By Candra Malik, *Sufism Whirls Into Hearts of Indonesian Muslims* - Jakarta Globe - Jakarta, IndonesiaSunday, August 22, 2010
Muhammad Revaldi, a professional photographer, was in his 20s when he realized that his spiritual needs were not being fulfilled by the regular sermons delivered by the clerics at his mosque.
“[Mosque preachers] are quick to point fingers at injustice and wrongdoings by people of different faiths,” said Revaldi, now 33. “I frequently heard them call people of different faiths apostates or infidels, [and] that we, the Muslims, must bring them back to the Islamic way of life by any means,” he said.
This kind of preaching by narrow-minded religious leaders, Revaldi said, is why violence carried out in the name of Islam is widespread.
Troubled and searching for peace of mind, he went from mosque to mosque, mostly in Jakarta and neighboring cities, listening to different imams and preachers to see if any of them could answer his questions regarding faith. “I also engaged in discussions with Islamic teachers and friends about my restlessness in living the Islamic way,” he said. At one point he decided to stop looking and just practice his religion as he was always told, following its dos and don’ts.
But in 1999, a chance invitation to meet a visiting spiritual leader from the United States became a turning point in Revaldi’s life. Without no expectations he dropped by the home of a Muslim scholar in Cawang, East Jakarta. There he met Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Kabbani, one of the world’s most revered Sufis.
Sufism is a path of Islam that is heavily tied to mysticism, humility and asceticism, and can involve practices such as singing, meditation and ecstatic dancing in its adherents’ quest to become closer to God.
The form of worship, often described as the internalization of Islam, began in South Asia roughly 1,000 years ago. It has since spread around the world, adopted by those attracted to its moderate teachings and message of acceptance and tolerance for people of different faiths.
After speaking with Kabbani, Revaldi was convinced. He took an oath and became a member of the Naqshbandi-Haqqani Sufi order, one of many orders around the world. “I held the Shaykh’s hand when I was told to recite the syahadat [Muslim declaration of belief in Allah as the one true God]. That’s all it took,” he said.
“Since then I have furthered my study of Islam and devoted myself as a Sufi.” “[Kabbani] said he never refused anyone who came to him to study Islam,” Revaldi said. “He was of the belief that there was always divine intervention in any meeting between people. I could feel something was about to change after our meeting. I believed what he said and I was able to make sense out of it.”
He was especially drawn to Sufism’s tolerance and respect for other beliefs. “We are not told to spread the teachings, but we are obliged to practice them in our daily lives. Respecting nature and people regardless of what they believe in are just among the teachings,” he said.
Revaldi is just one of hundreds of thousands of Muslims in Indonesia who have joined the Sufi order, which was established and opened to the public here in 2000.
In an interview with the Jakarta Globe during a visit to Jakarta in July, Kabbani said he began his activities in Indonesia in 1997 with only a handful of people. Over the course of a decade, the order has opened branches in five major cities in the country.
Kabbani was born in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1945 to parents who devoted themselves to being dervishes, another name for followers of Sufism. After graduating from the American University of Beirut’s School of Chemistry, Kabbani continued his studies at the University of Leuven in Belgium, earning a medical degree. He also attended Al-Azhar University in Damascus, Syria, to study Islamic law.
Currently living in Fenton, Michigan, with his wife and four children, Kabbani regularly travels around the United States and the world to deliver lectures on Islam. He has also taught classes on the subject at the University of Chicago, Columbia University in New York and McGill and Concordia universities in Canada.
“Wherever I go, I spread the Sufi teachings about the brotherhood of mankind, about belief in God, values that are present in all religions and spiritual paths. I direct my efforts to bring the diverse spectrum of religions and spiritual paths into harmony,” he said.
In short, he said, such harmony can only be achieved through love and compassion for one another. “But everything must come from the individual. If there is no love and compassion inside, how can we expect people to spread it to others?”
Sufi teachings are not only spiritual lessons learned through discussion and prayer, but they also seek to place the body and mind in harmony through physical movement such as dance. In the Naqshbandi-Haqqani order, the signature teaching device is the use of the dance of the whirling dervish. The dance was first introduced by Jalaludin Rumi, a legendary Persian Sufi and poet who lived from 1207 to 1273.
“The dance contains within it a spiritual concept. It is an intuitive method to guide each individual, opening his mind to meet his Creator,” Kabbani said.
He likened the movement of the body during the dance to electrons spinning around the earth.
“The whirling dance moves counterclockwise. It is like returning to nature to be reborn as a lover,” he said.
