Sunday, September 25, 2005

Iran's Sufi beat lures dervishes and uptown girls


Sept. 21, 2005, Daily Times (Reuters)


Iran's Sufi beat lures dervishes and uptown girls

By Christian Oliver

The Sufis' mystical path to God through dance and music does not go down well with some of the most senior religious figures in Iran

TEHRAN: Venerable white-bearded dervishes and high-heeled girls with garish lipstick found rare common ground before dawn on Tuesday, celebrating an Iranian holiday with the mystical chants of the Sufis.

Sufi Muslim spirituality is largely tolerated under Iran's strict Islamic laws, although senior religious figures occasionally call for a clampdown on its rites.

Under an almost full moon, several hundred Iranians came to celebrate the birthday of the 'Mahdi' at the Zahir-od-dowleh [see below**] cemetery in northern Tehran, a dervish hub where many writers and artists are buried.

The Mahdi is a key figure of Shi'ite Islam, a descendant of the Prophet Mohammad whose messianic return is eagerly awaited after his disappearance in the ninth century.

Some visitors to the graveyard lost themselves in the chanted mystical verses of classical Persian poets such as Rumi and Hafez and nodded along with the plaintive melody of flutes and dull drumbeat of giant 'daf' tambourines.

Others had come for free pastries and to gossip. “This is the music that brings people and God together,” said daf player Mohammad. “Our music has saved invalids from the brink of death after their doctors had written them off.”

However, the Sufis' mystical path to God through dance and music does not go down well with some of the most senior religious figures in the country.

“The deviant Sufi sect is a danger for Islam,” Ayatollah Hossein Nouri-Hamedani was quoted as saying in the official Iran newspaper on Monday, calling for a crackdown on dervish groups in the central province of Qom.

Ersatz dervishes: The Mahdi's birthday party was also failing to please some seasoned aficionados of the Sufi circuit.

Zahir-od-dowleh has developed a reputation as a hangout for affluent north Tehran hippies attracted by the tomb of Forough Farrokhzadeh, an iconic poetess killed in a car crash in 1967 when she was only 32. “These are not real dervishes,” said one grey-bearded man leaning against a car, fingering his prayer beads.

His companion, Aliakbar Narian, complained there was not even room for the entranced dance of the whirling dervishes, made famous in the Turkish city of Konya.

Long-distance truck driver Narian flipped open the photo gallery on his mobile phone and showed off snapshots of some Sufi masters he had visited recently elsewhere in Tehran.

“These are real Sufis, men with beards down to their midriffs,” he said.

“This is Mahboub Ali Shah who has walked seven times to Kerbala,” he said, referring to Shi'ite holy city in Iraq.

“This is Hassan Esmaili, a great dervish but also an Iranian Kung Fu champion,” he added.

It is unclear whether Sufism is picking up more followers, because Iranians are usually secretive about unorthodox religious practices. Even increasingly popular reading groups for the Sufi poet Rumi can be tight-lipped about activities which could be seen as being at odds with the established religious order.
------

**Zahir al-Dawlah (after whom the cemetery in the
article was named) was the well-known Qajar courtier and disciple of
the famous Ni'matullahi poet Safi Ali Shah, of the Safa'iyah or Safi 'Ali Shahi branch of
the Ni'matullahi order. (See *Kings of Love* by Pourjavady and Wilson,
pp. 252-53.) For a picture of this cemetery (which may be next to or even on the grounds of the Safi 'Ali Shah khaniqah in Tehran) click on the link to the picture.
Note that the Ni'matullahi symbol of the two crossed axes (tabarzin) upon which
is hung a begging bowl (kashkul) can just barely be seen (if you know
what you are looking for) in a white ceramic tile (?) inlaid over the
gate to the right of center. (Added by 'Abd al-Haqq)

Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society Annual USA Symposium

The Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society announces its annual USA Symposium,scheduled to take place in New York City, on the campus of ColumbiaUniversity, over the weekend of October 15-16. Once again it willhost a diverse group of speakers from around the world who willaddress topics on this year's theme, 'Time and Non-time'.Information about the speakers and the event is posted on theSociety's website, at the following link:
http://www.ibnarabisociety.org/Events.html
The Symposium Brochure is also posted on the website, at the link(Adobe Reader required) available by clicking on the title of this post or at the society's website.
If you have any question, please email the Society at mias@ibnarabisociety.org

Friday, September 23, 2005

Film on Pakistani Sufi Shrines

Saturday, January 12, 2002 (Although this is old news, perhaps the film has now been made, and so it should be better known -- 'Abd al-Haqq Sept. 23, 2005)

