wal Fadjri, Sénégal - vendredi 29 juin, 2007 - par Abdourahmane Camara

Forty million men and women converted to the Islamic religion throughout the world, such is the contribution of Baye Niasse and his descent to the expansion of the Tariqa Tijaniyya, according to Imam Hassan Cissé which introduced yesterday afternoon (second day of the Tijaniyya meeting in Fez) a conference on the social role of the Tijaniya in Africa.

If they could make as much for the expansion of the religion of Islam through the four continents, it is because “the Tariqa Tijaniya encourages knowledge, it is against ignorance”.

The “marabout of the Americans”, as Hassan Cissé is familiarly called, added that the teaching is imparted by men of great virtues, a feat that enabled the Tariqa to propagate in all the American metropolises, and also, very recently, in Pakistan, in Moscow, in South Africa and even in Bermuda.

[archive picture: Shaykh Hassan Cissé (right) with Kofi Annan; from The African American Islamic Institute http://home.earthlink.net/~halimcisse/aaii-2.html]

'Traditions of Sufism' with Magic Ghazal Queen

Indo-Asian NS - Hindustan Times - India

Friday, June 29, 2007

Farida Khanum sways Delhi audience

Pakistan's ghazal queen Farida Khanum came, sang and conquered again. Reiterating that "music is the bridge of peace and love", the beloved singer, as popular in India as in Pakistan, had her audience in raptures and clapping endlessly for more.

Khanum, who has been a frequent visitor to India and performs always to a packed auditorium, lit up yet another evening Thursday when she sang at the 'Traditions of Sufism', a three-day event organised by the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR).

Nearly 200 fans stood outside the gate pleading to be let in into the Kamani Auditorium while many hundreds waited inside for the magic to begin.

Draped in a shimmering purple sari, which complemented the rosy tinge on her face, Khanum didn't disappoint her fans -- including not only the sombre and the grey haired but also the young jeans clad Sufi music lover.

With not an inch left in the Kamani Auditorium even to stand, she transported her audience to another world with evergreen numbers like Aaj jane ki zid na karo, Mohabbat wale kum na honge and Mere aashiyan mein kya hai.

As her deep throated voice filled the auditorium, people couldn't stop washing her over with a wave of applause time and again, which she would elegantly acknowledge with an 'aadab' and a kiss of her hands.

Bombarded by requests, Khanum gladly obliged all her fans. "Music is the bridge of peace and love between the two countries (India and Pakistan). It can heal any wound," the graceful singer, whose albums are huge hits in India, said.

"Her voice has a magic in it," said Arpita Ghosh, a student who was there at the performance with her friends. "We are all Sufi music fans and Begum Khanum is the best."

"She sings with so much of emotion, it gives me the goosebumps!," said Anjoli Menon, an art critic. "I have always been a fan of hers and will always be," she smiled.
[Listen to Aaj jane ki zid na karo through this link http://tinyurl.com/3dp77j ]

Friday, June 29, 2007

At Baba Chamliyal the Weapons Are Laid Down

KONS - Kashmir Observer - Srinagar, India

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Pak-Indian Border Guards join for prayers at a Sufi Shrine
Jammu: Tens of thousands of devotees converged on the shrine of a Sufi saint on India-Pakistan International border in Kashmir's Jammu province on Thursday and offered prayers.

Thursday marked the annual fair at the shrine of Baba Chamliyal which lies on the zero line of the heavily militarized India-Pakistan border in Ramgarh sector.

Besides citizens, soldiers of both the rival countries laid down their weapons for the day and joined in prayers and offered sweets and holy sherbet to each other.

The fair, an annual feature, brings together officers from both the countries deployed on the international border where Pak rangers hand over ‘Chaddar’ to be laid on the tomb of Baba on behalf of devotees from Pakistan and in return receive offerings of sweet and sherbaat for the devotees who anxiously wait to cross over the zero line.

Dressed in colourful dresses, riding on top of the buses and bullock carts, devotees of Baba Chamliyal thronged the shrine to pay their obeisance since early morning. Rough estimates suggested over one hundred thousand devotees visited the shrine during the day, president of the managing committee, Billo Choudhary told Kashmir Observer.

The Pakistan team was led by Colonel Mehmood, commandent II wing of Chenab Regiment. He was accompanied by several senior officers and their family members and close friends.

The Pak army officer was given a warm reception by Indian border guards at a special ceremony where he handed over a green "Chaddar” to DIG BSF G.S. Virk and received a picture showcasing shrine.

Pakistanis consider Baba Chamlyal a Muslim mystic while Indians believe he belonged to Hindu faith.

Col Mehmood told mediamen inside a temporary structure on Zero line "People on both sides of the border want to live in peace. It is because of ongouing peace process between the two countries we are celebrating such occasions".

He said that "We hope that peace will continue. As the peace process further progresses it will generate love there by narrowing down the distance between the two sides."

His counterpart, DIF BSF G.S.Virk said "We feel relaxed on the border because of the peace process. There has been no violation of ceasefire from either side which is a good omen."

Large number of devotees who reached shrine to find cure of their skin ailments were seen taking a bath with the well water after massaging the affected portion of skin with the clay, which they believe has curative effect. Others carried water and clay to Pakistan.

As a goodwill gesture the Indian border guards later filled two trollies of clay and two water tankers and handed them over to members of Chenab Rangers for distribution among several thousand people who had assmbled across the border.

The officials of the Chenab Rangers said that "At least one lakh [a hundred thousand] people have assembled across the border and were waiting for tabaruk [blessing].

Combining Popular Music with Sufi

By Meghna MenonKhabrein Info - Delhi/New Delhi, India

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Film: "Awarapan"; Music Directors: Pritam Chakraborty, Mustafa Zahid, Baba Farid, Annie; Singers: Mustafa Zahid, Rafaqat Ali Khan, Suzanne D'Mello, Annie; Ratings: ***

After delivering popular films with hit music, director Mohit Suri roped in composer Pritam Chakraborty for "Awarapan".

But what Pritam ends up doing is not composing any of the music himself but bringing in compositions from across the border - to good effect.

The album starts off with the Sufi-based track "Tera mera rishta". The song, composed and rendered by Pakistani rock sensation Mustafa Zahid, is the kind that would be featured in any Mahesh Bhatt film and yet is so different. Mustafa's deep voice holds a lot of emotion and passion, which take the track to a higher level and make it a great one to listen to.

"Mahiya" comes in next where the crooning has been done by Suzzane and the lyrics have been penned by Asif Ali Baig and Sayeed Quadri. This is a dance number that's got a very electric feel to it, making the singer sound rather like Shibani Kashyap. Though not really a hit, the song still ensures that you get the hang of it.

A disappointment comes in the form of "Maula maula" which is in no way close to the still-doing-well "Maula" from "Anwar". Belonging to the Sufi genre, this love song lacks lustre and even Rafaqat Ali Khan's rendition doesn't save the day for this track composed by Baba Farid.

A clear winner is "Toh phir aao", sung and composed by Mustafa Zahid. Being the essence of the movie, the number is the kind because of which the film might be remembered in case it fails to deliver at the box office.

Like always, the above compositions make their presence felt on Indian soil purely because Pakistani tracks combine popular music with Sufi to make them hummable and enjoyable. A must-hear!

[Enter the official website and listen to the song "Toh phir aao"
http://www.awarapanmovie.com/]

Thursday, June 28, 2007

“Every Line [of his book on Hallaj] Contains Many Lessons”

MMS/MA - Mehr News - Tehran, Iran

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

French Islamologist Louis Massignon (1883-1962), who greatly influenced the attitude of the West towards Islam, was honored on Monday evening at the Center for the Great Islamic Encyclopedia (CGIE) in Tehran.

CGIE director Kazem Musavi Bojnurdi described him as the founder of studies on Iranian and Islamic Sufism, adding that his researches are still among the most reliable sources of Islamology in the world.

“Louis Massignon began writing the history of Sufism with his masterpiece ‘Hallaj: Mystic and Martyr’ and we can say that this unparalleled work marked the beginning of such studies,” said Massignon’s Orientalist compatriot, Charles-Henri de Fouchecour.

“Contrary to his predecessors, he thought and expressed that research on other religions’ influences on Sufism is redundant,” he added.

“Massignon believed that Sufi terms originated from the Holy Quran and that they formulate a new spirituality,” he explained.

The ceremony was attended by French Ambassador to Tehran Bernard Poletti, director of the Iran and France Friendship Society Sohrab Fotuhi, director of the Institute of Wisdom and Philosophy of Iran Gholamreza Avani, and many other Iranian cultural figures.

“Every line of his book on Hallaj contains many lessons,” Avani said.
“We do him an injustice if we consider him to be only a researcher. He was an Islamologist who was profoundly familiar with Islam,” he added.
“In some ways Massignon was more distinguished than other Orientalists. He was not influenced by the various attitudes prevalent in schools of Islamology and Orientalism,” Avani noted.

The ceremony was cosponsored by the Institute of Wisdom and Philosophy of Iran, the Iran and France Friendship Society, and the Iranian literary monthly Bokhara.

The organizers paid tribute to De Fouchecour presenting him with a beautiful edition of Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh.

De Fouchecour had previously been honored on June 23 in Tehran by the Mahmud Afshar Yazdi Foundation for his lifetime research and activities on Persian language and literature.

http://www.uga.edu/islam/MESCenters.html

The Peaceful Sound of Ney

By Vercihan Ziflioglu - Turkish Daily News - Istanbul, Turkey

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Musician Kudsi Erguner attracts the attention of masses all around the world with the ney (reed flute) that he brings to life with his breath.

The artist believes that music should not be entertainment but make people think.

Erguner has played various kinds of music, and has an album called “Islam Blues.” Erguner drew attention that the word Blues recalls strangeness, loneliness and nostalgia. Mentioning that western civilization excludes what doesn't resemble itself, he thinks that Turkish Muslims in particular have started to lose their identities to gain acceptance by the West.
The famous ney player says, “Muslim intellectuals are trying to protect a depleted civilization” and that it's no good for anyone to pretend that the non existing values are alive. He defined Turkey's attempts on Mevlevism and Mevlana as fraud. Erguner mentioned that the Mevlevi houses were closed as establishments in 1925.

Erguner thinks that Turkish society has become a society which goes where the wind blows like a leaf due to political and cultural breakthroughs. He mentions that the Turkish intellectual does not go beyond the orientalist perspective in approaching ney playing and that in the world, ney playing is considered an art.

Erguner presents the aesthetics of eastern music in many projects he undertook. He mentioned the importance of the Islamic world and especially Turkey, realizing its own values and introducing them to the world. Erguner includes Classical Ottoman music and Sufi music as well as his musical identity in his compositions.

“The word Blues recalls strangeness, loneliness and nostalgia. As much as this word is valid for black people who were gathered from Africa and forced into slavery, it's also valid for believers who can't find themselves a place in this world,” says the famous ney player and explains that these were the reasons he composed his album as Islam Blues. The artist has seven long compositions in the Islam Blues album.
Erguner has works on Istanbul's Greek Composers. Erguner especially avoids discrimination of ethnic origins and defines the Armenian, Greek and Jewish musicians of the Ottoman Empire as Ottoman composers and believes the importance of them being introduced to the world music arena.

The artist defends that ethnic origins are not important and he doesn't like the idea of east-west synthesis in music. Erguner said, “I don't believe in rootless and reasonless fusions, the word synthesis doesn't reflect my perception.”

Erguner had interpreted Goethe's “East-West Anthology” accompanied by muezzins at the Passion Kirche in Berlin in recent years and was highly appreciated. The artist also combined some poems by the famous Nazım Hikmet with music.
Ney according to Sufi Philosophy
Erguner has been living in Paris for many years and aside from his ney playing identity, he's also known as a composer and musicologist.

It was due to his family that Erguner was so willing to play the ney. He learned how to play the ney from his grandfather and father. He said that being a ney player is also accepted as the attainment of Sufism status in Mevlevi culture. In Mevlana's Mesnevi, in the metaphor established between ney and humans, the ney defines the mature human and the ney player defines the person giving life to it with his breath.
According to the philosophy, while the ney finds life with the breath of the ney player, the ney player surrenders to God and his inspiration. Although Erguner comes from the Sufi tradition, he did not stay away from the modern world. He was involved in many projects with names such as Peter Gabriel, Maurice Bejart, Peter Brook, Georges Aperghis, Didier Lockood and Michel Portal and other world famous artists.

Aside from theater music, Erguner has been in over 60 albums and he holds many concerts in Europe. Erguner greets the festival audience every year with different projects. He is performing today [Wednesday, June 27] at the Hagia Irene, where he will interpret the non-religious works of Greek composers of the Ottoman Empire Zaharya and Ilya. Another important factor at the concert is that the pieces will be performed both in Greek and old Turkish.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

A Forum in Fez

[From the French language press]:

Les adeptes de la Tarika Tijania -depuis le Cheikh Soufi Sidi Ahmed Tijani (1150H/1737-1815)- se retrouvent à Fès du 27 juin (aujourd'hui) au samedi 30 juin pour un Forum organisé par le ministère des Habous et des affaires islamiques, sous le Haut patronage de S.M. le Roi Mohammed VI.

Le Matin, Maroc - mardi, juin 26, 2007 - par MAP

The followers of the Tariqa Tijaniya -from the Sufi Shaykh Ahmad al-Tijani (1150H/1737-1815)- will meet in Fez from today, June 27th til Saturday, June 30th for a Forum organized by the Ministry for Habous* and Islamic Affairs, under the High patronage of H.M. the King Mohammed VI.

This event, which will be held at the sanctuary and mausoleum of the pious Shaykh and Scholar Sidi Ahmed Tijani, will gather Sufi Masters, Scientists and disciples members of the Tariqa Tijaniya coming from forty countries.

[picture: Basmala from http://www.tidjaniya.com/]

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habous

"Voices of Moderation"

Press Association - Guardian Unlimited - UK
Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Drive to give Muslim women more say
Moves to help Muslim women exert more influence in their communities are to be announced in the latest bid to curb violent extremism.

Ministers want women and younger people to act as "voices of moderation" and will set up a £650,000 fund to break down barriers to their participation in local leadership roles.

The Government hopes that more Muslim women can be encouraged to find senior positions in mosques and take up roles as magistrates, local councillors and school governors.

Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly will say that women and younger people ought to have a bigger voice in their communities to help face down extremists.
"I have no hesitation - and nor do the vast majority of UK Muslims - in condemning violent extremism," she will say. "But the voice of community leaders, Muslim women and local role models will always carry more weight than mine where it counts.

"This fund will support potential community leaders, women and young people to help shape the places they live and play a fuller part in wider society."

The money will be used to support projects that build on the work of the British Muslim Forum and the Sufi Muslim Council in encouraging greater access to mosque committees for women.
It will also pay for an expansion in community leadership training courses for Muslim women and young people and new mentoring programmes run by the business community for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

An official at the Department for Communities and Local Government said: "The Government believes that we need to do more to help the voices of moderation in our communities be heard and listened to.

"For example, recognising and supporting the role of women - mothers, sisters and daughters. Women can have a unique moral authority at the heart of their family, speaking up for respect and compassion."

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Addressing the Inner Level

By Andrew Finkel - Today's Zaman - Istanbul, Turkey

Monday, June 25, 2007

East or West, the Names are still beautiful
It was a high note in the İstanbul Cultural Foundation's summer music festival, a first performance following the London premiere of Sir John Tavener's "The Beautiful Names."

The choir evoked the 99 names of God in the Koran, standing beneath the great cross in the apse of the eighth century basilica of Hagia Eirene.

How did Sir John, himself a convert to Greek Orthodoxy, react to crossing theological divides and hear his work performed to a largely Muslim audience beneath that cross, one of the masterpieces of iconoclastic art.

"In some ways I rather wish it hadn't been there," he replied. "This may be a strange reaction, but I don't think any kind of outward manifestation is good when one is trying to do something that is inward."

He pauses to reconsider and decides that perhaps the cross was not in the way after all. "Sacrifice is a practice common to all religion." At a symbolic level the crucifixion stands for the annihilation of ego, which he said, was close to Sufism, and recognition of the God within.

When "The Beautiful Names" was performed last Tuesday in London's Westminster Cathedral, there were blogs of protest by those insisting that when it comes to names, there were at the very most only three.

("Shame, shame, shame on the cardinal to allow this denial of the Holy Trinity in Westminster Cathedral" exclaimed one outraged Internet voice.)

Sir John Tavener is at best bemused at the suggestion that he caused offense. There are Christian fundamentalists as well as those in the Islamic world, he said. "It's a manifestation of the times in which we live."

The London critics were forthcoming with praise, if at the same time a little guarded. "Fascinating, beguiling and flawed," wrote Neil Fisher in The Times. This, too, provokes a shrug. The critics, he says, write about the music; they haven't a clue about God.

He believes the important thing was that the piece could be performed in both a Catholic cathedral and in a country that believed in Islam.

Far more important than the reviews were the remarks of those who came up to him after the performance in İstanbul. "It clearly meant so much to them. That's what moved me."

Were the two audiences hearing the same piece of music in the same way? He said that invariably there were differences. There were dissimilarities of culture and of temperament. These were important and not to be ignored.

"What I try to say in the music is that these [dissimilarities of culture and of temperament] are not at the inner level, which is what music addresses. At a higher level religions point to the same God."

Sufi Night

[From the Italian language press]:
Un incontro tra musicisti e danzatori sufi islamici delle confraternite mistiche turche, marocchine, iraniane e pakistane con musicisti e danzatrici contemporanei europei di Echo Art e Arbalete, dopo dieci anni dal primo incontro sulle scene negli spettacoli “Tributo a Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan”, “I suoni dell’Estasi” e “The Human Right”.

Un punto di arrivo e un altro punto di partenza.

Musical News, Italy - domenica 24 giugno 2007 - di Alessandro Sgritta

An encounter between Sufi Muslims musicians and dancers of the mystical Turks, Moroccans, Iranians and Pakistanis Brotherhoods with European musicians and contemporary dancers of Echo Art and Arbalete, ten years after the first encounter on stage in the shows “Homage to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan”, “the sounds of Ecstasy” and “The Human Right”.

A point of arrival and another point of departure.

Genova (Italy), Wednesday, June 27, Piazza delle Feste Porto Antico, at 9.00 pm

Monday, June 25, 2007

Lending the Ears of Our Hearts

By Sezai Kalayci - Today's Zaman - Istanbul, Turkey

Monday, June 25, 2007

Mevlana’s loving tolerance captivates NY once again
The loving tolerance of the great Turkish Sufi philosopher and poet Mevlana Rumi has enveloped New York once again.

