By Gowri Ramnarayan - Frontline - India
Volume 24 - Issue 02: Jan. 27/Feb. 09, 2007
Interview with Uzbek director Ovlyakuli Khojakuli
A shaven head streaming with plaited strands, ear and finger rings, a chain with an "Om" pendant, a wrist band... Ovlyakuli Khojakuli cannot but turn eyes towards him wherever he goes. More, the man breathes alertness.
Born in Turkmenistan where he studied theatre, Khojakuli went on to work in Uzbekistan with different theatre groups. He specialises in adapting Central Asian audio-visual and story-telling traditions in his modern productions.
His interest in Sufism and poetry made him dramatise works such as "Seven Tourists" by Central Asian poet Alisher Navoi, and "Conference of the Birds" by 12th century Persian mystic Fariduddin Attar.
His film Oedipus had a Turkmenistan cast. Khojakuli's striking imagery has attracted international attention.
Did you have a choice in this project?
Yes.
Why did you choose Medea?
Medea is one of the most challenging characters in Greek mythology. She represents the problems of all women faced with difficult choices. She had a big love in her life. She believed in the sanctity of marriage, motherhood, home-making. Betrayed by Jason, her faith turns to fury.
Her decision to kill her children is not an easy one, not done on the spur of the moment. It was a considered choice to do what she thought was right - for the children, and the world. She did not want them to grow up like Jason, become oppressors and contaminate the earth.
These were the issues I wanted to show on the stage and open out for discussion. Show why she did what she did. Was she prompted by love? Wrath? Vengefulness? I needed very strong acting from the actor to realise my goal. Medea's decision is one of the most powerful decisions in Greek mythology.
(...)
Your dialogues are modulated to create an incantative kind of opera. Why?
The characters are so strong and highly charged with emotions. So I evolved this way of delivery - not music, not rhetoric but a scream. Tragedy should be like a prayer of despair. Of course, actors had trouble doing this, but we did manage.
What was the most difficult thing in this production for you?
It was the problem of working with actors from different theatres and groups, each with his/her own ways of doing things. To bring them together and make them work as a team was tough.
This first show is raw. A few more shows and the actors will become stronger, more sensitive.
How was it to work in a trilogy, sharing space with other directors?
In theatre, the director is the head of the team. Here we had three heads! So the director has to do what he should never do: compromise. At times it became more important than the final product. But we will work more now...
[see also: http://sufinews.blogspot.com/search?q=medea]
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Iranian ensemble celebrates Persian poet's birth
By Ezra Glinter - McGill Tribune - Montreal,Quebec,CanadaTuesday, January 30, 2007
Birthdays generally cease to be celebrated upon the advent of death, the latter occasion conventionally seen as an effacement of the former. But there are always figures whose works have elevated them above mere corporeality and whose births are thus justifiably celebrated, even centuries after their deaths.
Such is the case of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, better known simply as Rumi, a 13th-century Sufi poet whose literary and spiritual vitality has endured to the present day. His works include the Masnavi-ye Manavi (Spiritual Couplets), a six-volume poem whose importance for many Sufis approaches that of the Qur'an itself.
He is also the progenitor of a spiritual inheritance claimed by the Mevlevi Order, better known as the Whirling Dervishes.
It is no great surprise then, that the 800th anniversary of Rumi's birth is being celebrated across the globe and that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization declared 2007 an "International Rumi Year."
Here in Montreal, the birthday of the great poet is being celebrated with a performance of Persian classical music by the Chakavak Ensemble, a Toronto-based group of Iranian extraction. Formed at Tehran's Sharif University of Technology in 1998, the group re-formed in Canada in 2004 and has since performed several major concerts, including a benefit for the Canadian Cancer Society.
According to Chakavak musician Amaan Mehrabian, a PhD engineering student at McGill and the only member of the group living in Montreal, the traditions of classical Persian music, poetry and Sufism go hand in hand.
In fact, he relates, the use of traditional Persian music in Sufi meditation has helped it spread outside of the Persian community, a phenomenon reflected by diverse audiences at Chakavak shows.
In Iran, as in most other parts of the world, traditional and classical forms of music have been overshadowed in recent history by more popular forms. Mehrabian acknowledges the difficulties that his chosen genre faces, but remains optimistic.
"It's hard times for Persian traditional music nowadays," he says, "but it's going to survive, I'm sure."
The tradition of Persian classical music is an ancient one and according to archeological records, goes back to the Elamite Empire, which existed from 2,500-644 B.C.E.
Though for most of its existence Persian music has been preserved by oral rather than written methods, Western-style notation has been dominant since the early 20th century. Still, says Mehrabian, there are many traditionalists who continue to teach using the "ear-to-ear" approach through which the music was handed down for many centuries. Learning the full repertoire according to this method, he says, can take as many as 15 years.
Mehrabian began his own musical education at the age of 12, when he first picked up the Santour, a 72 stringed hammered dulcimer.
He became involved in Chakavak as an undergraduate student in Tehran after meeting the ensemble's director, Reza Manbachi. In its current incarnation, the ensemble consists of seven members, all of whom play traditional Persian instruments such as the Oud and the Tar, with the addition of the violin.
The music of the Chakavak Ensemble is both traditional as well as innovative. While only about a fifth of the group's repertoire consists of traditional pieces, even the newer compositions follow conventional structures.
The traditional works, in turn, have been given new arrangements.
It is clear that for Mehrabian, as well as for the other members and fans of the Chakavak Ensemble, classical Persian music has great personal as well as national cultural resonance.
"It's not only our music," says Mehrabian, "but it's also our history and our culture."
No doubt, Rumi would agree.
‘Fütuhat’ represents the ‘whole of Sufism’
By Musa Igrek - Today's Zaman - Istanbul,TurkeyMonday, January 29, 2007
Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi (1164-1240) profoundly impacted Eastern and Western thought and is one of the most discussed, venerable names in Sufism.
The unfathomably deep and delicate subjects he touched in his great number of works were criticized during his day and are still criticized. Nonetheless, his works are being widely read, translated into many languages and republished as Sufism is gaining worldwide attention.
One of those translations is "Fütuhat-ı Mekkiyye" (the Meccan Inspirations), arguably Ibn Arabi's masterpiece and presented as unabridged for the first time. The first four volumes, published by Litera Publishing House, were translated by Dr. Ekrem Demirli [pictured], known for his research on Turco-Islamic philosophy classics.
We spoke with Demirli, winner of the Association of Turkish Writers 2006 Best Translation of the Year Award, about Ibn Arabi in the Sufi tradition, his works and his profound impact on the world and Turkey.
Where do Ibn Arabi and his works stand within the Sufi tradition?
Ibn Arabi best represents the period of maturity in Sufism.
The period of maturity in Sufism carried early Sufism to a higher stage. It dealt with all disciplines of Islamic thought, from philosophy to theology, and it turned into an intellectual movement for everyone, whether a Sufi or not.
Sufism after Ibn Arabi is a process like a sequel to reach maturity. In my opinion, his works such as "The Meccan Inspirations" [Fütuhat-ı Mekkiyye], "The Wisdom of the Prophets" [Füsus'u-l Hikem] or "The Divine Precautions" [Tedbirat-ı İlahiye], are the highest and most comprehensive books of Sufism.
What was the Ottomans' approach to these classics and their author?
We know that all of Ibn Arabi's works were read by the Ottoman scholars.
That there are a large number of commentaries written on "Wisdom of the Prophets" can easily be seen as an indicator of the great interest shown in him. An important group of leading scholars that affected Ottoman thought grew up in this tradition.
Another facet of the diamond is the prevalence of his ideas that are not necessarily mentioned with his name every time they are talked about. The sources of "popular" Sufism are mostly the reflections of the ideas seen in Ibn Arabi.
In my opinion, if we wanted to see Sufism reflected in one book, that book would be "The Meccan Inspirations," which he wrote in Mecca.
Could you briefly talk about the commentary tradition among the Ottomans?
Since Ibn Arabi and Sadreddin Konevi represent the zenith of Sufism, it is natural that there would soon emerge a commentary tradition. And this is what happened.
It is certain that all those works provide spiritual sustenance to people, helping them to get to "know their Creator by knowing themselves." And today new works are written on Ibn Arabi. Our work can be considered a very humble contribution to this long dormant tradition.
In addition to translations of Sadreddin Konevi, Abdülgani Nablusi and Ebu'l-Ala Afifi, you are now translating Ibn Arabi's works to Turkish. What was your motivation for this?
I think it would suffice to say the love of wisdom.
However, I must point out that this work has a system of its own. The commentary on Fusus'u-l Hikem was a new phase of the project. It will be followed up by similar works.
"The Meccan Inspirations" is made up of 37 volumes; will it not be difficult to finish translating them all?
Ibn Arabi is a Sufi scholar who encourages boldness. We should not give in to laziness by exaggerating the amount of work we should do.
If Allah gives me health to do this, there is no room for hesitation, and for this I ask for and require everyone's prayers.
How will the translations contribute to the Sufi tradition and understanding of Ibn Arabi?Knowledge must be accessible. The preliminary aim of my works is to overcome this hurdle of Arabic, which makes it impossible for many people to study the translations.
The translation of these books will replace the groundless prejudices with sound opinions.
Fütuhat will especially build our opinions of Ibn Arabi and Sufism from the ground up.
Along with Mevlana Rumi, now Ibn Arabi is also receiving a great deal of attention in the West.
I would like to be able to say the river is finding its course; however, I still don't think we have reason to be that optimistic.
Until the time when a person such as him, of such a high caliber, occupies an important part in cultural life with his art, literature, and poetry, and as long as we don't have films and documentaries on him, I can't say he is receiving the attention he deserves.
“Those who are not familiar with our spiritual state should not read our works,” warns Ibn Arabi
“Discriminate between your good words and bad words with the power of discernment, and then convey them to those who aspire; don't obstruct this mercy enveloping you, spread it to everyone.”
“Talking about someone, taking an interest in someone and reading someone are different things: these are all confused in Turkey.
One needs to have made painstaking efforts to be able to read and understand Ibn Arabi; this precondition should never be overlooked.”
Some people are trying to establish a "Sufism without Islam" by focusing only on the mystical sides of Ibn Arabi and Mevlana. What do you think about this?
If people read Ibn Arabi's books, they would not encounter such dangerous problems. However, if there is an aim for which people want to abuse Ibn Arabi's ideas as their tool, then the issue would become a question of morality, not an intellectual one.
I think that Ibn Arabi and Mevlana based their ideas on such sound foundations that no one will ever be able to 'convert' them to their own fallacies. When you take Ibn Arabi out of context and out of his environment, he would cease to be Ibn Arabi.
Credit goes to the Sufi saints
By Firoz Bakht Ahmed - RxPG NEWS - Westchester,CA,USA
Monday, January 29, 2007
Muharram has got Indianised over the years.
Quite spiritedly, fervently and emotionally like the Ramlila, Muharram in India - signifies the victory of virtue over evil. It commemorates the martyrdom of Hazrat Imam Hussain, the younger grandson of Prophet Mohammed. In India, it is revered by all communities, especially the Hindus in Varanasi, Lucknow, Allahabad, Amroha, Indore, Nagpur, Jaipur, Phagwara in Punjab, Bhopal and Kanpur.
Muharram is not a festival to be celebrated, rather it is to be observed with solemnity as a day of mourning.
The 61st year of the Hijri calendar - for the Arab world proved to be most unfortunate as Muawiah enthroned his tyrant son Yazid who - proving to be more depraved than his father - obliterated the Nizam-e-Shoora - and replaced with a tyrannical despotism.
When Yazid asked if he accepted his authority, Hussain said his subservience was only to Allah. At this Hussain was shot at by a volley of arrows by the Yezidi army. Even after Hussain died, Yazid's soldiers trampled over his mortal remains. This sacrifice is remembered everywhere in the world, but nowhere is it observed as in India for it has merged seamlessly into the Indian milieu.
Regarding the 'Indianisation' of Muharram and communal harmony on the occasion, Khwaja Hasan Sani Nizami, the sajjadanashin [spiritual successor of the saint and guardian at the holy place] of Dargah Nizamuddin, relates that Varanasi -the land of famous ghats [steps leading down to sacred waters] and Vedic saints- has a tradition of observing Muharram with many Hindu families fasting along with their Muslim brethren.
Varanasi's Shivala Mohalla boasts of the most artistic 'tazias' [replicas of Imam Hussain's tomb]. Tazia's ritual representation resembles the burning of evil effigies on the Hindu festival of Dussehra. Though identical in spirit, the tazia differs from the Dussehra in that it is buried while the effigies of Ravana, Meghnad and Kumbhkarna are burnt.
Italian artist Bruno Cabrini's etchings depict Muharram processions with tazias during the 18th and 19th centuries in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra by the Hindus.
He has recorded his astonishment: 'How come these Brahmins observe Muharram with such devotion and sincerity and devotion even though they are dedicated Hindus and do not permit slaughtering of any animal in the manner prescribed by Islam?'
Beautiful imambaras [congregation halls]were erected by the Hindu rulers of Vijayanagar during the 16th and 17th centuries. Even the Scindias of Gwalior and the Holkar Maharajas of Indore used to conduct the special majalis.
A lot of credit goes to the Sufi saints for making Muharram an occasion to demolish religion, caste and class barriers, thus symbolising the day as one of amnesty and humanity - resembling that of Dussehra.
Jamia Millia Islamia' vice chancellor Shahid Mahdi said that Muharram alums are revered by most Hindus like the Ramlila processions. Sufi saints delivered sanity messages to feudal lords who tried to divide communities along religion, caste and creed.
There had been an effort to create a rift between the two major sects of Muslims - Shias and Sunnis.
It is well known that the Karbala tragedy was an outcome of the feudalisation of Islamic concepts, an unfortunate procedure initiated after the Prophet's death and consolidated by Muawiah's nomination of son Yazid to the throne.
The Sufi saints, along with the Shia ulema, encouraged the mix of indigenous elements from the rich cultural heritage of the land with that of Muharram - both conveying the message of peaceful coexistence.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Muharram has got Indianised over the years.
Quite spiritedly, fervently and emotionally like the Ramlila, Muharram in India - signifies the victory of virtue over evil. It commemorates the martyrdom of Hazrat Imam Hussain, the younger grandson of Prophet Mohammed. In India, it is revered by all communities, especially the Hindus in Varanasi, Lucknow, Allahabad, Amroha, Indore, Nagpur, Jaipur, Phagwara in Punjab, Bhopal and Kanpur.
Muharram is not a festival to be celebrated, rather it is to be observed with solemnity as a day of mourning.
The 61st year of the Hijri calendar - for the Arab world proved to be most unfortunate as Muawiah enthroned his tyrant son Yazid who - proving to be more depraved than his father - obliterated the Nizam-e-Shoora - and replaced with a tyrannical despotism.
When Yazid asked if he accepted his authority, Hussain said his subservience was only to Allah. At this Hussain was shot at by a volley of arrows by the Yezidi army. Even after Hussain died, Yazid's soldiers trampled over his mortal remains. This sacrifice is remembered everywhere in the world, but nowhere is it observed as in India for it has merged seamlessly into the Indian milieu.
Regarding the 'Indianisation' of Muharram and communal harmony on the occasion, Khwaja Hasan Sani Nizami, the sajjadanashin [spiritual successor of the saint and guardian at the holy place] of Dargah Nizamuddin, relates that Varanasi -the land of famous ghats [steps leading down to sacred waters] and Vedic saints- has a tradition of observing Muharram with many Hindu families fasting along with their Muslim brethren.
Varanasi's Shivala Mohalla boasts of the most artistic 'tazias' [replicas of Imam Hussain's tomb]. Tazia's ritual representation resembles the burning of evil effigies on the Hindu festival of Dussehra. Though identical in spirit, the tazia differs from the Dussehra in that it is buried while the effigies of Ravana, Meghnad and Kumbhkarna are burnt.
Italian artist Bruno Cabrini's etchings depict Muharram processions with tazias during the 18th and 19th centuries in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra by the Hindus.
He has recorded his astonishment: 'How come these Brahmins observe Muharram with such devotion and sincerity and devotion even though they are dedicated Hindus and do not permit slaughtering of any animal in the manner prescribed by Islam?'
Beautiful imambaras [congregation halls]were erected by the Hindu rulers of Vijayanagar during the 16th and 17th centuries. Even the Scindias of Gwalior and the Holkar Maharajas of Indore used to conduct the special majalis.
A lot of credit goes to the Sufi saints for making Muharram an occasion to demolish religion, caste and class barriers, thus symbolising the day as one of amnesty and humanity - resembling that of Dussehra.
Jamia Millia Islamia' vice chancellor Shahid Mahdi said that Muharram alums are revered by most Hindus like the Ramlila processions. Sufi saints delivered sanity messages to feudal lords who tried to divide communities along religion, caste and creed.
There had been an effort to create a rift between the two major sects of Muslims - Shias and Sunnis.
It is well known that the Karbala tragedy was an outcome of the feudalisation of Islamic concepts, an unfortunate procedure initiated after the Prophet's death and consolidated by Muawiah's nomination of son Yazid to the throne.
The Sufi saints, along with the Shia ulema, encouraged the mix of indigenous elements from the rich cultural heritage of the land with that of Muharram - both conveying the message of peaceful coexistence.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
“Spirit of Fez” fights on several cultural fronts
[From the French language press]:
La Fondation «Esprit de Fès» se bat sur plusieurs fronts, culturels bien entendu.
Al Bayane - Casablanca,Maroc - Jeudi18 Janvier, 2007 - par S. Alaoui
The Foundation “Spirit of Fez” fights on several fronts, cultural of course. While the Festival of World Sacred Music in Fez remains its warhorse, many other activities spring from this entity created to dynamize the culture in the mythical city.
The Foundation “Spirit of Fez” held Monday [January the 15th] a conference in Casablanca to raise the veil on the activities that it intends to realize within year 2007.
This year' Sacred Music festival will have as theme "Blow of times, spirit of places" and will feature, among others, American artist Barbara Hendricks, the Sufi Iranian group Dastan d'Iran, and the enthralling Turkish flutist Kudsi Erguner.
As for the other activities of the Foundation, the list is long. It includes the Festival of Madhi and Samaa (10th edition, in September) and the festival of the Art of cooking (4th edition, 25th-28th October).
La Fondation «Esprit de Fès» se bat sur plusieurs fronts, culturels bien entendu.
Quoi que le festival des musiques sacrées de Fès demeure son cheval de bataille, d' autres rendez-vous hauts en couleurs font partie des activités de cette entité créée pour dynamiser la culture dans la ville mythique.
Al Bayane - Casablanca,Maroc - Jeudi18 Janvier, 2007 - par S. Alaoui
The Foundation “Spirit of Fez” fights on several fronts, cultural of course. While the Festival of World Sacred Music in Fez remains its warhorse, many other activities spring from this entity created to dynamize the culture in the mythical city.
The Foundation “Spirit of Fez” held Monday [January the 15th] a conference in Casablanca to raise the veil on the activities that it intends to realize within year 2007.
This year' Sacred Music festival will have as theme "Blow of times, spirit of places" and will feature, among others, American artist Barbara Hendricks, the Sufi Iranian group Dastan d'Iran, and the enthralling Turkish flutist Kudsi Erguner.
As for the other activities of the Foundation, the list is long. It includes the Festival of Madhi and Samaa (10th edition, in September) and the festival of the Art of cooking (4th edition, 25th-28th October).
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Middle Eastern Arts Festival in Bloomington, Indiana, U.S.A.
Media Relations - Indiana University - Bloomington,IN,U.S.A.Friday, January 26, 2007
This year's Middle Eastern Arts Festival showcasing culture and artistic traditions, again will feature a vivid array of music and dance from the region, as well as exhibits, lectures by artists and scholars, and foods from the various countries.
Most festival events, which runs from Feb. 1 to Feb. 10, require no admission fee and all are open to the public .
Mohamed Shahin, an internationally-known performer, instructor and choreographer of Egyptian and Oriental folk dances is one of several artists scheduled to participate. Also, Cornell University scholar Buzz Spector, enthnomusicologist Irene Markoff, and award-winning painter Najjar Abdul Musawwir will give presentations.
The festival is a result of a collaboration by several IU faculty members who focus on the region, community members and the IU Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures.
An exhibit of books and manuscripts on Middle Eastern arts and culture also opens on Feb. 1 at the IU Fine Arts Library, 1133 E. Seventh St. A selection of artists' books from Spector, an artist and critical writer who also chairs the Department of Art at Cornell, will accompany this exhibition.
Iraqi music group Salaam will join Windfall Dancers, Bloomington's original contemporary dance ensemble, to kick off festival entertainment with Arabian Nights concerts, Feb. 2-3 and 9-10, in the auditorium of the John Waldron Arts Center, 122 S. Walnut St. The show will tell the age-old stories of Arabian Nights. Performances all four nights begin at 8 p.m.
Families will enjoy a special children's event Feb. 4 at the Monroe County Public Library, 303 East Kirkwood Ave. Swordsmen and stories from the Middle East will be the entertainment, along with Bloomington's Katya Faris and performer Shahin, who will present the dances of the Middle East.
Shahin studied with the famous El Kawmia Troup in Egypt and has been a dancer and choreographer for numerous television programs and movies. Highlights of his performances include the Tanoura, commonly known as Whirling Dervish for the spinning motion it emulates. The dance is a Sufi rite used to communicate with the Divine. The Sufis, who represent a spiritual offshoot of Islam, have performed the dance for centuries.
Sufi music and culture also are the focus of Markoff's appearance. From York University in Canada, she is a scholar of the musical theory, performance and professional baglama, or folk lute, specialists of Turkey. From 7-9 p.m., on Feb. 9, she will give a workshop, "The Challenges of Teaching Turkish Music in an Ensemble/Lecture Setting," at the Mathers Music of World Cultures, 416 N. Indiana Ave.
Markoff also will lecture on Sufi music and ritual in Turkey on Feb. 10 in the Faculty Room of the University Club, located in the Indiana Memorial Union, 900 E. Seventh St.
Performance will be integrated into the presentation, which will be from 4 p.m. - 6 p.m.
Her visit is sponsored by the American Turkish Society. Of Bulgarian heritage, Markoff directs York University's Balkan Ensemble. She has written and published various research about Bulgarian and Turkish traditional and popular music, and mystical Islam in Turkey.
[For the complete program, click on the title of this article,
Friday, January 26, 2007
5th Patiala Heritage Festival from Feb 16 to Feb 24
Punjab Newsline Network - Mohali-Chandigarh,Punjab,India
Thursday, January 25, 2007
PATIALA: Rakesh Kumar Verma, Deputy Commissioner-cum-Secretary of the Patiala Heritage Society disclosed here today that the 5th Patiala Heritage Festival will take place at Patiala from February the 16th to February the 24th in collaboration with INTACT at Quila Mubarak, Old Moti Bagh Palace and Sheesh Mahal.
The festival will comprise a series of performance's by some of India's finest exponents of classical music, dance and theatre including vocalist featuring performance by Asad Ali Khan (Rudra Been), Fahimudin Khan Dagar (Dhrupad), Pt. Brij Narain (Sarod),), Manjari Chaturvedi (Sufi-Kathak), Pt. Laxman Krishna Rao Pandit Devotional Music and others.
The festival will include Sufi Quawali by Sher Miandad and Jawed & Babar Niazi of Kapurthala Gharana (both from Pakistan).
A Kavi Durbar, Dog Show and seminar on Punjab art would be held.
Art & handicraft traditional exhibition will be a feature of the festival.
A fashion show featuring one of world's most famous designers J.J. Wlaya will be held during the festival.
Like every year the festival will also coincide with the 15 day-long Craft Mela which will take place from February the 17th to March the 3rd.
The Craft Mela will be held in the precincts of historic Sheesh Mahal.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
PATIALA: Rakesh Kumar Verma, Deputy Commissioner-cum-Secretary of the Patiala Heritage Society disclosed here today that the 5th Patiala Heritage Festival will take place at Patiala from February the 16th to February the 24th in collaboration with INTACT at Quila Mubarak, Old Moti Bagh Palace and Sheesh Mahal.
The festival will comprise a series of performance's by some of India's finest exponents of classical music, dance and theatre including vocalist featuring performance by Asad Ali Khan (Rudra Been), Fahimudin Khan Dagar (Dhrupad), Pt. Brij Narain (Sarod),), Manjari Chaturvedi (Sufi-Kathak), Pt. Laxman Krishna Rao Pandit Devotional Music and others.
The festival will include Sufi Quawali by Sher Miandad and Jawed & Babar Niazi of Kapurthala Gharana (both from Pakistan).
A Kavi Durbar, Dog Show and seminar on Punjab art would be held.
Art & handicraft traditional exhibition will be a feature of the festival.
A fashion show featuring one of world's most famous designers J.J. Wlaya will be held during the festival.
Like every year the festival will also coincide with the 15 day-long Craft Mela which will take place from February the 17th to March the 3rd.
The Craft Mela will be held in the precincts of historic Sheesh Mahal.
Sufism: the guiding force for millions of people
Staff Report - Daily Times - Lahore,PakistanThursday, January 25, 2007
LAHORE: Amatullah Armstrong Chishti, who has written six books on sufism, said on Thursday that sufism is the guiding force for millions of people across the globe. Its essence, she said, is gentleness and tolerance.
Chishti was addressing a discourse arranged at the Lahore College for Women University (LCWU) by the Department of English on Thursday. Chishti said sufism was an immense concept. She said sufism and mysticism were purely Islamic concepts.
She said sufism could be traced back to the 12th century. She said Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) was the first to propagate a perfect message of love, acceptance and open-mindedness, the central concepts of sufism.
Chishti said that with the passage of time, four main orders of sufism had emerged: Chishti, Qadri, Naqshbandi and Suhrawardi.
Education Minister Mian Imran Masood, the chief guest, praised Chishti’s efforts, particularly coming to Pakistan to spread the message of love. He said it was not easy to find any equal in the world to sufi poets Hafiz, Rumi and Ibn-e-Arabi. He added that the works of Bulleh Shah and Waris Shah were unmatched. He highlighted the significance of qawali, saying that it enriched the souls of believers and raised them to a realm of celestial serenity.
Chishti said that she found Punjab and Sindh most rich in sufi culture.
She said her journey towards Islam and then sufism was long and hard.
Chishti said that many years ago, when she was riding bicycles with her husband from Paris to North Africa, she observed several signs, which she believed were from God, telling her that she had a greater purpose in life.
She said that during her trip, she saw Muslims of all colours and races who would experience a sense of serenity while saying their prayers. This made her curious about this feeling. After her trip, she visited several libraries and spent thousands of hours researching various religions being practiced around the world, such as Hinduism and Buddhism. She said studying Islam was the last thing on her mind because of the propaganda against it, but as she went deeper into her research, she realised that this was the true path for her.
She said Islam made her feel calm and closer to her Maker then ever before.
She said if anyone wanted his or her soul polished and to know its depth, the person should walk the path of sufis, which takes one to a level closer to God.
LCWU vice chancellor, Dr Bushra Mateen, presented souvenirs and bouquets to the two guests. She said sufis had made great efforts to spread Islam in the subcontinent.
See A.A. Chishti's biography and a summary of her books at: http://www.amatullah.zikr.org/
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Return to the life of a good man
[From the French language press]:
C’est vendredi 12 janvier 2007, jour de reccueillement et de prières pour les musulmans du monde entier que Thierno Mountaga Tall, khalife de la famille omarienne a été rappelé à Dieu dans sa 92 ème année.
Nettali.com - Dakar,Senegal - 13 Janvier, 2007
It was on Friday (January 12, 2007), a day of absorption and prayers for the Moslems of the whole world that Thierno Mountaga Tall, khalif of the Omarian family, was recalled to God in his 92nd year.
The disappearance of this spiritual guide, reference in the Tijani Brotherhood and beyond, plunges all the Moslems of Senegal in a deep sorrow.
The house of Thierno Mountaga bathed in a studious environment. Simply dressed and carrying broad glasses hiding a strong myopia, Thierno Mountaga left very seldom the Coran to which it referred unceasingly.
In spite of his close links with president Senghor, Thierno Mountaga always endeavoured not to give an opinion in the elections and the political life generally. However, he engaged intensively at the time of the fatal events Senegalo-Mauritanians of 1989 strongly standing by the victims of this conflict.
Available for faithfuls and parents often coming to request his intermediation, he intervened for the release of Abdourahim Agne, Jean Paul Diaz, and more recently in the case of Bara Tall.
Thierno Mountaga is the author of a book of two volumes on his grandfather El Hadji Omar Tall. The objective to build a large mosque in the honor of its grandfather was carried out.
Among the children of Thierno Mountaga Tall, the most known is Madani Tall.
C’est vendredi 12 janvier 2007, jour de reccueillement et de prières pour les musulmans du monde entier que Thierno Mountaga Tall, khalife de la famille omarienne a été rappelé à Dieu dans sa 92 ème année.
Nettali.com - Dakar,Senegal - 13 Janvier, 2007
It was on Friday (January 12, 2007), a day of absorption and prayers for the Moslems of the whole world that Thierno Mountaga Tall, khalif of the Omarian family, was recalled to God in his 92nd year.
The disappearance of this spiritual guide, reference in the Tijani Brotherhood and beyond, plunges all the Moslems of Senegal in a deep sorrow.
The house of Thierno Mountaga bathed in a studious environment. Simply dressed and carrying broad glasses hiding a strong myopia, Thierno Mountaga left very seldom the Coran to which it referred unceasingly.
In spite of his close links with president Senghor, Thierno Mountaga always endeavoured not to give an opinion in the elections and the political life generally. However, he engaged intensively at the time of the fatal events Senegalo-Mauritanians of 1989 strongly standing by the victims of this conflict.
Available for faithfuls and parents often coming to request his intermediation, he intervened for the release of Abdourahim Agne, Jean Paul Diaz, and more recently in the case of Bara Tall.
Thierno Mountaga is the author of a book of two volumes on his grandfather El Hadji Omar Tall. The objective to build a large mosque in the honor of its grandfather was carried out.
Among the children of Thierno Mountaga Tall, the most known is Madani Tall.
Boussemghoune: from Sufism to Tourism
[From the French language press]:Cité algerienne d’origine berbère, dont sa composante parle toujours le Tamazight, Boussemghoune est prédisposée à devenir un pôle touristique indéniable.
La Nouvelle République - 11 Janvier 1007 -Par C.P.
An algerian village of Berber origin, where Tamazight [an Afro-Asiatic language and a member of the Berber group] is spoken, Boussemghoune is developing into a promising tourist pole. By the beauty of its landscape, by the oasis with palms plantations and orchards of pomegranates, by the limpid and fresh running water, this "ksar" [group of earthen buildings surrounded by high walls] has been from time immemorial a caravanserai, i.e. a "place impossible to circumvent".
Boussemghoune, located 165 Km [102.5 miles] south of El Bayadh is where Sufi saint Mohamed Tidjani (born in Ain Madhi, Laghouat) went for refuge and meditation, and eventually established there, enchanting the people through his presence.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
A strong message of peaceful co-existence
Bureau report - The Hindu - Chennai,India
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Historical shrines of Charar-e Sharief and Hemis Monastery, carrying a strong message of peaceful co-existence of different faiths, would be the focus of Jammu and Kashmir tableau at the Republic Day [26th of January] parade in Delhi this year.
The float depicting an ensemble of a Sufi shrine of Kashmir valley, a monastery of Ladakh and a Temple from Jammu region, showcases the theme of co-existence of faiths, communal harmony and secularism.
"It would not be the tableau of Jammu and Kashmir but the real J-K at the show with its strongest institution of co-existence of faiths at Delhi's R-Day parade," Secretary, Jammu and Kashmir Cultural Academy, Dr Rafeeq Masoodi told PTI here.
He said, the float will represent the religious milestones of the State in three different sections. While the front view of the tableau depicts famous Sufi shrine of Charar-e-Sharief, the trailer section showcases Hemis monastery of Ladakh and the ancient Kali Temple, built by Dogra kings in Jammu.
"This is the thirteenth tableau of Jammu and Kashmir in the series that will be displayed at the Republic Day," Masoodi said.
Chief Minister Gulam Nabi Azad is likely to visit the State float in the National Capital, he added.
In all, 45 artists would be participating in the parade, offering the audience a spectacular delight of traditional dance and music from Jammu and Kashmir, Masoodi said.
The State has got the Best Tableau award thrice in the past.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Historical shrines of Charar-e Sharief and Hemis Monastery, carrying a strong message of peaceful co-existence of different faiths, would be the focus of Jammu and Kashmir tableau at the Republic Day [26th of January] parade in Delhi this year.
The float depicting an ensemble of a Sufi shrine of Kashmir valley, a monastery of Ladakh and a Temple from Jammu region, showcases the theme of co-existence of faiths, communal harmony and secularism.
"It would not be the tableau of Jammu and Kashmir but the real J-K at the show with its strongest institution of co-existence of faiths at Delhi's R-Day parade," Secretary, Jammu and Kashmir Cultural Academy, Dr Rafeeq Masoodi told PTI here.
He said, the float will represent the religious milestones of the State in three different sections. While the front view of the tableau depicts famous Sufi shrine of Charar-e-Sharief, the trailer section showcases Hemis monastery of Ladakh and the ancient Kali Temple, built by Dogra kings in Jammu.
"This is the thirteenth tableau of Jammu and Kashmir in the series that will be displayed at the Republic Day," Masoodi said.
Chief Minister Gulam Nabi Azad is likely to visit the State float in the National Capital, he added.
In all, 45 artists would be participating in the parade, offering the audience a spectacular delight of traditional dance and music from Jammu and Kashmir, Masoodi said.
The State has got the Best Tableau award thrice in the past.
"Master of the Jinn" now available also as Ebook
SNSWR - Wednesday, January 24, 2007 Sufi News republishes this review of the Sufi novel "Master of the Jinn" with a new offer (below) from the Author:
Book review by Ali Eteraz - altmuslim.com - March 28, 2006
Call him Ishaq. That is the name of the narrator in Irving Karchmar's debut Sufi novel, "Master of the Jinn," which has already been translated into twelve languages.
The novel heralds the arrival of a fresh literary voice to Islam and America. It also signals the revival of Sufism, such that in addition to associating Sufism with the long-dead such as Rumi and Hafiz, we may now find cogent expositors of the ways of the heart in our midst today.
The premise of the book is astounding. A Sufi master in Jerusalem, to whom Ishaq is an apprentice, is paid a visit by an Israeli archaeologist, his daughter, and an Israeli intelligence officer who has been having something akin to paranormal visions. The officer, Captain Simach, is convinced that his visions are, in fact, actual events. He seems to be suggesting that in a far flung mission to the Sahara, he has come across the ring of the Jewish Prophet-King, Solomon.
The archaeologist, Dr. Freeman, is unable to solve the matter using his scientific methods, and brings it before his friend, the Sufi Master.
The Master confirms that the ring is real; that it is imbued with immense mystical powers; and that it must be salvaged. He asks the three Israelis, accompanied by three of his apprentices, to go after the ring, and in the quest they are to be led by a beggar, who is as mysterious as Khizr, and equally cryptic.
Prior to their departure, the Master reveals that Solomon's ring was given to him by God, to command the spirits of smokeless fire, the Jinn. This revelation casts a certain fright over the group.
As the chosen go to the desert, visions, dreams and painful memories enter their heart. They become humanized and vulnerable. In addition, they suffer unearthly storms, nights that don't end, and temporal shifts. In the end they find themselves in a lost city and there the mystery of Solomon's ring begins to be revealed to them, setting up a resolution of this magical-mythical-Islamic-Jewish mystery of such subtlety that it left me smiling.
It is plausible to suggest that Karchmar has actually managed to lay before us what all others have simply suggested: the intertwined threads of theology and faith that link Judaism and Islam.
For the mystics and the metaphysicians, this story is, through and through, a meditation on Love, the mercy of God, and spiritual discipline. The Sufi Master speaks on matters of the soul with the authority that Zorba the Greek reserved for matters of lust.
The journey can be read allegorically, and many secrets meanings may be unearthed in later reads. Occasionally Karchmar gives a hint of the matter being touched upon by dropping quotes from the poetry of innumerable Sufi poets. He also brings in quotations from Plato and the Psalms of David. These quotes were a favorite part of the experience.
(...)
As an experiment, author Irving Karchmar is now offering the Sufi novel, Master of the Jinn, to anyone who wants one as an EBOOK. It will be emailed in pdf form to your homecomputer. This is the same book as the paperback, with all the interior illustrations intact, taken from the original file.
Click here to read the full offer:
His mission will live
By Peerzada Irfan Ali Shah - Greater Kashmir - Srinigar,India
Monday, January 22, 2007
Peer Sahab is no more but he will live through his ideals in the hearts of those who love him.
Death is the only reality of life. As Tennyson, a renowned poet [Lord Alfred T. 1809-92] has rightly mentioned:
Tears, idle tear, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair,
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy autumn fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more
The entire valley came under a big shock when the death of a great visionary Peerzada Mehraj-ud-din Shah, spread like wildfire. Peer Sahib; as he was popularly known among the intellectual, political and social circles of Kashmir; was born on 29th July, 1929 at Batamaloo (in the heart of the capital city) in a well-to-do family.
It was a family of scholars and luminaries which has gifted Kashmir great intellectual giants like Peer Ghyas-ud-din Shah (Peer Sahibs elder brother), who besides being an erudite scholar-writer, was also the Cabinet Minister in Jammu and Kashmir Government.
The eldest brother and head of the family was Peer Abdul Ahad Shah, who was an accomplished politician, writer and orator of repute.
History of Kashmir bears glaring testimony to this vivid fact that from time to time great saints and scholars have risen on the spiritual and intellectual arena of the valley and whose ideals and teachings will always serve as a beacon light for the followers of truth and universal brotherhood. Peer Sahib was one such saint-philosopher who was profoundly concerned with the purpose of man’s creation, an organizer of immense capacity and a reformer of deep human motivation.
Peer Sahib was surely among messengers of truth and hope for entire Kashmir. He, by his pious living and rational attitude towards life, inspired thousands of people to strive for truth and to move on the straight and righteous path (Seerat-ul-Mustaqeem).
According to Sir Lawrence, Kashmiri Saints’ dictum was “To be in the world but not of it, free from ambition, greed... that is the saints’ ideal” and Peer Sahib’s life bears ample testimony to this truth. He would sit with the lowly and downtrodden. He received everyone with a broad smile. He never felt angry. He had the spiritual virtues of toleration and forgiveness to his credit. He was a writer who tirelessly worked for the regeneration of Kashmiri society because he had a firm belief that Kashmir’s rich spiritual heritage would be the greatest gift to the world culture and civilization.
I really feel proud to write here that this great illustrious son of Kashmir was my grandfather whom I, out of reverence and love, called “Aba Jaan”. He was and will always be an inspiration for me.
In fact some months before his death he helped and inspired me a lot in writing the draft of my first book on Kashmiri sufism namely “Bat-Mol”—Vegetarian Saint of Kashmir which by the grace of Almighty Allah is nearing completion and will be released very shortly.
But alas! Peer Sahib himself is no more to see his dreams coming true.
It is my strong belief Peer Sahib has not died, he lives in his intellectual and scholarly works. He lives in his ideals and principles which are serving as beacon light in my life. I would like to conclude my write-up with the words of the great poet-philosopher, Dr. Allama Iqbal (RA):
Hazaroon Saal Nargis Apni Benoori Pe Rotj Hai
Badi Mushkil Say Hota Hai Chaman May Deedwar Paida
May the soul of Peer Sahib rest in peace Ameen!
Monday, January 22, 2007
Peer Sahab is no more but he will live through his ideals in the hearts of those who love him.
Death is the only reality of life. As Tennyson, a renowned poet [Lord Alfred T. 1809-92] has rightly mentioned:
Tears, idle tear, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair,
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy autumn fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more
The entire valley came under a big shock when the death of a great visionary Peerzada Mehraj-ud-din Shah, spread like wildfire. Peer Sahib; as he was popularly known among the intellectual, political and social circles of Kashmir; was born on 29th July, 1929 at Batamaloo (in the heart of the capital city) in a well-to-do family.
It was a family of scholars and luminaries which has gifted Kashmir great intellectual giants like Peer Ghyas-ud-din Shah (Peer Sahibs elder brother), who besides being an erudite scholar-writer, was also the Cabinet Minister in Jammu and Kashmir Government.
The eldest brother and head of the family was Peer Abdul Ahad Shah, who was an accomplished politician, writer and orator of repute.
History of Kashmir bears glaring testimony to this vivid fact that from time to time great saints and scholars have risen on the spiritual and intellectual arena of the valley and whose ideals and teachings will always serve as a beacon light for the followers of truth and universal brotherhood. Peer Sahib was one such saint-philosopher who was profoundly concerned with the purpose of man’s creation, an organizer of immense capacity and a reformer of deep human motivation.
Peer Sahib was surely among messengers of truth and hope for entire Kashmir. He, by his pious living and rational attitude towards life, inspired thousands of people to strive for truth and to move on the straight and righteous path (Seerat-ul-Mustaqeem).
According to Sir Lawrence, Kashmiri Saints’ dictum was “To be in the world but not of it, free from ambition, greed... that is the saints’ ideal” and Peer Sahib’s life bears ample testimony to this truth. He would sit with the lowly and downtrodden. He received everyone with a broad smile. He never felt angry. He had the spiritual virtues of toleration and forgiveness to his credit. He was a writer who tirelessly worked for the regeneration of Kashmiri society because he had a firm belief that Kashmir’s rich spiritual heritage would be the greatest gift to the world culture and civilization.
I really feel proud to write here that this great illustrious son of Kashmir was my grandfather whom I, out of reverence and love, called “Aba Jaan”. He was and will always be an inspiration for me.
In fact some months before his death he helped and inspired me a lot in writing the draft of my first book on Kashmiri sufism namely “Bat-Mol”—Vegetarian Saint of Kashmir which by the grace of Almighty Allah is nearing completion and will be released very shortly.
But alas! Peer Sahib himself is no more to see his dreams coming true.
It is my strong belief Peer Sahib has not died, he lives in his intellectual and scholarly works. He lives in his ideals and principles which are serving as beacon light in my life. I would like to conclude my write-up with the words of the great poet-philosopher, Dr. Allama Iqbal (RA):
Hazaroon Saal Nargis Apni Benoori Pe Rotj Hai
Badi Mushkil Say Hota Hai Chaman May Deedwar Paida
May the soul of Peer Sahib rest in peace Ameen!
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Explaining social schizophrenia
By Dr Ayesha Siddiqa - Daily Times - Lahore,PakistanMonday, January 22, 2007
A district government study, kept confidential, conceded the increase in the number of madrassahs and linked them with rise in sectarianism and violence in the district.
The report clearly points to the sources of funding for each madrassah and its ideological orientationIn trying to explain my opinion on the social schizophrenia of the Bahawalpuri society, Ejaz Haider has mentioned the increase in the Deobandi influence in the Southern district.
He is right. The area has traditionally been a Barelvi stronghold. But the rise of the Deobandi school has resulted in no small measure to the rise of the jihadi who is also, for the most part, sectarian. I do not have the expertise to comment on the differences and nuances of the two creeds but, given the feedback on the earlier article, I find it important to explain what seems to have happened to Bahawalpur, once known for its Sufi tradition, its poets and its writers.
Much before the age of ‘enlightened moderation’, Bahawalpur glowed due to its tradition of tolerance and its rich cultural heritage.
A certain level of conservatism notwithstanding the society offered generous space to great men and women of letters. The great Sufi poet Bulleh Shah hailed from Uch Gilaniyan in Bahawalpur from where his family later shifted to Multan and then to a place near Kasur. Bahawalpur being the seat of power of the princely state also contributed to Persian literature.
After 1947, the focus shifted to Urdu literature and the district can boast great names such as Khalid Akhter, Zahoor Azar and Jamila Hashmi.The district has also produced great names in the performing arts (Uzma Gillani and forgotten names such as Tahira Khan who had, during the 1960s earned the title of ‘Dukhter-e-Bahawalpur’ (daughter of Bahawalpur) and was rated by the connoisseurs of theatre and film as an actress comparable with Elizabeth Taylor).
The Sufi culture gave to Bahawalpuri society a certain tolerance and equanimity. We were not known for passionate reaction or outrage. Resultantly, crimes such as murder or honour killing were largely unheard of.
A Bahawalpuri finds it difficult to equate that culture with the trend in the past decade-and-half of Southern Punjab producing extremists.While Riaz Basra and Masood Azhar are better known, the list is long.
Bahawalpur also became known for sectarian tension, a development unheard of even during the 1960s and the 1970s. Today, there are about 15,000 trained jihadis in the Bahawalpur division which comprises the three districts of Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar and Rahim Yar Khan. It is not clear as to how many of these are still active, particularly after 2003-2004.
This is the dateline for some apparent shift in Islamabad’s policy towards the militancy after which quite a few militants got absorbed in other professions and settled back in their villages. Surely, this is no different from other parts of Punjab. But it becomes more surprising in the context of the area’s cultural history; plus, Southern Punjab is culturally different from Northern and Central Punjab.
The involvement of Bahawalpur in the business of Jihad is linked to the overall transformation of state policy during the 1980s when General Zia-ul Haq’s regime encouraged militancy and a puritanical form of religion in support of its larger military plan to fight a war in Afghanistan and on other fronts, mostly domestic. This period also saw the rise in the number of seminaries in Bahawalpur.
In fact, a district government study, kept confidential, conceded the increase in the number of madrassahs and linked them with rise in sectarianism and violence in the district.
The report clearly points to the sources of funding for each madrassah and its ideological orientation. The pattern for the report was later copied to study the issue all over the Punjab province. The issue was not the presence of madrassahs but the deliberate proliferation of these schools and their dominance by puritanical ideologues.
Traditionally, religious seminaries were part of the Sufi shrines where the students were not only instructed in religious norms and law but also Persian. Therefore, the older and more traditional madrassahs were also the repositories of precious manuscripts in Arabic and Persian.
Incidentally, Islamabad manipulated the existing madrassah tradition in Bahawalpur to plant and encourage a more puritanical brand of religion. Such deliberate grafting significantly contributed to changing the overall social environment resulting in not only greater Puritanism but also ideological fragmentation.
The proliferation of different sects and religious schools of thought, which are amply represented through their independent mosques and madrassah, denotes the growing social divide. It is almost comical to see the different mosques observing their independent times for azaan (prayer call) based on their interpretation of religion.
Incidentally, the religious divide is one of the many divisions. Other fault-lines, however, do not form part of the current discussion.
The state’s encouragement of puritanical religion is what I call the exogenous factor. The implicit and explicit support to outfits such as Jaish or the entire jihad industry created a peculiar relationship between the jihadis and the larger society based on the rising power of the latter.
A lot of people drifted towards the puritanical agenda to benefit from the windfall of the power and influence of the militants who had greater access to financial and other material resources. These organisations’ comfortable access to weapons also attracted young men who wanted to renegotiate their individual position within the larger society.
Therefore, the exogenous factor dovetailed into the endogenous factor or the social impetus to adopt puritanical religious ideology. I relate the endogenous factor to the feudal nature of the socio-political system which is inherently incapable of allowing a renegotiation of power relationships within the society.
It is interesting to watch the movement of capital in Southern Punjab. While the power of the traditional feudal, especially the large landowners, has increased due to their adoption of other means of capital generation and power accumulation, the financial capacity of mid-ranking landowners seems to have changed. The large landowners have gone into industrialisation or joined the bureaucracy to enhance their power. The financial prowess of the mid-ranking landowners (landholding of 50-500 acres) is now challenged due to the emergence of the rural indigenous bourgeoisie or capitalist class who can claim greater financial worth but minimal political power. These belong mostly to the trader-merchant class which has also built land assets to match the traditional landed-feudal.
However, the accumulation of land did not change the power-political relationship. Power continues to remain in the hands of the traditional landed-feudal class.
In this social background, the puritanical ideology represented a tool for renegotiating power relationship, especially where the centre of power could not be moved away from families who were the pirs of the area. Considering the public’s association with or reverence for the pirs and their families, it was almost impossible for the new capital to grab power unless they could create the capacity to dismantle or challenge the traditional notions of faith and religion.
The new capital or the trader-merchant class in Bahawalpur is involved in funding Deobandi and Wahhabi madrassahs. In fact, even in smaller villages mosques are no longer community affairs but have the patronage of a group or family of trader-merchants. The mosque imam is paid and appointed by the financiers of the mosque and encouraged to propagate a particular brand of Islam which often brings them in direct confrontation with other mosques.
The impact of such a development has multi-layered consequences but the three most significant are: (a) the rift among different religious schools of thought, (b) a shift away from the Sufi tradition to Wahhabism, and (c) a silent confrontation between the old and the new powerhouses represented by the multiple religious ideologies and their related mosques.
Presently, the new capital and their religious partners have not mustered sufficient critical mass to challenge the traditional centres of power which might happen at some future time and date. Meanwhile, the internal tension to shift the centre of power would result in greater friction and fragmentation. That could change the entire character of the Bahawalpuri society.
The writer is an Islamabad-based independent defence analyst and author of the forthcoming book, Military Inc, Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy.
Monday, January 22, 2007
Tajikistan & Kashmir part 1: Saints and Shrines
By Prof. Mushtaq Ahmad Kaw - Greater Kashmir - Srinigar,India
Monday, January 22, 2007
Based on the empirical study, I venture to record some observations about my recent visit to Tajikistan regarding a research project. Geographically speaking, the two [Tajikistan and Indian Kashmir] have been in close proximity with each other. Only the Pamir Mountains bisected them by a mere distance of 100 kilometres [62 miles] or so.
Notwithstanding this, the two were intimately connected through Gilgit-Wakhan Corridor: thanks to the factors of unprecedented political integration, dynamism of Silk Route and the heydays of Buddhism, Islam and Sufism.
Being profound enough, neither political convulsions and dynastic upheavals nor geographical hazards could ever infringe them. The most plausible reason, interalia, was that these bilateral relations characterized the lifeline of two peoples which in sequence nurtured and kept alive quite a free movement of men, material and ideas across the borders.
No wonder, therefore, to notice a great deal of religio-spiritual affinity between Tajiks and Kashmiris from this and other side of the Pamirs into Badakhshan and Tajikistan.
As I had read and heard about Tajikistan so exactly I found it during my one and a half months stay. A very beautiful land mass situated in the lap of the Pamir Mountains. Its people of the Iranian descent, quite hospitable and gentle, resemble Kashmiris much more than any other peoples of the Central Asia. As a result, both share many things together in several fields. One of them is indeed religio-cultural and spiritual domain.
(...)
They [the Tajiks] believe in power of intercession and advocacy for multitude of mundane and spiritual ends; hence, they respect saints and their mausoleums. As a result, the country is dotted with innumerable number of shrines dedicated to the holy and the great men of the country including martyrs, Sufis, saints and the like.
A mausoleum just outside the Hissar Fort, 25 kilometres from the capital city of Dushanbe, is dedicated to one thousand Arabs who, by tradition, are reported to have sacrificed their lives for the sake of Islam in and around the 8th century.
This renovated dome-shaped mausoleum, is regularly thronged by the Muslim devotees to pay respects to the departed souls as a means to achieve their worldly and other ends.
One comes across similar other mud and brick-made shrines dating around 12th-16th centuries in Tajikistan. These include the shrines devoted to the holy man like Zainulabidin at Khotlan/Koolab and Makhdoom-i Azam at Hissar.
Popular faith in holy shrines is so preponderant that people even esteem the places which, by tradition, are believed to have been visited by champions of Islam in Tajikistan. Two such sites dedicated to Khalifa Hazrat Ali and Khalid Bin Walid at Hissar, Dushanbe, offer the best example.
As a matter of fact, all the three major oblasts of Badakhshan, Koolab and Soghd are dotted with numerous shrines, some abandoned for want of care and others well maintained so as to soothe the devotees. However, one of the most popular shrines is that of Sayyid Ali Hamadani at Koolab in southern Tajikistan bordering Afghanistan.
Being buried at Koolab, the great saint Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani is revered to an appreciable extent in whole Tajikistan. Quite exactly, after the most devastating Civil War, the Tajik government with the support of the Irani government renovated the shrine on the most modern lines.
Besides containing an impressive façade, the present structure features several chambers bearing separate domes over each of them. While the central chamber houses the grave of Mir Sayyid Ali, the adjacent chambers possesses the graves of his wife, son Mir Muhammad Hamadani, and the children.
The cloistered courtyard of the shrine is marked with hanging wooden and metal tablets conveying Sayyid Ali’s message about statehood and the like.
During the process of resuscitating its rich past and culture, the present government has accorded the Sayyid the status of a national saint. Accordingly, it dedicated a remarkable museum to his name just in front of his shrine.
The museum contains, inter alia, abundant literature on Sayyid Ali’s life, performance and philosophy in the form of books and manuscripts published from different parts of the region including India, Pakistan, Iran etc.
Given the tremendous state patronage and the strong popular faith, large gatherings of devotees pay obeisance at the shrine. Indeed, the saint is reverential for them. So is the breath-taking view of the shrine and its surroundings: beautiful gardens, flowers, fruit and chinar trees and resting places, really a scintillating and a panoramic view.
Though one does not find any traces of the original shrine at the site, yet some of its architectural elements have been meticulously reflected in the newly designed tomb of Sayyid Ali—the well-looking domes, semi-arched gates, stone windows and carved wooden doors and other reminiscences of medieval architecture.
The grave is in itself wrapped with a Jaama or a green piece of cloth marvelled with the Qur’anic verses: all these features exactly symbolize the shrine culture of medieval Kashmir.
--To be concluded
(The author is Director Centre for Central Asian Studies)
Monday, January 22, 2007
Based on the empirical study, I venture to record some observations about my recent visit to Tajikistan regarding a research project. Geographically speaking, the two [Tajikistan and Indian Kashmir] have been in close proximity with each other. Only the Pamir Mountains bisected them by a mere distance of 100 kilometres [62 miles] or so.
Notwithstanding this, the two were intimately connected through Gilgit-Wakhan Corridor: thanks to the factors of unprecedented political integration, dynamism of Silk Route and the heydays of Buddhism, Islam and Sufism.
Being profound enough, neither political convulsions and dynastic upheavals nor geographical hazards could ever infringe them. The most plausible reason, interalia, was that these bilateral relations characterized the lifeline of two peoples which in sequence nurtured and kept alive quite a free movement of men, material and ideas across the borders.
No wonder, therefore, to notice a great deal of religio-spiritual affinity between Tajiks and Kashmiris from this and other side of the Pamirs into Badakhshan and Tajikistan.
As I had read and heard about Tajikistan so exactly I found it during my one and a half months stay. A very beautiful land mass situated in the lap of the Pamir Mountains. Its people of the Iranian descent, quite hospitable and gentle, resemble Kashmiris much more than any other peoples of the Central Asia. As a result, both share many things together in several fields. One of them is indeed religio-cultural and spiritual domain.
(...)
They [the Tajiks] believe in power of intercession and advocacy for multitude of mundane and spiritual ends; hence, they respect saints and their mausoleums. As a result, the country is dotted with innumerable number of shrines dedicated to the holy and the great men of the country including martyrs, Sufis, saints and the like.
A mausoleum just outside the Hissar Fort, 25 kilometres from the capital city of Dushanbe, is dedicated to one thousand Arabs who, by tradition, are reported to have sacrificed their lives for the sake of Islam in and around the 8th century.
This renovated dome-shaped mausoleum, is regularly thronged by the Muslim devotees to pay respects to the departed souls as a means to achieve their worldly and other ends.
One comes across similar other mud and brick-made shrines dating around 12th-16th centuries in Tajikistan. These include the shrines devoted to the holy man like Zainulabidin at Khotlan/Koolab and Makhdoom-i Azam at Hissar.
Popular faith in holy shrines is so preponderant that people even esteem the places which, by tradition, are believed to have been visited by champions of Islam in Tajikistan. Two such sites dedicated to Khalifa Hazrat Ali and Khalid Bin Walid at Hissar, Dushanbe, offer the best example.
As a matter of fact, all the three major oblasts of Badakhshan, Koolab and Soghd are dotted with numerous shrines, some abandoned for want of care and others well maintained so as to soothe the devotees. However, one of the most popular shrines is that of Sayyid Ali Hamadani at Koolab in southern Tajikistan bordering Afghanistan.
Being buried at Koolab, the great saint Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani is revered to an appreciable extent in whole Tajikistan. Quite exactly, after the most devastating Civil War, the Tajik government with the support of the Irani government renovated the shrine on the most modern lines.
Besides containing an impressive façade, the present structure features several chambers bearing separate domes over each of them. While the central chamber houses the grave of Mir Sayyid Ali, the adjacent chambers possesses the graves of his wife, son Mir Muhammad Hamadani, and the children.
The cloistered courtyard of the shrine is marked with hanging wooden and metal tablets conveying Sayyid Ali’s message about statehood and the like.
During the process of resuscitating its rich past and culture, the present government has accorded the Sayyid the status of a national saint. Accordingly, it dedicated a remarkable museum to his name just in front of his shrine.
The museum contains, inter alia, abundant literature on Sayyid Ali’s life, performance and philosophy in the form of books and manuscripts published from different parts of the region including India, Pakistan, Iran etc.
Given the tremendous state patronage and the strong popular faith, large gatherings of devotees pay obeisance at the shrine. Indeed, the saint is reverential for them. So is the breath-taking view of the shrine and its surroundings: beautiful gardens, flowers, fruit and chinar trees and resting places, really a scintillating and a panoramic view.
Though one does not find any traces of the original shrine at the site, yet some of its architectural elements have been meticulously reflected in the newly designed tomb of Sayyid Ali—the well-looking domes, semi-arched gates, stone windows and carved wooden doors and other reminiscences of medieval architecture.
The grave is in itself wrapped with a Jaama or a green piece of cloth marvelled with the Qur’anic verses: all these features exactly symbolize the shrine culture of medieval Kashmir.
--To be concluded
(The author is Director Centre for Central Asian Studies)
The Northern Mosaic: Peoples and Faiths of North Iraq
AINA Assyrian International News Agency - Modesto,CA,USASaturday, January 20, 2007
Although the US appears to be initially facing somewhat greater challenges from various Shi`ite groups in southern Iraq (See the Lead Story) [go to AINA website, link above], the complexity of peoples in northern Iraq remains a long-term challenge that could prove extremely volatile, particularly given the longstanding ambitions of the Kurds and the possibility of Turkish intervention.
In Part 1 of this Dossier, we examined the ethnic groups of northern Iraq -- Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen, and smaller groups -- and noted that these sometimes overlapped with religious community. Part 2 looks more closely at the religious mosaic in northern Iraq, and at the potential for outside intervention.
As noted in Part 1, most of Iraq's Kurds are Sunnis (though a few are Shi`ite); yet they come from a different legal school (madhhab) of Sunnism than do Iraq's Sunni Arabs, since the Kurds are Shaf`i and most Iraqi Arabs who are Sunni belong to the Hanafi school. But Kurdish Muslim identity is more closely linked to Sufi mystical orders than to orthodox legal schools, and some of these Sufi mystical orders may include members who are not Muslims at all but members of one of the syncretistic sects of northern Iraq. For like many mountain regions of the Middle East, northern Iraq is one of those areas where small, almost fossilized communities continue to exist, with their roots veiled deep in history and their beliefs often secret to protect them from persecution by the majority.
There is some overlap, and there is considerable room for argument about how to categorize the religious groups of northern Iraq. Almost no one has ever considered the Yazidis, for example, to be Muslims, since they have a very distinct set of religious beliefs and since many Muslims denounce them as "devil-worshippers"; yet other small groups, such as the `Ali-Ilahis, have very similar beliefs to the Yazidis but are sometimes classed as extremely heterodox Muslims.
This Dossier does not seek to get into such debates about classification, but the very fact that sometimes a given group can be considered one thing and other times another may have something to do with the confusion about how many belong to each group. Are there 100,000 Yazidis? That would seem to be on the high end of most estimates, but some Yazidi authors have claimed they number 800,000, though not entirely in Iraq. Numbers will not be cited very frequently in this Dossier precisely because it is so hard to come up with reliable statistics.
Muslim Groups for northern Iraq, most mainstream Muslims (leaving out some of the small syncretist groups) are Sunnis, though there are some Shi`ites, either Kurds (particularly along the Iranian border), or Arabs resettled from southern Iraq as part of the Arabization program. As noted, Sunni Arabs and Sunni Kurds belong to difference legal schools of Sunnism.
But among the Kurds in particular, the fact that one is a Sunni of the Shaf`i legal school is usually of importance only to religious scholars. Far more important are the traditional identification of tribal groups with one of the major Sufi mystical orders.
Sufism is not a sect -- there are Sunni Sufis and Shi`ite Sufis -- but an approach to religious practice and devotion, often associated with membership in a particular "order" (tariqa) following certain specific ceremonial practices and faithful to the teachings and rituals of a (sometimes hereditary) chain of sheikhs. In a few areas of the Islamic world, Sufism and specific Sufi orders have had profound impact; among these areas are Central Asia and the Caucasus, plus Kurdistan. Often, in all these areas, the sheikh of a Sufi order was also the military leader of tribes which might resist the power of the central government. We are not speaking of remote medieval events here: the Barzanis who have led the Kurdistan Democratic Party in the past century are hereditary sheikhs of the Naqshbandi order.
There are Sufi orders among the Shi`ite Kurds as well as the Sunnis, and the Nurbakhshi order is one of the most influential there. But among Sunni Kurds, the two major orders are the Qadiri and the Naqshbandi. The Qadiri take their name from their founder, the 12th century sheikh `Abd al-Qadir al-Gailani (Gilani, Khaylani). The other order, the Naqshbandi, was founded at Bukhara in Central Asia in the 14th Century by Baha' al-Din Naqshband, and introduced into Kurdistan more recently, really taking hold only in the early 19th century under the influence of a particularly charismatic leader.
The two orders tend to divide geographically: to the northern and western parts of Iraqi Kurdistan one finds mostly Naqshbandis; to the east and south, Qadiris. These divisions also follow tribal lines. As already noted, the Barzani family, leaders of the KDP, are hereditary Sufi masters as well as political leaders. The Talabani tribe of Jalal Talabani, head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), are Qadiris, though the Talabani leadership of the PUK, unlike the Barzanis in the KDP, is not itself from a line of Sufi sheikhs.
It needs to be emphasized that the real distinctions here are not doctrinal, but involve religious practices and a sense of belonging to a larger organization; the practices may include dancing and chanting, meditation, and the like, with some rituals characteristic of the particular order. The fundamental structure of a Sufi order, in which the murid or follower is loyal to a sheikh or master, fits neatly into a basically tribal society, and has often been the reason that Sufi masters could become powerful rebel chieftains, since they have a following of loyalists already in place. If those loyalists also happen to belong to the same tribe, the bonds of loyalty are reinforced.
Thus the Barzanis -- Ahmad, Mustafa, and now Mas`ud have been both religious and political/military leaders of their region.
Thus, too, the longstanding split between the KDP and the PUK has multiple levels of identity: it is a split between rival political organizations, and between the personalities of Mas`ud Barzani and Jalal Talabani; but it also reflects the division between Naqshbandi and Qadiri, tribal divisions, and even dialect areas of Kurdish.
(...)
This two-part Dossier has not by any means exhausted the complexities of northern Iraq. There are few real experts (one would need, at a minimum, a knowledge of both Arabic and Kurdish, while Turkish and even Aramaic would help). But the new occupying power may be wishing very soon that it could find a few.
Designer Rohit Bal takes the Sufi flight!
By Mallvika Nanda - Hindustan Times - New Delhi,Delhi,India
And lending his name and panache to the song’s video is none other than the flamboyant fashion guru, Rohit ‘Gudda’ Bal.
Daughter of the illustrious sitar maestro Ustad Vilayat Khan, Zila’s album, Sarmasti has a range of Sufi favourites like Chap Tilak, Abr-Mi-Bara and Man Kunto Maula.
“It was a beautiful experience working with Gudda, he was totally in the flow and danced like a true Sufi. He’s a celebrity but also a friend. One day, I asked him if he would want to do this and he agreed!” says Zila, adding, “I want people to understand the real thing and who better to start with than Khusrau!”
Designed to act:
Directed by Delhi-based Rohit Suri the video was partly shot at the Hazrat Nizamuddin dargah.
After HT City’s sneak peek into the video, Gudda reveals, “There is a sense of incomparable vibrancy in the video, and seeing the splendid Sufi qawalls in action was absolutely wonderful.”
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Now we know why fashion designer Rohit Bal was growing his hair. We are just kidding! That was just his look for the season. But he has more designs than you have seen yet! Yes, it is the Sufi revolution that is capturing souls of a different kind. Delhi’s very own Sufi singer Zila Khan has released her ode to the great poet Hazrat Amir Khusrau.
And lending his name and panache to the song’s video is none other than the flamboyant fashion guru, Rohit ‘Gudda’ Bal.
Daughter of the illustrious sitar maestro Ustad Vilayat Khan, Zila’s album, Sarmasti has a range of Sufi favourites like Chap Tilak, Abr-Mi-Bara and Man Kunto Maula.
Sound sojourn:
Gudda is completely at ease in the video, playing a character that’s lost in the world of spirituality.
“It was a beautiful experience working with Gudda, he was totally in the flow and danced like a true Sufi. He’s a celebrity but also a friend. One day, I asked him if he would want to do this and he agreed!” says Zila, adding, “I want people to understand the real thing and who better to start with than Khusrau!”
Designed to act:
Gudda is excited about his music video debut. So was this why he was seen sporting untamed locks?
“No,” he laughs. “That was incidental but I really did enjoy doing the video. I keep on receiving offers to act in movies and I’m not opposed to the idea but I’ll do so if something interesting comes along,” says the man, an avid music lover.
Directed by Delhi-based Rohit Suri the video was partly shot at the Hazrat Nizamuddin dargah.
After HT City’s sneak peek into the video, Gudda reveals, “There is a sense of incomparable vibrancy in the video, and seeing the splendid Sufi qawalls in action was absolutely wonderful.”
Mevlana's Divan-i Kebir among best-sellers in USA
The Anatolian Times - Ankara,TurkeySaturday, January 20, 2007
KONYA - Americans show great interest in Divan-i Kebir of Jalal ad-Din Rumi (also known as Mevlana).
In an exclusive interview with the A.A, Associate Prof. Dr. Nuri Simsekler, director of Selcuk University Mevlana Research & Practice Center, said on Friday that the Divan-i Kebir was one of the most important works of Mevlana in which he used the concepts of love and affection more than any other of his works.
"Prominent U.S. poet Coleman Barks compiled some poems from Rumi`s Divan-i Kebir in a book titled `The Essential Rumi`. The book is among the best-sellers in the United States," he said.
13th century Persian poet, jurist, and theologian Jalal ad-Din Rumi, devoted himself to the pursuit of Sufi mysticism, in which he was justly regarded as the supreme master. He was the spiritual founder of the Mevlevi order of whirling dervishes.
One of his most important works is the Mathnawi-i Manawi (Mesnevi). This comprises about thirty thousand couplets in six books, a vast compendium of Sufi lore and doctrine, interspersed with fables and anecdotes. It is especially remarkable for its insight into the laws of physics and psychology.
Rumi`s other major works are the Diwan-e Shams-e Tabriz (The Works of Shams of Tabriz - named in honor of Rumi`s great friend and inspiration), comprising some 40,000 verses, and the Fihi Ma Fih (In It What`s in It) which is composed of Rumi`s speeches on different subjects.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Film Provides a Glimpse of Islamic Art
By Sayed Zafar Hashemi - Scripps Howard Foundation Wire - 1090 Vermont Ave. N.W. - Suite 1000 Washington, D.C. 20005 /Republished in Kansas City infoZine - Kansas City,MO,USA
Saturday, January 20, 2007
The Brooking Institutions hosted Wednesday's screening of "Islamic Art Glories," the three-part television program Ahmed made for Britain's Channel 5, which aired it in the fall.
Ahmed is the chair of Islamic Studies at American University here and a non-resident senior fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. He is a former Pakistani high commissioner to the United Kingdom.
The hour-long documentary displays Islamic art and history, mainly focusing on the significance of the Islamic world. It also gathers art and art devotees using architecture, history and the beauties of Islamic art with a goal of reducing the gap between the Islamic world and the non-Islamic world.
"For Muslims like me, Islam means more than a religion," Ahmed says at the start of the film.
Islamic architecture has encompassed a wide range of both secular and religious styles from the foundation of Islam to the present day. The film shows the principle Islamic architectural types: the mosque, the tomb, the palace and the fort. From these four types, the vocabulary of Islamic architecture is derived and used for buildings of lesser importance such as public baths, fountains and domestic architecture, which are all shown in Ahmed's documentary.
Ahmed took the opportunity at the screening to explain his vision for Islam. He repeated some of the facts from his personal Web page that he said the non-Islamic world needs to know:
about 1.3 billion Muslim live in 57 countries, one of which has a nuclear bomb. One-third of the world's Muslims live in non-Muslim countries, with about 25 million in the West, including 7 million in the United States. And finally, he noted that Muslim nations are indispensable in American foreign policy.
The documentary was filmed in the historic cities of Istanbul, Turkey; Damascus, Syria, and Cairo, Egypt. It examines achievements from the earliest Islamic art and delves into Islam's respect for knowledge and the more spiritual Islamic tradition of Sufism.
The final part of the program deals with the last great Islamic dynasty, the Ottomans, and their great capital at Istanbul.
This episode also looks at calligraphy, the Islamic art-form that grew out of the careful copying of the word of God.
Following the film, there was a panel discussion.
Pakistani Ambassador to the United States Mahmud Ali Durani said this is the proper time for the film because of the sensitive incidents happening around the world. He called Islam the religion of humanity and harmony, which asks for unity, love for mankind and acceptance of beliefs and other prophets.
Cynthia P. Schneider, a former U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands, a professor at Georgetown University and a non-resident senior fellow of foreign policy at Brookings, said the gathering was tremendous opportunity for Islamic scholars and scholars of other religions to talk about art, Islam and religion in general.
The series was a hit in the UK, Ahmed said he and his team hope it will be aired globally.
Original source: http://www.shfwire.com/story/film-provides-a-glimpse-of-islamic-art
See also: http://sufinews.blogspot.com/search?q=Islamic+Art+Glories
Strenghtening Inclusiveness
By Dr. Chandra Muzaffar - JUST, International Movement for a Just World - Selangor,MalaysiaJust/The Brunei Times - Bandar,Brunei Darussalam
Saturday, January 20, 2007A Summary of the Keynote Speech by Dr. Chandra Muzaffar, President, International Movement for a Just World (JUST), Malaysia at the 2007 Regional Outlook Forum organized by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) at the Shangri-La Hotel Singapore on 4th January 2007.
1) Religious extremism is the violation of the balance or equilibrium that is embodied in the religion itself. It is a transgression of the limits set by the religion in the conduct of human affairs. Thus, while it is legitimate in Islam to use force as a last resort in resisting occupation, aggression and oppression, it is a transgression of the limits imposed by the religion in the struggle for justice if one deliberately targets non-combatants or civilians. Similarly, while Islam cherishes modesty as a virtue among men and women, cloistering a woman within the confines of the home, denying her education and the right to work, would be a violation of the balance that the religion seeks in human life.
2) Acts of religious extremism are not alien to modern Southeast Asia. However, most of the time religious extremism is not linked to religious doctrine or practice as such. Its primary causes more often than not can be traced to socio-historical, socio-political or socio-economic factors.
The domestic causes of recent manifestations of religious extremism would be as follows:-
a) The breakdown of law and order and the ensuing political turmoil and economic chaos which sometimes prompts political actors bent on perpetuating, or acquiring, power to manipulate religious sentiments to their advantage. Socio-economic dichotomies between ethnic groups may also lend themselves to overt and covert exploitation by unscrupulous elements who invariably provide a religious gloss to these differences.
b) State policies aimed at enhancing elite power or weakening the political or economic position of a cultural or religious minority which eventually provoke a reaction from the minority concerned. The backlash is often garbed in religio-political rhetoric.
c) An event or episode in history which may have contributed to the alienation of an entire community---alienation which may have been exacerbated by current socio-economic and socio-political circumstances. Religion may serve as a conduit for the articulation of the alienated community's grievances.
d) Bigoted, fanatical interpretations of religious text and tradition that seek to establish a state based upon a particular religion which often creates fear and insecurity among the followers of other religions and the populace as a whole.
e) Aggressive religious proselytisation which provokes the followers of other religions to retaliate with their own belligerent stances leading to religious polarization.
The global environment has also contributed to the growth of religious extremism in the region.
f) The invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the occupation of Iraq in 2003, and the continuing suppression of the rights of the Palestinian people within a hegemonic global system that appears to be biased against Muslims have generated a great deal of unhappiness and anger among Muslims everywhere some of which is expressing itself through religious extremism. Southeast Asia is one of those regions where fringe groups within the Muslim community have committed acts of terror.
g) Partly in response to global hegemony in a unipolar world and partly in pursuit of its own dream of a global caliphate, a terror network with the elusive Al-Qaeda as its anchor has emerged espousing an extremist ideology which has no basis in mainstream Islamic thought. The network has a Southeast Asian dimension to it.
h) The terrorism of Muslim fringe groups has encouraged a section of the international media, certain political groups and a number of evangelists from a Christian Zionist background to denigrate Islam and Muslims in general. This tarnishing of the religion and its followers has had some influence upon a small segment of the non-Muslim populace in Southeast Asia who are not averse to employing harsh, vile extremist language against Muslims and their religion especially through the internet. This has led to a deterioration in inter-religious ties in certain countries in the region.
3) In spite of these negative developments, the fact remains that religious extremism is peripheral to the political and social life of Southeast Asia. For a region whose religious diversity is second to none---all the major religions of the world are represented here---Southeast Asia enjoys a remarkable degree of inter-religious harmony. A number of reasons from the past and the present may help to explain this.
a) Religious and cultural diversity has been the hallmark of the region for centuries. It has created an atmosphere which allows an accommodative, inclusive attitude to flourish. Within such an atmosphere, it would be difficult for religious extremism--- or any other form of extremism for that matter--- to become the dominant outlook.
b) The two major religious cum cultural influences upon the region, namely, Islam and Buddhism, have both in their own ways contributed towards the strengthening of this atmosphere of inclusiveness. Islam which spread rapidly through trade and Sufism brought to the fore values such as universalism, moderation and reciprocity while Buddhism's emphasis upon kindness and compassion made acceptance of the other easier.
c) Leadership has also played a role. The political leadership in almost every country in the region has, for the most part, advocated---and practised---moderation and inclusiveness. By the same token, mainstream religious elites whether Muslim, Buddhist, Christian or Hindu have seldom if ever adopted an antagonistic attitude towards the religious other.
d) It is because of all this, that 'live and let live' has become the credo of the average Southeast Asian. Even if one does not interact with the religious other because of geography or other reasons, one is very much aware of his presence---and at the very least tolerates his existence.
4) In this regard, it is important to remember that the two worst carnages in modern Southeast Asia ---- carnages which witnessed unimaginable violence---were perpetrated by groups that had very little to do with religion.
In Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge, in power from 1975 to 1979, eliminated 1.4 million people in order to create an egalitarian agrarian society. Its leaders like Pol Pot and Khieu Samphan had renounced Buddhism and showed such venom towards all religious practices and institutions.
In Indonesia, the coup of 30 September 1965, it is estimated, led to the massacre of a million human beings. Whether it was engineered by a faction in the Indonesian military or by the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI), the prime movers behind those mass killings were not men of God.
This is why while we are concerned about religious extremism in Southeast Asia we should remain cognizant of the fact that the worst forms of extremism in the region were caused by groups and individuals who to all intents and purposes were divorced from religion.
5) Nonetheless, because religious extremism does exist and is a threat to peace, we should take various steps to combat it.
a) There should be more determined efforts to resolve in a just manner the conflicts in Southern Philippines, Southern Thailand and in various parts of Indonesia which have all fuelled religious extremism in one way or another.
b) Since political turmoil and economic chaos pave the way for extremism in certain situations, both good governance that promotes elite accountability and popular participation in the political process, and the equitable distribution of wealth and opportunities which enhances the dignity of each and every community, are vitally important.
c) Governments in Southeast Asia should also add their voices to the global chorus demanding an end to the US helmed occupation of Iraq and the creation of a truly independent and sovereign Palestinian state based upon United Nations Resolutions. They should, at the same time, push for multilateralism as an antidote to unilateralism and global hegemony. If global politics moves in this direction, extremists exploiting religious sentiments will soon discover that they have no constituency.
d) Resolving regional and global conflicts and making domestic and international structures of power and wealth more just and egalitarian may not be enough to curb extremism. There should also be a conscious endeavor to counter extremist interpretations of religion through the propagation of a more enlightened and universal vision of faith in the 21st century. In the case of Islam, the intelligentsia in particular should be mobilized for this mission.
e) More than merely countering extremism, the spiritual worldview and universal moral values which constitute the crux and core of religion should perhaps play a bigger role in shaping the collective consciousness of Southeast Asia's 550 million citizens. Living in harmony with nature and respecting the delicate ecological balance are for instance central to all our religions and yet Southeast Asia as a whole has paid little heed to these perennial principles in its rush to 'develop' and 'progress'. The environmental and ecological crisis that confronts all of us today should force us to pause and ponder. Shouldn't we seek guidance and inspiration once again from that eternal spiritual and moral source that sustains life in all its mystery?
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Moulay Brahim: ecstasy to drive out the devils
[From the French language press]:La sainteté est un concept profondément ancré dans la mentalité marocaine. Ce phénomène s'enracine dans l'effervescence mystique issue du soufisme aux 15ème et 16ème siècles.
Libération - Casablanca,Maroc - 7 Janvier 2007
Holiness is a concept deeply anchored in Moroccan mentality. This phenomenon roots into mystical effervescence resulting from 15th and 16th centuries' Sufism.
In Morocco, the saints are men or women recognized by their uprightness and their blessing (baraka). People beseech them to reduce the sufferings of the body and the spirit, to conquer or increase material wealth, to ensure themselves an offspring, and also for the return of a loved one who is afar.
South-westbound from Marrakech, about 5 kilometers from Asni, is located the sanctuary of the saint Moulay Brahim, patron saint of single people and of sterile women.
According to its history, Moulay Brahim belongs to a family whose hagiography is to some extent the history of the development of spirituality in Morocco.
Friday, January 19, 2007
Musa Dieng Kala on Sheik Bamba
[From the French language press]:Musa Dieng Kala présente un film documentaire sur Bamba
Rewmi - Thiès,Sénégal - 6 Janvier 2006
The artist and writer Musa Dieng Kala will present to Afro-Senegalaise diaspora of Washington D.C. and New York his very last production, a documentary film entitled “The Privileged Servant of the Prophet”.
The 52 minutes' duration work focuses on the lesson of the founder of Tarika Murid, Sheik Bamba; the film expounds the love of the Sheik for the best of men, the prophet Muhammad (pbuh).
Great revelation of (year 2005) Fez Festival of World Sacred Music of Morocco, the Montreal (Canada) resident Musa Dieng Kala is one of the greatest lyrics' writers of Senegal and a bright star of the contemporary Sufi music.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Sindh Festival begins today
By Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman - The News International - Pakistan
Thursday, January 18, 2007 / Dhul Hijjah 29, 1427
KARACHI: A four-day ‘Sindh Festival 2007’ programme of the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) begins at Clifton Beach today (Thursday).
A large area around the Beach Park has been reserved for the festival and the main theme of this year’s festival is “Rising to greater heights”, followed by three sub-themes including ‘human trafficking,’ ‘women empowerment’ and ‘preferring national interest over self-interest’.
Sindh Governor, Dr. Ishratul Ebad, is expected to be the chief guest at the opening ceremony and will open the festival gates with a golden key. This will be followed by a grand festival parade, a fireworks display by the Karachi Port Trust, a laser show and Sufi music show.
The second day’s events include demonstrations by the Pakistan Coast Guards and Pakistan Rangers. Other events of the festival which would span the next three days include a cultural village, sports village, fishermen’s village, health village, naval village, army and Rangers village and a business village.
The festival would also have a kid’s area with many interesting activities, such as a debate competition and public speaking competition.
Bodybuilding, beach volleyball, boxing, vintage car display, scale model display, VJ contest, cinema, arts and crafts, scuba diving are also part of the festival.
Thursday, January 18, 2007 / Dhul Hijjah 29, 1427
KARACHI: A four-day ‘Sindh Festival 2007’ programme of the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) begins at Clifton Beach today (Thursday).
A large area around the Beach Park has been reserved for the festival and the main theme of this year’s festival is “Rising to greater heights”, followed by three sub-themes including ‘human trafficking,’ ‘women empowerment’ and ‘preferring national interest over self-interest’.
Sindh Governor, Dr. Ishratul Ebad, is expected to be the chief guest at the opening ceremony and will open the festival gates with a golden key. This will be followed by a grand festival parade, a fireworks display by the Karachi Port Trust, a laser show and Sufi music show.
The second day’s events include demonstrations by the Pakistan Coast Guards and Pakistan Rangers. Other events of the festival which would span the next three days include a cultural village, sports village, fishermen’s village, health village, naval village, army and Rangers village and a business village.
The festival would also have a kid’s area with many interesting activities, such as a debate competition and public speaking competition.
Bodybuilding, beach volleyball, boxing, vintage car display, scale model display, VJ contest, cinema, arts and crafts, scuba diving are also part of the festival.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Abd Al Malik: saved by sufism
[From the French language press]:
Avec son album “Gibraltar”, cet ancien délinquant, licencié en philosophie et disciple du cheikh Hamza, a bouleversé le paysage du hip-hop français. Portrait d'un artiste iconoclaste.
With his album “Gibraltar”, this former delinquent, with a degree in philosophy and disciple of Sheikh Hamza, upset the landscape of the French hip-hop. Portrait of an iconoclast artist.
In an autobiographical book published in 2004, Q' Allah bénisse la France, [May Allah bless France] Abd Al Malik tells his astonishing course.
His chance, he says, is to have met Sufism. Randomly from its readings, he fell on a text from Al Ghazali. It was a revelation! Conquered by this ethics of search for oneself, he went to Morocco, and to Sidi Hamza, the chief of the brotherhood Boutchichie.
The discovery of Sufism alleviated the need for spirituality without attacking the creativity of the singer. If he changed, it is also after his voyage to Morocco, where he “found an Islam moving, which wants to progress".
"There is in this country something that should inspire Moslem from the rest of the world , and which proves that Islam is neither fixed nor antiquated, but open and universal”, he said recently in an interview to Jeune Afrique.
The last album of Abd Al Malik, Gibraltar, issued in June 2006, already imposed itself like the revelation of the musical re-entry in the Hexagon [an epithet of France], with more than 50.000 specimens sold in a few months.
Avec son album “Gibraltar”, cet ancien délinquant, licencié en philosophie et disciple du cheikh Hamza, a bouleversé le paysage du hip-hop français. Portrait d'un artiste iconoclaste.
Tel Quel - Morocco - par Youssef Aït Akdim - Vendredi 5 Janvier 2007
With his album “Gibraltar”, this former delinquent, with a degree in philosophy and disciple of Sheikh Hamza, upset the landscape of the French hip-hop. Portrait of an iconoclast artist.
In an autobiographical book published in 2004, Q' Allah bénisse la France, [May Allah bless France] Abd Al Malik tells his astonishing course.
His chance, he says, is to have met Sufism. Randomly from its readings, he fell on a text from Al Ghazali. It was a revelation! Conquered by this ethics of search for oneself, he went to Morocco, and to Sidi Hamza, the chief of the brotherhood Boutchichie.
The discovery of Sufism alleviated the need for spirituality without attacking the creativity of the singer. If he changed, it is also after his voyage to Morocco, where he “found an Islam moving, which wants to progress".
"There is in this country something that should inspire Moslem from the rest of the world , and which proves that Islam is neither fixed nor antiquated, but open and universal”, he said recently in an interview to Jeune Afrique.
The last album of Abd Al Malik, Gibraltar, issued in June 2006, already imposed itself like the revelation of the musical re-entry in the Hexagon [an epithet of France], with more than 50.000 specimens sold in a few months.
Reading Islam: A religion in a region
ANU Reporter - Australian National University - Canberra,ACT,AustraliaTuesday, January 16, 2007
A new book by ANU specialists presents the first collation of the many different views of Islam in Southeast Asia from Muslims themselves.
Voices of Islam in Southeast Asia: A Contemporary Sourcebook (Hardcover) by Greg Fealy and Virginia Hooker(editors)
U$37.74
(...)
Chapter 10: ‘Personal Expressions of Faith’
This section of the sourcebook covers the rise in religiosity; the pillars of the religion; Sufism (the spiritual aspect of Islam); manifestations of piety, including views on education, health and healing, and dress; and Islamic culture and civilisation.
This section of the sourcebook covers the rise in religiosity; the pillars of the religion; Sufism (the spiritual aspect of Islam); manifestations of piety, including views on education, health and healing, and dress; and Islamic culture and civilisation.
Some of the primary material was collected by Hooker, who interviewed a range of Indonesians about their views of their religion. The following extract, where a young girl describes the connection between identity and head dress, is from one of those sources:
“So I think I really have to demonstrate my Islamic identity in the way that the Qur’an stipulates, that is, by wearing a headscarf. This also differentiates me from other people. When people see someone walking without a headscarf, they’re unsure about their identity – whether they are Muslim or not – but if they see a woman wearing a headscarf they see straight away the Muslim identity of that person.” Khairunisa, pg 120
When the first draft of the sourcebook was presented to the consultative committee of Southeast Asian Muslims for “frank feedback”, the predominant suggestion by those gathered in Canberra was the addition of the opening chapter, Personal Expressions of Faith.
“The Personal Expressions chapter aims to reflect what it means to be a good Muslim to individuals in the region. Its inclusion has become very important to introducing Islam as a religion without having to do it in an obvious way,” Hooker says.
The issue of dress – particularly the headscarf – is also addressed from different perspectives in the Gender and the Family chapter of the book (in Indonesia the headscarf is called jilbab, while in Malaysia it is called tudung). Contentious issues and their place within Islam – work, polygamy and abortion – are also discussed in this revealing chapter by ANU academic Dr Sally White.
All of the book’s extracts are from primary sources, including the writings of clerics, academics, politicians, journalists, rebel leaders, heads of government and ‘lay’ Muslims. The editors have attempted to authentically preserve these writings throughout the translations, reflecting the original form as much as possible.
The sourcebook also contains 21 colour plates, including paintings, cartoons and photographs of significant Islamic sites and leaders.
“We had a group of people and combed websites, libraries and newsletters, and along with our own sources tried to identify key primary sources representing a spectrum of views,” Hooker says.
“We chose extracts based on their representativeness, that they represented a particular stream of view in an articulate manner,” Fealy says. “We then just tried to explain the material in as even-handed a way as possible and let people decide what makes the particular extract distinctive.”
“The main thing for us is that we have accurately portrayed the views of Southeast Asian Muslims, and that we have provided the information without passing judgement so the reader can make up their own minds.”
The Voices of Islam in Southeast Asia: A Contemporary Sourcebook was funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade through the Australian Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific.
The housewife and the chickpea
By Sami Rafiq - Hindustan Times - New Delhi,Delhi,India Monday, January 15, 2007
On January 14 and 15 the world commemorates Jalaluddin Rumi’s literary contributions to world peace.
UNESCO has designated 2007 as the year of Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi, in order to promote his ideas of love, peace, tolerance and inter-faith harmony.
The Masnawi by Rumi is a massive poem also referred to as the "Quran in Persian". It consists of mystical tales that are rich in metaphor and meaning and shed light on every aspect of human life and provide spiritual guidance. The images and symbols are taken from everyday life.
Interestingly, some tales are remarkably similar to the tales in the Panchatantra [originally a canonical collection of animal fables, written in Sanskrit around 200 BCE, in verse and prose].
For instance the meaning behind the tale of the chickpea in the pot is profound. There is a ‘conversation’ between the chickpea that bubbles and boils in the pot and the housewife who smashes it and stirs it.
The housewife tells that the chick pea, which is boiling and breaking, is the preparation of the soul to meet God. But the chick pea has various subtle hidden meanings too, as the housewife talks to it about its journey from the sun, cloud and stars till it has become a soul, act, speech and thought.
One cannot help but observe the marked resemblance between these beliefs about the enlightenment of the soul with those in other religions of the world.
All religions are based on a belief in the immortality of the soul and the transience of the human body and Rumi brings to us the essence of Sufism through the housewife - a symbol of an evolved soul talking about her enlightenment thus. "In the inanimate state I used to say ‘you are running to and fro in order to obtain knowledge and spiritual truths. Through this double boiling, I graduated from the strength of the senses to become spirit and finally your teacher’."
Through his writings Rumi tells us that the way to God or spiritual perfection can be gained through perfection of the self and by living in harmony with others because the universe is itself a reflection of God.
The Forgotten Treasure of Iqbal’s Reconstruction -I
By Dr. M Maroof Shah - Greater Kashmir - Srinigar,India
Monday, January 15, 2007
Need is to revive a great legacy which stands buried under the ignorance of our modern day scholars.
Iqbal’s is the unique flowering of poetical, mystical and philosophical genius in recent Islamic history. He has few predecessors and still fewer inheritors. His encyclopedic mind wrestled with almost all the important issues that modern Muslim and modern man confronts in his life’s odyssey.
His is the original, bold and very unorthodox approach. He is an arch innovator and non-conformist. He is a philosopher of no mean stature and his attempt of bridging philosophy and religion, or in general, knowledge and religion is unique in boldness of thought and originality.
His primary addressee is modern man and then the modern Muslim.The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam — makes Iqbal the most important intellectual of modernist Islam. He is perhaps the most important Muslim philosopher of science in the twentieth century.
His is a unique flowering of mystical philosophical religious genius. He and his Reconstruction are phenomena in themselves and history hardly ever repeats such phenomena. His appropriation of modern science in Islam, his rereading of Sufism and his individualist religious metaphysics are uniquely his and constitute his originality.
It is ridiculous to argue that Ibn Hnifa did something similar. Ulema have some reservations about the whole project of reconstruction. If any aalim had done something similar there would have been no reason for saying that “it would have been better if Iqbal had not written it.”
Rational appropriation of traditional Islamic metaphysical thought that invokes modern philosophical and scientific thought structures as has been done in these lectures has hardly any orthodox/ traditional warrant. Saeed Akbar Abadi’s defense of Reconstruction in traditional terms has not found and cannot find much favour with the generality of Ulema.
Iqbal’s concept of ego, his individualistic metaphysics, his divinization of time, his epistemology, his rejection of orthodox Unitarian Sufi metaphysics, his theological and philosophical dualism, his humanist orientation, his evolutionist and empiricist approach, his concept of God’s omniscience and freedom, his view of good and evil, his concept of taqdir and so many other dimensions of his metaphysical and theological thought—all are not easily reconcilable with traditional/orthodox interpretation of Islam.
Iqbal has reread Rumi and certain other great classical authorities and conceptions of traditional Islam from the perspective of philosophy of ego and this constitutes his unique approach to Islam. There is no other modern Muslim philosopher or traditional aalim who has done anything comparable. Iqbal and his overall philosophy, not just his Reconstruction are phenomena in themselves, unique, unprecedented.
Iqbal is in himself an institution, a school that originated with him. Here I intend neither to defend nor to critique Iqbal vis-à-vis traditional metaphysical/mystical/religious thought spearheaded by either the exoteric ulema or the Sufi authorities or the perennialists but just point out how radical a divergence is between the two.
There is only one Iqbal and only one Reconstruction in the history.
Without a deep familiarity with such abstruse metaphysical and Sufi works as Insani Kamil of Al-Jili, Fusus of Ibn Arabi, such modern philosophers as Hegel, Nietzsche, Bergson etc., such scientific works as Darwin’s Origin of Species, Freud’s important works, Fraser and Comte’s works, such physicist philosophers as Einstein and Eddington, such theosophical works as Secret Doctrine to name only a few, understanding Iqbal or his Reconstruction and his originality and genius is not possible.
He is mazloom as someone has well remarked as everybody who has memorized some of his verses and has not mastered or at least has not good acquaintance with world’s metaphysical, religious, philosophical and literary traditions has hardly any moral right to dabble in Iqbali studies or discuss Reconstruction.
(...)
Iqbal lays down charter of Reconstruction in its preface. He has succinctly put forward his agenda in the book. The very first line that “Islam is a religion which emphasizes deed rather than idea” is quite a loaded statement in tune with modern sensibility though such metaphysicians as Guenon (Abdul Wahid Yaha) and Schuon (Isa Nuruddin) would question its Islamic warrant.
Iqbal has elsewhere declared that action is the highest form of contemplation.
This is quite an innovative rereading of the whole Eastern tradition. Modern man, for good or worse, is committed to action instead of contemplation. It is not however very clear what Iqbal here means by the word “Idea”. But one may reasonably infer that he has in mind eastern and Platonic idea of idea and contemplation for which the consistent philosophy of ego has not much space as the East is against the ego as well as actions that fortify it as a separate individual entity in a tensionful state with a dialectical relation to the world and associated dualistic philosophical framework.
The whole metaphysical and mystical tradition privileges contemplation over action, being over becoming, eternity and space over time, universal over individual (spirit over soul and body). However Iqbal problematizes most of these binaries and sometimes argues for reversing the hierarchies.
Starting with this assertion Iqbal makes another statement that the traditionalists would contest. He says that for a concrete type of mind the traditional modes of thought (as represented in classical mainstream Sufism as he explains after a few lines) are no longer valid or need to be adapted to changed perception. This is indeed true but the question is ‘is not concrete type of mind itself a problem?’ Could not the whole problem lie in modern mind’s peculiar make-up itself?
Should it not be asked to remould itself and renounce the whole philosophical –scientific tradition that has shaped it in the first place.
--to be concluded--
Monday, January 15, 2007
Need is to revive a great legacy which stands buried under the ignorance of our modern day scholars.
Iqbal’s is the unique flowering of poetical, mystical and philosophical genius in recent Islamic history. He has few predecessors and still fewer inheritors. His encyclopedic mind wrestled with almost all the important issues that modern Muslim and modern man confronts in his life’s odyssey.
His is the original, bold and very unorthodox approach. He is an arch innovator and non-conformist. He is a philosopher of no mean stature and his attempt of bridging philosophy and religion, or in general, knowledge and religion is unique in boldness of thought and originality.
His primary addressee is modern man and then the modern Muslim.The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam — makes Iqbal the most important intellectual of modernist Islam. He is perhaps the most important Muslim philosopher of science in the twentieth century.
His is a unique flowering of mystical philosophical religious genius. He and his Reconstruction are phenomena in themselves and history hardly ever repeats such phenomena. His appropriation of modern science in Islam, his rereading of Sufism and his individualist religious metaphysics are uniquely his and constitute his originality.
It is ridiculous to argue that Ibn Hnifa did something similar. Ulema have some reservations about the whole project of reconstruction. If any aalim had done something similar there would have been no reason for saying that “it would have been better if Iqbal had not written it.”
Rational appropriation of traditional Islamic metaphysical thought that invokes modern philosophical and scientific thought structures as has been done in these lectures has hardly any orthodox/ traditional warrant. Saeed Akbar Abadi’s defense of Reconstruction in traditional terms has not found and cannot find much favour with the generality of Ulema.
Iqbal’s concept of ego, his individualistic metaphysics, his divinization of time, his epistemology, his rejection of orthodox Unitarian Sufi metaphysics, his theological and philosophical dualism, his humanist orientation, his evolutionist and empiricist approach, his concept of God’s omniscience and freedom, his view of good and evil, his concept of taqdir and so many other dimensions of his metaphysical and theological thought—all are not easily reconcilable with traditional/orthodox interpretation of Islam.
Iqbal has reread Rumi and certain other great classical authorities and conceptions of traditional Islam from the perspective of philosophy of ego and this constitutes his unique approach to Islam. There is no other modern Muslim philosopher or traditional aalim who has done anything comparable. Iqbal and his overall philosophy, not just his Reconstruction are phenomena in themselves, unique, unprecedented.
Iqbal is in himself an institution, a school that originated with him. Here I intend neither to defend nor to critique Iqbal vis-à-vis traditional metaphysical/mystical/religious thought spearheaded by either the exoteric ulema or the Sufi authorities or the perennialists but just point out how radical a divergence is between the two.
There is only one Iqbal and only one Reconstruction in the history.
Without a deep familiarity with such abstruse metaphysical and Sufi works as Insani Kamil of Al-Jili, Fusus of Ibn Arabi, such modern philosophers as Hegel, Nietzsche, Bergson etc., such scientific works as Darwin’s Origin of Species, Freud’s important works, Fraser and Comte’s works, such physicist philosophers as Einstein and Eddington, such theosophical works as Secret Doctrine to name only a few, understanding Iqbal or his Reconstruction and his originality and genius is not possible.
He is mazloom as someone has well remarked as everybody who has memorized some of his verses and has not mastered or at least has not good acquaintance with world’s metaphysical, religious, philosophical and literary traditions has hardly any moral right to dabble in Iqbali studies or discuss Reconstruction.
(...)
Iqbal lays down charter of Reconstruction in its preface. He has succinctly put forward his agenda in the book. The very first line that “Islam is a religion which emphasizes deed rather than idea” is quite a loaded statement in tune with modern sensibility though such metaphysicians as Guenon (Abdul Wahid Yaha) and Schuon (Isa Nuruddin) would question its Islamic warrant.
Iqbal has elsewhere declared that action is the highest form of contemplation.
This is quite an innovative rereading of the whole Eastern tradition. Modern man, for good or worse, is committed to action instead of contemplation. It is not however very clear what Iqbal here means by the word “Idea”. But one may reasonably infer that he has in mind eastern and Platonic idea of idea and contemplation for which the consistent philosophy of ego has not much space as the East is against the ego as well as actions that fortify it as a separate individual entity in a tensionful state with a dialectical relation to the world and associated dualistic philosophical framework.
The whole metaphysical and mystical tradition privileges contemplation over action, being over becoming, eternity and space over time, universal over individual (spirit over soul and body). However Iqbal problematizes most of these binaries and sometimes argues for reversing the hierarchies.
Starting with this assertion Iqbal makes another statement that the traditionalists would contest. He says that for a concrete type of mind the traditional modes of thought (as represented in classical mainstream Sufism as he explains after a few lines) are no longer valid or need to be adapted to changed perception. This is indeed true but the question is ‘is not concrete type of mind itself a problem?’ Could not the whole problem lie in modern mind’s peculiar make-up itself?
Should it not be asked to remould itself and renounce the whole philosophical –scientific tradition that has shaped it in the first place.
--to be concluded--
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
What role for Islam in Somalia?
By Mohammad Olad Hassan/Bureau - BBC News - UKMonday, 15 January 2007, 15:29 GMT
After the rapid retreat of the Union of Islamic Courts in Somalia, what is the future of political Islam in the country?
Recent events in Somalia have once again thrown the country into turmoil, with the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) being driven from Mogadishu and out of power in a matter of days by government forces backed by Ethiopia.
The action drew an angry response from radical Islamists, with al-Qaeda's number two Ayman al-Zawahiri calling for Muslims to rush to Somalia to support a continued insurgency, and describing the country as a "Crusader battlefield where the West is fighting Islam."
The BBC's Mohammad Olad Hassan in Mogadishu said that it cannot be estimated how many Somalis actually supported the Islamic Sharia law under which the country was run by the UIC.
But he added that what the Islamists had brought was stability, and there are now fears of a return to lawlessness.
"When the Islamists were in control in Mogadishu, the situation was very calm - people felt that stability and security was restored," he told BBC World Service's Reporting Religion programme.
"Many people supported the Islamists because of that security, regardless of the other things that they were doing."
Sects
Despite the withdrawal of the UIC from the country's capital, there remains a feeling that, in a country where nearly the entire population are Muslims, Islam as a political force has not been destroyed.
"They feel that regardless of the government in Somalia, there should be respect for the law of Islam," our correspondent added.
Most Somali Muslims are split between the moderate and secular Sufi sects and the more fundamental al-Ittihad sects - from which most of the leaders of the Union of Islamic Courts, and those who supported them, were drawn.
Sufis now say that with al-Ittihad's influence gone, "it is now time to practice the principles of the Sufi sects."
Meanwhile, Haroun Hassan, a Somali journalist based in London, said that some Somalis began to favour the use of Islamic law after becoming disillusioned with democracy.
"The modern political system of Somalia has been based on corruption, nepotism and bad management," he explained.
"That has created, within many Somalis, the feeling that perhaps democracy or man-made constitutions are not the right answer to the political saga.
"They were saying: 'We don't have to be dormant with regard to the running of the country, we should not separate religion from politics, we should base religion on every aspect of life.'
"That's how al-Ittihad came into existence, that's how a good number of former al-Ittihad members came to be in running of the Union of Islamic Courts."
Taking refuge in religion
This religious aspect was brought into the war against Ethiopia, with the UIC declaring jihad, or holy war, against its larger neighbour.
"What they wanted to do was reach absolute purity - saying: 'Let's defend our country; that's what our religion asks us to do'," Mr Hassan said.
Since the UIC's retreat, the clan from which its leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys belongs has said it would like to take part in the political process as the new transitional government takes over. The BBC's Mohammad Olad Hassan said that most Somalis would like to see an Islamic element to the way the future government is set up, and that "they are expecting Islamic law to be a major thing."
And Haroun Hassan added that he believes that if the current politicians in the Somali government do not deliver, "then the Union of Islamic Courts will come back.
"It should not surprise us to see members of the Union of Islamic Courts in the streets of Mogadishu in the coming months," he added.
"Somalia's people are confused. They want anybody who can bring them stability for a period of time. That's why they have taken refuge in religion".
Stomping With Sintirs as a Route to Trance
By Sia Michel - The New York Times - New York,NY,USAMonday, January 15, 2007
In the highlight of the Hassan Hakmoun show at Symphony Space on Saturday night, the Moroccan-born Hakmoun brothers had a gnawa dance-off. AbderRahim Hakmoun, dressed in an orange tunic and a bejeweled, fezlike hat, spun its tassel like a helicopter propeller, smacking his bare feet on the stage in a complex pattern. Hassan Hakmoun, playing a sintir (a three-stringed, wood and camel-skin lute), matched his younger brother’s furious rhythm, whipping around his long, reddish dreadlocks.
“This is a traditional African foot stomp,” Hassan Hakmoun said, describing it as the root of American tap dance. As the duo got low to the ground and shook their hips and shoulders, their moves suggested a clear line to more modern styles, too, from stepping to krumping. The dance was mesmerizing, but it was also apparently painful.
“Next song,” Hassan Hakmoun said, “we’re going to wear shoes because living here in America for so long, we don’t have African feet anymore.” He laughed. “And medical care is too expensive.”
His music, gnawa trance, is hypnotic devotional music with African and Sufi Muslim influences. Brought to the region by West African slaves and traders, it’s heavily rhythmic, built around drums, qaraqebs (metal castanets), hand claps and the sintir, which is both thumped and strummed.
Gnawa is designed to bring listeners into a mystical, trancelike state; songs often start with a slow, mournful vocal and sintir introduction, then gradually speed up until they are frantically, heart-poundingly fast. In derdeba ceremonies, gnawa music and dancing are often used to drive out evil spirits (when someone is sick or troubled) or to honor beneficial spirits (when someone is exceptionally well).
Gnawa groups play at Marrakesh’s Jamaa el F’Na, a large square where tourists flock for photo-ops with snake charmers and surly monkeys. That’s where Hassan Hakmoun, the son of a Berber healer, started playing as a boy. Now he is a m’allem (a master musician or band leader) and a New Yorker, well known in the West for his work with Peter Gabriel, Kronos Quartet and Pharoah Sanders.
On Saturday, Mr. Hakmoun had the charisma of a rock star, theatrically thrusting around his sintir and singing huskily with an ecstatic expression. He sang call-and-response with his qaraqeb-shaking brother, who earned cheers for his acrobatic leaps during “Moussaoui.”
The set included traditional derdeba songs, with stunningly complicated polyrhythms by the percussionists Brahim Fribgane and Ron McBee.
While introducing “Challaban,” Mr. Hakmoun said: “This is a very, very spiritual and peaceful song. You have to follow the drums. You have to be the drums.”
The crowd clapped along as instructed, but the results weren’t exactly rousing. Music this rapturous is better appreciated in a less formal setting, where people could try some (probably painfully awkward) trance-dancing and the band could feed off the energy. The show was simultaneously enthralling and academic.
Mr. Hakmoun ended it with “Maaboud Allah” and a sweaty dance of twirls and kicks. Then he dropped to his knees for a lengthy spotlight turn — like the Eddie Van Halen of the sintir.
Monday, January 15, 2007
A Tale from South Asia: "Yaa Warris"
By Syed Ali Mujtaba - INDOlink - San Ramon,CA,USA Sunday, January 14, 2007
[In the numbered-states map of India, Bihar is number 4]
I met one interesting character in the passenger train on travel from Shiekhpura to Gaya in the Indian state of Bihar. He had no marks on his forehead nor he had any tuffet hair on the back head.
From to he covered himself with woolen cloths but below he was dressed in dothi, the kind Gandhiji wore, and that’s how I could identify his religion. He was with two Muslim guys.
They were Muslims because one had beard, the other was clean-shaven but was wearing ‘pajama’. A kid sat in the Muslim guys lap and was wearing modern cloths. The Muslim guy was giving toffee and the Hindu guy was cuddling the kid. I cannot make out his religion of the child but guess he was related to the Hindu gentleman.
The most peculiar thing about this gentleman was he whispered "Yaa Warris" intermittently. This was just as some Christian may say “Oh Jesus,” or Muslim "Ya Allah" or some modern day north Indian Hindu picked make their obvious statement saying “Jai Sri Ram,” this person seems to have picked up the fancy for "Yaa Warris" that was on his lips all the time.
He looked to me an interesting character and I was watched his activities minutely. Suddenly his mobile phone started ringing and instead of saying hello, he yelled "Yaa Warris." He closed his conversation in the same way.
When the train reached the bridge on the river Phalgo, on the banks of which Gaya town or Bodh Gaya is situated, he stood up, and folded his hands to the river and bowed his head. I could see him chanting some mantra after which he sat down. He continued whisper "Yaa Warris." in regular intervals after that. I was itching to unravel the mystery of "Yaa Warris” but I was shy not ask him anything as that could be personal and may put me in tight spot.
I came home and narrated this spectacle to my folks. They said this person could be follower of the Sufi saint Pir Warris Qlander of Nawada district whom Hindus and Muslims alike revere.
I realize these passengers had boarded the train from the same station. I was also told that a private coach operator from Nawada, who is a non-Muslim is also the follower of this Sufi saint. He owns a fleet of buses that has “Warris Piya” written in bold letters up in the front both in Hindi and Urdu. I remember seeing a few such buses in my last trip to the same place.
My fellow travelers in the train looked to me moderately educated as one could make out from their talks. They seem to be friends engaged in some petty business activity. Their dress said they were not so poor either. The most conspicuous thing about them was they were above the Hindu Muslim communal madness that’s ripping India apart. They had perfect understanding with each other and respected each other’s faith.
This was an eventful journey that I may like to remember for long. Still the sound of "Yaa Warris" rings in and the face of the gentleman who was whispering haunts my mind. I am tempted to acknowledge my fascination for this strange but wonderful unknown Indian.
"Yaa Warris".
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Prayers for political power
By Anand Soondas - Times Of India - Chandigarh,India
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Any earnest wish at the dargah of Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer, people say, is usually granted. Amarinder Singh [Punjab Chief Minister] would most certainly have been very earnest in his prayers for renewed power when he visited the shrine in a most controversial manner.
There were charges that the chief minister whisked away Pakistani guests to Rajasthan when they only had visas for Amritsar doing frenzied rounds last week. But it will take more than the Sufi saint's blessings for the Congress to ride back to power through the February 13 polls to the 117-member assembly.
For all the CM's good intentions, nobody, it seems, is happy. Punjab's influential and very moneyed NRI [Non Resident Indians] lobby is miffed that their native state has shown little concern or interest in welcoming many of those who want to come home, both for investment and resettlement.
And there are quite a few, like Lajpat Rai Munger known as the pistachio king of the world, he recently donated a whopping Rs 20 crore [crore: ten millions (10,000,000; a crore of rupees is nearly $5,000,000] for a college in Hoshiarpur and H S Sidhu, who bought out Air Slovakia last year, keen to do that.
Recently, an agonised NRI told TOI, "For everything back home, elections to langars in gurdwaras, we send in donations. And there's nothing in it, except the call of our roots, for us. The Punjab government has treated its NRI population quite dismissively."
(...)
This comes at a bad time for a community already struggling with unprecedented low yields, recurring suicides and an enormous problem of drug addiction among its youth. No wonder then that Punjab, a land known for its farming, is going urban at a blinding pace.
There are estimates that close to half of Punjab has become urban centers, with agriculturists increasingly looking at other options of sustenance. Kuldeep Chand, a Nangal-based leader of farmers who also heads the Advancement of Rural People and Natural Resources, an NGO, said, "SEZ [Special Economic Zones] acquisitions, if not done properly, can have disastrous effects
"One farmland taken away will affect 10 families adversely. This is an issue that'll boomerang."
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punjab_%28India%29]
[http://www.sezindia.nic.in/sez.asp]
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Any earnest wish at the dargah of Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer, people say, is usually granted. Amarinder Singh [Punjab Chief Minister] would most certainly have been very earnest in his prayers for renewed power when he visited the shrine in a most controversial manner.
There were charges that the chief minister whisked away Pakistani guests to Rajasthan when they only had visas for Amritsar doing frenzied rounds last week. But it will take more than the Sufi saint's blessings for the Congress to ride back to power through the February 13 polls to the 117-member assembly.
For all the CM's good intentions, nobody, it seems, is happy. Punjab's influential and very moneyed NRI [Non Resident Indians] lobby is miffed that their native state has shown little concern or interest in welcoming many of those who want to come home, both for investment and resettlement.
And there are quite a few, like Lajpat Rai Munger known as the pistachio king of the world, he recently donated a whopping Rs 20 crore [crore: ten millions (10,000,000; a crore of rupees is nearly $5,000,000] for a college in Hoshiarpur and H S Sidhu, who bought out Air Slovakia last year, keen to do that.
Recently, an agonised NRI told TOI, "For everything back home, elections to langars in gurdwaras, we send in donations. And there's nothing in it, except the call of our roots, for us. The Punjab government has treated its NRI population quite dismissively."
(...)
This comes at a bad time for a community already struggling with unprecedented low yields, recurring suicides and an enormous problem of drug addiction among its youth. No wonder then that Punjab, a land known for its farming, is going urban at a blinding pace.
There are estimates that close to half of Punjab has become urban centers, with agriculturists increasingly looking at other options of sustenance. Kuldeep Chand, a Nangal-based leader of farmers who also heads the Advancement of Rural People and Natural Resources, an NGO, said, "SEZ [Special Economic Zones] acquisitions, if not done properly, can have disastrous effects
"One farmland taken away will affect 10 families adversely. This is an issue that'll boomerang."
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punjab_%28India%29]
[http://www.sezindia.nic.in/sez.asp]
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Hâfez-e Shirazi, gardener of love: book review
[From the French language press]: Hâfez de Chiraz, jardinier de l'amour.Au XIVe siècle, alors que Dante venait de terminer sa Divine Comédie et que Pétrarque était plongé dans son Canzoniere, la poésie persane battait son plein.
Le grand poète du moment s'appelait Hâfez et il écrivait des ghazals, comme son prédécesseur Rûmi. Sans doute moins mystique, moins exalté que le [autre] maître soufi, Hâfez (né vers 1315 et mort vers 1390) est l'auteur de poèmes plus ambigus.
Le Monde,France - Janvier 5, 2007 - Le Monde des livres, par René de Ceccaty
In the XIVth century, whereas Dante had just finished his Divina Commedia and Pétrarque was plunged in its Canzoniere, Persian poetry beat his full. The large poet of the moment was called Hâfez and he wrote ghazals, like his Rûmi predecessor. Undoubtedly less mystical, less exalted than the [other] sufi Master, Hâfez (born about 1315 and dead about 1390) is the author of more ambiguous poems.
And there is, with Hâfez, business with a more human poetic universe, more carnal, more ambiguous also, where intoxication, the physical love and the observations of the everyday life are not contradictory with the spiritual dash. One measures the influence that Hâfez will exert, through the centuries, on sensual poets like the Alexandrine Constantin Cavafy, for which also the tavern is a theatre of major and more rich training than the solitary meditation, the reading of the crowned books or the respect of the dogmas.
Intoxication, far from being opposed to the interior control which could be favourable to the true spiritual values, is a door of wisdom, because it delivers from the narrowness of the “ego”. It is one of the fundamental paradoxes of this poetry. The ascetic has less wisdom than the drunkard. The pure and contrite man less size than the libertine:
“Request to the drunk libertines the secret within the veil/because the Sufi of high rank does not reach this state!”
LE DIVÂN de Hâfez de Chiraz. Introduction, traduction du persan et commentaires par Charles-Henri de Fouchécour, Verdier poche, 1278 p., 25 €
Poets and mystics
Around Persian poetry, two other publications must be announced:
Around Persian poetry, two other publications must be announced:
-an imaginary incarnation of the world of the poet soufi Rûmi, Sur les pas de Rûmi (On the steps of Rûmi), by Nahal Tajadod (illustrated by the painter Fédérica Matta and prefaced by Jean-Claude Carrière, Albin Michel, 386 p., 25 €).
-a new translation of the Poèmes mystiques (Mystical poems) of Hussein Mansour Al-Hallâj (translated from Arabic by Sami-Ali, Southern Sindbad-Acts, 96 p., 9,60 €).
Friday, January 12, 2007
UNESCO Remembers Mevlana in 2007
From the German press
UNESCO gedenkt 2007 des Islamischen Philosophen Mevlana
Touristik Presse – Das Medienportal für Reise und Touristik
Pressekontakt: Ulrike Demmel
Summary
At the suggestion of Turkey, Egypt, and Afghanistan UNESCO has named 2007 as “Mevlana Year” in memory of the Muslim philosopher and mystical poet Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi. 2007 sees the 800th anniversary of his birth. The Mevlana Year also serves one of the most important purposes of the United Nations, that of peaceful dialogue between cultures.
UNESCO gedenkt 2007 des Islamischen Philosophen Mevlana
Touristik Presse – Das Medienportal für Reise und Touristik
Pressekontakt: Ulrike Demmel
Summary
At the suggestion of Turkey, Egypt, and Afghanistan UNESCO has named 2007 as “Mevlana Year” in memory of the Muslim philosopher and mystical poet Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi. 2007 sees the 800th anniversary of his birth. The Mevlana Year also serves one of the most important purposes of the United Nations, that of peaceful dialogue between cultures.
The dance of the Mevlana Sufis forms the central expression of their faith and is a moving experience. They turn in a large circle with one hand opened upwards to receive divine light and the other hand downwards to transmit this light to the earth.
The Mevlana Order also has a presence in Germany; the branch in Nürnberg, for example, has existed for fifteen years and has forty members.
Dargah committee forgives actress Katrina Kaif
SantaBanta.com - Chandigarh,India Thursday, January 11, 2007
Katrina Kaif can heave a sigh of relief. Thanks to director Vipul Shah, the Dargah committee at the revered Ajmer shrine is ready to forgive her for wearing a skirt on the premises.
Shah, in whose film "Namaste London" Katrina is playing an important role, offered his apologies to the management of the Khwaja Moinudeen Chishti's Sufi shrine.
"The director has felt sorry. So all actions supposed to be taken against the film crew has been dropped," Abdul Alim Dargaha Nazeen told on telephone from Ajmer.
The controversy erupted when Katrina visited the dargah in October with her co-star Rishi Kapoor to shoot for "Namste London".
During the shoot, Katrina had a 'dupatta' on her head but her legs were not properly covered as she had a knee length skirt. Her attire irked the dargha committee who found her costume objectionable and disrespectful vis-à-vis the shrine.
The film will have the original scene of Katrina offering prayers at the dargah.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Rowan Storm and the Lian Ensemble on Friday, January 12
By Libby Motika - Palisadian Post - Pacific Palisades,CA,U.S.A.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
A classical Persian music concert, featuring guest artist Rowan Storm and the Lian Ensemble, will be presented at 8 p.m. on Friday, January 12 at St. Matthew's Church, 1031 Bienveneda.
Storm, a resident of Athens and Los Angeles, grew up in Brentwood, attended St. Matthew's School and graduated from PaliHi, where she was known as Ronnie Hicks. She and the Iranian-American musicians will provide vocals and instrumental music founded on Sufism and the mystical poems of Persia.
The public is invited to the concert with tickets ($25) available at the door at 7:30 p.m. For more information, contact (310) 573-7787, ext. 4 or 395-0718.
Storm's devotion to the classical music of Persia comes from her strong connection with the Eastern music tradition experienced in Iran most recently, but first in her hometown of Los Angeles 35 years ago.
Storm's early years were no different from many kids growing up in the Palisades. She attended local schools--St. Matthew's and Palisades High School, but her path became clearer through experience and circumstance.
'I was at a concert of classical Persian music in Hollywood around 1967-8, which was a spiritual epiphany. I thought, 'this is it, completely.''
Soon after, Storm met some others who were playing the music, more accurately called Radif, and began to play and deepen her knowledge of the ancient tradition.
Radif, and in many ways all Persian artwork, springs from and works toward the reunification of man with God. It is based on the Sufi belief that music reflects the first words of God, which elicited such ecstasy when Adam first heard them.
And that the musical system was meant to allow the recreation of the music of the heavenly orbs by mankind. In other words, it is spiritual music.
'Radif is the name of the repertoire of classical Persian music,' Storm says. 'It is a collection of nonrhythmic musical pieces that were compiled around 100 years ago from oral tradition. It is a memorized form and internalized. No notation, no sheet music. There is a lot of improvisation; the players may respond to the audience or to the time of day.'
The music is delivered typically by a small ensemble of players and a vocalist. The instruments often include a tonbak, or hand drum; santur, which is an ancestor of the hammer dulcimer, the daf, or frame drum and the tar, the most widely used plucked instrument in Iran today that resembles a fretted lute with six strings.
During her college years, Storm was introduced to Musical Missions of Peace founder Cameron Power, who was the first musician to open the door for her, helping her out of her head to participate with others in the pursuit of--and enthrallment with--Middle Eastern music.
In 1993, she closed her architecture/builder business in New York City and moved to Greece to study the music and 'understand the cultural connection between the East and the West.'
She learned to play and teach the drums of the goblet family, which includes the Turkish dumbek, or tonbak in Persian. She was introduced to the master of great Persian classical music, Mohammad Reza Lotfi, with whom she studied and performed with for 5 1/2 years.
Certainly the capstone of her understanding and appreciation of the music came about with her visit to Iran upon the invitation of the Iranian government for three months in the spring of 2006.
'Because I can communicate in Zabane Farsi (Persian language), I enjoyed the freedom to speak to the people and learn more about their beliefs, their poetry and culture,' she says. 'I went to Kurdistan, which is off-the-radar-area of Iran and stayed with a woman who is head of the dervish order for two weeks.
'The thing I want Americans to know about is the amazing hospitality in Iran, where the guest is primary even if the host has nothing. I also want all of us to know that poetry is such a deep part of Persian culture, even among the illiterate. Rumi is probably the most widely recognized of the six major Persian poets. The classical Persian music is based on that poetry.'
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
A classical Persian music concert, featuring guest artist Rowan Storm and the Lian Ensemble, will be presented at 8 p.m. on Friday, January 12 at St. Matthew's Church, 1031 Bienveneda.
Storm, a resident of Athens and Los Angeles, grew up in Brentwood, attended St. Matthew's School and graduated from PaliHi, where she was known as Ronnie Hicks. She and the Iranian-American musicians will provide vocals and instrumental music founded on Sufism and the mystical poems of Persia.
The public is invited to the concert with tickets ($25) available at the door at 7:30 p.m. For more information, contact (310) 573-7787, ext. 4 or 395-0718.
Storm's devotion to the classical music of Persia comes from her strong connection with the Eastern music tradition experienced in Iran most recently, but first in her hometown of Los Angeles 35 years ago.
Storm's early years were no different from many kids growing up in the Palisades. She attended local schools--St. Matthew's and Palisades High School, but her path became clearer through experience and circumstance.
'I was at a concert of classical Persian music in Hollywood around 1967-8, which was a spiritual epiphany. I thought, 'this is it, completely.''
Soon after, Storm met some others who were playing the music, more accurately called Radif, and began to play and deepen her knowledge of the ancient tradition.
Radif, and in many ways all Persian artwork, springs from and works toward the reunification of man with God. It is based on the Sufi belief that music reflects the first words of God, which elicited such ecstasy when Adam first heard them.
And that the musical system was meant to allow the recreation of the music of the heavenly orbs by mankind. In other words, it is spiritual music.
'Radif is the name of the repertoire of classical Persian music,' Storm says. 'It is a collection of nonrhythmic musical pieces that were compiled around 100 years ago from oral tradition. It is a memorized form and internalized. No notation, no sheet music. There is a lot of improvisation; the players may respond to the audience or to the time of day.'
The music is delivered typically by a small ensemble of players and a vocalist. The instruments often include a tonbak, or hand drum; santur, which is an ancestor of the hammer dulcimer, the daf, or frame drum and the tar, the most widely used plucked instrument in Iran today that resembles a fretted lute with six strings.
During her college years, Storm was introduced to Musical Missions of Peace founder Cameron Power, who was the first musician to open the door for her, helping her out of her head to participate with others in the pursuit of--and enthrallment with--Middle Eastern music.
In 1993, she closed her architecture/builder business in New York City and moved to Greece to study the music and 'understand the cultural connection between the East and the West.'
She learned to play and teach the drums of the goblet family, which includes the Turkish dumbek, or tonbak in Persian. She was introduced to the master of great Persian classical music, Mohammad Reza Lotfi, with whom she studied and performed with for 5 1/2 years.
Certainly the capstone of her understanding and appreciation of the music came about with her visit to Iran upon the invitation of the Iranian government for three months in the spring of 2006.
'Because I can communicate in Zabane Farsi (Persian language), I enjoyed the freedom to speak to the people and learn more about their beliefs, their poetry and culture,' she says. 'I went to Kurdistan, which is off-the-radar-area of Iran and stayed with a woman who is head of the dervish order for two weeks.
'The thing I want Americans to know about is the amazing hospitality in Iran, where the guest is primary even if the host has nothing. I also want all of us to know that poetry is such a deep part of Persian culture, even among the illiterate. Rumi is probably the most widely recognized of the six major Persian poets. The classical Persian music is based on that poetry.'
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Muslims of Chiapas
From the Mexican Press
Indigenas de Ala... en el corazon de Chiapas
Milenio - 27th December, 2006 by Santiago Fourcade
The New Hope settlement follows the Sufi teachings brought by Spanish Sufis. From childhood the villagers learn a system based on self-sufficiency.
“You arrive punctually, it has just struck nine, the hour of God, although for you it is already ten on the Fox timetable", amiable Javier Lake notes the difference between his people and the ex- Mexican President. Hajj Suleiman, as he is also known, is forty one years old and a member of the Islamic Community of Mexico and a figure in a religious phenomenon of the continent, he is one of the indigenous Muslims of Chiapas.
Their history began decades ago, when dozens of Presbyterian families who were violently expelled from San Juan Chamula settled on the outskirts of San Cristobal. There they created the New Hope settlement as a symbol of the dispute with the traditional Catholic ‘indigenismo’. Years later an amazing change occurred.
Today, with Allah as their God, more than 300 Tzotzils and Tzeltals have embraced Islam in a region that is traditionally dominated by iron-fisted ecclesiastical orders.
It is not difficult to discover the evidence of this revolution, says Javier as he guides me through the streets of the neighbourhood where a group of Spanish Muslims disembarked 12 years ago, arriving with a dream ‘in their luggage’
“Islam is not just a religion to us,” explains Suleiman, "It is essential to develop an integrated project. It is a life style and we want to inculcate a return to the roots, where usury and capitalism have no place”.
"We place our trust in Allah. He guides us on this path towards the purest principles taught by the Prophet. We came years ago with an aim that was sustained by the vision of our Emir Nafia, and now we can say that it is yielding its fruits ". The words of Suleiman allude to their leader, Eureliano Perez Iruela, a Cordoban of the Sufi school who arrived in the early nineties to organize the future Islamic Community of Mexico.
Many have accused the Chiapa Muslims of being dangerous and sectarian but in a state where the population suffers continuous violations of its rights, no one can deny the contribution of this small community.
Every day, far from the hypocrisy and religious prejudices of most, fifty children take classes here in which they learn fundamental subjects plus physical education and ballet.
"We attempt to give the children a basic and inclusive training", says Ana Aisha Lopez, director of the school, as she invites me to remove my shoes before viewing the carpeted building. "Children of all ages and different levels come here to learn. At the moment it is just the children of our Muslim community who come but soon we will be opening our doors to everyone without exception.
"The children begin the day learning to recite the Qur’an in Arabic. Later they go to the dining rooms and the classrooms. Respect, order and cleanliness are fundamental; we are strict like any other school, but we are certain that we show them the world without filters ".
In addition to the self-sufficient structure that the Sufis have set up, they have a pizzeria, a bakery, a carpentry workshop, and an ironmongery. They formed an estate that the organization then bought to enable them to obtain the license that gives them recognition as a religious association.
It has not been easy. They have suffered persecution, litigations and all kinds of accusations. The Catholic Church backs them and the community defends them, but Evangelical and Presbyterian groups continue to stir the waters in this traditional religious.
"We do our work quietly", says Suleiman, "We did not come to destroy but we have been accused of everything, even of sympathizing with ETA".
Esteban Lopez, also known as Hajj Idris, is second in charge and he accompanies me through the carpentry workshop and the ironmongery sharing the Muslim vision of community. Indigenous youth learn a trade and work on craft pieces made of wood which they sell in San Cristobal.
"Guild documents are fundamental. We established a hierarchical structure for the students so that they evolve from apprentices to masters assimilating the importance of commerce in ancient custom," the leader explains, and he adds, "We have to leave aside the banking system and its imposition of fictitious money. The objective is to achieve a free market that banishes the present system of usury".
There is an atmosphere of tranquillity on the streets. The indigenous converts to Islam demonstrate their total conviction in their choice.
There is no god but God and Muhammad is His Prophet; as I leave the community, the phrase on the mural appears to emanate a world that is as intriguing as it is amazing. Hundreds of Muslims are living in one of the bastions of Colombian evangelical efforts. Allahu Akbar!
Indigenas de Ala... en el corazon de Chiapas
Milenio - 27th December, 2006 by Santiago Fourcade
The New Hope settlement follows the Sufi teachings brought by Spanish Sufis. From childhood the villagers learn a system based on self-sufficiency.
“You arrive punctually, it has just struck nine, the hour of God, although for you it is already ten on the Fox timetable", amiable Javier Lake notes the difference between his people and the ex- Mexican President. Hajj Suleiman, as he is also known, is forty one years old and a member of the Islamic Community of Mexico and a figure in a religious phenomenon of the continent, he is one of the indigenous Muslims of Chiapas.
Their history began decades ago, when dozens of Presbyterian families who were violently expelled from San Juan Chamula settled on the outskirts of San Cristobal. There they created the New Hope settlement as a symbol of the dispute with the traditional Catholic ‘indigenismo’. Years later an amazing change occurred.
Today, with Allah as their God, more than 300 Tzotzils and Tzeltals have embraced Islam in a region that is traditionally dominated by iron-fisted ecclesiastical orders.
It is not difficult to discover the evidence of this revolution, says Javier as he guides me through the streets of the neighbourhood where a group of Spanish Muslims disembarked 12 years ago, arriving with a dream ‘in their luggage’
“Islam is not just a religion to us,” explains Suleiman, "It is essential to develop an integrated project. It is a life style and we want to inculcate a return to the roots, where usury and capitalism have no place”.
"We place our trust in Allah. He guides us on this path towards the purest principles taught by the Prophet. We came years ago with an aim that was sustained by the vision of our Emir Nafia, and now we can say that it is yielding its fruits ". The words of Suleiman allude to their leader, Eureliano Perez Iruela, a Cordoban of the Sufi school who arrived in the early nineties to organize the future Islamic Community of Mexico.
Many have accused the Chiapa Muslims of being dangerous and sectarian but in a state where the population suffers continuous violations of its rights, no one can deny the contribution of this small community.
Every day, far from the hypocrisy and religious prejudices of most, fifty children take classes here in which they learn fundamental subjects plus physical education and ballet.
"We attempt to give the children a basic and inclusive training", says Ana Aisha Lopez, director of the school, as she invites me to remove my shoes before viewing the carpeted building. "Children of all ages and different levels come here to learn. At the moment it is just the children of our Muslim community who come but soon we will be opening our doors to everyone without exception.
"The children begin the day learning to recite the Qur’an in Arabic. Later they go to the dining rooms and the classrooms. Respect, order and cleanliness are fundamental; we are strict like any other school, but we are certain that we show them the world without filters ".
In addition to the self-sufficient structure that the Sufis have set up, they have a pizzeria, a bakery, a carpentry workshop, and an ironmongery. They formed an estate that the organization then bought to enable them to obtain the license that gives them recognition as a religious association.
It has not been easy. They have suffered persecution, litigations and all kinds of accusations. The Catholic Church backs them and the community defends them, but Evangelical and Presbyterian groups continue to stir the waters in this traditional religious.
"We do our work quietly", says Suleiman, "We did not come to destroy but we have been accused of everything, even of sympathizing with ETA".
Esteban Lopez, also known as Hajj Idris, is second in charge and he accompanies me through the carpentry workshop and the ironmongery sharing the Muslim vision of community. Indigenous youth learn a trade and work on craft pieces made of wood which they sell in San Cristobal.
"Guild documents are fundamental. We established a hierarchical structure for the students so that they evolve from apprentices to masters assimilating the importance of commerce in ancient custom," the leader explains, and he adds, "We have to leave aside the banking system and its imposition of fictitious money. The objective is to achieve a free market that banishes the present system of usury".
There is an atmosphere of tranquillity on the streets. The indigenous converts to Islam demonstrate their total conviction in their choice.
There is no god but God and Muhammad is His Prophet; as I leave the community, the phrase on the mural appears to emanate a world that is as intriguing as it is amazing. Hundreds of Muslims are living in one of the bastions of Colombian evangelical efforts. Allahu Akbar!
When Sufi fakirs would sing, the world sang with them
By Parul - Ludhiana Newsline - Ludhiana,IndiaTuesday, January 9, 2007
This award has come very late, but hopefully, it will get more work for me, for Punjabi folk music needs to be heard and appreciated more,'' the candid Idu Sharif tells you, referring to the Sahitya Akademi award that he's been chosen for.
A true-blue folk singer, Idu rues the fact that folk music is disappearing steadily. "No one sings the real Punjabi folk anymore, for people are more interested in listening to Punjabi pop,'' admits Idu.
With the sarangi as his companion, Sharif sings Sufi kalam like no other and says the songs are not about a community, but God.
"It's all changed now, when Sufi fakirs would sing, the world sang with them, and they would be lost to the concept of time and space, such was the magic of folk, but today's generation doesn't appreciate or understand folk music. Vulgarity has seeped into our art and music,'' says the singer, who sings mesmerizingly, the romantic tales of Punjab - Heer-Ranjha, Mirza-Sahiba and among his favourites as are Shah Husain, Bulle Shah, Baba Farid.
Idu learnt the notes and nuances from his father and has been singing for as long as he can remember. Music, he says, did not get him his bread in the earlier days and he recalls pulling the rehra and tonga to earn a living. But he never let the song disappear from his lips or let the music die.
"I remember I was going from the Lake to Sector 26, pulling my rehra and singing Thandi, Thandi hava and I saw people coming out of their homes and on the roofs, curious to see whose this was, when I sing I'm oblivious to everything around me,'' smiles Idu.
Sharif was chosen for the Rajiv Gandhi Utsav held in Delhi in '86, from among 25,000 singers, "I mesmerized many and took my sur to pancham, the harmonium surs were also over,'' Idu recalls, adding how he's sung for numerous dignitaries and national festivals.
The award makes him happy, but Idu says for him people's appreciation means everything, "no fusion, no gimmicks, for me only the song matters, and singing is all I know and all I want to do,'' he sums up.
Let the music play.
Somalia' Islamic Courts made their nest in the Seventies
[From the French language press]:
L’islamisme a fait son nid dans les années soixante-dix. Bien avant la chute de Siad Barre en 1991, le mouvement, alors embryonnaire, a commencé sa percée dans un pays où l’islam soufi était dominant, avant de donner naissance aux Tribunaux islamiques.
L'Umanité - Paris,France; 29 Décembre 2006; Hassane Zerrouky
Well before the 1991' overthrow of Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre, Islamism, at that time an embryonic movement, made its way in a country until then largely dominated by Sufism.
It was during the Seventies that Siad Barre, in war for the control of Ogaden, turned to the countries of the Gulf. By means of their bank Al-Baraka, and with the support of Sudan, the financing of the Salafi activists was made possible.
Salafists, supported by the tradesmen of the capital, set up the first militia which later, directed by Ahmed Sharif, became a frightening army, the Union of Islamic Courts.
L’islamisme a fait son nid dans les années soixante-dix. Bien avant la chute de Siad Barre en 1991, le mouvement, alors embryonnaire, a commencé sa percée dans un pays où l’islam soufi était dominant, avant de donner naissance aux Tribunaux islamiques.
L'Umanité - Paris,France; 29 Décembre 2006; Hassane Zerrouky
Well before the 1991' overthrow of Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre, Islamism, at that time an embryonic movement, made its way in a country until then largely dominated by Sufism.
It was during the Seventies that Siad Barre, in war for the control of Ogaden, turned to the countries of the Gulf. By means of their bank Al-Baraka, and with the support of Sudan, the financing of the Salafi activists was made possible.
Salafists, supported by the tradesmen of the capital, set up the first militia which later, directed by Ahmed Sharif, became a frightening army, the Union of Islamic Courts.
Sufism and self-knowledge: a conference in Casablanca
[From the French language press]: ''Soufisme et connaissance de soi'' est le thème d'une conférence qui sera animée le 18 janvier à l'Institut français de Casablanca par le spécialiste marocain en la matière, Faouzi Skali.
Menara- Casablanca,Morocco; 9 Janvier, 2007; Nouvelles culturelles
"Sufism and self-knowledge" is the theme of a conference which will be held on January the 18th in the French Institute of Casablanca, Morocco.
The conference will be animated by Faouzi Skali, a specialist in the field of sufism.
The conference is held in the context of an exhibition on Sufism, conceived and realised by IMA (Institute of the Arab World). The 27 boards-exhibition presents the great Sufi masters, the Tariqas, the place for Sufism in the West and Sufism in the contemporary world's challenges.
Professor of university, anthropologist and writer, Faouzi Skali is the creator of the Festival of the Sacred musics of the World of Fès which he directed during 12 years; he is also the creator of “Meetings of Fès: a soul for globalization”.
Menara- Casablanca,Morocco; 9 Janvier, 2007; Nouvelles culturelles
"Sufism and self-knowledge" is the theme of a conference which will be held on January the 18th in the French Institute of Casablanca, Morocco.
The conference will be animated by Faouzi Skali, a specialist in the field of sufism.
The conference is held in the context of an exhibition on Sufism, conceived and realised by IMA (Institute of the Arab World). The 27 boards-exhibition presents the great Sufi masters, the Tariqas, the place for Sufism in the West and Sufism in the contemporary world's challenges.
Professor of university, anthropologist and writer, Faouzi Skali is the creator of the Festival of the Sacred musics of the World of Fès which he directed during 12 years; he is also the creator of “Meetings of Fès: a soul for globalization”.
"Glories of Islamic Art"
Brookings Institution - PRNewswire/USNewswire - NY,NY,U.S.A.
Monday, January 8, 2007
The following is being issued by the Brookings Institution:
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Film Screening: 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Discussion: 7 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Reception: 7:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The Brookings Institution
Falk Auditorium
1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington, DC
As events in the Middle East dominate the attention of U.S. policymakers, many Americans view Islam with a great deal of suspicion.
Indeed, it may be safe to argue that Islam is among the most misunderstoodand controversial religions in the world.
On Jan. 17, the Saban Center for Middle East Policy will host a screening and discussion of noted Islamic scholar Akbar Ahmed's documentaryfilm "Glories of Islamic Art."
To explain Islam's rich history, customs andbeliefs, Ahmed, a Brookings non-resident senior fellow, traveled throughout the Middle East with United Kingdom channel 5 film crew.
The result ofAhmed's travels is a striking film that uses art and architecture toportray the depth and beauty of Islam.
Panelists will include His Excellency Mahmud Ali Durrani, Ambassador from Pakistan to the UnitedStates.
Akbar Ahmed, non-resident senior fellow, Saban Center for MiddleEast Policy, will provide introductory remarks and moderate the paneldiscussion.
Using the historic cities of Istanbul, Damascus and Cairo as visualchapters, Ahmed's film connects religious, historic and artistic themes ofIslam.
The film examines the achievements of the first Islamic dynasty, delves into Islam's respect for knowledge and explores Sufism's balance ofmeditation and passion.
The film has received acclaim throughout the UnitedKingdom with The News (London) writing, "Channel 5 should be congratulatedfor giving us something refreshingly different ... The series moves at afast pace ... whetting ones appetite to pack up at once and head for Muslimlands."
After the screening, panelists will take audience questions.
Moderator:
Ambassador Akbar Ahmed
Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, American University
Non-resident Senior Fellow, Saban Center for Middle East Policy
The Brookings Institution
Panelist:
H.E. Mahmud Ali Durrani
Ambassador to the United States
Embassy of Pakistan
R.S.V.P.: Please call the Brookings Office of Communications,+1-202-797-6105
or register online at http://onlinepressroom.net/brookings/.
Monday, January 8, 2007
The following is being issued by the Brookings Institution:
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Film Screening: 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Discussion: 7 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Reception: 7:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The Brookings Institution
Falk Auditorium
1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington, DC
As events in the Middle East dominate the attention of U.S. policymakers, many Americans view Islam with a great deal of suspicion.
Indeed, it may be safe to argue that Islam is among the most misunderstoodand controversial religions in the world.
On Jan. 17, the Saban Center for Middle East Policy will host a screening and discussion of noted Islamic scholar Akbar Ahmed's documentaryfilm "Glories of Islamic Art."
To explain Islam's rich history, customs andbeliefs, Ahmed, a Brookings non-resident senior fellow, traveled throughout the Middle East with United Kingdom channel 5 film crew.
The result ofAhmed's travels is a striking film that uses art and architecture toportray the depth and beauty of Islam.
Panelists will include His Excellency Mahmud Ali Durrani, Ambassador from Pakistan to the UnitedStates.
Akbar Ahmed, non-resident senior fellow, Saban Center for MiddleEast Policy, will provide introductory remarks and moderate the paneldiscussion.
Using the historic cities of Istanbul, Damascus and Cairo as visualchapters, Ahmed's film connects religious, historic and artistic themes ofIslam.
The film examines the achievements of the first Islamic dynasty, delves into Islam's respect for knowledge and explores Sufism's balance ofmeditation and passion.
The film has received acclaim throughout the UnitedKingdom with The News (London) writing, "Channel 5 should be congratulatedfor giving us something refreshingly different ... The series moves at afast pace ... whetting ones appetite to pack up at once and head for Muslimlands."
After the screening, panelists will take audience questions.
Moderator:
Ambassador Akbar Ahmed
Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, American University
Non-resident Senior Fellow, Saban Center for Middle East Policy
The Brookings Institution
Panelist:
H.E. Mahmud Ali Durrani
Ambassador to the United States
Embassy of Pakistan
R.S.V.P.: Please call the Brookings Office of Communications,+1-202-797-6105
or register online at http://onlinepressroom.net/brookings/.
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Design competition for SOI Sanctuary
Archined - Rotterdam,Zuid Holland,NetherlandsMonday, January 8, 2007
The Sufi Order International (SOI) has begun a design competition for the rebuilding of a sanctuary (burnt in 2003) located at the Abode of the Message, a residential community, retreat center, and headquarters of both the SOI offices and the Suluk Acadademy school of esoteric studies in New Lebanon (USA).
As the heart of the SOI community and physical symbol of its spiritual ideals, the sanctuary is intended to be a sacred site of meditation, ceremony, and communion with nature.
Designs should incorporate the remaining foundation, be open to the air, and harmonize with the surrounding mountain retreat site.
The winning design will be developed into plans for actual construction in Summer, 2007.
The Competition: To design an open-air sanctuary/temple to be used for meditation and ceremonies at a residential retreat center serving an international community.
Submission deadline is: February 5, 2007.
Full notice of competition: http://www.saffronjournal.org/universel/
In conversation with AR Rahman
By Sneha Hazarika - The Statesman - Kolkata,India
Friday, January 5, 2007
Roja, Bombay, Taal, Lagaan, the Broadway musical Bombay Dreams, Rang De Basanti… AR Rahman is here to stay. Little needs to be written about Rahman’s achievements. He is news once again, this time for his compositions for Mani Ratnam’s Guru.
Sneha Hazarika in conversation with AR Rahman.
On the music of Guru
When we started work on Guru, I experienced a degree of restlessness, for I didn’t want to repeat the sounds heard in a musical I worked on ~ Alaipayuthey.
I was in Toronto when I did the “scratch”. Soon after, I sent it to Mani, who liked it and called on Gulzar Saab to pen the lyrics.
The first song was recorded in Toronto itself. Then I was asked to work on a love song. I began thinking on the lines of a Sufi number, one that had the feel of what Nusart Fateh Ali Khan did.
And that’s how Dum dara dum dara was born.
It’s dedicated to the Ustad, whose tenth death anniversary will be observed soon.
Moving ahead, I had to visit Hong Kong to perform at a concert. The trip led me to visit a store selling musicals instruments. The idea of using the accordion in Guru struck.
Usually I purchase keyboards. But this time I settled for something vintage and took time to learn the instrument. The sway of the accordion can be heard in almost all the tracks.
And there is the Yaman kalyani melody I have tuned to the lyrics of Hazrat Amir Khushroo (modified by Gulzar).
On his favourite song in Guru…Maiya Maiya
I went to Haj year last year and heard a guy near the river who kept saying “waya waya waya”.
I learnt that waya, waya meant water and felt it was an interesting sound, which is also very Indian. And so was born Maya maya.
The interesting thing in the track is the Gujarati bit at the end. It was Mani’s idea.
On replacing the song that has been picturised with Ash riding a bicycle
Mani said he wanted to shoot Ash’s introduction song in a sequence that featured her on a bicycle. Once I received the lyrics from Gulzar Saab, it was set to to match the energy of cycling. Mani said Aishwarya would learn to cycle before shooting begins. Unfortunately she met with an accident… she fell down from the cycle and the song did not work out. Na na re replaced it.
On his association with Mani Ratnam
It’s been an interesting journey. More than us, fans must be speculating as to what we are going to do next. Our thought process has the same wavelength. Whenever I see one of his shots, I take on the task of creating something different as a challenge. I guess he feels the same way when he listens to my music.
In Guru we are dependent on each other.
This time around the songs were ready before he began shooting.
On his rapport with Gulzar
We have not worked together in many films but I think we share a good rapport. Gulzar Saab and I have a common interest ~ inspiration from Sufi songs. It’s a pleasure working with him and it’s amazing to see him take on heavy work at his age.
On Bappi Lahiri singing in Guru
Mani wanted a “bhang” song. Incidentally I was at attending a music award ceremony where Bappida performed. I felt he performed beautifully. We wanted someone to sing Bolo Guru and Gulzar advised Bappida should be approached. His voice also suites Abhishek.
On his singing in Guru
I can be heard on Tere bina and the theme song, Jage Hain. I can also be heard now and then on the other tracks.
On singing for superstars
Every time I sing, whether for Shah Rukh in Dil Se or for Abhishek in Guru, I feel my voice doesn’t match the stars. Only after listening to the recording 20 or 30 times, I can convince myself about the performance.
In fact, the first time I listen to the track after recording, I get shocked. With time I get used to it. Hopefully others don’t think the same way about the tracks (laughs).
Friday, January 5, 2007
Roja, Bombay, Taal, Lagaan, the Broadway musical Bombay Dreams, Rang De Basanti… AR Rahman is here to stay. Little needs to be written about Rahman’s achievements. He is news once again, this time for his compositions for Mani Ratnam’s Guru.
Sneha Hazarika in conversation with AR Rahman.
On the music of Guru
When we started work on Guru, I experienced a degree of restlessness, for I didn’t want to repeat the sounds heard in a musical I worked on ~ Alaipayuthey.
I was in Toronto when I did the “scratch”. Soon after, I sent it to Mani, who liked it and called on Gulzar Saab to pen the lyrics.
The first song was recorded in Toronto itself. Then I was asked to work on a love song. I began thinking on the lines of a Sufi number, one that had the feel of what Nusart Fateh Ali Khan did.
And that’s how Dum dara dum dara was born.
It’s dedicated to the Ustad, whose tenth death anniversary will be observed soon.
Moving ahead, I had to visit Hong Kong to perform at a concert. The trip led me to visit a store selling musicals instruments. The idea of using the accordion in Guru struck.
Usually I purchase keyboards. But this time I settled for something vintage and took time to learn the instrument. The sway of the accordion can be heard in almost all the tracks.
And there is the Yaman kalyani melody I have tuned to the lyrics of Hazrat Amir Khushroo (modified by Gulzar).
On his favourite song in Guru…Maiya Maiya
I went to Haj year last year and heard a guy near the river who kept saying “waya waya waya”.
I learnt that waya, waya meant water and felt it was an interesting sound, which is also very Indian. And so was born Maya maya.
The interesting thing in the track is the Gujarati bit at the end. It was Mani’s idea.
On replacing the song that has been picturised with Ash riding a bicycle
Mani said he wanted to shoot Ash’s introduction song in a sequence that featured her on a bicycle. Once I received the lyrics from Gulzar Saab, it was set to to match the energy of cycling. Mani said Aishwarya would learn to cycle before shooting begins. Unfortunately she met with an accident… she fell down from the cycle and the song did not work out. Na na re replaced it.
On his association with Mani Ratnam
It’s been an interesting journey. More than us, fans must be speculating as to what we are going to do next. Our thought process has the same wavelength. Whenever I see one of his shots, I take on the task of creating something different as a challenge. I guess he feels the same way when he listens to my music.
In Guru we are dependent on each other.
This time around the songs were ready before he began shooting.
On his rapport with Gulzar
We have not worked together in many films but I think we share a good rapport. Gulzar Saab and I have a common interest ~ inspiration from Sufi songs. It’s a pleasure working with him and it’s amazing to see him take on heavy work at his age.
On Bappi Lahiri singing in Guru
Mani wanted a “bhang” song. Incidentally I was at attending a music award ceremony where Bappida performed. I felt he performed beautifully. We wanted someone to sing Bolo Guru and Gulzar advised Bappida should be approached. His voice also suites Abhishek.
On his singing in Guru
I can be heard on Tere bina and the theme song, Jage Hain. I can also be heard now and then on the other tracks.
On singing for superstars
Every time I sing, whether for Shah Rukh in Dil Se or for Abhishek in Guru, I feel my voice doesn’t match the stars. Only after listening to the recording 20 or 30 times, I can convince myself about the performance.
In fact, the first time I listen to the track after recording, I get shocked. With time I get used to it. Hopefully others don’t think the same way about the tracks (laughs).
J&K govt all ears for Sufi artists now
By Mufti Islah - CNN-IBN - New Delhi,IndiaFriday, January 5, 2007
Srinagar: Barely a week after CNN-IBN reported the plight of Sufiana artists, the Jammu and Kashmir government has reacted. It has announced new measures to help the artists practising an art form that has not been getting due recognition.
“I thank CNN-IBN for its report on Sufiana artists. The cultural academy favours Sufiana musicians. Yaqoob and party will perform in Delhi for the NRIs on January 8 and then at press club of India. Chief minister Azad is also writing to ambassadors of Arab countries so that our Sufiana artistes can perform there,” says Secretary of the Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art and Culture and Languages, Rafiq Masoodi.
The artists are also delighted about the fact.
“I am thankful to your channel that our plight has been highlighted. It has reached to the right forum and we have been invited to perform in Delhi,” says Sufiana artist, Mohammad Yaqoob.
``Your channel took our plight and we are feeling great. But the government should not stop here,” says another Sufiana artist, Sami.
International Shah Hamdan Conference
By Pub - Associated Press of Pakistan - PakistanThursday, January 4, 2007
Strong Cultural and Social ties exist between Pakistan and Tajikistan which should be further strengthened for enhancing cooperation between the two countries in the fields of trade and commerce.
This was stated by Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas, Maj (R) Tahir Iqbal [picture] in a meeting with the Ambassador of Tajikistan, Said beg Saidbeg Saidov and a delegation of International Shah Hamdan Association led by Dr. Ghazanfar Mehdi.
The meeting was held to discuss arrangements for International Shah Hamdan Conference which will be jointly organized by Tajikistan and Pakistan this year as the great Sufi Scholar Shah Hamdan is equally famous for his spiritual influence in both the countries.
Speaking on the occasion, Tahir Iqbal said that such intellectual events should be organized with vigour and spirit as these are essential for forging unity among the Muslim Ummah and disseminating the message of peace and fraternity.
However, he said that one international conference should be held either in Pakistan or Tajikistan instead of separate events, where scholars and spiritual leaders should discuss and spread teachings and thoughts of the great Sufi saint for the benefit of the masses.
The Minister agreed to provide maximum support for the international conference and the national conferences to be held in Khalplv and Muzaffarabad.
He added that most of the spiritual loaders who spread the message of Islam in the Sub-continent have their roots in Central Asia that is why Pakistani society bears close resemblance to the Socio-cultural setup in these countries.
The Ambassador reciprocated the Minister's goodwill and urged the two countries should not only work together for promoting peace, cultural and religious harmony, but also collaborate in the fields of trade and business.
Dr. Ghazanfar Mehdi briefed the Minister about activities of international Shah Hamdan Association and requested him to continue patronizing its activities specifically for popularizing Shah Hamdan's exemplary spiritual and intellectual values.
Other members of delegation were Dr. Ahmed Hasan Dani, Professor, Dr. Riaz Ahmad, Director National Institute of Historical and Lecturer Research, Professor Ghulam Hayder, Alhaj M. Abbas Satpara, Saghir Abbas Hamdani and member NALC Haji Iqbal.
Monday, January 08, 2007
Sunni, Shi’a, Heaven, Hell
By Dr. Robert Dickson Crane - TAM The American Muslim - Bridgeton,MO,USA
Friday, January 5, 2007
“Pride in one’s own dignity is divine and loyalty to one’s family and community are extensions of it. But God created pairs and communities as means for individual humans to get to know each other. To draw a line between oneself and everyone else is tribalism, and is part of the problems in the world. Arrogance is the worst sin in all religions, and tribalism is its worst result. Among the cavemen a few millennia ago such tribalism may have had survival value. Nowadays, however, with weapons of mass destruction inevitably proliferating worldwide, the impulse to demonize other tribes constitutes species suicide.”
I. Who Are the Shi’a?
Perhaps the only Muslim in America who has worked full-time for fifteen years in ecumenical outreach is Iftekhar Hai, whom I first met at the Parliament of the World Religions in Chicago in 1993, where we both joined its parliamentary governing body. He resigned his job at the time in order to devote all his time as co-founder and director of interfaith relations at United Muslims of America (UMA).
This is a California-based group that follows its motto, “Diversity is part of Islamic belief.” One might go even further by adding that God created diversity as the best means to point the way toward unity in the transcendent Oneness of Allah.
Iftekhar, like all effective da’is, knows that Americans embrace Islam for only two reasons. First, because they find that it helps them develop a personal relationship with God, and, second, because they find that this transcendent knowledge helps them to seek and apply justice in human affairs. These, indeed, namely, taqwa and ‘adl, are the two highest priorities in the Shi’a statement of belief and come even before prophecy and prophets (nubuwiya) as a source of knowledge.
These two goals in life, of course, are shared by all Muslims and even by all the world religions, but they form a distinct dual discipline of ‘ilm al ‘adl only among the Shi’a. The universally recognized purpose of all religion is to empower the truth, which exists independently of human beings but requires religion in order to be translated into principles of compassionate justice. The search for truth at the highest esoteric level is known in Jafari (Shi’a) thought as ‘ilm al taqwa (knowledge of the One through love), and the search to make it manifest at the exoteric or outward level might best be defined as ‘ilm al ‘adl, which is knowledge of balance and justice through the coherence of diversity known as tawhid.
These pursuits have ultimate meaning only as they fulfill each other. This is the essence of Islamic thought and of every world religion, as well as of the classical thought of the 18th-century founders of the American counter-revolution against secularism, known as the Great American Experiment. All the rest is commentary.
Why do the Shi’a place such emphasis on transcendent justice, and why have they always done so? Certainly one reason is that the Shi’a and women in general have always been the primary victims of injustice. The nascent discipline of ‘ilm al ‘adl serves the unique purpose among the Shi’a as a counter to the tendency of political rulers and men in general to govern by fear and oppression.
The usefulness of fear and oppression at all levels of human life may explain why the fear of hell and the oppression of women are the most contentious issues among Muslims, have always been so, and probably always will be, at least until the advent of the Mahdi. Resort to fear and oppression, even under the attractive label of freedom and democracy, seems to be more useful in practically every aspect of modern life and therefore more powerful than the search for knowledge, love, and justice.
Iftekhar Hai asked me recently how to counter those who assert that all Shi’a are going to hell. My standard response is to ignore such people and wish them peace, which Allah has told us in the Qur’an should be our response to those whose diatribes resemble the braying of an ass.
Perhaps in a considered response, however, one should start by focusing on the psychology of those who make such assertions. Demonizing Sunnis is common also among the Shi’a, which serves the useful purpose of justifying mutual genocide. Only those who think that everyone else is going to hell except themselves would demonize the Shi’a and understand why the Shi’a reciprocate the demonization so eagerly.
All extremists in any religion like to portray other religions as the opposite of their own and to condemn them for similar extremism. Perhaps the psychological explanation is the extremists’ need to overcome their own lack of self-confidence in their own faith by creating false certainties about other faiths in order to create a cocoon of certainty exclusively in their own community.
One finds this also in some Sufi orders which resort to totalitarian thought in order to create and sustain an oppressive cult.
Pride in one’s own dignity is divine and loyalty to one’s family and community are extensions of it. But God created pairs and communities as means for individual humans to get to know each other. To draw a line between oneself and everyone else is tribalism, and is part of the problems in the world.
Arrogance is the worst sin in all religions, and tribalism is its worst result. Among the cavemen a few millennia ago such tribalism may have had survival value. Nowadays, however, with weapons of mass destruction inevitably proliferating worldwide, the impulse to demonize other tribes constitutes species suicide.
Iftekhar Hai wanted a specific answer to a Shi’a scholar who stated in answer to a non-Muslims inquiry that, “Loyalty to Ali and his descendents is at the core of Shi’ism. Shias believe that each new leader, or imam, should be a descendent of Mohammed and Ali.” The simple answer is that this is wrong because spiritual depth rather than genetic descent is the only absolute requirement.
The second question, put forth by a non-Muslim was in response to the following follow-up assertion by a Muslim “scholar”: “By this divine decree, scholars from other faiths, such as Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism, who are more capable, knowledgeable, and enlightened, may have to be automatically excluded. Their loyalty to God will be of small significance because they may not be born with loyalty to Ali and Muhammad.” How can this be reconciled, the non-Muslim asked, with clear statements in the Qur’an that this can not be true.
The clear answer is that the scholar was wrong and was merely spouting off in what is universally recognized by both Shi’a and Sunnis as “Mullah Islam.” Shi’a profess even more respect for those who wear the black turban of a scholar than Sunnis do for those who wear a golden thobe and an agal and qutra, because these people are certified to give the official version of truth. These “mullas” usually do have great knowledge of the externals of their religion but often have no knowledge of its inner wisdom and therefore are not qualified to apply it.
As a life-long political activist, I have learned to take all official anything with a grain of salt, because all official anythings are politically influenced, if not invented specifically for political purposes. My dissertation in 1956 explored the political motivations of all the different heresies in the first six centuries of Christianity, including the Pauline heresy known is trinitarian Christianity, which triggered the first six general councils over a period of centuries to reconcile faith with reason. Each council required a new council, until finally the effort was abandoned as hopeless.
Perhaps fortunately the encultured respect for “mullah Islam” among the younger generation indoctrinated by the mullahs in the madrassas generally does not last even until adulthood. I was much impressed at the second summit conference of the Shi’a in America, UMAA, in 2004 when an American-born cleric, wearing the black turban to designate “a scholar,” interrupted a speech to the three thousand assembled participants to warn everyone not to clap after the speech because clapping is a Western innovation condemned in Islam. Shi’a, he proclaimed, instead must yell “Allahu Akbar.”
As soon as the speech was over, the entire audience erupted in a thunderous clapping that lasted for minutes. I have never before or since seen such a 100% vote on anything in any religious group, a decisive condemnation of Mullah Islam.
Afterwards I approached this imam and asked him where he got such an odd idea, because I had thought that such an obsession was exclusively Sunni, specifically from the Wahhabi sect in Saudi Arabia. This led to a discussion on infallibility in religion. I said that even the very best and most sincere of people can be wrong, and I cited the Prophet Muhammad, salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa salam, as the prime example. In fact, I cited four instances where the Revelation in the Qur’an corrected the Prophet. The clearest of these was the Prophet’s practice of giving charity only to Muslims. Allah in the Qur’an said that charity should be given exclusively on the basis of need, whereupon the Prophet immediately corrected himself, and this was the general practice observed by all Muslims until corruption later crept in.
The imam was horrified and proclaimed that the Prophet Muhammad was infallible, which by his reasoning, of course, would be necessary if the spiritual successors, the twelve imams of Ithna’ashari Shi’ism Islam are infallible.
Unfortunately, this imam had never studied the doctrines of infallibility that have emerged in the Catholic Church and in various Sufi orders, as well as in all religions, which reveal a very nuanced field of study.
The true scholars qualify such claims very carefully. Catholics have learned to use the doctrine of ex cathedra as a means to restrict the exercise of infallibility generally to not more than once a century and then only to confirm what has always been the consensus anyway on matters of faith and morals. In Mullah Islam, everything is black and white. Infallible is infallible, period. If Ali, ‘alayhi al salam, is the spiritual successor of The Prophet, then, according to the Mullah, he was infallible absolutely in everything, and so were all his successors.
This, of course, would be tantamount to claiming that a human can be an angel or God himself. In the end, the Mullah refused to discuss the issue any further because a crowd was gathering to hear the debate.
Perhaps the major cause of all the hostility between Sunnis and Shi’a is not simply the self-imposed ignorance by designated authorities, but the well-informed and politically motivated scholars of each, who have argued themselves into corners by falsifying history. They no longer can find a way out except by revisiting each other’s history, as well as their own. Once this has been done, then the need to demonize each other should disappear.
The real issue has nothing to do with genetic descent from the Prophet, salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa salam, and his daughter Fatima, radi’ Allahu anha, married to ‘Ali (’alayhi as-salam). Most Muslims, both Sunni and Shi’a, regard ‘Ali as the spiritual successor of Muhammad.
The Shi’a have always differed among themselves on the purpose and function of any spiritual successors to ‘Ali. Perhaps one reason for such exclusionary tendencies is psychological in an effort to hide, deny, or overcome the ontological, epistemological, and normative uncertainties inherent to their own levels of understanding.
They all agree, however, that any successor, whether physically present in the world or not, lives at the highest level in understanding the batina or inner dimensions of the Qur’an. All the Orthodox Shi’a of whatever persuasion believe that this level is below that of prophecy (wahy) but at the highest level of inspiration (ilham). Thus any successors are not superhuman in any way, because to be human means to be receptive to God.
Shi’a and Sunnis who live at the superficial levels of reality differ in whether or not they like to emphasize the injustice or justice of the political succession at the time of the Prophet’s death. ‘Ali accepted the political decision, and later when he became the fourth and last of the khulafa’a al rashidin, he distinguished his political responsibilities from his spiritual mission in life. He was assassinated for opposing the growing concentration of wealth in the early Muslim community, which today we call the wealth gap, and for challenging the resulting concentration of political power, which in turn had caused oppression.
Shi’ism arose as a movement of political protest against political oppression, especially during the first Muslim dynasty, the Ummayed. This protest was based on opposition to the very concept of political dynasties, which by definition are unjust. Unfortunately, some Shi’a then perverted this protest into a movement to create rival dynasties. Fortunately, however, the original opposition to any concentration of economic or political power survived.
The purpose of the Shi’a imams is to separate “church and state,” so that spiritual guidance will not be corrupted by political power. One may legitimately debate whether the Fatimid dynasty in Egypt shortly before the time of the Mongol invasion was aberrant. And one certainly may question whether the first Safavid emperor in Persia at his accession in 1502 violated this principle by declaring Twelver Shi’ism to be the state religion when the majority of his subjects reportedly were Sunnis. But, these were political innovations.
Ayatollah Khomeini was the first Shi’a religious leader in 1400 years to violate the prohibition against the establishment of a religious state, whether Islamic, Christian, Jewish, or “Sabian.”
The Orthodox Shi’a teachings also forbid the establishment of a global political caliphate, because any true caliphate to unite the Muslims can legitimately consist only of a consensus of the scholars and wise spiritual guides on the human responsibilities and derivitive human rights in the maqasid (purposes) of the shari’ah, known also as the universal principles (kulliyat) or essentials (dururiyat) of Islamic jurisprudence. By definition, such a consensus on a code of human rights, even though it might serve to define the practical meaning of justice, can not be imposed on anyone.
A decade ago, I published a chapter in a book in Teheran arguing that his followers, rather than the Imam, had invented the concept of wilaya al faqih, known as governance through the authority of the clerics. In this and other writings I elaborated on the universal principles of Islamic law to contain at least seven duties, namely, haqq al din (respect for the divine origin of truth), haqq al haya (respect for life based on the divine origin of every person), haqq al nasl (respect for the nuclear family and for community at every level up to that of humankind on earth), haqq al mal (respect for the universal human right to own capital or the means of production as the only means to avoid wage slavery), haqq al hurriya (the right to political self-determination or political freedom with the necessary institutions most conducive to implementing this right in the particular human community), haqq al karama (the duty to respect human dignity in the realms of religious freedom and gender equity), and haqq al ‘ilm (the duty to respect knowledge and the derivitive rights of freedom of thought, speech, and assembly).
This book was later withdrawn as politically unacceptable. In a word, Ayatollah Sistani’s experience in Iran explains why he refuses to be drawn into the political battles in Iraq.
Iftekhar replied in the discussion that prompted his original question that the model of Islam comes from the Sunnis. He states: “The Sunni system of authority is based solely on capability, scholarship, and leadership, being elected through due process, which is more aligned with the democratic American system of justice.”
Would that over the centuries this were so! In fact, perhaps nowhere in the world has the system of shura ever been more grossly violated than in some of the various Muslim empires over the centuries.
Muslim tyrants today may call their system of governance a republic, which by definition recognizes that the ultimate authority comes from God. And they may call it a democracy, which means that ultimate authority comes from a majority of one in a plebiscite. But they know better than anyone else that in such pretensions they are frauds.
Invidious comparisons, however, are not productive. People in glass houses should not throw stones at each other. Furthermore, stone-throwing does not penetrate or answer the real questions that must be addressed more objectively.
II. What is Hell
Any answer to the question whether Shi’a are doomed from birth to an eternity in hell depends in part on one’s definition of hell.
At issue is the common reading that Allah in the Qur’an is emphasizing fear and punishment by anthropomorphic analogies most suitable for those of the very lowest level of understanding, an understanding that is hardly above that of the apes. Such a reading, common in both Christianity and Judaism, is the root of all the utilitarian doctrines that have pervaded American thought for more than a century.
This problem of the exoteric and anthropomorphic reading of heavenly huries and the fires of hell has concerned all the great Islamic thinkers over the centuries, particularly the historically interdependent movements of Shi’ism and Sufism.
The early generations of both were ascetics whose goals in life were to fear God and forsake the world. Somewhat later generations emphasized love by and for God so much that fear of God was interpreted as loving awe of God. They emphasized such hadith as the sahih report of the favorite prayer of the Prophet Muhammad, allahumma, asaluka hubbaka, wa hubba man yuhibuka, and hubba kuli ‘amali yuqaribuni ila hubbika (Oh Allah, I ask you for your love, and for the love of those who love you, and for the love of every action that will bring me closer to your love).
This movement within Islam, especially among the Sufis, led many Muslims to forsake not only this world, but Heaven as well. Thus the famous Rabi’a al-Adawiyya, who died in A.H. 185, prayed, “Oh my God, if I worship You out of fear of Hell, burn me in Hell, and if I worship You with the hope of Paradise, make Paradise forbidden for me, and if I worship You for Your own sake, do not deprive me of Your Eternal Beauty.”
This view of heaven and hell was popularized even among Christians by the story about Rabi’a running and carrying fire in one hand and water in the other. When asked what she was doing, she replied, “I am going to set Heaven afire and pour water on Hell so that both of these distracting veils are removed and the destination becomes clear, and the servants of God may serve God without the motive of hope and the reason of fear.”
This level of spirituality was dominant among Sufis until about four hundred years ago, when the great shaykh of the Mujadidia branch of the Naqshbandi family of tariqat, Ahmad Sirhindi (still the dominant form of Naqshbandi spirituality), started teaching that Rabia, like Hallaj, had reached only an intermediate stage in the saluk or spiritual journey and was ungrateful to Allah for His great favors.
In my view, all Muslims should read Muhammad ‘Abd al Haqq Ansari’s book, Sufism and Shari’ah: A Study of Ahmad Sirhindi’s Effort to Reform Sufism, which was published in London in 1986 and has been on a shelf above my desk now for twenty years. This movement of higher spirituality is known as tajdid ruhanniya or spiritual renewal.
Many of the Naqshbandi in Pakistan today (most notably Faqir Muhammad Akram Alwani, with whom I spent considerable time in Chakwal Province in the southern outliers of the Himalayas fifteen years ago) are the most vehement opponents of Shi’ism in their efforts to “purify” Muslims of heterodox ecumenism as an alleged barrier to political reform.
Nevertheless, their emphasis on justice as a principal of balance in the exoteric manifestation of the shari’ah gives them common ground with the Shi’a, who emphasize the higher principles of normative law and the tawhidian balance of the maqasid al shari’ah in both the inner and outer dimensions of Islamic jurisprudence.
The classical Naqshbandi, like the classical founders of most Sufi schools before they became organized orders as in the Catholic Church, tried to avoid extremism in every field, including their conception of heaven and hell.
They taught that intoxication with love of Allah, typified by fana fil Allah, baqa, and wahdat al wujjud (as distinct from wahdat al shuhud or the subjective impression of union with Allah), is merely a stage on the spiritual path. Most persuasively taught by Ahmad Sirhindi, the balanced path of sobriety leads to love not merely of Allah but of everything that Allah loves, including heaven, and dislike of whatever Allah warns against, including hell.
Rabi’a was limited in her understanding of heaven and hell because she inherited the literalist understanding of the Qur’anic descriptions and failed to understand the esoteric and allegorical meanings that are available to those of higher understanding and particularly to those who inherited the spiritual mantle of the Prophet, salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa salam.
For Sunnis these inheritors are the saints. For the Shi’a these inheritors are at the highest level of understanding, and their wisdom finally will be revealed only by the Mahdi. For those of higher understanding, Paradise is desirable and Hell is undesirable not only for what they symbolize but simply because Allah has declared them to be so.
Since I have never accepted anything unless I have personally experienced it, the best way to describe heaven and hell, at least for me, is through ‘ilm huduri or presential knowledge. Most simply, heaven is the presence of Allah and hell is its absence. Only in the presence of Allah can we even begin to imagine its absence. This is why analogies are necessary for most people in this life before our transformation at its end. As the director of volunteers at a hospice for the dying in Chicago during the past year, this most rewarding period of my life has been to witness the presential awareness of God that grows the closer our patients come to physical death. Al hamdu li Allah, there have been no exceptions.
This experience of the divine presence cannot be intellectually grasped or even intelligently discussed. The best writing on the subject may be the article, “Reason and Direct Intuition in the Works of Suhrawardi,” which distinguishes discursive (bathiyya) from experiential (dhawqiya) knowledge as the two essential and interdependent paths to become the unique person that God created every person to be, and which is everyone’s real identity known only to God.
This marvelous article by Roxanne D. Marcotte at the University of Queensland in Australia appears as the short Chapter 17, pages 221-234, in the 558-page magnum opus entitled Reason and Inspiration in Islam.
This was compiled as a Festshrift for Hermann Landolt under the editorship of Professsor B. Todd Lawson, Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto, Canada. This Festshrift was published at the end of 2005 by I. B. Tauris Publishers, London and New York.
Sadly, political rulers often prefer literalist interpretations of sacred scripture because they can manipulate their subjects most effectively by resorting to fear and reward, both in this world and in the next. Most of the deviations in religion, perhaps especially in Christianity, have come from political motivations. This was the conclusion in my dissertation in 1956 on the origin of Christian heresies in the first six Christian centuries. The same would seem to apply to Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and every other religion.
The tragedy is that most people live their lives at such a low level of spiritual awareness that they easily become dupes of those who have managed to stamp out their own inherent awareness of higher truth and of its projection in the form of justice. The search for justice at every level of awareness is what I call ‘ilm al ‘adl. It is the only effective counter to ignorance and injustice.
The Prophet Muhammad, salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa salam, was once asked whether he had ever seen Allah.
He answered with the question, “How can one see Allah, when Allah is light?”
By this he meant several things. The ‘arifun say that by this he was teaching the wisdom that one can see Allah through oneself, because one is the reflection of Allah, as taught in the Christian and Muslim doctrine that every person is created in the image of God.
From this analogy comes the teachings of Sadr al Din Isfahani, known better as Mullah Sadra, and many Shi’a teachers that knowledge descends like light and illuminates each successive layer of understanding but at a descending level of intensity. The meaning of heaven and hell in the Qur’an depends on one’s own level of understanding, which is why there are no valid definitions of anything in the ghraib or hidden dimensions of reality.
And this is why non-Muslims and Muslims alike will always debate the meaning of divine revelation and see internal contradictions in sacred scripture when in fact there are none.
Friday, January 5, 2007
“Pride in one’s own dignity is divine and loyalty to one’s family and community are extensions of it. But God created pairs and communities as means for individual humans to get to know each other. To draw a line between oneself and everyone else is tribalism, and is part of the problems in the world. Arrogance is the worst sin in all religions, and tribalism is its worst result. Among the cavemen a few millennia ago such tribalism may have had survival value. Nowadays, however, with weapons of mass destruction inevitably proliferating worldwide, the impulse to demonize other tribes constitutes species suicide.”
I. Who Are the Shi’a?
Perhaps the only Muslim in America who has worked full-time for fifteen years in ecumenical outreach is Iftekhar Hai, whom I first met at the Parliament of the World Religions in Chicago in 1993, where we both joined its parliamentary governing body. He resigned his job at the time in order to devote all his time as co-founder and director of interfaith relations at United Muslims of America (UMA).
This is a California-based group that follows its motto, “Diversity is part of Islamic belief.” One might go even further by adding that God created diversity as the best means to point the way toward unity in the transcendent Oneness of Allah.
Iftekhar, like all effective da’is, knows that Americans embrace Islam for only two reasons. First, because they find that it helps them develop a personal relationship with God, and, second, because they find that this transcendent knowledge helps them to seek and apply justice in human affairs. These, indeed, namely, taqwa and ‘adl, are the two highest priorities in the Shi’a statement of belief and come even before prophecy and prophets (nubuwiya) as a source of knowledge.
These two goals in life, of course, are shared by all Muslims and even by all the world religions, but they form a distinct dual discipline of ‘ilm al ‘adl only among the Shi’a. The universally recognized purpose of all religion is to empower the truth, which exists independently of human beings but requires religion in order to be translated into principles of compassionate justice. The search for truth at the highest esoteric level is known in Jafari (Shi’a) thought as ‘ilm al taqwa (knowledge of the One through love), and the search to make it manifest at the exoteric or outward level might best be defined as ‘ilm al ‘adl, which is knowledge of balance and justice through the coherence of diversity known as tawhid.
These pursuits have ultimate meaning only as they fulfill each other. This is the essence of Islamic thought and of every world religion, as well as of the classical thought of the 18th-century founders of the American counter-revolution against secularism, known as the Great American Experiment. All the rest is commentary.
Why do the Shi’a place such emphasis on transcendent justice, and why have they always done so? Certainly one reason is that the Shi’a and women in general have always been the primary victims of injustice. The nascent discipline of ‘ilm al ‘adl serves the unique purpose among the Shi’a as a counter to the tendency of political rulers and men in general to govern by fear and oppression.
The usefulness of fear and oppression at all levels of human life may explain why the fear of hell and the oppression of women are the most contentious issues among Muslims, have always been so, and probably always will be, at least until the advent of the Mahdi. Resort to fear and oppression, even under the attractive label of freedom and democracy, seems to be more useful in practically every aspect of modern life and therefore more powerful than the search for knowledge, love, and justice.
Iftekhar Hai asked me recently how to counter those who assert that all Shi’a are going to hell. My standard response is to ignore such people and wish them peace, which Allah has told us in the Qur’an should be our response to those whose diatribes resemble the braying of an ass.
Perhaps in a considered response, however, one should start by focusing on the psychology of those who make such assertions. Demonizing Sunnis is common also among the Shi’a, which serves the useful purpose of justifying mutual genocide. Only those who think that everyone else is going to hell except themselves would demonize the Shi’a and understand why the Shi’a reciprocate the demonization so eagerly.
All extremists in any religion like to portray other religions as the opposite of their own and to condemn them for similar extremism. Perhaps the psychological explanation is the extremists’ need to overcome their own lack of self-confidence in their own faith by creating false certainties about other faiths in order to create a cocoon of certainty exclusively in their own community.
One finds this also in some Sufi orders which resort to totalitarian thought in order to create and sustain an oppressive cult.
Pride in one’s own dignity is divine and loyalty to one’s family and community are extensions of it. But God created pairs and communities as means for individual humans to get to know each other. To draw a line between oneself and everyone else is tribalism, and is part of the problems in the world.
Arrogance is the worst sin in all religions, and tribalism is its worst result. Among the cavemen a few millennia ago such tribalism may have had survival value. Nowadays, however, with weapons of mass destruction inevitably proliferating worldwide, the impulse to demonize other tribes constitutes species suicide.
Iftekhar Hai wanted a specific answer to a Shi’a scholar who stated in answer to a non-Muslims inquiry that, “Loyalty to Ali and his descendents is at the core of Shi’ism. Shias believe that each new leader, or imam, should be a descendent of Mohammed and Ali.” The simple answer is that this is wrong because spiritual depth rather than genetic descent is the only absolute requirement.
The second question, put forth by a non-Muslim was in response to the following follow-up assertion by a Muslim “scholar”: “By this divine decree, scholars from other faiths, such as Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism, who are more capable, knowledgeable, and enlightened, may have to be automatically excluded. Their loyalty to God will be of small significance because they may not be born with loyalty to Ali and Muhammad.” How can this be reconciled, the non-Muslim asked, with clear statements in the Qur’an that this can not be true.
The clear answer is that the scholar was wrong and was merely spouting off in what is universally recognized by both Shi’a and Sunnis as “Mullah Islam.” Shi’a profess even more respect for those who wear the black turban of a scholar than Sunnis do for those who wear a golden thobe and an agal and qutra, because these people are certified to give the official version of truth. These “mullas” usually do have great knowledge of the externals of their religion but often have no knowledge of its inner wisdom and therefore are not qualified to apply it.
As a life-long political activist, I have learned to take all official anything with a grain of salt, because all official anythings are politically influenced, if not invented specifically for political purposes. My dissertation in 1956 explored the political motivations of all the different heresies in the first six centuries of Christianity, including the Pauline heresy known is trinitarian Christianity, which triggered the first six general councils over a period of centuries to reconcile faith with reason. Each council required a new council, until finally the effort was abandoned as hopeless.
Perhaps fortunately the encultured respect for “mullah Islam” among the younger generation indoctrinated by the mullahs in the madrassas generally does not last even until adulthood. I was much impressed at the second summit conference of the Shi’a in America, UMAA, in 2004 when an American-born cleric, wearing the black turban to designate “a scholar,” interrupted a speech to the three thousand assembled participants to warn everyone not to clap after the speech because clapping is a Western innovation condemned in Islam. Shi’a, he proclaimed, instead must yell “Allahu Akbar.”
As soon as the speech was over, the entire audience erupted in a thunderous clapping that lasted for minutes. I have never before or since seen such a 100% vote on anything in any religious group, a decisive condemnation of Mullah Islam.
Afterwards I approached this imam and asked him where he got such an odd idea, because I had thought that such an obsession was exclusively Sunni, specifically from the Wahhabi sect in Saudi Arabia. This led to a discussion on infallibility in religion. I said that even the very best and most sincere of people can be wrong, and I cited the Prophet Muhammad, salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa salam, as the prime example. In fact, I cited four instances where the Revelation in the Qur’an corrected the Prophet. The clearest of these was the Prophet’s practice of giving charity only to Muslims. Allah in the Qur’an said that charity should be given exclusively on the basis of need, whereupon the Prophet immediately corrected himself, and this was the general practice observed by all Muslims until corruption later crept in.
The imam was horrified and proclaimed that the Prophet Muhammad was infallible, which by his reasoning, of course, would be necessary if the spiritual successors, the twelve imams of Ithna’ashari Shi’ism Islam are infallible.
Unfortunately, this imam had never studied the doctrines of infallibility that have emerged in the Catholic Church and in various Sufi orders, as well as in all religions, which reveal a very nuanced field of study.
The true scholars qualify such claims very carefully. Catholics have learned to use the doctrine of ex cathedra as a means to restrict the exercise of infallibility generally to not more than once a century and then only to confirm what has always been the consensus anyway on matters of faith and morals. In Mullah Islam, everything is black and white. Infallible is infallible, period. If Ali, ‘alayhi al salam, is the spiritual successor of The Prophet, then, according to the Mullah, he was infallible absolutely in everything, and so were all his successors.
This, of course, would be tantamount to claiming that a human can be an angel or God himself. In the end, the Mullah refused to discuss the issue any further because a crowd was gathering to hear the debate.
Perhaps the major cause of all the hostility between Sunnis and Shi’a is not simply the self-imposed ignorance by designated authorities, but the well-informed and politically motivated scholars of each, who have argued themselves into corners by falsifying history. They no longer can find a way out except by revisiting each other’s history, as well as their own. Once this has been done, then the need to demonize each other should disappear.
The real issue has nothing to do with genetic descent from the Prophet, salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa salam, and his daughter Fatima, radi’ Allahu anha, married to ‘Ali (’alayhi as-salam). Most Muslims, both Sunni and Shi’a, regard ‘Ali as the spiritual successor of Muhammad.
The Shi’a have always differed among themselves on the purpose and function of any spiritual successors to ‘Ali. Perhaps one reason for such exclusionary tendencies is psychological in an effort to hide, deny, or overcome the ontological, epistemological, and normative uncertainties inherent to their own levels of understanding.
They all agree, however, that any successor, whether physically present in the world or not, lives at the highest level in understanding the batina or inner dimensions of the Qur’an. All the Orthodox Shi’a of whatever persuasion believe that this level is below that of prophecy (wahy) but at the highest level of inspiration (ilham). Thus any successors are not superhuman in any way, because to be human means to be receptive to God.
Shi’a and Sunnis who live at the superficial levels of reality differ in whether or not they like to emphasize the injustice or justice of the political succession at the time of the Prophet’s death. ‘Ali accepted the political decision, and later when he became the fourth and last of the khulafa’a al rashidin, he distinguished his political responsibilities from his spiritual mission in life. He was assassinated for opposing the growing concentration of wealth in the early Muslim community, which today we call the wealth gap, and for challenging the resulting concentration of political power, which in turn had caused oppression.
Shi’ism arose as a movement of political protest against political oppression, especially during the first Muslim dynasty, the Ummayed. This protest was based on opposition to the very concept of political dynasties, which by definition are unjust. Unfortunately, some Shi’a then perverted this protest into a movement to create rival dynasties. Fortunately, however, the original opposition to any concentration of economic or political power survived.
The purpose of the Shi’a imams is to separate “church and state,” so that spiritual guidance will not be corrupted by political power. One may legitimately debate whether the Fatimid dynasty in Egypt shortly before the time of the Mongol invasion was aberrant. And one certainly may question whether the first Safavid emperor in Persia at his accession in 1502 violated this principle by declaring Twelver Shi’ism to be the state religion when the majority of his subjects reportedly were Sunnis. But, these were political innovations.
Ayatollah Khomeini was the first Shi’a religious leader in 1400 years to violate the prohibition against the establishment of a religious state, whether Islamic, Christian, Jewish, or “Sabian.”
The Orthodox Shi’a teachings also forbid the establishment of a global political caliphate, because any true caliphate to unite the Muslims can legitimately consist only of a consensus of the scholars and wise spiritual guides on the human responsibilities and derivitive human rights in the maqasid (purposes) of the shari’ah, known also as the universal principles (kulliyat) or essentials (dururiyat) of Islamic jurisprudence. By definition, such a consensus on a code of human rights, even though it might serve to define the practical meaning of justice, can not be imposed on anyone.
A decade ago, I published a chapter in a book in Teheran arguing that his followers, rather than the Imam, had invented the concept of wilaya al faqih, known as governance through the authority of the clerics. In this and other writings I elaborated on the universal principles of Islamic law to contain at least seven duties, namely, haqq al din (respect for the divine origin of truth), haqq al haya (respect for life based on the divine origin of every person), haqq al nasl (respect for the nuclear family and for community at every level up to that of humankind on earth), haqq al mal (respect for the universal human right to own capital or the means of production as the only means to avoid wage slavery), haqq al hurriya (the right to political self-determination or political freedom with the necessary institutions most conducive to implementing this right in the particular human community), haqq al karama (the duty to respect human dignity in the realms of religious freedom and gender equity), and haqq al ‘ilm (the duty to respect knowledge and the derivitive rights of freedom of thought, speech, and assembly).
This book was later withdrawn as politically unacceptable. In a word, Ayatollah Sistani’s experience in Iran explains why he refuses to be drawn into the political battles in Iraq.
Iftekhar replied in the discussion that prompted his original question that the model of Islam comes from the Sunnis. He states: “The Sunni system of authority is based solely on capability, scholarship, and leadership, being elected through due process, which is more aligned with the democratic American system of justice.”
Would that over the centuries this were so! In fact, perhaps nowhere in the world has the system of shura ever been more grossly violated than in some of the various Muslim empires over the centuries.
Muslim tyrants today may call their system of governance a republic, which by definition recognizes that the ultimate authority comes from God. And they may call it a democracy, which means that ultimate authority comes from a majority of one in a plebiscite. But they know better than anyone else that in such pretensions they are frauds.
Invidious comparisons, however, are not productive. People in glass houses should not throw stones at each other. Furthermore, stone-throwing does not penetrate or answer the real questions that must be addressed more objectively.
II. What is Hell
Any answer to the question whether Shi’a are doomed from birth to an eternity in hell depends in part on one’s definition of hell.
At issue is the common reading that Allah in the Qur’an is emphasizing fear and punishment by anthropomorphic analogies most suitable for those of the very lowest level of understanding, an understanding that is hardly above that of the apes. Such a reading, common in both Christianity and Judaism, is the root of all the utilitarian doctrines that have pervaded American thought for more than a century.
This problem of the exoteric and anthropomorphic reading of heavenly huries and the fires of hell has concerned all the great Islamic thinkers over the centuries, particularly the historically interdependent movements of Shi’ism and Sufism.
The early generations of both were ascetics whose goals in life were to fear God and forsake the world. Somewhat later generations emphasized love by and for God so much that fear of God was interpreted as loving awe of God. They emphasized such hadith as the sahih report of the favorite prayer of the Prophet Muhammad, allahumma, asaluka hubbaka, wa hubba man yuhibuka, and hubba kuli ‘amali yuqaribuni ila hubbika (Oh Allah, I ask you for your love, and for the love of those who love you, and for the love of every action that will bring me closer to your love).
This movement within Islam, especially among the Sufis, led many Muslims to forsake not only this world, but Heaven as well. Thus the famous Rabi’a al-Adawiyya, who died in A.H. 185, prayed, “Oh my God, if I worship You out of fear of Hell, burn me in Hell, and if I worship You with the hope of Paradise, make Paradise forbidden for me, and if I worship You for Your own sake, do not deprive me of Your Eternal Beauty.”
This view of heaven and hell was popularized even among Christians by the story about Rabi’a running and carrying fire in one hand and water in the other. When asked what she was doing, she replied, “I am going to set Heaven afire and pour water on Hell so that both of these distracting veils are removed and the destination becomes clear, and the servants of God may serve God without the motive of hope and the reason of fear.”
This level of spirituality was dominant among Sufis until about four hundred years ago, when the great shaykh of the Mujadidia branch of the Naqshbandi family of tariqat, Ahmad Sirhindi (still the dominant form of Naqshbandi spirituality), started teaching that Rabia, like Hallaj, had reached only an intermediate stage in the saluk or spiritual journey and was ungrateful to Allah for His great favors.
In my view, all Muslims should read Muhammad ‘Abd al Haqq Ansari’s book, Sufism and Shari’ah: A Study of Ahmad Sirhindi’s Effort to Reform Sufism, which was published in London in 1986 and has been on a shelf above my desk now for twenty years. This movement of higher spirituality is known as tajdid ruhanniya or spiritual renewal.
Many of the Naqshbandi in Pakistan today (most notably Faqir Muhammad Akram Alwani, with whom I spent considerable time in Chakwal Province in the southern outliers of the Himalayas fifteen years ago) are the most vehement opponents of Shi’ism in their efforts to “purify” Muslims of heterodox ecumenism as an alleged barrier to political reform.
Nevertheless, their emphasis on justice as a principal of balance in the exoteric manifestation of the shari’ah gives them common ground with the Shi’a, who emphasize the higher principles of normative law and the tawhidian balance of the maqasid al shari’ah in both the inner and outer dimensions of Islamic jurisprudence.
The classical Naqshbandi, like the classical founders of most Sufi schools before they became organized orders as in the Catholic Church, tried to avoid extremism in every field, including their conception of heaven and hell.
They taught that intoxication with love of Allah, typified by fana fil Allah, baqa, and wahdat al wujjud (as distinct from wahdat al shuhud or the subjective impression of union with Allah), is merely a stage on the spiritual path. Most persuasively taught by Ahmad Sirhindi, the balanced path of sobriety leads to love not merely of Allah but of everything that Allah loves, including heaven, and dislike of whatever Allah warns against, including hell.
Rabi’a was limited in her understanding of heaven and hell because she inherited the literalist understanding of the Qur’anic descriptions and failed to understand the esoteric and allegorical meanings that are available to those of higher understanding and particularly to those who inherited the spiritual mantle of the Prophet, salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa salam.
For Sunnis these inheritors are the saints. For the Shi’a these inheritors are at the highest level of understanding, and their wisdom finally will be revealed only by the Mahdi. For those of higher understanding, Paradise is desirable and Hell is undesirable not only for what they symbolize but simply because Allah has declared them to be so.
Since I have never accepted anything unless I have personally experienced it, the best way to describe heaven and hell, at least for me, is through ‘ilm huduri or presential knowledge. Most simply, heaven is the presence of Allah and hell is its absence. Only in the presence of Allah can we even begin to imagine its absence. This is why analogies are necessary for most people in this life before our transformation at its end. As the director of volunteers at a hospice for the dying in Chicago during the past year, this most rewarding period of my life has been to witness the presential awareness of God that grows the closer our patients come to physical death. Al hamdu li Allah, there have been no exceptions.
This experience of the divine presence cannot be intellectually grasped or even intelligently discussed. The best writing on the subject may be the article, “Reason and Direct Intuition in the Works of Suhrawardi,” which distinguishes discursive (bathiyya) from experiential (dhawqiya) knowledge as the two essential and interdependent paths to become the unique person that God created every person to be, and which is everyone’s real identity known only to God.
This marvelous article by Roxanne D. Marcotte at the University of Queensland in Australia appears as the short Chapter 17, pages 221-234, in the 558-page magnum opus entitled Reason and Inspiration in Islam.
This was compiled as a Festshrift for Hermann Landolt under the editorship of Professsor B. Todd Lawson, Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto, Canada. This Festshrift was published at the end of 2005 by I. B. Tauris Publishers, London and New York.
Sadly, political rulers often prefer literalist interpretations of sacred scripture because they can manipulate their subjects most effectively by resorting to fear and reward, both in this world and in the next. Most of the deviations in religion, perhaps especially in Christianity, have come from political motivations. This was the conclusion in my dissertation in 1956 on the origin of Christian heresies in the first six Christian centuries. The same would seem to apply to Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and every other religion.
The tragedy is that most people live their lives at such a low level of spiritual awareness that they easily become dupes of those who have managed to stamp out their own inherent awareness of higher truth and of its projection in the form of justice. The search for justice at every level of awareness is what I call ‘ilm al ‘adl. It is the only effective counter to ignorance and injustice.
The Prophet Muhammad, salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa salam, was once asked whether he had ever seen Allah.
He answered with the question, “How can one see Allah, when Allah is light?”
By this he meant several things. The ‘arifun say that by this he was teaching the wisdom that one can see Allah through oneself, because one is the reflection of Allah, as taught in the Christian and Muslim doctrine that every person is created in the image of God.
From this analogy comes the teachings of Sadr al Din Isfahani, known better as Mullah Sadra, and many Shi’a teachers that knowledge descends like light and illuminates each successive layer of understanding but at a descending level of intensity. The meaning of heaven and hell in the Qur’an depends on one’s own level of understanding, which is why there are no valid definitions of anything in the ghraib or hidden dimensions of reality.
And this is why non-Muslims and Muslims alike will always debate the meaning of divine revelation and see internal contradictions in sacred scripture when in fact there are none.
What Lies Ahead For Somalia? An Interview With Hussein Yusuf
By Zahir Janmohamed - Alt Muslim - U.S.A.Friday, January 5, 2007
alt.muslim interviews Somali social worker Hussein Yusuf (himself a refugee) in order to help put the current conflict in Somalia into perspective.
Born into a life of privilege as the son of a provincial governor in Somalia, Hussein Yusuf's life changed forever in 1991 when insurgents drove his family out of Mogadishu. His family returned to Somalia several times after, where his father had set up feeding stations for refugees and forbade his son Hussein from joining the army.
At the age of 18, Hussein fled to Yemen where he landed a job with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, despite a formal higher education, because of his research skills and fluency in English, Somali, and Arabic. While in Yemen, he interviewed refugees for repatriation, collected security data and coordinated repatriation programs for a caseload of 10,000 refugees.
He eventually ended up in the US where he is currently a master's of Social Work student at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Let's start with 1991 and the overthrow of Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre. How did this impact Somalia and your family?
After the overthrow of Siad Barre, Somalia became fragmented as various tribes fought over the leadership of the government. Despite their attempts, no tribe was able to gain adequate control and anarchy reigned for the next fifteen years.
During this time, my family took refuge in Ethiopia. My father, not wanting to be away from home for long, decided to return to Somalia to start our lives over again after only a few months. All of this was in spite of the present dangers that persisted. Unfortunately, our tribal defense forces were overtaken after our return forcing us to cross the border once again. This happened several times, until finally in 1996, the last time we fled, I moved to Yemen.
Eventually I came to the United States in August of 2000. The war was tragic for everyone. My brother was killed, as were several other members of my family. This is the story of every Somali family. So many good people lost loved ones and property. According to CNN, over 100,000 died during the period 1991-1992 alone.
The US, as well as the UN, made several efforts to intervene, both using military force and with humanitarian assistance, to prevent the conflict from exacerbating.
Looking back, how are the US and UN interventions during the early 1990s regarded by Somalis?
Many Somalis initially regarded the role of the United States and United Nations favorably because their involvement saved many lives in the first months of the conflict. With a strong securing force, citizens were able to receive food from NGOs who previously were unable to distribute aid due to the armed militias hijacking food. The situation got out of control, after the US and the UN begun engaging nation building efforts. Many tribes felt threatened because of their potential to lose power. In Mogadishu, General Aideed, a well-known warlord, went as far as to fight against the US forces.
This eventually led to the withdrawal of the US and UN forces in 1995 and the subsequent return to a fragmented system of government for Somalia. With every tribe for itself, Puntland and Somaliland regions were free to form their own governing bodies apart from greater Somalia.
(...)
On September 18, the first suicide bombing in Somali history occurred, targeting President Abdullahi Yusuf. What is the significance - if any - of this event?
This is a very serious concern to Somalis because, from what I know of my people, it is not our nature to blow ourselves up, for any reason. The UIC movement, allowed Islamists to attract a large number of Middle-Easterners, who came to support what they saw as the spread of Islam in Somalia. The September suicide bombing shook many Somalis and caused them to become weary and suspicious of the Islamists presence in Somalia. They came to teach a different kind of Islam, almost alien to the Somalis understanding of Islam.
An alarming contempt for the expression of Sufism, the Qadiriya, Salihiya or Shia faiths was a common practice of this movement. It worried many of us, and I think a lot of people are happy to see them gone.
Somalis, by nature, are very suspicious of foreign powers, especially those with a theological bent on ruling the country. Even though groups in Saudi Arabia were successful in funding and arming most of this movement, they really did not succeed in convincing the Somali people to join their movement.
As soon as they were defeated, music blasted in every radio station in Mogadishu and women again wore their traditional Somali dresses. I think the movement had the potential to pose a serious threat, primarily to the Somali people and also to the surrounding region. The UIC calling for a jihad against Ethiopia stands as a testament of this.
What are the origins of the Council of Islamic Courts? What was their motive in declaring war against Ethiopia on October 9, 2006?
I think their motive to declare a jihad against Ethiopia was to force Ethiopia to withdraw its help from the Somali government. In addition, Ethiopia rules a region primarily populated by Somalis, and it was over this region that the two countries fought. Somali went to war with Ethiopia in 1977 and I think the UIC used this visceral pretext to mobilize people.
What is your forecast for Somalia? What can be done to curb the conflict?
I am very hopeful. As long as we, as Somalis, attempt to control our tribal instincts, this government has a good chance of succeeding. This is my prayer and hope.
Ista Cante: the-eye-of-the-heart--intuition
Bureau report - iBerkshires.com - North Adams,MA,USA
Friday, January 5, 2007
Art has always been a part of Carolyn Hayes-Knoll's life expression. Beginning in her early 20's, writing began to weave in and out of her art as another expressive form. She wrote her book, Ista Cante with her two daughters in mind.
Ista Cante has been a labor of love and passion for Ms. Knoll. It has been a process of teaching, of understanding herself and her own mother more. Her search for a clearer understanding of her own inner voice has led her to study many religious faiths, including Catholicism, Native American beliefs, Sufism, and most recently Tao.
Her artwork and writings reflect love of nature and her spiritual quest to find, for herself and the world, a sacred path with heart. Ista Cante: A story, resembling a myth or folktale utilizes strong, colorful images of a young child growing up, learning to listen to her own intuition through interaction with a cloth doll her mother made from scraps of her "mother's mother's mother's dresses."
The mother named the doll Ista Cante (ishta chanta), Lacota Indian words meaning the-eye-of-the-heart--intuition. Ista Cante may speak to people of all ages and ethnic backgrounds. The book is a complete artistic creation in itself.
Author Carolyn Hayes-Knoll will speak at the Writing for Children & Young Adults workshop offered by The Berkshire Writers Room, on Monday, January 8th, 7-9 PM at Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, in the Melvillle Building, room 217.
Whether you write poetry, fiction, nonfiction, plays or scripts, all children's authors and lovers of children's books are welcome. A reading/discussion will follow the lecture.
Friday, January 5, 2007
Art has always been a part of Carolyn Hayes-Knoll's life expression. Beginning in her early 20's, writing began to weave in and out of her art as another expressive form. She wrote her book, Ista Cante with her two daughters in mind.
Originally from Tennesse, Carolyn is presently in our area until May when she will leave for the Peace Corp.
Ista Cante has been a labor of love and passion for Ms. Knoll. It has been a process of teaching, of understanding herself and her own mother more. Her search for a clearer understanding of her own inner voice has led her to study many religious faiths, including Catholicism, Native American beliefs, Sufism, and most recently Tao.
Her artwork and writings reflect love of nature and her spiritual quest to find, for herself and the world, a sacred path with heart. Ista Cante: A story, resembling a myth or folktale utilizes strong, colorful images of a young child growing up, learning to listen to her own intuition through interaction with a cloth doll her mother made from scraps of her "mother's mother's mother's dresses."
The mother named the doll Ista Cante (ishta chanta), Lacota Indian words meaning the-eye-of-the-heart--intuition. Ista Cante may speak to people of all ages and ethnic backgrounds. The book is a complete artistic creation in itself.
Author Carolyn Hayes-Knoll will speak at the Writing for Children & Young Adults workshop offered by The Berkshire Writers Room, on Monday, January 8th, 7-9 PM at Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, in the Melvillle Building, room 217.
Whether you write poetry, fiction, nonfiction, plays or scripts, all children's authors and lovers of children's books are welcome. A reading/discussion will follow the lecture.
"Performing Women": a one-of-its-kind theatre collaboration
By Madhur Tankha - The Hindu - New Delhi,IndiaThursday, January 4, 2007
As part of the ninth edition of the National School of Drama's Bharat Rang Mahotsav, theatre that has come about due to collaboration among India, Iran, Uzbekistan and Japan will be staged at Abhimanch Auditorium in Bahawalpur House here this coming Sunday and Monday.
Titled "Performing Women Medea, Jocasta and Clytemnestra", the one-of-its-kind theatre collaboration will not show "realistic" plays but experimental ones. Based on Greek tragedy, the storyline will be presented in a unique way by each director with the aim of exploring the concept of woman as a metaphor for key concepts.
Each country will have its own cast too.
Produced by the Japan Foundation, the theatre collaboration will show India's Abhilash Pillai, an alumnus of the National School of Drama, staging theatre. He will work around the Clytemnestra character from "The Trojan Women". His works are drawn from a wide array of materials ranging from the classical to the modern yet presented in an aesthetic style. Music will be presented by Sankar Venkateswaran.
Iran's Mohammad Aghebati, who graduated from the Iran Film and Theatre University majoring in direction, will work on the Jocasta character from "Oedipus Rex" for his theatrical presentation.
In 2006, Aghebati founded the Live (Sun) II Theatre Group and performed his new work, "Only God Has the Right to Wake Up", at the International Freiburg Theatre Festival in Germany. His credits include William Butler Yeats' "Purgatory", Jean-Pierre Jeunet's "The Maids" and "Kiss You and Tears" based on Czech freedom activist Vaclav Havel's Letters to Olga. In fact, "Kiss You and Tears" was performed in several cities in Germany in 2004-2005.
Uzbekistan's Ovlyakuli Khojakuli will work on the Medea character by Euripedes. Born in Turkmenistan, Khojakuli studied at Tashkent State Art Institute.
He is one of the few directors who incorporate Central Asian traditions in modern ways, such as the aesthetics of Sufism and the traditional storytelling to create pieces that overflow with primary beauty.
His productions have attracted international attention such as Raksu S'amo ("Sky Dance") by Alisher Navoi and Shakespeare's King Lear and Language of the Birds by A. Navoi.
Spirit in the Napa Valley retreat set
Community - St. Helena Star - St. Helena,CA,USA
Thursday, January 4, 2007
The Third annual Spirit in the Napa Valley community retreat will feature 12 workshops and keynote speaker Louise Franklin of the Center for Attitudinal Healing in Sausalito, in a day-long program on “Health, Healing and Spirituality” on Saturday, Feb. 10 at the Mt. La Salle, Christian Brothers Retreat Center, 4401 Redwood Road in Napa.
“This special day affords people the opportunity to step out of their busy lives, take a moment to rest and consider other possibilities of bringing new hope and meaning to their lives, ” said event organizer Yvonne Baginski, of the Napa Interfaith Council.
“We hope people will be uplifted with fresh insight and attainable goals for our future.”
Keynote speaker Franklin is the director of the Center for Attitudinal Healing, which works to bring about changes in attitude through love and forgiveness. The Center was founded by author and psychiatrist Dr. Gerry Jampolsky who is best known for his book “Love is Letting Go of Fear.”
Franklin will speak on the “Healing Truth of Love and Foregiveness, “ as well as present a workshop on “Attitudinal Healing: Practical Spirituality.”
Other workshops offered in the morning include:
“Healing Through the Senses,” by Doreen Leighton, R.N. of Unity Church of Napa,
“Sufism: Alchemy of Tranquility,” by Arthur Scott Kane, Ph.D., of Dominican University,
“Health, Healing and the Holy Spirit,” by Gary Snethen, Ph.D,
“Hidden Gifts for Healing Our Spirits: Working Together to Find the Transformative Possibilities in our Nighttime Dreams,” by author Dr. Jeremy Taylor, of the Unitarian Universalist Church,
and “Spiritual Transformation” by Dr. Ellen Hammerle of the Community Healing Center.
Afternoon sessions include, “Sparking Creativity in Healing Personal Trauma,” by psychotherapist Terri Linn, “Love First,” by author Judy Caitlin-Brown, “Tending the Holy, the Practice of Spiritual Direction,” by Rev. Doug Monroe of the First United Methodist Church and a Healing Circle by the Bodhi Tree Collective.
There will also sessions on alternative healing methods, including Body Talk, shaitsu massage, movement, meditation, and other forms of energy medicine.
Registration for the day, including lunch is $50 in advance, $65 at the door. Space is limited, so early registration is encouraged.
A complete brochure of sessions is available through the Napa Interfaith Council, (707)226-7127
Thursday, January 4, 2007
The Third annual Spirit in the Napa Valley community retreat will feature 12 workshops and keynote speaker Louise Franklin of the Center for Attitudinal Healing in Sausalito, in a day-long program on “Health, Healing and Spirituality” on Saturday, Feb. 10 at the Mt. La Salle, Christian Brothers Retreat Center, 4401 Redwood Road in Napa.
“This special day affords people the opportunity to step out of their busy lives, take a moment to rest and consider other possibilities of bringing new hope and meaning to their lives, ” said event organizer Yvonne Baginski, of the Napa Interfaith Council.
“We hope people will be uplifted with fresh insight and attainable goals for our future.”
Keynote speaker Franklin is the director of the Center for Attitudinal Healing, which works to bring about changes in attitude through love and forgiveness. The Center was founded by author and psychiatrist Dr. Gerry Jampolsky who is best known for his book “Love is Letting Go of Fear.”
Franklin will speak on the “Healing Truth of Love and Foregiveness, “ as well as present a workshop on “Attitudinal Healing: Practical Spirituality.”
Other workshops offered in the morning include:
“Healing Through the Senses,” by Doreen Leighton, R.N. of Unity Church of Napa,
“Sufism: Alchemy of Tranquility,” by Arthur Scott Kane, Ph.D., of Dominican University,
“Health, Healing and the Holy Spirit,” by Gary Snethen, Ph.D,
“Hidden Gifts for Healing Our Spirits: Working Together to Find the Transformative Possibilities in our Nighttime Dreams,” by author Dr. Jeremy Taylor, of the Unitarian Universalist Church,
and “Spiritual Transformation” by Dr. Ellen Hammerle of the Community Healing Center.
Afternoon sessions include, “Sparking Creativity in Healing Personal Trauma,” by psychotherapist Terri Linn, “Love First,” by author Judy Caitlin-Brown, “Tending the Holy, the Practice of Spiritual Direction,” by Rev. Doug Monroe of the First United Methodist Church and a Healing Circle by the Bodhi Tree Collective.
There will also sessions on alternative healing methods, including Body Talk, shaitsu massage, movement, meditation, and other forms of energy medicine.
Registration for the day, including lunch is $50 in advance, $65 at the door. Space is limited, so early registration is encouraged.
A complete brochure of sessions is available through the Napa Interfaith Council, (707)226-7127
Thursday, January 04, 2007
The Tariqa Tijaniya and the message of Shaykh Ahmad At’Tijani Chérif
[From the French language press]:Colloque des Frères Tijaani à Ain Mahdih: le message du Cheikh Ahmad At'Tijaani Chérif passé en revue
Le Soleil - Senegal; 29 Décembre 2006; Al Hadj Khaly Tall
A very important meeting and first international colloquium of the Tariqa Tijaniya was held in Ain Mahdih, Algeria, upon invitation of M. Abdul Aziz Boutéflikha, President of the Algerian Government.
With its 350 million [(sic), perhaps 35 or 3.5 million?] followers spread in the five Continents, the Tariqa Tijaniya is a strong force for Sufism, as well as of Sharia and Sunnah.
Tijaniya delegations from the whole world met in Ain Mahdih, in an extraordinary spirit of religious fervour.
The colloquium focused on the message of Shaykh Ahmad At’Tijani Chérif (1737-1815), born in Ain Mahdih, in the region of Lakhouat, who taught a sufism founded on peace, brotherhood, and the adherence to Islamic law.
A panel, with Tijani Sheykh M. Ibrahima Ndoye, M. Abd al Hamid Chebchoub -algerian Ambassador in Senegal, President Samba Dieng and Abdul Aziz KéBé from the University of Dakar, was broadcast on Senegal’ and Algeria’ National Televisions.
This colloquium will be held every other year, and later every year, it was decided by the algerian Ambassador.
With its 350 million [(sic), perhaps 35 or 3.5 million?] followers spread in the five Continents, the Tariqa Tijaniya is a strong force for Sufism, as well as of Sharia and Sunnah.
Tijaniya delegations from the whole world met in Ain Mahdih, in an extraordinary spirit of religious fervour.
The colloquium focused on the message of Shaykh Ahmad At’Tijani Chérif (1737-1815), born in Ain Mahdih, in the region of Lakhouat, who taught a sufism founded on peace, brotherhood, and the adherence to Islamic law.
A panel, with Tijani Sheykh M. Ibrahima Ndoye, M. Abd al Hamid Chebchoub -algerian Ambassador in Senegal, President Samba Dieng and Abdul Aziz KéBé from the University of Dakar, was broadcast on Senegal’ and Algeria’ National Televisions.
This colloquium will be held every other year, and later every year, it was decided by the algerian Ambassador.
The Seventh International Oud Festival of Jerusalem
By Eyal Hareuveni - All About Jazz - Philadelphia,PA,USAWednesday, January 3, 2007
Just when the Middle East seems about to slide into one of its reptilian-macho phases, burdened with too many bloody and violent conflicts, the independent Oud Festival of Jerusalem draws an almost utopian vision for this piece of land.
The Middle East, according to this optimistic view, is in fact a very close and open-minded musical neighborhood where traditions rely upon, borrow from, and exchange ideas and themes with each other, and beneath the conceited poses of the region's hollow leaders, we are much more alike than what these leaders would like us to think.
The Seventh international Oud Festival [held in Jerusalem, Israel, from November 2 til November 16 2006] , conceived by the artistic director of the Confederation House in Jerusalem, Effie Benaya, brought together Jewish, Palestinians, Armenian, Persian and Spanish musicians who represented the different as well as the similar facets of the glorious, multifaceted culture of the Arabic world.
A few weeks have passed since the final concert of this festival, and I am still trying to reconstruct this rare musical and spiritual experience.
With no oud on stage, the Lian Ensemble, a Sufi-Persian aggregation composed of four Iranian exiles who are based in Los Angeles and augmented by an American percussionist, delivered a hypnotic set of their interpretations of the poems of well-known Sufi masters such as Jellaluddin Rumi, Farid al-Din Attar (whose text, Conference of the Birds, inspired bass player Dave Holland's album of the same name, ECM, 1972) and Sheikh Javad Nurbakhsh.
Tar player Pirayeh Pourafar usually began each piece with focused and economic playing; santur player Mahshid Mirzadeh soon interlocked with Porafar's nuanced ruminations; and after these two women outlined the exquisite theme, the percussionists—Houman Pourmehdi, who alternated his tonbak and daf frame drums with the ney flute and the stringed setar, and Randy Gloss—added momentum and infectious rhythms. But the magic began when their vocalist began to sing.
Naderi Veseghi Soleyman, a dignified-looking white-haired gentleman in his sixties, seated in the center of the stage, was gifted with a warm and expressive voice, but it was his delivery of the Sufi texts that made the difference.
When he sang, you could understood why the Sufis believe and they are able to approach God through truth and love.
Soleyman's sincere and humble affinity with the messages of the poetic texts—none was translated—and his joyous, total belief in these texts, together with the rich tonal ornamentations of the ensemble, captured the audience's attention again and again.
The devotional approach of this excellent ensemble, with their imaginative arrangements of complex Sufi texts, all executed in a refined yet virtuosic manner that never lost momentum, contributed to the feeling of elation that accompanied me many hours and days after this concert.
(...)
The Birds’ Journey to Mount Qaf
Book Review - AlArab Online - London,UKWednesday, January 3, 2007
A classic tale by a Sufi master·
Illustrated with 16 original colour plates of Persian ceramic tile designs·
A modern take on an ancient tale with a message as resonant today as in the twelfth century.
It was one night while soaring in the Chinese sky,
I heard people talk of a great bird that flew by,
Called Simurgh, the greatest bird alive,
Who dwells on Mount Qaf, where he is said to thrive,
Upon a giant mountain unlike any other seen, covered with trees,
Beyond Samarkand, across seven valleys and seven seas
Based on the masterful twelfth-century Sufi poem, The Conference of the Birds [by Farid ud-Din Attar, d. 1220], this enchanting poem is accompanied by illustrations painted on ceramic tiles, typical of the medieval Persian style.
When the birds of the world assemble and decide that they are in need of a king, the wise hoopoe bird steps forward and offers to lead them to Mount Qaf, where the Simurgh, the king of all birds dwells.
The birds are excited by his proposal, but upon realizing how long the journey will take, how uncertain the path, and how distant the destination, they begin, one by one, to make their excuses. Only thirty birds have the courage to set out on the quest.
The king they find may not be what they had expected, but the journey must be taken to discover the truth.
The Birds’ Journey to Mount Qaf
by Hooda Shawa Qaddumi and
Vanessa Hodgkinson (illustrations)
Saqi Books, London,UK
by Hooda Shawa Qaddumi and
Vanessa Hodgkinson (illustrations)
Saqi Books, London,UK
Hooda Shawa Qaddumi teaches English as a Second Language at Kuwait University.
Vanessa Hodgkinson (illustrations) is the Levy-Plumb Artist in Residence at Christ's College, Cambridge.
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Media and Religion in the Arab/Islamic world
By S. Abdallah Schleifer - TAM The American Muslim - Bridgeton,MO,USA
Monday, January 1, 2007
The past few decades have borne out the warning made more than thirty years ago by Jacques Ellul, the French moral philosopher and sociologist, that the phenomenal development of mass media would revolutionize politics, with the flood of information and discontinuous facts overwhelming any sense of historic context. Now more than ever, with religion and politics often having become overtly intertwined, the lack of historic context is a massive problem.
(...)
FACT AND CONTEXT
My point is that, taken out of context, the quote [when Pope Benedict XVI spoke on September 12 at Regensburg] quickly was construed as some sort of papal insult to Islam. When you combine this with the reluctance of the Arab press, in particular, to gather facts, then you get what you got. The discontinuity in the initial stories that appeared in the Western press was intrinsic: first, in ignoring context, and second, in ignoring not just the official papal perspective on Islam and the long collaboration and dialogue between Muslims and Catholics set in motion by John Paul II, but also Pope Benedict’s remarks a year ago when meeting with representatives of Muslim communities in Cologne, Germany. In Cologne, the Pope insisted that dialogue was an absolute necessity and that Catholics and Muslims must seek paths of reconciliation.
Even the issue of a relationship between violence and Islam, which was an aside in the academic paper, had as its most direct commentary Pope Benedict’s own recent words commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the inter-religious meeting called Prayer for Peace initiated by John Paul II. Those words were: “Demonstrations of violence cannot be attributed to religion as such but to the cultural limitations with which it is lived and develops in time.”
This is an observation applicable to the massacres associated with the Crusades; the Almohad persecutions of non-Muslims in Spain; the compulsory conversions of Jews and Muslims that followed the Reconquista of Spain; the Cossack and other pogroms in honor of Easter; the gory passages in the Book of Joshua; or for that matter the exhortations by extremist rabbis quoting those passages to ethnically cleanse Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza of all Arabs--both Muslim and Christian. As for Pope Benedict XVI, he went on to observe: “Attestations of the close bond that exists between the relationship with God and the ethics of love are recorded in all great religious traditions.”
But despite our own journalistic attraction to conflict and confrontation and our own immediate discontinuity from the background, and despite its often secularist bias, the Western press has a corrective: the follow-up story that attempts to develop an alternative narrative to the original breaking story and the op-ed column. So papal clarification as well as intelligent analysis found significant space in the Western media.
In contrast, in the Arab world, with rare exception, once the state speaks there is little turning back. In one of the most recent precedents of a media-driven “Muslims vs. the West” drama turned violent, some Arab and Muslim states played a demagogic role in cynically overreacting to the Danish cartoons last winter. And once the “Arab street” has spoken, there has been little reevaluation.
There has been little interest in most of the Arab press in gathering more facts to a story than one paragraph taken out of context, and no significant reference to the facts of Catholic-Muslim relations over the past few decades. It is also significant that the two immediate violent episodes centering around that one paragraph following the first press reports--the murder of a nun and the torching of Catholic churches--occurred in two of the three most lawless parts of the Muslim world: Somalia and the West Bank (the other of course now being Iraq).
The most obvious and absurd point about the violence in the Muslim world in response to the Pope’s quotation (and burning the Pope in effigy is metaphorical violence) is that all this violence is to protest against a Pope reportedly saying that Islam is violent.
THE SELECTION OF FACTS
But let me also point out that selection of what facts do get reported is often curtailed by the confrontation line. In much of the media of the Arab/Islamic world the problem isn’t simply discontinuity between events and reportage, but the difficulty of getting any facts reported once a confrontational line is drawn, be it with Europe, the Pope, America, or Israel or elements within that state who are then portrayed as the spokesmen for some monolithic Israeli society.
For example, there is the tendency of Yusuf Qaradawi, a popular sheikh who is closely associated with one of the Islamist movements and whose reach in the Arab world has been greatly enhanced by his regular appearances on Al Jazeera satellite news channel, to allude to “the Jews” when discussing some specific issue in the Arab-Israeli or Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Of course, in part this reflects the transformation of a clash that, however much religion may get involved or exploited, is nevertheless basically between two rival nationalisms, Arab and Israeli, or Palestinian and Israeli, into a total confrontation between two religions, Judaism and Islam, a perspective that has been popularized not just in Palestine but throughout the Arab and Muslim world. As always happens with extremist perspectives, this is absolutely mirrored by the ultra rightwing religious nationalist forces in Israel and their supporters in America.
I pointed out to Sheikh Qaradawi at a conference a few years back that among “the Jews” were a few thousand peace activists who were risking their lives and their reputations as patriotic Israelis for the sake of the West Bank Arab villagers, who were being prevented by force from harvesting their olive crops by the religious nationalist settlers. The activists became human shields, and their nonviolent presence as victims of settler assault, would force the otherwise passive Israeli Defense Force in the neighborhood to intervene and protect both the Israeli peace activists and the Arab villagers. By attempting to frustrate the settlers’ campaign of stealth ethnic cleansing , these Israeli peace activists were doing more to preserve a Palestinian presence on Palestinian land then anyone else in the region.
Little or nothing of this story, which has gone on for several years now, has appeared in the Arab press. The Jerusalem Bureau of Al Arabiya did cover the story, and thanks to one of my former journalism students at the American University in Cairo (AUC) who writes for major Arab media, this story has at least appeared in the Cairo press. But this story is not convenient to Arab media, which embraces and at times incites the street’s take on Palestine. Of course, if the issue is domestic--a question that concerns the large Coptic Orthodox Christian community in Egypt and their relations with the Muslims, or even one of the handful of Egyptian Jews remaining--then we will read in Egyptian state media about the heavenly religions (meaning Christianity and Judaism).
There are other no-go topics when media and religion intertwine. I believe Pope Benedict, even more than his successor, wants a frank as well as friendly dialogue with Muslim religious leaders and Arab and other Muslim governments. That dialogue has to do with the issue of reciprocity. European Muslims, backed up by the Arab and Muslim states, have clamored for and received permission to build large central mosques in Rome, London, and Washington, and these mosques have been generously funded by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, among others. But still today no church may be built in Saudi Arabia, nor until a year ago could one be built in Qatar. This is not an issue that will ever be raised by most Arab media.
The Arab press becomes furious over the slightest discrimination that befalls Muslims in Europe and America, but there is little or no sense of equity, of equivalence, of an elementary quid quo pro as in the case of church building in Arabia and mosque building in Rome. Indeed, often the opposite is the rule.
Not long after 9/11 the Egyptian managing editor of the student newspaper at the AUC flew to New York. This young lady, like most Egyptian women, is a muhagaba: she wears a large scarf over her head and around her neck. For most women who chose to put on the hijab , it is a question of piety or public conformity in the wake of a very broad religious revival underway in Egypt since 1967, and now reaching into the ranks of many highly Westernized upper middle class youth, whose older sisters would not have worn the hijab.
She breezed through customs and security at JFK Airport. Just outside the gates she was greeted by a reporter and photographer representing one of the two main Egyptian newspapers. The reporter asked if she had been hassled in any way or inconvenienced by the Homeland Security personnel at Passport Control or at Customs. She said no, not at all. The news team went off in search of another would-be victim.
The mainstream American media is intrinsically decent. When injustices appear to have been done to Muslims solely because they appear to be Muslim--Muslim names, a Middle Eastern look, a beard , a head veil--those stories get reported in the American press. Aside from the Islamophobe margins of our media (and most of that media is online not in print or broadcasting), Muslims get a fair break in these stories. And then there are the positive stories, like the case of the Justice Department intervening as a friend of the court on behalf of a Muslim student who was suing a school district that barred her entry into her classes because she was in hijab. The Justice Department saw the exclusion as a violation of the first amendment right to practice one’s religion. To my knowledge this story never appeared in Arab media, at least not in the Egyptian press.
The Washington bureau functions as Al Arabiya’s national bureau. This year we have produced stories about the first American Muslim woman to be invested as a judge in the state of Michigan and perhaps in the entire United States; of the unsuccessful but impressive run in a Republican primary in Texas of a young Saudi-American, who got nearly 40 percent of the vote with barely any Muslim voters in his constituency; and most recently an Interfaith Unity march in Washington the day before the anniversary of 9/11--a march that began in a synagogue with the Muslim call to prayer and ended with a Hebrew hymn at the Central mosque. We cover these stories because it is major part of the truth about America, and our motto is “getting closer to the truth.”
NEGLECT OF ACCURACY
This brings me to my next point. Why are such stories so unusual? They are true and deserving of recognition. Accuracy is the very beginning of truth, of getting things right, for it is easier to be accurate than to be able to perceive complex truth. Yet much of the Arab press takes a casual attitude towards accuracy.
(...)
Such disregard for facts and for accuracy is profoundly un-Islamic. In theory, if modern media had arisen organically in the Arab world, deriving its style and values from within traditional Arab-Islamic culture, it would have been perhaps the most obsessively accurate and objective media that the modern world would have known. That is because in Islam the word is paramount.
The Word as word. It is not so much that Islam is iconoclastic--quite the contrary--but that its icons, its representations of the sacred inner essence of all things are aural rather than visual or pictorial. In Islam, the manuscript or the calligraphied Quran is a rendering of the sound of an original recitation, of a sacred recitation granted to the Prophet by the Angel Gabriel, the same Angel who announced to the Virgin Mary that she was the chosen vessel for the coming of the Word made Flesh.
But how to interpret this Quran? It contains all of the Names or attributes of God, such as Ar-Rahman (the Most Merciful), Ar Raheem (the Most Compassionate), Al Haq (the Truth or the Reality), Al Hai (the Ever Living)--Names and attributes as to the nature of God which are at the core of the mystical dimension of Islam known as Sufism. But it is also in its expository form a guide to prayer, to purification of body and soul, and to social relationships. For the Muslims, the Prophet’s life and his sayings, is the sacred commentary, the interpretation of the Word.
So it became imperative in the earliest years of the Islamic community after the passing of the Prophet and his companions to accurately assemble canonic collections as to every certified statement of the Prophet. The collection of these reports, or news about the prophet’s own words, constitute a sacred news. The key lay in what modern journalists describe as sourcing, tracing any given hadith back to the Prophet and the persons who actually heard the Prophet speak, through a chain of reputable sources, which meant a reputation for truthfulness and moral rectitude. This was particularly necessary because in an age of faith, such as the earliest centuries after the Prophet, political struggles among the Muslims were inevitably colored by religious justification, and the temptation to forgery, to invent politically useful hadith must have been great.
With all this as background, one might assume that journalism in the Muslim world, and particularly in the Arabic-speaking cultural core of the Muslim world, would be the modicum of soul-searching honesty and painstaking accuracy and sourcing. And there are positive values to be found in Arab journalism – an aversion to blasphemy. Arab journalists do not blaspheme God, or any of His Prophets.
(...)
Al Arabiya covered the violent attacks against Danish properties in the Arab world and interviewed both Arab intellectuals who were highly critical of this sort of response and those advocating confrontation. When the channel decided to report on the cartoon controversy without playing to the hysteria, Nabil Khatib, Al Arabiya’s news editor, assumed it would pay a price in a loss of viewers. But its ratings--particularly in the Gulf states, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Lebanon--nearly doubled.
Khatib suggests that when two or three thousand Arabs demonstrate hysterically in the streets of any Arab capital, we do wrong to assume they represent the views of the millions more who are not committing acts of violence and demonstrating the rage that the Quran and the Prophet caution Muslims against.
Let me sum it all up. Until recently, the media in the Arab/Islamic world by and large have tended to aggravate numerous political and religious pathologies through their disregard for truth and accuracy, a habit shaped by their literary and propagandist antecedents. They have been the least faithful to Islam’s own standards, leading to dangerous distortions of this religion. Paradoxically, the CNN effect, by magnifying these very tendencies, has led to a counteraction.
Such countervailing trends promise that the media in the Arab/Islamic world will not only adhere more closely to standards of honesty and accuracy, but in doing so will become more faithful to the demands of Islam itself. Perhaps, that’s the best news of all.
Monday, January 1, 2007
The past few decades have borne out the warning made more than thirty years ago by Jacques Ellul, the French moral philosopher and sociologist, that the phenomenal development of mass media would revolutionize politics, with the flood of information and discontinuous facts overwhelming any sense of historic context. Now more than ever, with religion and politics often having become overtly intertwined, the lack of historic context is a massive problem.
(...)
FACT AND CONTEXT
My point is that, taken out of context, the quote [when Pope Benedict XVI spoke on September 12 at Regensburg] quickly was construed as some sort of papal insult to Islam. When you combine this with the reluctance of the Arab press, in particular, to gather facts, then you get what you got. The discontinuity in the initial stories that appeared in the Western press was intrinsic: first, in ignoring context, and second, in ignoring not just the official papal perspective on Islam and the long collaboration and dialogue between Muslims and Catholics set in motion by John Paul II, but also Pope Benedict’s remarks a year ago when meeting with representatives of Muslim communities in Cologne, Germany. In Cologne, the Pope insisted that dialogue was an absolute necessity and that Catholics and Muslims must seek paths of reconciliation.
Even the issue of a relationship between violence and Islam, which was an aside in the academic paper, had as its most direct commentary Pope Benedict’s own recent words commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the inter-religious meeting called Prayer for Peace initiated by John Paul II. Those words were: “Demonstrations of violence cannot be attributed to religion as such but to the cultural limitations with which it is lived and develops in time.”
This is an observation applicable to the massacres associated with the Crusades; the Almohad persecutions of non-Muslims in Spain; the compulsory conversions of Jews and Muslims that followed the Reconquista of Spain; the Cossack and other pogroms in honor of Easter; the gory passages in the Book of Joshua; or for that matter the exhortations by extremist rabbis quoting those passages to ethnically cleanse Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza of all Arabs--both Muslim and Christian. As for Pope Benedict XVI, he went on to observe: “Attestations of the close bond that exists between the relationship with God and the ethics of love are recorded in all great religious traditions.”
But despite our own journalistic attraction to conflict and confrontation and our own immediate discontinuity from the background, and despite its often secularist bias, the Western press has a corrective: the follow-up story that attempts to develop an alternative narrative to the original breaking story and the op-ed column. So papal clarification as well as intelligent analysis found significant space in the Western media.
In contrast, in the Arab world, with rare exception, once the state speaks there is little turning back. In one of the most recent precedents of a media-driven “Muslims vs. the West” drama turned violent, some Arab and Muslim states played a demagogic role in cynically overreacting to the Danish cartoons last winter. And once the “Arab street” has spoken, there has been little reevaluation.
There has been little interest in most of the Arab press in gathering more facts to a story than one paragraph taken out of context, and no significant reference to the facts of Catholic-Muslim relations over the past few decades. It is also significant that the two immediate violent episodes centering around that one paragraph following the first press reports--the murder of a nun and the torching of Catholic churches--occurred in two of the three most lawless parts of the Muslim world: Somalia and the West Bank (the other of course now being Iraq).
The most obvious and absurd point about the violence in the Muslim world in response to the Pope’s quotation (and burning the Pope in effigy is metaphorical violence) is that all this violence is to protest against a Pope reportedly saying that Islam is violent.
THE SELECTION OF FACTS
But let me also point out that selection of what facts do get reported is often curtailed by the confrontation line. In much of the media of the Arab/Islamic world the problem isn’t simply discontinuity between events and reportage, but the difficulty of getting any facts reported once a confrontational line is drawn, be it with Europe, the Pope, America, or Israel or elements within that state who are then portrayed as the spokesmen for some monolithic Israeli society.
For example, there is the tendency of Yusuf Qaradawi, a popular sheikh who is closely associated with one of the Islamist movements and whose reach in the Arab world has been greatly enhanced by his regular appearances on Al Jazeera satellite news channel, to allude to “the Jews” when discussing some specific issue in the Arab-Israeli or Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Of course, in part this reflects the transformation of a clash that, however much religion may get involved or exploited, is nevertheless basically between two rival nationalisms, Arab and Israeli, or Palestinian and Israeli, into a total confrontation between two religions, Judaism and Islam, a perspective that has been popularized not just in Palestine but throughout the Arab and Muslim world. As always happens with extremist perspectives, this is absolutely mirrored by the ultra rightwing religious nationalist forces in Israel and their supporters in America.
I pointed out to Sheikh Qaradawi at a conference a few years back that among “the Jews” were a few thousand peace activists who were risking their lives and their reputations as patriotic Israelis for the sake of the West Bank Arab villagers, who were being prevented by force from harvesting their olive crops by the religious nationalist settlers. The activists became human shields, and their nonviolent presence as victims of settler assault, would force the otherwise passive Israeli Defense Force in the neighborhood to intervene and protect both the Israeli peace activists and the Arab villagers. By attempting to frustrate the settlers’ campaign of stealth ethnic cleansing , these Israeli peace activists were doing more to preserve a Palestinian presence on Palestinian land then anyone else in the region.
Little or nothing of this story, which has gone on for several years now, has appeared in the Arab press. The Jerusalem Bureau of Al Arabiya did cover the story, and thanks to one of my former journalism students at the American University in Cairo (AUC) who writes for major Arab media, this story has at least appeared in the Cairo press. But this story is not convenient to Arab media, which embraces and at times incites the street’s take on Palestine. Of course, if the issue is domestic--a question that concerns the large Coptic Orthodox Christian community in Egypt and their relations with the Muslims, or even one of the handful of Egyptian Jews remaining--then we will read in Egyptian state media about the heavenly religions (meaning Christianity and Judaism).
There are other no-go topics when media and religion intertwine. I believe Pope Benedict, even more than his successor, wants a frank as well as friendly dialogue with Muslim religious leaders and Arab and other Muslim governments. That dialogue has to do with the issue of reciprocity. European Muslims, backed up by the Arab and Muslim states, have clamored for and received permission to build large central mosques in Rome, London, and Washington, and these mosques have been generously funded by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, among others. But still today no church may be built in Saudi Arabia, nor until a year ago could one be built in Qatar. This is not an issue that will ever be raised by most Arab media.
The Arab press becomes furious over the slightest discrimination that befalls Muslims in Europe and America, but there is little or no sense of equity, of equivalence, of an elementary quid quo pro as in the case of church building in Arabia and mosque building in Rome. Indeed, often the opposite is the rule.
Not long after 9/11 the Egyptian managing editor of the student newspaper at the AUC flew to New York. This young lady, like most Egyptian women, is a muhagaba: she wears a large scarf over her head and around her neck. For most women who chose to put on the hijab , it is a question of piety or public conformity in the wake of a very broad religious revival underway in Egypt since 1967, and now reaching into the ranks of many highly Westernized upper middle class youth, whose older sisters would not have worn the hijab.
She breezed through customs and security at JFK Airport. Just outside the gates she was greeted by a reporter and photographer representing one of the two main Egyptian newspapers. The reporter asked if she had been hassled in any way or inconvenienced by the Homeland Security personnel at Passport Control or at Customs. She said no, not at all. The news team went off in search of another would-be victim.
The mainstream American media is intrinsically decent. When injustices appear to have been done to Muslims solely because they appear to be Muslim--Muslim names, a Middle Eastern look, a beard , a head veil--those stories get reported in the American press. Aside from the Islamophobe margins of our media (and most of that media is online not in print or broadcasting), Muslims get a fair break in these stories. And then there are the positive stories, like the case of the Justice Department intervening as a friend of the court on behalf of a Muslim student who was suing a school district that barred her entry into her classes because she was in hijab. The Justice Department saw the exclusion as a violation of the first amendment right to practice one’s religion. To my knowledge this story never appeared in Arab media, at least not in the Egyptian press.
The Washington bureau functions as Al Arabiya’s national bureau. This year we have produced stories about the first American Muslim woman to be invested as a judge in the state of Michigan and perhaps in the entire United States; of the unsuccessful but impressive run in a Republican primary in Texas of a young Saudi-American, who got nearly 40 percent of the vote with barely any Muslim voters in his constituency; and most recently an Interfaith Unity march in Washington the day before the anniversary of 9/11--a march that began in a synagogue with the Muslim call to prayer and ended with a Hebrew hymn at the Central mosque. We cover these stories because it is major part of the truth about America, and our motto is “getting closer to the truth.”
NEGLECT OF ACCURACY
This brings me to my next point. Why are such stories so unusual? They are true and deserving of recognition. Accuracy is the very beginning of truth, of getting things right, for it is easier to be accurate than to be able to perceive complex truth. Yet much of the Arab press takes a casual attitude towards accuracy.
(...)
Such disregard for facts and for accuracy is profoundly un-Islamic. In theory, if modern media had arisen organically in the Arab world, deriving its style and values from within traditional Arab-Islamic culture, it would have been perhaps the most obsessively accurate and objective media that the modern world would have known. That is because in Islam the word is paramount.
The Word as word. It is not so much that Islam is iconoclastic--quite the contrary--but that its icons, its representations of the sacred inner essence of all things are aural rather than visual or pictorial. In Islam, the manuscript or the calligraphied Quran is a rendering of the sound of an original recitation, of a sacred recitation granted to the Prophet by the Angel Gabriel, the same Angel who announced to the Virgin Mary that she was the chosen vessel for the coming of the Word made Flesh.
But how to interpret this Quran? It contains all of the Names or attributes of God, such as Ar-Rahman (the Most Merciful), Ar Raheem (the Most Compassionate), Al Haq (the Truth or the Reality), Al Hai (the Ever Living)--Names and attributes as to the nature of God which are at the core of the mystical dimension of Islam known as Sufism. But it is also in its expository form a guide to prayer, to purification of body and soul, and to social relationships. For the Muslims, the Prophet’s life and his sayings, is the sacred commentary, the interpretation of the Word.
So it became imperative in the earliest years of the Islamic community after the passing of the Prophet and his companions to accurately assemble canonic collections as to every certified statement of the Prophet. The collection of these reports, or news about the prophet’s own words, constitute a sacred news. The key lay in what modern journalists describe as sourcing, tracing any given hadith back to the Prophet and the persons who actually heard the Prophet speak, through a chain of reputable sources, which meant a reputation for truthfulness and moral rectitude. This was particularly necessary because in an age of faith, such as the earliest centuries after the Prophet, political struggles among the Muslims were inevitably colored by religious justification, and the temptation to forgery, to invent politically useful hadith must have been great.
With all this as background, one might assume that journalism in the Muslim world, and particularly in the Arabic-speaking cultural core of the Muslim world, would be the modicum of soul-searching honesty and painstaking accuracy and sourcing. And there are positive values to be found in Arab journalism – an aversion to blasphemy. Arab journalists do not blaspheme God, or any of His Prophets.
(...)
Al Arabiya covered the violent attacks against Danish properties in the Arab world and interviewed both Arab intellectuals who were highly critical of this sort of response and those advocating confrontation. When the channel decided to report on the cartoon controversy without playing to the hysteria, Nabil Khatib, Al Arabiya’s news editor, assumed it would pay a price in a loss of viewers. But its ratings--particularly in the Gulf states, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Lebanon--nearly doubled.
Khatib suggests that when two or three thousand Arabs demonstrate hysterically in the streets of any Arab capital, we do wrong to assume they represent the views of the millions more who are not committing acts of violence and demonstrating the rage that the Quran and the Prophet caution Muslims against.
Let me sum it all up. Until recently, the media in the Arab/Islamic world by and large have tended to aggravate numerous political and religious pathologies through their disregard for truth and accuracy, a habit shaped by their literary and propagandist antecedents. They have been the least faithful to Islam’s own standards, leading to dangerous distortions of this religion. Paradoxically, the CNN effect, by magnifying these very tendencies, has led to a counteraction.
Such countervailing trends promise that the media in the Arab/Islamic world will not only adhere more closely to standards of honesty and accuracy, but in doing so will become more faithful to the demands of Islam itself. Perhaps, that’s the best news of all.
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
'Hour for Peace' inspires
By Kelli Lackett - The Coloradoan - Fort Collins,CO,USA
Monday, January 1, 2007
Over 150 from diverse religions join together to pray for common goal.
Paz. Pace. Shalom.
Spanish, Italian and Hebrew were just three of 39 languages in which the word "peace" was chanted by the participants of The International Hour for Peace, held at 5 a.m. Sunday at Blessed John XXIII University Center.
Silvea Key punctuated the chants with bells as she led the more than 150 people in chanting as part of the annual inspirational event.
Representatives of religions as diverse as Catholicism, Buddhism, Sufism, Judaism and Baha'i shared prayers of peace and insight from their traditions.
"After so much planning, it's a beautiful thing to bring us all here," Key said.
This is the 21st year that people have gathered in Fort Collins in the early morning on New Year's Eve to pray, meditate and sing to express their hopes for world peace. They joined millions around the world participating in similar gatherings at noon Greenwich Mean Time.
The event, also called World Healing Day, is based on the idea that peace begins in every individual's heart and there is power in a critical mass of people directing their minds toward peace.
"It's kind of like the hundredth monkey," said Fort Collins resident N-Polly, referring to a controversial phenomenon in which a behavior spread rapidly from one group of monkeys to another once a critical number of monkeys had engaged in it.
The International Hour for Peace also provided a chance for leaders of numerous community peace, justice and multifaith groups to share the how and why behind their work.
Those included A Place for Peace, Prayerworks for Peace, Peace Alliance, Not In Our Town Alliance, and the Northern Colorado Multi-faith Coalition.
Local events weighed as heavily on the minds of some of the participants as did the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"What's really bothering me lately is the raid that took place at the plant in Greeley - so many families were broken up, so many children spent Christmas without their parents," said Larry Holgerson. "We try to be a moral nation. We try to be a compassionate nation. ... Sometimes, it's hard to do anything about the war. We need to look at what we are doing right here in our own community."
On Margaret Smith's mind was the humanitarian crisis in Sudan and fighting in Somalia between the Somali interim government backed by Ethiopia and Islamic militia fighters.
Smith addressed the crowd on the importance of finding political solutions to conflicts. It was her last morning as president of the Northern Colorado chapter of the United Nations Association-USA.
"There is not a lot of peace where it needs to be," Smith said.
Despite the grim world events, the gathering was upbeat.
"I've been coming since they started," N-Polly said. "I can't start my new year without it."
Monday, January 1, 2007
Over 150 from diverse religions join together to pray for common goal.
Paz. Pace. Shalom.
Spanish, Italian and Hebrew were just three of 39 languages in which the word "peace" was chanted by the participants of The International Hour for Peace, held at 5 a.m. Sunday at Blessed John XXIII University Center.
Silvea Key punctuated the chants with bells as she led the more than 150 people in chanting as part of the annual inspirational event.
Representatives of religions as diverse as Catholicism, Buddhism, Sufism, Judaism and Baha'i shared prayers of peace and insight from their traditions.
"After so much planning, it's a beautiful thing to bring us all here," Key said.
This is the 21st year that people have gathered in Fort Collins in the early morning on New Year's Eve to pray, meditate and sing to express their hopes for world peace. They joined millions around the world participating in similar gatherings at noon Greenwich Mean Time.
The event, also called World Healing Day, is based on the idea that peace begins in every individual's heart and there is power in a critical mass of people directing their minds toward peace.
"It's kind of like the hundredth monkey," said Fort Collins resident N-Polly, referring to a controversial phenomenon in which a behavior spread rapidly from one group of monkeys to another once a critical number of monkeys had engaged in it.
The International Hour for Peace also provided a chance for leaders of numerous community peace, justice and multifaith groups to share the how and why behind their work.
Those included A Place for Peace, Prayerworks for Peace, Peace Alliance, Not In Our Town Alliance, and the Northern Colorado Multi-faith Coalition.
Local events weighed as heavily on the minds of some of the participants as did the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"What's really bothering me lately is the raid that took place at the plant in Greeley - so many families were broken up, so many children spent Christmas without their parents," said Larry Holgerson. "We try to be a moral nation. We try to be a compassionate nation. ... Sometimes, it's hard to do anything about the war. We need to look at what we are doing right here in our own community."
On Margaret Smith's mind was the humanitarian crisis in Sudan and fighting in Somalia between the Somali interim government backed by Ethiopia and Islamic militia fighters.
Smith addressed the crowd on the importance of finding political solutions to conflicts. It was her last morning as president of the Northern Colorado chapter of the United Nations Association-USA.
"There is not a lot of peace where it needs to be," Smith said.
Despite the grim world events, the gathering was upbeat.
"I've been coming since they started," N-Polly said. "I can't start my new year without it."
Living up to expectations
By M. Yusuf Khan - Hindustan Times - IndiaMonday, January 1, 2006
When A male teacher misbehaves with a girl student, a policeman robs a helpless citizen or a man in the garb of a saint assaults a woman it raises more than indignation.
And rightly so, because they have broken the trust placed in them which they enjoy by virtue of their position. They are guilty on two counts, one of committing a horrendous act and the other of breach of trust.
There is a piece of Sufi lore that explains it better. A famous Sufi of his time was on a long journey along with his disciples. When tired and hungry, they decided to halt under a tree.
The tree that gave them shade also gave shelter to a flock of birds in that barren landscape. One of the disciples wanted to supplement their meagre fare by adding a dish of peafowl. He took out his bow and arrow and managed to bring down a bird.
His elation was suddenly disrupted by the frantic behaviour of the birds. Their persistent ruckus drew the attention of the Sufi, who called out to the leader of the birds. He asked the reason for their hue and cry The head bird said that one of his disciples had killed their kin and they wanted justice.
The Sufi summoned the accused. He admitted to the killing but said that he had committed no crime as hunting was permitted. The Sufi’s other followers saw reason in the argument and waited anxiously for a reply from the head bird.
After consulting his flock, the head bird said firmly and sorrowfully: “Sufis are supposed to be harmless and you are dressed like Sufis, therefore we took no safety measures. If you were dressed like ordinary people we would have flown away You have deceived us”.
The Sufis huddled together and deliberated. They agreed that even if hunting was permitted the disciple was guilty because he had breached the unsuspecting birds’ trust in the Sufis. He was given a severe punishment for his crime and asked to atone for his sin.
Monday, January 01, 2007
Hafez sonnets translated to Swedish
By Literary Service of ISNA - Iranian Students News Agency - Tehran,IranMonday, January 1, 2007
A selection of sonnets by the eminent classical 14th century Persian poet, Khwajeh Shams al-Din Muhammad Hafez-e Shirazi were translated into Swedish.
A selection of 60 sonnets has recently been translated by Ashk Dahlén entitled "Urvalda Dikter av Shams al-din Hafez" by Rosengarden publications.
Ashk Peter Dahlén (b. 1972 in Tehran) is a researcher in Iranian Studies and translator of Persian literature into Swedish. He received his doctoral degree from Uppsala University in 2002 and his thesis Islamic Law, Epistemology and Modernity has been published by Routledge.
He is the author of several articles on Sufism and Persian literature and has translated classical Sufi authors such as Rumi, Hafez and Fakhruddin 'Iraqi into Swedish.
Being a well-known writer on perennial philosophy and representative of the Traditionalist school in Sweden, he has introduced the thought of Seyyed Hossein Nasr in this country.
Ashk Dahlén is at the present a researcher at the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities. He is a member of the Swedish Society for Religious Studies, The Swedish Writers’ Union and The Iranian Academy of Philosophy.
Sufism can play a meaningful role
By APP Associated Press Pakistan - Islamabad, PakistanMonday, January 1, 2007
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said that Pakistan is making all out efforts to promote interfaith, intercultural and inter-civilization harmony to bridge the growing divide between various faiths and belief systems.
The Prime Minister said this yesterday while talking to Shaykh Fazlolla Haeri a renowned scholar and spiritual authority based in England.
The Prime Minister said there is an urgent need to redouble efforts to promote the spirit of brotherhood and tolerance at a global level as misperceptions and divide between religions are growing instead of decreasing especially after the unfortunate events of 9/11.
The Prime Minister said that Islam is a religion of peace, love and brotherhood and accords full respect to all faiths and their adherents. He said that genuine peace in the world cannot be achieved without religious harmony and understanding amongst the adherents of different faiths.
He said there is a need to project Islam in its true light as many misconceptions about it abound especially in the West.
Shaykh Fazlolla Haeri said that Sufism can play a meaningful role in plugging the divide amongst the believers of different faith.
This, he said, can be done by emphasizing the meeting points, convergences, and commonalities amongst different faiths without compromising the core and crux of one’s faith. He appreciated the endeavors being made by Pakistan in projecting Islam in its true prospective and said it will help promote international harmony and understanding.
He said that President Pervez Musharraf’s concept of enlightened moderation which encapsulates the essence of Islam can go a long way in projecting the true image of Islam and promoting global harmony.
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