French, Pakistani filmmakers to make documentary on shrines
By Shoaib AhmedLAHORE: A French filmmaker is collaborating with a Pakistani director to produce a series of documentaries exploring the architectural, artistic and spiritual importance of Pakistan’s shrines.The duo previously shot an internationally acclaimed 90-minute feature exploring the state of classical dance in Pakistan entitled Laatoo, which was first screened at the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, attracting much critical recognition.Frenchwoman Alix Phillippon and Pakistani Faizan Pirzada have now commenced work on the new project, The Pakistani Shrines, exploring sites up to 1,300 years old.Mr Pirzada told Daily Times that there were over 418 shrines in Punjab alone, of which 30–40 were of vast historical interest. The director said his team had traveled across 60 percent of Punjab while filming the shrines. He said he and Ms Phillippon would produce three 30 minutes documentaries, each covering three major aspects, spiritual, architectural and literary. He added production and editing would take around six months. The documentaries feature Sufi music and Sufi kalaam sung by folk singers, and would help in documenting the history of Pakistan’s shrines while drawing attention to their present condition and the performance of the site’s care-takers.Lahore-born Mr Pirzada, whose father was the celebrated Pakistani playwright Rafi Peer, began his career at Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop in 1977 and rose to become artistic director. He is also a puppeteer of distinction, and has been awarded the President’s Medal for Pride of Performance.Ms Phillippon spent a year in Peshawar in 1999-2000 working at the French Cultural Centre, of which she was later appointed deputy director.

Sufism is thriving in Pakistan

Pakistan's mystical Islam thrives
By Asim Butt, Karachi August 11, 2005 from BBC News

The Abdullah Shah Ghazi shrine is a magnet for devoteesThe mystical form of Islam espoused by Sufi saints for hundreds of years continues to thrive in Pakistan despite opposition from religious hardliners and the authorities.
As the sun sets on a Thursday evening, hundreds of working class people descend on a shrine to the eighth-century mystic, Abdullah Shah Ghazi, in Karachi.
The shrine is located on a hill in the upmarket Clifton district of Pakistan's financial capital, flanked by swanky shopping malls and the posh residential area of Defence.
In the grounds below the shrine gather electricians, plumbers, construction workers, vagabonds, transvestites, prostitutes. Encircled by a cheering crowd, men take turns in a weightlifting competition.
Another circle dances to the drumbeat of the shrine's dhol players.
Devotional singing, or "qawali", emanates from an enclosure adjacent to the open grounds, yet another crowd swaying under its spell.
Holy nights
The men, for this public space is overwhelmingly male-dominated, belong to all the ethnicities and sects that make up Pakistan, mixing freely in a city rife with divisions.

Many homeless people are drawn to the shrine's grounds
Food stalls, bonfires, stereo-players, huddles of ganja-smoking men, smaller ones of heroin users, others swigging local brews, make up this multi-ethnic weekly party that rocks into the early hours of the morning.
Although Thursdays are traditionally holy nights when devotees pray at Sufi shrines, the revelry at Shah Ghazi seems to have little to do with prayer.
Music, dance and drugs, though proscribed by orthodox Islam, are the traditional vehicles of devotion here - as they are at most shrines in Pakistan.
Sufism has historically provided Islam with an alternative to orthodoxy and has won it most of its converts.
Sufi saints created mass appeal through their merging with pre-existing faiths of the region and their ability to align themselves with popular interests.
The mass appeal of saints like Shah Ghazi and others persists in spite of 200 years of opposition from puritanical reformers and the state.
From the late 19th century on, reformers sought to purify Islam by rejecting elements they believe had crept in through Sufism.
Exiled
Under the colonial regime, although landed Sufis were used as intermediaries between government and subjects, ascetics were seen as a threat and criminalised.

The shrine is also a centre of entertainment
Similarly, while ancient Sufis were viewed as genuine agents of spirituality, living mystics were dismissed as frauds.
The 19th Century Sufi, Mewa Shah, also buried in Karachi, was jailed and eventually exiled by the British.
According to legend, Mewa Shah alighted the ship taking him into exile, said his prayers on the waves of the Arabian Sea and mounted a large fish which took him back to the shores of Karachi.
Post-colonial Pakistan has had a schizophrenic policy towards Sufi shrines.
By subsuming them under the Auqaf department, the state has sought to weaken the powers of the spiritual heirs of the saints.
Established under Ayub Khan in 1959, the Auqaf department received its charter from Javed Iqbal, the son of Pakistan's founding visionary poet, Mohammad Iqbal, who actually bemoaned the superstitions of Indian Muslims.

