Sufis say Islamists in Egypt could squeeze out their traditions

 

Sufis say Islamists in Egypt could squeeze out their traditions

Al Arabiya News 29 August 2012 By SHAIMAA FAYED AND ABDEL RAHMAN YOUSSEF
REUTERS CAIRO AND ALEXANDRIA

Down the narrow alleyways of Cairo’s Sayidda Zeinab neighborhood, 100 men sway their heads and clap in rhythm as they invoke God’s name.
“O how you have spread benevolence,” chant the men, some dressed in ankle-length galabeya robes, to celebrate the birth of Fatima al-Zahraa, the daughter of the Prophet Mohammed. The men are followers of the centuries-old Azaimiya Sufi order who seek to come closer to God through mystical rites. Some say their traditions are now threatened by Islamists elbowing for influence after the overthrow of Egypt’s veteran leader Hosni Mubarak. Tensions have long rumbled between the country’s estimated 15 million Sufis, attached to some 80 different orders, and ultra-conservative Salafists who see Sufi practices such as the veneration of shrines as heresy. The ousting of President Mubarak in February has loosened state control over Islamist groups that he suppressed using an emergency law in place since 1980. As Sufis seek to defend traditions dating back centuries, what began as a loose religious identity could be gelling, gradually, into a political movement. “If the Sufis stood side by side, they could be an important voting bloc ... but their political and organizational power is less than their numerical power,” said political analyst Nabil Abdel Fattah. Alaa Abul Azaim, sheikh of the Azaimiya Sufi order, says moves by Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and Salafi groups to enter formal politics endanger religious tolerance and oblige Sufis to do the same. “If the Salafists or Muslim Brotherhood rise to power, they could well cancel the Sufi sheikhdom, so there has to be a party for Sufis,” Abul Azaim said. Shrines dedicated to saints are central to Sufi practice and can be found in towns and villages across Egypt, but they are frowned upon by Salafists. Many are built inside mosques and contain the tombs of saints. They are often highly decorated, using wood and mother-of-pearl. Some religious conservatives also dislike Sufi moulids -- festivals celebrating the birthdays of saints that have become carnival-like events popular even among non-Sufis in Egypt. Moulid music has found its way into pop culture, such as the well-known puppet operetta “El Leila El Kebira” (The Big Night).
Fears for the future of Sufi traditions were underlined in April, when two dozen Islamists wielding crowbars and sledgehammers tried to smash a shrine used by Sufis in the town of Qalyoub north of Cairo. Their plan failed when residents rallied to defend the site revered for generations.

Salafist leaders denied their followers were behind the shrine attack and condemned it, while making it clear that they oppose the shrines. “The Salafi call does not reject Sufism,” said Sheikh Abdel Moneim el-Shahat, official spokesperson for the Salafi movement in Alexandria. “We reject (the practice of) receiving blessings from tombs and shrines because it is against Sharia law.” He said Salafis believe religious blessings can only be sought from the Black Stone of the Kaaba in the Saudi city of Mecca. Millions of Muslims circle the stone during the Hajj pilgrimage. Egypt’s constitution forbids political parties formed on overtly religious lines. That has not stopped Salafist groups such as al-Gama’a al-Islamiya and the once-banned Muslim Brotherhood moving to create parties to compete in September elections. No overtly Sufi party has emerged -- adepts of Sufism, with their emphasis on personal development and inner purification, have till now seen little sense in forming a political movement. But one nascent party, al-Tahrir (Liberation), has pledged to defend their interests and, by doing so, has built most of its membership from among the Sufi community. “There is no doubt that the (Islamist) flood that’s coming ... scares them,” said the party’s founder Ibrahim Zahran.
Affirmative political action would mark a departure for Egypt’s Sufis, who have tended to submit to the will of Egypt’s political leaders since the 12th century.

“From Sultan Saladin al-Ayubi until Mubarak, Sufism was used by the state to reinforce its legitimacy,” said sociologist Ammar Aly Hassan.

In a sign they are more ready to challenge authority, sheikhs of 13 Sufi orders have staged a sit-in since May 1 calling for the removal of Sheikh Abdel Hadi el-Qasabi, the head of the Sufi Sheikhdom who was appointed by Mubarak in 2009. They say Sheikh Qasabi broke a tradition of ordaining the eldest sheikh to the position and they refuse to have him as their leader as he was a member of President Mubarak’s disbanded National Democratic Party. Many Sufis oppose the idea of an Islamic state promoted by Islamists who take the Iran’s theocracy or the Wahhabi ideology of staunchly conservative Saudi Arabia as a model.
Sufi Sheikh Gaber Kassem of Alexandria criticised the political ambitions of the Muslim Brotherhood and its slogan “Islam is the Solution.”
“This is a devotional matter, a religious call ... so how are they entering politics? Is this hypocrisy?” he said.