The Istanbul Historical Turkish Music Ensemble, whose efforts have made possible the bringing of a major part of the religious repertory of an eighth century heritage into the present day without losing its original spiritual flavor, held a Mevlevi rite in Manhattan on Saturday as part of events organized for the Year of Mevlana, declared by UNESCO in celebration of the philosopher.

The Mevlevi rite was received with a great enthusiasm by an audience made up of Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

Addressing an audience of over 1,000 people in Town Hall on Saturday night, Professor Ahmet Arı spoke prior to the whirling ceremony and remarked that the world was urgently in need of such a language of peace.

Arı placed a particular emphasis on the fact that Sufism was the mystical core of Islam and was certainly not something separate, noting that the Koran contained the seeds of Sufism and that Mevlana Rumi was a very pious Muslim, unlike what is claimed to the contrary.

Turkey’s Consul General in New York Mehmet Samsar also made a speech, saying, “It’s possible to understand real love and learn how to respect one another only through lending the ears of our hearts to the source of his [Mevlana’s] blessed voice.”

Helene-Marie Gosselin, who attended the affair on behalf of UNESCO, said, “As UNESCO, we are proud of accompanying the celebrations of Mevlana Rumi’s 800th birthday.” She also said she believed it was possible to realize the project of the “Alliance of Civilizations” only through the teachings of Mevlana, ending her speech with his world-famous lines:

“Be like a river in generosity and helping others
Be like the sun in compassion and remorse
Be like the night in covering the faults of others
Be like a dead person in anger and hatred
Be like the black earth in humility and modesty
Be like an ocean in loving tolerance
Either appear as you are or be as you appear…”

Reform Is In the Eye of the Beholder

By Dr. Bhaskar Dasgupta - Desicritics.org - Bangalore, India
Sunday, June 24, 2007

The use of Islam as a terrorist ideology or even a political ideology is causing governments, as well as liberal / progressive Muslims themselves, to explore, support, develop and push for reform.

But Islam always had reformers, starting from almost the very beginning after the four Rightful Caliphs. Khajarites, sufi’s, Asha'arites, Mu'taziltes, etc. have all claimed to be reformers and desired to reform Islam.

In my opinion, reform is in the eye of the beholder, and reform can come in different ways.

Three worthies, Abdel Wahhab, Qutb and Banna considered themselves as reformers and have implemented, or at least tried to implement, their policies to reform Islam. What they called as reform is not what the western liberal progressive groups would term as reform. However, the crucial thing to remember is that their interpretation of reform is as justified as the western liberal interpretation.

As before, this essay came by from a juxtaposition of multiple factors. One of my very kind readers poked me and said that I haven’t written about Muslim reformers in a while. While at the same time, I had a very heated debate about what constitutes reform with my sister, as well as on a reformist Muslim internet group.

Not that we reached any tangible conclusion, but instead of bellowing down the phone, slamming it down, emails and other disjointed ways of communication, I thought it would make more sense for me to write out my thesis. Well, between these two aspects, this essay was born.

Let us look at Muhammad Ibn Abdel Wahhab, Hassan al Banna and Sayyid Qutb. Each of them, in and after the twentieth century, had a major impact on Sunni Islam across the world. Abdel Wahhab has been discussed threadbare before in other places, so will not repeat it.Now I am sure that people are going to look at me like I have three heads, simply because I am incorporating Abdel Wahhab, Banna and Qutb in the list of reformers. But yes, I do think of them as reformers. After all, they thought of themselves as reformers, didn’t they? And this is the crux of the matter.

Reform as with beauty is in the eye of the beholder. We who have been exposed to the Judeo-Christian / Greco-Roman tradition tend to think of reformers as those who move a religion towards liberalism (such as Raja Ram Mohon Roy with Hinduism, Rabbi Avraham Geiger or Rabbi Samuel Holdheim with Reform Judaism, etc.), but that’s not really the case necessarily.

There is a very good argument that Martin Luther’s conceptual reform framework has very many parallels with what Wahhab, Banna and Qutb attempted or did. Martin Luther’s proclamation was not a nod towards liberalism, but a call towards going back to the roots, conservative, non-accretive, etc. After all, all these men wanted to remove the bad accretions which culture, tradition, history, geography have encrusted on the original religion.

If you look at Wahhab, that is exactly what he wanted and got, namely a way of looking at an Islam which was pure, free of all the tribal traditions and rules, the jahaliyya bits, the bits which had crept in due to outside influences etc.

One might quibble about the philosophical and theological substance of looking at Islam as a literal transcription of rules, regulations and rituals based upon the clear word of God rather than say the more mystical approach of the Sufis. But Abdel Wahhab was a reformer, he wanted to reform, he managed to convince people of the need for reform. He got the people and tribal leaders to follow him and you can see the end result in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Pakistan, USA, UK and other places where Saudi money has propagated the Wahhabi creed.

Looking at Islam, we have tens, possibly hundreds, of sects who differ significantly from each others' interpretation. And these differences are seriously seminal differences, ranging from who was the last prophet, to the number of formal prayers per day, to marriage rules, etc.

Why go that far, a celebrated study in Pakistan is oft quoted in this respect. A couple of very senior legal luminaries called a bevy of Islamic theologians to depose in front of them on who or what is or defines a Muslim. As the learned judges reported, there was simply no consistency nor does agreement amongst the scholars on what defines a Muslim.

If Islamic scholars cannot agree on what or who a Muslim is, what hope does a non-Muslim have? Hence, one is forced to the conclusion that all these interpretations are valid since there is no commonly accepted framework. Or none are valid or at least acceptable, but that would be wrong, since one cannot prove a negative in metaphysics or faith.

Given the imperfect understanding of human beings of the vast majesty of the Almighty, it is but natural that we will need interpretations, even of the literal word of God. So while the Quran might be the literal word of God and can be said to be absolute, our limited understanding of it will always mean that there is a Doppler shift in understanding and interpreting of the Quran between each and every human being.

Once you multiply this with the billions of believers, thousands of generations, millions of scholars, thousands of libraries and zillions of cultural, linguistic, religious and other influences, it is simply not surprising that we have multiple interpretations and sects.

For somebody like me who believes that there are multiple ways to the Godhead, it is perfectly logical and just fine to have multiple sects. So a person like Abdel Wahhab is a reformer to me, because his interpretation of his viewpoint of what Islam consists of is perfectly valid, and from his perspective reform means going back to basics.

But when the argument is taken to the next step and no other interpretations are allowed, then we start seeing people’s hackles rise. When the logical next step starts using violence to impose one’s viewpoint, then sectarianism arises (see the issues with Ahmadi’s in Pakistan, Shia versus Sunni in Iraq, Salafi versus Sufi in Saudi Arabia and India, etc.).
But mainly, these reformers I spoke of got upset that western secular liberal ideas or culturally based traditional tribal ideas were polluting Islam and were the reason for the decline of Islamic societies.

Banna’s claim to fame is that he formed the Muslim Brotherhood, the first mass political organisation (with some social elements) in 1928 to oppose the western, liberal secular ideas which were flooding into the middle east – such as new technology like steam power and telegraph for example - due to the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and the European colonialism.

His desire was to fight against these secular liberal ideas which he thought were the reason for the decay of Middle Eastern Islamic societies and he advocated a return to a relatively traditionalist/literalist interpretation of Islam. And he got it! The organisation he founded, is a force to be reckoned with (directly or indirectly) in almost every Muslim country (and countries with a Muslim population).

There are two main reasons for his success. The first was his prolific writing, which provided the ideological underpinnings of his reform movement and second were his organisational skills. For possibly the first time in Islamic history, an organisation was formed which was not based upon individuals but on a proper institutional framework (think about the Catholic Church and you will understand what I mean! The Catholic Church, for a majority of its life, was deeply involved in every part of its parishioners' daily existence, religious, economic, social, etc.).

In Banna's formative years, he was exposed to anti colonial fights and grew to see the impact of British liberal thought in Cairo. What he took away from his observations was that the reason for the decline of Islamic civilisation was not the conservatism of Al Azhar and the Muslim theologians but western liberal secular ideas. Once it had reached critical mass, it started becoming a political force and Banna was assassinated for his trouble.

But it is a measure of his success that despite his death at only 43 years of age, the organisation has kept on growing and multiplying despite tremendous oppression by almost all parties.

Sayyid Qutb (1906–1966) on the other hand, is more modern. A teacher by training, he took up a job teaching and initially had a great interest in literature. Then the seminal event of his life happened, he was sent to the USA to study their educational system.

For a variety of reasons, this USA sojourn caused his brain circuits to fry and he fulminated against the sexual freedom, haircuts, racism, individual liberties, lack of support for Palestine, interest in sports etc. As usual, he took up religion in a big way and joined the Muslim Brotherhood as their in-house intellectual and published some seriously impressive theological and sociological works.

Also participating in the governing bodies of the brotherhood, he started poking around the highest circles of Egyptian political, military and intellectual life. Then Nasser happened and he brought a secular militaristic pan-Arab nationalist ideology to fruition. While the coup was welcomed initially by Qutb as the pro-western monarchist government was overthrown, it soured rapidly for him as Nasser made it very clear that the state will be secular and booze will flow down the Nile.

After an attempted assassination of Nasser, Qutb was thrown into jail. The prison air helped in lubricating his pen and he further wrote some more impressive tomes on basic Islamic concepts, political Islam, social Islam and role of Islam in modern life.

While he was initially let out of jail, very soon he was back inside and this time he was tried for treason and hanged. But his philosophy lives on and that is very powerful indeed.

This is not the place to go into the details of what Qutb and Banna professed (which we will go into in a later essay), but given the two key aspects, an organisation and an ideology, they are well placed to provide an alternative system of governance to the world.

The Muslim world has seen liberal democracies and it has seen autocracies (either royal, military or civilian). None of them have worked for the majority of the Muslims are still in decline. The attractiveness of this alternative form of politics is tremendous, first because of what western civilisation did to the Muslims and second is the Islamic faith based governance. If they can have an Islamic system of justice, morality, society, family law, governance, politics, etc. then why would they need to go for a western liberal democratic model?

But how did Qutb propose to implement this new system? Through classical revolution via jihad something which Al Qaeda and a whole host of other organisations picked up and are running with. Banna and Qutb could well be considered as the Plato and Paine of the Muslim world and their influence will end at eternity.

(In a following essay, I will try to analyse just what did they do to achieve success in implementation of their version of reform)

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!

About the Author: Dr. Bhaskar Dasgupta works in the city of London in various capacities in the financial sector.

A Visit Here on Fridays Will Cast a Spell on You

By Ruchika Talwar - Delhi Newsline - Delhi, India

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Every Friday at sundown, a neglected corner of Nizamuddin, 100 yards away from the bustling railway station, comes alive with the soulful strains of a qawaali.

The spiritual music immediately throws you back to a different era and a glorious past we tend to forget.

At the dargah of Hazrat Inayat Khan, the great grand son of Sher-e-Mysore Tipu Sultan, the senior most qawwal of the Nizamuddin area pays tribute to the man who made it his mission to spread Sufi music across the world.

“My ancestors have been qawwals for the last 750 years and this is our hereditary profession. Now, my sons have taken up the mantle and will continue singing here after me,” says Ustad Meraj Ahmed Nizami. Meraj is now pushing 80 and has been singing at the dargah for the last 39 years.

Few know that Hazrat Inayat Khan was the grandfather of Noor Inayat Khan, the first woman radio operator and Special Operations Executive (SOE) to be sent into occupied France during World War 2. Author Sharbani Basu’s book The Spy Princess is based on her.

Her grandfather spread Sufism to the West when he founded the Sufi Order International, which brought several Westerners into the Sufi fray. When he died in 1927, his body was brought to Delhi’s Nizamuddin area where he had already chosen his final resting place.

Nestled amidst the crowded basti, his tomb is like an oasis in the desert.
Hazrat Inayat Khan’s dargah is tastefully built and spotlessly clean. The architecture of the tomb is an interesting mix of a French chateau and Persian haveli. The whitewashed walls of the premises stand out from behind grey cobblestone arches which merge with the white marble of the dargah.

A small, manicured lawn with a gulmohar tree in full bloom, adds colour to the pristine white building. The dargah is maintained by the Hazrat Inayat Khan Memorial Trust. The trust, chiefly funded by the Hazrat Inayat Khan’s mureeds (disciples) living abroad, runs a library, music classes, pre school and handicraft workshops for women. If you’re ever looking to explore Delhi’s past, a visit here on Fridays will cast a spell on you.

[picture: detail of the dargah, photo Wali van Lohuizen
http://www.sufimovement.org/dargah.htm ]

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Allah's Breath

[From the Italian language press]:

Un premio che è anche un segnale di attenzione verso aspetti della civiltà Islamica passati in secondo piano in questi tempi di fanatismo.

Il Giornale – Torino, Italia - sabato 23 giugno 2007

A prize which is also a sign of attention towards ovelooked aspects of the Islamic civilization in these days of fanaticism.

It is awarded today, Saturday June 23, in the Castle of Grinzane Cavour (Cuneo), the prize to the winners of the 26th edition of the literary Prize Grinzane-Cavour.

The Prize Debutant Author has gone to the French-turkish writer Yasmine Ghata for her novel *La Notte dei Calligrafi* (The Calligraphers' Night).

Published in France (2004) and now in Italy by Feltrinelli, it is the story of the last great Turkish calligrapher, Rikkat Kunt, a Sufi woman (grandmother to the author) who describes the path of ascesis and mystical uplifting intertwined with the technicalities of the best-known among all Islamic arts.

The book presents a deeply fascinating dimension of Islam.

“Calligraphy is Allah’s breath, and the arabesque is the human life” says Ms Ghata.

[picture: http://tinyurl.com/22uf6j
http://www.ibs.it/ ]

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Near the Alazani River: Zikr with Sufi Women in Georgia

By Patrycja Przeslakiewicz - TOL Transitions Online - Czech Republic
Friday, June 22, 2007

Prayers for Peace and Tourists: Sufi women in the Georgian Caucasus are trying to balance old traditions with modern commerce

“I dream of making a big concert tour in Europe. I dream that European people can see how we sing and pray,” says Badi, a 70-year-old woman.
“We are not savages and terrorists as we are seen in Russia and Europe.”

Badi is a Kist, the small community of Georgian Chechens living in the Pankisi Gorge near the Russian border. Today, the Kists face what may be the most serious threat their unique way of life has met in the two hundred eventful years since their arrival in Georgia.

A legend says that boys searching for lost sheep were the first Chechens to cross the mountains into the small Caucasian valley on the Georgian side, soon followed by fathers looking for their strayed sons and then whole families. The Georgian princes to whom the land belonged welcomed the newcomers as a safeguard against plundering incursions by Dagestani and Azeri bandits. During the 19th century, fugitives from the Russian army's invasions of the North Caucasus, social outcasts, outlaws, and others swelled the flow of immigrants.

These Muslims of Georgia came to be known as Kists. Some were Chechen and Ingush seeking a less regimented way of life than the forced Islamization and Sharia law established in the 19th century by Imam Shamil and his allies in the insurrection against Russian rule. They brought with them old cults, ancestor veneration, and vestiges of paganism, and found a similarly syncretic society on the south side of the Caucasus, where the Georgian highlanders, superficially Christian, still worshipped local deities such as “White George” and Tushola, goddess of the hunt and nature. New ties of marriage, friendship, and kinship soon took hold.

The mosque soon became a center of Sufi activities. Numerous brother- and sisterhoods sprung up. Today members of women's orders, known as hadjistki, meet every Friday to perform their ecstatic prayer, zikr.

Just as when they first came to the Pankisi, today the 8,000 Kists again find themselves at a crossroads between “Georgian-ness” and “Chechen-ness." Although most of the wartime Chechen refugees have left the valley, the tensions of that time are kept alive by the children of some 2,000 migrants who found work in Chechnya in the early 1990s, later to return home from the blighted republic. Exposed to Wahhabi Islam from an early age, these now-grown children now try to propagate their views in the Pankisi. In addition, mosques and charities with Saudi backing are magnets for jobless local youth.

Recently, efforts to promote the attractions and way of life of the Pankisi have emerged from an unexpected direction: the hadjistki, members of the local Sufi women's order, headed by Badi, a member of one of the valley's most noble families.

In 2003 Badi (like most Chechens she is generally known by a nickname) set up Marshua Kavkaz, "Peace for the Caucasus," an association that seeks to ease conflict and promote prosperity through tourism and publicizing the valley's heritage.

In November 2006 a group of Sufi women came to Poland to attend a workshop on agro-tourism run by a Polish non-profit organization, the Foundation for Intercultural Education.

Already, venturesome travelers can stay in farms near the Alazani River, walk or ride in the nearby Caucasus mountains, and even take part in the Friday zikr ceremony.

Prayer rather than tourism, however, remains these women's chief activity. Most are experienced woman of middle age or older; younger women rarely participate in public affairs. Zikr sessions begin on a sign from Altzani (photo, left), the oldest member of the order, a woman whose green dress and white headscarf mark her as a pilgrim who has visited Mecca.

After a moment of silence, the women began to sing in Arabic and the Kist dialect, a mixture of Georgian and Chechen, chanting the names of God in rhythmic repetition accompanied by clapping and swaying. They pray for peace in the Pankisi, everlasting life for their ancestors, health for their families.

As the session goes on, they sing of the Chechens' many troubles: the lost struggle against Tsarist armies for independence, deportation under Stalin, the thousands killed in the modern wars with Russia.

When the excitement reaches its peak, they stand and form a circle, moving at first slowly and majestically, then faster with rhythmic clapping and foot-stamping. On another sign from Altzani they reverse direction and enter a trancelike state. Finally the mistress of the ceremony brings the circle prayer to an end.

"The sweat and spurt of energy raised by such ecstatic prayer is to purify the participants from sin and release life energy we need to implement great projects like developing tourism, an orphanage, and a center for homeless people," Badi says.


[picture: Women of the Sufi sisterhood. Badi is seated in the center.]

About the Author: Patrycja Przeslakiewicz is an ethnologist specializing in the peoples of the Caucasus. She is associated with the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at Warsaw University and the refugee and asylum department of the Polish Office for Repatriation and Aliens.

Each One Has a Story

By Siddhartha Mitter - The Boston Globe - U.S.A.

Friday, 22 June, 2007

Chalk it up to globalization: The foremost cultural ambassador of an obscure Islamic island nation off the coast of East Africa can be found, when her schedule permits, taking the waters at a Northern California yoga and meditation spa.

Such is the habit of Nawal, the singer and instrumentalist who is the first female performing artist of the Comoros, an archipelago of four islands of which three are an independent republic, and the fourth, Mayotte, is a French territory.

Though she moved to France as a child and is today based in Paris, she has become an object of Comorian national pride and returned to play there with her trio, which includes an American woman, to rapturous stadium crowds.