The spinning dance, according to Kabbani, is part of the sema , a ceremony designed to induce religious ecstasy so one can listen to the sound of the universe. In 2007 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization declared Rumi’s creation as one of the world’s cultural heritages.
It takes about four months of strictly regimented daily practice before a Sufi can skillfully perform the dance. “Of course, it gave us headaches at first. That’s the ego that must be defeated. By remembering that we spin solely to glorify our Creator, and bear that in mind, then it comes naturally — no headache,” said Syahdan Hutabarat, a member of the Rabbani Sufi Institute in Cinere, Depok.
The institute operates under the auspices of the Naqshbandi-Haqqani order. “Two times a week we dance it in the middle of a dhikr [prayer] gathering,” said Syahdan, who joined the order three years ago. Now a lawyer at the Aqwa Mulya Partnership in South Jakarta, Syahdan said that before he joined the order he was “such a bully who liked to settle problems with muscle and swear words.”
“I left all that behind and now I can see everything with a clear head and eyes,” he said, laughing.
Iman Suyoto, an analyst programmer, joined the Sufi order in Jakarta before moving to Australia in 2002 to be a lecturer at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
“I was fascinated by the description of Islam by [Kabbani] in his book ‘Angels Unveiled.’ It somehow moved me to join and become a dervish,” he said.
His study and practice of Sufism also aided in his musical compositions, Iman said. He has since released an album, titled “Vision,” which is a blend of jazz and classical music. “My music is best for meditation.” Iman said that before he joined the Sufi order, he found the Islamic guidance he received at school, in the mosque and from his family to be frightening because it was filled with threats and punishments if one did not follow the rules. Embracing Sufism is “a decision I will never regret,” said Iman, still an active dervish in Melbourne.
Revaldi is still active in the religion. During the day he looks like any other young Jakartan in jeans and a T-shirt, but he trades them for a long robe and turban when he attends Sufi gatherings.
He said his religion had remained largely a personal matter that never spilled over into his professional life. “I have clients to serve and they know me only as a photographer. I never try to persuade them to follow what I believe,” Revaldi said.
“What you believe is your right as an individual. Religion is a private matter.”
Picture: Sufi whirling dervishes taking part in a sema ceremony in Indonesia as a means of getting closer to God. Photo: JG/Candra Malik.
Muhammad Revaldi, a professional photographer, was in his 20s when he realized that his spiritual needs were not being fulfilled by the regular sermons delivered by the clerics at his mosque.
“[Mosque preachers] are quick to point fingers at injustice and wrongdoings by people of different faiths,” said Revaldi, now 33. “I frequently heard them call people of different faiths apostates or infidels, [and] that we, the Muslims, must bring them back to the Islamic way of life by any means,” he said.
This kind of preaching by narrow-minded religious leaders, Revaldi said, is why violence carried out in the name of Islam is widespread.
Troubled and searching for peace of mind, he went from mosque to mosque, mostly in Jakarta and neighboring cities, listening to different imams and preachers to see if any of them could answer his questions regarding faith. “I also engaged in discussions with Islamic teachers and friends about my restlessness in living the Islamic way,” he said. At one point he decided to stop looking and just practice his religion as he was always told, following its dos and don’ts.
But in 1999, a chance invitation to meet a visiting spiritual leader from the United States became a turning point in Revaldi’s life. Without no expectations he dropped by the home of a Muslim scholar in Cawang, East Jakarta. There he met Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Kabbani, one of the world’s most revered Sufis.
Sufism is a path of Islam that is heavily tied to mysticism, humility and asceticism, and can involve practices such as singing, meditation and ecstatic dancing in its adherents’ quest to become closer to God.
The form of worship, often described as the internalization of Islam, began in South Asia roughly 1,000 years ago. It has since spread around the world, adopted by those attracted to its moderate teachings and message of acceptance and tolerance for people of different faiths.
After speaking with Kabbani, Revaldi was convinced. He took an oath and became a member of the Naqshbandi-Haqqani Sufi order, one of many orders around the world. “I held the Shaykh’s hand when I was told to recite the syahadat [Muslim declaration of belief in Allah as the one true God]. That’s all it took,” he said.
“Since then I have furthered my study of Islam and devoted myself as a Sufi.” “[Kabbani] said he never refused anyone who came to him to study Islam,” Revaldi said. “He was of the belief that there was always divine intervention in any meeting between people. I could feel something was about to change after our meeting. I believed what he said and I was able to make sense out of it.”