Karachi's dispossessed come for free food
The pamphlets published by the department expunged the miraculous from the legends, repainting the lives of Sufi saints in a modernist light.
The powers of the department were expanded further under the pseudo-socialist government of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1976 and have persisted through Zia ul-Haq's Islamist dictatorship and Pervez Musharraf's rule of "enlightened moderation".
Meanwhile, state functionaries and politicians have continued to seek legitimacy from the shrines by turning prayer visits into public appearances and photo opportunities.
Although tributes paid by devotees are siphoned through the Auqaf department, alms are also received by the dozen or so kitchens that run along the front of the shrine.
The money is used to provide two daily meals to anyone in need. The most destitute thus encamp outside the shrine, among them glue-sniffing runaway children, heroin addicts and other homeless men and women.
The Sufi shrines offer the underclass spiritual sustenance, a social valve of entertainment, and a safety net of free rations.
It is a bond that has not been loosened by militant Islam.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4746019.stm

Fethullah Gulen Special Edition of The Muslim World

'Movement's Schools One of the most Promising Education Enterprises'
[Summaries of the Articles Published in The Muslim World Special Gulen Edition] Sept. 14, 2005 from Zaman

Dr. Thomas Michel, who studies how “Sufism” and “modernity” are reconciled in Fethullah Gulen’s thoughts, points at an educational philosophy that is reflected in the hundreds of schools established in Turkey and throughout the world as the most efficient evidence for this.
Michel says that given the lack of integration between scientific knowledge and spiritual values, Gulen and his companions introduced a new style of education which reconciles the two. According to Michel, Gulen neither proposes rigid traditionalism that completely rejects modern values, nor a nostalgic return to the madrasah type education of Ottoman times. Rather he finds an Islamic middle ground that stands in a critical engagement with modernity. In opposition to modernist social planners he regards the real goal of the nations as the renewal or “civilization” of the individuals and the society through moral action and mentality. Michel characterizes the schools established with this philosophy in mind as one of the most impressive and promising educational enterprises that is currently taking place.
Gulen will have played a part if humanity lives for another century
Professor Lester Kurtz, who starts with the supposition that loyalty to faith and tolerance are distant and contradictory notions, concludes that Gulen has managed to reconcile these. Noting that Gulen encouraged others to practice tolerance, not in spite of, but as a consequence of his loyalty to Islam, Kurtz points at the schools as one of the most important areas in which this reconciliation has taken effect. Indicating that these schools constituted a form of humanitarian service, designed for education in the general sense of the term and in order to avoid Islamic propaganda, and he says that if humanity is to live for another century, the voices coming from such faith communities as Gulen’s, would undoubtedly play a part in that.
Those opposing the inter-religious dialogue launched by Gulen are a minority
In the article he co-authored with Dr. Saritoprak, Professor Sidney Griffith indicates that Fethullah Gulen’s ideas have the utmost importance for Muslim-Christian dialogue in the world. The article notes that those who oppose the inter-religious dialogue activities headed by Gulen were rigid secularists and a tiny group of radical Islamists who made up a small minority. The authors determine the basic notions of Gulen’s teachings as “mercy” and “love” and note that Mohammad’s (PBUH) teachings lay at the source of these themes. The authors regard Gulen’s efforts as bearing outstanding importance for contemporary humanity.
Gulen seeks dialogue between religious men and scientists
Professor Osman Bakar describes Gulen as a religious scholar, whose roots lay in the traditional religious sciences and who at the same time is quite familiar with modern Western science. Bakar notes that Gulen’s ideas on this matter have been shaped by its deep faithfulness to Sufi intellectualism, even though he is not an initiate of any Sufi order. Pointing at Gulen’s efforts to reconcile religion and science, Bakar indicates that Gulen’s teachings seek a sincere dialogue not just between Islam and Christianity, but among religious men and scientists from different societies as well. In this regard Gulen’s views are important for the contemporary world in numerous respects, notes Bakar.
‘Settled Ones’ exclude Gulen’s ‘revival movement’ fearing loss of power
Complaining about the shift of hatred in the West towards the non-militant Islamic organizations and congregations after September 11, Professor Elisabeth Ozdalga wrote an article on the Gulen movement to attract attention to the “other faces of Islam”.
Ozdalga examines the Gulen phenomena, which she terms as “the most influential revival movement in modern Turkey” from the theoretical framework discussed in Sociologist Norbert Elias’ book titled ”Modernization Process”.