Her music takes as its point of departure traditional Comorian sounds, which resonate with Arabic and African influences accumulated over centuries through the Indian Ocean trade. The instrumentation showcases the gambusi, a string instrument akin to the oud. On Nawal's new album , "Aman," her lyrics draw in part on Sufi incantations and on traditional laments that Comorian women perform at private gatherings.

But if its predominant component is Comorian roots, "Aman" deviates in many ways, each one offering a glimpse of this woman's unusual journey from a highly conservative family in a highly conservative nation to the liberated spirit that she has become. "Meditation" quotes Nelson Mandela (himself quoting Marianne Williamson) and ends with a mix of Muslim and Buddhist chant. "L'Amour Sorcier" [Wizard Love] is a tribute to the late French singer and songwriter Claude Nougaro. The songs that open and close the album, the groovy "Salama" and majestic "Aman," are both prayers for peace.

"I mix different things," Nawal says of her spiritual practice, by phone from her California hideaway during a break in her current American tour. (She visits Ryles on Wednesday.) "The Sufi roots of my ancestors, Arabic styles, and animism. In France, I discovered yoga and qi gong. I've created my own practice." Referring to a line by the poet Rumi, she says she has one foot in her own culture and the other in that of all nations. "I take from everywhere."

Nawal, who is in her early 40s, had more than a few hurdles to overcome be fore fully blossoming as a musician. Though her family immigrated to France, they tried to retain their strict Comorian habits. "My mother insisted I wear traditional clothes," she says. "I would have to stop the elevator in my building to change my clothes. I had to jump through the window when I wanted to go play in the evening. I was punished a lot."

Undaunted, she got involved in local radio in Valence, the city where the family lived, suffering her mother's wrath when she caught her on the air. Finally, she broke out and went to university in the southern city of Montpellier. "I studied psychology," she says, and still practices it. "Even now sometimes I do workshops to help people be more happy, more in harmony. I use the voice also. I love to sing with people."

Nawal happily owns up to her crunchy tendencies. Valence is close to the Ardèche, an area with a Vermont-like reputation as a haven for free spirits. She credits as a shaping influence her exposure to those "hippie people from the peace and love epoch, with this peace and love life." It's also, she says, why she's comfortable in California.

It was at a jam-session party in Oakland that Nawal connected with Melissa Cara Rigoli, an American player of the mbira, the "thumb piano" of traditional Zimbabwean music.

"I was playing the mbira in the mellow area, outdoors under the sky," Rigoli says. "And all of a sudden this voice started singing that I had never heard before." Not only that, but Nawal took charge of a shaker and started playing the complex Zimbabwean rhythm faultlessly. It was similar to what she knew from the Comoros. "She said, 'How come I have to come to the US to find the music of my cousins?' " Rigoli recalls.

Rigoli found herself traveling to Paris to play with Nawal and eventually decided to move there, playing mbira and percussion in the trio, which is rounded out by Nawal's brother Idriss Mlanao on bass.

Last year, the group returned to give a series of concerts in the Comoros. Nawal was stunned by the welcome: "I didn't know how much people loved me there," she says. "But the ones who live in the Comoros are more open-minded than Comorians abroad."

At one show, she asked a group of women players of traditional music to play with her in public. The women, she says, asked forgiveness of their brothers and fathers, but nonetheless took the stage.

The Comoros, she says, are experiencing the ambiguous benefits of change: On one hand, traditions are fading; for instance, she says, keyboards and CDs are replacing traditional instruments at weddings and ceremonies. "But also at the same time people have a more open mind and women are a little more free."

That, in the end, is an important benefit in her mind. "Hima," one song on the new album, tells women that no one but themselves can fight for their rights. The a cappella "Dandzi" is a traditional song in a genre that women use to express their grievances indirectly.

Not only has Nawal followed her own message, but so has her family. "My mother used to not speak to me," she says. "Now, she's not happy I'm still not married and don't have babies, but she can respect me for my job. She accepts it."

And Nawal finds herself returning the favor, the sharp edges of her youthful rebellion now mellowed by accomplishment and experience.

"I see things differently now," she says. "I'm trying to practice what I think. Each one has a story, each one has the right to be who he is. My family, my mom, they have the right to want me to be different. Don't judge the other."

[picture: Columba polleni (Comoro Olive pigeon) stamp

On Rumi: Day-long Event in Canada



















PR release/Guelph Tribune - Guelph, ON, Canada
Friday, June 22, 2007

Persian Mystic honoured in Guelph, ON, Canada

The 800th year since the birth of Rumi, a Persian Sufi mystic and a poet still popular today, will be marked at a day-long event on Saturday June 30 at the River Run Centre.

Guelph's Sacred Wisdom Centre has organized the event called Soul on Fire: Passion and Poetry of Rumi as part of worldwide celebrations during UNESCO's 2007 "International Year of Rumi".

Coleman Barks will read from his own translations of Rumi poetry from 7:30-9:30 p.m., accompanied by cellist David Darling and Indian drummer Marcus Wise.

Barks has produced 18 volumes of Rumi's translated works, with The Essential Rumi selling more than half a million copies worldwide.

Before that, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Rumi translator and spirituality book author Andrew Harvey will lead an experiential workshop on Rumi's passion and wisdom.

Guelph artist Goldie Sherman has produced a pottery collection honouring Rumi's works specifically for the event.

Canadian filmmaker Tina Petrova will also show her film Rumi - Turning Ecstatic.

For ticket information on the event, which ends with a cocktail reception, call the River Run box office at 519-763-3000 or visit http://www.riverrun.ca/
[pictures -from left to right: Marcus Wise, David Darling, Andrew Harvey, Coleman Barks]

Thursday, June 21, 2007

The Practice of Gahwa

By Asma Salman - Gulf Weekly - Manama, Bahrain

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

The tradition of ‘gahwa’ or coffee drinking has long been an integral part of Arab hospitality and culture.

There is no spot in the Arab world without a coffee house and no occasion is complete without serving the deliciously aromatic freshly brewed coffee.

From the quaint ‘qahva khanas’ of yesteryears to the fashionable coffee houses of today, the popularity of this tantalising hot beverage has not waned. In fact, coffee has gained such considerable importance over centuries that now it is the second most actively traded commodity after petroleum standing above coal, meat, wheat and sugar. However, the origin of this dark and fragrant brew is shrouded in mystery.

Some coffee historians believe that the coffee bean is as old as man.

The first coffee beans were harvested from wild coffee plants in Ethiopia. Coffee was introduced to the West hundreds of years later than the East, where, it was a popular beverage since earlier times at every level of society. African cultures used the coffee bean as a solid food where the ripe beans were crushed by mortars, combined with animal fat and shaped into round balls. These could be carried and eaten on long journeys. African warriors also ate the coffee balls before going into battle as a source of energy.

Coffee was also used in ceremonies by the mystic Sufi religions in Yemen. The drink helped the Sufi mystics to stay up late in the night for their prayers.

Coffee houses or ‘qahva khanas’ flourished as people flocked to sip the invigorating brew. Coffee was considered a threat to the Ottoman Empire because the ruling class thought that when people gathered together in coffee houses they questioned the political doctrines of the time and hence banned such places in 1656.

Hence coffee not only played an important role in lives of intellectuals and politicians in Arabia, Asia Minor, Turkey, Syria and Egypt but was also regarded as an essential trade commodity. Arabian traders tightly controlled the lucrative coffee trade by exporting roasted or boiled coffee beans only. They forbade the export of beans that could germinate. Using this strategy they successfully monopolised the coffee trade for two centuries, enjoying highly profitable exports to the Middle East and Europe.

Coffee aroused interest not only as a ‘refreshing infusion’ but also for its healing powers so that some physicians gave it credit as a ‘cure all’. Eighteenth Century men of culture loved coffee so much that they called it the ‘intellectual beverage’. As coffee houses and coffee cultivation prospered so did the trends and trade surrounding it. In Germany after the Second World War, coffee became a symbol of economic reconstruction and prosperity. Coffee drinking became synonymous with being able to afford things again.


The fine art of preparing and serving Arabic coffee
The art of brewing the thick translucent yellow coloured drink or ‘gahwa’ varies in the Arab world and is considered an important ritual in Arab hospitality. Purists in the art of making Arabic coffee agree that the best gahwa is prepared from freshly roasted or ground beans. Now many people buy roasted coffee beans and have them ground according to their preference while others procure the already prepared powdered coffee from specialty shops. Some connoisseurs like the Mocha beans from Yemen because of their delicate flavour and rich aroma. Others prefer the beans of Brazil that are said to have the richest flavour of all while some prefer coffee beans from Nepal. Usually several kinds of beans are blended together.

“I roast the coffee beans at home before each preparation of gahwa. Initially I used to grind it in a traditional hand-held stone contraption called the ‘raha’ but ever since Moulinex came into the market I have done away with my old apparatus,” says 80-year-old Fatima Ahmed Mansoor who takes great pride in preparing the perfect pot of gahwa.

“Some Bahrainis like to have cardamom ground with the coffee beans while others like cardamom and cloves added while the gahwa is being prepared. “The proportion of cardamom and coffee varies according to individual taste. “As for myself I prefer a few strands of saffron in the gahwa. It takes anywhere between 10-15 minutes for me to prepare gahwa. The coffee should be allowed to settle in the pan for a minute or two before pouring it in the coffee pot,” she says.

Gahwa is never sweetened with sugar. Instead fresh dates or Arabic sweets are offered as a standard accompaniment to the aromatic brew. Gahwa is served in a special coffee pot known as a Dallah and then poured in small, handle less finjan’s that are always half filled. More coffee is ordered the minute the cup is empty.

An average Bahraini drinks anywhere between 10-15 cups of gahwa a day, depending on the kind of venue and company.

Mustafa Habib, administration manager at a regional consulting firm in Bahrain, said: “I drink about 10 cups of gahwa on a regular day. But when I go to the desert I consume much more gahwa than I usually do because I spend long hours in the tent with company.

”For both men and women in Bahrain, gahwa is the centre of social interaction. In almost all Arab homes, women socialise with each other over gahwa and sweets. “Gahwa is the mainstay of every occasion in my house,” says Najla Muhammed, a housewife residing in Hamad Town. “Whether it is a festive occasion or a solemn one I serve gahwa to all my guests. I don’t remember a day in my house when gahwa has not been prepared and served,” she points out.

Numerous coffee houses dot all corners of Bahrain. Although many conventional coffee houses have been replaced by the more glitzy ones, the practice of drinking gahwa while socialising continues untainted.

Coffee facts
Coffee (coffea) is the major category of the Rubiaceae family, which has over 6,000 species.
More than 60 different varieties are found in the coffee family, but only two have economic significance, Coffea Arabica and Coffea Robusta.
Coffee has been an object of trade and commerce through centuries. Approximately 20 million people worldwide earn their livelihood from the coffee industry.
Around 70 countries worldwide produce coffee and to these countries coffee is a major means of foreign exchange.

The taste of her coffee
In ancient Turkey, women received intensive training on the proper technique of preparing Turkish coffee. Prospective husbands would judge a woman’s merits based on the taste of her coffee. In the Ottoman court, coffee makers with the help of 40 assistants would ceremoniously prepare and serve coffee to the sultan.

The Liberative Spirit of Islam

By Yoginder Sikand - Counter Currents - India
Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Socio-Cultural Empowerment of Indian Muslims
I have been asked to speak on the subject of the social and cultural empowerment of Muslims in India. This is, of course, a very broad topic and one cannot do justice to it in the course of a short presentation. Rather than explore the reasons of Muslim disempowerment, about which much has already been written, I think it would be more useful to focus on certain practical measures that could be undertaken in this regard.

Now, leaving aside the complex world of politics, a few practical suggestions with regard to the issue of cultural empowerment. In this regard, it is crucial to note that Muslims in India are not a cultural monolith, although they share a common commitment to Islam.

There has been a tendency among Muslim elites in north India to seek to impose their so-called ashraf feudal culture and the Urdu language on the rest of the Indian Muslim population. Even in north India itself, highly Persianised Urdu, which is sought to be presented as the standard form of Urdu, has always been an elitist language, historically the language of some north Indian Muslim and Hindu elites. It was never the language of the Muslim or Hindu masses, who spoke and continue to speak in various regional dialects, incorrectly incorporated as Urdu or Hindi.

The elitist strategy of projecting north Indian ashraf culture as the culture of all Indian Muslims is, in fact, no different from similar efforts on the part of north Indian Hindu elites to impose Brahmincial culture and a highly Sanskritised Hindi on the rest of the Hindu population.

Even the state has sought to present Urdu as a particularly Muslim language, which is not the case. Efforts to preserve and promote Urdu are surely welcome, but it must be remembered that it cannot and must not be treated as a Muslim language or as the language of all the Muslims of India. This will only further reduce the chances of survival of the language.

It would also keep Muslims confined to their ghettos, unable to compete in the job market because of lack of competence in other languages. It would also further fortify barriers between Muslims and others, which can only further strengthen the deep-rooted stereotypes that others have about Muslims and Islam.

In this regard, the emergence of a number of Muslim publications in languages other than Urdu is a welcome development. This can help promote communication with other communities, which, even from the point of view of explaining Islam to others, is a crucial requirement. It can also help strengthen regional identities and cultures, in which Muslims, Hindus and others can participate together, thus making for greater and more positive inter-community interaction.

North Indian Muslims have much to learn from their counterparts in Kerala in this regard, where Muslims, Hindus, Christian, Dalits* and others all share a common linguistic and cultural heritage, which has helped in fostering fairly cordial inter-community relations.

The democratic revolution demands that the cultures of marginalized communities be celebrated and promoted. These often contain rich symbolic resources that reflect the pains and anguish of the oppressed and their quest for emancipation, as well as a symbolic critique of the culture of elites that is used to legitimize their oppression.

The retrieval of the cultures of the oppressed or subalterns is happening today in the case of the Dalits and Adivasis***. In the Muslim case, this is less marked, for various reasons, but is reflected in some recent efforts by so-called low caste Muslim groups, particularly in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, to celebrate their histories and heroes, commemorating the liberative spirit of Islam, which, they argue, has been sought to be watered down by Muslim elites.

The tradition of numerous Sufi saints who bitterly critiqued political and religious elites for their oppression of the poor, and whose understanding of Islam was ecumenical and broad, reflecting a concern for all of God's creatures, and not just Muslims alone, was also a part of this broader subaltern tradition.

This crucial social aspect of India's rich and varied Sufi traditions, of the non-elite variety in particular, needs to be highlighted, in order to evolve a popular culture that celebrates religious pluralism and at the same time speaks out against oppression and hegemony, be it of the state, or of Hindu and Muslim elites, and so on. This can play a vital role in the socio-cultural empowerment of the marginalized, Muslims as well as others.

In this regard, it is pertinent to note how this tradition has been considerably bruised by the ritualisation of popular Sufism, with the transformation of Sufi shrines from centres of instruction and provision for the needy to centres of mediation, being controlled by a class of elites who claim to be religious intermediaries.

Indian Muslim history, as is taught in schools and madrasas, and as is reflected in books on the subject by both Muslim and other scholars, continues to be highly elitist, and, incidentally, rather north Indian centric. This, too, is an issue that needs to be addressed in the process of promoting the cultural empowerment of the marginalized sections of the Muslims. Books on the subject of Indian Muslim history inevitably focus almost entirely on Muslim rulers, Sufis and ulema, almost all of whom were from the so-called higher castes-Sayyeds, Shaikhs, Mughals and Pathans, who form only a relatively small minority of the Indian Muslim population.

There are hardly any books available on the literally hundreds of indigenous Muslim communities, mainly those of so-called low caste background. This, too, must change, if we are serious about a promoting democratic culture that is biased in favour of the oppressed. This democratization of Muslim historiography is as necessary as the democratization of the official Hindu historical canon, which, like its Muslim counterpart, is sternly elitist.

Democratising Indian Muslim history writing would also serve a very necessary political purpose-to highlight the fact that the so-called period of 'Muslim rule' in India, which is routinely talked about both by Muslim and Hindu elites, was hardly that. It was actually the rule of Muslim elites, almost entirely of foreign extraction, in collaboration with sections of the Hindu elites. The vast majority of the Muslims, of indigenous extraction, were as marginalized and oppressed by these elites as their Hindu counterparts from the so-called low castes were. Making this point in today's context of communal rivalry is extremely significant in order to counter the political projects of Hindu as well as Muslim right-wing forces.

Promoting empirical research on marginalized sections of the Muslim community, and awareness-building, mobilisation and lobbying based on this, is essential in empowering them socially as well as culturally. I think the notion that an ideal career is that of a doctor, a lawyer or an engineer, or, now, a computer scientist or a business manager, needs to be challenged, and more Muslim youth need to go in for higher studies and careers in journalism, the liberal arts, humanities and the social sciences, to focus in their work particularly on marginalized sections of the community.

There is a pressing need for the setting up of voluntary agencies to work among the Muslim poor. While there are literally thousands of madrasas in India, and crores of rupees are spent on fancy mosques, the number of Muslim NGOs which are really doing sincere and constructive work for the educational and social empowerment of the marginalized sections of the Muslims is relatively meagre.

Muslim organizations must make demands on the state for adequate state investment in Muslim areas. In addition, however, efforts must be made to mobilize the internal resources of the community for the empowerment of the marginalized. In this regard, there needs to be rethinking of the best possible use of zakat funds, most of which now go to madrasas. The standard charity-based approach has to give way to seeking to seeking to empower the poor.

There is also a serious need for working on the issue of waqfs** and dargahs and exploring possibilities for increasing their revenues and using these for the poor. This also calls for democratic management of the waqf boards and dargah committees.

The rigid dualism that characterizes Muslim education, between the ulema and 'modern' educated Muslims, must be narrowed down and efforts need to be made to promote greater dialogue and interaction between the two to help in the process of the empowerment of the marginalized sections of the Muslim community.

In this regard, I would like to cite the instance of a group of Muslim activists, mainly retired government officers, in Bangalore which I recently came across. This group goes every Friday to various mosques in the city and, after the imam reads the Arabic khutba, they deliver sermons on the importance of education and also on the salience of the findings of the Sachar Committee report. After the prayer gets over, there is a question and answer session, where people ask questions and advice is given on how to form local groups, solve local problems and access various government schemes.

I also think that there is much that madrasas and other Muslim organisations in the rest of India can learn from the Kerala example, where Muslim organizations are much better organized and socially engaged. It would serve a valuable purpose if arrangements could be made for Muslim social activists and younger ulema from other parts of India, who wish to work for the empowering the Muslim poor, to visit various Muslim institutions in Kerala to see the very interesting and creative work that they are doing and to learn from their example. The somehow deeply-rooted notion that north India must lead and south India must follow is completely mistaken and there is much that the south Indian example holds for north Indian Muslims to learn from.

Inter-community dialogue should go beyond talking about one's religion to focus on the possibilities of joint efforts to work for social issues of common concern.

This is the dialogue of social action, which moves beyond mere theological exchange and polemics. There is an urgent need for many more Muslims to be involved in social movements on issues that are not limited just to the Muslim community, but, rather, are of much wider concern, such as the environmental movement or the struggle against so-called globalization and against caste, class and gender oppression.

The obsession with issues only concerning the Muslims is, I feel, very stifling and also counter-productive from the point of view of the Muslim masses. So, too, is the tendency to be self-righteous, to ignore the serious need for introspection, to blame others for all one's ills and to remain silent when, in some situations, non-Muslims suffer at the hands of Muslims.

Of course there are several other things that must be done for the empowerment of the marginalized sections of the Muslim community, including, particularly, women. I will not go into this because much has already been said and written about this, including in the recommendations of the Sachar Committee Report. What I have presented here are some stray and rather disjointed thoughts for your consideration and I only hope that this would enthuse at least some people here to seriously think of working on these issues.

About the Author: Yoginder Sikand works with the Centre for Jawaharlal Nehru Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoginder_Sikand]

[This is an extract from a Paper presented at a conference on the Sachar Committee Report in Kochi, 16th-17th June, 2007 organised by the Al-Ameen Educational Trust and the Forum for Faith and Fraternity. To read the full text, click on the title above]

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalit_(outcaste)
** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waqf
*** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adivasi

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

In the Alchemy of Love, Problems are Dissolved

By Rasoul Sorkhabi - Kyoto Journal - Japan

# 66 - Current Issue
Master Rumi: the Path to Poetry, Love and Enlightenment

Eight hundred years ago, in a northeastern town of the Persian kingdom, a boy was born. When he was twelve years old, he chanced to meet the great Sufi master and Persian poet Attar, who told the boy’s father: "The fiery words of this boy will kindle the souls of lovers all over the world.”

That boy was later to be known as Rumi. And this year, 2007, many literary, cultural and spiritual organizations are celebrating his 800th birth anniversary. UNESCO has issued a medal in Rumi’s honor.

According to various sources, including The Christian Science Monitor, TIME Asia magazine, and the US Department of State’s Washington File, Rumi has become the most widely-read poet in North America, and translations of this Asian poet are increasingly popular in the other Western countries.
For three decades, I have been reading Rumi everywhere I have been — India, Japan, and the USA. It is thus a personal delight to see the growing popularity of Rumi’s poetry.

Who really was Rumi? How did a Muslim preacher become a poet of love? Who were Rumi’s masters? What was the visionary ground underlying his poetry? These are the questions I set out to explore here: Rumi’s path to poetry, the source of his poetry — spiritual enlightenment, and the content of his poetry — love. In this analysis, I draw from the original historical literature, and also offer some new translations of Rumi’s poems.

Good poems enrich our life, and Rumi’s poetry is a treasure.

In Search of Rumi
Today in the West, Rumi is famous for his poetry. Yet he was a prolific but not a professional poet, a learned religious leader, teacher, preacher and above all a Gnostic (Âref: one possessing esoteric knowledge of spiritual matters). For centuries, Rumi has been known as Moulânâ (“Our Master”) to the Persian-speaking peoples of Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and parts of India and Pakistan. The name Rumi, meaning “belonging to Rum or Rome,” refers to the Roman-Byzantine kingdom which once included Anatolia, a vast plateau in Asia Minor, the westernmost peninsula of Asia, lying between the Black and the Mediterranean seas — the vibrant setting in which Rumi lived most of his life.

Rumi’s major works of literature include (1) the Masnawi Ma’nawi (“Spiritual Couplets”), a six-volume book of stories and parables narrated in about 26,000 verses of didactic poetry; (2) the Diwân [Poetry Book] Shams Tabrizi consisting of about 50,000 verses of lyric odes (ghazal) and quatrains (rubaiyât); and (3) a collection of 71 discourses in prose called Fih Mâ Fih (“In It What is in It”).

Rumi himself summarized his life work as follows:

The outcome of my life is no more than these three lines:
I was a raw material;
I was cooked and became mature;
I was burned in love.


Rumi’s Life: Act I
Rumi’s given name was Jalâluddin (“Glory of Religion”) Muhammad. He was born on September 30, 1207, most likely in the city of Balkh in present-day Afghanistan. The Swiss scholar Fritz Meier, who has researched the life of Rumi’s father, Bahâ Valad, argues persuasively for the small town of Wakh’sh in present-day Tajikistan.

We do know that Rumi grew up in Balkh, in that era a political, commercial and intellectual center of the Persian kingdom, a city where his father was honored as the Sultân-e Ulemâ (“King of the Learned”). It is recorded that even the king, Mohammad Khârazm-Shah, used to attend Bahâ Valad’s lectures.

To understand Rumi it is useful to understand his father — fifty-six years his senior, and indeed, Rumi’s first teacher. Bahâ Valad was not merely a preacher but a Muslim Gnostic, a Sufi. In the Islamic tradition, the Sufis have often been contrasted with the Falâsafeh (the Philosophers). While the Sufis called for direct spiritual experience, meditation, and love, the Falâsafeh focused on rational thinking, intellectual knowledge, and logical arguments. These two fields are not necessarily contradictory but philosophy, the Sufis believe, can never replace practice and experience.

On the path of love, Rumi himself once said, “The legs of argumentative logicians are made of wood!” In other words, they can talk but cannot walk. The Sufis have also had their differences with the Fuqahâ, or Islamic law-experts, who deal with formalities and rituals.

In his public talks, Bahâ Valad would criticize the philosophers. His words and public influence obviously hurt the feelings of Imam Fakhruddin Râzi, an eminent Muslim theologian and the King’s teacher in Balkh. All of this came to make life difficult for Bahâ Valad. Moreover, there was a prevalent fear of the invasion of Persia by Genghis Khan’s brutal army (this invasion and its attendant bloodshed eventually happened).

Bahâ Valad decided to emigrate from Balkh and take his family westward. En route to Baghdad, Bahâ Valad’s caravan stopped at the city of Nishâbur. This is where Attar met the twelve-year-old Rumi and presented him with a copy of his book on mysticism, Asrâr Nâmeh (“The Book of Mysteries”).

Bahâ Valad and his family made a pilgrimage to Mecca, stayed for a while in Damascus, and finally went to Anatolia, which was then under the control of the Seljuq Dynasty, far from the Mongolian influence.

In the town of Laranda (today called Karaman), Rumi’s mother died in 1224. Her tomb can still be found there. A year later, Rumi, eighteen, married his childhood friend Gouhar, whose family had accompanied the Valad family from Balkh. Rumi’s son Sultân Valad was born in Laranda.

Sometime later, at the request of the Seljuq king Ala’eddin Kayqobâd, Bahâ Valad and his family moved to the town of Konya, where a seminary was built for him. Two years later, in 1231, Bahâ Valad, aged 80, passed away. And Rumi, then 24, took over his father’s position.

Burhânuddin Tirmadhi — Bahâ Valad’s disciple and Rumi’s tutor back in Balkh — soon joined Rumi in Konya. There he undertook a systematic training of the young man, and suggested that Rumi study Bahâ Valad’s Ma’âref. Rumi also spent a few years learning from great Sufi masters and Muslim scholars in Aleppo and Damascus (both in present-day Syria).

What was the content of Rumi’s education? A Muslim scholar would have studied Arabic, the Quran, the sayings and acts of Prophet Muhammad, Islamic rituals, law, philosophy and history. Rumi’s books indeed show us that he possessed a vast knowledge of literature, both Arabic and Persian, and both prose and poetry. He was fond of at least one classic Arabic poet, Mutanabbi, and two Persian poets, Attar and Sanâ’i.

Rumi returned to Konya in 1232, and Burhânuddin told him that although he had become a master of “the sciences of appearances” he had yet to master “the hidden sciences.”

Rumi is said to have taken three successive chelleh (a 40-day period of retreat, fasting, and meditation) to the satisfaction of Burhânuddin. Rumi then began to serve as a reputed religious scholar in Konya. (Burhânuddin would die in 1241.)

When Two Oceans Meet
Now we are in a better position to understand the climax of Rumi’s life — his meeting with a wandering dervish, Shams Tabrizi. This was a rebirth, and Act II in Rumi’s life. There are several versions of how this meeting took place. A fifteenth-century Persian poet, Jâmi, writes that one day in the late autumn of 1244, Rumi was sitting by a pool along with his disciples and books. Shams (unknown to Rumi) came along, greeted him and sat down. Interrupting Rumi’s lecture, he pointed to the books and asked, “What are these?” Rumi replied, “This is some knowledge you wouldn’t understand.” Shams then threw all the books into the water and said, “And this is some knowledge you wouldn’t understand.”

I narrate this story not because I myself believe it, but because this story best illustrates how people have dramatized Shams’ influence in Rumi’s life: A dry, bookish theologian suddenly turns to mysticism after meeting an old mystic who disliked bookish knowledge.

The fact is that the meeting of Shams and Rumi was like the convergence of two oceans.

Rumi’s upbringing and education had nurtured him for a mystic’s life. (A good analogy is this: Millions of people have observed apples falling down, but only Newton could discover the laws of universal gravitation from such an observation.) On the other hand, Shams was not an illiterate person. Born in Tabriz, a city in northwest Iran, some six decades before coming to Konya, Shams had studied with many masters and the extant book of his discourses, the Maqâlât Shams Tabrizi, indeed shows him to be a very knowledgeable person. Nevertheless, it is true that Shams galvanized Rumi’s mystical and artistic senses.

After that, Rumi turned to music, dance and poetry, and was detached from books.

Shams did not let Rumi read even his father’s book. How can one explain Rumi’s relationship with Shams? In the Diwân Shams Tabrizi, Rumi has many expressions of love, respect, admiration and longing for Shams. Impressed by these poems, some have recently argued that Rumi and Shams enjoyed a homosexual relationship. This view is a gross misunderstanding both culturally and spiritually. Certain customs in one culture sometimes can be greatly misinterpreted by other peoples. In India, for example, one can see boys holding hands and walking in the street. Or among the Arabs, it is customary for men to kiss each other on the face as part of their greetings. These customs do not mean that Indian or Arab men are gay.

In some Western countries, a man may kiss his friend’s wife on the face as they greet or say farewell. Such a practice is unacceptable for the Eastern people – and prone to misunderstanding. (At the other “extreme,” the Japanese traditionally do not kiss — even their own children — in public.)

We cannot judge Rumi’s acts and words according to twenty-first century Western social norms. We need to evaluate each practice in its own cultural context.

To misinterpret Rumi’s and Shams’ relationship is also to misread the whole spiritual environment in which these two men lived. In Sufism, there is a tradition of soh’bat (“dialogue” in retreat) which takes places between two seekers as they share their knowledge, stories and experiences. The soh’bat is believed to strengthen the mind and soul of the seekers. Rumi himself has a poem about this tradition:

Oh my heart, sit with a person
who understands the heart.
Sit under a tree
which has fresh flowers.
In the market of perfume sellers
don’t wander like you’re jobless.

Sit with a shopkeeper
who has sugar in the store.

Not every eye has eyesight.
Not every sea contains a jewel.


My interpretation of the Rumi-Shams relationship is a parable which both Shams and Rumi use in their discourses — the parable of the “mirror” (Âyeeneh).

A mirror reflects what is cast on it without judging, and thus we see ourselves in the mirror as we are, in a good or bad state of mind. A spiritual friend is like the mirror; it reflects and strengthens our goodness and inner beauty; it also shows our weaknesses and dark sides in a non-arrogant manner so that we can see them for ourselves and resolve them.

In 1248, Shams disappeared from Konya and, for that matter, from history. Some scholars believe that he was murdered by jealous disciples of Rumi who had lost their master to this strange old man; other scholars believe that Shams left Konya on his own (as he had done once before for a brief period) because Rumi’s disciples had made life too difficult for him.

We do not know for sure what happened. In any case, Shams’ disappearance was an emotional blow to Rumi. He traveled twice to Damascus in search of him. As time passed, Rumi found two other spiritual friends, the goldsmith Salâhuddin Zarkub and Husâmuddin Chelebi (a close disciple). If Shams is the hero of Rumi’s Diwân, Husâmuddin is the person to whom Rumi recited the Masnawi during the last seven years of his life.

Love in Rumi’s PoetryLove (Ishq) is a common thread that runs through all of Rumi’s poems, directly or by implication. The intensity of the language and the passionate imagery that Rumi uses to express love is rarely seen in other poets.

Nonetheless, as Coleman Barks, who has successfully popularized Rumi’s poems through rendering them to the modern style of free verse, aptly remarks, Rumi’s love is not of the kind, “she left me, he left me; she came back; she left me.”

Love in Rumi’s poems stems from his realization of the Divine Love and its extension to the world and human life. Rumi says:

In the realm of the Unseen
there exists a sandal wood, burning.
This love
is the smoke of that incense.


Rumi views the true human love as a reflection of this cosmic love matrix.

I use this term in a modern, scientific sense. The best explanation physicists have for the gravitational force is not that of a simple attraction between two isolated bodies but a force embedded in the very fabric of the universe. Here again Rumi has a say:

If the Sky were not in love,
its breast would not be pleasant.
If the Sun were not in love,
its face would not be bright.
If the Earth and mountains were not in love,
no plant could sprout from their heart.
If the Sea was not aware of love
it would have remained motionless somewhere.


How does this divine cosmic love function? How is it manifested? Where does it take us? To answer these, I can think of two love-based processes in Rumi’s poetry: (1) transformation, and (2) transcendence.

Rumi assigns a transforming power to love like nothing else. Through love, he says, everything changes in a positive way, and far more rewardingly than through other means.

In the Masnawi, Rumi tells us the story of Luqmân, a famous sage in the ancient Middle East, who one day was eating watermelon when his master joined him, but found the watermelon very bitter.

The master scolded Luqmân over why he had not informed him that the watermelon was bitter. Luqmân replied that it was not bitter for him, as he was eating the watermelon with love in the home of his master:

Through love
Bitter things become sweet.
Through love
Bits of copper turn into gold.
Through love
Dregs taste like pure wine.
Through lovePains are healed.

Sometimes we are stuck in a problem or in a conflict, and our ever-calculating intellect is unable to find a rational solution. In the alchemy of love, problems are not solved; they are dissolved.

Reason says:
These six directions are the limit.
There is no way out!
Love says:
There is a way.
I have gone it many times.

Reason saw a market and began to trade.
Love has seen other markets beyond this bazaar.

Similar to the Buddhist concept of nirvana, Sufis say that fanâ is annihilation of the ego and dissolution in the divine love. In that state of love, you are one with everything and you see everything as one. In other words, the seeker goes beyond dualities (a quality of the mind that Buddhism also fosters) and becomes one with the Beloved.

Let’s listen to Rumi himself on what this transcendence means:

What is to be done, O Muslims, for I can’t identify myself:
I’m neither Christian, nor Jewish,
neither Zoroastrian, nor Muslim.
I’m neither Eastern, nor Western,
neither of the land, nor of the sea.

I’m not from Nature’s mine,
or from the circling Heavens.

I’m not from this world, or from the next
neither from Paradise nor from Hell.
I’m neither from Adam nor from Eve

My place is placeless, my trace is without signs.
This is neither body nor soul
for I belong to the soul of the Beloved.
An Out-of-the-World Citizen

Why is Rumi such a popular poet seven centuries after his life, and in different lands? Rarely a day passes that I do not come across a few verses from Rumi. To answer this question, perhaps I can offer one of Rumi’s own poems:

I don’t seek this world or that world
Don’t seek me in this or that world.
They both have vanished in the world where I am.


Rumi was an “out of the world” citizen. Although his life was rooted in the Islamic and Persian culture, his constituency was the human heart. That is why his poems lift us from mundane situations and offer us the purity, clarity and beauty of a poetic vision — and when our feet touch the earth again, we feel, not relaxed, but relieved.

Rumi does not view the divine love as an abstract subject for poets or philosophers; it is a foundation on which we should build our living. Rumi’s poetry is also his ethics without systematization and based on (not law but) love. He views God not as a remote father in heaven but a friend (doost) on the Earth.

Rumi spoke his poems spontaneously — oftentimes during the whirling dances or while listening to music. And he appears to have practiced what he preached in his poetry.

Rumi’s biographers have recorded many stories of his humbleness and kindness towards people, whoever they were. For instance, Aflâki recounts that a Christian monk, who had heard of Rumi’s scholarly and spiritual reputation, went to meet him in Konya. Out of respect, the monk prostrated himself before Rumi, and when he raised his head, he saw that Rumi had been prostrating himself as well, before the monk.

When Rumi died on December 17, 1273, on a Sunday at sunset in Konya, people of the town — Muslims, Jews and Christians, the poor, the rich, the learned, the illiterate — all came to his funeral and mourned.

Aflâki writes that some fanatics objected because non-Muslims were attending the services. But the Jews and the Christians told them just as their Muslim friends had understood Prophet Muhammad through Rumi, they had also understood Moses and Jesus through him.

Perhaps, then, Rumi’s poetry can serve as an enlightening vision and uniting voice for our divided world and violent century.

I am the Moon everywhere and nowhere.
Do not seek me outside;
I abide in your very life.

Everybody calls you towards himself;
I invite you nowhere except to yourself.

Poetry is like the boat and its meaning is like the sea:
Come onboard at once!
Let me sail this boat!
–Rumi

About the Author:Rasoul Sorkhabi was born in the city of Tabriz, in northwest Iran, where (incidentally) Shams of Tabriz, Rumi’s master, was also born and raised. And (incidentally) like Shams, he has spent most of his life abroad – in India, Japan, and the USA – everywhere accompanied by Rumi’s poetry books. He is a research professor in geology at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, where he lives with his wife, Setsuko Yoshida (a Japanese painter) and their daughter. He is working on an original translation of “The Rubaiyât of Rumi” and coordinates the Rumi Poetry Club. Contact: rumipoetryclub[at]earthlink.net

[from the same Author: http://sufinews.blogspot.com/search?q=Sorkhabi ; then scroll down beyond this article]

[picture: Painting of Rumi by Setsuko Yoshida]

Saturday, June 30, 2007

Second Day of the Tijaniyya Meeting in Fez
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[From the French language press]:

Quarante millions d'hommes et de femmes convertis à la religion musulmane à travers le monde, telle est la contribution de Baye Niasse et de sa descendance à l'expansion de la Tarikha Tijane, selon l'imam Hassan Cissé qui introduisait hier après-midi (deuxième journée de la rencontre des Tijanes de Fès) une conférence sur le rôle social de la Tijania en Afrique.

All Africa, Mauritania/Wal Fadjri, Sénégal - vendredi 29 juin, 2007 - par Abdourahmane Camara

Forty million men and women converted to the Islamic religion throughout the world, such is the contribution of Baye Niasse and his descent to the expansion of the Tariqa Tijaniyya, according to Imam Hassan Cissé which introduced yesterday afternoon (second day of the Tijaniyya meeting in Fez) a conference on the social role of the Tijaniya in Africa.

If they could make as much for the expansion of the religion of Islam through the four continents, it is because “the Tariqa Tijaniya encourages knowledge, it is against ignorance”.

The “marabout of the Americans”, as Hassan Cissé is familiarly called, added that the teaching is imparted by men of great virtues, a feat that enabled the Tariqa to propagate in all the American metropolises, and also, very recently, in Pakistan, in Moscow, in South Africa and even in Bermuda.

[archive picture: Shaykh Hassan Cissé (right) with Kofi Annan; from The African American Islamic Institute http://home.earthlink.net/~halimcisse/aaii-2.html]
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'Traditions of Sufism' with Magic Ghazal Queen
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Indo-Asian NS - Hindustan Times - India

Friday, June 29, 2007

Farida Khanum sways Delhi audience

Pakistan's ghazal queen Farida Khanum came, sang and conquered again. Reiterating that "music is the bridge of peace and love", the beloved singer, as popular in India as in Pakistan, had her audience in raptures and clapping endlessly for more.

Khanum, who has been a frequent visitor to India and performs always to a packed auditorium, lit up yet another evening Thursday when she sang at the 'Traditions of Sufism', a three-day event organised by the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR).

Nearly 200 fans stood outside the gate pleading to be let in into the Kamani Auditorium while many hundreds waited inside for the magic to begin.

Draped in a shimmering purple sari, which complemented the rosy tinge on her face, Khanum didn't disappoint her fans -- including not only the sombre and the grey haired but also the young jeans clad Sufi music lover.

With not an inch left in the Kamani Auditorium even to stand, she transported her audience to another world with evergreen numbers like Aaj jane ki zid na karo, Mohabbat wale kum na honge and Mere aashiyan mein kya hai.

As her deep throated voice filled the auditorium, people couldn't stop washing her over with a wave of applause time and again, which she would elegantly acknowledge with an 'aadab' and a kiss of her hands.

Bombarded by requests, Khanum gladly obliged all her fans. "Music is the bridge of peace and love between the two countries (India and Pakistan). It can heal any wound," the graceful singer, whose albums are huge hits in India, said.

"Her voice has a magic in it," said Arpita Ghosh, a student who was there at the performance with her friends. "We are all Sufi music fans and Begum Khanum is the best."

"She sings with so much of emotion, it gives me the goosebumps!," said Anjoli Menon, an art critic. "I have always been a fan of hers and will always be," she smiled.
[Listen to Aaj jane ki zid na karo through this link http://tinyurl.com/3dp77j ]
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Friday, June 29, 2007

At Baba Chamliyal the Weapons Are Laid Down
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KONS - Kashmir Observer - Srinagar, India

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Pak-Indian Border Guards join for prayers at a Sufi Shrine
Jammu: Tens of thousands of devotees converged on the shrine of a Sufi saint on India-Pakistan International border in Kashmir's Jammu province on Thursday and offered prayers.

Thursday marked the annual fair at the shrine of Baba Chamliyal which lies on the zero line of the heavily militarized India-Pakistan border in Ramgarh sector.

Besides citizens, soldiers of both the rival countries laid down their weapons for the day and joined in prayers and offered sweets and holy sherbet to each other.

The fair, an annual feature, brings together officers from both the countries deployed on the international border where Pak rangers hand over ‘Chaddar’ to be laid on the tomb of Baba on behalf of devotees from Pakistan and in return receive offerings of sweet and sherbaat for the devotees who anxiously wait to cross over the zero line.

Dressed in colourful dresses, riding on top of the buses and bullock carts, devotees of Baba Chamliyal thronged the shrine to pay their obeisance since early morning. Rough estimates suggested over one hundred thousand devotees visited the shrine during the day, president of the managing committee, Billo Choudhary told Kashmir Observer.

The Pakistan team was led by Colonel Mehmood, commandent II wing of Chenab Regiment. He was accompanied by several senior officers and their family members and close friends.

The Pak army officer was given a warm reception by Indian border guards at a special ceremony where he handed over a green "Chaddar” to DIG BSF G.S. Virk and received a picture showcasing shrine.

Pakistanis consider Baba Chamlyal a Muslim mystic while Indians believe he belonged to Hindu faith.

Col Mehmood told mediamen inside a temporary structure on Zero line "People on both sides of the border want to live in peace. It is because of ongouing peace process between the two countries we are celebrating such occasions".

He said that "We hope that peace will continue. As the peace process further progresses it will generate love there by narrowing down the distance between the two sides."

His counterpart, DIF BSF G.S.Virk said "We feel relaxed on the border because of the peace process. There has been no violation of ceasefire from either side which is a good omen."

Large number of devotees who reached shrine to find cure of their skin ailments were seen taking a bath with the well water after massaging the affected portion of skin with the clay, which they believe has curative effect. Others carried water and clay to Pakistan.

As a goodwill gesture the Indian border guards later filled two trollies of clay and two water tankers and handed them over to members of Chenab Rangers for distribution among several thousand people who had assmbled across the border.

The officials of the Chenab Rangers said that "At least one lakh [a hundred thousand] people have assembled across the border and were waiting for tabaruk [blessing].
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Combining Popular Music with Sufi
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By Meghna MenonKhabrein Info - Delhi/New Delhi, India

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Film: "Awarapan"; Music Directors: Pritam Chakraborty, Mustafa Zahid, Baba Farid, Annie; Singers: Mustafa Zahid, Rafaqat Ali Khan, Suzanne D'Mello, Annie; Ratings: ***

After delivering popular films with hit music, director Mohit Suri roped in composer Pritam Chakraborty for "Awarapan".

But what Pritam ends up doing is not composing any of the music himself but bringing in compositions from across the border - to good effect.

The album starts off with the Sufi-based track "Tera mera rishta". The song, composed and rendered by Pakistani rock sensation Mustafa Zahid, is the kind that would be featured in any Mahesh Bhatt film and yet is so different. Mustafa's deep voice holds a lot of emotion and passion, which take the track to a higher level and make it a great one to listen to.

"Mahiya" comes in next where the crooning has been done by Suzzane and the lyrics have been penned by Asif Ali Baig and Sayeed Quadri. This is a dance number that's got a very electric feel to it, making the singer sound rather like Shibani Kashyap. Though not really a hit, the song still ensures that you get the hang of it.

A disappointment comes in the form of "Maula maula" which is in no way close to the still-doing-well "Maula" from "Anwar". Belonging to the Sufi genre, this love song lacks lustre and even Rafaqat Ali Khan's rendition doesn't save the day for this track composed by Baba Farid.

A clear winner is "Toh phir aao", sung and composed by Mustafa Zahid. Being the essence of the movie, the number is the kind because of which the film might be remembered in case it fails to deliver at the box office.

Like always, the above compositions make their presence felt on Indian soil purely because Pakistani tracks combine popular music with Sufi to make them hummable and enjoyable. A must-hear!

[Enter the official website and listen to the song "Toh phir aao"
http://www.awarapanmovie.com/]
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Thursday, June 28, 2007

“Every Line [of his book on Hallaj] Contains Many Lessons”
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MMS/MA - Mehr News - Tehran, Iran

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

French Islamologist Louis Massignon (1883-1962), who greatly influenced the attitude of the West towards Islam, was honored on Monday evening at the Center for the Great Islamic Encyclopedia (CGIE) in Tehran.

CGIE director Kazem Musavi Bojnurdi described him as the founder of studies on Iranian and Islamic Sufism, adding that his researches are still among the most reliable sources of Islamology in the world.

“Louis Massignon began writing the history of Sufism with his masterpiece ‘Hallaj: Mystic and Martyr’ and we can say that this unparalleled work marked the beginning of such studies,” said Massignon’s Orientalist compatriot, Charles-Henri de Fouchecour.

“Contrary to his predecessors, he thought and expressed that research on other religions’ influences on Sufism is redundant,” he added.

“Massignon believed that Sufi terms originated from the Holy Quran and that they formulate a new spirituality,” he explained.

The ceremony was attended by French Ambassador to Tehran Bernard Poletti, director of the Iran and France Friendship Society Sohrab Fotuhi, director of the Institute of Wisdom and Philosophy of Iran Gholamreza Avani, and many other Iranian cultural figures.

“Every line of his book on Hallaj contains many lessons,” Avani said.
“We do him an injustice if we consider him to be only a researcher. He was an Islamologist who was profoundly familiar with Islam,” he added.
“In some ways Massignon was more distinguished than other Orientalists. He was not influenced by the various attitudes prevalent in schools of Islamology and Orientalism,” Avani noted.

The ceremony was cosponsored by the Institute of Wisdom and Philosophy of Iran, the Iran and France Friendship Society, and the Iranian literary monthly Bokhara.

The organizers paid tribute to De Fouchecour presenting him with a beautiful edition of Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh.

De Fouchecour had previously been honored on June 23 in Tehran by the Mahmud Afshar Yazdi Foundation for his lifetime research and activities on Persian language and literature.

http://www.uga.edu/islam/MESCenters.html
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The Peaceful Sound of Ney
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By Vercihan Ziflioglu - Turkish Daily News - Istanbul, Turkey

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Musician Kudsi Erguner attracts the attention of masses all around the world with the ney (reed flute) that he brings to life with his breath.

The artist believes that music should not be entertainment but make people think.

Erguner has played various kinds of music, and has an album called “Islam Blues.” Erguner drew attention that the word Blues recalls strangeness, loneliness and nostalgia. Mentioning that western civilization excludes what doesn't resemble itself, he thinks that Turkish Muslims in particular have started to lose their identities to gain acceptance by the West.
The famous ney player says, “Muslim intellectuals are trying to protect a depleted civilization” and that it's no good for anyone to pretend that the non existing values are alive. He defined Turkey's attempts on Mevlevism and Mevlana as fraud. Erguner mentioned that the Mevlevi houses were closed as establishments in 1925.

Erguner thinks that Turkish society has become a society which goes where the wind blows like a leaf due to political and cultural breakthroughs. He mentions that the Turkish intellectual does not go beyond the orientalist perspective in approaching ney playing and that in the world, ney playing is considered an art.

Erguner presents the aesthetics of eastern music in many projects he undertook. He mentioned the importance of the Islamic world and especially Turkey, realizing its own values and introducing them to the world. Erguner includes Classical Ottoman music and Sufi music as well as his musical identity in his compositions.

“The word Blues recalls strangeness, loneliness and nostalgia. As much as this word is valid for black people who were gathered from Africa and forced into slavery, it's also valid for believers who can't find themselves a place in this world,” says the famous ney player and explains that these were the reasons he composed his album as Islam Blues. The artist has seven long compositions in the Islam Blues album.
Erguner has works on Istanbul's Greek Composers. Erguner especially avoids discrimination of ethnic origins and defines the Armenian, Greek and Jewish musicians of the Ottoman Empire as Ottoman composers and believes the importance of them being introduced to the world music arena.

The artist defends that ethnic origins are not important and he doesn't like the idea of east-west synthesis in music. Erguner said, “I don't believe in rootless and reasonless fusions, the word synthesis doesn't reflect my perception.”

Erguner had interpreted Goethe's “East-West Anthology” accompanied by muezzins at the Passion Kirche in Berlin in recent years and was highly appreciated. The artist also combined some poems by the famous Nazım Hikmet with music.
Ney according to Sufi Philosophy
Erguner has been living in Paris for many years and aside from his ney playing identity, he's also known as a composer and musicologist.

It was due to his family that Erguner was so willing to play the ney. He learned how to play the ney from his grandfather and father. He said that being a ney player is also accepted as the attainment of Sufism status in Mevlevi culture. In Mevlana's Mesnevi, in the metaphor established between ney and humans, the ney defines the mature human and the ney player defines the person giving life to it with his breath.
According to the philosophy, while the ney finds life with the breath of the ney player, the ney player surrenders to God and his inspiration. Although Erguner comes from the Sufi tradition, he did not stay away from the modern world. He was involved in many projects with names such as Peter Gabriel, Maurice Bejart, Peter Brook, Georges Aperghis, Didier Lockood and Michel Portal and other world famous artists.

Aside from theater music, Erguner has been in over 60 albums and he holds many concerts in Europe. Erguner greets the festival audience every year with different projects. He is performing today [Wednesday, June 27] at the Hagia Irene, where he will interpret the non-religious works of Greek composers of the Ottoman Empire Zaharya and Ilya. Another important factor at the concert is that the pieces will be performed both in Greek and old Turkish.
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Wednesday, June 27, 2007

A Forum in Fez
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[From the French language press]:

Les adeptes de la Tarika Tijania -depuis le Cheikh Soufi Sidi Ahmed Tijani (1150H/1737-1815)- se retrouvent à Fès du 27 juin (aujourd'hui) au samedi 30 juin pour un Forum organisé par le ministère des Habous et des affaires islamiques, sous le Haut patronage de S.M. le Roi Mohammed VI.

Le Matin, Maroc - mardi, juin 26, 2007 - par MAP

The followers of the Tariqa Tijaniya -from the Sufi Shaykh Ahmad al-Tijani (1150H/1737-1815)- will meet in Fez from today, June 27th til Saturday, June 30th for a Forum organized by the Ministry for Habous* and Islamic Affairs, under the High patronage of H.M. the King Mohammed VI.

This event, which will be held at the sanctuary and mausoleum of the pious Shaykh and Scholar Sidi Ahmed Tijani, will gather Sufi Masters, Scientists and disciples members of the Tariqa Tijaniya coming from forty countries.

[picture: Basmala from http://www.tidjaniya.com/]

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habous
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"Voices of Moderation"
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Press Association - Guardian Unlimited - UK
Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Drive to give Muslim women more say
Moves to help Muslim women exert more influence in their communities are to be announced in the latest bid to curb violent extremism.

Ministers want women and younger people to act as "voices of moderation" and will set up a £650,000 fund to break down barriers to their participation in local leadership roles.

The Government hopes that more Muslim women can be encouraged to find senior positions in mosques and take up roles as magistrates, local councillors and school governors.

Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly will say that women and younger people ought to have a bigger voice in their communities to help face down extremists.
"I have no hesitation - and nor do the vast majority of UK Muslims - in condemning violent extremism," she will say. "But the voice of community leaders, Muslim women and local role models will always carry more weight than mine where it counts.

"This fund will support potential community leaders, women and young people to help shape the places they live and play a fuller part in wider society."

The money will be used to support projects that build on the work of the British Muslim Forum and the Sufi Muslim Council in encouraging greater access to mosque committees for women.
It will also pay for an expansion in community leadership training courses for Muslim women and young people and new mentoring programmes run by the business community for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

An official at the Department for Communities and Local Government said: "The Government believes that we need to do more to help the voices of moderation in our communities be heard and listened to.

"For example, recognising and supporting the role of women - mothers, sisters and daughters. Women can have a unique moral authority at the heart of their family, speaking up for respect and compassion."
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Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Addressing the Inner Level
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By Andrew Finkel - Today's Zaman - Istanbul, Turkey

Monday, June 25, 2007

East or West, the Names are still beautiful
It was a high note in the İstanbul Cultural Foundation's summer music festival, a first performance following the London premiere of Sir John Tavener's "The Beautiful Names."

The choir evoked the 99 names of God in the Koran, standing beneath the great cross in the apse of the eighth century basilica of Hagia Eirene.

How did Sir John, himself a convert to Greek Orthodoxy, react to crossing theological divides and hear his work performed to a largely Muslim audience beneath that cross, one of the masterpieces of iconoclastic art.

"In some ways I rather wish it hadn't been there," he replied. "This may be a strange reaction, but I don't think any kind of outward manifestation is good when one is trying to do something that is inward."

He pauses to reconsider and decides that perhaps the cross was not in the way after all. "Sacrifice is a practice common to all religion." At a symbolic level the crucifixion stands for the annihilation of ego, which he said, was close to Sufism, and recognition of the God within.

When "The Beautiful Names" was performed last Tuesday in London's Westminster Cathedral, there were blogs of protest by those insisting that when it comes to names, there were at the very most only three.

("Shame, shame, shame on the cardinal to allow this denial of the Holy Trinity in Westminster Cathedral" exclaimed one outraged Internet voice.)

Sir John Tavener is at best bemused at the suggestion that he caused offense. There are Christian fundamentalists as well as those in the Islamic world, he said. "It's a manifestation of the times in which we live."

The London critics were forthcoming with praise, if at the same time a little guarded. "Fascinating, beguiling and flawed," wrote Neil Fisher in The Times. This, too, provokes a shrug. The critics, he says, write about the music; they haven't a clue about God.

He believes the important thing was that the piece could be performed in both a Catholic cathedral and in a country that believed in Islam.

Far more important than the reviews were the remarks of those who came up to him after the performance in İstanbul. "It clearly meant so much to them. That's what moved me."

Were the two audiences hearing the same piece of music in the same way? He said that invariably there were differences. There were dissimilarities of culture and of temperament. These were important and not to be ignored.

"What I try to say in the music is that these [dissimilarities of culture and of temperament] are not at the inner level, which is what music addresses. At a higher level religions point to the same God."
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Sufi Night
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[From the Italian language press]:
Un incontro tra musicisti e danzatori sufi islamici delle confraternite mistiche turche, marocchine, iraniane e pakistane con musicisti e danzatrici contemporanei europei di Echo Art e Arbalete, dopo dieci anni dal primo incontro sulle scene negli spettacoli “Tributo a Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan”, “I suoni dell’Estasi” e “The Human Right”.

Un punto di arrivo e un altro punto di partenza.

Musical News, Italy - domenica 24 giugno 2007 - di Alessandro Sgritta

An encounter between Sufi Muslims musicians and dancers of the mystical Turks, Moroccans, Iranians and Pakistanis Brotherhoods with European musicians and contemporary dancers of Echo Art and Arbalete, ten years after the first encounter on stage in the shows “Homage to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan”, “the sounds of Ecstasy” and “The Human Right”.

A point of arrival and another point of departure.

Genova (Italy), Wednesday, June 27, Piazza delle Feste Porto Antico, at 9.00 pm
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Monday, June 25, 2007

Lending the Ears of Our Hearts
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By Sezai Kalayci - Today's Zaman - Istanbul, Turkey

Monday, June 25, 2007

Mevlana’s loving tolerance captivates NY once again
The loving tolerance of the great Turkish Sufi philosopher and poet Mevlana Rumi has enveloped New York once again.