Nazareth's Sufis bullied by fellow Muslims

Nazareth's Sufis bullied by fellow Muslims Haaretz  Saturday, August 11, 2012 Av 23, 5772 By Lauren Gelfond Feldinger, Aug.10, 2012

 For decades, the mystical Sufis in Nazareth have celebrated Islam through music and poetry without considering themselves in danger.But nowadays, local Salafis, who practice a more conservative and coercive Islam, bully and beat Sufi leaders to deter them from their practices, Muslim community leaders told Haaretz. "We visit tombs of holy peoples and they say it is forbidden; we chant and they say it is forbidden to use instruments; I say there should be dialogue with Israelis and Jews because the prophet Muhammed received delegations of Jewish tribes," but Salafis object, said Nazareth Sheikh Ghassan Menasra, 44, a leader of the Qadiri Sufi Order of the Holy Land.

Menasra says he and two of his five sons have been beaten in Nazareth and Jerusalem and his wife, an Islamic educator for women, was pushed. Shaken by threats and having tear gas thrown into his home, he spent two weeks in meditation to avoid the fate of Jerusalem Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bukhari, who suffered similar attacks and died of a heart attack in 2010 at age 61.

Such incidents may reflect a growing regional trend of clashes between progressive Muslims and their more fundamentalist brethren. Egyptian Salafis have razed Sufi shrines, Tunisian Salafis injured dozens in riots over work of art and political analysts blame Salafi Jihadis for the bloodshed in Syria.

There are thousands of Sufi supporters who worship in their homes or houses of prayer in Israel.Abdullah Shama

But Salafis and Sufis are both tiny minorities here, with Salafi activity funded by countries like Saudi Arabia, Menasra says. According to research by Middle East expert professor Khaled Hroub of Cambridge University, the small Palestinian Salafi element includes violent radicals whose interpretation of Islam is linked to Saudi Wahabism, but most are nonviolent moderates focused on conservative social and religious programs.

Sufis are famed as whirling dervishes, but the Nazareth Sufis do not practice this tradition. They observe Islamic law, but also include reverent prayers, chanting (zikr), instruments and poetry in their worship. They are often compared to Jewish Kabbalists. The greatest jihad of Islam, according to the Qadiri order that Menasra and his father Abdel-al Salaam head, is overcoming ego, hatred and violent speech and behavior. 

Critics condemn them as "heretics" for their practices, which also include having women teach Islam.

They particularly attack them as "collaborators" for associating with Jews. Menasra is involved with numerous interfaith programs, joins rabbis for meetings with international political leaders and performs Sufi chants with Jewish musicians such as Yair Dalal. Menasra argues that interfaith cooperation was the Prophet Mohammad's way and later was the tradition of Muslim and Jewish mystics in Medieval Cairo, Baghdad, Damascus and Morocco. Interacting with other faiths also helps Arabs, he said.

"We need to talk [with Jews] about the problems of Arab rights in Israel and Palestinian rights," he said. "Muslims can also teach Jews the cultural codes of peacemaking in Islam – politics alone cannot build trust."

The threats started a decade ago, after 10 Nazareth Sufis reached out to other Muslims, teaching "moderate Islam" through op-eds and classes on Islamic text and tradition, led by Menasra, who holds a master's degree in Middle Eastern and Islamic studies, a bachelor's degree in Arabic literature, a teaching certificate in Islamic family law and ordination as a sheikh by the renowned Jerusalem Sheikh Baghdadi.

As they gained followers and began including Jewish communities, threats turned to violence.

Anat Lev-Or of Central Israel, a Jewish teacher of Sufi and Jewish philosophy, says two years ago she witnessed a mob beat Menasra's teenage son, while he shielded his younger brother.

Imam Mahmoud Abukhdeir, spiritual leader of an east Jerusalem mosque, condemned Salafi violence in Nazareth and Jerusalem.

"To many Muslims, the Sufi way is not acceptable, but in Islamic law, such violence is forbidden," he said. "Salafis are against many groups, not just Sufis. They beat everyone--they think they are the only real Muslims."

It is not clear how widespread the Sufi-Salafi conflict is in Israel, because Sufis say they would not report Salafi leaders to the police or Higher Arab Council for fear of retribution. Despite repeated inquiries, Haaretz was unable to locate a Salafi leader to respond. The Salafi movement in Israel is not centralized, but Itzhak Weismann, a professor and Sufi expert at Haifa University, says most Islamist movements subscribe to Salafi principles and consider Sufis "deviators from Islam."

But he noted, "Sufism is based on Islamic texts and tradition. Sufis are part of Islam since the beginning."

"We will not stop"

Scholars date Sufis in the Holy Land to eighth-century Ramle and Jerusalem, with centers developing later in Safed and Hebron. Jerusalem was always an important site of pilgrimage, and several dozen Sufi shrines and graves remain in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Today in Israel there are a few hundred Sufi disciples and thousands of supporters who worship in their homes or houses of prayer, primarily in Jerusalem, Nazareth, Acre, Umm al-Fahm and Baqa al-Gharbiyye.

Sufism, with its many orders and varying customs, is not widespread in Israel because of the exile of Muslim leaders after the 1948 war, Weismann says.