Ozdalga sees the Gulen movement as being one of the civil interim networks undertaking the role of “mediatorship” and filling the gaps where public institutions have difficulty in integrating citizens with the system during the process of being a modern nation-state.
Terming the Gulen congregation as a “social network” being different from other traditional congregations, Ozdalga says, “The Gulen movement, which attaches so much importance to education, makes a remarkable contribution to the formation of values and identities, which lead to a deepening of the roots of the construction of the nation-state process.”
According to Ozdalga, it is not religion but the fear of “settled ones” regarding the change in the balance of power in favor of “those coming from outside,” just as Elias mentioned on the basis of the reaction towards Gulen, which reached a climax with an audio cassette case (trial) in July 1999.
‘Gulen, major representative of anti-violence Islamic tradition’
In the article, which Associate Professor Zeki Saritoprak examines the theological roots of the peace and anti-violence attitude in Islam; gives examples of the representatives of this tradition in Turkey such as Suleyman Hilmi Tunahan, Mehmed Zahid Kotku, Bediuzzaman Said Nursi and Fethullah Gulen.
These people made an important contribution to the formation of a safer and more peaceful atmosphere in the country thanks to their loyalty to the principle of “being against violence despite the pressures imposed by extreme secularists,” according to Saritoprak
Indicating Gulen’s personal experiences that he gained during the “anarchy and military coups” processes that play an important role in his anti-violence attitude, Saritoprak says, “For a peaceful world in the future, Gulen encourages his fellow citizens to establish schools in Turkey and abroad.”
Gulen strongly defends “freedom of faith” for non-Muslims as well, says Saritoprak, concluding that Turkey’s experience of an anti-violence attitude in the frame of Islamic teachings is a valid solution in a period when Islam is identified with violence and barbarism.
‘Lausanne Islam’ Loses Competition with ‘Civilian Anatolian Islam’
Dr. Ihsan Yilmaz examining the secularism process in Turkey explains in his article how non-official Islam is being lived although the Turkish state claiming a “secular mujahidin” role wanted to establish the understanding of Lausanne Islam. He exemplifies the National View’s movement of political Islam and Fethullah Gulen’s movement of Anatolian Islam. Advocating that the Gulen movement that he also defines as the largest civilian movement in Turkey made transformative influences on society, nationalist Islam and political Islam as well, Yilmaz considers Gulen’s discourse in the “moderate Islam” category. Yilmaz depends on Gulen’s use of a flexible language on some issues relating to the authoritarian state not showing tolerance to any rival in the social arena. He exemplifies the efforts of secularist and nationalist circles that could not digest Gulen’s meeting with Pope John Paul II under the context of dialogue among religions, to make the Department of Religious Affairs take on that role.
Ali H. Aslan, Washington: Why a special edition for Fethullah Gulen?
Doctor Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi who is one of The Muslim World’s chief editors explained to Zaman why they prepared a special edition titled “Islam in Modern Turkey: Fethullah Gulen’s contributions”: “The Gulen phenomena is significant for current Turkey. The success of the Gulen education model is one of the reasons explaining its significance. Gulen has a global perspective. His interest for dialogue among religions, cultures and civilizations are perfect. Muslim world has many things to learn from this model.”
Associated Professor Zeki Saritoprak, the Said Nursi Department Chair of the John Caroll University and guest editor of the special editioni said there is a gradual interest in Gulen within the academic world. Associated Professor Hakan Yavuz from the University of Utah, who is known for his studies on Islam in Turkey and the Gulen movement, in particular, found The Muslim World’s special edition significant for two reasons: “Firstly, the Gulen model provides a major opening in a period where Islam is read with a reductionist understanding of terrorism after September 11 in the US. Secondly, the Gulen movement offers a moral system that will cover not only Turks or Muslims; but also all of humanity.”
According to Yavuz, Gulen appears in the articles published in the magazine as a Muslim Turkish intellectual who carried the Islamic understanding shaped around Yunus’ love, Mevlana’s tolerance and Haci Bektasi Veli’s rationality in Anatolia to a universal level and as the leader of a social and moral movement who has turned his thoughts into action. In short, Turkey carries its locality to a universal level with Gulen’s interpretations.
Professor Dale Eickelman from Dartmouth College, a leading figure among academics studying the Muslim world in the US and participated in the publishing council of the magazine, also disclosed: “While most scientists who try to understand the Muslim world focused on Iran, South and Southeast Asia, they underestimate the developments occurring in Turkey. This special edition attracts the attention of a wide academic circle in a period when studies and practices inspired by Gulen’s tenets embark on effects beyond the borders of Turkey and Turkish communities living in foreign countries.