The Istanbul Historical Turkish Music Ensemble, whose efforts have made possible the bringing of a major part of the religious repertory of an eighth century heritage into the present day without losing its original spiritual flavor, held a Mevlevi rite in Manhattan on Saturday as part of events organized for the Year of Mevlana, declared by UNESCO in celebration of the philosopher.

The Mevlevi rite was received with a great enthusiasm by an audience made up of Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

Addressing an audience of over 1,000 people in Town Hall on Saturday night, Professor Ahmet Arı spoke prior to the whirling ceremony and remarked that the world was urgently in need of such a language of peace.

Arı placed a particular emphasis on the fact that Sufism was the mystical core of Islam and was certainly not something separate, noting that the Koran contained the seeds of Sufism and that Mevlana Rumi was a very pious Muslim, unlike what is claimed to the contrary.

Turkey’s Consul General in New York Mehmet Samsar also made a speech, saying, “It’s possible to understand real love and learn how to respect one another only through lending the ears of our hearts to the source of his [Mevlana’s] blessed voice.”

Helene-Marie Gosselin, who attended the affair on behalf of UNESCO, said, “As UNESCO, we are proud of accompanying the celebrations of Mevlana Rumi’s 800th birthday.” She also said she believed it was possible to realize the project of the “Alliance of Civilizations” only through the teachings of Mevlana, ending her speech with his world-famous lines:

“Be like a river in generosity and helping others
Be like the sun in compassion and remorse
Be like the night in covering the faults of others
Be like a dead person in anger and hatred
Be like the black earth in humility and modesty
Be like an ocean in loving tolerance
Either appear as you are or be as you appear…”
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Reform Is In the Eye of the Beholder
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By Dr. Bhaskar Dasgupta - Desicritics.org - Bangalore, India
Sunday, June 24, 2007

The use of Islam as a terrorist ideology or even a political ideology is causing governments, as well as liberal / progressive Muslims themselves, to explore, support, develop and push for reform.

But Islam always had reformers, starting from almost the very beginning after the four Rightful Caliphs. Khajarites, sufi’s, Asha'arites, Mu'taziltes, etc. have all claimed to be reformers and desired to reform Islam.

In my opinion, reform is in the eye of the beholder, and reform can come in different ways.

Three worthies, Abdel Wahhab, Qutb and Banna considered themselves as reformers and have implemented, or at least tried to implement, their policies to reform Islam. What they called as reform is not what the western liberal progressive groups would term as reform. However, the crucial thing to remember is that their interpretation of reform is as justified as the western liberal interpretation.

As before, this essay came by from a juxtaposition of multiple factors. One of my very kind readers poked me and said that I haven’t written about Muslim reformers in a while. While at the same time, I had a very heated debate about what constitutes reform with my sister, as well as on a reformist Muslim internet group.

Not that we reached any tangible conclusion, but instead of bellowing down the phone, slamming it down, emails and other disjointed ways of communication, I thought it would make more sense for me to write out my thesis. Well, between these two aspects, this essay was born.

Let us look at Muhammad Ibn Abdel Wahhab, Hassan al Banna and Sayyid Qutb. Each of them, in and after the twentieth century, had a major impact on Sunni Islam across the world. Abdel Wahhab has been discussed threadbare before in other places, so will not repeat it.Now I am sure that people are going to look at me like I have three heads, simply because I am incorporating Abdel Wahhab, Banna and Qutb in the list of reformers. But yes, I do think of them as reformers. After all, they thought of themselves as reformers, didn’t they? And this is the crux of the matter.

Reform as with beauty is in the eye of the beholder. We who have been exposed to the Judeo-Christian / Greco-Roman tradition tend to think of reformers as those who move a religion towards liberalism (such as Raja Ram Mohon Roy with Hinduism, Rabbi Avraham Geiger or Rabbi Samuel Holdheim with Reform Judaism, etc.), but that’s not really the case necessarily.

There is a very good argument that Martin Luther’s conceptual reform framework has very many parallels with what Wahhab, Banna and Qutb attempted or did. Martin Luther’s proclamation was not a nod towards liberalism, but a call towards going back to the roots, conservative, non-accretive, etc. After all, all these men wanted to remove the bad accretions which culture, tradition, history, geography have encrusted on the original religion.

If you look at Wahhab, that is exactly what he wanted and got, namely a way of looking at an Islam which was pure, free of all the tribal traditions and rules, the jahaliyya bits, the bits which had crept in due to outside influences etc.

One might quibble about the philosophical and theological substance of looking at Islam as a literal transcription of rules, regulations and rituals based upon the clear word of God rather than say the more mystical approach of the Sufis. But Abdel Wahhab was a reformer, he wanted to reform, he managed to convince people of the need for reform. He got the people and tribal leaders to follow him and you can see the end result in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Pakistan, USA, UK and other places where Saudi money has propagated the Wahhabi creed.

Looking at Islam, we have tens, possibly hundreds, of sects who differ significantly from each others' interpretation. And these differences are seriously seminal differences, ranging from who was the last prophet, to the number of formal prayers per day, to marriage rules, etc.

Why go that far, a celebrated study in Pakistan is oft quoted in this respect. A couple of very senior legal luminaries called a bevy of Islamic theologians to depose in front of them on who or what is or defines a Muslim. As the learned judges reported, there was simply no consistency nor does agreement amongst the scholars on what defines a Muslim.

If Islamic scholars cannot agree on what or who a Muslim is, what hope does a non-Muslim have? Hence, one is forced to the conclusion that all these interpretations are valid since there is no commonly accepted framework. Or none are valid or at least acceptable, but that would be wrong, since one cannot prove a negative in metaphysics or faith.

Given the imperfect understanding of human beings of the vast majesty of the Almighty, it is but natural that we will need interpretations, even of the literal word of God. So while the Quran might be the literal word of God and can be said to be absolute, our limited understanding of it will always mean that there is a Doppler shift in understanding and interpreting of the Quran between each and every human being.

Once you multiply this with the billions of believers, thousands of generations, millions of scholars, thousands of libraries and zillions of cultural, linguistic, religious and other influences, it is simply not surprising that we have multiple interpretations and sects.

For somebody like me who believes that there are multiple ways to the Godhead, it is perfectly logical and just fine to have multiple sects. So a person like Abdel Wahhab is a reformer to me, because his interpretation of his viewpoint of what Islam consists of is perfectly valid, and from his perspective reform means going back to basics.

But when the argument is taken to the next step and no other interpretations are allowed, then we start seeing people’s hackles rise. When the logical next step starts using violence to impose one’s viewpoint, then sectarianism arises (see the issues with Ahmadi’s in Pakistan, Shia versus Sunni in Iraq, Salafi versus Sufi in Saudi Arabia and India, etc.).
But mainly, these reformers I spoke of got upset that western secular liberal ideas or culturally based traditional tribal ideas were polluting Islam and were the reason for the decline of Islamic societies.

Banna’s claim to fame is that he formed the Muslim Brotherhood, the first mass political organisation (with some social elements) in 1928 to oppose the western, liberal secular ideas which were flooding into the middle east – such as new technology like steam power and telegraph for example - due to the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and the European colonialism.

His desire was to fight against these secular liberal ideas which he thought were the reason for the decay of Middle Eastern Islamic societies and he advocated a return to a relatively traditionalist/literalist interpretation of Islam. And he got it! The organisation he founded, is a force to be reckoned with (directly or indirectly) in almost every Muslim country (and countries with a Muslim population).

There are two main reasons for his success. The first was his prolific writing, which provided the ideological underpinnings of his reform movement and second were his organisational skills. For possibly the first time in Islamic history, an organisation was formed which was not based upon individuals but on a proper institutional framework (think about the Catholic Church and you will understand what I mean! The Catholic Church, for a majority of its life, was deeply involved in every part of its parishioners' daily existence, religious, economic, social, etc.).

In Banna's formative years, he was exposed to anti colonial fights and grew to see the impact of British liberal thought in Cairo. What he took away from his observations was that the reason for the decline of Islamic civilisation was not the conservatism of Al Azhar and the Muslim theologians but western liberal secular ideas. Once it had reached critical mass, it started becoming a political force and Banna was assassinated for his trouble.

But it is a measure of his success that despite his death at only 43 years of age, the organisation has kept on growing and multiplying despite tremendous oppression by almost all parties.

Sayyid Qutb (1906–1966) on the other hand, is more modern. A teacher by training, he took up a job teaching and initially had a great interest in literature. Then the seminal event of his life happened, he was sent to the USA to study their educational system.

For a variety of reasons, this USA sojourn caused his brain circuits to fry and he fulminated against the sexual freedom, haircuts, racism, individual liberties, lack of support for Palestine, interest in sports etc. As usual, he took up religion in a big way and joined the Muslim Brotherhood as their in-house intellectual and published some seriously impressive theological and sociological works.

Also participating in the governing bodies of the brotherhood, he started poking around the highest circles of Egyptian political, military and intellectual life. Then Nasser happened and he brought a secular militaristic pan-Arab nationalist ideology to fruition. While the coup was welcomed initially by Qutb as the pro-western monarchist government was overthrown, it soured rapidly for him as Nasser made it very clear that the state will be secular and booze will flow down the Nile.

After an attempted assassination of Nasser, Qutb was thrown into jail. The prison air helped in lubricating his pen and he further wrote some more impressive tomes on basic Islamic concepts, political Islam, social Islam and role of Islam in modern life.

While he was initially let out of jail, very soon he was back inside and this time he was tried for treason and hanged. But his philosophy lives on and that is very powerful indeed.

This is not the place to go into the details of what Qutb and Banna professed (which we will go into in a later essay), but given the two key aspects, an organisation and an ideology, they are well placed to provide an alternative system of governance to the world.

The Muslim world has seen liberal democracies and it has seen autocracies (either royal, military or civilian). None of them have worked for the majority of the Muslims are still in decline. The attractiveness of this alternative form of politics is tremendous, first because of what western civilisation did to the Muslims and second is the Islamic faith based governance. If they can have an Islamic system of justice, morality, society, family law, governance, politics, etc. then why would they need to go for a western liberal democratic model?

But how did Qutb propose to implement this new system? Through classical revolution via jihad something which Al Qaeda and a whole host of other organisations picked up and are running with. Banna and Qutb could well be considered as the Plato and Paine of the Muslim world and their influence will end at eternity.

(In a following essay, I will try to analyse just what did they do to achieve success in implementation of their version of reform)

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!

About the Author: Dr. Bhaskar Dasgupta works in the city of London in various capacities in the financial sector.
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A Visit Here on Fridays Will Cast a Spell on You
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By Ruchika Talwar - Delhi Newsline - Delhi, India

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Every Friday at sundown, a neglected corner of Nizamuddin, 100 yards away from the bustling railway station, comes alive with the soulful strains of a qawaali.

The spiritual music immediately throws you back to a different era and a glorious past we tend to forget.

At the dargah of Hazrat Inayat Khan, the great grand son of Sher-e-Mysore Tipu Sultan, the senior most qawwal of the Nizamuddin area pays tribute to the man who made it his mission to spread Sufi music across the world.

“My ancestors have been qawwals for the last 750 years and this is our hereditary profession. Now, my sons have taken up the mantle and will continue singing here after me,” says Ustad Meraj Ahmed Nizami. Meraj is now pushing 80 and has been singing at the dargah for the last 39 years.

Few know that Hazrat Inayat Khan was the grandfather of Noor Inayat Khan, the first woman radio operator and Special Operations Executive (SOE) to be sent into occupied France during World War 2. Author Sharbani Basu’s book The Spy Princess is based on her.

Her grandfather spread Sufism to the West when he founded the Sufi Order International, which brought several Westerners into the Sufi fray. When he died in 1927, his body was brought to Delhi’s Nizamuddin area where he had already chosen his final resting place.

Nestled amidst the crowded basti, his tomb is like an oasis in the desert.
Hazrat Inayat Khan’s dargah is tastefully built and spotlessly clean. The architecture of the tomb is an interesting mix of a French chateau and Persian haveli. The whitewashed walls of the premises stand out from behind grey cobblestone arches which merge with the white marble of the dargah.

A small, manicured lawn with a gulmohar tree in full bloom, adds colour to the pristine white building. The dargah is maintained by the Hazrat Inayat Khan Memorial Trust. The trust, chiefly funded by the Hazrat Inayat Khan’s mureeds (disciples) living abroad, runs a library, music classes, pre school and handicraft workshops for women. If you’re ever looking to explore Delhi’s past, a visit here on Fridays will cast a spell on you.

[picture: detail of the dargah, photo Wali van Lohuizen
http://www.sufimovement.org/dargah.htm ]
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Sunday, June 24, 2007

Allah's Breath
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[From the Italian language press]:

Un premio che è anche un segnale di attenzione verso aspetti della civiltà Islamica passati in secondo piano in questi tempi di fanatismo.

Il Giornale – Torino, Italia - sabato 23 giugno 2007

A prize which is also a sign of attention towards ovelooked aspects of the Islamic civilization in these days of fanaticism.

It is awarded today, Saturday June 23, in the Castle of Grinzane Cavour (Cuneo), the prize to the winners of the 26th edition of the literary Prize Grinzane-Cavour.

The Prize Debutant Author has gone to the French-turkish writer Yasmine Ghata for her novel *La Notte dei Calligrafi* (The Calligraphers' Night).

Published in France (2004) and now in Italy by Feltrinelli, it is the story of the last great Turkish calligrapher, Rikkat Kunt, a Sufi woman (grandmother to the author) who describes the path of ascesis and mystical uplifting intertwined with the technicalities of the best-known among all Islamic arts.

The book presents a deeply fascinating dimension of Islam.

“Calligraphy is Allah’s breath, and the arabesque is the human life” says Ms Ghata.

[picture: http://tinyurl.com/22uf6j
http://www.ibs.it/ ]
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Saturday, June 23, 2007

Near the Alazani River: Zikr with Sufi Women in Georgia
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By Patrycja Przeslakiewicz - TOL Transitions Online - Czech Republic
Friday, June 22, 2007

Prayers for Peace and Tourists: Sufi women in the Georgian Caucasus are trying to balance old traditions with modern commerce

“I dream of making a big concert tour in Europe. I dream that European people can see how we sing and pray,” says Badi, a 70-year-old woman.
“We are not savages and terrorists as we are seen in Russia and Europe.”

Badi is a Kist, the small community of Georgian Chechens living in the Pankisi Gorge near the Russian border. Today, the Kists face what may be the most serious threat their unique way of life has met in the two hundred eventful years since their arrival in Georgia.

A legend says that boys searching for lost sheep were the first Chechens to cross the mountains into the small Caucasian valley on the Georgian side, soon followed by fathers looking for their strayed sons and then whole families. The Georgian princes to whom the land belonged welcomed the newcomers as a safeguard against plundering incursions by Dagestani and Azeri bandits. During the 19th century, fugitives from the Russian army's invasions of the North Caucasus, social outcasts, outlaws, and others swelled the flow of immigrants.

These Muslims of Georgia came to be known as Kists. Some were Chechen and Ingush seeking a less regimented way of life than the forced Islamization and Sharia law established in the 19th century by Imam Shamil and his allies in the insurrection against Russian rule. They brought with them old cults, ancestor veneration, and vestiges of paganism, and found a similarly syncretic society on the south side of the Caucasus, where the Georgian highlanders, superficially Christian, still worshipped local deities such as “White George” and Tushola, goddess of the hunt and nature. New ties of marriage, friendship, and kinship soon took hold.

The mosque soon became a center of Sufi activities. Numerous brother- and sisterhoods sprung up. Today members of women's orders, known as hadjistki, meet every Friday to perform their ecstatic prayer, zikr.

Just as when they first came to the Pankisi, today the 8,000 Kists again find themselves at a crossroads between “Georgian-ness” and “Chechen-ness." Although most of the wartime Chechen refugees have left the valley, the tensions of that time are kept alive by the children of some 2,000 migrants who found work in Chechnya in the early 1990s, later to return home from the blighted republic. Exposed to Wahhabi Islam from an early age, these now-grown children now try to propagate their views in the Pankisi. In addition, mosques and charities with Saudi backing are magnets for jobless local youth.

Recently, efforts to promote the attractions and way of life of the Pankisi have emerged from an unexpected direction: the hadjistki, members of the local Sufi women's order, headed by Badi, a member of one of the valley's most noble families.

In 2003 Badi (like most Chechens she is generally known by a nickname) set up Marshua Kavkaz, "Peace for the Caucasus," an association that seeks to ease conflict and promote prosperity through tourism and publicizing the valley's heritage.

In November 2006 a group of Sufi women came to Poland to attend a workshop on agro-tourism run by a Polish non-profit organization, the Foundation for Intercultural Education.

Already, venturesome travelers can stay in farms near the Alazani River, walk or ride in the nearby Caucasus mountains, and even take part in the Friday zikr ceremony.

Prayer rather than tourism, however, remains these women's chief activity. Most are experienced woman of middle age or older; younger women rarely participate in public affairs. Zikr sessions begin on a sign from Altzani (photo, left), the oldest member of the order, a woman whose green dress and white headscarf mark her as a pilgrim who has visited Mecca.

After a moment of silence, the women began to sing in Arabic and the Kist dialect, a mixture of Georgian and Chechen, chanting the names of God in rhythmic repetition accompanied by clapping and swaying. They pray for peace in the Pankisi, everlasting life for their ancestors, health for their families.

As the session goes on, they sing of the Chechens' many troubles: the lost struggle against Tsarist armies for independence, deportation under Stalin, the thousands killed in the modern wars with Russia.

When the excitement reaches its peak, they stand and form a circle, moving at first slowly and majestically, then faster with rhythmic clapping and foot-stamping. On another sign from Altzani they reverse direction and enter a trancelike state. Finally the mistress of the ceremony brings the circle prayer to an end.

"The sweat and spurt of energy raised by such ecstatic prayer is to purify the participants from sin and release life energy we need to implement great projects like developing tourism, an orphanage, and a center for homeless people," Badi says.


[picture: Women of the Sufi sisterhood. Badi is seated in the center.]

About the Author: Patrycja Przeslakiewicz is an ethnologist specializing in the peoples of the Caucasus. She is associated with the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at Warsaw University and the refugee and asylum department of the Polish Office for Repatriation and Aliens.
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Each One Has a Story
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By Siddhartha Mitter - The Boston Globe - U.S.A.

Friday, 22 June, 2007

Chalk it up to globalization: The foremost cultural ambassador of an obscure Islamic island nation off the coast of East Africa can be found, when her schedule permits, taking the waters at a Northern California yoga and meditation spa.