He was especially drawn to Sufism’s tolerance and respect for other beliefs. “We are not told to spread the teachings, but we are obliged to practice them in our daily lives. Respecting nature and people regardless of what they believe in are just among the teachings,” he said.
Revaldi is just one of hundreds of thousands of Muslims in Indonesia who have joined the Sufi order, which was established and opened to the public here in 2000.
In an interview with the Jakarta Globe during a visit to Jakarta in July, Kabbani said he began his activities in Indonesia in 1997 with only a handful of people. Over the course of a decade, the order has opened branches in five major cities in the country.
Kabbani was born in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1945 to parents who devoted themselves to being dervishes, another name for followers of Sufism. After graduating from the American University of Beirut’s School of Chemistry, Kabbani continued his studies at the University of Leuven in Belgium, earning a medical degree. He also attended Al-Azhar University in Damascus, Syria, to study Islamic law.
Currently living in Fenton, Michigan, with his wife and four children, Kabbani regularly travels around the United States and the world to deliver lectures on Islam. He has also taught classes on the subject at the University of Chicago, Columbia University in New York and McGill and Concordia universities in Canada.
“Wherever I go, I spread the Sufi teachings about the brotherhood of mankind, about belief in God, values that are present in all religions and spiritual paths. I direct my efforts to bring the diverse spectrum of religions and spiritual paths into harmony,” he said.
In short, he said, such harmony can only be achieved through love and compassion for one another. “But everything must come from the individual. If there is no love and compassion inside, how can we expect people to spread it to others?”
Sufi teachings are not only spiritual lessons learned through discussion and prayer, but they also seek to place the body and mind in harmony through physical movement such as dance. In the Naqshbandi-Haqqani order, the signature teaching device is the use of the dance of the whirling dervish. The dance was first introduced by Jalaludin Rumi, a legendary Persian Sufi and poet who lived from 1207 to 1273.
“The dance contains within it a spiritual concept. It is an intuitive method to guide each individual, opening his mind to meet his Creator,” Kabbani said.
He likened the movement of the body during the dance to electrons spinning around the earth.
“The whirling dance moves counterclockwise. It is like returning to nature to be reborn as a lover,” he said.
The spinning dance, according to Kabbani, is part of the sema , a ceremony designed to induce religious ecstasy so one can listen to the sound of the universe. In 2007 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization declared Rumi’s creation as one of the world’s cultural heritages.
It takes about four months of strictly regimented daily practice before a Sufi can skillfully perform the dance. “Of course, it gave us headaches at first. That’s the ego that must be defeated. By remembering that we spin solely to glorify our Creator, and bear that in mind, then it comes naturally — no headache,” said Syahdan Hutabarat, a member of the Rabbani Sufi Institute in Cinere, Depok.
The institute operates under the auspices of the Naqshbandi-Haqqani order. “Two times a week we dance it in the middle of a dhikr [prayer] gathering,” said Syahdan, who joined the order three years ago. Now a lawyer at the Aqwa Mulya Partnership in South Jakarta, Syahdan said that before he joined the order he was “such a bully who liked to settle problems with muscle and swear words.”
“I left all that behind and now I can see everything with a clear head and eyes,” he said, laughing.
Iman Suyoto, an analyst programmer, joined the Sufi order in Jakarta before moving to Australia in 2002 to be a lecturer at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
“I was fascinated by the description of Islam by [Kabbani] in his book ‘Angels Unveiled.’ It somehow moved me to join and become a dervish,” he said.
His study and practice of Sufism also aided in his musical compositions, Iman said. He has since released an album, titled “Vision,” which is a blend of jazz and classical music. “My music is best for meditation.” Iman said that before he joined the Sufi order, he found the Islamic guidance he received at school, in the mosque and from his family to be frightening because it was filled with threats and punishments if one did not follow the rules. Embracing Sufism is “a decision I will never regret,” said Iman, still an active dervish in Melbourne.
Revaldi is still active in the religion. During the day he looks like any other young Jakartan in jeans and a T-shirt, but he trades them for a long robe and turban when he attends Sufi gatherings.
He said his religion had remained largely a personal matter that never spilled over into his professional life. “I have clients to serve and they know me only as a photographer. I never try to persuade them to follow what I believe,” Revaldi said.
“What you believe is your right as an individual. Religion is a private matter.”
Picture: Sufi whirling dervishes taking part in a sema ceremony in Indonesia as a means of getting closer to God. Photo: JG/Candra Malik.
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