Originally published in Zaman, Sept. 14, 2005.

Hafez and Iran Today:

Bigger than Elvis by Robert Tait, published in the Guardian (UK) September 15, 2005

Despite the influence of the west on Iran's popular culture, Hafez, a poet who died over 600 years ago, still gets the crowds flocking, writes Robert Tait.

The pilgrims could have been on day out at Graceland. Representing the full range of the age and socio-economic spectrums, they came to pay homage to an icon of modern popular culture.
But the hero being saluted was not Elvis Presley or any comparable figure from the age of mass communication, but a poet who died centuries ago, and whose messages remain disputed and obscure among even the most literary of his fellow countrymen.

The scene was the tomb of Khajeh Shams ed-Din Mohammed, better known as Hafez, Iran's most celebrated bard, set in an elaborately verdant garden in his home city of Shiraz, more than 500 miles south of the capital, Tehran.
Nearly 620 years after his death, a period spanning myriad political upheavals, traumatic foreign invasions, dynastic changes and revolutions, Hafez remains this polarised nation's most popular figure, a role model who can unite all Iranians.
Day after day, year in year out, they travel from all over Iran to pay tribute at this sarcophagus sheltered under a bulbous cupola. Most come with cameras. Many arrive with books of Hafez's verse, a standard possession in most Iranian households. Some of the hero-worshippers are as young as 12.
It is hard to imagine the youth of modern-day Britain hot-footing it to Stratford-upon-Avon to pay their respects to Shakespeare, or travelling en masse to the grave of, say, Wordsworth, in a mood of popular acclaim.
But poetry is Iran's rock'n'roll. In a country where, despite the best efforts of the Islamic authorities, there is a big infiltration of, and popular demand for, the cultural outpourings of the west, it is also the primary mode of artistic self-determination.
The national cultural landscape resembles a veritable society of deceased poets. Hafez aside, the epic works of Ferdosi, who took 30 years to write the Shahnameh, an opus of 60,000 couplets, Omar Khayyam, renowned in the west for the Rubaiyat, Rumi and Sa'adi all occupy places at the core of the national consciousness.
All are memorialised by spectacular mausoleums (Sa'adi's is less than a mile from Hafez's tomb), street names and statues in town squares.
But in this group of literary immortals, Hafez is the main man. His poems are characterised by the Persian literary ghazal, a style which, according to The Divan of Hafez on sale at the shrine's gift shop, roughly equates to the sonnet.
For some, he is a means to transcend the humdrum existence of the present. "I'm sure the feeling Iranians get from reading Hafez is different from that British people have when reading Shakespeare," said Reza Zand, 57, a businessman visiting from the distant city of Kerman. "It has something to do with the Persian language. Just one word can transform or move you to another world. I feel his poems apply to my life when I read them."
For others, this man of the past offers hope for the future. Fereshte Fourginezhad, 40, from Tehran, had been worried about the marital prospects of her sister and fearful of what lay in store for her hyperactive son.
Seeking sustenance, she consulted one of the self-styled sufis - or mystics - working at the shrine, who acted as a fortuneteller through the medium of Hafez's poetry.
"The sufi opened a book of Hafez poems and read from one that said my sister should wait before getting married," said Mrs Fourginezhad. "The poem also said my son would have a very bright future. I believe in Hafez's poems. When I'm at home and I'm worried about something or want to ask for something, I will open a book of his poems. It's a source of spiritual energy for us Iranians."
It may also be a source of tacit rebellion against the political status quo in a society where more explicit forms of subversion are inadvisable. For Hafez, in his time, was a scourge of the clerical establishment, which he saw a two-faced and hypocritical.
His pen name might mean He Who Can Recite the Qur'an From Memory, but Hafez was distinctly unorthodox in his interpretation of the Islamic holy book. Nowhere is this expressed more eloquently than in his lyrical praise for the joys of wine, an indulgence frowned upon in the Qur'an and banned by Iran's Islamic regime.
"Don't sit on my soil without wine and without a musician, So from your aroma I can rise dancing from the soil..." read the words on his tomb.
Contemporary religious leaders, laying claim to Hafez as much as their more secular compatriots, explain away the bard's alcoholic references as mere allegories for the heady pleasures of religious worship.
It is hard, however, to reconcile that interpretation with such Hafez refrains as: "Drink wine, set fire to the altar but don't give people a hard time."
Despite these ambiguous associations, Hafez's reputation in the Islamic Republic is growing. Next month, the Hafez Studies Centre will stage the biggest celebration yet in his name at the ninth annual Hafez Day in Shiraz, with coinciding international events being held in London, Paris, New York and elsewhere.
The centrepiece will be a symposium discussing the translation of Hafez into foreign languages. He may never become as famous as Elvis, but his literary acolytes are trying to ensure his voice echoes beyond his time and far outside Iran.

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Journey to the Sufi Shrines of Gujarat, book review

Book Review of In Search of Faith Unconquered: A journey in three acts (Sept. 24, 2005) by Anhad, anhad_delhi@yahoo.co.in

Two young travellers look for hope in ravaged Gujarat. They find it in the sublime silences of spiritual unity which still celebrate healing and love. Text by Manasa Patnam. Pictures by Sahir Raza

The Inspiration: Kabir deeply influenced the Sufi-Bhakti tradition in Gujarat I delve into the nuances of the ‘act of entrance’ as I stand facing the archway of the fort that led into the dargah of Mira Datar. In architectural terms, an act of entrance is a way of conceiving the entire image of the main structure by merely looking at the exterior through its entrance. It is the expectant notion that conjures up visions of splendour, opulence, and architectural richness. But the image also deceives you. You might, by the mere act of proceeding further, discover that the real picture is actually quite different from what was imagined two paces back.Quite predictably, my ‘act of entrance’, my personal archway into the world of Sufism, is narrow to say the least. Metropolitan existence imposes its own set of stereotypes. Think Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan or Abida Parveen. Maybe mystics hanging upside down, practising severe penance. The dargahs, I always thought, are shrines people visited during the Urs. Most importantly, Sufis had to be Muslims and Sufism was an Islamic sect, a sort of religion. Even to me, such notions are becoming false. Almost unconsciously, I plan this journey also to discard my urban baggage and embrace reality, if I can.This is our journey to identify and understand a culture, a culture independent of others, transcending, and rebelling against established orders, shunning religions, and seeking truth. Journeys are difficult to predict and those that aim to seek are even more abstract. A fulfilling journey, I would say, is such that it continues to resonate and haunt even after it is over.
Shah Alam DargahAhmedabadImpressions of another Sufi, Richard F. Burton, keep lingering. He was the quintessential outsider, forbidden to enter the holy city of Mecca. As the city was preserved only for the followers of Mohammed, Burton entered the city disguised as a Muslim. In his account of the holy city, he exclaims:“I may truly say that, of all worshippers who clung weeping to the curtain, or who pressed their beating hearts to the stone, none felt for the moment a deeper emotion than did the Haji from the far north… But to confess humbling truth, theirs was the high feeling of religious enthusiasm, mine was the ecstasy of gratified pride.”Somewhere in the beginning of the journey itself, I realised that the quest for the Sufi is really the quest of the self. So, shaking my head clear of established notions I prepared to enter the shrine of Mira Data.The dargah is situated at Unawa village, Mehsana district, Gujarat. It is enclosed within a fort-like structure and is believed to be more than 300 years old. The dargah contains the shrine of Syed Ali, who, due to his miraculous powers of healing, came to be known as Mira Data (the brave altruist). We are given a guided tour by one of the khadims of the dargah. The khadims are usually descendants from the family of the saint who first undertook responsibilities of maintaining and running the day-to-day business of the shrine.
SarkhejAhmedabadAt first sight, the dargah radiates the usual chaotic synergy of thousands of devotees, mystics and visitors. But as we are led inside, we notice how unique the shrine is. From the entrance an alleyway leads into a chamber where ‘devils’ and ‘djinns’ can be exorcised by cleansing oneself. The chamber contains a small body of water. The idea is so far-fetched that I barely notice other, even more peculiar images. Slowly I notice a number of women wading through the water mouthing obscenities. In the hallucinatory haze created by the myth about the place, the incongruousness of the women screaming obscenities, everything seems like a constructed image…Make thy mind thy kaaba, thy body its enclosing temple Conscience its prime teacher Then, O Priest, call me to pray to that mosque Which hath ten gates Sacrifice, wrath, doubt and malice Make patience thine utterance of the five prayers, The Hindus and Musalmans have the same Lord;What can the Mulla, what can the Shaikh do for man?
They say that when a neighbouring sultan visited Benares, the king of the city, who was an admirer of the poet Kabir, asked him to come and meet the sultan. To the shock of all present, Kabir, rather than bowing before the sultan and the king of Benares, merely offered a common greeting no different than he would to any man. When asked to explain his behaviour, Kabir said the only king in the world was God. “Within the Hindu and the Muslim,” he added, “dwells the same God.”
Siddhi Sayed Mosque AhmedabadSuch was the following of Kabir, both Hindus and Muslims tried to appropriate his legacy. Ironically, Kabir, during his lifetime, having pioneered the Bhakti movement, renounced both religions and openly attacked the monopoly of established religions. There are several legends in Gujarat about Kabir’s parentage. Some say that he was the illegitimate son of a Hindu widow. To save herself from public slander, the widow left the baby near a pond. A Muslim weaver called Ali (popularly known as Niru) spotted the baby and adopted it. Some writers dismiss this story as an obvious invention, an attempt to associate Kabir to a Hindu family.The year of his birth is vaguely approximated to be 1425 ad. Around the same time emerged the Bhakti movement sweeping vast regions of northern India. The movement waged an unending war against orthodoxy and meaningless ritualism. The Bhaktas who spearheaded the movement came from all classes of Hindu society. Kabir was one of its earliest known proponents in medieval India. The Sufis considered Kabir to be a muwahhid, a man whose main concern is good action.
Born of a low, but skilled caste between the two worlds of Hindus and Muslims, Kabir understood life. “I do not quote from the scriptures,” he wrote. “I simply see what I see.” It is said that he invented his own caste — a caste below all others. Kabir rejected the outward show of the sadhus, ascetics, all ‘godmen’ around him, whom he described as “the thugs of Benares”. He criticised ritualism and priest craft, refusing and denouncing hypocrisy, falsehood and deceitfulness in religions and social ethics. Devotion, penance, austerity, fasting and ablutions were meaningless to him. In one of his hymns, Kabir tells Brahmans and mullas alike that they should not condemn each other’s religious texts as false:
Shahi Bagh Dargah Ahmedabad
Hazrat Wajihuddin DargahAhmedabad
Sarkhej AhmedabadThe Musalmans accept the Tariqat The Hindus, the Vedas and Purans But for me the books of both religions are useless…We arrive at Haji Pir, driving through the cold Kutch desert in the early hours of the morning. Seen in the morning light, the dargah of Haji Pir emerges as a sublime experience. It stands out as a white bastion in the middle of vast expanses of sand. Made entirely of white marble, it displays Central Asian architectural influences.
Located unassumingly at Naragam in the Banni area of Nakhatrana taluka of Kutch district, the dargah of Pir Syed Hazi Ali Akbar too is home to people of diverse faiths and culture. This shrine belongs to the same lineage as the dargah of Haji Pir in Mumbai. Inside the dargah, almost in front of the chamber containing the tomb, is a Jar tree, which supposedly protects the tomb and wards off evil influences.
Jain Temple PavagadhHaji Pir is an important shrine strategically and culturally. Being close to the border between India and Pakistan, this shrine attracts devotees from Pakistan. Haji Pir has tremendous following among people of all religions. They say that whoever donates towards the construction, expansion and repair of the dargah, multiplies his own wealth. There are several such stories of devotees and donors to the dargah having become richer after the donation. Musabhai Dadubhai, a Hindu from Mandvi village in Kutch, is said to have become immensely wealthy after donating money and praying at the shrine of Haji Pir. Arvind Morarji Vanya, a Jain businessman from Mumbai, got a wall of the dargah constructed ten years back and gained extraordinary wealth. Significantly, several devotees here offer coconuts at the mazar, a tradition normally observed in Hindu temples.There is a pond next to the shrine, the appearance of which is attributed to the miraculous powers of Haji Pir. On his arrival in Kutch, he was obstructed by the local Rajputs (Solanki caste leaders). But Haji Pir won them over along with the common people by developing a water body in the middle of the desert. It provided relief to the drought-stricken Kutch. People still believe that the mud at the water-bed has healing properties and it is used to cure many illnesses. The pond is called ‘Sadharna’ as it was dug by a hundred Rajput soldiers…Manasa has graduated from Miranda House and Sahir is a student at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University. They have composed a beautiful book on the syncretic traditions of Gujarat: In Search of Faith Unconquered: A Journey in Three Acts,
Anhad, anhad_delhi@yahoo.co.in

published in Tehelka: The People's Paper (click on the title for the original)

Town in Turkmenistan included in UNESCO World Heritage List

Town in Turkmenistan included in UNESCO World Heritage List

Ashgabat, 17 September 2005 (nCa) --- Kunyaurgench, a historical town of Turkmenistan, has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
After Merv, this is the second town of Turkmenistan to be included in the prestigious list.

The decision was taken during the 29th session of the committee in Durban, South Africa.

Kunyaurgench is a living museum. It was the capital of Ghaznavi and Sufi dynasties. One of the decisive battles of Amir Temur took place there.

Mausoleum of Sheikh Najmuddin Kubra is also located in Kunyaurgench. The Sheikh was the founder of the Kubrawi Sufi order that later split into Sunni and Shia branches and has deep roots in Iran and South Asia.

At the height of its glory in the 13th century, Kunyaurgench was considered the largest metropolis of the Islamic world.

At various times it was known as Urgench and Gurgench.

Great Muslim scholars Abu Rehan al-Biruni and Bu Ali Sina (Avicenna) were associated with Kunyaurgench.

Musa Khwarezmi, the father of Algebra, also hailed from Kunyaurgench.
Some of the most famous architectural sites of Kunyaurgench are mausoleum of Turabek Khanum, 60 meters high Kutlug Temur Minaret, and shrines of Sheikh Najmuddin Kubra, Il-Arslan, and Sultan Tekesh.

Sufi News and Sufism World Report

Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim

This is just a short note to announce the launch of the Sufi News and World Report Blog.

The primary function of this Blog will be to provide worldwide news about Sufis and Sufism.

Peace and blessings,

'Abd al-Haqq

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Iran's Sufi beat lures dervishes and uptown girls
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Sept. 21, 2005, Daily Times (Reuters)


Iran's Sufi beat lures dervishes and uptown girls

By Christian Oliver

The Sufis' mystical path to God through dance and music does not go down well with some of the most senior religious figures in Iran

TEHRAN: Venerable white-bearded dervishes and high-heeled girls with garish lipstick found rare common ground before dawn on Tuesday, celebrating an Iranian holiday with the mystical chants of the Sufis.

Sufi Muslim spirituality is largely tolerated under Iran's strict Islamic laws, although senior religious figures occasionally call for a clampdown on its rites.

Under an almost full moon, several hundred Iranians came to celebrate the birthday of the 'Mahdi' at the Zahir-od-dowleh [see below**] cemetery in northern Tehran, a dervish hub where many writers and artists are buried.

The Mahdi is a key figure of Shi'ite Islam, a descendant of the Prophet Mohammad whose messianic return is eagerly awaited after his disappearance in the ninth century.