Such is the habit of Nawal, the singer and instrumentalist who is the first female performing artist of the Comoros, an archipelago of four islands of which three are an independent republic, and the fourth, Mayotte, is a French territory.

Though she moved to France as a child and is today based in Paris, she has become an object of Comorian national pride and returned to play there with her trio, which includes an American woman, to rapturous stadium crowds.

Her music takes as its point of departure traditional Comorian sounds, which resonate with Arabic and African influences accumulated over centuries through the Indian Ocean trade. The instrumentation showcases the gambusi, a string instrument akin to the oud. On Nawal's new album , "Aman," her lyrics draw in part on Sufi incantations and on traditional laments that Comorian women perform at private gatherings.

But if its predominant component is Comorian roots, "Aman" deviates in many ways, each one offering a glimpse of this woman's unusual journey from a highly conservative family in a highly conservative nation to the liberated spirit that she has become. "Meditation" quotes Nelson Mandela (himself quoting Marianne Williamson) and ends with a mix of Muslim and Buddhist chant. "L'Amour Sorcier" [Wizard Love] is a tribute to the late French singer and songwriter Claude Nougaro. The songs that open and close the album, the groovy "Salama" and majestic "Aman," are both prayers for peace.

"I mix different things," Nawal says of her spiritual practice, by phone from her California hideaway during a break in her current American tour. (She visits Ryles on Wednesday.) "The Sufi roots of my ancestors, Arabic styles, and animism. In France, I discovered yoga and qi gong. I've created my own practice." Referring to a line by the poet Rumi, she says she has one foot in her own culture and the other in that of all nations. "I take from everywhere."

Nawal, who is in her early 40s, had more than a few hurdles to overcome be fore fully blossoming as a musician. Though her family immigrated to France, they tried to retain their strict Comorian habits. "My mother insisted I wear traditional clothes," she says. "I would have to stop the elevator in my building to change my clothes. I had to jump through the window when I wanted to go play in the evening. I was punished a lot."

Undaunted, she got involved in local radio in Valence, the city where the family lived, suffering her mother's wrath when she caught her on the air. Finally, she broke out and went to university in the southern city of Montpellier. "I studied psychology," she says, and still practices it. "Even now sometimes I do workshops to help people be more happy, more in harmony. I use the voice also. I love to sing with people."

Nawal happily owns up to her crunchy tendencies. Valence is close to the Ardèche, an area with a Vermont-like reputation as a haven for free spirits. She credits as a shaping influence her exposure to those "hippie people from the peace and love epoch, with this peace and love life." It's also, she says, why she's comfortable in California.

It was at a jam-session party in Oakland that Nawal connected with Melissa Cara Rigoli, an American player of the mbira, the "thumb piano" of traditional Zimbabwean music.

"I was playing the mbira in the mellow area, outdoors under the sky," Rigoli says. "And all of a sudden this voice started singing that I had never heard before." Not only that, but Nawal took charge of a shaker and started playing the complex Zimbabwean rhythm faultlessly. It was similar to what she knew from the Comoros. "She said, 'How come I have to come to the US to find the music of my cousins?' " Rigoli recalls.

Rigoli found herself traveling to Paris to play with Nawal and eventually decided to move there, playing mbira and percussion in the trio, which is rounded out by Nawal's brother Idriss Mlanao on bass.

Last year, the group returned to give a series of concerts in the Comoros. Nawal was stunned by the welcome: "I didn't know how much people loved me there," she says. "But the ones who live in the Comoros are more open-minded than Comorians abroad."

At one show, she asked a group of women players of traditional music to play with her in public. The women, she says, asked forgiveness of their brothers and fathers, but nonetheless took the stage.

The Comoros, she says, are experiencing the ambiguous benefits of change: On one hand, traditions are fading; for instance, she says, keyboards and CDs are replacing traditional instruments at weddings and ceremonies. "But also at the same time people have a more open mind and women are a little more free."

That, in the end, is an important benefit in her mind. "Hima," one song on the new album, tells women that no one but themselves can fight for their rights. The a cappella "Dandzi" is a traditional song in a genre that women use to express their grievances indirectly.

Not only has Nawal followed her own message, but so has her family. "My mother used to not speak to me," she says. "Now, she's not happy I'm still not married and don't have babies, but she can respect me for my job. She accepts it."

And Nawal finds herself returning the favor, the sharp edges of her youthful rebellion now mellowed by accomplishment and experience.

"I see things differently now," she says. "I'm trying to practice what I think. Each one has a story, each one has the right to be who he is. My family, my mom, they have the right to want me to be different. Don't judge the other."

[picture: Columba polleni (Comoro Olive pigeon) stamp
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On Rumi: Day-long Event in Canada
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PR release/Guelph Tribune - Guelph, ON, Canada
Friday, June 22, 2007

Persian Mystic honoured in Guelph, ON, Canada

The 800th year since the birth of Rumi, a Persian Sufi mystic and a poet still popular today, will be marked at a day-long event on Saturday June 30 at the River Run Centre.

Guelph's Sacred Wisdom Centre has organized the event called Soul on Fire: Passion and Poetry of Rumi as part of worldwide celebrations during UNESCO's 2007 "International Year of Rumi".

Coleman Barks will read from his own translations of Rumi poetry from 7:30-9:30 p.m., accompanied by cellist David Darling and Indian drummer Marcus Wise.

Barks has produced 18 volumes of Rumi's translated works, with The Essential Rumi selling more than half a million copies worldwide.

Before that, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Rumi translator and spirituality book author Andrew Harvey will lead an experiential workshop on Rumi's passion and wisdom.

Guelph artist Goldie Sherman has produced a pottery collection honouring Rumi's works specifically for the event.

Canadian filmmaker Tina Petrova will also show her film Rumi - Turning Ecstatic.

For ticket information on the event, which ends with a cocktail reception, call the River Run box office at 519-763-3000 or visit http://www.riverrun.ca/
[pictures -from left to right: Marcus Wise, David Darling, Andrew Harvey, Coleman Barks]
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Thursday, June 21, 2007

The Practice of Gahwa
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By Asma Salman - Gulf Weekly - Manama, Bahrain

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

The tradition of ‘gahwa’ or coffee drinking has long been an integral part of Arab hospitality and culture.

There is no spot in the Arab world without a coffee house and no occasion is complete without serving the deliciously aromatic freshly brewed coffee.

From the quaint ‘qahva khanas’ of yesteryears to the fashionable coffee houses of today, the popularity of this tantalising hot beverage has not waned. In fact, coffee has gained such considerable importance over centuries that now it is the second most actively traded commodity after petroleum standing above coal, meat, wheat and sugar. However, the origin of this dark and fragrant brew is shrouded in mystery.

Some coffee historians believe that the coffee bean is as old as man.

The first coffee beans were harvested from wild coffee plants in Ethiopia. Coffee was introduced to the West hundreds of years later than the East, where, it was a popular beverage since earlier times at every level of society. African cultures used the coffee bean as a solid food where the ripe beans were crushed by mortars, combined with animal fat and shaped into round balls. These could be carried and eaten on long journeys. African warriors also ate the coffee balls before going into battle as a source of energy.

Coffee was also used in ceremonies by the mystic Sufi religions in Yemen. The drink helped the Sufi mystics to stay up late in the night for their prayers.

Coffee houses or ‘qahva khanas’ flourished as people flocked to sip the invigorating brew. Coffee was considered a threat to the Ottoman Empire because the ruling class thought that when people gathered together in coffee houses they questioned the political doctrines of the time and hence banned such places in 1656.

Hence coffee not only played an important role in lives of intellectuals and politicians in Arabia, Asia Minor, Turkey, Syria and Egypt but was also regarded as an essential trade commodity. Arabian traders tightly controlled the lucrative coffee trade by exporting roasted or boiled coffee beans only. They forbade the export of beans that could germinate. Using this strategy they successfully monopolised the coffee trade for two centuries, enjoying highly profitable exports to the Middle East and Europe.

Coffee aroused interest not only as a ‘refreshing infusion’ but also for its healing powers so that some physicians gave it credit as a ‘cure all’. Eighteenth Century men of culture loved coffee so much that they called it the ‘intellectual beverage’. As coffee houses and coffee cultivation prospered so did the trends and trade surrounding it. In Germany after the Second World War, coffee became a symbol of economic reconstruction and prosperity. Coffee drinking became synonymous with being able to afford things again.


The fine art of preparing and serving Arabic coffee
The art of brewing the thick translucent yellow coloured drink or ‘gahwa’ varies in the Arab world and is considered an important ritual in Arab hospitality. Purists in the art of making Arabic coffee agree that the best gahwa is prepared from freshly roasted or ground beans. Now many people buy roasted coffee beans and have them ground according to their preference while others procure the already prepared powdered coffee from specialty shops. Some connoisseurs like the Mocha beans from Yemen because of their delicate flavour and rich aroma. Others prefer the beans of Brazil that are said to have the richest flavour of all while some prefer coffee beans from Nepal. Usually several kinds of beans are blended together.

“I roast the coffee beans at home before each preparation of gahwa. Initially I used to grind it in a traditional hand-held stone contraption called the ‘raha’ but ever since Moulinex came into the market I have done away with my old apparatus,” says 80-year-old Fatima Ahmed Mansoor who takes great pride in preparing the perfect pot of gahwa.

“Some Bahrainis like to have cardamom ground with the coffee beans while others like cardamom and cloves added while the gahwa is being prepared. “The proportion of cardamom and coffee varies according to individual taste. “As for myself I prefer a few strands of saffron in the gahwa. It takes anywhere between 10-15 minutes for me to prepare gahwa. The coffee should be allowed to settle in the pan for a minute or two before pouring it in the coffee pot,” she says.

Gahwa is never sweetened with sugar. Instead fresh dates or Arabic sweets are offered as a standard accompaniment to the aromatic brew. Gahwa is served in a special coffee pot known as a Dallah and then poured in small, handle less finjan’s that are always half filled. More coffee is ordered the minute the cup is empty.

An average Bahraini drinks anywhere between 10-15 cups of gahwa a day, depending on the kind of venue and company.

Mustafa Habib, administration manager at a regional consulting firm in Bahrain, said: “I drink about 10 cups of gahwa on a regular day. But when I go to the desert I consume much more gahwa than I usually do because I spend long hours in the tent with company.

”For both men and women in Bahrain, gahwa is the centre of social interaction. In almost all Arab homes, women socialise with each other over gahwa and sweets. “Gahwa is the mainstay of every occasion in my house,” says Najla Muhammed, a housewife residing in Hamad Town. “Whether it is a festive occasion or a solemn one I serve gahwa to all my guests. I don’t remember a day in my house when gahwa has not been prepared and served,” she points out.

Numerous coffee houses dot all corners of Bahrain. Although many conventional coffee houses have been replaced by the more glitzy ones, the practice of drinking gahwa while socialising continues untainted.

Coffee facts
Coffee (coffea) is the major category of the Rubiaceae family, which has over 6,000 species.
More than 60 different varieties are found in the coffee family, but only two have economic significance, Coffea Arabica and Coffea Robusta.
Coffee has been an object of trade and commerce through centuries. Approximately 20 million people worldwide earn their livelihood from the coffee industry.
Around 70 countries worldwide produce coffee and to these countries coffee is a major means of foreign exchange.

The taste of her coffee
In ancient Turkey, women received intensive training on the proper technique of preparing Turkish coffee. Prospective husbands would judge a woman’s merits based on the taste of her coffee. In the Ottoman court, coffee makers with the help of 40 assistants would ceremoniously prepare and serve coffee to the sultan.
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The Liberative Spirit of Islam
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By Yoginder Sikand - Counter Currents - India
Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Socio-Cultural Empowerment of Indian Muslims
I have been asked to speak on the subject of the social and cultural empowerment of Muslims in India. This is, of course, a very broad topic and one cannot do justice to it in the course of a short presentation. Rather than explore the reasons of Muslim disempowerment, about which much has already been written, I think it would be more useful to focus on certain practical measures that could be undertaken in this regard.

Now, leaving aside the complex world of politics, a few practical suggestions with regard to the issue of cultural empowerment. In this regard, it is crucial to note that Muslims in India are not a cultural monolith, although they share a common commitment to Islam.

There has been a tendency among Muslim elites in north India to seek to impose their so-called ashraf feudal culture and the Urdu language on the rest of the Indian Muslim population. Even in north India itself, highly Persianised Urdu, which is sought to be presented as the standard form of Urdu, has always been an elitist language, historically the language of some north Indian Muslim and Hindu elites. It was never the language of the Muslim or Hindu masses, who spoke and continue to speak in various regional dialects, incorrectly incorporated as Urdu or Hindi.

The elitist strategy of projecting north Indian ashraf culture as the culture of all Indian Muslims is, in fact, no different from similar efforts on the part of north Indian Hindu elites to impose Brahmincial culture and a highly Sanskritised Hindi on the rest of the Hindu population.

Even the state has sought to present Urdu as a particularly Muslim language, which is not the case. Efforts to preserve and promote Urdu are surely welcome, but it must be remembered that it cannot and must not be treated as a Muslim language or as the language of all the Muslims of India. This will only further reduce the chances of survival of the language.

It would also keep Muslims confined to their ghettos, unable to compete in the job market because of lack of competence in other languages. It would also further fortify barriers between Muslims and others, which can only further strengthen the deep-rooted stereotypes that others have about Muslims and Islam.

In this regard, the emergence of a number of Muslim publications in languages other than Urdu is a welcome development. This can help promote communication with other communities, which, even from the point of view of explaining Islam to others, is a crucial requirement. It can also help strengthen regional identities and cultures, in which Muslims, Hindus and others can participate together, thus making for greater and more positive inter-community interaction.

North Indian Muslims have much to learn from their counterparts in Kerala in this regard, where Muslims, Hindus, Christian, Dalits* and others all share a common linguistic and cultural heritage, which has helped in fostering fairly cordial inter-community relations.

The democratic revolution demands that the cultures of marginalized communities be celebrated and promoted. These often contain rich symbolic resources that reflect the pains and anguish of the oppressed and their quest for emancipation, as well as a symbolic critique of the culture of elites that is used to legitimize their oppression.

The retrieval of the cultures of the oppressed or subalterns is happening today in the case of the Dalits and Adivasis***. In the Muslim case, this is less marked, for various reasons, but is reflected in some recent efforts by so-called low caste Muslim groups, particularly in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, to celebrate their histories and heroes, commemorating the liberative spirit of Islam, which, they argue, has been sought to be watered down by Muslim elites.

The tradition of numerous Sufi saints who bitterly critiqued political and religious elites for their oppression of the poor, and whose understanding of Islam was ecumenical and broad, reflecting a concern for all of God's creatures, and not just Muslims alone, was also a part of this broader subaltern tradition.

This crucial social aspect of India's rich and varied Sufi traditions, of the non-elite variety in particular, needs to be highlighted, in order to evolve a popular culture that celebrates religious pluralism and at the same time speaks out against oppression and hegemony, be it of the state, or of Hindu and Muslim elites, and so on. This can play a vital role in the socio-cultural empowerment of the marginalized, Muslims as well as others.

In this regard, it is pertinent to note how this tradition has been considerably bruised by the ritualisation of popular Sufism, with the transformation of Sufi shrines from centres of instruction and provision for the needy to centres of mediation, being controlled by a class of elites who claim to be religious intermediaries.

Indian Muslim history, as is taught in schools and madrasas, and as is reflected in books on the subject by both Muslim and other scholars, continues to be highly elitist, and, incidentally, rather north Indian centric. This, too, is an issue that needs to be addressed in the process of promoting the cultural empowerment of the marginalized sections of the Muslims. Books on the subject of Indian Muslim history inevitably focus almost entirely on Muslim rulers, Sufis and ulema, almost all of whom were from the so-called higher castes-Sayyeds, Shaikhs, Mughals and Pathans, who form only a relatively small minority of the Indian Muslim population.

There are hardly any books available on the literally hundreds of indigenous Muslim communities, mainly those of so-called low caste background. This, too, must change, if we are serious about a promoting democratic culture that is biased in favour of the oppressed. This democratization of Muslim historiography is as necessary as the democratization of the official Hindu historical canon, which, like its Muslim counterpart, is sternly elitist.

Democratising Indian Muslim history writing would also serve a very necessary political purpose-to highlight the fact that the so-called period of 'Muslim rule' in India, which is routinely talked about both by Muslim and Hindu elites, was hardly that. It was actually the rule of Muslim elites, almost entirely of foreign extraction, in collaboration with sections of the Hindu elites. The vast majority of the Muslims, of indigenous extraction, were as marginalized and oppressed by these elites as their Hindu counterparts from the so-called low castes were. Making this point in today's context of communal rivalry is extremely significant in order to counter the political projects of Hindu as well as Muslim right-wing forces.

Promoting empirical research on marginalized sections of the Muslim community, and awareness-building, mobilisation and lobbying based on this, is essential in empowering them socially as well as culturally. I think the notion that an ideal career is that of a doctor, a lawyer or an engineer, or, now, a computer scientist or a business manager, needs to be challenged, and more Muslim youth need to go in for higher studies and careers in journalism, the liberal arts, humanities and the social sciences, to focus in their work particularly on marginalized sections of the community.

There is a pressing need for the setting up of voluntary agencies to work among the Muslim poor. While there are literally thousands of madrasas in India, and crores of rupees are spent on fancy mosques, the number of Muslim NGOs which are really doing sincere and constructive work for the educational and social empowerment of the marginalized sections of the Muslims is relatively meagre.

Muslim organizations must make demands on the state for adequate state investment in Muslim areas. In addition, however, efforts must be made to mobilize the internal resources of the community for the empowerment of the marginalized. In this regard, there needs to be rethinking of the best possible use of zakat funds, most of which now go to madrasas. The standard charity-based approach has to give way to seeking to seeking to empower the poor.

There is also a serious need for working on the issue of waqfs** and dargahs and exploring possibilities for increasing their revenues and using these for the poor. This also calls for democratic management of the waqf boards and dargah committees.

The rigid dualism that characterizes Muslim education, between the ulema and 'modern' educated Muslims, must be narrowed down and efforts need to be made to promote greater dialogue and interaction between the two to help in the process of the empowerment of the marginalized sections of the Muslim community.

In this regard, I would like to cite the instance of a group of Muslim activists, mainly retired government officers, in Bangalore which I recently came across. This group goes every Friday to various mosques in the city and, after the imam reads the Arabic khutba, they deliver sermons on the importance of education and also on the salience of the findings of the Sachar Committee report. After the prayer gets over, there is a question and answer session, where people ask questions and advice is given on how to form local groups, solve local problems and access various government schemes.