"Since 1967, when communications resumed between Muslims in Israel with relatives in West Bank and Gaza, there was a renewal," he said.

In Nazareth, Sufis face not only the threat of extremists, but also difficult living conditions because of government prejudice against development in Arab neighborhoods, said Sufi teacher Khalid Abu Ras. Israel's largest Arab city, with nearly 74,000 residents – 69.5 percent of which are Muslim – is plagued by unemployment, overcrowding, lack of green spaces and, says Abu Ras, inadequate municipal services.

Despite struggles with poverty, threats and violence, the Sufis of Nazareth say that they will carry on as usual.

On a recent evening, twenty family and community members gathered in the Menasra home to break the Ramadan fast. After dinner, the older son played classical Egyptian oud, including works from Umm Kulthum and Mohamed Abdel Wahab. The elder community members chanted traditional songs about the prophet Mohammad. An infant moved with his arms to the music and a grandfather beat an oversized tambourine. The elder Menasra, wearing a traditional tunic and head covering, danced slowly into the inner circle, extending his arms to bless the guests.

Days later, on the Jewish day of mourning Tisha B'Av, several of Menasra's Jewish colleagues who were also fasting joined his family to break the fast.

"Our activity does not make us weaker -- it makes us strong," Menasra said.

There are three kinds of religious people, he explained, quoting Rabia al-Adawiya, a female Sufi saint: "Slaves who worship through fear, merchants who worship for profit and free people who worship through love – this is the way," he said. "The radicals think that they need to stop us in any way, but we will not stop."

Sufi Love, a Journey to the Divine

By Loubna Flah, Morocco World News, Casablanca June 25, 2012

It is not easy for the believer to grasp the concept of “wholeness” in Islam. The Islamic creed remains at the centre of every Muslim’s heart , regardless of their piety, not because Muslims choose to make of it a priority but mainly because it is designed to permeates all aspects of life. In some instances, Islam stands frank and dauntless. In other occasions it slides towards the heart of the believer like a rampant celestial light yet subtle and ethereal.

It is unfortunate that the adherence to the Islamic faith has become for many a mechanistic and soulless process. The slow metamorphosis towards this religious callousness among Muslims did not happen overnight. Besides, it is of no use to blame history, society, the economic order, for religion can be a binding factor for large communities, yet its foundations are purely individual, since religiosity pertains more to the believer’s choices.

Yet, we must admit that the mainstream perception about Islam nowadays is either overpowered by negative narratives promoted by westerners or radical secularists or totally distorted by the hard line Islamists who consider Islam as a mere balance sheet with two columns of deeds and misdeeds disregarding the fact that Islam is a journey , that everyone embarks on its own venture , and that the ways to “God” are so numerous.

In her book “Love in Muslim Countries” Fatima Mernissi deplores the decline of “love” in modern Muslim societies despite a miscellaneous historic legacy of love sagas rich in manifestations and in words. In her survey of Muslim lovers’ itinerary, Fatima Mernissi does not miss the conjecture with the Sufis, “The greatest lovers” of all times. Mernissi wonders why Muslims are not taught the art of love through the spectacles of those Sufis who lived in the margins of society buzz, who even risked their life for God’s sake.

In the information age and with the overdose of pragmatism and utilitarianism pumped into our veins, these refined feelings and uplifting journeys seem highly utopian and even look irrelevant to us. In addition, the journey back to the essence of divine love is not a sine qua none to the affiliation to Islam. It is only a path among a ramification of lanes that leads the believer to the safe shores of faith.

Once upon the time, there was a young man who was totally desperate and immersed in worldly concerns. While he was sitting on a bench engrossed in his thoughts, he was approached by an old man whose jilbab, hat and white beard mirrored piety and wisdom. The old man cast a quick glance at his neighbor and said “Are you fine my son?” The young man replied automatically’ it’s Ok, just some problems to solve”. The old man turned to him with a smirk on his face and said” Then why don’t you turn to your beloved, pointing his finger at the blue firmament”.

Abashed, the young man asked “beloved, Allah? How can Allah be a “beloved? To my knowledge, the beloved is someone you can talk to, someone you look at in the eyes and someone you can tenderly touch”.

You may wait restlessly for the old man’s answer, yet there are many answers to that legitimate question. There are many possibilities, and copious versions to the journey towards the creator. Between the passionate Sufis who sought the unification with the beloved through meditation and Zikr to those who secluded themselves in remote taverns in fear of temptation and distraction and those who relished the feeling of death in their life mumbling “ My death is to remain alive. My life is to die”, the divine love seekers have many examples, not to follow literally but to guide them in their pursuit of wholeness.

If Sufism revolves around the love of “God” then we are all Sufis at some point or another. Women and Men’s genius lies within their ability to adjust. In the effort of adjustment comes novelty and with novelty comes innovation. The will and effort to refine one’s beliefs is by no mean mandatory, yet the adventure is highly gratifying for those who dare.

© 2012 Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved