By Khurram Saeed - The Journal News - Westchester, NY, U.S.A.
Monday, May 8, 2006
During the Cold War, Richard Deats led peace delegations to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe to let ordinary people speak for themselves, instead of governments.
Now Deats is at it again.
The Nyack man will be part of a delegation leaving today for Iran sponsored by the Fellowship of Reconciliation. FOR is an Upper Nyack-based interfaith pacifist organization and Deats is the former editor of its Fellowship magazine.
"We believe in what we call people-to-people diplomacy," Deats said. "You know, when Eisenhower was president, he said, 'The people of the world want peace so much that some day the governments are going to have get out of the way and let them have it.' "
This will be FOR's second peace mission to Iran in six months. It comes at a time when tensions between the leaders of the United States and Iran are rising over Iran's nuclear power program. President Bush has threatened military action and economic sanctions, but Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has refused to back down.
"What we need right now is to defuse the hostile rhetoric," said Deats, a Methodist minister.
Deats will be joined by 23 others for the 12-day stay in Iran. They include a leaders of various Christian denominations, an expert of Sufism, an art professor from Philadelphia, a Middle East professor and graduate students.
Hossein Alizadeh, who heads FOR's Iran Initiative, said securing passage for the travelers wasn't easy. Some in Iran, an Islamic theocracy, are suspicious of Americans entering their country and influencing their citizens, he said.
But visas were issued, and the delegation plans to meet with Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Zoroastrian leaders, college students, journalists and nongovernment organizations, including one that serves women and another that focuses on the environment.
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Concert with Molana lyrics
Iran-Music-US - IRNA, Islamic Republic News Agency
Sunday, May 7, 2006
The US Petersburg Symphonic Orchestra will, for the first time, perform a concert with lyrics composed of works of a renowned Iranian poet on May 12-14.
According to the English-language 'Iran Daily', the concert, with lyrics composed of works of the prominent Iranian mystic and poet Molana Jalaleddin Rumi is to be held in Pennsylvania.
The concert titled 'Essence of Love' was composed by a distinguished Iranian composer Reza Vaali who is a music instructor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania.
Vaali was a graduate from Tehran's Academy of Music when he moved to Austria in 1972 and succeeded to receive his PhD in theoretical music and composition from Petersburg University in 1985.
He composed 'Essence of Love' in form of five alternative songs based on Molana's poems.
Molana Jalaleddin Mohammad Rumi, is a 13th century Persian poet, jurist, theologian and teacher of Sufism. (1207-1273 CE), whose works are translated in many languages.
The concert, which will be held in Heinz Hall in the center of Petersburg, is expected to be a hit among the Americans in view of the universal fame of Molana in poetry and mysticism as well as Vaali's erudition in music.
An online poetry contest is also organized by the orchestra for those who buy tickets of the event.
The objective of the contest is to honor the great Iranian poet whose poems are at the core of the event, it said.
Sunday, May 7, 2006
The US Petersburg Symphonic Orchestra will, for the first time, perform a concert with lyrics composed of works of a renowned Iranian poet on May 12-14.
According to the English-language 'Iran Daily', the concert, with lyrics composed of works of the prominent Iranian mystic and poet Molana Jalaleddin Rumi is to be held in Pennsylvania.
The concert titled 'Essence of Love' was composed by a distinguished Iranian composer Reza Vaali who is a music instructor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania.
Vaali was a graduate from Tehran's Academy of Music when he moved to Austria in 1972 and succeeded to receive his PhD in theoretical music and composition from Petersburg University in 1985.
He composed 'Essence of Love' in form of five alternative songs based on Molana's poems.
Molana Jalaleddin Mohammad Rumi, is a 13th century Persian poet, jurist, theologian and teacher of Sufism. (1207-1273 CE), whose works are translated in many languages.
The concert, which will be held in Heinz Hall in the center of Petersburg, is expected to be a hit among the Americans in view of the universal fame of Molana in poetry and mysticism as well as Vaali's erudition in music.
An online poetry contest is also organized by the orchestra for those who buy tickets of the event.
The objective of the contest is to honor the great Iranian poet whose poems are at the core of the event, it said.
Mimetic Warfare: "Gnosticism" and "Traditionalism" as Weapons of Disinformation
By br Dr. Robert Dickson Crane - TAM The American Muslim
Sunday, May 7, 2006
Almost two thousand years ago, the entire known world, i.e., from India to Morocco, was convulsed with so-called Christian heresies. Allegedly the most vicious of them all was known in Rome and Constantinople as “gnosticism,” which taught that each individual person has access to God without going through mediation and redemption by Jesus Christ.
Many centuries later, in the 18th century after Christ a movement arose in England known eventually as philosophical “traditionalism” and in its political expression as Whigism. Its roots go back to the Glorious Revolution of 1688, when William of Orange and his wife, Mary, crossed the narrow seas between France and England to eliminate the English King Charles II and his alleged efforts to reimpose Vatican rule. It blossomed throughout the 18th century as the “Scottish Enlightenment” and laid the philosophical foundation toward the end of the century for the American Revolution and the American Constitution. The Scottish Enlightenment was the opposite of the European Enightenment because it served to revive a dying tradition of enlightened religion in human affairs rather than to introduce “enlightened” rational thought as a means to destroy the role of all religion in public life.
These two movements in the history of Western thought, so-called gnosticism and so-called traditionalism, are again being revived variously to attack Islam and to revive awareness of its contribution to Western civilization. Oddly, the ancient form of demonization known as “gnosticism” is being revived by “Paleo-Conservatives,” also known as self-proclaimed “modern traditionalists,” in their efforts to combat both Islam and Neo-Conservatism as the two twenty-first-century threats to order, justice, and liberty.
This complex phenomenon was raised but not addressed in a colloquium on The Nature of Evil published in the April, 2005, edition of the online journal, The American Muslim. This colloquium, in turn, triggered some emotional discussion of probably the best presentation of Islamic traditionalism ever drafted. This presentation, drafted by Shaykh Rashid al Ghanouchi, head of the illegal Nahda party in Tunisia, and others who no longer wish to be identified, is known as the platform of the Halaqa al Asala wa Taqadun (Circle of Tradition and Progress). The complete text is available on pages 79-81 in the chapter entitled “Ecumenical Justice Versus the Pagan Empire,” in my monograph, The Grand Strategy of Justice, Islamic Institute for Strategic Studies, Policy Paper No. 5, April 2000, P.O. Box 303, Washington, Virginia 22747.
This statement referred to the two giants of traditionalist thought, Edmund Burke and Russell Kirk, but included also Eric Voegelin and Gerhart Niemeyer as examples of traditionalist thinkers. This raised a highly controversial issue, because Voegelin is the most articulate modern thinker who condemns Gnosticism as the greatest threat to traditionalist thought. Whereas the traditionalist, Robert Strausz-Hupe, who is erroneously claimed by Daniel Pipes and other Neo-Cons as their original mentor, regarded Islam more than half a century ago as possibly America’s greatest ally against totalitarian systems, more recently key intellectuals are condemning Islam in the world today as the re-emergence of the deadly Gnostic pandemic.
In my follow-up emails to the colloquium on The Nature of Evil, I called attention to articles published in the Winter 2005 issue of Modern Age, which has been the intellectual mainstay of traditionalist thought in America ever since Russell Kirk founded it in 1957. Two articles attempt to turn gnosticism into a stalking horse as the opposite of traditionalism, when, in fact, gnosticism as I understand it is quite compatible with traditionalism and in many ways synonymous with it. These two are Michael Henry’s “Civil Theology in the Gnostic Age: Progress and Regress,” and R. V. Young’s “Harold Bloom: the Critic as Gnostic.”
My own writings on gnosticism have evolved over the decades, ever since I wrote a dissertation at Northwestern University in 1955-1956, entitled, The Political Origins of Heresy in the First Six Christian Centuries. My writings thirty and more years ago ascribed the secular utopias of Communism, Nazism, and Apocalyptic Zionism to a gnostic concept of human perfectability and to the resultant rationale for creating perfection through social engineering on earth. Further study, however, suggested to me that this negative view of Gonosticism is a direct descendent of the third-century and fourth-century efforts of Christian orthodox theologians to demonize those who denied the divinity of Christ. The charge was that these people believed salvation can come from direct knowledge of God and submission to God rather than only from joining the vicarious atonement of Jesus for one’s sins. The related charge was that such heretics deny original sin and therefore are vulnerable to utopian dreams of perfecting the material world through their own intellect rather than perfecting themselves through the grace of God.
The first charge about the direct relationship between the human person and the transcendent God is no doubt true, but the second charge of triumphalist utopianism does not accord with my understanding of gnosticism. Gnosticism in history accords with what we now call Sufism, and Sufis would be the last to reject transcendence in favor of immanence and to seek the City of God on earth.
Young writes that, “Gnosticism is a religious conspiracy theory ... based on a radical dualism ... that offers salvation on the basis of occult knowledge.” He quotes Han Jonas’ critique of gnosticism: “[In Gnosticism] the deity is absolutely Transmundane, its nature alien to that of the universe, which it neither created nor governs and to which it is the complete antithesis; to the divine realm of light, self-contained and remote, the cosmos is opposed as the realm of darkness. The world is the work of lowly powers which though they may mediately be descended from Him do not know the true God and obstruct knowledge of Him in the cosmos over which they rule.” This charge may be true concerning extremist elements in both Muslim Sufism and in the more generic phenomenon of Gnosticism, but it is totally off base in describing their classical expressions.
The evil nature of using the Gnostic analogy to demonize Islam is most strikingly brought out, as I have discussed it in many of my articles, in the assertion by Richard John Neuhaus, editor of the leading Neo-Conservative religious publication, First Things, that Muslims can have no personal relationship with God, that therefore they can have no understanding of human rights, and that accordingly they can not even understand what democracy is all about. This is a standard think-tank trick of taking the core of one’s opponents beliefs, turning them on their head, and then accusing one’s opponent of exactly the opposite of what the opponent actually believes. Such forms of deliberately reversing truth and falsehood are known as diabolism or as the Work of the Anti-Christ (the Messiah al Dajjal)..
The Gnostic disease that has caused evil in the modern world, according to anti-Islamic traditionalists (which should be recognized as an oxymoron), consists in rejecting St. Augustine’s emphasis on personal sin separating the person from God and repentance through the help of divine grace. Instead, says Young, “The Gnostics’ teaching places the origin of evil, of pain and suffering, in the conditions of the material creation; salvation involves overcoming ignorance and escaping these external conditions by finding divinity within.”
Young castigates Gnosticism further as follows: “The Gnostic finds the beginning of the path to salvation in the realization that the world is a great imposture, a prison of pain and frustration. His escape lies in recovering the intrinsic good within himself, the principle of
illumination that he shares with other enlightened spirits. ... What makes it possible for the self and God to commune so freely is that the self already is of God.” Perhaps Young is confusing panentheism with pantheism, i.e., the belief that the transcendent God is in the immanent universe with the belief that the universe is God and that nothing is transcendent.
He continues, “The ancient Gnostics, Sigmund Freud, and Harold Bloom all share a loathing of the Christian vision of reality, which sees mankind’s willful disobedience and fallen nature as the principal source of his misery and of the evil in a world created good. ... The alternative is the Gnostic and Freudian view, ... [whereby] our hope lies not in acknowledging and submitting to the moral reality of our situation, but in overcoming or even transforming it.” He then goes on to his paradigm-forming conclusion about the evils of the modern world: “Marxism is a good example of the similarity between Gnosticism and many modern ideologies.”
The impact on political thought of Gnosticism recreated as a bugbear of conservatism, is discussed in the second article, “Civil Theology in the Gnostic Age,” by Michael Henry, who teaches philosophy at St. John’s University in New York (not the St. John’s in Annapolis and Santa Fe) and is series editor of the Library of Conservative Thought of Transaction Publishers. He defines Gnosticism as “a somewhat deformed version of Christianity that seeks immanent salvation through human action in a redivinized world in which humanity is the locus of the divine.”
Henry then develops his well-based traditionalist critique of Neo-Conservatives, whose mission to perfect the world represents a “re-irruption” of Gnosticism in the concept of “enlightened liberty [consisting in] an emphasis on personal gratification and the isolation of individual desires rather than the community of shared participation in transcendence. Americans came to see themselves as the saviors of the world through their achievement of the most rational order that maximizes individual freedom and earthly happiness ... guaranteeing earthly happiness through democracy.”
He then writes, quite soundly in reference to Neo-Conservatism but quite erroneously in reference to Gnosticism, that, “As Voegelin has pointed out, positivism is another variety of Gnosticism through its reduction of reality to the immanent. ... If the public philosophy means that liberty is the possession of rights determined by the citizens’ preferences, then order is merely the absence of chaos but has no positive content or meaning. ... Having no substantial truth in itself [democracy] worships freedom, which means that it appeals to relativism and the related skepticism - which is quite the opposite of Voegelin’s characterization of the nature of man as ‘openness to transcendence’.”
Since the term “Gnosticism” is central to the apologetics of American traditionalist savants, we, as traditionalists from the Islamic tradition, should address what we have in common with the Christian traditionalists. This does not include the demonization of Gnosticism, which suggests that we need to use other terms that have less historical baggage.
Rather than throwing the baby out with the bathwater, perhaps we should change the bathtub. Whether we call the paradigm liberalism, conservatism, or neo this or paleo that, is not as important as the content of the terms we are using. I abandoned my self-description as conservative a long time ago, because most people who like this term are simply reactionary. Facetiously, I call my self a prolicon, as in lepracon, meaning progressive, liberal, conservative. But actually I am none of those.
Why abandon the term traditionalism merely because it has been hijacked by people who do not understand it and have perverted it into a neo-traditionalism, the way the neo-conservatives have perverted their origins? I have no problem with “classical liberalism,” but only if we understand that classical liberalism is similar to what I call classical traditionalism, which is quite the opposite of modern libertarianism and its opposite, neo-traditionalism.
Libertarianism refuses to recognize any transcendent framework for either human responsibilities or human rights. Classical liberalism, on the other hand, can recognize freedom as both the purpose and product of transcendent justice. The highest goal, however, as propounded throughout the Qur’an, is truth and justice.
The weakness of the so-called traditionalism of Voegelin is that he seems to reject anything similar in any religion other than Christianity, but at the same time rejects Christianity as anything more than an imperfect expression of his own ideas. His followers attack the triumphalism of the Neo-Cons but seem to replace it with their own brand.
Perhaps we need a better word to describe what classical Islam and classical Christianity share. Frithjof Schuon uses the term philosophia perennis, and this has been translated as universal traditionalism because it is the substance of what is traditional, perennial, or enduring in all religions. My suggestion is that we rescue the term traditionalism from those who would hijack it, rather than surrendering to the hijackers.
At a less philosophical level and even more profoundly the battle of the intellectual titans is really about the role of justice in the Plan of Allah. Justice divorced from the “Agenda of Allah” is self-referential and can amount to totalitarian self-worship. Worship of Allah divorced from justice is un-Islamic because it results in the same thing. This, of course, is why the third element of the Shi’i creed is so important, namely, nubuwiya, which serves to provide the wisdom necessary to maintain a mutually reinforcing balance between the first two elements.
All of this, unfortunately, has been totally missing from most Sunni thought for many centuries, which may be why the world of Sunni Islam has been so devastated by Western solypsism. Recovery and renewal are possible only by intra-faith cooperation among Muslims, which should be the basis of inter-faith cooperation with those of other religions who are being hijacked by their own forms of ultra- or neo-conservatism and ultra- or neo-liberalism.
We are engaged in mimetic warfare, which is the use of mimes in the form of words or symbols, to capture the sub-conscious of others without them knowing that they have been hijacked. The first rule of warfare is to know your enemy. The second is to know his strategy. Only then can we know better the nature good and evil.
Sunday, May 7, 2006
Almost two thousand years ago, the entire known world, i.e., from India to Morocco, was convulsed with so-called Christian heresies. Allegedly the most vicious of them all was known in Rome and Constantinople as “gnosticism,” which taught that each individual person has access to God without going through mediation and redemption by Jesus Christ.
Many centuries later, in the 18th century after Christ a movement arose in England known eventually as philosophical “traditionalism” and in its political expression as Whigism. Its roots go back to the Glorious Revolution of 1688, when William of Orange and his wife, Mary, crossed the narrow seas between France and England to eliminate the English King Charles II and his alleged efforts to reimpose Vatican rule. It blossomed throughout the 18th century as the “Scottish Enlightenment” and laid the philosophical foundation toward the end of the century for the American Revolution and the American Constitution. The Scottish Enlightenment was the opposite of the European Enightenment because it served to revive a dying tradition of enlightened religion in human affairs rather than to introduce “enlightened” rational thought as a means to destroy the role of all religion in public life.
These two movements in the history of Western thought, so-called gnosticism and so-called traditionalism, are again being revived variously to attack Islam and to revive awareness of its contribution to Western civilization. Oddly, the ancient form of demonization known as “gnosticism” is being revived by “Paleo-Conservatives,” also known as self-proclaimed “modern traditionalists,” in their efforts to combat both Islam and Neo-Conservatism as the two twenty-first-century threats to order, justice, and liberty.
This complex phenomenon was raised but not addressed in a colloquium on The Nature of Evil published in the April, 2005, edition of the online journal, The American Muslim. This colloquium, in turn, triggered some emotional discussion of probably the best presentation of Islamic traditionalism ever drafted. This presentation, drafted by Shaykh Rashid al Ghanouchi, head of the illegal Nahda party in Tunisia, and others who no longer wish to be identified, is known as the platform of the Halaqa al Asala wa Taqadun (Circle of Tradition and Progress). The complete text is available on pages 79-81 in the chapter entitled “Ecumenical Justice Versus the Pagan Empire,” in my monograph, The Grand Strategy of Justice, Islamic Institute for Strategic Studies, Policy Paper No. 5, April 2000, P.O. Box 303, Washington, Virginia 22747.
This statement referred to the two giants of traditionalist thought, Edmund Burke and Russell Kirk, but included also Eric Voegelin and Gerhart Niemeyer as examples of traditionalist thinkers. This raised a highly controversial issue, because Voegelin is the most articulate modern thinker who condemns Gnosticism as the greatest threat to traditionalist thought. Whereas the traditionalist, Robert Strausz-Hupe, who is erroneously claimed by Daniel Pipes and other Neo-Cons as their original mentor, regarded Islam more than half a century ago as possibly America’s greatest ally against totalitarian systems, more recently key intellectuals are condemning Islam in the world today as the re-emergence of the deadly Gnostic pandemic.
In my follow-up emails to the colloquium on The Nature of Evil, I called attention to articles published in the Winter 2005 issue of Modern Age, which has been the intellectual mainstay of traditionalist thought in America ever since Russell Kirk founded it in 1957. Two articles attempt to turn gnosticism into a stalking horse as the opposite of traditionalism, when, in fact, gnosticism as I understand it is quite compatible with traditionalism and in many ways synonymous with it. These two are Michael Henry’s “Civil Theology in the Gnostic Age: Progress and Regress,” and R. V. Young’s “Harold Bloom: the Critic as Gnostic.”
My own writings on gnosticism have evolved over the decades, ever since I wrote a dissertation at Northwestern University in 1955-1956, entitled, The Political Origins of Heresy in the First Six Christian Centuries. My writings thirty and more years ago ascribed the secular utopias of Communism, Nazism, and Apocalyptic Zionism to a gnostic concept of human perfectability and to the resultant rationale for creating perfection through social engineering on earth. Further study, however, suggested to me that this negative view of Gonosticism is a direct descendent of the third-century and fourth-century efforts of Christian orthodox theologians to demonize those who denied the divinity of Christ. The charge was that these people believed salvation can come from direct knowledge of God and submission to God rather than only from joining the vicarious atonement of Jesus for one’s sins. The related charge was that such heretics deny original sin and therefore are vulnerable to utopian dreams of perfecting the material world through their own intellect rather than perfecting themselves through the grace of God.
The first charge about the direct relationship between the human person and the transcendent God is no doubt true, but the second charge of triumphalist utopianism does not accord with my understanding of gnosticism. Gnosticism in history accords with what we now call Sufism, and Sufis would be the last to reject transcendence in favor of immanence and to seek the City of God on earth.
Young writes that, “Gnosticism is a religious conspiracy theory ... based on a radical dualism ... that offers salvation on the basis of occult knowledge.” He quotes Han Jonas’ critique of gnosticism: “[In Gnosticism] the deity is absolutely Transmundane, its nature alien to that of the universe, which it neither created nor governs and to which it is the complete antithesis; to the divine realm of light, self-contained and remote, the cosmos is opposed as the realm of darkness. The world is the work of lowly powers which though they may mediately be descended from Him do not know the true God and obstruct knowledge of Him in the cosmos over which they rule.” This charge may be true concerning extremist elements in both Muslim Sufism and in the more generic phenomenon of Gnosticism, but it is totally off base in describing their classical expressions.
The evil nature of using the Gnostic analogy to demonize Islam is most strikingly brought out, as I have discussed it in many of my articles, in the assertion by Richard John Neuhaus, editor of the leading Neo-Conservative religious publication, First Things, that Muslims can have no personal relationship with God, that therefore they can have no understanding of human rights, and that accordingly they can not even understand what democracy is all about. This is a standard think-tank trick of taking the core of one’s opponents beliefs, turning them on their head, and then accusing one’s opponent of exactly the opposite of what the opponent actually believes. Such forms of deliberately reversing truth and falsehood are known as diabolism or as the Work of the Anti-Christ (the Messiah al Dajjal)..
The Gnostic disease that has caused evil in the modern world, according to anti-Islamic traditionalists (which should be recognized as an oxymoron), consists in rejecting St. Augustine’s emphasis on personal sin separating the person from God and repentance through the help of divine grace. Instead, says Young, “The Gnostics’ teaching places the origin of evil, of pain and suffering, in the conditions of the material creation; salvation involves overcoming ignorance and escaping these external conditions by finding divinity within.”
Young castigates Gnosticism further as follows: “The Gnostic finds the beginning of the path to salvation in the realization that the world is a great imposture, a prison of pain and frustration. His escape lies in recovering the intrinsic good within himself, the principle of
illumination that he shares with other enlightened spirits. ... What makes it possible for the self and God to commune so freely is that the self already is of God.” Perhaps Young is confusing panentheism with pantheism, i.e., the belief that the transcendent God is in the immanent universe with the belief that the universe is God and that nothing is transcendent.
He continues, “The ancient Gnostics, Sigmund Freud, and Harold Bloom all share a loathing of the Christian vision of reality, which sees mankind’s willful disobedience and fallen nature as the principal source of his misery and of the evil in a world created good. ... The alternative is the Gnostic and Freudian view, ... [whereby] our hope lies not in acknowledging and submitting to the moral reality of our situation, but in overcoming or even transforming it.” He then goes on to his paradigm-forming conclusion about the evils of the modern world: “Marxism is a good example of the similarity between Gnosticism and many modern ideologies.”
The impact on political thought of Gnosticism recreated as a bugbear of conservatism, is discussed in the second article, “Civil Theology in the Gnostic Age,” by Michael Henry, who teaches philosophy at St. John’s University in New York (not the St. John’s in Annapolis and Santa Fe) and is series editor of the Library of Conservative Thought of Transaction Publishers. He defines Gnosticism as “a somewhat deformed version of Christianity that seeks immanent salvation through human action in a redivinized world in which humanity is the locus of the divine.”
Henry then develops his well-based traditionalist critique of Neo-Conservatives, whose mission to perfect the world represents a “re-irruption” of Gnosticism in the concept of “enlightened liberty [consisting in] an emphasis on personal gratification and the isolation of individual desires rather than the community of shared participation in transcendence. Americans came to see themselves as the saviors of the world through their achievement of the most rational order that maximizes individual freedom and earthly happiness ... guaranteeing earthly happiness through democracy.”
He then writes, quite soundly in reference to Neo-Conservatism but quite erroneously in reference to Gnosticism, that, “As Voegelin has pointed out, positivism is another variety of Gnosticism through its reduction of reality to the immanent. ... If the public philosophy means that liberty is the possession of rights determined by the citizens’ preferences, then order is merely the absence of chaos but has no positive content or meaning. ... Having no substantial truth in itself [democracy] worships freedom, which means that it appeals to relativism and the related skepticism - which is quite the opposite of Voegelin’s characterization of the nature of man as ‘openness to transcendence’.”
Since the term “Gnosticism” is central to the apologetics of American traditionalist savants, we, as traditionalists from the Islamic tradition, should address what we have in common with the Christian traditionalists. This does not include the demonization of Gnosticism, which suggests that we need to use other terms that have less historical baggage.
Rather than throwing the baby out with the bathwater, perhaps we should change the bathtub. Whether we call the paradigm liberalism, conservatism, or neo this or paleo that, is not as important as the content of the terms we are using. I abandoned my self-description as conservative a long time ago, because most people who like this term are simply reactionary. Facetiously, I call my self a prolicon, as in lepracon, meaning progressive, liberal, conservative. But actually I am none of those.
Why abandon the term traditionalism merely because it has been hijacked by people who do not understand it and have perverted it into a neo-traditionalism, the way the neo-conservatives have perverted their origins? I have no problem with “classical liberalism,” but only if we understand that classical liberalism is similar to what I call classical traditionalism, which is quite the opposite of modern libertarianism and its opposite, neo-traditionalism.
Libertarianism refuses to recognize any transcendent framework for either human responsibilities or human rights. Classical liberalism, on the other hand, can recognize freedom as both the purpose and product of transcendent justice. The highest goal, however, as propounded throughout the Qur’an, is truth and justice.
The weakness of the so-called traditionalism of Voegelin is that he seems to reject anything similar in any religion other than Christianity, but at the same time rejects Christianity as anything more than an imperfect expression of his own ideas. His followers attack the triumphalism of the Neo-Cons but seem to replace it with their own brand.
Perhaps we need a better word to describe what classical Islam and classical Christianity share. Frithjof Schuon uses the term philosophia perennis, and this has been translated as universal traditionalism because it is the substance of what is traditional, perennial, or enduring in all religions. My suggestion is that we rescue the term traditionalism from those who would hijack it, rather than surrendering to the hijackers.
At a less philosophical level and even more profoundly the battle of the intellectual titans is really about the role of justice in the Plan of Allah. Justice divorced from the “Agenda of Allah” is self-referential and can amount to totalitarian self-worship. Worship of Allah divorced from justice is un-Islamic because it results in the same thing. This, of course, is why the third element of the Shi’i creed is so important, namely, nubuwiya, which serves to provide the wisdom necessary to maintain a mutually reinforcing balance between the first two elements.
All of this, unfortunately, has been totally missing from most Sunni thought for many centuries, which may be why the world of Sunni Islam has been so devastated by Western solypsism. Recovery and renewal are possible only by intra-faith cooperation among Muslims, which should be the basis of inter-faith cooperation with those of other religions who are being hijacked by their own forms of ultra- or neo-conservatism and ultra- or neo-liberalism.
We are engaged in mimetic warfare, which is the use of mimes in the form of words or symbols, to capture the sub-conscious of others without them knowing that they have been hijacked. The first rule of warfare is to know your enemy. The second is to know his strategy. Only then can we know better the nature good and evil.
Sufi Insight
Sacred Space - The Times of India
Sunday, May 7, 2006
Not Christian, Jew or Muslim, not Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi or Zen. Not any religion, or cultural system. I am not from the East or the West, nor out of the ocean or up from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not composed of elements at all.
I do not exist, am not an entity in this world or the next, did not descend from Adam and Eve or any origin story. My place is placeless, a trace of the traceless. Neither body nor soul.
I belong to the beloved have seen the two worlds as one and that one call to and know, First, last, outer, inner, only that breath breathing human being.
Jalaluddin Rumi
Whatever you have in your mind — forget it; Whatever you have in your hand — give it; Whatever is to be your fate — face it!
Abu Sa'id
A seeker went to ask a sage for guidance on the Sufi way. The sage counselled, "If you have never trodden the path of love, go away and fall in love; then come back and see us".
Jami
Sunday, May 7, 2006
Not Christian, Jew or Muslim, not Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi or Zen. Not any religion, or cultural system. I am not from the East or the West, nor out of the ocean or up from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not composed of elements at all.
I do not exist, am not an entity in this world or the next, did not descend from Adam and Eve or any origin story. My place is placeless, a trace of the traceless. Neither body nor soul.
I belong to the beloved have seen the two worlds as one and that one call to and know, First, last, outer, inner, only that breath breathing human being.
Jalaluddin Rumi
Whatever you have in your mind — forget it; Whatever you have in your hand — give it; Whatever is to be your fate — face it!
Abu Sa'id
A seeker went to ask a sage for guidance on the Sufi way. The sage counselled, "If you have never trodden the path of love, go away and fall in love; then come back and see us".
Jami
Sufism - Its Origin and Impact on Indian Islam
By Asghar Ali Engineer - TAM The American Muslim
Thursday, May 4, 2006
Sufism has recently gained in popularity outside Muslim circles, particularly Sufi music. Sufi music is attracting attention internationally. Sufi music congregations are taking place in several western countries, particularly in USA. Maulana Rumi, a great Sufi saint has become tremendously popular in USA in post-9/11 situation when Islam is being targeted as religion of jihad.
What is Sufism and when did it originate? What are its doctrines? What is its relation with orthodox Islam? Does it reconcile with it or not? These are some important questions we will take up in this article.
Sufism, some scholars maintain during the Prophet’s (PBUH) life- time itself. It is not something different from Islam or different from Islamic teachings. It is more a question of attitude than teachings. Then the question arises is it in any way different from Islam and if so, in what respect?
Due to historical circumstances of Islam’s origin, it got associated with state power and some even began to theorise that political power cannot be separated from Islam. The two must go together. Thus struggles for political power unfortunately became part of Islamic state and this created a sense of alienation among many Muslims who did not see approvingly of these kept themselves aloof from power struggles and were instead drawn to spiritual side of Islam.
The Prophet (PBUH) of Islam himself was a unique combination of statecraft and spiritualism. For him statecraft was not meant for domination or exploitation but for providing just rule. However, this could not be expected of other Muslim rulers. Lust for power became their goal. Thus in a way Sufism originated with the Prophet himself as spiritual aspect dominated his life.
In fact some scholars have suggested that the word Sufism has its origin in suffa – a piece of rock – on which some of his followers used to sit outside his mosque and discuss religious matters. Some consider them as the first Sufis who were deeply concerned about spiritual aspects of life and were known in Islamic history as ahl-i-suffa.
Some Sufis were also concerned with just governance and setting up just social order in keeping with the Qur’anic teachings and hence participated in political struggles for this purpose but not in a struggle for political power. However, most of the Sufi saints maintained their distance from political Islam and concentrated on spiritual side.
As Sufis had maintained distance from political Islam, there were also differences with orthodox Ulama who concentrated on Shari’ah Islam i.e. legal Islam. The orthodox Ulama were so rigid that anyone who deviated from Shari’ah (i.e. from a particular legal school) was considered as kafir. Thus to these Ulama legal Islam was central, not spiritual Islam. Though many Sufis followed Shari’ah their emphasis was spiritual, not legal. Thus Sufis chose spiritual rather than political or legal Islam.
Since Sufis were concerned with spiritual more than legal, they were much more open to other spiritual traditions. Religion ultimately results in forming a community of believers and hence it leads to formation of an identity whereas spiritualism is not confined to any narrow boundary and does not result in identity formation. Sufis never hesitated in accepting other spiritual traditions.
In India too Sufis who mainly came from Central Asian regions whole-heartedly accepted Indian spiritual tradition and cultural practices. Many of them like Baba Farid preferred to write in local languages instead of Arabic or Persian. They even adopted local rituals and tradition. This made them quite popular among people and that is why they attracted Hindu masses.
Since these Sufi saints preferred to be in the company of poor and weaker sections of society instead of courtiers and upper class nobles, and they did not observe religious boundaries, they could acquire much popularity and they came to be deeply venerated by the masses both Muslim as well as Hindu. It is due to them that many low caste Hindus converted to Islam as they found more dignity and acceptability at their hands.
The Sufis became bridge between Hindus and Muslims and brought about the birth of composite culture at lower rungs of society. The Sufis of Chishti silsila (chain) believed in the doctrines of wahdat al-wujud (unity of Being) and sulh-i-kul (total peace, peace with all) and both these doctrines are quite helpful in building bridges between the communities. In fact the doctrine of wahdat al-wujud demolished all barriers between communities as real Being is One and all human beings are manifestation of this Real Being.
Sulh-i-kul (total peace and peace with all) was another doctrine that brought about cordial relations with all communities. No doubt than Sufis commanded respect from all communities and their dargahs (hospices) and their mausoleums became centres of attraction for people of all communities, especially the poor and downtrodden. The Sufi mausoleums even today attract large number of Hindus along with Muslims, be it dargah of Ajmer Sharif or dargah of Baba Gesu Daraz or that of Nizamuddin Awliya in Delhi.
Sufi Music
The orthodox Ulama considered music as haram (forbidden) but music was an integral part of Sufi Islam. The Sufis developed a special genre of music known as qawwali. Khusrau, the celebrated disciple of Nizamuddin Awliya composed qawwalis and Nizamuddin would listen to these qawwalis and fall into a trance. Khusrau was a great poet as well as musician. Qawwali became the powerful instrument of inducing spiritual trance. It is so soothing to the human soul. It transports one into inner world.
More the Sufis acquired popularity, more they came to be opposed by the orthodox Ulama. In fact orthodox Ulama considered them to be heretics. Moreover the Ulama jockeyed for positions in king’s court and maintained their distance from the poorer masses denouncing them as ‘impure’ and bad Muslims. They held these Sufi saints responsible for keeping them ‘impure’ and polluted with un-Islamic way of life. They also denounced the doctrine of wahdat al-wujud (Unity of Being) as un-Islamic as it demolished religious boundaries between Muslims and Non-Muslims.
Also, the Wahabi Islam, founded by Abdul Wahab in 18th century in what is now known as Saudi Arabia (Najd), opposed Sufi Islam and denounced it as kufr (unbelief) and all those Muslims who visit Sufi mausoleums as kafirs. Abdul Wahab played same role in Arabia as in 19th century India, played by founder of Arya Samaj Dayananda Saraswati. Dayanand denounced idol worship and gave slogan for back to Vedas. Abdul Wahab, denounced visit to dargahs and mausoleums and gave slogan for back to the Qur’an.
Thus there is direct clash between Wahabis and Sufis. Wahabi doctrines are rigid, narrow and lay stress on ‘purity’ and denounce any deviation for rigid dogmas as kufr. It is interesting to note that poor masses never accepted narrowly interpreted Wahabi Islam but readily accepted Sufi Islam with all its openness and liberality. Thus Sufi dargahs, as pointed out above, till today remain shared sacred spaces.
Since Sufi Islam lays stress on spiritualism, rather than on rigid dogmas it is becoming more acceptable in western countries despite their hatred of political Islam. The Sufi music because of its strong appeal to heart and soul is becoming so popular. As bhakti always attracted lower caste Hindus throughout ages in history, Sufism appealed to the poorer masses.
The fast and tense pace of life in modern societies makes sufism a soothing balm for the soul. Consumerism of modern capitalist society brings more tension rather than happiness in life. Instant pleasure of modern consumerism cannot provide inner and lasting happiness. Thus Sufism becomes popular both for idle classes in modern society as well as to poor suffering masses.
To both these classes Sufism acts as a soothing balm and much more so the Sufi music. Sufi singers like Abida Parveen and Nusrat Fatehally have made Sufi singing tremendously popular and their cassettes and CDs sell by thousands in the market. There are also groups like Junun from Pakistan, which combine Sufi music with today’s pop appeal.
In USA Maulana Rum’s Mathnavi (long epic poem) is selling briskly. Rumi is a Sufi poet and his poetry is full of spirituality and wisdom. Maulana Rumi was a great scholar and an Alim but one spiritual encounter with Shams Tabriz, a wandering Sufi from Persia, transformed Rumi completely. Rumi gave up his high status as an alim and began to roam around madly in love with Shams Tabriz and it was in this state of total involvement with Shams Tabriz he composed his Mathnavi.
Thus Sufi Islam which is opposite of political and legal Islam, is much more appealing to the people than rigid, doctrinaire orthodox Islam. And it is this spiritual appeal of Sufi music, which stirs our soul.
Thursday, May 4, 2006
Sufism has recently gained in popularity outside Muslim circles, particularly Sufi music. Sufi music is attracting attention internationally. Sufi music congregations are taking place in several western countries, particularly in USA. Maulana Rumi, a great Sufi saint has become tremendously popular in USA in post-9/11 situation when Islam is being targeted as religion of jihad.
What is Sufism and when did it originate? What are its doctrines? What is its relation with orthodox Islam? Does it reconcile with it or not? These are some important questions we will take up in this article.
Sufism, some scholars maintain during the Prophet’s (PBUH) life- time itself. It is not something different from Islam or different from Islamic teachings. It is more a question of attitude than teachings. Then the question arises is it in any way different from Islam and if so, in what respect?
Due to historical circumstances of Islam’s origin, it got associated with state power and some even began to theorise that political power cannot be separated from Islam. The two must go together. Thus struggles for political power unfortunately became part of Islamic state and this created a sense of alienation among many Muslims who did not see approvingly of these kept themselves aloof from power struggles and were instead drawn to spiritual side of Islam.
The Prophet (PBUH) of Islam himself was a unique combination of statecraft and spiritualism. For him statecraft was not meant for domination or exploitation but for providing just rule. However, this could not be expected of other Muslim rulers. Lust for power became their goal. Thus in a way Sufism originated with the Prophet himself as spiritual aspect dominated his life.
In fact some scholars have suggested that the word Sufism has its origin in suffa – a piece of rock – on which some of his followers used to sit outside his mosque and discuss religious matters. Some consider them as the first Sufis who were deeply concerned about spiritual aspects of life and were known in Islamic history as ahl-i-suffa.
Some Sufis were also concerned with just governance and setting up just social order in keeping with the Qur’anic teachings and hence participated in political struggles for this purpose but not in a struggle for political power. However, most of the Sufi saints maintained their distance from political Islam and concentrated on spiritual side.
As Sufis had maintained distance from political Islam, there were also differences with orthodox Ulama who concentrated on Shari’ah Islam i.e. legal Islam. The orthodox Ulama were so rigid that anyone who deviated from Shari’ah (i.e. from a particular legal school) was considered as kafir. Thus to these Ulama legal Islam was central, not spiritual Islam. Though many Sufis followed Shari’ah their emphasis was spiritual, not legal. Thus Sufis chose spiritual rather than political or legal Islam.
Since Sufis were concerned with spiritual more than legal, they were much more open to other spiritual traditions. Religion ultimately results in forming a community of believers and hence it leads to formation of an identity whereas spiritualism is not confined to any narrow boundary and does not result in identity formation. Sufis never hesitated in accepting other spiritual traditions.
In India too Sufis who mainly came from Central Asian regions whole-heartedly accepted Indian spiritual tradition and cultural practices. Many of them like Baba Farid preferred to write in local languages instead of Arabic or Persian. They even adopted local rituals and tradition. This made them quite popular among people and that is why they attracted Hindu masses.
Since these Sufi saints preferred to be in the company of poor and weaker sections of society instead of courtiers and upper class nobles, and they did not observe religious boundaries, they could acquire much popularity and they came to be deeply venerated by the masses both Muslim as well as Hindu. It is due to them that many low caste Hindus converted to Islam as they found more dignity and acceptability at their hands.
The Sufis became bridge between Hindus and Muslims and brought about the birth of composite culture at lower rungs of society. The Sufis of Chishti silsila (chain) believed in the doctrines of wahdat al-wujud (unity of Being) and sulh-i-kul (total peace, peace with all) and both these doctrines are quite helpful in building bridges between the communities. In fact the doctrine of wahdat al-wujud demolished all barriers between communities as real Being is One and all human beings are manifestation of this Real Being.
Sulh-i-kul (total peace and peace with all) was another doctrine that brought about cordial relations with all communities. No doubt than Sufis commanded respect from all communities and their dargahs (hospices) and their mausoleums became centres of attraction for people of all communities, especially the poor and downtrodden. The Sufi mausoleums even today attract large number of Hindus along with Muslims, be it dargah of Ajmer Sharif or dargah of Baba Gesu Daraz or that of Nizamuddin Awliya in Delhi.
Sufi Music
The orthodox Ulama considered music as haram (forbidden) but music was an integral part of Sufi Islam. The Sufis developed a special genre of music known as qawwali. Khusrau, the celebrated disciple of Nizamuddin Awliya composed qawwalis and Nizamuddin would listen to these qawwalis and fall into a trance. Khusrau was a great poet as well as musician. Qawwali became the powerful instrument of inducing spiritual trance. It is so soothing to the human soul. It transports one into inner world.
More the Sufis acquired popularity, more they came to be opposed by the orthodox Ulama. In fact orthodox Ulama considered them to be heretics. Moreover the Ulama jockeyed for positions in king’s court and maintained their distance from the poorer masses denouncing them as ‘impure’ and bad Muslims. They held these Sufi saints responsible for keeping them ‘impure’ and polluted with un-Islamic way of life. They also denounced the doctrine of wahdat al-wujud (Unity of Being) as un-Islamic as it demolished religious boundaries between Muslims and Non-Muslims.
Also, the Wahabi Islam, founded by Abdul Wahab in 18th century in what is now known as Saudi Arabia (Najd), opposed Sufi Islam and denounced it as kufr (unbelief) and all those Muslims who visit Sufi mausoleums as kafirs. Abdul Wahab played same role in Arabia as in 19th century India, played by founder of Arya Samaj Dayananda Saraswati. Dayanand denounced idol worship and gave slogan for back to Vedas. Abdul Wahab, denounced visit to dargahs and mausoleums and gave slogan for back to the Qur’an.
Thus there is direct clash between Wahabis and Sufis. Wahabi doctrines are rigid, narrow and lay stress on ‘purity’ and denounce any deviation for rigid dogmas as kufr. It is interesting to note that poor masses never accepted narrowly interpreted Wahabi Islam but readily accepted Sufi Islam with all its openness and liberality. Thus Sufi dargahs, as pointed out above, till today remain shared sacred spaces.
Since Sufi Islam lays stress on spiritualism, rather than on rigid dogmas it is becoming more acceptable in western countries despite their hatred of political Islam. The Sufi music because of its strong appeal to heart and soul is becoming so popular. As bhakti always attracted lower caste Hindus throughout ages in history, Sufism appealed to the poorer masses.
The fast and tense pace of life in modern societies makes sufism a soothing balm for the soul. Consumerism of modern capitalist society brings more tension rather than happiness in life. Instant pleasure of modern consumerism cannot provide inner and lasting happiness. Thus Sufism becomes popular both for idle classes in modern society as well as to poor suffering masses.
To both these classes Sufism acts as a soothing balm and much more so the Sufi music. Sufi singers like Abida Parveen and Nusrat Fatehally have made Sufi singing tremendously popular and their cassettes and CDs sell by thousands in the market. There are also groups like Junun from Pakistan, which combine Sufi music with today’s pop appeal.
In USA Maulana Rum’s Mathnavi (long epic poem) is selling briskly. Rumi is a Sufi poet and his poetry is full of spirituality and wisdom. Maulana Rumi was a great scholar and an Alim but one spiritual encounter with Shams Tabriz, a wandering Sufi from Persia, transformed Rumi completely. Rumi gave up his high status as an alim and began to roam around madly in love with Shams Tabriz and it was in this state of total involvement with Shams Tabriz he composed his Mathnavi.
Thus Sufi Islam which is opposite of political and legal Islam, is much more appealing to the people than rigid, doctrinaire orthodox Islam. And it is this spiritual appeal of Sufi music, which stirs our soul.
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Apolitical Sufis at Peace in Uzbekistan
May 2006 by By Igor Rotar, Forum 18 News Service. This is an excerpt from a longer article on Religion in Uzbekistan.
In Kokand (in the Uzbek section of the Fergana [Farghona] valley) there is an unregistered kanaka (Sufi monastery), where the leader of the Sufi Nakshbandi tarikat in Uzbekistan, Sheikh Ibrahim, teaches his murids (Sufi pupils). "We don't have any problems with the authorities," Sheikh Ibrahim told Forum 18 last November. "We are poets and mystics and are quite uninterested in political issues. Anyone who is interested in politics is not a Sufi follower. The state understands that we don't represent any danger to it, and doesn't touch us."
Forum 18 has established that the authorities generally do not prevent Sufi believers from meeting in private apartments to perform the zikr (a ritual dance). "After the terrorist attacks in March and April, many Sufi believers were called in to the NSS offices and asked about our meetings. But we were left in peace once they understood that we are removed from politics," Sabir Tokhirov, a surgeon and a Sufi follower, told Forum 18 on 28 March in the southern town of Karshi [Qarshi]. One explanation for the authorities' tolerant attitude towards Sufism is that this movement, in which regional customs are quite closely intertwined, is a reasonably effective alternative to fundamentalism – the main "enemy" of the authorities.
In Kokand (in the Uzbek section of the Fergana [Farghona] valley) there is an unregistered kanaka (Sufi monastery), where the leader of the Sufi Nakshbandi tarikat in Uzbekistan, Sheikh Ibrahim, teaches his murids (Sufi pupils). "We don't have any problems with the authorities," Sheikh Ibrahim told Forum 18 last November. "We are poets and mystics and are quite uninterested in political issues. Anyone who is interested in politics is not a Sufi follower. The state understands that we don't represent any danger to it, and doesn't touch us."
Forum 18 has established that the authorities generally do not prevent Sufi believers from meeting in private apartments to perform the zikr (a ritual dance). "After the terrorist attacks in March and April, many Sufi believers were called in to the NSS offices and asked about our meetings. But we were left in peace once they understood that we are removed from politics," Sabir Tokhirov, a surgeon and a Sufi follower, told Forum 18 on 28 March in the southern town of Karshi [Qarshi]. One explanation for the authorities' tolerant attitude towards Sufism is that this movement, in which regional customs are quite closely intertwined, is a reasonably effective alternative to fundamentalism – the main "enemy" of the authorities.
Moderate Muslims Seek Help From the Dalai Lama
Moderate Muslims Seek Help From the Dalai Lama
LA Times[Sunday, April 16, 2006 17:15]
By Louis Sahagun,
Times Staff Writer
THINKING GLOBALLY: The Dalai Lama, [above] right, listens to Imam Mehdi Khorasani of the Islamic Society of California during a discussion of ways to promote understanding and lessen religious intolerance among Muslims and people of other religious faiths. (Genaro Molina / LAT)
SAN FRANCISCO, April 16 — Prominent Muslim dignitaries on Saturday met for the first time with the world's most influential Buddhist, the Dalai Lama, enlisting his help in quelling fanatical ideologies within Islamic communities and improving the faith's declining image in the West.
The summit was a measure of the desperate concern among moderate Muslim leaders and scholars about religious extremism and increasingly negative views of their faith arising from Western concerns about terrorism. Indeed, Islam traditionally has not recognized Buddhism.
"The main issue of this conference is to provide a platform to teach that there is no room today to say or invest in anything but love," said Imam Mehdi Khorasani of Marin County, who had extended the invitation to the Dalai Lama. "We are happy and grateful for His Holiness' decision to lend his energy to this cause."
Appearing comfortable and jovial in his maroon and saffron robe before a crowd of about 600, the Dalai Lama, 71, was true to his image as one of the world's most avid advocates for peace.
"Some people have an impression that Islam is militant," he said, seated in lotus position on a center-stage baronial chair at the InterContinental Mark Hopkins hotel. "I think that is totally wrong. Islam is one of the world's great religions and it carries, basically, a message of love and compassion."
PEACE TALKS: The Dalai Lama meets with religious leaders from around the world in San Francisco. (Genaro Molina / LAT)
He pointed to his homeland of Tibet as an example of a place where Buddhists and Muslims have existed together in peace for centuries.
In an interview earlier, the Nobel laureate and religious leader of Tibetan Buddhism said, "Promoting the genuine message of Islam and the proper impression of the Muslim world — that is my hope.
"Some of my Muslim friends have told me that those people who claim to be Muslims, if they create bloodshed, that is not genuine Islam," he said. "Those few mischievous ones do not represent the whole Muslim community."
Some of those in attendance suggested that the open display of mutual support might not play well with more extreme members of either Islam or Buddhism.
"It's a brave thing for imams to reach out to the Dalai Lama — it's likely to be seen in some circles as an act of weakness and undignified of their own traditions," said Caner Dagli, assistant professor of religion at Roanoke College in Salem, Va.
"The Dalai Lama is also putting himself out on a limb by standing with his Muslim brothers and sisters," he said. "But I'm happy about all that. It's right that they should be allies."
One difference is that although the Dalai Lama holds an unquestioned position as spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet, Islam has no similar central authority uniting its members. Hence, Muslims around the globe interpret the faith quite differently and are more divided among themselves.
That the meeting came together at all was remarkable, coming near the date of the prophet Muhammad's birthday, as well as during Passover and Easter weekend. It also followed the release last week of the recorded sounds of struggle and panic when Sept. 11 hijackers took control of United Airlines Flight 93 and screamed, "Allah is the greatest," as the plane went down.
But the Dalai Lama, who normally books his appearances seven years in advance, and the Muslim leaders and scholars from around the world broke their holiday commitments to attend the hastily organized event.
"This meeting had to happen," said Dan Kranzler, a philanthropist and one of the gathering's sponsors.
"The 90% of the Muslim world that is moderate and peace-loving wants to overcome the radical ideologies of the rest," said Kranzler, who is Jewish but refers to himself as a "universalist." "If there is anyone in the world who can cheat the odds and make that happen it's the Dalai Lama."
Organizers called it an extraordinary convergence.
Essentially, Muslim leaders were seeking the Dalai Lama's rock-star status, broad appeal and skills as a neutral conciliator in dealing with divisiveness within their faith, deepened by worldwide media attention. Even moderate Muslims, who make up most believers, are not united enough to impose their visions of peace and tolerance on those who are intolerant or promote violence.
Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, founder of the Zaytuna Institute in Hayward, which is dedicated to reviving the sciences of classical Islam, pointed out another reason for wanting the Dalai Lama on their side.
"Buddhism gets the best press of any religion in the world," he said. "Islam gets the worst press because it's associated with war and belligerence.
"When a recent Gallup Poll asked Americans what they respected about Islam, 38% answered not a thing, and 12 % said they weren't sure," he said. "Yet one-fifth of humanity is Muslim.
"So we are delighted that the Dalai Lama wants to understand how we view this situation and assess what his own community can do to alleviate the problems," he said.
Under tight security, the Dalai Lama initially met privately with 40 leaders, including Mahmud Kilic, a professor of Sufism and president of the Turkish and Islamic Art Museum in Istanbul; Sayyid M. Syeed, head of the Islamic Society of North America, the largest umbrella organization of Islamic centers in the United States; and Ahmad Al-Hashimi, president of the Ihsan Muslim Heritage Society of Ontario, Canada.
One proposal that emerged from the discussions was a possible visit by the Dalai Lama to Saudi Arabia.
Later, on stage, he was flanked by religious leaders and scholars including Huston Smith, emeritus professor of religion at UC Berkeley; Thomas Cleary, a Harvard professor whose interpretation of the ancient Chinese "Art of War" became a bestseller; and Robert Thurman, a Columbia University professor known as the Billy Graham of Buddhism.
In an interview, Smith said the meeting was in direct response to the violent exploitation of one of the great traditions.
"The world is in flames. We are at war with Islam," he said. "The Muslim leaders here wanted to talk to the Dalai Lama about what they could do to persuade terrorists that their terrorism only increases terrorism."
Though Muslim leaders called for the gathering, it was organized and funded by a coalition that included film producer Steven Reuther and Kranzler, who made his fortune in the computer software industry.
In an effort to make Muslim guests feel as comfortable as possible in their daily prayers, the organizing team determined the exact direction of Mecca from the Nob Hill hotel — 15 degrees east of north. Receptions were alcohol-free and vegetarian, in keeping with practices of Islam and Buddhism. Dozens of participants wore white scarfs that had been draped around their necks by the Dalai Lama in private sessions.
Muslim, Christian priests to be paid remuneration
Muslim, Christian priests to be paid remuneration
Newindpress - Southern News - Karnataka
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
DHARWAD: Muslim and Christian priests will be paid remuneration and other privileges on lines of Hindu priests, said Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy.
Replying a felicitation to him by Jamia Masjid, Chief Minister said Hindu priests were paid through Mujrai Department, likewise steps would be taken to release remuneration to Pesh Imam and his assistants through the Wakf Board.
Christian priests will also be paid remuneration through the constitution of separate department.
M.P. Prakash, president of JD(S) State unit, said BJP-JD (S) coalition government in State was following the footsteps of Sufi saints.
Muslim community of India had largely been influenced by Sufism. Muslims impressed by Sufism had developed Urdu language. Urdu language had been patronised by kings irrespective of religion in the past.
The State government is taking such kings as models to run the government while safeguarding the interests of minorities, he added.
Minister Basavaraj Horatti, Moulana Kaisar Mohammed Khatheeb, Rasheed Byali and Gururaj Hunasimarad were present.
Newindpress - Southern News - Karnataka
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
DHARWAD: Muslim and Christian priests will be paid remuneration and other privileges on lines of Hindu priests, said Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy.
Replying a felicitation to him by Jamia Masjid, Chief Minister said Hindu priests were paid through Mujrai Department, likewise steps would be taken to release remuneration to Pesh Imam and his assistants through the Wakf Board.
Christian priests will also be paid remuneration through the constitution of separate department.
M.P. Prakash, president of JD(S) State unit, said BJP-JD (S) coalition government in State was following the footsteps of Sufi saints.
Muslim community of India had largely been influenced by Sufism. Muslims impressed by Sufism had developed Urdu language. Urdu language had been patronised by kings irrespective of religion in the past.
The State government is taking such kings as models to run the government while safeguarding the interests of minorities, he added.
Minister Basavaraj Horatti, Moulana Kaisar Mohammed Khatheeb, Rasheed Byali and Gururaj Hunasimarad were present.
From Islam with Love
By Tony Evans - Boise Weekly - ID, U.S.A.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Coleman Barks will present a reading of 13th Century Sufi mystic poet Jellaludin Rumi with musicians Barry Phillips on cello and Shelley Phillips on harp and woodwinds as a keynote presentation at The Sun Valley Wellness Festival on Sunday, May 28, at 7 p.m., in Sun Valley. Barks' free-verse translations have made Rumi the most read poet in America over the last decade.
"I just love to experiment with putting the spoken word to music," Barks tells BW. "I'm trying to do what the Sufi's call 'Sema,' which is a deep listening. It's a way of letting the words and the images go deeper into the heart where they can become of some use for you."
Born in 1207 in Balkh, Afghanistan, Rumi was a sheikh and scholar who lived during the time of St. Francis of Assisi. His poetry was born of a profound friendship with a mysterious, older wise man named Shams of Tabriz, who lived on the outskirts of society in Konya, Turkey. Legend has it the powerful Shams threw Rumi's books into a fountain, transforming years of religious study into a living mystical reality through long spiritual conversation called "sohbet." When Shams disappeared, perhaps murdered by jealous rivals for Rumi's attention, Rumi entered a deep, ecstatic longing, which resulted in an out-pouring of thousands of poems, including the six volume Matthnavi, which transcended Christian, Jewish and Muslim doctrines, attaining a universal significance which has lasted more than 700 years.
A university professor and poet in his own right, Barks undertook the work of translating Rumi after meeting Sufi holy man Bawa Muhawadeen in a dream in 1977. Over the next nine years, he spent time with Bawa in Philadelphia. "The only authority I have for working on Rumi's poetry is my friendship with Bawa," says Barks. "It's an amazing thing to see. We are not discreet individuals in the presence of an enlightened being, because his knowledge is of the Oneness."
"Religion and poetry both remind us of what is sacred," says Barks, who has studied Rumi's mystical message for more than 30 years. "Spontaneity is more important than coherence. There are as many kinds of mysticism as there are mystics. It has to do with one's personal, unique response to the mystery of being alive and to the mystery we are living within. I think of mystics as mostly being ecstatic," he says. "They feel, like some children do, that just being in a body and sentient is a state of pure rapture. Laughter is real important to these people. The whole thing is so hilarious. They are partial to boomerangs."
The religious scholar Huston Smith describes the Sufis as "spiritually impatient." Rumi's poetry reaches from Koranic and Biblical references to an alchemical symbology which provokes an immediate encounter with the divine. These references include Moses, Jesus, Mohammad and Hallaj, along with many details of the physical world--melting snow, wine, a ruby or reed flute; all resonate with meaning and provide pathways through the endless web of human desires to direct encounter with God.
Rumi's poetry is a call to and through the senses, poking fun at those who would "think" their way to God. In one story he likens theologians and philosophers to a group of fish schooling in the sea to debate the likelihood of the ocean. "When you look for God, God is in the look of your eyes," says Barks. "So close that if we really knew it we would just scream or go quiet, or something. It's almost a joke-- It's so simple that you can hardly say it."
And yet he does:
"Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right doing
There is a field. I'll meet you there.
I am so small I can barely be seen.
How can this great love be inside me?
Look at your eyes. They are small, but see enormous things."
"It's not really an entertainment or concert I'm doing," says Barks. "It's some kind of a practice, really. I'm trying to let the transmission of Rumi's poetry and Shams' presence come into this century. Yeah, so I'm hoping for big stuff, but I think it can happen."
Barks recently traveled to Afghanistan as part of a U.S. State Department delegation, reading his translations and networking with Afghan poetry lovers. While reading to a group of government officials in Kabul, a passionate argument broke out among the listeners over Rumi's use of the metaphor of "drunkenness" or ecstatic love, as opposed to that used by the poet Hafiz.
"The culture of poetry in that country is just astonishing," says Barks. "It's just unimaginable in this country that our cabinet members would get in an argument over, say, the difference between Robert Frost and Wallace Stevens. I wish the world leaders would read Rumi, especially this guy that's the head of Iran now. He needs to get a little more gentleness and ecstatic vision in his life. For Rumi, warfare is just unthinkable. It devalues and brutalizes the human psyche so much."
While in Afghanistan, Barks encountered a 95-year old Sufi named Oman Justi who had been teaching Rumi's master work, The Matthnavi for 75 years. "I just leaned against him and said, 'Who is Shams?' He said, 'Shams is the doctor. He comes when you hurt enough. When Rumi was alive the longing was intense enough so that Shams came, but now it is not fiery enough to bring Shams.'"
Rumi is good medicine in these days of crazy religious violence and confusion between nations. Perhaps our own longings have brought us Coleman Barks.
Conscience Before Deadlines
By Stephen Schwartz - TCS Daily - Washington DC, U.S.A.
Monday, May 8, 2006
Shkodra, Albania --Does the mainstream media (MSM) incite the clash of civilizations (COC) between the Judeo-Christian world and Islam? At times, it seems so.
A recent example involves the small country of Albania, which is mysterious to most foreigners. I have published much on the history of mutual interfaith respect among Albanians, who are 70 percent Muslim (mainly Sunnis, but with at least a third comprising Europe's only indigenous Shias). The institution I have founded, the Center for Islamic Pluralism (CIP), seeks to promote the common interest of all monotheistic believers.
Some argue that CIP's efforts to oppose Muslim radicals when they attack other religions are meaningless, because according to such instant experts, nobody in the Muslim world listens to me or to CIP. While I do not intend this commentary as mere self-promotion, since CIP was founded last year, I have met repeatedly with Islamic clerics in the Balkans and Southeast Asia, and, as in the past, with dissident Saudis -- and I sincerely believe our work has a positive effect.
But let me not stray too far from what brought me to Albania. The April 2006 issue of First Things, an American Christian magazine of considerable influence, printed an article of mine calling on the Vatican to do more to help Albanian Catholics preserve their cultural heritage -- not in the face of Muslim aggression, but against the remnants of Communist corruption in politics and legal standards
The article called forth a generous comment from the editor of First Things, Jody Bottum, who also, however, mentioned news reports of Muslim-Catholic conflict in the northern Albanian city of Shkodra, in which Catholics were historically a majority and now make up half the population.
Given the seriousness of the matter, and the unfortunate fact that I have been repeatedly and vehemently accused of hiding the bad face of Islam, I took an opportunity -- an invitation to Britain for an event cosponsored by the Organization for the Islamic Conference (OIC), the Saudi-based international body of 57 Muslim-majority states, including the Palestinian Authority -- and have spent a week in Albania, investigating the situation for myself. (I have the further pleasure of announcing that my book The Two Faces of Islam has come out in Albanian, and used the occasion for a launch and interviews regarding it.)
In a visit to a place sacred to every friend of Albanians -- the Franciscan Library of Shkodra, which was destroyed and pillaged under Communism -- I interviewed an avid young man in the brown cloth of the order. Our talk followed an afternoon mass crowded with children and adults, including men -- the latter rare in "Catholic" Spain or Italy. I had earlier heard the church bells, and as we spoke, I listened to the adhan or Muslim call to prayer, from a large mosque nearby -- the Balkan experience par excellence. An Orthodox Christian church stands only a block or two away, although the Orthodox have never had a large presence in the town.
The young Franciscan described to me how Catholics and Muslims in Shkodra, as they have for generations, join together for the holidays of each faith, and how priests in training visit mosques. And he showed me a wondrous thing: Qur'an, the sacred book of Islam, translated and printed in Albanian by Catholics early in the 20th century. They wanted to advance the literacy of all Albanians, so the Catholics printed Qur'an!
The next day I went to Tirana, where I met with a leading Sufi, shaykh Ali Pazari of the Halveti order of Islamic spirituality. The shaykh told me an equally remarkable story: in the 1920s, in poor, isolated, exotic Albania, his grandfather, who was also a leading mystic, was called the "Catholic Sufi" because he called on women to take off their hijab and go to school! Shaykh Ali repeated something I have heard from many Albanians -- that religious leaders must put the national interest first, ahead of religious issues. And he underscored that Sufism, like Catholicism, had its strongest historic roots in Shkodra.
So why should random comments in Shkodra, a town most people in the leading countries never heard of, have elicited the interest of the MSM? Rumors of an interreligious battle in a distant corner of the globe came after the scandal of the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, the global outcry over persecution of a Christian convert in Afghanistan, and similar "big stories" that present Islam in the worst possible light, as well as consistent propagandist "journalism" about Iraq -- ignoring the Saudi role in the violence there, and presenting bloodthirsty terrorists as "insurgents." These offerings by the MSM typically embody misinformation if not disinformation -- Islam does NOT ban the depiction of the Prophet, and Islam lacks a body of consistent practice regarding changes and fusions between religions, as I recently noted in TCS Daily. I have repeatedly pointed out, here and elsewhere, that Iraqis themselves do not view the killers of the innocent in Iraq as a "resistance," but as Saudi-financed Sunni aggression.
Could it be that the cynical principle, "if it bleeds it leads," and a desire to make the global situation worse -- since efforts toward its betterment would presumably conflict with the supposed "objectivity" of the MSM -- have made journalists more complicit than any government in the worldwide nightmare we all face? I am a journalist, and do not want to believe this. I have argued that reporters are "first responders" and cannot be expected to understand the nuances of Islam. But I increasingly feel I am wrong about that, because I am also a Muslim, and an American, and I want to prevent the clash of civilizations, not stand aside as more people fight and die. Nobody accepted such neutral conduct by journalists in the late 1930s, facing the challenge of fascism; nobody should accept it in the context of a planetary struggle against Islamofascism or its mirror-image, Islamophobia.
Before deadlines, there is, or must be, conscience.
Monday, May 8, 2006
Shkodra, Albania --Does the mainstream media (MSM) incite the clash of civilizations (COC) between the Judeo-Christian world and Islam? At times, it seems so.
A recent example involves the small country of Albania, which is mysterious to most foreigners. I have published much on the history of mutual interfaith respect among Albanians, who are 70 percent Muslim (mainly Sunnis, but with at least a third comprising Europe's only indigenous Shias). The institution I have founded, the Center for Islamic Pluralism (CIP), seeks to promote the common interest of all monotheistic believers.
Some argue that CIP's efforts to oppose Muslim radicals when they attack other religions are meaningless, because according to such instant experts, nobody in the Muslim world listens to me or to CIP. While I do not intend this commentary as mere self-promotion, since CIP was founded last year, I have met repeatedly with Islamic clerics in the Balkans and Southeast Asia, and, as in the past, with dissident Saudis -- and I sincerely believe our work has a positive effect.
But let me not stray too far from what brought me to Albania. The April 2006 issue of First Things, an American Christian magazine of considerable influence, printed an article of mine calling on the Vatican to do more to help Albanian Catholics preserve their cultural heritage -- not in the face of Muslim aggression, but against the remnants of Communist corruption in politics and legal standards
The article called forth a generous comment from the editor of First Things, Jody Bottum, who also, however, mentioned news reports of Muslim-Catholic conflict in the northern Albanian city of Shkodra, in which Catholics were historically a majority and now make up half the population.
Given the seriousness of the matter, and the unfortunate fact that I have been repeatedly and vehemently accused of hiding the bad face of Islam, I took an opportunity -- an invitation to Britain for an event cosponsored by the Organization for the Islamic Conference (OIC), the Saudi-based international body of 57 Muslim-majority states, including the Palestinian Authority -- and have spent a week in Albania, investigating the situation for myself. (I have the further pleasure of announcing that my book The Two Faces of Islam has come out in Albanian, and used the occasion for a launch and interviews regarding it.)
In a visit to a place sacred to every friend of Albanians -- the Franciscan Library of Shkodra, which was destroyed and pillaged under Communism -- I interviewed an avid young man in the brown cloth of the order. Our talk followed an afternoon mass crowded with children and adults, including men -- the latter rare in "Catholic" Spain or Italy. I had earlier heard the church bells, and as we spoke, I listened to the adhan or Muslim call to prayer, from a large mosque nearby -- the Balkan experience par excellence. An Orthodox Christian church stands only a block or two away, although the Orthodox have never had a large presence in the town.
The young Franciscan described to me how Catholics and Muslims in Shkodra, as they have for generations, join together for the holidays of each faith, and how priests in training visit mosques. And he showed me a wondrous thing: Qur'an, the sacred book of Islam, translated and printed in Albanian by Catholics early in the 20th century. They wanted to advance the literacy of all Albanians, so the Catholics printed Qur'an!
The next day I went to Tirana, where I met with a leading Sufi, shaykh Ali Pazari of the Halveti order of Islamic spirituality. The shaykh told me an equally remarkable story: in the 1920s, in poor, isolated, exotic Albania, his grandfather, who was also a leading mystic, was called the "Catholic Sufi" because he called on women to take off their hijab and go to school! Shaykh Ali repeated something I have heard from many Albanians -- that religious leaders must put the national interest first, ahead of religious issues. And he underscored that Sufism, like Catholicism, had its strongest historic roots in Shkodra.
So why should random comments in Shkodra, a town most people in the leading countries never heard of, have elicited the interest of the MSM? Rumors of an interreligious battle in a distant corner of the globe came after the scandal of the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, the global outcry over persecution of a Christian convert in Afghanistan, and similar "big stories" that present Islam in the worst possible light, as well as consistent propagandist "journalism" about Iraq -- ignoring the Saudi role in the violence there, and presenting bloodthirsty terrorists as "insurgents." These offerings by the MSM typically embody misinformation if not disinformation -- Islam does NOT ban the depiction of the Prophet, and Islam lacks a body of consistent practice regarding changes and fusions between religions, as I recently noted in TCS Daily. I have repeatedly pointed out, here and elsewhere, that Iraqis themselves do not view the killers of the innocent in Iraq as a "resistance," but as Saudi-financed Sunni aggression.
Could it be that the cynical principle, "if it bleeds it leads," and a desire to make the global situation worse -- since efforts toward its betterment would presumably conflict with the supposed "objectivity" of the MSM -- have made journalists more complicit than any government in the worldwide nightmare we all face? I am a journalist, and do not want to believe this. I have argued that reporters are "first responders" and cannot be expected to understand the nuances of Islam. But I increasingly feel I am wrong about that, because I am also a Muslim, and an American, and I want to prevent the clash of civilizations, not stand aside as more people fight and die. Nobody accepted such neutral conduct by journalists in the late 1930s, facing the challenge of fascism; nobody should accept it in the context of a planetary struggle against Islamofascism or its mirror-image, Islamophobia.
Before deadlines, there is, or must be, conscience.
University of Tehran to grant honorary doctorate to Coleman Barks
RM/HG - Mehrnews Agency
Monday, May 8, 2006
The University of Tehran will be presenting an honorary doctorate in Persian language and literature to the renowned American poet Coleman Barks on May 17, the Persian service of IRNA reported on Monday.
The director of the Public Relations Office of the University of Tehran said that the honorary doctorate will be presented to Barks for his years of efforts writing books on Molana Jalal al-Din Rumi and translating Rumi’s poetry.
Ahmadreza Khezri added that several Iranian professors residing in the U.S., Iranian academic figures, and foreign ambassadors have been invited to participate in the ceremony, which will be held at Ferdowsi Hall of the University of Tehran, Faculty of Literature and Humanities.
Coleman Barks was born and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and was educated at the University of North Carolina and the University of California at Berkeley. He has been teaching poetry and creative writing at the University of Georgia for thirty years. He is the author of numerous Rumi translations and has been a student of Sufism since 1977.
“The Essential Rumi”, “The Drowned Book”, “Rumi: The Book of Love”, “The Soul of Rumi”, and “The Juice” are some of the books written or translated by Barks.
Monday, May 8, 2006
The University of Tehran will be presenting an honorary doctorate in Persian language and literature to the renowned American poet Coleman Barks on May 17, the Persian service of IRNA reported on Monday.
The director of the Public Relations Office of the University of Tehran said that the honorary doctorate will be presented to Barks for his years of efforts writing books on Molana Jalal al-Din Rumi and translating Rumi’s poetry.
Ahmadreza Khezri added that several Iranian professors residing in the U.S., Iranian academic figures, and foreign ambassadors have been invited to participate in the ceremony, which will be held at Ferdowsi Hall of the University of Tehran, Faculty of Literature and Humanities.
Coleman Barks was born and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and was educated at the University of North Carolina and the University of California at Berkeley. He has been teaching poetry and creative writing at the University of Georgia for thirty years. He is the author of numerous Rumi translations and has been a student of Sufism since 1977.
“The Essential Rumi”, “The Drowned Book”, “Rumi: The Book of Love”, “The Soul of Rumi”, and “The Juice” are some of the books written or translated by Barks.
Mysticism and Sufism in Iran and Central Asia Seminar in Kazakhstan
ISNA, Tehran - Service: Literary - News Code: 8502-12353
Monday, May 8, 2006
The international "Mysticism and Sufism in Iran and Central Asia" seminar was held in Iran and Central Asia research center in Kazakhstan.
According to ISNA, scholars from Iran, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan presented their articles in this seminar on various aspects of Mysticism and Sufism in Iran and Central Asia.
In the opening ceremony of this seminar the Iranian Ambassador to Kazakhstan, Mehmanparast, in his lecture stated that at present mysticism could solve many of the human beings' problems which had been occurred due to lack of spirituality in the world.
Monday, May 8, 2006
The international "Mysticism and Sufism in Iran and Central Asia" seminar was held in Iran and Central Asia research center in Kazakhstan.
According to ISNA, scholars from Iran, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan presented their articles in this seminar on various aspects of Mysticism and Sufism in Iran and Central Asia.
In the opening ceremony of this seminar the Iranian Ambassador to Kazakhstan, Mehmanparast, in his lecture stated that at present mysticism could solve many of the human beings' problems which had been occurred due to lack of spirituality in the world.
Yunus Emre Week Celebrated
By Osman Arslan - Zaman online - Eskisehir, Turkey
Monday, May 08, 2006
Activities as part of the International Yunus Emre Culture and Art Week have begun in Eskisehir. An opening ceremony was held at the grave of the renowned Anatolian humanist and poet at Yunus Emre town in Eskisehir for the festival activities that will continue until May 10.
Following the speeches and readings, a concert of Sufi and folk music was given.
The Yunus Emre exhibition, comprising of natural stones, was opened at Eskisehir Gallery of Fine Arts were visitors were served "Yunus Pilaf (rice)"
In the evening, Turkish singer Ahmet Ozhan performed a Sufi concert at Eskisehir Osmangazi University’s Sports Arena.
The audience accompanied Ozhan while he sang Yunus hymns.
A Sama, whirling dervishes ceremony, was performed by members of the Tourism Ministry’s Historical Turkish Music Chorus.
Monday, May 08, 2006
Activities as part of the International Yunus Emre Culture and Art Week have begun in Eskisehir. An opening ceremony was held at the grave of the renowned Anatolian humanist and poet at Yunus Emre town in Eskisehir for the festival activities that will continue until May 10.
Following the speeches and readings, a concert of Sufi and folk music was given.
The Yunus Emre exhibition, comprising of natural stones, was opened at Eskisehir Gallery of Fine Arts were visitors were served "Yunus Pilaf (rice)"
In the evening, Turkish singer Ahmet Ozhan performed a Sufi concert at Eskisehir Osmangazi University’s Sports Arena.
The audience accompanied Ozhan while he sang Yunus hymns.
A Sama, whirling dervishes ceremony, was performed by members of the Tourism Ministry’s Historical Turkish Music Chorus.
Sacred Dance
By Mary Adamski - Honolulu Star Bulletin - HI, U.S.A.
Saturday, May 6, 2006
The gentle circle dancing by the Prayer Cluster at Calvary-by-the-Sea Lutheran Church Tuesday felt like a throwback to the '60s, where interfaith sharing of sacred dance has its roots.
"My idea was to have something on the way home from work that reconnects you with God," said Pulelehua Quirk, who started the group a year ago. As a participant for years in the Sacred Dance Guild, her idea for a devotional experience just naturally had to include dance.
With the dance comes music "which resonates for so many" followed by shared prayer intentions typical of all small prayer groups. People reveal their vulnerabilities as they lay out their worries and frustrations; it can be a relief when it is done among friends.
The group clasped hands in a circle as Fatah Borsos called them to focus on their feet "connected to Mother Earth. Bring energy up from the earth." Next, "Open the top of our heads to the heavens and bring that energy down. Let what we do be in remembrance of the one holy being."
The words come from his Sufi studies, he said later. The Sufi tradition is a mystical branch of Islamic belief, with practices of combined meditation, chanting and dance -- the extreme end of which is the mesmerizing turning, spinning of "whirling dervishes" of Turkey.
"We need a direct, pure connection with nature and its elements," said Borsos. He is a participant in the Dances of Universal Peace, a movement that was started in the 1960s by a Sufi teacher and a Buddhist Zen master. Ecumenical groups worldwide gather to share ethnic and sacred dances, including a group that meets at 7 p.m. on the first Saturday of every month at Niu Valley Intermediate School.
Saturday, May 6, 2006
The gentle circle dancing by the Prayer Cluster at Calvary-by-the-Sea Lutheran Church Tuesday felt like a throwback to the '60s, where interfaith sharing of sacred dance has its roots.
"My idea was to have something on the way home from work that reconnects you with God," said Pulelehua Quirk, who started the group a year ago. As a participant for years in the Sacred Dance Guild, her idea for a devotional experience just naturally had to include dance.
With the dance comes music "which resonates for so many" followed by shared prayer intentions typical of all small prayer groups. People reveal their vulnerabilities as they lay out their worries and frustrations; it can be a relief when it is done among friends.
The group clasped hands in a circle as Fatah Borsos called them to focus on their feet "connected to Mother Earth. Bring energy up from the earth." Next, "Open the top of our heads to the heavens and bring that energy down. Let what we do be in remembrance of the one holy being."
The words come from his Sufi studies, he said later. The Sufi tradition is a mystical branch of Islamic belief, with practices of combined meditation, chanting and dance -- the extreme end of which is the mesmerizing turning, spinning of "whirling dervishes" of Turkey.
"We need a direct, pure connection with nature and its elements," said Borsos. He is a participant in the Dances of Universal Peace, a movement that was started in the 1960s by a Sufi teacher and a Buddhist Zen master. Ecumenical groups worldwide gather to share ethnic and sacred dances, including a group that meets at 7 p.m. on the first Saturday of every month at Niu Valley Intermediate School.
Murder Of Sufi Soul
By Teesta Setalvad - The Times of India
Friday, March 5, 2006
Thirty-eight-year-old Rafik Abdul Ghani Vohra was set upon by a mob, led by Ashok Thakur and other well-known VHP activists, and burnt to death in his car, at Ajwa Road, while returning from Gujarat Refineries on May 2.
The 1,000-strong mob gathered at Ajwa Road — unstopped by the police despite curfew — for two hours or so before the attack took place. Despite repeated calls by his family and neighbours to the police control and Deepak Swaroop, commissioner of police (CP), Vadodara, a callous administration did not respond.
Some family members told the national media and television channels that when they did connect with the police, they were told 'to go to Pakistan'. Local social activists feel that the response of the CP, chief minister's office and state home secretary's office since the outbreak of violence was worse than in 2002.
The CP simply kept disconnecting his mobile, according to agitated residents and social activists who made over 200 calls while the mob was building up. But for pressure exercised by the government at the Centre, the Gujarat state, its executive and its administration would not have been compelled to act immediately, without fear or favour.
The trouble began in Vadodara on May 1, with the demolition launched by Vadodara municipal administration, aided by police, in violation of the 'compromise' formula worked between the administration and minorities that two and a half feet of the shrine were to be 'sacrificed' for 'deve-lopment'.
The shrine in question was the Dargah Hazrat Rashiuddin, a target of communal forces since 1969. At least 385 years old, its existence is recorded in the first city survey carried out by Sayaji Rao Maharaj in 1912.
On the morning of May 1, the police and corporation demolished the shrine and by afternoon in a swift military-like action even paved a road over it.
Ghastly memories of 2002 were invoked when over 270 minority shrines were destroyed in just the first six days of post-Godhra premeditated violence, including the Wali Dakhani's mazhar just outside the CP's office at Shahi Baug in Ahmedabad on March 1, 2002. Ustad Faiz Khan's tomb in Vadodara also had its facade destroyed then. All signs of the remains of Wali Dakhani's tomb in Ahmedabad were removed by the wee hours of the next morning, again by politicians aided by the administration — a tar road was paved over the spot.
Four years later, in Vadodara, BJP leaders who are also VHP and Bajrang Dal office bearers, assisted the administration in paving a road over the destroyed shrine. Dargahs, or the mazars (graves) of Sufi saints are visited by worshippers belonging to different communities.
The mujawar (caretakers) are often Hindus. Dargahs are and have been for decades a threat to the narrow sectarian worldview of Hindu communalists. The fast-growing Muslim communal worldview also dislikes dargahs because they affect the 'purity' of Islam. Haji Malang in Thane, north of Mumbai, and Baba Boudhangiri shrine in Chikmagalur district of Andhra Pradesh are two that have been targets of physical attacks by the wider conglomerate of the Hindu communalists.
RSS has allegedly compiled and circulated a secret list of over 400 such shrines (that include churches) that need to be recaptured or taken over or destroyed.
It is this deeper motive behind the May 1 attack on the Vadodara shrine, aspects of which were a chilling reminder of the pogrom of 2002, that needs to be showcased in public memory today.
Many of Gujarat's cities are today segregated and ghettoised, dividing civic existence and living into an Us versus Them. This makes any political project of divide and rule, however unconstitutional, easier.
The destruction of dargahs is a pre-requisite for complete division and polarisation among Gujaratis. Police firing after the demolition in Vadodara — television shots clearly show — was aimed to kill, not disperse.
Worse, this was not a neutral administrative action. Present at the site were mayor of the city, Sushil Solanki, BJP leader(s) Nalin Bhatt and councillors Rakesh Patel, Arvind Patel, Chandrakant Thakkar, Lalit Raj, Harish Shevani, Yogesh Patel and Mahesh Rana.
Incidentally, both Bhatt and Patel have been identified by citizens' groups as allegedly responsible for the vicious violence in Vadodara in 2002.
Provocative slogans like, 'destroy the mini-Babri' and 'if the VMC will not demolish, the VHP and Bajrang Dal will' proved to be the last straw. Three persons died in police firing, and 27 were injured.
Two innocent members of the majority Hindu community were killed in retaliatory stabbings later. The burning alive of Rafik was the fifth life lost 36 hours after the first killings.
Friday, March 5, 2006
Thirty-eight-year-old Rafik Abdul Ghani Vohra was set upon by a mob, led by Ashok Thakur and other well-known VHP activists, and burnt to death in his car, at Ajwa Road, while returning from Gujarat Refineries on May 2.
The 1,000-strong mob gathered at Ajwa Road — unstopped by the police despite curfew — for two hours or so before the attack took place. Despite repeated calls by his family and neighbours to the police control and Deepak Swaroop, commissioner of police (CP), Vadodara, a callous administration did not respond.
Some family members told the national media and television channels that when they did connect with the police, they were told 'to go to Pakistan'. Local social activists feel that the response of the CP, chief minister's office and state home secretary's office since the outbreak of violence was worse than in 2002.
The CP simply kept disconnecting his mobile, according to agitated residents and social activists who made over 200 calls while the mob was building up. But for pressure exercised by the government at the Centre, the Gujarat state, its executive and its administration would not have been compelled to act immediately, without fear or favour.
The trouble began in Vadodara on May 1, with the demolition launched by Vadodara municipal administration, aided by police, in violation of the 'compromise' formula worked between the administration and minorities that two and a half feet of the shrine were to be 'sacrificed' for 'deve-lopment'.
The shrine in question was the Dargah Hazrat Rashiuddin, a target of communal forces since 1969. At least 385 years old, its existence is recorded in the first city survey carried out by Sayaji Rao Maharaj in 1912.
On the morning of May 1, the police and corporation demolished the shrine and by afternoon in a swift military-like action even paved a road over it.
Ghastly memories of 2002 were invoked when over 270 minority shrines were destroyed in just the first six days of post-Godhra premeditated violence, including the Wali Dakhani's mazhar just outside the CP's office at Shahi Baug in Ahmedabad on March 1, 2002. Ustad Faiz Khan's tomb in Vadodara also had its facade destroyed then. All signs of the remains of Wali Dakhani's tomb in Ahmedabad were removed by the wee hours of the next morning, again by politicians aided by the administration — a tar road was paved over the spot.
Four years later, in Vadodara, BJP leaders who are also VHP and Bajrang Dal office bearers, assisted the administration in paving a road over the destroyed shrine. Dargahs, or the mazars (graves) of Sufi saints are visited by worshippers belonging to different communities.
The mujawar (caretakers) are often Hindus. Dargahs are and have been for decades a threat to the narrow sectarian worldview of Hindu communalists. The fast-growing Muslim communal worldview also dislikes dargahs because they affect the 'purity' of Islam. Haji Malang in Thane, north of Mumbai, and Baba Boudhangiri shrine in Chikmagalur district of Andhra Pradesh are two that have been targets of physical attacks by the wider conglomerate of the Hindu communalists.
RSS has allegedly compiled and circulated a secret list of over 400 such shrines (that include churches) that need to be recaptured or taken over or destroyed.
It is this deeper motive behind the May 1 attack on the Vadodara shrine, aspects of which were a chilling reminder of the pogrom of 2002, that needs to be showcased in public memory today.
Many of Gujarat's cities are today segregated and ghettoised, dividing civic existence and living into an Us versus Them. This makes any political project of divide and rule, however unconstitutional, easier.
The destruction of dargahs is a pre-requisite for complete division and polarisation among Gujaratis. Police firing after the demolition in Vadodara — television shots clearly show — was aimed to kill, not disperse.
Worse, this was not a neutral administrative action. Present at the site were mayor of the city, Sushil Solanki, BJP leader(s) Nalin Bhatt and councillors Rakesh Patel, Arvind Patel, Chandrakant Thakkar, Lalit Raj, Harish Shevani, Yogesh Patel and Mahesh Rana.
Incidentally, both Bhatt and Patel have been identified by citizens' groups as allegedly responsible for the vicious violence in Vadodara in 2002.
Provocative slogans like, 'destroy the mini-Babri' and 'if the VMC will not demolish, the VHP and Bajrang Dal will' proved to be the last straw. Three persons died in police firing, and 27 were injured.
Two innocent members of the majority Hindu community were killed in retaliatory stabbings later. The burning alive of Rafik was the fifth life lost 36 hours after the first killings.
Friday, October 20, 2006
Mir Blooms In Thar Again
By Rahul Ghai - Tehelka - India
Saturday, May 13, 2006
A morning bus from Bikaner traversing the slopes of the undulating road slithering through the yellow glistening desert for around two hours finally reaches Pugal, a village on the Indira Gandhi canal and an old mandi of considerable historical importance. As one approaches the Mirasi mohalla, the sound of music, loud and intense, reverberations of drums and lilting melodies on the bagpipe and the Algoza engulf the atmosphere. Passers by have been wondering if there is a marriage in one of the houses. The Mirs keep singing till late in the night, as if possessed. The mohalla with its narrow lanes and closely-huddled-up houses is full of activity and bears a look of exuberance and festivity. Children, women and men of all ages are excited. Around 20-odd Mir musicians from about seven villages around Pugal have come together to participate in a month long collective riyaz (practice) session. The sessions began in the last week of January, 2005 and continued till the end of March.
Yasin from Sattasar exclaims that this is the first time in so many years that they have got an opportunity to practice together. “Leave aside practicing as a team, even doing riyaz at an individual level has not been possible. The leisure and surplus it demands are out of reach for most of us,” adds Mohammad Saddiq from Ghulamwala. The crisis of livelihoods and resources in and around the scrawny command area of the Indira Gandhi canal has forced most of the Mir singers into abject poverty and destitution. The recurrent droughts in the 20th century have forced many to eke out their living as casual daily wage hunters in nearby mandis, towns and even as far as Bikaner city. Years of hardship and gruelling labour have flattened Waris Ali and Fattu Khan from becoming promising Mir musicians.
The Mirs more respectfully called Mir-i-Alam, have been the ecstatic singers of the Sufiyana kalam of Sufi mystics of northwest Indian sub-continent like Baba Bulle Shah, Hazrat Shah Hussain, Hazrat Sultan Bahu and Khwaja Ghulam Farid, the great wandering fakir of the blazing desert between Pugal and Multan whose compositions are vivid descriptions of the majestic serenity of the desert and blossoming of the pastoral landscape during brief spells of rains. In these interiors of the Thar desert the mehfils of Mir-i-Alam, during the urs at dargahs or auspicious occasions in households, have been the sole sources of entertainment and of soul-stirring mystical experience. This once-vibrant tradition of singing in Pugal has been waning over the last half-a-century. Decline of traditional patronage of the Rajputs and Muslim pastoralists, displacement of traditional livelihoods, degradation of natural common property resources- aggravated with the coming of the Indira Gandhi Canal since the late 1970s, are some of the main reasons. The Mirs have also been victims of bans, with several villages in the region boycotting them. These bans have been imposed by the orthodox maulvis, who regard singing of any sort as heretical. This has directly affected the livelihoods of the Mirs.
The interest shown in collective riyaz sessions displays the passion and perseverance of the Mir musicians to polish their tradition and bring it alive from the clutches of decay. Undeterred by adversity, the Mirs carry on with their ideological role of being marfat singers, moving from the high moments of ecstasy to detached serenity, a beautiful and tangential medium for intense mystical experiences. The quest for revival is also a quest to survive in the desert against all odds — to preserve their forgotten heritage.
Fattu Khan, whose father was an acclaimed Mir singer, sees a possibility of regaining his confidence to hone his hereditary musical skills. For budding singers like Basu Khan, the days of riyaz hold a promise of intense music sessions and an exposure to styles of singing many old kalam. Even the old ustads have cleared their throats to teach the new Mir singers the finer nuances of rendering Sufiyana kalam. Children have been enthusiastically participating in these sessions and are trying their hands at singing. The riyaz sessions have elicited positive response from listeners in the region; many have encouraged Mirs to continue their pursuit.
What began as a journey of discovering the power of their Sufiyana tradition by Mukthiyar Ali and Abdul Jabbar around two years ago is now the collective striving of many musicians of the Mir community. The collective riyaz session is part of a fellowship given to Mukhtiyar and Abdul by the Bangalore-based India Foundation for the Arts for reinvigorating the Sufiyana kalam tradition in the Pugal region. Hope and passion keep these subaltern musicians endeavouring to revive their Sufiyana tradition: a tradition that sings of love, compassion and harmony.
Saturday, May 13, 2006
A morning bus from Bikaner traversing the slopes of the undulating road slithering through the yellow glistening desert for around two hours finally reaches Pugal, a village on the Indira Gandhi canal and an old mandi of considerable historical importance. As one approaches the Mirasi mohalla, the sound of music, loud and intense, reverberations of drums and lilting melodies on the bagpipe and the Algoza engulf the atmosphere. Passers by have been wondering if there is a marriage in one of the houses. The Mirs keep singing till late in the night, as if possessed. The mohalla with its narrow lanes and closely-huddled-up houses is full of activity and bears a look of exuberance and festivity. Children, women and men of all ages are excited. Around 20-odd Mir musicians from about seven villages around Pugal have come together to participate in a month long collective riyaz (practice) session. The sessions began in the last week of January, 2005 and continued till the end of March.
Yasin from Sattasar exclaims that this is the first time in so many years that they have got an opportunity to practice together. “Leave aside practicing as a team, even doing riyaz at an individual level has not been possible. The leisure and surplus it demands are out of reach for most of us,” adds Mohammad Saddiq from Ghulamwala. The crisis of livelihoods and resources in and around the scrawny command area of the Indira Gandhi canal has forced most of the Mir singers into abject poverty and destitution. The recurrent droughts in the 20th century have forced many to eke out their living as casual daily wage hunters in nearby mandis, towns and even as far as Bikaner city. Years of hardship and gruelling labour have flattened Waris Ali and Fattu Khan from becoming promising Mir musicians.
The Mirs more respectfully called Mir-i-Alam, have been the ecstatic singers of the Sufiyana kalam of Sufi mystics of northwest Indian sub-continent like Baba Bulle Shah, Hazrat Shah Hussain, Hazrat Sultan Bahu and Khwaja Ghulam Farid, the great wandering fakir of the blazing desert between Pugal and Multan whose compositions are vivid descriptions of the majestic serenity of the desert and blossoming of the pastoral landscape during brief spells of rains. In these interiors of the Thar desert the mehfils of Mir-i-Alam, during the urs at dargahs or auspicious occasions in households, have been the sole sources of entertainment and of soul-stirring mystical experience. This once-vibrant tradition of singing in Pugal has been waning over the last half-a-century. Decline of traditional patronage of the Rajputs and Muslim pastoralists, displacement of traditional livelihoods, degradation of natural common property resources- aggravated with the coming of the Indira Gandhi Canal since the late 1970s, are some of the main reasons. The Mirs have also been victims of bans, with several villages in the region boycotting them. These bans have been imposed by the orthodox maulvis, who regard singing of any sort as heretical. This has directly affected the livelihoods of the Mirs.
The interest shown in collective riyaz sessions displays the passion and perseverance of the Mir musicians to polish their tradition and bring it alive from the clutches of decay. Undeterred by adversity, the Mirs carry on with their ideological role of being marfat singers, moving from the high moments of ecstasy to detached serenity, a beautiful and tangential medium for intense mystical experiences. The quest for revival is also a quest to survive in the desert against all odds — to preserve their forgotten heritage.
Fattu Khan, whose father was an acclaimed Mir singer, sees a possibility of regaining his confidence to hone his hereditary musical skills. For budding singers like Basu Khan, the days of riyaz hold a promise of intense music sessions and an exposure to styles of singing many old kalam. Even the old ustads have cleared their throats to teach the new Mir singers the finer nuances of rendering Sufiyana kalam. Children have been enthusiastically participating in these sessions and are trying their hands at singing. The riyaz sessions have elicited positive response from listeners in the region; many have encouraged Mirs to continue their pursuit.
What began as a journey of discovering the power of their Sufiyana tradition by Mukthiyar Ali and Abdul Jabbar around two years ago is now the collective striving of many musicians of the Mir community. The collective riyaz session is part of a fellowship given to Mukhtiyar and Abdul by the Bangalore-based India Foundation for the Arts for reinvigorating the Sufiyana kalam tradition in the Pugal region. Hope and passion keep these subaltern musicians endeavouring to revive their Sufiyana tradition: a tradition that sings of love, compassion and harmony.
Iranian regime sentences 52 dervishes (sufi) to flogging and imprisonment
NCRI Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
Friday, May 5, 2006
The Iranian regime has in the past two days intensified a crackdown on members of the Iranian dervish community, according to state-controlled papers. Last February, State Security Forces (SSF) and paramilitary Basij forces brutally suppressed Nematollahi dervishes in Qom, and burned their center and mosque in the city to the ground.
On May 4, the mullahs’ judiciary sentenced 52 of the dervishes on charges of public “intrusion” and civil “disobedience” to imprisonment, flogging and fines, according to the government-controlled Kargozaran daily.
The sentenced dervishes are among the nearly 2000 people who were arrested in February in the course of the demolition of the Nematollahi dervishes’ Mosque in Qom.
In an unprecedent move, the dervishes' lawyers were fined, sentenced to five years in prison and disbarred by the clerical regime for defending dervishes.
The Iranian Resistance urges all human rights organizations and the UN’s Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and Beliefs to condemn the crackdown on the Nematollahi Dervishes and take action in freeing those in custody.
Friday, May 5, 2006
The Iranian regime has in the past two days intensified a crackdown on members of the Iranian dervish community, according to state-controlled papers. Last February, State Security Forces (SSF) and paramilitary Basij forces brutally suppressed Nematollahi dervishes in Qom, and burned their center and mosque in the city to the ground.
On May 4, the mullahs’ judiciary sentenced 52 of the dervishes on charges of public “intrusion” and civil “disobedience” to imprisonment, flogging and fines, according to the government-controlled Kargozaran daily.
The sentenced dervishes are among the nearly 2000 people who were arrested in February in the course of the demolition of the Nematollahi dervishes’ Mosque in Qom.
In an unprecedent move, the dervishes' lawyers were fined, sentenced to five years in prison and disbarred by the clerical regime for defending dervishes.
The Iranian Resistance urges all human rights organizations and the UN’s Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and Beliefs to condemn the crackdown on the Nematollahi Dervishes and take action in freeing those in custody.
In Saudi Arabia, a Resurgence of Sufism
By Faiza Saleh Ambah - Jiddah, Saudi Arabia - Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, May 2, 2006
A hush came over the crowd as the young man sitting cross-legged on the floor picked up the microphone and sang, a cappella, a poem about Islam's prophet Muhammad. His eyes shut tight, his head covered by an orange-and-white turban, he crooned with barely contained ardor of how the world rejoiced and lights filled the skies the day the prophet was born.
The men attending the mawlid -- a celebration of the birth and life of Muhammad -- sat on colorful rugs, rocking gently back and forth, while the women, on the upper floor watching via a large projection screen, passed around boxes of tissues and wiped tears from their eyes.
The centuries-old mawlid, a mainstay of the more spiritual and often mystic Sufi Islam, was until recently viewed as heretical and banned by Saudi Arabia's official religious establishment, the ultraconservative Wahhabis. But a new atmosphere of increased religious tolerance has spurred a resurgence of Sufism and brought the once-underground Sufis and their rituals out in the open.
Analysts and some Sufis partly credit reaction to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States for the atmosphere that has made the changes possible. When it was discovered that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi, the kingdom's strict Wahhabi doctrine -- which had banned all other sects and schools of thought -- came under intense scrutiny from inside and outside the country. The newfound tolerance Sufis have come to enjoy is perhaps one of the most concrete outcomes of that shift.
"This is one of the blessings of September 11. It put the brakes on the [Wahhabi] practice of takfir , excommunicating everyone who didn't exactly follow their creed," said Sayed Habib Adnan, a 33-year-old Sufi teacher. The government "realized that maybe enforcing one religious belief over all others was not such a good idea."
Sufis here say they are not a separate sect or followers of a separate religion, but adherents to a way of life based on the Muslim concept of ihsan . Muhammad explained ihsan to the angel Gabriel as "worshiping God as if you see Him. Because if you don't see Him, He sees you." Another Sufi characteristic is a strong belief in the power of blessings from the prophet, his close relatives and his companions.
Sufism had previously been predominant in Hejaz, the western region of Saudi Arabia, which includes Muhammad's birthplace, Mecca; Medina, where he is buried; and the Red Sea port city of Jiddah. Muslims prayed often at shrines where the prophet's daughter Fatima, his wife Khadija and his companions were buried. Mawlids were public affairs with entire cities decked out in lights, and parades and festivities commemorating the prophet's birthday and his ascension to Jerusalem.
When the al-Saud family that would later come to rule Saudi Arabia took over Hejaz in the 1920s, the Wahhabis banned mawlids as a form of heresy and destroyed the historic shrines of Khadija, Fatima and the prophet's companions, fearing they would lead to idolatry and polytheism.
Discrimination against Sufis, among others, intensified after armed Wahhabi extremists took over Mecca's Grand Mosque in 1979, demanding that a more puritanical form of Islam be applied in the country. Though the government quelled the uprising and executed its leaders, authorities were shaken by the incident, and lest other Wahhabis defy them, they allowed them more rein.
Soon after, extremist clerics issued a religious edict, or fatwa, declaring Sufi's spiritual leader, Muhammad Alawi Malki, a nonbeliever. He was removed from his teaching position, banned from giving lessons at the Grand Mosque, where both his father and grandfather had taught, and interrogated by the religious police and the Interior Ministry. After Malki was later attacked by a throng of radicals incensed at his presence in the mosque, he could pray there only under armed guard.
Meanwhile, thousands of cassettes and booklets circulated calling Sufis "grave-lovers" and dangerous infidels who had to be stopped before they made a comeback. Their salons were raided, and those caught with Sufi literature were often arrested or jailed.
The tide finally turned in 2003, with the new atmosphere that took hold following the Sept. 11 attacks, when the future King Abdullah, then the crown prince, held a series of meetings to acknowledge the country's diverse sects and schools of thought. One of the guests was Sufi leader Malki. When he died the following year, Abdullah and the powerful defense and interior ministers attended his funeral. The rehabilitation of his legacy was almost complete.
But many Sufis complain that despite outward appearances, Wahhabis continue to destroy shrines in and around their holy places, their salons continue to be raided and their literature is still banned.
Muhammad Jastaniya, a 20-year-old economics major and part of a new wave of young Saudis who have embraced Sufism, said what drew him was the focus on God.
On a recent moonlit evening, Jastaniya sipped sugary mint tea with his friends on rugs spread on the rooftop of a Zawiya, or lodge where Sufis go to meditate, chant or sit in on lessons. The words 'God' and 'Muhammad' were written in green neon lights, and Islam's 99 names for God were stenciled in black paint around the wall. "To be a Sufi is to clear your heart of everything but God," he explained. "The Islam we were taught here is like a body without a soul. Sufism is the soul. It's not an alternative religion -- it can contain all Muslims."
That thought seems to be taking hold, even in faraway corners.
Salman al-Odah, the country's most popular puritanical cleric, who was jailed in the 1990s for opposing the presence of U.S. troops in the kingdom, accepted an invitation to visit Sufi cleric Abdallah Fadaaq's mawlid and lesson last week. The scene at Fadaaq's house was an obvious sign of conciliation.
Tuesday, May 2, 2006
A hush came over the crowd as the young man sitting cross-legged on the floor picked up the microphone and sang, a cappella, a poem about Islam's prophet Muhammad. His eyes shut tight, his head covered by an orange-and-white turban, he crooned with barely contained ardor of how the world rejoiced and lights filled the skies the day the prophet was born.
The men attending the mawlid -- a celebration of the birth and life of Muhammad -- sat on colorful rugs, rocking gently back and forth, while the women, on the upper floor watching via a large projection screen, passed around boxes of tissues and wiped tears from their eyes.
The centuries-old mawlid, a mainstay of the more spiritual and often mystic Sufi Islam, was until recently viewed as heretical and banned by Saudi Arabia's official religious establishment, the ultraconservative Wahhabis. But a new atmosphere of increased religious tolerance has spurred a resurgence of Sufism and brought the once-underground Sufis and their rituals out in the open.
Analysts and some Sufis partly credit reaction to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States for the atmosphere that has made the changes possible. When it was discovered that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi, the kingdom's strict Wahhabi doctrine -- which had banned all other sects and schools of thought -- came under intense scrutiny from inside and outside the country. The newfound tolerance Sufis have come to enjoy is perhaps one of the most concrete outcomes of that shift.
"This is one of the blessings of September 11. It put the brakes on the [Wahhabi] practice of takfir , excommunicating everyone who didn't exactly follow their creed," said Sayed Habib Adnan, a 33-year-old Sufi teacher. The government "realized that maybe enforcing one religious belief over all others was not such a good idea."
Sufis here say they are not a separate sect or followers of a separate religion, but adherents to a way of life based on the Muslim concept of ihsan . Muhammad explained ihsan to the angel Gabriel as "worshiping God as if you see Him. Because if you don't see Him, He sees you." Another Sufi characteristic is a strong belief in the power of blessings from the prophet, his close relatives and his companions.
Sufism had previously been predominant in Hejaz, the western region of Saudi Arabia, which includes Muhammad's birthplace, Mecca; Medina, where he is buried; and the Red Sea port city of Jiddah. Muslims prayed often at shrines where the prophet's daughter Fatima, his wife Khadija and his companions were buried. Mawlids were public affairs with entire cities decked out in lights, and parades and festivities commemorating the prophet's birthday and his ascension to Jerusalem.
When the al-Saud family that would later come to rule Saudi Arabia took over Hejaz in the 1920s, the Wahhabis banned mawlids as a form of heresy and destroyed the historic shrines of Khadija, Fatima and the prophet's companions, fearing they would lead to idolatry and polytheism.
Discrimination against Sufis, among others, intensified after armed Wahhabi extremists took over Mecca's Grand Mosque in 1979, demanding that a more puritanical form of Islam be applied in the country. Though the government quelled the uprising and executed its leaders, authorities were shaken by the incident, and lest other Wahhabis defy them, they allowed them more rein.
Soon after, extremist clerics issued a religious edict, or fatwa, declaring Sufi's spiritual leader, Muhammad Alawi Malki, a nonbeliever. He was removed from his teaching position, banned from giving lessons at the Grand Mosque, where both his father and grandfather had taught, and interrogated by the religious police and the Interior Ministry. After Malki was later attacked by a throng of radicals incensed at his presence in the mosque, he could pray there only under armed guard.
Meanwhile, thousands of cassettes and booklets circulated calling Sufis "grave-lovers" and dangerous infidels who had to be stopped before they made a comeback. Their salons were raided, and those caught with Sufi literature were often arrested or jailed.
The tide finally turned in 2003, with the new atmosphere that took hold following the Sept. 11 attacks, when the future King Abdullah, then the crown prince, held a series of meetings to acknowledge the country's diverse sects and schools of thought. One of the guests was Sufi leader Malki. When he died the following year, Abdullah and the powerful defense and interior ministers attended his funeral. The rehabilitation of his legacy was almost complete.
But many Sufis complain that despite outward appearances, Wahhabis continue to destroy shrines in and around their holy places, their salons continue to be raided and their literature is still banned.
Muhammad Jastaniya, a 20-year-old economics major and part of a new wave of young Saudis who have embraced Sufism, said what drew him was the focus on God.
On a recent moonlit evening, Jastaniya sipped sugary mint tea with his friends on rugs spread on the rooftop of a Zawiya, or lodge where Sufis go to meditate, chant or sit in on lessons. The words 'God' and 'Muhammad' were written in green neon lights, and Islam's 99 names for God were stenciled in black paint around the wall. "To be a Sufi is to clear your heart of everything but God," he explained. "The Islam we were taught here is like a body without a soul. Sufism is the soul. It's not an alternative religion -- it can contain all Muslims."
That thought seems to be taking hold, even in faraway corners.
Salman al-Odah, the country's most popular puritanical cleric, who was jailed in the 1990s for opposing the presence of U.S. troops in the kingdom, accepted an invitation to visit Sufi cleric Abdallah Fadaaq's mawlid and lesson last week. The scene at Fadaaq's house was an obvious sign of conciliation.
A Proverb with a Life of Its Own
By Manny Frishberg - Vision Magazine
Monday, May 01, 2006
Art springs up from all sorts of sources. Sometimes it's a product of chance occurrences and opportunities–call it “Kismet.” That is how two rabbis, a Protestant editor, a Muslim painter and a nonprofit publisher in Tennessee came together to create a work of love called The Animal's Lawsuit Against Humanity, updating a 10th century Islamic fable for the 21st.
Versions of the tale of how the animals came together to protest their treatment by humans had been told from India across the ancient trade roots west, but the first written version was penned by members of a Sufi sect somewhere around Basra, in Iraq, about 1100 years ago.
“In their version,” said Laytner, “it was the 25th of 51 letters which described the mysteries and meanings of life.”
Pakistani artist Kulsum Begum illustrated the story with about a dozen paintings that are reproduced in color plates throughout the book, commissioned by her patron, Princess Maha Muhammad al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia.
“We are friends with a lot of the King Faisal family in Arabia,” said Gray Henry, director of Fons Vitae, the nonprofit publisher that has produced the lavishly illustrated paperback. “One of his granddaughters... took over the expense and effort of getting all these illustrations, which took a really long time.”
“It's really a collective endeavor, ”said Rabbi Laytner. “An Arabic Sufi tale that was translated by a rabbi into Hebrew in the Middle Ages and was translated by us, with a Sufi publisher and a Pakistani Muslim artist.”
To learn more about The Animal's Lawsuit Against Humanity, including to order copies, go to www.fonsvitae.com.
We were forced to fire: Vadodara police
By Sheela Bhatt - Rediff.com - New Delhi, India
Monday, May 1, 2006
Following the communal tension at Fatehpur, near the Champaner Gates in Vadodara, a large part of the old city has been placed under curfew. Two people have been killed and seven injured in the violence.
"We were forced to fire at the crowd," said Deepak Swaroop, Vadodara city police commissioner, while talking to rediff.com.
While giving chronology of the events, Swaroop said, "The demolition drive has been on for the last 15 days, as per the master plan of the city. There were orders to demolish any kind of encroachment, whether it's a temple or a mosque or any illegal construction in the house of a senior officer."
He added, "As per the order, some temples, too, have been demolished. Today it was the turn of the dargah of Rashidudin Rahimtullah, a Sufi saint." He said no-one knows exactly how old the dargah is but 'it has been here for many decades'.
Since the Muslim community had been agitated over the possibility of the demolitions, Swaroop had arranged meetings between Muslim leaders, the city mayor and the municipal commissioner. However, no consensus was reached and the court did not give a stay order on the demolitions.
"We were compelled to use force as a crowd of over 3000 people gheraoed the dargah. We first used tear gas, then we lathi-charged and only then did we fire, before the demolition work was completed," he said.
When asked why he did not delay the demolition, Swaroop said, "I used to pray at a Sai Baba temple right across from my house. Even that was demolished a few days back and I could do nothing about it."
Hemant Gandhi, a resident of Vadodara who witnessed the tussle around the dargah said, "We expect more tension because there are two other dargahs on the list to be demolished and one of them is in the middle of a road. We expect the tension to continue if the city corporation does not delay the demolition drive."
Monday, May 1, 2006
Following the communal tension at Fatehpur, near the Champaner Gates in Vadodara, a large part of the old city has been placed under curfew. Two people have been killed and seven injured in the violence.
"We were forced to fire at the crowd," said Deepak Swaroop, Vadodara city police commissioner, while talking to rediff.com.
While giving chronology of the events, Swaroop said, "The demolition drive has been on for the last 15 days, as per the master plan of the city. There were orders to demolish any kind of encroachment, whether it's a temple or a mosque or any illegal construction in the house of a senior officer."
He added, "As per the order, some temples, too, have been demolished. Today it was the turn of the dargah of Rashidudin Rahimtullah, a Sufi saint." He said no-one knows exactly how old the dargah is but 'it has been here for many decades'.
Since the Muslim community had been agitated over the possibility of the demolitions, Swaroop had arranged meetings between Muslim leaders, the city mayor and the municipal commissioner. However, no consensus was reached and the court did not give a stay order on the demolitions.
"We were compelled to use force as a crowd of over 3000 people gheraoed the dargah. We first used tear gas, then we lathi-charged and only then did we fire, before the demolition work was completed," he said.
When asked why he did not delay the demolition, Swaroop said, "I used to pray at a Sai Baba temple right across from my house. Even that was demolished a few days back and I could do nothing about it."
Hemant Gandhi, a resident of Vadodara who witnessed the tussle around the dargah said, "We expect more tension because there are two other dargahs on the list to be demolished and one of them is in the middle of a road. We expect the tension to continue if the city corporation does not delay the demolition drive."
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Sunday, October 22, 2006
Rockland peace delegation heads to Iran
By Khurram Saeed - The Journal News - Westchester, NY, U.S.A.
Monday, May 8, 2006
During the Cold War, Richard Deats led peace delegations to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe to let ordinary people speak for themselves, instead of governments.
Now Deats is at it again.
The Nyack man will be part of a delegation leaving today for Iran sponsored by the Fellowship of Reconciliation. FOR is an Upper Nyack-based interfaith pacifist organization and Deats is the former editor of its Fellowship magazine.
"We believe in what we call people-to-people diplomacy," Deats said. "You know, when Eisenhower was president, he said, 'The people of the world want peace so much that some day the governments are going to have get out of the way and let them have it.' "
This will be FOR's second peace mission to Iran in six months. It comes at a time when tensions between the leaders of the United States and Iran are rising over Iran's nuclear power program. President Bush has threatened military action and economic sanctions, but Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has refused to back down.
"What we need right now is to defuse the hostile rhetoric," said Deats, a Methodist minister.
Deats will be joined by 23 others for the 12-day stay in Iran. They include a leaders of various Christian denominations, an expert of Sufism, an art professor from Philadelphia, a Middle East professor and graduate students.
Hossein Alizadeh, who heads FOR's Iran Initiative, said securing passage for the travelers wasn't easy. Some in Iran, an Islamic theocracy, are suspicious of Americans entering their country and influencing their citizens, he said.
But visas were issued, and the delegation plans to meet with Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Zoroastrian leaders, college students, journalists and nongovernment organizations, including one that serves women and another that focuses on the environment.
Read More
Monday, May 8, 2006
During the Cold War, Richard Deats led peace delegations to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe to let ordinary people speak for themselves, instead of governments.
Now Deats is at it again.
The Nyack man will be part of a delegation leaving today for Iran sponsored by the Fellowship of Reconciliation. FOR is an Upper Nyack-based interfaith pacifist organization and Deats is the former editor of its Fellowship magazine.
"We believe in what we call people-to-people diplomacy," Deats said. "You know, when Eisenhower was president, he said, 'The people of the world want peace so much that some day the governments are going to have get out of the way and let them have it.' "
This will be FOR's second peace mission to Iran in six months. It comes at a time when tensions between the leaders of the United States and Iran are rising over Iran's nuclear power program. President Bush has threatened military action and economic sanctions, but Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has refused to back down.
"What we need right now is to defuse the hostile rhetoric," said Deats, a Methodist minister.
Deats will be joined by 23 others for the 12-day stay in Iran. They include a leaders of various Christian denominations, an expert of Sufism, an art professor from Philadelphia, a Middle East professor and graduate students.
Hossein Alizadeh, who heads FOR's Iran Initiative, said securing passage for the travelers wasn't easy. Some in Iran, an Islamic theocracy, are suspicious of Americans entering their country and influencing their citizens, he said.
But visas were issued, and the delegation plans to meet with Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Zoroastrian leaders, college students, journalists and nongovernment organizations, including one that serves women and another that focuses on the environment.
Concert with Molana lyrics
Iran-Music-US - IRNA, Islamic Republic News Agency
Sunday, May 7, 2006
The US Petersburg Symphonic Orchestra will, for the first time, perform a concert with lyrics composed of works of a renowned Iranian poet on May 12-14.
According to the English-language 'Iran Daily', the concert, with lyrics composed of works of the prominent Iranian mystic and poet Molana Jalaleddin Rumi is to be held in Pennsylvania.
The concert titled 'Essence of Love' was composed by a distinguished Iranian composer Reza Vaali who is a music instructor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania.
Vaali was a graduate from Tehran's Academy of Music when he moved to Austria in 1972 and succeeded to receive his PhD in theoretical music and composition from Petersburg University in 1985.
He composed 'Essence of Love' in form of five alternative songs based on Molana's poems.
Molana Jalaleddin Mohammad Rumi, is a 13th century Persian poet, jurist, theologian and teacher of Sufism. (1207-1273 CE), whose works are translated in many languages.
The concert, which will be held in Heinz Hall in the center of Petersburg, is expected to be a hit among the Americans in view of the universal fame of Molana in poetry and mysticism as well as Vaali's erudition in music.
An online poetry contest is also organized by the orchestra for those who buy tickets of the event.
The objective of the contest is to honor the great Iranian poet whose poems are at the core of the event, it said.
Read More
Sunday, May 7, 2006
The US Petersburg Symphonic Orchestra will, for the first time, perform a concert with lyrics composed of works of a renowned Iranian poet on May 12-14.
According to the English-language 'Iran Daily', the concert, with lyrics composed of works of the prominent Iranian mystic and poet Molana Jalaleddin Rumi is to be held in Pennsylvania.
The concert titled 'Essence of Love' was composed by a distinguished Iranian composer Reza Vaali who is a music instructor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania.
Vaali was a graduate from Tehran's Academy of Music when he moved to Austria in 1972 and succeeded to receive his PhD in theoretical music and composition from Petersburg University in 1985.
He composed 'Essence of Love' in form of five alternative songs based on Molana's poems.
Molana Jalaleddin Mohammad Rumi, is a 13th century Persian poet, jurist, theologian and teacher of Sufism. (1207-1273 CE), whose works are translated in many languages.
The concert, which will be held in Heinz Hall in the center of Petersburg, is expected to be a hit among the Americans in view of the universal fame of Molana in poetry and mysticism as well as Vaali's erudition in music.
An online poetry contest is also organized by the orchestra for those who buy tickets of the event.
The objective of the contest is to honor the great Iranian poet whose poems are at the core of the event, it said.
Mimetic Warfare: "Gnosticism" and "Traditionalism" as Weapons of Disinformation
By br Dr. Robert Dickson Crane - TAM The American Muslim
Sunday, May 7, 2006
Almost two thousand years ago, the entire known world, i.e., from India to Morocco, was convulsed with so-called Christian heresies. Allegedly the most vicious of them all was known in Rome and Constantinople as “gnosticism,” which taught that each individual person has access to God without going through mediation and redemption by Jesus Christ.
Many centuries later, in the 18th century after Christ a movement arose in England known eventually as philosophical “traditionalism” and in its political expression as Whigism. Its roots go back to the Glorious Revolution of 1688, when William of Orange and his wife, Mary, crossed the narrow seas between France and England to eliminate the English King Charles II and his alleged efforts to reimpose Vatican rule. It blossomed throughout the 18th century as the “Scottish Enlightenment” and laid the philosophical foundation toward the end of the century for the American Revolution and the American Constitution. The Scottish Enlightenment was the opposite of the European Enightenment because it served to revive a dying tradition of enlightened religion in human affairs rather than to introduce “enlightened” rational thought as a means to destroy the role of all religion in public life.
These two movements in the history of Western thought, so-called gnosticism and so-called traditionalism, are again being revived variously to attack Islam and to revive awareness of its contribution to Western civilization. Oddly, the ancient form of demonization known as “gnosticism” is being revived by “Paleo-Conservatives,” also known as self-proclaimed “modern traditionalists,” in their efforts to combat both Islam and Neo-Conservatism as the two twenty-first-century threats to order, justice, and liberty.
This complex phenomenon was raised but not addressed in a colloquium on The Nature of Evil published in the April, 2005, edition of the online journal, The American Muslim. This colloquium, in turn, triggered some emotional discussion of probably the best presentation of Islamic traditionalism ever drafted. This presentation, drafted by Shaykh Rashid al Ghanouchi, head of the illegal Nahda party in Tunisia, and others who no longer wish to be identified, is known as the platform of the Halaqa al Asala wa Taqadun (Circle of Tradition and Progress). The complete text is available on pages 79-81 in the chapter entitled “Ecumenical Justice Versus the Pagan Empire,” in my monograph, The Grand Strategy of Justice, Islamic Institute for Strategic Studies, Policy Paper No. 5, April 2000, P.O. Box 303, Washington, Virginia 22747.
This statement referred to the two giants of traditionalist thought, Edmund Burke and Russell Kirk, but included also Eric Voegelin and Gerhart Niemeyer as examples of traditionalist thinkers. This raised a highly controversial issue, because Voegelin is the most articulate modern thinker who condemns Gnosticism as the greatest threat to traditionalist thought. Whereas the traditionalist, Robert Strausz-Hupe, who is erroneously claimed by Daniel Pipes and other Neo-Cons as their original mentor, regarded Islam more than half a century ago as possibly America’s greatest ally against totalitarian systems, more recently key intellectuals are condemning Islam in the world today as the re-emergence of the deadly Gnostic pandemic.
In my follow-up emails to the colloquium on The Nature of Evil, I called attention to articles published in the Winter 2005 issue of Modern Age, which has been the intellectual mainstay of traditionalist thought in America ever since Russell Kirk founded it in 1957. Two articles attempt to turn gnosticism into a stalking horse as the opposite of traditionalism, when, in fact, gnosticism as I understand it is quite compatible with traditionalism and in many ways synonymous with it. These two are Michael Henry’s “Civil Theology in the Gnostic Age: Progress and Regress,” and R. V. Young’s “Harold Bloom: the Critic as Gnostic.”
My own writings on gnosticism have evolved over the decades, ever since I wrote a dissertation at Northwestern University in 1955-1956, entitled, The Political Origins of Heresy in the First Six Christian Centuries. My writings thirty and more years ago ascribed the secular utopias of Communism, Nazism, and Apocalyptic Zionism to a gnostic concept of human perfectability and to the resultant rationale for creating perfection through social engineering on earth. Further study, however, suggested to me that this negative view of Gonosticism is a direct descendent of the third-century and fourth-century efforts of Christian orthodox theologians to demonize those who denied the divinity of Christ. The charge was that these people believed salvation can come from direct knowledge of God and submission to God rather than only from joining the vicarious atonement of Jesus for one’s sins. The related charge was that such heretics deny original sin and therefore are vulnerable to utopian dreams of perfecting the material world through their own intellect rather than perfecting themselves through the grace of God.
The first charge about the direct relationship between the human person and the transcendent God is no doubt true, but the second charge of triumphalist utopianism does not accord with my understanding of gnosticism. Gnosticism in history accords with what we now call Sufism, and Sufis would be the last to reject transcendence in favor of immanence and to seek the City of God on earth.
Young writes that, “Gnosticism is a religious conspiracy theory ... based on a radical dualism ... that offers salvation on the basis of occult knowledge.” He quotes Han Jonas’ critique of gnosticism: “[In Gnosticism] the deity is absolutely Transmundane, its nature alien to that of the universe, which it neither created nor governs and to which it is the complete antithesis; to the divine realm of light, self-contained and remote, the cosmos is opposed as the realm of darkness. The world is the work of lowly powers which though they may mediately be descended from Him do not know the true God and obstruct knowledge of Him in the cosmos over which they rule.” This charge may be true concerning extremist elements in both Muslim Sufism and in the more generic phenomenon of Gnosticism, but it is totally off base in describing their classical expressions.
The evil nature of using the Gnostic analogy to demonize Islam is most strikingly brought out, as I have discussed it in many of my articles, in the assertion by Richard John Neuhaus, editor of the leading Neo-Conservative religious publication, First Things, that Muslims can have no personal relationship with God, that therefore they can have no understanding of human rights, and that accordingly they can not even understand what democracy is all about. This is a standard think-tank trick of taking the core of one’s opponents beliefs, turning them on their head, and then accusing one’s opponent of exactly the opposite of what the opponent actually believes. Such forms of deliberately reversing truth and falsehood are known as diabolism or as the Work of the Anti-Christ (the Messiah al Dajjal)..
The Gnostic disease that has caused evil in the modern world, according to anti-Islamic traditionalists (which should be recognized as an oxymoron), consists in rejecting St. Augustine’s emphasis on personal sin separating the person from God and repentance through the help of divine grace. Instead, says Young, “The Gnostics’ teaching places the origin of evil, of pain and suffering, in the conditions of the material creation; salvation involves overcoming ignorance and escaping these external conditions by finding divinity within.”
Young castigates Gnosticism further as follows: “The Gnostic finds the beginning of the path to salvation in the realization that the world is a great imposture, a prison of pain and frustration. His escape lies in recovering the intrinsic good within himself, the principle of
illumination that he shares with other enlightened spirits. ... What makes it possible for the self and God to commune so freely is that the self already is of God.” Perhaps Young is confusing panentheism with pantheism, i.e., the belief that the transcendent God is in the immanent universe with the belief that the universe is God and that nothing is transcendent.
He continues, “The ancient Gnostics, Sigmund Freud, and Harold Bloom all share a loathing of the Christian vision of reality, which sees mankind’s willful disobedience and fallen nature as the principal source of his misery and of the evil in a world created good. ... The alternative is the Gnostic and Freudian view, ... [whereby] our hope lies not in acknowledging and submitting to the moral reality of our situation, but in overcoming or even transforming it.” He then goes on to his paradigm-forming conclusion about the evils of the modern world: “Marxism is a good example of the similarity between Gnosticism and many modern ideologies.”
The impact on political thought of Gnosticism recreated as a bugbear of conservatism, is discussed in the second article, “Civil Theology in the Gnostic Age,” by Michael Henry, who teaches philosophy at St. John’s University in New York (not the St. John’s in Annapolis and Santa Fe) and is series editor of the Library of Conservative Thought of Transaction Publishers. He defines Gnosticism as “a somewhat deformed version of Christianity that seeks immanent salvation through human action in a redivinized world in which humanity is the locus of the divine.”
Henry then develops his well-based traditionalist critique of Neo-Conservatives, whose mission to perfect the world represents a “re-irruption” of Gnosticism in the concept of “enlightened liberty [consisting in] an emphasis on personal gratification and the isolation of individual desires rather than the community of shared participation in transcendence. Americans came to see themselves as the saviors of the world through their achievement of the most rational order that maximizes individual freedom and earthly happiness ... guaranteeing earthly happiness through democracy.”
He then writes, quite soundly in reference to Neo-Conservatism but quite erroneously in reference to Gnosticism, that, “As Voegelin has pointed out, positivism is another variety of Gnosticism through its reduction of reality to the immanent. ... If the public philosophy means that liberty is the possession of rights determined by the citizens’ preferences, then order is merely the absence of chaos but has no positive content or meaning. ... Having no substantial truth in itself [democracy] worships freedom, which means that it appeals to relativism and the related skepticism - which is quite the opposite of Voegelin’s characterization of the nature of man as ‘openness to transcendence’.”
Since the term “Gnosticism” is central to the apologetics of American traditionalist savants, we, as traditionalists from the Islamic tradition, should address what we have in common with the Christian traditionalists. This does not include the demonization of Gnosticism, which suggests that we need to use other terms that have less historical baggage.
Rather than throwing the baby out with the bathwater, perhaps we should change the bathtub. Whether we call the paradigm liberalism, conservatism, or neo this or paleo that, is not as important as the content of the terms we are using. I abandoned my self-description as conservative a long time ago, because most people who like this term are simply reactionary. Facetiously, I call my self a prolicon, as in lepracon, meaning progressive, liberal, conservative. But actually I am none of those.
Why abandon the term traditionalism merely because it has been hijacked by people who do not understand it and have perverted it into a neo-traditionalism, the way the neo-conservatives have perverted their origins? I have no problem with “classical liberalism,” but only if we understand that classical liberalism is similar to what I call classical traditionalism, which is quite the opposite of modern libertarianism and its opposite, neo-traditionalism.
Libertarianism refuses to recognize any transcendent framework for either human responsibilities or human rights. Classical liberalism, on the other hand, can recognize freedom as both the purpose and product of transcendent justice. The highest goal, however, as propounded throughout the Qur’an, is truth and justice.
The weakness of the so-called traditionalism of Voegelin is that he seems to reject anything similar in any religion other than Christianity, but at the same time rejects Christianity as anything more than an imperfect expression of his own ideas. His followers attack the triumphalism of the Neo-Cons but seem to replace it with their own brand.
Perhaps we need a better word to describe what classical Islam and classical Christianity share. Frithjof Schuon uses the term philosophia perennis, and this has been translated as universal traditionalism because it is the substance of what is traditional, perennial, or enduring in all religions. My suggestion is that we rescue the term traditionalism from those who would hijack it, rather than surrendering to the hijackers.
At a less philosophical level and even more profoundly the battle of the intellectual titans is really about the role of justice in the Plan of Allah. Justice divorced from the “Agenda of Allah” is self-referential and can amount to totalitarian self-worship. Worship of Allah divorced from justice is un-Islamic because it results in the same thing. This, of course, is why the third element of the Shi’i creed is so important, namely, nubuwiya, which serves to provide the wisdom necessary to maintain a mutually reinforcing balance between the first two elements.
All of this, unfortunately, has been totally missing from most Sunni thought for many centuries, which may be why the world of Sunni Islam has been so devastated by Western solypsism. Recovery and renewal are possible only by intra-faith cooperation among Muslims, which should be the basis of inter-faith cooperation with those of other religions who are being hijacked by their own forms of ultra- or neo-conservatism and ultra- or neo-liberalism.
We are engaged in mimetic warfare, which is the use of mimes in the form of words or symbols, to capture the sub-conscious of others without them knowing that they have been hijacked. The first rule of warfare is to know your enemy. The second is to know his strategy. Only then can we know better the nature good and evil.
Read More
Sunday, May 7, 2006
Almost two thousand years ago, the entire known world, i.e., from India to Morocco, was convulsed with so-called Christian heresies. Allegedly the most vicious of them all was known in Rome and Constantinople as “gnosticism,” which taught that each individual person has access to God without going through mediation and redemption by Jesus Christ.
Many centuries later, in the 18th century after Christ a movement arose in England known eventually as philosophical “traditionalism” and in its political expression as Whigism. Its roots go back to the Glorious Revolution of 1688, when William of Orange and his wife, Mary, crossed the narrow seas between France and England to eliminate the English King Charles II and his alleged efforts to reimpose Vatican rule. It blossomed throughout the 18th century as the “Scottish Enlightenment” and laid the philosophical foundation toward the end of the century for the American Revolution and the American Constitution. The Scottish Enlightenment was the opposite of the European Enightenment because it served to revive a dying tradition of enlightened religion in human affairs rather than to introduce “enlightened” rational thought as a means to destroy the role of all religion in public life.
These two movements in the history of Western thought, so-called gnosticism and so-called traditionalism, are again being revived variously to attack Islam and to revive awareness of its contribution to Western civilization. Oddly, the ancient form of demonization known as “gnosticism” is being revived by “Paleo-Conservatives,” also known as self-proclaimed “modern traditionalists,” in their efforts to combat both Islam and Neo-Conservatism as the two twenty-first-century threats to order, justice, and liberty.
This complex phenomenon was raised but not addressed in a colloquium on The Nature of Evil published in the April, 2005, edition of the online journal, The American Muslim. This colloquium, in turn, triggered some emotional discussion of probably the best presentation of Islamic traditionalism ever drafted. This presentation, drafted by Shaykh Rashid al Ghanouchi, head of the illegal Nahda party in Tunisia, and others who no longer wish to be identified, is known as the platform of the Halaqa al Asala wa Taqadun (Circle of Tradition and Progress). The complete text is available on pages 79-81 in the chapter entitled “Ecumenical Justice Versus the Pagan Empire,” in my monograph, The Grand Strategy of Justice, Islamic Institute for Strategic Studies, Policy Paper No. 5, April 2000, P.O. Box 303, Washington, Virginia 22747.
This statement referred to the two giants of traditionalist thought, Edmund Burke and Russell Kirk, but included also Eric Voegelin and Gerhart Niemeyer as examples of traditionalist thinkers. This raised a highly controversial issue, because Voegelin is the most articulate modern thinker who condemns Gnosticism as the greatest threat to traditionalist thought. Whereas the traditionalist, Robert Strausz-Hupe, who is erroneously claimed by Daniel Pipes and other Neo-Cons as their original mentor, regarded Islam more than half a century ago as possibly America’s greatest ally against totalitarian systems, more recently key intellectuals are condemning Islam in the world today as the re-emergence of the deadly Gnostic pandemic.
In my follow-up emails to the colloquium on The Nature of Evil, I called attention to articles published in the Winter 2005 issue of Modern Age, which has been the intellectual mainstay of traditionalist thought in America ever since Russell Kirk founded it in 1957. Two articles attempt to turn gnosticism into a stalking horse as the opposite of traditionalism, when, in fact, gnosticism as I understand it is quite compatible with traditionalism and in many ways synonymous with it. These two are Michael Henry’s “Civil Theology in the Gnostic Age: Progress and Regress,” and R. V. Young’s “Harold Bloom: the Critic as Gnostic.”
My own writings on gnosticism have evolved over the decades, ever since I wrote a dissertation at Northwestern University in 1955-1956, entitled, The Political Origins of Heresy in the First Six Christian Centuries. My writings thirty and more years ago ascribed the secular utopias of Communism, Nazism, and Apocalyptic Zionism to a gnostic concept of human perfectability and to the resultant rationale for creating perfection through social engineering on earth. Further study, however, suggested to me that this negative view of Gonosticism is a direct descendent of the third-century and fourth-century efforts of Christian orthodox theologians to demonize those who denied the divinity of Christ. The charge was that these people believed salvation can come from direct knowledge of God and submission to God rather than only from joining the vicarious atonement of Jesus for one’s sins. The related charge was that such heretics deny original sin and therefore are vulnerable to utopian dreams of perfecting the material world through their own intellect rather than perfecting themselves through the grace of God.
The first charge about the direct relationship between the human person and the transcendent God is no doubt true, but the second charge of triumphalist utopianism does not accord with my understanding of gnosticism. Gnosticism in history accords with what we now call Sufism, and Sufis would be the last to reject transcendence in favor of immanence and to seek the City of God on earth.
Young writes that, “Gnosticism is a religious conspiracy theory ... based on a radical dualism ... that offers salvation on the basis of occult knowledge.” He quotes Han Jonas’ critique of gnosticism: “[In Gnosticism] the deity is absolutely Transmundane, its nature alien to that of the universe, which it neither created nor governs and to which it is the complete antithesis; to the divine realm of light, self-contained and remote, the cosmos is opposed as the realm of darkness. The world is the work of lowly powers which though they may mediately be descended from Him do not know the true God and obstruct knowledge of Him in the cosmos over which they rule.” This charge may be true concerning extremist elements in both Muslim Sufism and in the more generic phenomenon of Gnosticism, but it is totally off base in describing their classical expressions.
The evil nature of using the Gnostic analogy to demonize Islam is most strikingly brought out, as I have discussed it in many of my articles, in the assertion by Richard John Neuhaus, editor of the leading Neo-Conservative religious publication, First Things, that Muslims can have no personal relationship with God, that therefore they can have no understanding of human rights, and that accordingly they can not even understand what democracy is all about. This is a standard think-tank trick of taking the core of one’s opponents beliefs, turning them on their head, and then accusing one’s opponent of exactly the opposite of what the opponent actually believes. Such forms of deliberately reversing truth and falsehood are known as diabolism or as the Work of the Anti-Christ (the Messiah al Dajjal)..
The Gnostic disease that has caused evil in the modern world, according to anti-Islamic traditionalists (which should be recognized as an oxymoron), consists in rejecting St. Augustine’s emphasis on personal sin separating the person from God and repentance through the help of divine grace. Instead, says Young, “The Gnostics’ teaching places the origin of evil, of pain and suffering, in the conditions of the material creation; salvation involves overcoming ignorance and escaping these external conditions by finding divinity within.”
Young castigates Gnosticism further as follows: “The Gnostic finds the beginning of the path to salvation in the realization that the world is a great imposture, a prison of pain and frustration. His escape lies in recovering the intrinsic good within himself, the principle of
illumination that he shares with other enlightened spirits. ... What makes it possible for the self and God to commune so freely is that the self already is of God.” Perhaps Young is confusing panentheism with pantheism, i.e., the belief that the transcendent God is in the immanent universe with the belief that the universe is God and that nothing is transcendent.
He continues, “The ancient Gnostics, Sigmund Freud, and Harold Bloom all share a loathing of the Christian vision of reality, which sees mankind’s willful disobedience and fallen nature as the principal source of his misery and of the evil in a world created good. ... The alternative is the Gnostic and Freudian view, ... [whereby] our hope lies not in acknowledging and submitting to the moral reality of our situation, but in overcoming or even transforming it.” He then goes on to his paradigm-forming conclusion about the evils of the modern world: “Marxism is a good example of the similarity between Gnosticism and many modern ideologies.”
The impact on political thought of Gnosticism recreated as a bugbear of conservatism, is discussed in the second article, “Civil Theology in the Gnostic Age,” by Michael Henry, who teaches philosophy at St. John’s University in New York (not the St. John’s in Annapolis and Santa Fe) and is series editor of the Library of Conservative Thought of Transaction Publishers. He defines Gnosticism as “a somewhat deformed version of Christianity that seeks immanent salvation through human action in a redivinized world in which humanity is the locus of the divine.”
Henry then develops his well-based traditionalist critique of Neo-Conservatives, whose mission to perfect the world represents a “re-irruption” of Gnosticism in the concept of “enlightened liberty [consisting in] an emphasis on personal gratification and the isolation of individual desires rather than the community of shared participation in transcendence. Americans came to see themselves as the saviors of the world through their achievement of the most rational order that maximizes individual freedom and earthly happiness ... guaranteeing earthly happiness through democracy.”
He then writes, quite soundly in reference to Neo-Conservatism but quite erroneously in reference to Gnosticism, that, “As Voegelin has pointed out, positivism is another variety of Gnosticism through its reduction of reality to the immanent. ... If the public philosophy means that liberty is the possession of rights determined by the citizens’ preferences, then order is merely the absence of chaos but has no positive content or meaning. ... Having no substantial truth in itself [democracy] worships freedom, which means that it appeals to relativism and the related skepticism - which is quite the opposite of Voegelin’s characterization of the nature of man as ‘openness to transcendence’.”
Since the term “Gnosticism” is central to the apologetics of American traditionalist savants, we, as traditionalists from the Islamic tradition, should address what we have in common with the Christian traditionalists. This does not include the demonization of Gnosticism, which suggests that we need to use other terms that have less historical baggage.
Rather than throwing the baby out with the bathwater, perhaps we should change the bathtub. Whether we call the paradigm liberalism, conservatism, or neo this or paleo that, is not as important as the content of the terms we are using. I abandoned my self-description as conservative a long time ago, because most people who like this term are simply reactionary. Facetiously, I call my self a prolicon, as in lepracon, meaning progressive, liberal, conservative. But actually I am none of those.
Why abandon the term traditionalism merely because it has been hijacked by people who do not understand it and have perverted it into a neo-traditionalism, the way the neo-conservatives have perverted their origins? I have no problem with “classical liberalism,” but only if we understand that classical liberalism is similar to what I call classical traditionalism, which is quite the opposite of modern libertarianism and its opposite, neo-traditionalism.
Libertarianism refuses to recognize any transcendent framework for either human responsibilities or human rights. Classical liberalism, on the other hand, can recognize freedom as both the purpose and product of transcendent justice. The highest goal, however, as propounded throughout the Qur’an, is truth and justice.
The weakness of the so-called traditionalism of Voegelin is that he seems to reject anything similar in any religion other than Christianity, but at the same time rejects Christianity as anything more than an imperfect expression of his own ideas. His followers attack the triumphalism of the Neo-Cons but seem to replace it with their own brand.
Perhaps we need a better word to describe what classical Islam and classical Christianity share. Frithjof Schuon uses the term philosophia perennis, and this has been translated as universal traditionalism because it is the substance of what is traditional, perennial, or enduring in all religions. My suggestion is that we rescue the term traditionalism from those who would hijack it, rather than surrendering to the hijackers.
At a less philosophical level and even more profoundly the battle of the intellectual titans is really about the role of justice in the Plan of Allah. Justice divorced from the “Agenda of Allah” is self-referential and can amount to totalitarian self-worship. Worship of Allah divorced from justice is un-Islamic because it results in the same thing. This, of course, is why the third element of the Shi’i creed is so important, namely, nubuwiya, which serves to provide the wisdom necessary to maintain a mutually reinforcing balance between the first two elements.
All of this, unfortunately, has been totally missing from most Sunni thought for many centuries, which may be why the world of Sunni Islam has been so devastated by Western solypsism. Recovery and renewal are possible only by intra-faith cooperation among Muslims, which should be the basis of inter-faith cooperation with those of other religions who are being hijacked by their own forms of ultra- or neo-conservatism and ultra- or neo-liberalism.
We are engaged in mimetic warfare, which is the use of mimes in the form of words or symbols, to capture the sub-conscious of others without them knowing that they have been hijacked. The first rule of warfare is to know your enemy. The second is to know his strategy. Only then can we know better the nature good and evil.
Sufi Insight
Sacred Space - The Times of India
Sunday, May 7, 2006
Not Christian, Jew or Muslim, not Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi or Zen. Not any religion, or cultural system. I am not from the East or the West, nor out of the ocean or up from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not composed of elements at all.
I do not exist, am not an entity in this world or the next, did not descend from Adam and Eve or any origin story. My place is placeless, a trace of the traceless. Neither body nor soul.
I belong to the beloved have seen the two worlds as one and that one call to and know, First, last, outer, inner, only that breath breathing human being.
Jalaluddin Rumi
Whatever you have in your mind — forget it; Whatever you have in your hand — give it; Whatever is to be your fate — face it!
Abu Sa'id
A seeker went to ask a sage for guidance on the Sufi way. The sage counselled, "If you have never trodden the path of love, go away and fall in love; then come back and see us".
Jami
Read More
Sunday, May 7, 2006
Not Christian, Jew or Muslim, not Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi or Zen. Not any religion, or cultural system. I am not from the East or the West, nor out of the ocean or up from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not composed of elements at all.
I do not exist, am not an entity in this world or the next, did not descend from Adam and Eve or any origin story. My place is placeless, a trace of the traceless. Neither body nor soul.
I belong to the beloved have seen the two worlds as one and that one call to and know, First, last, outer, inner, only that breath breathing human being.
Jalaluddin Rumi
Whatever you have in your mind — forget it; Whatever you have in your hand — give it; Whatever is to be your fate — face it!
Abu Sa'id
A seeker went to ask a sage for guidance on the Sufi way. The sage counselled, "If you have never trodden the path of love, go away and fall in love; then come back and see us".
Jami
Sufism - Its Origin and Impact on Indian Islam
By Asghar Ali Engineer - TAM The American Muslim
Thursday, May 4, 2006
Sufism has recently gained in popularity outside Muslim circles, particularly Sufi music. Sufi music is attracting attention internationally. Sufi music congregations are taking place in several western countries, particularly in USA. Maulana Rumi, a great Sufi saint has become tremendously popular in USA in post-9/11 situation when Islam is being targeted as religion of jihad.
What is Sufism and when did it originate? What are its doctrines? What is its relation with orthodox Islam? Does it reconcile with it or not? These are some important questions we will take up in this article.
Sufism, some scholars maintain during the Prophet’s (PBUH) life- time itself. It is not something different from Islam or different from Islamic teachings. It is more a question of attitude than teachings. Then the question arises is it in any way different from Islam and if so, in what respect?
Due to historical circumstances of Islam’s origin, it got associated with state power and some even began to theorise that political power cannot be separated from Islam. The two must go together. Thus struggles for political power unfortunately became part of Islamic state and this created a sense of alienation among many Muslims who did not see approvingly of these kept themselves aloof from power struggles and were instead drawn to spiritual side of Islam.
The Prophet (PBUH) of Islam himself was a unique combination of statecraft and spiritualism. For him statecraft was not meant for domination or exploitation but for providing just rule. However, this could not be expected of other Muslim rulers. Lust for power became their goal. Thus in a way Sufism originated with the Prophet himself as spiritual aspect dominated his life.
In fact some scholars have suggested that the word Sufism has its origin in suffa – a piece of rock – on which some of his followers used to sit outside his mosque and discuss religious matters. Some consider them as the first Sufis who were deeply concerned about spiritual aspects of life and were known in Islamic history as ahl-i-suffa.
Some Sufis were also concerned with just governance and setting up just social order in keeping with the Qur’anic teachings and hence participated in political struggles for this purpose but not in a struggle for political power. However, most of the Sufi saints maintained their distance from political Islam and concentrated on spiritual side.
As Sufis had maintained distance from political Islam, there were also differences with orthodox Ulama who concentrated on Shari’ah Islam i.e. legal Islam. The orthodox Ulama were so rigid that anyone who deviated from Shari’ah (i.e. from a particular legal school) was considered as kafir. Thus to these Ulama legal Islam was central, not spiritual Islam. Though many Sufis followed Shari’ah their emphasis was spiritual, not legal. Thus Sufis chose spiritual rather than political or legal Islam.
Since Sufis were concerned with spiritual more than legal, they were much more open to other spiritual traditions. Religion ultimately results in forming a community of believers and hence it leads to formation of an identity whereas spiritualism is not confined to any narrow boundary and does not result in identity formation. Sufis never hesitated in accepting other spiritual traditions.
In India too Sufis who mainly came from Central Asian regions whole-heartedly accepted Indian spiritual tradition and cultural practices. Many of them like Baba Farid preferred to write in local languages instead of Arabic or Persian. They even adopted local rituals and tradition. This made them quite popular among people and that is why they attracted Hindu masses.
Since these Sufi saints preferred to be in the company of poor and weaker sections of society instead of courtiers and upper class nobles, and they did not observe religious boundaries, they could acquire much popularity and they came to be deeply venerated by the masses both Muslim as well as Hindu. It is due to them that many low caste Hindus converted to Islam as they found more dignity and acceptability at their hands.
The Sufis became bridge between Hindus and Muslims and brought about the birth of composite culture at lower rungs of society. The Sufis of Chishti silsila (chain) believed in the doctrines of wahdat al-wujud (unity of Being) and sulh-i-kul (total peace, peace with all) and both these doctrines are quite helpful in building bridges between the communities. In fact the doctrine of wahdat al-wujud demolished all barriers between communities as real Being is One and all human beings are manifestation of this Real Being.
Sulh-i-kul (total peace and peace with all) was another doctrine that brought about cordial relations with all communities. No doubt than Sufis commanded respect from all communities and their dargahs (hospices) and their mausoleums became centres of attraction for people of all communities, especially the poor and downtrodden. The Sufi mausoleums even today attract large number of Hindus along with Muslims, be it dargah of Ajmer Sharif or dargah of Baba Gesu Daraz or that of Nizamuddin Awliya in Delhi.
Sufi Music
The orthodox Ulama considered music as haram (forbidden) but music was an integral part of Sufi Islam. The Sufis developed a special genre of music known as qawwali. Khusrau, the celebrated disciple of Nizamuddin Awliya composed qawwalis and Nizamuddin would listen to these qawwalis and fall into a trance. Khusrau was a great poet as well as musician. Qawwali became the powerful instrument of inducing spiritual trance. It is so soothing to the human soul. It transports one into inner world.
More the Sufis acquired popularity, more they came to be opposed by the orthodox Ulama. In fact orthodox Ulama considered them to be heretics. Moreover the Ulama jockeyed for positions in king’s court and maintained their distance from the poorer masses denouncing them as ‘impure’ and bad Muslims. They held these Sufi saints responsible for keeping them ‘impure’ and polluted with un-Islamic way of life. They also denounced the doctrine of wahdat al-wujud (Unity of Being) as un-Islamic as it demolished religious boundaries between Muslims and Non-Muslims.
Also, the Wahabi Islam, founded by Abdul Wahab in 18th century in what is now known as Saudi Arabia (Najd), opposed Sufi Islam and denounced it as kufr (unbelief) and all those Muslims who visit Sufi mausoleums as kafirs. Abdul Wahab played same role in Arabia as in 19th century India, played by founder of Arya Samaj Dayananda Saraswati. Dayanand denounced idol worship and gave slogan for back to Vedas. Abdul Wahab, denounced visit to dargahs and mausoleums and gave slogan for back to the Qur’an.
Thus there is direct clash between Wahabis and Sufis. Wahabi doctrines are rigid, narrow and lay stress on ‘purity’ and denounce any deviation for rigid dogmas as kufr. It is interesting to note that poor masses never accepted narrowly interpreted Wahabi Islam but readily accepted Sufi Islam with all its openness and liberality. Thus Sufi dargahs, as pointed out above, till today remain shared sacred spaces.
Since Sufi Islam lays stress on spiritualism, rather than on rigid dogmas it is becoming more acceptable in western countries despite their hatred of political Islam. The Sufi music because of its strong appeal to heart and soul is becoming so popular. As bhakti always attracted lower caste Hindus throughout ages in history, Sufism appealed to the poorer masses.
The fast and tense pace of life in modern societies makes sufism a soothing balm for the soul. Consumerism of modern capitalist society brings more tension rather than happiness in life. Instant pleasure of modern consumerism cannot provide inner and lasting happiness. Thus Sufism becomes popular both for idle classes in modern society as well as to poor suffering masses.
To both these classes Sufism acts as a soothing balm and much more so the Sufi music. Sufi singers like Abida Parveen and Nusrat Fatehally have made Sufi singing tremendously popular and their cassettes and CDs sell by thousands in the market. There are also groups like Junun from Pakistan, which combine Sufi music with today’s pop appeal.
In USA Maulana Rum’s Mathnavi (long epic poem) is selling briskly. Rumi is a Sufi poet and his poetry is full of spirituality and wisdom. Maulana Rumi was a great scholar and an Alim but one spiritual encounter with Shams Tabriz, a wandering Sufi from Persia, transformed Rumi completely. Rumi gave up his high status as an alim and began to roam around madly in love with Shams Tabriz and it was in this state of total involvement with Shams Tabriz he composed his Mathnavi.
Thus Sufi Islam which is opposite of political and legal Islam, is much more appealing to the people than rigid, doctrinaire orthodox Islam. And it is this spiritual appeal of Sufi music, which stirs our soul.
Read More
Thursday, May 4, 2006
Sufism has recently gained in popularity outside Muslim circles, particularly Sufi music. Sufi music is attracting attention internationally. Sufi music congregations are taking place in several western countries, particularly in USA. Maulana Rumi, a great Sufi saint has become tremendously popular in USA in post-9/11 situation when Islam is being targeted as religion of jihad.
What is Sufism and when did it originate? What are its doctrines? What is its relation with orthodox Islam? Does it reconcile with it or not? These are some important questions we will take up in this article.
Sufism, some scholars maintain during the Prophet’s (PBUH) life- time itself. It is not something different from Islam or different from Islamic teachings. It is more a question of attitude than teachings. Then the question arises is it in any way different from Islam and if so, in what respect?
Due to historical circumstances of Islam’s origin, it got associated with state power and some even began to theorise that political power cannot be separated from Islam. The two must go together. Thus struggles for political power unfortunately became part of Islamic state and this created a sense of alienation among many Muslims who did not see approvingly of these kept themselves aloof from power struggles and were instead drawn to spiritual side of Islam.
The Prophet (PBUH) of Islam himself was a unique combination of statecraft and spiritualism. For him statecraft was not meant for domination or exploitation but for providing just rule. However, this could not be expected of other Muslim rulers. Lust for power became their goal. Thus in a way Sufism originated with the Prophet himself as spiritual aspect dominated his life.
In fact some scholars have suggested that the word Sufism has its origin in suffa – a piece of rock – on which some of his followers used to sit outside his mosque and discuss religious matters. Some consider them as the first Sufis who were deeply concerned about spiritual aspects of life and were known in Islamic history as ahl-i-suffa.
Some Sufis were also concerned with just governance and setting up just social order in keeping with the Qur’anic teachings and hence participated in political struggles for this purpose but not in a struggle for political power. However, most of the Sufi saints maintained their distance from political Islam and concentrated on spiritual side.
As Sufis had maintained distance from political Islam, there were also differences with orthodox Ulama who concentrated on Shari’ah Islam i.e. legal Islam. The orthodox Ulama were so rigid that anyone who deviated from Shari’ah (i.e. from a particular legal school) was considered as kafir. Thus to these Ulama legal Islam was central, not spiritual Islam. Though many Sufis followed Shari’ah their emphasis was spiritual, not legal. Thus Sufis chose spiritual rather than political or legal Islam.
Since Sufis were concerned with spiritual more than legal, they were much more open to other spiritual traditions. Religion ultimately results in forming a community of believers and hence it leads to formation of an identity whereas spiritualism is not confined to any narrow boundary and does not result in identity formation. Sufis never hesitated in accepting other spiritual traditions.
In India too Sufis who mainly came from Central Asian regions whole-heartedly accepted Indian spiritual tradition and cultural practices. Many of them like Baba Farid preferred to write in local languages instead of Arabic or Persian. They even adopted local rituals and tradition. This made them quite popular among people and that is why they attracted Hindu masses.
Since these Sufi saints preferred to be in the company of poor and weaker sections of society instead of courtiers and upper class nobles, and they did not observe religious boundaries, they could acquire much popularity and they came to be deeply venerated by the masses both Muslim as well as Hindu. It is due to them that many low caste Hindus converted to Islam as they found more dignity and acceptability at their hands.
The Sufis became bridge between Hindus and Muslims and brought about the birth of composite culture at lower rungs of society. The Sufis of Chishti silsila (chain) believed in the doctrines of wahdat al-wujud (unity of Being) and sulh-i-kul (total peace, peace with all) and both these doctrines are quite helpful in building bridges between the communities. In fact the doctrine of wahdat al-wujud demolished all barriers between communities as real Being is One and all human beings are manifestation of this Real Being.
Sulh-i-kul (total peace and peace with all) was another doctrine that brought about cordial relations with all communities. No doubt than Sufis commanded respect from all communities and their dargahs (hospices) and their mausoleums became centres of attraction for people of all communities, especially the poor and downtrodden. The Sufi mausoleums even today attract large number of Hindus along with Muslims, be it dargah of Ajmer Sharif or dargah of Baba Gesu Daraz or that of Nizamuddin Awliya in Delhi.
Sufi Music
The orthodox Ulama considered music as haram (forbidden) but music was an integral part of Sufi Islam. The Sufis developed a special genre of music known as qawwali. Khusrau, the celebrated disciple of Nizamuddin Awliya composed qawwalis and Nizamuddin would listen to these qawwalis and fall into a trance. Khusrau was a great poet as well as musician. Qawwali became the powerful instrument of inducing spiritual trance. It is so soothing to the human soul. It transports one into inner world.
More the Sufis acquired popularity, more they came to be opposed by the orthodox Ulama. In fact orthodox Ulama considered them to be heretics. Moreover the Ulama jockeyed for positions in king’s court and maintained their distance from the poorer masses denouncing them as ‘impure’ and bad Muslims. They held these Sufi saints responsible for keeping them ‘impure’ and polluted with un-Islamic way of life. They also denounced the doctrine of wahdat al-wujud (Unity of Being) as un-Islamic as it demolished religious boundaries between Muslims and Non-Muslims.
Also, the Wahabi Islam, founded by Abdul Wahab in 18th century in what is now known as Saudi Arabia (Najd), opposed Sufi Islam and denounced it as kufr (unbelief) and all those Muslims who visit Sufi mausoleums as kafirs. Abdul Wahab played same role in Arabia as in 19th century India, played by founder of Arya Samaj Dayananda Saraswati. Dayanand denounced idol worship and gave slogan for back to Vedas. Abdul Wahab, denounced visit to dargahs and mausoleums and gave slogan for back to the Qur’an.
Thus there is direct clash between Wahabis and Sufis. Wahabi doctrines are rigid, narrow and lay stress on ‘purity’ and denounce any deviation for rigid dogmas as kufr. It is interesting to note that poor masses never accepted narrowly interpreted Wahabi Islam but readily accepted Sufi Islam with all its openness and liberality. Thus Sufi dargahs, as pointed out above, till today remain shared sacred spaces.
Since Sufi Islam lays stress on spiritualism, rather than on rigid dogmas it is becoming more acceptable in western countries despite their hatred of political Islam. The Sufi music because of its strong appeal to heart and soul is becoming so popular. As bhakti always attracted lower caste Hindus throughout ages in history, Sufism appealed to the poorer masses.
The fast and tense pace of life in modern societies makes sufism a soothing balm for the soul. Consumerism of modern capitalist society brings more tension rather than happiness in life. Instant pleasure of modern consumerism cannot provide inner and lasting happiness. Thus Sufism becomes popular both for idle classes in modern society as well as to poor suffering masses.
To both these classes Sufism acts as a soothing balm and much more so the Sufi music. Sufi singers like Abida Parveen and Nusrat Fatehally have made Sufi singing tremendously popular and their cassettes and CDs sell by thousands in the market. There are also groups like Junun from Pakistan, which combine Sufi music with today’s pop appeal.
In USA Maulana Rum’s Mathnavi (long epic poem) is selling briskly. Rumi is a Sufi poet and his poetry is full of spirituality and wisdom. Maulana Rumi was a great scholar and an Alim but one spiritual encounter with Shams Tabriz, a wandering Sufi from Persia, transformed Rumi completely. Rumi gave up his high status as an alim and began to roam around madly in love with Shams Tabriz and it was in this state of total involvement with Shams Tabriz he composed his Mathnavi.
Thus Sufi Islam which is opposite of political and legal Islam, is much more appealing to the people than rigid, doctrinaire orthodox Islam. And it is this spiritual appeal of Sufi music, which stirs our soul.
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Apolitical Sufis at Peace in Uzbekistan
May 2006 by By Igor Rotar, Forum 18 News Service. This is an excerpt from a longer article on Religion in Uzbekistan.
In Kokand (in the Uzbek section of the Fergana [Farghona] valley) there is an unregistered kanaka (Sufi monastery), where the leader of the Sufi Nakshbandi tarikat in Uzbekistan, Sheikh Ibrahim, teaches his murids (Sufi pupils). "We don't have any problems with the authorities," Sheikh Ibrahim told Forum 18 last November. "We are poets and mystics and are quite uninterested in political issues. Anyone who is interested in politics is not a Sufi follower. The state understands that we don't represent any danger to it, and doesn't touch us."
Forum 18 has established that the authorities generally do not prevent Sufi believers from meeting in private apartments to perform the zikr (a ritual dance). "After the terrorist attacks in March and April, many Sufi believers were called in to the NSS offices and asked about our meetings. But we were left in peace once they understood that we are removed from politics," Sabir Tokhirov, a surgeon and a Sufi follower, told Forum 18 on 28 March in the southern town of Karshi [Qarshi]. One explanation for the authorities' tolerant attitude towards Sufism is that this movement, in which regional customs are quite closely intertwined, is a reasonably effective alternative to fundamentalism – the main "enemy" of the authorities.
Read More
In Kokand (in the Uzbek section of the Fergana [Farghona] valley) there is an unregistered kanaka (Sufi monastery), where the leader of the Sufi Nakshbandi tarikat in Uzbekistan, Sheikh Ibrahim, teaches his murids (Sufi pupils). "We don't have any problems with the authorities," Sheikh Ibrahim told Forum 18 last November. "We are poets and mystics and are quite uninterested in political issues. Anyone who is interested in politics is not a Sufi follower. The state understands that we don't represent any danger to it, and doesn't touch us."
Forum 18 has established that the authorities generally do not prevent Sufi believers from meeting in private apartments to perform the zikr (a ritual dance). "After the terrorist attacks in March and April, many Sufi believers were called in to the NSS offices and asked about our meetings. But we were left in peace once they understood that we are removed from politics," Sabir Tokhirov, a surgeon and a Sufi follower, told Forum 18 on 28 March in the southern town of Karshi [Qarshi]. One explanation for the authorities' tolerant attitude towards Sufism is that this movement, in which regional customs are quite closely intertwined, is a reasonably effective alternative to fundamentalism – the main "enemy" of the authorities.
Moderate Muslims Seek Help From the Dalai Lama
Moderate Muslims Seek Help From the Dalai Lama
LA Times[Sunday, April 16, 2006 17:15]
By Louis Sahagun,
Times Staff Writer
THINKING GLOBALLY: The Dalai Lama, [above] right, listens to Imam Mehdi Khorasani of the Islamic Society of California during a discussion of ways to promote understanding and lessen religious intolerance among Muslims and people of other religious faiths. (Genaro Molina / LAT)
SAN FRANCISCO, April 16 — Prominent Muslim dignitaries on Saturday met for the first time with the world's most influential Buddhist, the Dalai Lama, enlisting his help in quelling fanatical ideologies within Islamic communities and improving the faith's declining image in the West.
The summit was a measure of the desperate concern among moderate Muslim leaders and scholars about religious extremism and increasingly negative views of their faith arising from Western concerns about terrorism. Indeed, Islam traditionally has not recognized Buddhism.
"The main issue of this conference is to provide a platform to teach that there is no room today to say or invest in anything but love," said Imam Mehdi Khorasani of Marin County, who had extended the invitation to the Dalai Lama. "We are happy and grateful for His Holiness' decision to lend his energy to this cause."
Appearing comfortable and jovial in his maroon and saffron robe before a crowd of about 600, the Dalai Lama, 71, was true to his image as one of the world's most avid advocates for peace.
"Some people have an impression that Islam is militant," he said, seated in lotus position on a center-stage baronial chair at the InterContinental Mark Hopkins hotel. "I think that is totally wrong. Islam is one of the world's great religions and it carries, basically, a message of love and compassion."
PEACE TALKS: The Dalai Lama meets with religious leaders from around the world in San Francisco. (Genaro Molina / LAT)
He pointed to his homeland of Tibet as an example of a place where Buddhists and Muslims have existed together in peace for centuries.
In an interview earlier, the Nobel laureate and religious leader of Tibetan Buddhism said, "Promoting the genuine message of Islam and the proper impression of the Muslim world — that is my hope.
"Some of my Muslim friends have told me that those people who claim to be Muslims, if they create bloodshed, that is not genuine Islam," he said. "Those few mischievous ones do not represent the whole Muslim community."
Some of those in attendance suggested that the open display of mutual support might not play well with more extreme members of either Islam or Buddhism.
"It's a brave thing for imams to reach out to the Dalai Lama — it's likely to be seen in some circles as an act of weakness and undignified of their own traditions," said Caner Dagli, assistant professor of religion at Roanoke College in Salem, Va.
"The Dalai Lama is also putting himself out on a limb by standing with his Muslim brothers and sisters," he said. "But I'm happy about all that. It's right that they should be allies."
One difference is that although the Dalai Lama holds an unquestioned position as spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet, Islam has no similar central authority uniting its members. Hence, Muslims around the globe interpret the faith quite differently and are more divided among themselves.
That the meeting came together at all was remarkable, coming near the date of the prophet Muhammad's birthday, as well as during Passover and Easter weekend. It also followed the release last week of the recorded sounds of struggle and panic when Sept. 11 hijackers took control of United Airlines Flight 93 and screamed, "Allah is the greatest," as the plane went down.
But the Dalai Lama, who normally books his appearances seven years in advance, and the Muslim leaders and scholars from around the world broke their holiday commitments to attend the hastily organized event.
"This meeting had to happen," said Dan Kranzler, a philanthropist and one of the gathering's sponsors.
"The 90% of the Muslim world that is moderate and peace-loving wants to overcome the radical ideologies of the rest," said Kranzler, who is Jewish but refers to himself as a "universalist." "If there is anyone in the world who can cheat the odds and make that happen it's the Dalai Lama."
Organizers called it an extraordinary convergence.
Essentially, Muslim leaders were seeking the Dalai Lama's rock-star status, broad appeal and skills as a neutral conciliator in dealing with divisiveness within their faith, deepened by worldwide media attention. Even moderate Muslims, who make up most believers, are not united enough to impose their visions of peace and tolerance on those who are intolerant or promote violence.
Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, founder of the Zaytuna Institute in Hayward, which is dedicated to reviving the sciences of classical Islam, pointed out another reason for wanting the Dalai Lama on their side.
"Buddhism gets the best press of any religion in the world," he said. "Islam gets the worst press because it's associated with war and belligerence.
"When a recent Gallup Poll asked Americans what they respected about Islam, 38% answered not a thing, and 12 % said they weren't sure," he said. "Yet one-fifth of humanity is Muslim.
"So we are delighted that the Dalai Lama wants to understand how we view this situation and assess what his own community can do to alleviate the problems," he said.
Under tight security, the Dalai Lama initially met privately with 40 leaders, including Mahmud Kilic, a professor of Sufism and president of the Turkish and Islamic Art Museum in Istanbul; Sayyid M. Syeed, head of the Islamic Society of North America, the largest umbrella organization of Islamic centers in the United States; and Ahmad Al-Hashimi, president of the Ihsan Muslim Heritage Society of Ontario, Canada.
One proposal that emerged from the discussions was a possible visit by the Dalai Lama to Saudi Arabia.
Later, on stage, he was flanked by religious leaders and scholars including Huston Smith, emeritus professor of religion at UC Berkeley; Thomas Cleary, a Harvard professor whose interpretation of the ancient Chinese "Art of War" became a bestseller; and Robert Thurman, a Columbia University professor known as the Billy Graham of Buddhism.
In an interview, Smith said the meeting was in direct response to the violent exploitation of one of the great traditions.
"The world is in flames. We are at war with Islam," he said. "The Muslim leaders here wanted to talk to the Dalai Lama about what they could do to persuade terrorists that their terrorism only increases terrorism."
Though Muslim leaders called for the gathering, it was organized and funded by a coalition that included film producer Steven Reuther and Kranzler, who made his fortune in the computer software industry.
In an effort to make Muslim guests feel as comfortable as possible in their daily prayers, the organizing team determined the exact direction of Mecca from the Nob Hill hotel — 15 degrees east of north. Receptions were alcohol-free and vegetarian, in keeping with practices of Islam and Buddhism. Dozens of participants wore white scarfs that had been draped around their necks by the Dalai Lama in private sessions.
Read More
Moderate Muslims Seek Help From the Dalai Lama
LA Times[Sunday, April 16, 2006 17:15]
By Louis Sahagun,
Times Staff Writer
THINKING GLOBALLY: The Dalai Lama, [above] right, listens to Imam Mehdi Khorasani of the Islamic Society of California during a discussion of ways to promote understanding and lessen religious intolerance among Muslims and people of other religious faiths. (Genaro Molina / LAT)
SAN FRANCISCO, April 16 — Prominent Muslim dignitaries on Saturday met for the first time with the world's most influential Buddhist, the Dalai Lama, enlisting his help in quelling fanatical ideologies within Islamic communities and improving the faith's declining image in the West.
The summit was a measure of the desperate concern among moderate Muslim leaders and scholars about religious extremism and increasingly negative views of their faith arising from Western concerns about terrorism. Indeed, Islam traditionally has not recognized Buddhism.
"The main issue of this conference is to provide a platform to teach that there is no room today to say or invest in anything but love," said Imam Mehdi Khorasani of Marin County, who had extended the invitation to the Dalai Lama. "We are happy and grateful for His Holiness' decision to lend his energy to this cause."
Appearing comfortable and jovial in his maroon and saffron robe before a crowd of about 600, the Dalai Lama, 71, was true to his image as one of the world's most avid advocates for peace.
"Some people have an impression that Islam is militant," he said, seated in lotus position on a center-stage baronial chair at the InterContinental Mark Hopkins hotel. "I think that is totally wrong. Islam is one of the world's great religions and it carries, basically, a message of love and compassion."
PEACE TALKS: The Dalai Lama meets with religious leaders from around the world in San Francisco. (Genaro Molina / LAT)
He pointed to his homeland of Tibet as an example of a place where Buddhists and Muslims have existed together in peace for centuries.
In an interview earlier, the Nobel laureate and religious leader of Tibetan Buddhism said, "Promoting the genuine message of Islam and the proper impression of the Muslim world — that is my hope.
"Some of my Muslim friends have told me that those people who claim to be Muslims, if they create bloodshed, that is not genuine Islam," he said. "Those few mischievous ones do not represent the whole Muslim community."
Some of those in attendance suggested that the open display of mutual support might not play well with more extreme members of either Islam or Buddhism.
"It's a brave thing for imams to reach out to the Dalai Lama — it's likely to be seen in some circles as an act of weakness and undignified of their own traditions," said Caner Dagli, assistant professor of religion at Roanoke College in Salem, Va.
"The Dalai Lama is also putting himself out on a limb by standing with his Muslim brothers and sisters," he said. "But I'm happy about all that. It's right that they should be allies."
One difference is that although the Dalai Lama holds an unquestioned position as spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet, Islam has no similar central authority uniting its members. Hence, Muslims around the globe interpret the faith quite differently and are more divided among themselves.
That the meeting came together at all was remarkable, coming near the date of the prophet Muhammad's birthday, as well as during Passover and Easter weekend. It also followed the release last week of the recorded sounds of struggle and panic when Sept. 11 hijackers took control of United Airlines Flight 93 and screamed, "Allah is the greatest," as the plane went down.
But the Dalai Lama, who normally books his appearances seven years in advance, and the Muslim leaders and scholars from around the world broke their holiday commitments to attend the hastily organized event.
"This meeting had to happen," said Dan Kranzler, a philanthropist and one of the gathering's sponsors.
"The 90% of the Muslim world that is moderate and peace-loving wants to overcome the radical ideologies of the rest," said Kranzler, who is Jewish but refers to himself as a "universalist." "If there is anyone in the world who can cheat the odds and make that happen it's the Dalai Lama."
Organizers called it an extraordinary convergence.
Essentially, Muslim leaders were seeking the Dalai Lama's rock-star status, broad appeal and skills as a neutral conciliator in dealing with divisiveness within their faith, deepened by worldwide media attention. Even moderate Muslims, who make up most believers, are not united enough to impose their visions of peace and tolerance on those who are intolerant or promote violence.
Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, founder of the Zaytuna Institute in Hayward, which is dedicated to reviving the sciences of classical Islam, pointed out another reason for wanting the Dalai Lama on their side.
"Buddhism gets the best press of any religion in the world," he said. "Islam gets the worst press because it's associated with war and belligerence.
"When a recent Gallup Poll asked Americans what they respected about Islam, 38% answered not a thing, and 12 % said they weren't sure," he said. "Yet one-fifth of humanity is Muslim.
"So we are delighted that the Dalai Lama wants to understand how we view this situation and assess what his own community can do to alleviate the problems," he said.
Under tight security, the Dalai Lama initially met privately with 40 leaders, including Mahmud Kilic, a professor of Sufism and president of the Turkish and Islamic Art Museum in Istanbul; Sayyid M. Syeed, head of the Islamic Society of North America, the largest umbrella organization of Islamic centers in the United States; and Ahmad Al-Hashimi, president of the Ihsan Muslim Heritage Society of Ontario, Canada.
One proposal that emerged from the discussions was a possible visit by the Dalai Lama to Saudi Arabia.
Later, on stage, he was flanked by religious leaders and scholars including Huston Smith, emeritus professor of religion at UC Berkeley; Thomas Cleary, a Harvard professor whose interpretation of the ancient Chinese "Art of War" became a bestseller; and Robert Thurman, a Columbia University professor known as the Billy Graham of Buddhism.
In an interview, Smith said the meeting was in direct response to the violent exploitation of one of the great traditions.
"The world is in flames. We are at war with Islam," he said. "The Muslim leaders here wanted to talk to the Dalai Lama about what they could do to persuade terrorists that their terrorism only increases terrorism."
Though Muslim leaders called for the gathering, it was organized and funded by a coalition that included film producer Steven Reuther and Kranzler, who made his fortune in the computer software industry.
In an effort to make Muslim guests feel as comfortable as possible in their daily prayers, the organizing team determined the exact direction of Mecca from the Nob Hill hotel — 15 degrees east of north. Receptions were alcohol-free and vegetarian, in keeping with practices of Islam and Buddhism. Dozens of participants wore white scarfs that had been draped around their necks by the Dalai Lama in private sessions.
Muslim, Christian priests to be paid remuneration
Muslim, Christian priests to be paid remuneration
Newindpress - Southern News - Karnataka
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
DHARWAD: Muslim and Christian priests will be paid remuneration and other privileges on lines of Hindu priests, said Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy.
Replying a felicitation to him by Jamia Masjid, Chief Minister said Hindu priests were paid through Mujrai Department, likewise steps would be taken to release remuneration to Pesh Imam and his assistants through the Wakf Board.
Christian priests will also be paid remuneration through the constitution of separate department.
M.P. Prakash, president of JD(S) State unit, said BJP-JD (S) coalition government in State was following the footsteps of Sufi saints.
Muslim community of India had largely been influenced by Sufism. Muslims impressed by Sufism had developed Urdu language. Urdu language had been patronised by kings irrespective of religion in the past.
The State government is taking such kings as models to run the government while safeguarding the interests of minorities, he added.
Minister Basavaraj Horatti, Moulana Kaisar Mohammed Khatheeb, Rasheed Byali and Gururaj Hunasimarad were present.
Read More
Newindpress - Southern News - Karnataka
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
DHARWAD: Muslim and Christian priests will be paid remuneration and other privileges on lines of Hindu priests, said Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy.
Replying a felicitation to him by Jamia Masjid, Chief Minister said Hindu priests were paid through Mujrai Department, likewise steps would be taken to release remuneration to Pesh Imam and his assistants through the Wakf Board.
Christian priests will also be paid remuneration through the constitution of separate department.
M.P. Prakash, president of JD(S) State unit, said BJP-JD (S) coalition government in State was following the footsteps of Sufi saints.
Muslim community of India had largely been influenced by Sufism. Muslims impressed by Sufism had developed Urdu language. Urdu language had been patronised by kings irrespective of religion in the past.
The State government is taking such kings as models to run the government while safeguarding the interests of minorities, he added.
Minister Basavaraj Horatti, Moulana Kaisar Mohammed Khatheeb, Rasheed Byali and Gururaj Hunasimarad were present.
From Islam with Love
By Tony Evans - Boise Weekly - ID, U.S.A.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Coleman Barks will present a reading of 13th Century Sufi mystic poet Jellaludin Rumi with musicians Barry Phillips on cello and Shelley Phillips on harp and woodwinds as a keynote presentation at The Sun Valley Wellness Festival on Sunday, May 28, at 7 p.m., in Sun Valley. Barks' free-verse translations have made Rumi the most read poet in America over the last decade.
"I just love to experiment with putting the spoken word to music," Barks tells BW. "I'm trying to do what the Sufi's call 'Sema,' which is a deep listening. It's a way of letting the words and the images go deeper into the heart where they can become of some use for you."
Born in 1207 in Balkh, Afghanistan, Rumi was a sheikh and scholar who lived during the time of St. Francis of Assisi. His poetry was born of a profound friendship with a mysterious, older wise man named Shams of Tabriz, who lived on the outskirts of society in Konya, Turkey. Legend has it the powerful Shams threw Rumi's books into a fountain, transforming years of religious study into a living mystical reality through long spiritual conversation called "sohbet." When Shams disappeared, perhaps murdered by jealous rivals for Rumi's attention, Rumi entered a deep, ecstatic longing, which resulted in an out-pouring of thousands of poems, including the six volume Matthnavi, which transcended Christian, Jewish and Muslim doctrines, attaining a universal significance which has lasted more than 700 years.
A university professor and poet in his own right, Barks undertook the work of translating Rumi after meeting Sufi holy man Bawa Muhawadeen in a dream in 1977. Over the next nine years, he spent time with Bawa in Philadelphia. "The only authority I have for working on Rumi's poetry is my friendship with Bawa," says Barks. "It's an amazing thing to see. We are not discreet individuals in the presence of an enlightened being, because his knowledge is of the Oneness."
"Religion and poetry both remind us of what is sacred," says Barks, who has studied Rumi's mystical message for more than 30 years. "Spontaneity is more important than coherence. There are as many kinds of mysticism as there are mystics. It has to do with one's personal, unique response to the mystery of being alive and to the mystery we are living within. I think of mystics as mostly being ecstatic," he says. "They feel, like some children do, that just being in a body and sentient is a state of pure rapture. Laughter is real important to these people. The whole thing is so hilarious. They are partial to boomerangs."
The religious scholar Huston Smith describes the Sufis as "spiritually impatient." Rumi's poetry reaches from Koranic and Biblical references to an alchemical symbology which provokes an immediate encounter with the divine. These references include Moses, Jesus, Mohammad and Hallaj, along with many details of the physical world--melting snow, wine, a ruby or reed flute; all resonate with meaning and provide pathways through the endless web of human desires to direct encounter with God.
Rumi's poetry is a call to and through the senses, poking fun at those who would "think" their way to God. In one story he likens theologians and philosophers to a group of fish schooling in the sea to debate the likelihood of the ocean. "When you look for God, God is in the look of your eyes," says Barks. "So close that if we really knew it we would just scream or go quiet, or something. It's almost a joke-- It's so simple that you can hardly say it."
And yet he does:
"Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right doing
There is a field. I'll meet you there.
I am so small I can barely be seen.
How can this great love be inside me?
Look at your eyes. They are small, but see enormous things."
"It's not really an entertainment or concert I'm doing," says Barks. "It's some kind of a practice, really. I'm trying to let the transmission of Rumi's poetry and Shams' presence come into this century. Yeah, so I'm hoping for big stuff, but I think it can happen."
Barks recently traveled to Afghanistan as part of a U.S. State Department delegation, reading his translations and networking with Afghan poetry lovers. While reading to a group of government officials in Kabul, a passionate argument broke out among the listeners over Rumi's use of the metaphor of "drunkenness" or ecstatic love, as opposed to that used by the poet Hafiz.
"The culture of poetry in that country is just astonishing," says Barks. "It's just unimaginable in this country that our cabinet members would get in an argument over, say, the difference between Robert Frost and Wallace Stevens. I wish the world leaders would read Rumi, especially this guy that's the head of Iran now. He needs to get a little more gentleness and ecstatic vision in his life. For Rumi, warfare is just unthinkable. It devalues and brutalizes the human psyche so much."
While in Afghanistan, Barks encountered a 95-year old Sufi named Oman Justi who had been teaching Rumi's master work, The Matthnavi for 75 years. "I just leaned against him and said, 'Who is Shams?' He said, 'Shams is the doctor. He comes when you hurt enough. When Rumi was alive the longing was intense enough so that Shams came, but now it is not fiery enough to bring Shams.'"
Rumi is good medicine in these days of crazy religious violence and confusion between nations. Perhaps our own longings have brought us Coleman Barks.
Read More
By Tony Evans - Boise Weekly - ID, U.S.A.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Coleman Barks will present a reading of 13th Century Sufi mystic poet Jellaludin Rumi with musicians Barry Phillips on cello and Shelley Phillips on harp and woodwinds as a keynote presentation at The Sun Valley Wellness Festival on Sunday, May 28, at 7 p.m., in Sun Valley. Barks' free-verse translations have made Rumi the most read poet in America over the last decade.
"I just love to experiment with putting the spoken word to music," Barks tells BW. "I'm trying to do what the Sufi's call 'Sema,' which is a deep listening. It's a way of letting the words and the images go deeper into the heart where they can become of some use for you."
Born in 1207 in Balkh, Afghanistan, Rumi was a sheikh and scholar who lived during the time of St. Francis of Assisi. His poetry was born of a profound friendship with a mysterious, older wise man named Shams of Tabriz, who lived on the outskirts of society in Konya, Turkey. Legend has it the powerful Shams threw Rumi's books into a fountain, transforming years of religious study into a living mystical reality through long spiritual conversation called "sohbet." When Shams disappeared, perhaps murdered by jealous rivals for Rumi's attention, Rumi entered a deep, ecstatic longing, which resulted in an out-pouring of thousands of poems, including the six volume Matthnavi, which transcended Christian, Jewish and Muslim doctrines, attaining a universal significance which has lasted more than 700 years.
A university professor and poet in his own right, Barks undertook the work of translating Rumi after meeting Sufi holy man Bawa Muhawadeen in a dream in 1977. Over the next nine years, he spent time with Bawa in Philadelphia. "The only authority I have for working on Rumi's poetry is my friendship with Bawa," says Barks. "It's an amazing thing to see. We are not discreet individuals in the presence of an enlightened being, because his knowledge is of the Oneness."
"Religion and poetry both remind us of what is sacred," says Barks, who has studied Rumi's mystical message for more than 30 years. "Spontaneity is more important than coherence. There are as many kinds of mysticism as there are mystics. It has to do with one's personal, unique response to the mystery of being alive and to the mystery we are living within. I think of mystics as mostly being ecstatic," he says. "They feel, like some children do, that just being in a body and sentient is a state of pure rapture. Laughter is real important to these people. The whole thing is so hilarious. They are partial to boomerangs."
The religious scholar Huston Smith describes the Sufis as "spiritually impatient." Rumi's poetry reaches from Koranic and Biblical references to an alchemical symbology which provokes an immediate encounter with the divine. These references include Moses, Jesus, Mohammad and Hallaj, along with many details of the physical world--melting snow, wine, a ruby or reed flute; all resonate with meaning and provide pathways through the endless web of human desires to direct encounter with God.
Rumi's poetry is a call to and through the senses, poking fun at those who would "think" their way to God. In one story he likens theologians and philosophers to a group of fish schooling in the sea to debate the likelihood of the ocean. "When you look for God, God is in the look of your eyes," says Barks. "So close that if we really knew it we would just scream or go quiet, or something. It's almost a joke-- It's so simple that you can hardly say it."
And yet he does:
"Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right doing
There is a field. I'll meet you there.
I am so small I can barely be seen.
How can this great love be inside me?
Look at your eyes. They are small, but see enormous things."
"It's not really an entertainment or concert I'm doing," says Barks. "It's some kind of a practice, really. I'm trying to let the transmission of Rumi's poetry and Shams' presence come into this century. Yeah, so I'm hoping for big stuff, but I think it can happen."
Barks recently traveled to Afghanistan as part of a U.S. State Department delegation, reading his translations and networking with Afghan poetry lovers. While reading to a group of government officials in Kabul, a passionate argument broke out among the listeners over Rumi's use of the metaphor of "drunkenness" or ecstatic love, as opposed to that used by the poet Hafiz.
"The culture of poetry in that country is just astonishing," says Barks. "It's just unimaginable in this country that our cabinet members would get in an argument over, say, the difference between Robert Frost and Wallace Stevens. I wish the world leaders would read Rumi, especially this guy that's the head of Iran now. He needs to get a little more gentleness and ecstatic vision in his life. For Rumi, warfare is just unthinkable. It devalues and brutalizes the human psyche so much."
While in Afghanistan, Barks encountered a 95-year old Sufi named Oman Justi who had been teaching Rumi's master work, The Matthnavi for 75 years. "I just leaned against him and said, 'Who is Shams?' He said, 'Shams is the doctor. He comes when you hurt enough. When Rumi was alive the longing was intense enough so that Shams came, but now it is not fiery enough to bring Shams.'"
Rumi is good medicine in these days of crazy religious violence and confusion between nations. Perhaps our own longings have brought us Coleman Barks.
Conscience Before Deadlines
By Stephen Schwartz - TCS Daily - Washington DC, U.S.A.
Monday, May 8, 2006
Shkodra, Albania --Does the mainstream media (MSM) incite the clash of civilizations (COC) between the Judeo-Christian world and Islam? At times, it seems so.
A recent example involves the small country of Albania, which is mysterious to most foreigners. I have published much on the history of mutual interfaith respect among Albanians, who are 70 percent Muslim (mainly Sunnis, but with at least a third comprising Europe's only indigenous Shias). The institution I have founded, the Center for Islamic Pluralism (CIP), seeks to promote the common interest of all monotheistic believers.
Some argue that CIP's efforts to oppose Muslim radicals when they attack other religions are meaningless, because according to such instant experts, nobody in the Muslim world listens to me or to CIP. While I do not intend this commentary as mere self-promotion, since CIP was founded last year, I have met repeatedly with Islamic clerics in the Balkans and Southeast Asia, and, as in the past, with dissident Saudis -- and I sincerely believe our work has a positive effect.
But let me not stray too far from what brought me to Albania. The April 2006 issue of First Things, an American Christian magazine of considerable influence, printed an article of mine calling on the Vatican to do more to help Albanian Catholics preserve their cultural heritage -- not in the face of Muslim aggression, but against the remnants of Communist corruption in politics and legal standards
The article called forth a generous comment from the editor of First Things, Jody Bottum, who also, however, mentioned news reports of Muslim-Catholic conflict in the northern Albanian city of Shkodra, in which Catholics were historically a majority and now make up half the population.
Given the seriousness of the matter, and the unfortunate fact that I have been repeatedly and vehemently accused of hiding the bad face of Islam, I took an opportunity -- an invitation to Britain for an event cosponsored by the Organization for the Islamic Conference (OIC), the Saudi-based international body of 57 Muslim-majority states, including the Palestinian Authority -- and have spent a week in Albania, investigating the situation for myself. (I have the further pleasure of announcing that my book The Two Faces of Islam has come out in Albanian, and used the occasion for a launch and interviews regarding it.)
In a visit to a place sacred to every friend of Albanians -- the Franciscan Library of Shkodra, which was destroyed and pillaged under Communism -- I interviewed an avid young man in the brown cloth of the order. Our talk followed an afternoon mass crowded with children and adults, including men -- the latter rare in "Catholic" Spain or Italy. I had earlier heard the church bells, and as we spoke, I listened to the adhan or Muslim call to prayer, from a large mosque nearby -- the Balkan experience par excellence. An Orthodox Christian church stands only a block or two away, although the Orthodox have never had a large presence in the town.
The young Franciscan described to me how Catholics and Muslims in Shkodra, as they have for generations, join together for the holidays of each faith, and how priests in training visit mosques. And he showed me a wondrous thing: Qur'an, the sacred book of Islam, translated and printed in Albanian by Catholics early in the 20th century. They wanted to advance the literacy of all Albanians, so the Catholics printed Qur'an!
The next day I went to Tirana, where I met with a leading Sufi, shaykh Ali Pazari of the Halveti order of Islamic spirituality. The shaykh told me an equally remarkable story: in the 1920s, in poor, isolated, exotic Albania, his grandfather, who was also a leading mystic, was called the "Catholic Sufi" because he called on women to take off their hijab and go to school! Shaykh Ali repeated something I have heard from many Albanians -- that religious leaders must put the national interest first, ahead of religious issues. And he underscored that Sufism, like Catholicism, had its strongest historic roots in Shkodra.
So why should random comments in Shkodra, a town most people in the leading countries never heard of, have elicited the interest of the MSM? Rumors of an interreligious battle in a distant corner of the globe came after the scandal of the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, the global outcry over persecution of a Christian convert in Afghanistan, and similar "big stories" that present Islam in the worst possible light, as well as consistent propagandist "journalism" about Iraq -- ignoring the Saudi role in the violence there, and presenting bloodthirsty terrorists as "insurgents." These offerings by the MSM typically embody misinformation if not disinformation -- Islam does NOT ban the depiction of the Prophet, and Islam lacks a body of consistent practice regarding changes and fusions between religions, as I recently noted in TCS Daily. I have repeatedly pointed out, here and elsewhere, that Iraqis themselves do not view the killers of the innocent in Iraq as a "resistance," but as Saudi-financed Sunni aggression.
Could it be that the cynical principle, "if it bleeds it leads," and a desire to make the global situation worse -- since efforts toward its betterment would presumably conflict with the supposed "objectivity" of the MSM -- have made journalists more complicit than any government in the worldwide nightmare we all face? I am a journalist, and do not want to believe this. I have argued that reporters are "first responders" and cannot be expected to understand the nuances of Islam. But I increasingly feel I am wrong about that, because I am also a Muslim, and an American, and I want to prevent the clash of civilizations, not stand aside as more people fight and die. Nobody accepted such neutral conduct by journalists in the late 1930s, facing the challenge of fascism; nobody should accept it in the context of a planetary struggle against Islamofascism or its mirror-image, Islamophobia.
Before deadlines, there is, or must be, conscience.
Read More
Monday, May 8, 2006
Shkodra, Albania --Does the mainstream media (MSM) incite the clash of civilizations (COC) between the Judeo-Christian world and Islam? At times, it seems so.
A recent example involves the small country of Albania, which is mysterious to most foreigners. I have published much on the history of mutual interfaith respect among Albanians, who are 70 percent Muslim (mainly Sunnis, but with at least a third comprising Europe's only indigenous Shias). The institution I have founded, the Center for Islamic Pluralism (CIP), seeks to promote the common interest of all monotheistic believers.
Some argue that CIP's efforts to oppose Muslim radicals when they attack other religions are meaningless, because according to such instant experts, nobody in the Muslim world listens to me or to CIP. While I do not intend this commentary as mere self-promotion, since CIP was founded last year, I have met repeatedly with Islamic clerics in the Balkans and Southeast Asia, and, as in the past, with dissident Saudis -- and I sincerely believe our work has a positive effect.
But let me not stray too far from what brought me to Albania. The April 2006 issue of First Things, an American Christian magazine of considerable influence, printed an article of mine calling on the Vatican to do more to help Albanian Catholics preserve their cultural heritage -- not in the face of Muslim aggression, but against the remnants of Communist corruption in politics and legal standards
The article called forth a generous comment from the editor of First Things, Jody Bottum, who also, however, mentioned news reports of Muslim-Catholic conflict in the northern Albanian city of Shkodra, in which Catholics were historically a majority and now make up half the population.
Given the seriousness of the matter, and the unfortunate fact that I have been repeatedly and vehemently accused of hiding the bad face of Islam, I took an opportunity -- an invitation to Britain for an event cosponsored by the Organization for the Islamic Conference (OIC), the Saudi-based international body of 57 Muslim-majority states, including the Palestinian Authority -- and have spent a week in Albania, investigating the situation for myself. (I have the further pleasure of announcing that my book The Two Faces of Islam has come out in Albanian, and used the occasion for a launch and interviews regarding it.)
In a visit to a place sacred to every friend of Albanians -- the Franciscan Library of Shkodra, which was destroyed and pillaged under Communism -- I interviewed an avid young man in the brown cloth of the order. Our talk followed an afternoon mass crowded with children and adults, including men -- the latter rare in "Catholic" Spain or Italy. I had earlier heard the church bells, and as we spoke, I listened to the adhan or Muslim call to prayer, from a large mosque nearby -- the Balkan experience par excellence. An Orthodox Christian church stands only a block or two away, although the Orthodox have never had a large presence in the town.
The young Franciscan described to me how Catholics and Muslims in Shkodra, as they have for generations, join together for the holidays of each faith, and how priests in training visit mosques. And he showed me a wondrous thing: Qur'an, the sacred book of Islam, translated and printed in Albanian by Catholics early in the 20th century. They wanted to advance the literacy of all Albanians, so the Catholics printed Qur'an!
The next day I went to Tirana, where I met with a leading Sufi, shaykh Ali Pazari of the Halveti order of Islamic spirituality. The shaykh told me an equally remarkable story: in the 1920s, in poor, isolated, exotic Albania, his grandfather, who was also a leading mystic, was called the "Catholic Sufi" because he called on women to take off their hijab and go to school! Shaykh Ali repeated something I have heard from many Albanians -- that religious leaders must put the national interest first, ahead of religious issues. And he underscored that Sufism, like Catholicism, had its strongest historic roots in Shkodra.
So why should random comments in Shkodra, a town most people in the leading countries never heard of, have elicited the interest of the MSM? Rumors of an interreligious battle in a distant corner of the globe came after the scandal of the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, the global outcry over persecution of a Christian convert in Afghanistan, and similar "big stories" that present Islam in the worst possible light, as well as consistent propagandist "journalism" about Iraq -- ignoring the Saudi role in the violence there, and presenting bloodthirsty terrorists as "insurgents." These offerings by the MSM typically embody misinformation if not disinformation -- Islam does NOT ban the depiction of the Prophet, and Islam lacks a body of consistent practice regarding changes and fusions between religions, as I recently noted in TCS Daily. I have repeatedly pointed out, here and elsewhere, that Iraqis themselves do not view the killers of the innocent in Iraq as a "resistance," but as Saudi-financed Sunni aggression.
Could it be that the cynical principle, "if it bleeds it leads," and a desire to make the global situation worse -- since efforts toward its betterment would presumably conflict with the supposed "objectivity" of the MSM -- have made journalists more complicit than any government in the worldwide nightmare we all face? I am a journalist, and do not want to believe this. I have argued that reporters are "first responders" and cannot be expected to understand the nuances of Islam. But I increasingly feel I am wrong about that, because I am also a Muslim, and an American, and I want to prevent the clash of civilizations, not stand aside as more people fight and die. Nobody accepted such neutral conduct by journalists in the late 1930s, facing the challenge of fascism; nobody should accept it in the context of a planetary struggle against Islamofascism or its mirror-image, Islamophobia.
Before deadlines, there is, or must be, conscience.
University of Tehran to grant honorary doctorate to Coleman Barks
RM/HG - Mehrnews Agency
Monday, May 8, 2006
The University of Tehran will be presenting an honorary doctorate in Persian language and literature to the renowned American poet Coleman Barks on May 17, the Persian service of IRNA reported on Monday.
The director of the Public Relations Office of the University of Tehran said that the honorary doctorate will be presented to Barks for his years of efforts writing books on Molana Jalal al-Din Rumi and translating Rumi’s poetry.
Ahmadreza Khezri added that several Iranian professors residing in the U.S., Iranian academic figures, and foreign ambassadors have been invited to participate in the ceremony, which will be held at Ferdowsi Hall of the University of Tehran, Faculty of Literature and Humanities.
Coleman Barks was born and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and was educated at the University of North Carolina and the University of California at Berkeley. He has been teaching poetry and creative writing at the University of Georgia for thirty years. He is the author of numerous Rumi translations and has been a student of Sufism since 1977.
“The Essential Rumi”, “The Drowned Book”, “Rumi: The Book of Love”, “The Soul of Rumi”, and “The Juice” are some of the books written or translated by Barks.
Read More
Monday, May 8, 2006
The University of Tehran will be presenting an honorary doctorate in Persian language and literature to the renowned American poet Coleman Barks on May 17, the Persian service of IRNA reported on Monday.
The director of the Public Relations Office of the University of Tehran said that the honorary doctorate will be presented to Barks for his years of efforts writing books on Molana Jalal al-Din Rumi and translating Rumi’s poetry.
Ahmadreza Khezri added that several Iranian professors residing in the U.S., Iranian academic figures, and foreign ambassadors have been invited to participate in the ceremony, which will be held at Ferdowsi Hall of the University of Tehran, Faculty of Literature and Humanities.
Coleman Barks was born and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and was educated at the University of North Carolina and the University of California at Berkeley. He has been teaching poetry and creative writing at the University of Georgia for thirty years. He is the author of numerous Rumi translations and has been a student of Sufism since 1977.
“The Essential Rumi”, “The Drowned Book”, “Rumi: The Book of Love”, “The Soul of Rumi”, and “The Juice” are some of the books written or translated by Barks.
Mysticism and Sufism in Iran and Central Asia Seminar in Kazakhstan
ISNA, Tehran - Service: Literary - News Code: 8502-12353
Monday, May 8, 2006
The international "Mysticism and Sufism in Iran and Central Asia" seminar was held in Iran and Central Asia research center in Kazakhstan.
According to ISNA, scholars from Iran, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan presented their articles in this seminar on various aspects of Mysticism and Sufism in Iran and Central Asia.
In the opening ceremony of this seminar the Iranian Ambassador to Kazakhstan, Mehmanparast, in his lecture stated that at present mysticism could solve many of the human beings' problems which had been occurred due to lack of spirituality in the world.
Read More
Monday, May 8, 2006
The international "Mysticism and Sufism in Iran and Central Asia" seminar was held in Iran and Central Asia research center in Kazakhstan.
According to ISNA, scholars from Iran, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan presented their articles in this seminar on various aspects of Mysticism and Sufism in Iran and Central Asia.
In the opening ceremony of this seminar the Iranian Ambassador to Kazakhstan, Mehmanparast, in his lecture stated that at present mysticism could solve many of the human beings' problems which had been occurred due to lack of spirituality in the world.
Yunus Emre Week Celebrated
By Osman Arslan - Zaman online - Eskisehir, Turkey
Monday, May 08, 2006
Activities as part of the International Yunus Emre Culture and Art Week have begun in Eskisehir. An opening ceremony was held at the grave of the renowned Anatolian humanist and poet at Yunus Emre town in Eskisehir for the festival activities that will continue until May 10.
Following the speeches and readings, a concert of Sufi and folk music was given.
The Yunus Emre exhibition, comprising of natural stones, was opened at Eskisehir Gallery of Fine Arts were visitors were served "Yunus Pilaf (rice)"
In the evening, Turkish singer Ahmet Ozhan performed a Sufi concert at Eskisehir Osmangazi University’s Sports Arena.
The audience accompanied Ozhan while he sang Yunus hymns.
A Sama, whirling dervishes ceremony, was performed by members of the Tourism Ministry’s Historical Turkish Music Chorus.
Read More
Monday, May 08, 2006
Activities as part of the International Yunus Emre Culture and Art Week have begun in Eskisehir. An opening ceremony was held at the grave of the renowned Anatolian humanist and poet at Yunus Emre town in Eskisehir for the festival activities that will continue until May 10.
Following the speeches and readings, a concert of Sufi and folk music was given.
The Yunus Emre exhibition, comprising of natural stones, was opened at Eskisehir Gallery of Fine Arts were visitors were served "Yunus Pilaf (rice)"
In the evening, Turkish singer Ahmet Ozhan performed a Sufi concert at Eskisehir Osmangazi University’s Sports Arena.
The audience accompanied Ozhan while he sang Yunus hymns.
A Sama, whirling dervishes ceremony, was performed by members of the Tourism Ministry’s Historical Turkish Music Chorus.
Sacred Dance
By Mary Adamski - Honolulu Star Bulletin - HI, U.S.A.
Saturday, May 6, 2006
The gentle circle dancing by the Prayer Cluster at Calvary-by-the-Sea Lutheran Church Tuesday felt like a throwback to the '60s, where interfaith sharing of sacred dance has its roots.
"My idea was to have something on the way home from work that reconnects you with God," said Pulelehua Quirk, who started the group a year ago. As a participant for years in the Sacred Dance Guild, her idea for a devotional experience just naturally had to include dance.
With the dance comes music "which resonates for so many" followed by shared prayer intentions typical of all small prayer groups. People reveal their vulnerabilities as they lay out their worries and frustrations; it can be a relief when it is done among friends.
The group clasped hands in a circle as Fatah Borsos called them to focus on their feet "connected to Mother Earth. Bring energy up from the earth." Next, "Open the top of our heads to the heavens and bring that energy down. Let what we do be in remembrance of the one holy being."
The words come from his Sufi studies, he said later. The Sufi tradition is a mystical branch of Islamic belief, with practices of combined meditation, chanting and dance -- the extreme end of which is the mesmerizing turning, spinning of "whirling dervishes" of Turkey.
"We need a direct, pure connection with nature and its elements," said Borsos. He is a participant in the Dances of Universal Peace, a movement that was started in the 1960s by a Sufi teacher and a Buddhist Zen master. Ecumenical groups worldwide gather to share ethnic and sacred dances, including a group that meets at 7 p.m. on the first Saturday of every month at Niu Valley Intermediate School.
Read More
Saturday, May 6, 2006
The gentle circle dancing by the Prayer Cluster at Calvary-by-the-Sea Lutheran Church Tuesday felt like a throwback to the '60s, where interfaith sharing of sacred dance has its roots.
"My idea was to have something on the way home from work that reconnects you with God," said Pulelehua Quirk, who started the group a year ago. As a participant for years in the Sacred Dance Guild, her idea for a devotional experience just naturally had to include dance.
With the dance comes music "which resonates for so many" followed by shared prayer intentions typical of all small prayer groups. People reveal their vulnerabilities as they lay out their worries and frustrations; it can be a relief when it is done among friends.
The group clasped hands in a circle as Fatah Borsos called them to focus on their feet "connected to Mother Earth. Bring energy up from the earth." Next, "Open the top of our heads to the heavens and bring that energy down. Let what we do be in remembrance of the one holy being."
The words come from his Sufi studies, he said later. The Sufi tradition is a mystical branch of Islamic belief, with practices of combined meditation, chanting and dance -- the extreme end of which is the mesmerizing turning, spinning of "whirling dervishes" of Turkey.
"We need a direct, pure connection with nature and its elements," said Borsos. He is a participant in the Dances of Universal Peace, a movement that was started in the 1960s by a Sufi teacher and a Buddhist Zen master. Ecumenical groups worldwide gather to share ethnic and sacred dances, including a group that meets at 7 p.m. on the first Saturday of every month at Niu Valley Intermediate School.
Murder Of Sufi Soul
By Teesta Setalvad - The Times of India
Friday, March 5, 2006
Thirty-eight-year-old Rafik Abdul Ghani Vohra was set upon by a mob, led by Ashok Thakur and other well-known VHP activists, and burnt to death in his car, at Ajwa Road, while returning from Gujarat Refineries on May 2.
The 1,000-strong mob gathered at Ajwa Road — unstopped by the police despite curfew — for two hours or so before the attack took place. Despite repeated calls by his family and neighbours to the police control and Deepak Swaroop, commissioner of police (CP), Vadodara, a callous administration did not respond.
Some family members told the national media and television channels that when they did connect with the police, they were told 'to go to Pakistan'. Local social activists feel that the response of the CP, chief minister's office and state home secretary's office since the outbreak of violence was worse than in 2002.
The CP simply kept disconnecting his mobile, according to agitated residents and social activists who made over 200 calls while the mob was building up. But for pressure exercised by the government at the Centre, the Gujarat state, its executive and its administration would not have been compelled to act immediately, without fear or favour.
The trouble began in Vadodara on May 1, with the demolition launched by Vadodara municipal administration, aided by police, in violation of the 'compromise' formula worked between the administration and minorities that two and a half feet of the shrine were to be 'sacrificed' for 'deve-lopment'.
The shrine in question was the Dargah Hazrat Rashiuddin, a target of communal forces since 1969. At least 385 years old, its existence is recorded in the first city survey carried out by Sayaji Rao Maharaj in 1912.
On the morning of May 1, the police and corporation demolished the shrine and by afternoon in a swift military-like action even paved a road over it.
Ghastly memories of 2002 were invoked when over 270 minority shrines were destroyed in just the first six days of post-Godhra premeditated violence, including the Wali Dakhani's mazhar just outside the CP's office at Shahi Baug in Ahmedabad on March 1, 2002. Ustad Faiz Khan's tomb in Vadodara also had its facade destroyed then. All signs of the remains of Wali Dakhani's tomb in Ahmedabad were removed by the wee hours of the next morning, again by politicians aided by the administration — a tar road was paved over the spot.
Four years later, in Vadodara, BJP leaders who are also VHP and Bajrang Dal office bearers, assisted the administration in paving a road over the destroyed shrine. Dargahs, or the mazars (graves) of Sufi saints are visited by worshippers belonging to different communities.
The mujawar (caretakers) are often Hindus. Dargahs are and have been for decades a threat to the narrow sectarian worldview of Hindu communalists. The fast-growing Muslim communal worldview also dislikes dargahs because they affect the 'purity' of Islam. Haji Malang in Thane, north of Mumbai, and Baba Boudhangiri shrine in Chikmagalur district of Andhra Pradesh are two that have been targets of physical attacks by the wider conglomerate of the Hindu communalists.
RSS has allegedly compiled and circulated a secret list of over 400 such shrines (that include churches) that need to be recaptured or taken over or destroyed.
It is this deeper motive behind the May 1 attack on the Vadodara shrine, aspects of which were a chilling reminder of the pogrom of 2002, that needs to be showcased in public memory today.
Many of Gujarat's cities are today segregated and ghettoised, dividing civic existence and living into an Us versus Them. This makes any political project of divide and rule, however unconstitutional, easier.
The destruction of dargahs is a pre-requisite for complete division and polarisation among Gujaratis. Police firing after the demolition in Vadodara — television shots clearly show — was aimed to kill, not disperse.
Worse, this was not a neutral administrative action. Present at the site were mayor of the city, Sushil Solanki, BJP leader(s) Nalin Bhatt and councillors Rakesh Patel, Arvind Patel, Chandrakant Thakkar, Lalit Raj, Harish Shevani, Yogesh Patel and Mahesh Rana.
Incidentally, both Bhatt and Patel have been identified by citizens' groups as allegedly responsible for the vicious violence in Vadodara in 2002.
Provocative slogans like, 'destroy the mini-Babri' and 'if the VMC will not demolish, the VHP and Bajrang Dal will' proved to be the last straw. Three persons died in police firing, and 27 were injured.
Two innocent members of the majority Hindu community were killed in retaliatory stabbings later. The burning alive of Rafik was the fifth life lost 36 hours after the first killings.
Read More
Friday, March 5, 2006
Thirty-eight-year-old Rafik Abdul Ghani Vohra was set upon by a mob, led by Ashok Thakur and other well-known VHP activists, and burnt to death in his car, at Ajwa Road, while returning from Gujarat Refineries on May 2.
The 1,000-strong mob gathered at Ajwa Road — unstopped by the police despite curfew — for two hours or so before the attack took place. Despite repeated calls by his family and neighbours to the police control and Deepak Swaroop, commissioner of police (CP), Vadodara, a callous administration did not respond.
Some family members told the national media and television channels that when they did connect with the police, they were told 'to go to Pakistan'. Local social activists feel that the response of the CP, chief minister's office and state home secretary's office since the outbreak of violence was worse than in 2002.
The CP simply kept disconnecting his mobile, according to agitated residents and social activists who made over 200 calls while the mob was building up. But for pressure exercised by the government at the Centre, the Gujarat state, its executive and its administration would not have been compelled to act immediately, without fear or favour.
The trouble began in Vadodara on May 1, with the demolition launched by Vadodara municipal administration, aided by police, in violation of the 'compromise' formula worked between the administration and minorities that two and a half feet of the shrine were to be 'sacrificed' for 'deve-lopment'.
The shrine in question was the Dargah Hazrat Rashiuddin, a target of communal forces since 1969. At least 385 years old, its existence is recorded in the first city survey carried out by Sayaji Rao Maharaj in 1912.
On the morning of May 1, the police and corporation demolished the shrine and by afternoon in a swift military-like action even paved a road over it.
Ghastly memories of 2002 were invoked when over 270 minority shrines were destroyed in just the first six days of post-Godhra premeditated violence, including the Wali Dakhani's mazhar just outside the CP's office at Shahi Baug in Ahmedabad on March 1, 2002. Ustad Faiz Khan's tomb in Vadodara also had its facade destroyed then. All signs of the remains of Wali Dakhani's tomb in Ahmedabad were removed by the wee hours of the next morning, again by politicians aided by the administration — a tar road was paved over the spot.
Four years later, in Vadodara, BJP leaders who are also VHP and Bajrang Dal office bearers, assisted the administration in paving a road over the destroyed shrine. Dargahs, or the mazars (graves) of Sufi saints are visited by worshippers belonging to different communities.
The mujawar (caretakers) are often Hindus. Dargahs are and have been for decades a threat to the narrow sectarian worldview of Hindu communalists. The fast-growing Muslim communal worldview also dislikes dargahs because they affect the 'purity' of Islam. Haji Malang in Thane, north of Mumbai, and Baba Boudhangiri shrine in Chikmagalur district of Andhra Pradesh are two that have been targets of physical attacks by the wider conglomerate of the Hindu communalists.
RSS has allegedly compiled and circulated a secret list of over 400 such shrines (that include churches) that need to be recaptured or taken over or destroyed.
It is this deeper motive behind the May 1 attack on the Vadodara shrine, aspects of which were a chilling reminder of the pogrom of 2002, that needs to be showcased in public memory today.
Many of Gujarat's cities are today segregated and ghettoised, dividing civic existence and living into an Us versus Them. This makes any political project of divide and rule, however unconstitutional, easier.
The destruction of dargahs is a pre-requisite for complete division and polarisation among Gujaratis. Police firing after the demolition in Vadodara — television shots clearly show — was aimed to kill, not disperse.
Worse, this was not a neutral administrative action. Present at the site were mayor of the city, Sushil Solanki, BJP leader(s) Nalin Bhatt and councillors Rakesh Patel, Arvind Patel, Chandrakant Thakkar, Lalit Raj, Harish Shevani, Yogesh Patel and Mahesh Rana.
Incidentally, both Bhatt and Patel have been identified by citizens' groups as allegedly responsible for the vicious violence in Vadodara in 2002.
Provocative slogans like, 'destroy the mini-Babri' and 'if the VMC will not demolish, the VHP and Bajrang Dal will' proved to be the last straw. Three persons died in police firing, and 27 were injured.
Two innocent members of the majority Hindu community were killed in retaliatory stabbings later. The burning alive of Rafik was the fifth life lost 36 hours after the first killings.
Friday, October 20, 2006
Mir Blooms In Thar Again
By Rahul Ghai - Tehelka - India
Saturday, May 13, 2006
A morning bus from Bikaner traversing the slopes of the undulating road slithering through the yellow glistening desert for around two hours finally reaches Pugal, a village on the Indira Gandhi canal and an old mandi of considerable historical importance. As one approaches the Mirasi mohalla, the sound of music, loud and intense, reverberations of drums and lilting melodies on the bagpipe and the Algoza engulf the atmosphere. Passers by have been wondering if there is a marriage in one of the houses. The Mirs keep singing till late in the night, as if possessed. The mohalla with its narrow lanes and closely-huddled-up houses is full of activity and bears a look of exuberance and festivity. Children, women and men of all ages are excited. Around 20-odd Mir musicians from about seven villages around Pugal have come together to participate in a month long collective riyaz (practice) session. The sessions began in the last week of January, 2005 and continued till the end of March.
Yasin from Sattasar exclaims that this is the first time in so many years that they have got an opportunity to practice together. “Leave aside practicing as a team, even doing riyaz at an individual level has not been possible. The leisure and surplus it demands are out of reach for most of us,” adds Mohammad Saddiq from Ghulamwala. The crisis of livelihoods and resources in and around the scrawny command area of the Indira Gandhi canal has forced most of the Mir singers into abject poverty and destitution. The recurrent droughts in the 20th century have forced many to eke out their living as casual daily wage hunters in nearby mandis, towns and even as far as Bikaner city. Years of hardship and gruelling labour have flattened Waris Ali and Fattu Khan from becoming promising Mir musicians.
The Mirs more respectfully called Mir-i-Alam, have been the ecstatic singers of the Sufiyana kalam of Sufi mystics of northwest Indian sub-continent like Baba Bulle Shah, Hazrat Shah Hussain, Hazrat Sultan Bahu and Khwaja Ghulam Farid, the great wandering fakir of the blazing desert between Pugal and Multan whose compositions are vivid descriptions of the majestic serenity of the desert and blossoming of the pastoral landscape during brief spells of rains. In these interiors of the Thar desert the mehfils of Mir-i-Alam, during the urs at dargahs or auspicious occasions in households, have been the sole sources of entertainment and of soul-stirring mystical experience. This once-vibrant tradition of singing in Pugal has been waning over the last half-a-century. Decline of traditional patronage of the Rajputs and Muslim pastoralists, displacement of traditional livelihoods, degradation of natural common property resources- aggravated with the coming of the Indira Gandhi Canal since the late 1970s, are some of the main reasons. The Mirs have also been victims of bans, with several villages in the region boycotting them. These bans have been imposed by the orthodox maulvis, who regard singing of any sort as heretical. This has directly affected the livelihoods of the Mirs.
The interest shown in collective riyaz sessions displays the passion and perseverance of the Mir musicians to polish their tradition and bring it alive from the clutches of decay. Undeterred by adversity, the Mirs carry on with their ideological role of being marfat singers, moving from the high moments of ecstasy to detached serenity, a beautiful and tangential medium for intense mystical experiences. The quest for revival is also a quest to survive in the desert against all odds — to preserve their forgotten heritage.
Fattu Khan, whose father was an acclaimed Mir singer, sees a possibility of regaining his confidence to hone his hereditary musical skills. For budding singers like Basu Khan, the days of riyaz hold a promise of intense music sessions and an exposure to styles of singing many old kalam. Even the old ustads have cleared their throats to teach the new Mir singers the finer nuances of rendering Sufiyana kalam. Children have been enthusiastically participating in these sessions and are trying their hands at singing. The riyaz sessions have elicited positive response from listeners in the region; many have encouraged Mirs to continue their pursuit.
What began as a journey of discovering the power of their Sufiyana tradition by Mukthiyar Ali and Abdul Jabbar around two years ago is now the collective striving of many musicians of the Mir community. The collective riyaz session is part of a fellowship given to Mukhtiyar and Abdul by the Bangalore-based India Foundation for the Arts for reinvigorating the Sufiyana kalam tradition in the Pugal region. Hope and passion keep these subaltern musicians endeavouring to revive their Sufiyana tradition: a tradition that sings of love, compassion and harmony.
Read More
Saturday, May 13, 2006
A morning bus from Bikaner traversing the slopes of the undulating road slithering through the yellow glistening desert for around two hours finally reaches Pugal, a village on the Indira Gandhi canal and an old mandi of considerable historical importance. As one approaches the Mirasi mohalla, the sound of music, loud and intense, reverberations of drums and lilting melodies on the bagpipe and the Algoza engulf the atmosphere. Passers by have been wondering if there is a marriage in one of the houses. The Mirs keep singing till late in the night, as if possessed. The mohalla with its narrow lanes and closely-huddled-up houses is full of activity and bears a look of exuberance and festivity. Children, women and men of all ages are excited. Around 20-odd Mir musicians from about seven villages around Pugal have come together to participate in a month long collective riyaz (practice) session. The sessions began in the last week of January, 2005 and continued till the end of March.
Yasin from Sattasar exclaims that this is the first time in so many years that they have got an opportunity to practice together. “Leave aside practicing as a team, even doing riyaz at an individual level has not been possible. The leisure and surplus it demands are out of reach for most of us,” adds Mohammad Saddiq from Ghulamwala. The crisis of livelihoods and resources in and around the scrawny command area of the Indira Gandhi canal has forced most of the Mir singers into abject poverty and destitution. The recurrent droughts in the 20th century have forced many to eke out their living as casual daily wage hunters in nearby mandis, towns and even as far as Bikaner city. Years of hardship and gruelling labour have flattened Waris Ali and Fattu Khan from becoming promising Mir musicians.
The Mirs more respectfully called Mir-i-Alam, have been the ecstatic singers of the Sufiyana kalam of Sufi mystics of northwest Indian sub-continent like Baba Bulle Shah, Hazrat Shah Hussain, Hazrat Sultan Bahu and Khwaja Ghulam Farid, the great wandering fakir of the blazing desert between Pugal and Multan whose compositions are vivid descriptions of the majestic serenity of the desert and blossoming of the pastoral landscape during brief spells of rains. In these interiors of the Thar desert the mehfils of Mir-i-Alam, during the urs at dargahs or auspicious occasions in households, have been the sole sources of entertainment and of soul-stirring mystical experience. This once-vibrant tradition of singing in Pugal has been waning over the last half-a-century. Decline of traditional patronage of the Rajputs and Muslim pastoralists, displacement of traditional livelihoods, degradation of natural common property resources- aggravated with the coming of the Indira Gandhi Canal since the late 1970s, are some of the main reasons. The Mirs have also been victims of bans, with several villages in the region boycotting them. These bans have been imposed by the orthodox maulvis, who regard singing of any sort as heretical. This has directly affected the livelihoods of the Mirs.
The interest shown in collective riyaz sessions displays the passion and perseverance of the Mir musicians to polish their tradition and bring it alive from the clutches of decay. Undeterred by adversity, the Mirs carry on with their ideological role of being marfat singers, moving from the high moments of ecstasy to detached serenity, a beautiful and tangential medium for intense mystical experiences. The quest for revival is also a quest to survive in the desert against all odds — to preserve their forgotten heritage.
Fattu Khan, whose father was an acclaimed Mir singer, sees a possibility of regaining his confidence to hone his hereditary musical skills. For budding singers like Basu Khan, the days of riyaz hold a promise of intense music sessions and an exposure to styles of singing many old kalam. Even the old ustads have cleared their throats to teach the new Mir singers the finer nuances of rendering Sufiyana kalam. Children have been enthusiastically participating in these sessions and are trying their hands at singing. The riyaz sessions have elicited positive response from listeners in the region; many have encouraged Mirs to continue their pursuit.
What began as a journey of discovering the power of their Sufiyana tradition by Mukthiyar Ali and Abdul Jabbar around two years ago is now the collective striving of many musicians of the Mir community. The collective riyaz session is part of a fellowship given to Mukhtiyar and Abdul by the Bangalore-based India Foundation for the Arts for reinvigorating the Sufiyana kalam tradition in the Pugal region. Hope and passion keep these subaltern musicians endeavouring to revive their Sufiyana tradition: a tradition that sings of love, compassion and harmony.
Iranian regime sentences 52 dervishes (sufi) to flogging and imprisonment
NCRI Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
Friday, May 5, 2006
The Iranian regime has in the past two days intensified a crackdown on members of the Iranian dervish community, according to state-controlled papers. Last February, State Security Forces (SSF) and paramilitary Basij forces brutally suppressed Nematollahi dervishes in Qom, and burned their center and mosque in the city to the ground.
On May 4, the mullahs’ judiciary sentenced 52 of the dervishes on charges of public “intrusion” and civil “disobedience” to imprisonment, flogging and fines, according to the government-controlled Kargozaran daily.
The sentenced dervishes are among the nearly 2000 people who were arrested in February in the course of the demolition of the Nematollahi dervishes’ Mosque in Qom.
In an unprecedent move, the dervishes' lawyers were fined, sentenced to five years in prison and disbarred by the clerical regime for defending dervishes.
The Iranian Resistance urges all human rights organizations and the UN’s Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and Beliefs to condemn the crackdown on the Nematollahi Dervishes and take action in freeing those in custody.
Read More
Friday, May 5, 2006
The Iranian regime has in the past two days intensified a crackdown on members of the Iranian dervish community, according to state-controlled papers. Last February, State Security Forces (SSF) and paramilitary Basij forces brutally suppressed Nematollahi dervishes in Qom, and burned their center and mosque in the city to the ground.
On May 4, the mullahs’ judiciary sentenced 52 of the dervishes on charges of public “intrusion” and civil “disobedience” to imprisonment, flogging and fines, according to the government-controlled Kargozaran daily.
The sentenced dervishes are among the nearly 2000 people who were arrested in February in the course of the demolition of the Nematollahi dervishes’ Mosque in Qom.
In an unprecedent move, the dervishes' lawyers were fined, sentenced to five years in prison and disbarred by the clerical regime for defending dervishes.
The Iranian Resistance urges all human rights organizations and the UN’s Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and Beliefs to condemn the crackdown on the Nematollahi Dervishes and take action in freeing those in custody.
In Saudi Arabia, a Resurgence of Sufism
By Faiza Saleh Ambah - Jiddah, Saudi Arabia - Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, May 2, 2006
A hush came over the crowd as the young man sitting cross-legged on the floor picked up the microphone and sang, a cappella, a poem about Islam's prophet Muhammad. His eyes shut tight, his head covered by an orange-and-white turban, he crooned with barely contained ardor of how the world rejoiced and lights filled the skies the day the prophet was born.
The men attending the mawlid -- a celebration of the birth and life of Muhammad -- sat on colorful rugs, rocking gently back and forth, while the women, on the upper floor watching via a large projection screen, passed around boxes of tissues and wiped tears from their eyes.
The centuries-old mawlid, a mainstay of the more spiritual and often mystic Sufi Islam, was until recently viewed as heretical and banned by Saudi Arabia's official religious establishment, the ultraconservative Wahhabis. But a new atmosphere of increased religious tolerance has spurred a resurgence of Sufism and brought the once-underground Sufis and their rituals out in the open.
Analysts and some Sufis partly credit reaction to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States for the atmosphere that has made the changes possible. When it was discovered that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi, the kingdom's strict Wahhabi doctrine -- which had banned all other sects and schools of thought -- came under intense scrutiny from inside and outside the country. The newfound tolerance Sufis have come to enjoy is perhaps one of the most concrete outcomes of that shift.
"This is one of the blessings of September 11. It put the brakes on the [Wahhabi] practice of takfir , excommunicating everyone who didn't exactly follow their creed," said Sayed Habib Adnan, a 33-year-old Sufi teacher. The government "realized that maybe enforcing one religious belief over all others was not such a good idea."
Sufis here say they are not a separate sect or followers of a separate religion, but adherents to a way of life based on the Muslim concept of ihsan . Muhammad explained ihsan to the angel Gabriel as "worshiping God as if you see Him. Because if you don't see Him, He sees you." Another Sufi characteristic is a strong belief in the power of blessings from the prophet, his close relatives and his companions.
Sufism had previously been predominant in Hejaz, the western region of Saudi Arabia, which includes Muhammad's birthplace, Mecca; Medina, where he is buried; and the Red Sea port city of Jiddah. Muslims prayed often at shrines where the prophet's daughter Fatima, his wife Khadija and his companions were buried. Mawlids were public affairs with entire cities decked out in lights, and parades and festivities commemorating the prophet's birthday and his ascension to Jerusalem.
When the al-Saud family that would later come to rule Saudi Arabia took over Hejaz in the 1920s, the Wahhabis banned mawlids as a form of heresy and destroyed the historic shrines of Khadija, Fatima and the prophet's companions, fearing they would lead to idolatry and polytheism.
Discrimination against Sufis, among others, intensified after armed Wahhabi extremists took over Mecca's Grand Mosque in 1979, demanding that a more puritanical form of Islam be applied in the country. Though the government quelled the uprising and executed its leaders, authorities were shaken by the incident, and lest other Wahhabis defy them, they allowed them more rein.
Soon after, extremist clerics issued a religious edict, or fatwa, declaring Sufi's spiritual leader, Muhammad Alawi Malki, a nonbeliever. He was removed from his teaching position, banned from giving lessons at the Grand Mosque, where both his father and grandfather had taught, and interrogated by the religious police and the Interior Ministry. After Malki was later attacked by a throng of radicals incensed at his presence in the mosque, he could pray there only under armed guard.
Meanwhile, thousands of cassettes and booklets circulated calling Sufis "grave-lovers" and dangerous infidels who had to be stopped before they made a comeback. Their salons were raided, and those caught with Sufi literature were often arrested or jailed.
The tide finally turned in 2003, with the new atmosphere that took hold following the Sept. 11 attacks, when the future King Abdullah, then the crown prince, held a series of meetings to acknowledge the country's diverse sects and schools of thought. One of the guests was Sufi leader Malki. When he died the following year, Abdullah and the powerful defense and interior ministers attended his funeral. The rehabilitation of his legacy was almost complete.
But many Sufis complain that despite outward appearances, Wahhabis continue to destroy shrines in and around their holy places, their salons continue to be raided and their literature is still banned.
Muhammad Jastaniya, a 20-year-old economics major and part of a new wave of young Saudis who have embraced Sufism, said what drew him was the focus on God.
On a recent moonlit evening, Jastaniya sipped sugary mint tea with his friends on rugs spread on the rooftop of a Zawiya, or lodge where Sufis go to meditate, chant or sit in on lessons. The words 'God' and 'Muhammad' were written in green neon lights, and Islam's 99 names for God were stenciled in black paint around the wall. "To be a Sufi is to clear your heart of everything but God," he explained. "The Islam we were taught here is like a body without a soul. Sufism is the soul. It's not an alternative religion -- it can contain all Muslims."
That thought seems to be taking hold, even in faraway corners.
Salman al-Odah, the country's most popular puritanical cleric, who was jailed in the 1990s for opposing the presence of U.S. troops in the kingdom, accepted an invitation to visit Sufi cleric Abdallah Fadaaq's mawlid and lesson last week. The scene at Fadaaq's house was an obvious sign of conciliation.
Read More
Tuesday, May 2, 2006
A hush came over the crowd as the young man sitting cross-legged on the floor picked up the microphone and sang, a cappella, a poem about Islam's prophet Muhammad. His eyes shut tight, his head covered by an orange-and-white turban, he crooned with barely contained ardor of how the world rejoiced and lights filled the skies the day the prophet was born.
The men attending the mawlid -- a celebration of the birth and life of Muhammad -- sat on colorful rugs, rocking gently back and forth, while the women, on the upper floor watching via a large projection screen, passed around boxes of tissues and wiped tears from their eyes.
The centuries-old mawlid, a mainstay of the more spiritual and often mystic Sufi Islam, was until recently viewed as heretical and banned by Saudi Arabia's official religious establishment, the ultraconservative Wahhabis. But a new atmosphere of increased religious tolerance has spurred a resurgence of Sufism and brought the once-underground Sufis and their rituals out in the open.
Analysts and some Sufis partly credit reaction to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States for the atmosphere that has made the changes possible. When it was discovered that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi, the kingdom's strict Wahhabi doctrine -- which had banned all other sects and schools of thought -- came under intense scrutiny from inside and outside the country. The newfound tolerance Sufis have come to enjoy is perhaps one of the most concrete outcomes of that shift.
"This is one of the blessings of September 11. It put the brakes on the [Wahhabi] practice of takfir , excommunicating everyone who didn't exactly follow their creed," said Sayed Habib Adnan, a 33-year-old Sufi teacher. The government "realized that maybe enforcing one religious belief over all others was not such a good idea."
Sufis here say they are not a separate sect or followers of a separate religion, but adherents to a way of life based on the Muslim concept of ihsan . Muhammad explained ihsan to the angel Gabriel as "worshiping God as if you see Him. Because if you don't see Him, He sees you." Another Sufi characteristic is a strong belief in the power of blessings from the prophet, his close relatives and his companions.
Sufism had previously been predominant in Hejaz, the western region of Saudi Arabia, which includes Muhammad's birthplace, Mecca; Medina, where he is buried; and the Red Sea port city of Jiddah. Muslims prayed often at shrines where the prophet's daughter Fatima, his wife Khadija and his companions were buried. Mawlids were public affairs with entire cities decked out in lights, and parades and festivities commemorating the prophet's birthday and his ascension to Jerusalem.
When the al-Saud family that would later come to rule Saudi Arabia took over Hejaz in the 1920s, the Wahhabis banned mawlids as a form of heresy and destroyed the historic shrines of Khadija, Fatima and the prophet's companions, fearing they would lead to idolatry and polytheism.
Discrimination against Sufis, among others, intensified after armed Wahhabi extremists took over Mecca's Grand Mosque in 1979, demanding that a more puritanical form of Islam be applied in the country. Though the government quelled the uprising and executed its leaders, authorities were shaken by the incident, and lest other Wahhabis defy them, they allowed them more rein.
Soon after, extremist clerics issued a religious edict, or fatwa, declaring Sufi's spiritual leader, Muhammad Alawi Malki, a nonbeliever. He was removed from his teaching position, banned from giving lessons at the Grand Mosque, where both his father and grandfather had taught, and interrogated by the religious police and the Interior Ministry. After Malki was later attacked by a throng of radicals incensed at his presence in the mosque, he could pray there only under armed guard.
Meanwhile, thousands of cassettes and booklets circulated calling Sufis "grave-lovers" and dangerous infidels who had to be stopped before they made a comeback. Their salons were raided, and those caught with Sufi literature were often arrested or jailed.
The tide finally turned in 2003, with the new atmosphere that took hold following the Sept. 11 attacks, when the future King Abdullah, then the crown prince, held a series of meetings to acknowledge the country's diverse sects and schools of thought. One of the guests was Sufi leader Malki. When he died the following year, Abdullah and the powerful defense and interior ministers attended his funeral. The rehabilitation of his legacy was almost complete.
But many Sufis complain that despite outward appearances, Wahhabis continue to destroy shrines in and around their holy places, their salons continue to be raided and their literature is still banned.
Muhammad Jastaniya, a 20-year-old economics major and part of a new wave of young Saudis who have embraced Sufism, said what drew him was the focus on God.
On a recent moonlit evening, Jastaniya sipped sugary mint tea with his friends on rugs spread on the rooftop of a Zawiya, or lodge where Sufis go to meditate, chant or sit in on lessons. The words 'God' and 'Muhammad' were written in green neon lights, and Islam's 99 names for God were stenciled in black paint around the wall. "To be a Sufi is to clear your heart of everything but God," he explained. "The Islam we were taught here is like a body without a soul. Sufism is the soul. It's not an alternative religion -- it can contain all Muslims."
That thought seems to be taking hold, even in faraway corners.
Salman al-Odah, the country's most popular puritanical cleric, who was jailed in the 1990s for opposing the presence of U.S. troops in the kingdom, accepted an invitation to visit Sufi cleric Abdallah Fadaaq's mawlid and lesson last week. The scene at Fadaaq's house was an obvious sign of conciliation.
A Proverb with a Life of Its Own
By Manny Frishberg - Vision Magazine
Monday, May 01, 2006
Art springs up from all sorts of sources. Sometimes it's a product of chance occurrences and opportunities–call it “Kismet.” That is how two rabbis, a Protestant editor, a Muslim painter and a nonprofit publisher in Tennessee came together to create a work of love called The Animal's Lawsuit Against Humanity, updating a 10th century Islamic fable for the 21st.
Versions of the tale of how the animals came together to protest their treatment by humans had been told from India across the ancient trade roots west, but the first written version was penned by members of a Sufi sect somewhere around Basra, in Iraq, about 1100 years ago.
“In their version,” said Laytner, “it was the 25th of 51 letters which described the mysteries and meanings of life.”
Pakistani artist Kulsum Begum illustrated the story with about a dozen paintings that are reproduced in color plates throughout the book, commissioned by her patron, Princess Maha Muhammad al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia.
“We are friends with a lot of the King Faisal family in Arabia,” said Gray Henry, director of Fons Vitae, the nonprofit publisher that has produced the lavishly illustrated paperback. “One of his granddaughters... took over the expense and effort of getting all these illustrations, which took a really long time.”
“It's really a collective endeavor, ”said Rabbi Laytner. “An Arabic Sufi tale that was translated by a rabbi into Hebrew in the Middle Ages and was translated by us, with a Sufi publisher and a Pakistani Muslim artist.”
To learn more about The Animal's Lawsuit Against Humanity, including to order copies, go to www.fonsvitae.com.
Read More
By Manny Frishberg - Vision Magazine
Monday, May 01, 2006
Art springs up from all sorts of sources. Sometimes it's a product of chance occurrences and opportunities–call it “Kismet.” That is how two rabbis, a Protestant editor, a Muslim painter and a nonprofit publisher in Tennessee came together to create a work of love called The Animal's Lawsuit Against Humanity, updating a 10th century Islamic fable for the 21st.
Versions of the tale of how the animals came together to protest their treatment by humans had been told from India across the ancient trade roots west, but the first written version was penned by members of a Sufi sect somewhere around Basra, in Iraq, about 1100 years ago.
“In their version,” said Laytner, “it was the 25th of 51 letters which described the mysteries and meanings of life.”
Pakistani artist Kulsum Begum illustrated the story with about a dozen paintings that are reproduced in color plates throughout the book, commissioned by her patron, Princess Maha Muhammad al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia.
“We are friends with a lot of the King Faisal family in Arabia,” said Gray Henry, director of Fons Vitae, the nonprofit publisher that has produced the lavishly illustrated paperback. “One of his granddaughters... took over the expense and effort of getting all these illustrations, which took a really long time.”
“It's really a collective endeavor, ”said Rabbi Laytner. “An Arabic Sufi tale that was translated by a rabbi into Hebrew in the Middle Ages and was translated by us, with a Sufi publisher and a Pakistani Muslim artist.”
To learn more about The Animal's Lawsuit Against Humanity, including to order copies, go to www.fonsvitae.com.
We were forced to fire: Vadodara police
By Sheela Bhatt - Rediff.com - New Delhi, India
Monday, May 1, 2006
Following the communal tension at Fatehpur, near the Champaner Gates in Vadodara, a large part of the old city has been placed under curfew. Two people have been killed and seven injured in the violence.
"We were forced to fire at the crowd," said Deepak Swaroop, Vadodara city police commissioner, while talking to rediff.com.
While giving chronology of the events, Swaroop said, "The demolition drive has been on for the last 15 days, as per the master plan of the city. There were orders to demolish any kind of encroachment, whether it's a temple or a mosque or any illegal construction in the house of a senior officer."
He added, "As per the order, some temples, too, have been demolished. Today it was the turn of the dargah of Rashidudin Rahimtullah, a Sufi saint." He said no-one knows exactly how old the dargah is but 'it has been here for many decades'.
Since the Muslim community had been agitated over the possibility of the demolitions, Swaroop had arranged meetings between Muslim leaders, the city mayor and the municipal commissioner. However, no consensus was reached and the court did not give a stay order on the demolitions.
"We were compelled to use force as a crowd of over 3000 people gheraoed the dargah. We first used tear gas, then we lathi-charged and only then did we fire, before the demolition work was completed," he said.
When asked why he did not delay the demolition, Swaroop said, "I used to pray at a Sai Baba temple right across from my house. Even that was demolished a few days back and I could do nothing about it."
Hemant Gandhi, a resident of Vadodara who witnessed the tussle around the dargah said, "We expect more tension because there are two other dargahs on the list to be demolished and one of them is in the middle of a road. We expect the tension to continue if the city corporation does not delay the demolition drive."
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Monday, May 1, 2006
Following the communal tension at Fatehpur, near the Champaner Gates in Vadodara, a large part of the old city has been placed under curfew. Two people have been killed and seven injured in the violence.
"We were forced to fire at the crowd," said Deepak Swaroop, Vadodara city police commissioner, while talking to rediff.com.
While giving chronology of the events, Swaroop said, "The demolition drive has been on for the last 15 days, as per the master plan of the city. There were orders to demolish any kind of encroachment, whether it's a temple or a mosque or any illegal construction in the house of a senior officer."
He added, "As per the order, some temples, too, have been demolished. Today it was the turn of the dargah of Rashidudin Rahimtullah, a Sufi saint." He said no-one knows exactly how old the dargah is but 'it has been here for many decades'.
Since the Muslim community had been agitated over the possibility of the demolitions, Swaroop had arranged meetings between Muslim leaders, the city mayor and the municipal commissioner. However, no consensus was reached and the court did not give a stay order on the demolitions.
"We were compelled to use force as a crowd of over 3000 people gheraoed the dargah. We first used tear gas, then we lathi-charged and only then did we fire, before the demolition work was completed," he said.
When asked why he did not delay the demolition, Swaroop said, "I used to pray at a Sai Baba temple right across from my house. Even that was demolished a few days back and I could do nothing about it."
Hemant Gandhi, a resident of Vadodara who witnessed the tussle around the dargah said, "We expect more tension because there are two other dargahs on the list to be demolished and one of them is in the middle of a road. We expect the tension to continue if the city corporation does not delay the demolition drive."
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