I also think that there is much that madrasas and other Muslim organisations in the rest of India can learn from the Kerala example, where Muslim organizations are much better organized and socially engaged. It would serve a valuable purpose if arrangements could be made for Muslim social activists and younger ulema from other parts of India, who wish to work for the empowering the Muslim poor, to visit various Muslim institutions in Kerala to see the very interesting and creative work that they are doing and to learn from their example. The somehow deeply-rooted notion that north India must lead and south India must follow is completely mistaken and there is much that the south Indian example holds for north Indian Muslims to learn from.

Inter-community dialogue should go beyond talking about one's religion to focus on the possibilities of joint efforts to work for social issues of common concern.

This is the dialogue of social action, which moves beyond mere theological exchange and polemics. There is an urgent need for many more Muslims to be involved in social movements on issues that are not limited just to the Muslim community, but, rather, are of much wider concern, such as the environmental movement or the struggle against so-called globalization and against caste, class and gender oppression.

The obsession with issues only concerning the Muslims is, I feel, very stifling and also counter-productive from the point of view of the Muslim masses. So, too, is the tendency to be self-righteous, to ignore the serious need for introspection, to blame others for all one's ills and to remain silent when, in some situations, non-Muslims suffer at the hands of Muslims.

Of course there are several other things that must be done for the empowerment of the marginalized sections of the Muslim community, including, particularly, women. I will not go into this because much has already been said and written about this, including in the recommendations of the Sachar Committee Report. What I have presented here are some stray and rather disjointed thoughts for your consideration and I only hope that this would enthuse at least some people here to seriously think of working on these issues.

About the Author: Yoginder Sikand works with the Centre for Jawaharlal Nehru Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoginder_Sikand]

[This is an extract from a Paper presented at a conference on the Sachar Committee Report in Kochi, 16th-17th June, 2007 organised by the Al-Ameen Educational Trust and the Forum for Faith and Fraternity. To read the full text, click on the title above]

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalit_(outcaste)
** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waqf
*** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adivasi
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Wednesday, June 20, 2007

In the Alchemy of Love, Problems are Dissolved
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By Rasoul Sorkhabi - Kyoto Journal - Japan

# 66 - Current Issue
Master Rumi: the Path to Poetry, Love and Enlightenment

Eight hundred years ago, in a northeastern town of the Persian kingdom, a boy was born. When he was twelve years old, he chanced to meet the great Sufi master and Persian poet Attar, who told the boy’s father: "The fiery words of this boy will kindle the souls of lovers all over the world.”

That boy was later to be known as Rumi. And this year, 2007, many literary, cultural and spiritual organizations are celebrating his 800th birth anniversary. UNESCO has issued a medal in Rumi’s honor.

According to various sources, including The Christian Science Monitor, TIME Asia magazine, and the US Department of State’s Washington File, Rumi has become the most widely-read poet in North America, and translations of this Asian poet are increasingly popular in the other Western countries.
For three decades, I have been reading Rumi everywhere I have been — India, Japan, and the USA. It is thus a personal delight to see the growing popularity of Rumi’s poetry.

Who really was Rumi? How did a Muslim preacher become a poet of love? Who were Rumi’s masters? What was the visionary ground underlying his poetry? These are the questions I set out to explore here: Rumi’s path to poetry, the source of his poetry — spiritual enlightenment, and the content of his poetry — love. In this analysis, I draw from the original historical literature, and also offer some new translations of Rumi’s poems.

Good poems enrich our life, and Rumi’s poetry is a treasure.

In Search of Rumi
Today in the West, Rumi is famous for his poetry. Yet he was a prolific but not a professional poet, a learned religious leader, teacher, preacher and above all a Gnostic (Âref: one possessing esoteric knowledge of spiritual matters). For centuries, Rumi has been known as Moulânâ (“Our Master”) to the Persian-speaking peoples of Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and parts of India and Pakistan. The name Rumi, meaning “belonging to Rum or Rome,” refers to the Roman-Byzantine kingdom which once included Anatolia, a vast plateau in Asia Minor, the westernmost peninsula of Asia, lying between the Black and the Mediterranean seas — the vibrant setting in which Rumi lived most of his life.

Rumi’s major works of literature include (1) the Masnawi Ma’nawi (“Spiritual Couplets”), a six-volume book of stories and parables narrated in about 26,000 verses of didactic poetry; (2) the Diwân [Poetry Book] Shams Tabrizi consisting of about 50,000 verses of lyric odes (ghazal) and quatrains (rubaiyât); and (3) a collection of 71 discourses in prose called Fih Mâ Fih (“In It What is in It”).

Rumi himself summarized his life work as follows:

The outcome of my life is no more than these three lines:
I was a raw material;
I was cooked and became mature;
I was burned in love.


Rumi’s Life: Act I
Rumi’s given name was Jalâluddin (“Glory of Religion”) Muhammad. He was born on September 30, 1207, most likely in the city of Balkh in present-day Afghanistan. The Swiss scholar Fritz Meier, who has researched the life of Rumi’s father, Bahâ Valad, argues persuasively for the small town of Wakh’sh in present-day Tajikistan.

We do know that Rumi grew up in Balkh, in that era a political, commercial and intellectual center of the Persian kingdom, a city where his father was honored as the Sultân-e Ulemâ (“King of the Learned”). It is recorded that even the king, Mohammad Khârazm-Shah, used to attend Bahâ Valad’s lectures.

To understand Rumi it is useful to understand his father — fifty-six years his senior, and indeed, Rumi’s first teacher. Bahâ Valad was not merely a preacher but a Muslim Gnostic, a Sufi. In the Islamic tradition, the Sufis have often been contrasted with the Falâsafeh (the Philosophers). While the Sufis called for direct spiritual experience, meditation, and love, the Falâsafeh focused on rational thinking, intellectual knowledge, and logical arguments. These two fields are not necessarily contradictory but philosophy, the Sufis believe, can never replace practice and experience.

On the path of love, Rumi himself once said, “The legs of argumentative logicians are made of wood!” In other words, they can talk but cannot walk. The Sufis have also had their differences with the Fuqahâ, or Islamic law-experts, who deal with formalities and rituals.

In his public talks, Bahâ Valad would criticize the philosophers. His words and public influence obviously hurt the feelings of Imam Fakhruddin Râzi, an eminent Muslim theologian and the King’s teacher in Balkh. All of this came to make life difficult for Bahâ Valad. Moreover, there was a prevalent fear of the invasion of Persia by Genghis Khan’s brutal army (this invasion and its attendant bloodshed eventually happened).

Bahâ Valad decided to emigrate from Balkh and take his family westward. En route to Baghdad, Bahâ Valad’s caravan stopped at the city of Nishâbur. This is where Attar met the twelve-year-old Rumi and presented him with a copy of his book on mysticism, Asrâr Nâmeh (“The Book of Mysteries”).

Bahâ Valad and his family made a pilgrimage to Mecca, stayed for a while in Damascus, and finally went to Anatolia, which was then under the control of the Seljuq Dynasty, far from the Mongolian influence.

In the town of Laranda (today called Karaman), Rumi’s mother died in 1224. Her tomb can still be found there. A year later, Rumi, eighteen, married his childhood friend Gouhar, whose family had accompanied the Valad family from Balkh. Rumi’s son Sultân Valad was born in Laranda.

Sometime later, at the request of the Seljuq king Ala’eddin Kayqobâd, Bahâ Valad and his family moved to the town of Konya, where a seminary was built for him. Two years later, in 1231, Bahâ Valad, aged 80, passed away. And Rumi, then 24, took over his father’s position.

Burhânuddin Tirmadhi — Bahâ Valad’s disciple and Rumi’s tutor back in Balkh — soon joined Rumi in Konya. There he undertook a systematic training of the young man, and suggested that Rumi study Bahâ Valad’s Ma’âref. Rumi also spent a few years learning from great Sufi masters and Muslim scholars in Aleppo and Damascus (both in present-day Syria).

What was the content of Rumi’s education? A Muslim scholar would have studied Arabic, the Quran, the sayings and acts of Prophet Muhammad, Islamic rituals, law, philosophy and history. Rumi’s books indeed show us that he possessed a vast knowledge of literature, both Arabic and Persian, and both prose and poetry. He was fond of at least one classic Arabic poet, Mutanabbi, and two Persian poets, Attar and Sanâ’i.

Rumi returned to Konya in 1232, and Burhânuddin told him that although he had become a master of “the sciences of appearances” he had yet to master “the hidden sciences.”

Rumi is said to have taken three successive chelleh (a 40-day period of retreat, fasting, and meditation) to the satisfaction of Burhânuddin. Rumi then began to serve as a reputed religious scholar in Konya. (Burhânuddin would die in 1241.)

When Two Oceans Meet
Now we are in a better position to understand the climax of Rumi’s life — his meeting with a wandering dervish, Shams Tabrizi. This was a rebirth, and Act II in Rumi’s life. There are several versions of how this meeting took place. A fifteenth-century Persian poet, Jâmi, writes that one day in the late autumn of 1244, Rumi was sitting by a pool along with his disciples and books. Shams (unknown to Rumi) came along, greeted him and sat down. Interrupting Rumi’s lecture, he pointed to the books and asked, “What are these?” Rumi replied, “This is some knowledge you wouldn’t understand.” Shams then threw all the books into the water and said, “And this is some knowledge you wouldn’t understand.”

I narrate this story not because I myself believe it, but because this story best illustrates how people have dramatized Shams’ influence in Rumi’s life: A dry, bookish theologian suddenly turns to mysticism after meeting an old mystic who disliked bookish knowledge.

The fact is that the meeting of Shams and Rumi was like the convergence of two oceans.

Rumi’s upbringing and education had nurtured him for a mystic’s life. (A good analogy is this: Millions of people have observed apples falling down, but only Newton could discover the laws of universal gravitation from such an observation.) On the other hand, Shams was not an illiterate person. Born in Tabriz, a city in northwest Iran, some six decades before coming to Konya, Shams had studied with many masters and the extant book of his discourses, the Maqâlât Shams Tabrizi, indeed shows him to be a very knowledgeable person. Nevertheless, it is true that Shams galvanized Rumi’s mystical and artistic senses.

After that, Rumi turned to music, dance and poetry, and was detached from books.

Shams did not let Rumi read even his father’s book. How can one explain Rumi’s relationship with Shams? In the Diwân Shams Tabrizi, Rumi has many expressions of love, respect, admiration and longing for Shams. Impressed by these poems, some have recently argued that Rumi and Shams enjoyed a homosexual relationship. This view is a gross misunderstanding both culturally and spiritually. Certain customs in one culture sometimes can be greatly misinterpreted by other peoples. In India, for example, one can see boys holding hands and walking in the street. Or among the Arabs, it is customary for men to kiss each other on the face as part of their greetings. These customs do not mean that Indian or Arab men are gay.

In some Western countries, a man may kiss his friend’s wife on the face as they greet or say farewell. Such a practice is unacceptable for the Eastern people – and prone to misunderstanding. (At the other “extreme,” the Japanese traditionally do not kiss — even their own children — in public.)

We cannot judge Rumi’s acts and words according to twenty-first century Western social norms. We need to evaluate each practice in its own cultural context.

To misinterpret Rumi’s and Shams’ relationship is also to misread the whole spiritual environment in which these two men lived. In Sufism, there is a tradition of soh’bat (“dialogue” in retreat) which takes places between two seekers as they share their knowledge, stories and experiences. The soh’bat is believed to strengthen the mind and soul of the seekers. Rumi himself has a poem about this tradition:

Oh my heart, sit with a person
who understands the heart.
Sit under a tree
which has fresh flowers.
In the market of perfume sellers
don’t wander like you’re jobless.

Sit with a shopkeeper
who has sugar in the store.

Not every eye has eyesight.
Not every sea contains a jewel.


My interpretation of the Rumi-Shams relationship is a parable which both Shams and Rumi use in their discourses — the parable of the “mirror” (Âyeeneh).

A mirror reflects what is cast on it without judging, and thus we see ourselves in the mirror as we are, in a good or bad state of mind. A spiritual friend is like the mirror; it reflects and strengthens our goodness and inner beauty; it also shows our weaknesses and dark sides in a non-arrogant manner so that we can see them for ourselves and resolve them.

In 1248, Shams disappeared from Konya and, for that matter, from history. Some scholars believe that he was murdered by jealous disciples of Rumi who had lost their master to this strange old man; other scholars believe that Shams left Konya on his own (as he had done once before for a brief period) because Rumi’s disciples had made life too difficult for him.

We do not know for sure what happened. In any case, Shams’ disappearance was an emotional blow to Rumi. He traveled twice to Damascus in search of him. As time passed, Rumi found two other spiritual friends, the goldsmith Salâhuddin Zarkub and Husâmuddin Chelebi (a close disciple). If Shams is the hero of Rumi’s Diwân, Husâmuddin is the person to whom Rumi recited the Masnawi during the last seven years of his life.

Love in Rumi’s PoetryLove (Ishq) is a common thread that runs through all of Rumi’s poems, directly or by implication. The intensity of the language and the passionate imagery that Rumi uses to express love is rarely seen in other poets.

Nonetheless, as Coleman Barks, who has successfully popularized Rumi’s poems through rendering them to the modern style of free verse, aptly remarks, Rumi’s love is not of the kind, “she left me, he left me; she came back; she left me.”

Love in Rumi’s poems stems from his realization of the Divine Love and its extension to the world and human life. Rumi says:

In the realm of the Unseen
there exists a sandal wood, burning.
This love
is the smoke of that incense.


Rumi views the true human love as a reflection of this cosmic love matrix.

I use this term in a modern, scientific sense. The best explanation physicists have for the gravitational force is not that of a simple attraction between two isolated bodies but a force embedded in the very fabric of the universe. Here again Rumi has a say:

If the Sky were not in love,
its breast would not be pleasant.
If the Sun were not in love,
its face would not be bright.
If the Earth and mountains were not in love,
no plant could sprout from their heart.
If the Sea was not aware of love
it would have remained motionless somewhere.


How does this divine cosmic love function? How is it manifested? Where does it take us? To answer these, I can think of two love-based processes in Rumi’s poetry: (1) transformation, and (2) transcendence.

Rumi assigns a transforming power to love like nothing else. Through love, he says, everything changes in a positive way, and far more rewardingly than through other means.

In the Masnawi, Rumi tells us the story of Luqmân, a famous sage in the ancient Middle East, who one day was eating watermelon when his master joined him, but found the watermelon very bitter.

The master scolded Luqmân over why he had not informed him that the watermelon was bitter. Luqmân replied that it was not bitter for him, as he was eating the watermelon with love in the home of his master:

Through love
Bitter things become sweet.
Through love
Bits of copper turn into gold.
Through love
Dregs taste like pure wine.
Through lovePains are healed.

Sometimes we are stuck in a problem or in a conflict, and our ever-calculating intellect is unable to find a rational solution. In the alchemy of love, problems are not solved; they are dissolved.

Reason says:
These six directions are the limit.
There is no way out!
Love says:
There is a way.
I have gone it many times.

Reason saw a market and began to trade.
Love has seen other markets beyond this bazaar.

Similar to the Buddhist concept of nirvana, Sufis say that fanâ is annihilation of the ego and dissolution in the divine love. In that state of love, you are one with everything and you see everything as one. In other words, the seeker goes beyond dualities (a quality of the mind that Buddhism also fosters) and becomes one with the Beloved.

Let’s listen to Rumi himself on what this transcendence means:

What is to be done, O Muslims, for I can’t identify myself:
I’m neither Christian, nor Jewish,
neither Zoroastrian, nor Muslim.
I’m neither Eastern, nor Western,
neither of the land, nor of the sea.

I’m not from Nature’s mine,
or from the circling Heavens.

I’m not from this world, or from the next
neither from Paradise nor from Hell.
I’m neither from Adam nor from Eve

My place is placeless, my trace is without signs.
This is neither body nor soul
for I belong to the soul of the Beloved.
An Out-of-the-World Citizen

Why is Rumi such a popular poet seven centuries after his life, and in different lands? Rarely a day passes that I do not come across a few verses from Rumi. To answer this question, perhaps I can offer one of Rumi’s own poems:

I don’t seek this world or that world
Don’t seek me in this or that world.
They both have vanished in the world where I am.


Rumi was an “out of the world” citizen. Although his life was rooted in the Islamic and Persian culture, his constituency was the human heart. That is why his poems lift us from mundane situations and offer us the purity, clarity and beauty of a poetic vision — and when our feet touch the earth again, we feel, not relaxed, but relieved.

Rumi does not view the divine love as an abstract subject for poets or philosophers; it is a foundation on which we should build our living. Rumi’s poetry is also his ethics without systematization and based on (not law but) love. He views God not as a remote father in heaven but a friend (doost) on the Earth.

Rumi spoke his poems spontaneously — oftentimes during the whirling dances or while listening to music. And he appears to have practiced what he preached in his poetry.

Rumi’s biographers have recorded many stories of his humbleness and kindness towards people, whoever they were. For instance, Aflâki recounts that a Christian monk, who had heard of Rumi’s scholarly and spiritual reputation, went to meet him in Konya. Out of respect, the monk prostrated himself before Rumi, and when he raised his head, he saw that Rumi had been prostrating himself as well, before the monk.

When Rumi died on December 17, 1273, on a Sunday at sunset in Konya, people of the town — Muslims, Jews and Christians, the poor, the rich, the learned, the illiterate — all came to his funeral and mourned.

Aflâki writes that some fanatics objected because non-Muslims were attending the services. But the Jews and the Christians told them just as their Muslim friends had understood Prophet Muhammad through Rumi, they had also understood Moses and Jesus through him.

Perhaps, then, Rumi’s poetry can serve as an enlightening vision and uniting voice for our divided world and violent century.

I am the Moon everywhere and nowhere.
Do not seek me outside;
I abide in your very life.

Everybody calls you towards himself;
I invite you nowhere except to yourself.

Poetry is like the boat and its meaning is like the sea:
Come onboard at once!
Let me sail this boat!
–Rumi

About the Author:Rasoul Sorkhabi was born in the city of Tabriz, in northwest Iran, where (incidentally) Shams of Tabriz, Rumi’s master, was also born and raised. And (incidentally) like Shams, he has spent most of his life abroad – in India, Japan, and the USA – everywhere accompanied by Rumi’s poetry books. He is a research professor in geology at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, where he lives with his wife, Setsuko Yoshida (a Japanese painter) and their daughter. He is working on an original translation of “The Rubaiyât of Rumi” and coordinates the Rumi Poetry Club. Contact: rumipoetryclub[at]earthlink.net

[from the same Author: http://sufinews.blogspot.com/search?q=Sorkhabi ; then scroll down beyond this article]

[picture: Painting of Rumi by Setsuko Yoshida]
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