Patiente et Fais Patienter

[From the French language press] :

En juillet, à Mostaganem, en Algérie, Khaled Bentounès fêtera les cent ans d'un lieu ouvert au dialogue religieux, fondé par son arrière-grand-père, Le cheikh Ahmed al-Alâwî.

Par Christelle Guibert, *Le cheikh Bentounes incarne le renouveau du soufisme et prône un islam de paix* - Ouest France - France - lundi 29 juin, 2009

In July, in Mostaganem, Algeria, Shaykh Khaled Bentounès will celebrate a hundred years of a place of open religious dialogue, a place founded by his great-grandfather, Shaykh Ahmad al-Alawi.

It will be Algeria's President Bouteflika who will welcome the members of the Alawiya Brotherhood, a Brotherhood who counts thousands of members, in Algeria and abroad.

Shaykh 'Isa Nur Ad-Din Ahmad al-Alawi, the great-grand-father of Shaykh Khaled Bentounès, was a poor shoemaker of Mostaganem. Poor? His personality, his writings have been pivotal to all those who had the chance to meet him.

Traditional Islam, the Shiite mullahs and the Sunni clerics have always regarded Sufis with suspicion. On the other side, Khaled Bentounès judges them too often attached to the legal interpretations of the Qur'an: "By hardening and cleansing and purging, they have strayed from the Prophet (pbuh)."

Since 1975, Khaled Bentounès worked patiently to this revival of Sufism. "I became a nomad," he says, one foot in France (where he created the Muslim Scouts of France) and the other in the world "to encourage peace initiatives."

Now 60, Khaled Bentounès is also wise. And he hands the keys to the divine mystery, which is, he says, "the love of others".

And he remembers the last words of his father: "Be patient and invite to patience. What seems bitter to you now, it may be sweet tomorrow."

Picture: Shaykh Khaled Bentounès at his property in Bar-sur-Loup, an ancient farm scented with lavender and kiwi, located a few miles from Grasse, Alpes-Maritimes, France. Photo: Ouest-France.

Links:
Association internationale soufie Alawiyya

Le soufisme du maître marocain Sidi Hamza (also in English, Italian, Spanish, Arabic etc.)

La revue du Soufisme en Orient et en Occident

[About Shaykh Ahmad al-Alawi, in English:
Martin Lings (Abu Bakr Siraj ad-Din)
A Sufi Saint Of The Twentieth Century
Suhail Academy, Lahore, Pakistan]