Some visitors to the graveyard lost themselves in the chanted mystical verses of classical Persian poets such as Rumi and Hafez and nodded along with the plaintive melody of flutes and dull drumbeat of giant 'daf' tambourines.

Others had come for free pastries and to gossip. “This is the music that brings people and God together,” said daf player Mohammad. “Our music has saved invalids from the brink of death after their doctors had written them off.”

However, the Sufis' mystical path to God through dance and music does not go down well with some of the most senior religious figures in the country.

“The deviant Sufi sect is a danger for Islam,” Ayatollah Hossein Nouri-Hamedani was quoted as saying in the official Iran newspaper on Monday, calling for a crackdown on dervish groups in the central province of Qom.

Ersatz dervishes: The Mahdi's birthday party was also failing to please some seasoned aficionados of the Sufi circuit.

Zahir-od-dowleh has developed a reputation as a hangout for affluent north Tehran hippies attracted by the tomb of Forough Farrokhzadeh, an iconic poetess killed in a car crash in 1967 when she was only 32. “These are not real dervishes,” said one grey-bearded man leaning against a car, fingering his prayer beads.

His companion, Aliakbar Narian, complained there was not even room for the entranced dance of the whirling dervishes, made famous in the Turkish city of Konya.

Long-distance truck driver Narian flipped open the photo gallery on his mobile phone and showed off snapshots of some Sufi masters he had visited recently elsewhere in Tehran.

“These are real Sufis, men with beards down to their midriffs,” he said.

“This is Mahboub Ali Shah who has walked seven times to Kerbala,” he said, referring to Shi'ite holy city in Iraq.

“This is Hassan Esmaili, a great dervish but also an Iranian Kung Fu champion,” he added.

It is unclear whether Sufism is picking up more followers, because Iranians are usually secretive about unorthodox religious practices. Even increasingly popular reading groups for the Sufi poet Rumi can be tight-lipped about activities which could be seen as being at odds with the established religious order.
------

**Zahir al-Dawlah (after whom the cemetery in the
article was named) was the well-known Qajar courtier and disciple of
the famous Ni'matullahi poet Safi Ali Shah, of the Safa'iyah or Safi 'Ali Shahi branch of
the Ni'matullahi order. (See *Kings of Love* by Pourjavady and Wilson,
pp. 252-53.) For a picture of this cemetery (which may be next to or even on the grounds of the Safi 'Ali Shah khaniqah in Tehran) click on the link to the picture.
Note that the Ni'matullahi symbol of the two crossed axes (tabarzin) upon which
is hung a begging bowl (kashkul) can just barely be seen (if you know
what you are looking for) in a white ceramic tile (?) inlaid over the
gate to the right of center. (Added by 'Abd al-Haqq)

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Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society Annual USA Symposium
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The Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society announces its annual USA Symposium,scheduled to take place in New York City, on the campus of ColumbiaUniversity, over the weekend of October 15-16. Once again it willhost a diverse group of speakers from around the world who willaddress topics on this year's theme, 'Time and Non-time'.Information about the speakers and the event is posted on theSociety's website, at the following link:
http://www.ibnarabisociety.org/Events.html
The Symposium Brochure is also posted on the website, at the link(Adobe Reader required) available by clicking on the title of this post or at the society's website.
If you have any question, please email the Society at mias@ibnarabisociety.org
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Friday, September 23, 2005

Film on Pakistani Sufi Shrines
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Saturday, January 12, 2002 (Although this is old news, perhaps the film has now been made, and so it should be better known -- 'Abd al-Haqq Sept. 23, 2005)

French, Pakistani filmmakers to make documentary on shrines
By Shoaib AhmedLAHORE: A French filmmaker is collaborating with a Pakistani director to produce a series of documentaries exploring the architectural, artistic and spiritual importance of Pakistan’s shrines.The duo previously shot an internationally acclaimed 90-minute feature exploring the state of classical dance in Pakistan entitled Laatoo, which was first screened at the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, attracting much critical recognition.Frenchwoman Alix Phillippon and Pakistani Faizan Pirzada have now commenced work on the new project, The Pakistani Shrines, exploring sites up to 1,300 years old.Mr Pirzada told Daily Times that there were over 418 shrines in Punjab alone, of which 30–40 were of vast historical interest. The director said his team had traveled across 60 percent of Punjab while filming the shrines. He said he and Ms Phillippon would produce three 30 minutes documentaries, each covering three major aspects, spiritual, architectural and literary. He added production and editing would take around six months. The documentaries feature Sufi music and Sufi kalaam sung by folk singers, and would help in documenting the history of Pakistan’s shrines while drawing attention to their present condition and the performance of the site’s care-takers.Lahore-born Mr Pirzada, whose father was the celebrated Pakistani playwright Rafi Peer, began his career at Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop in 1977 and rose to become artistic director. He is also a puppeteer of distinction, and has been awarded the President’s Medal for Pride of Performance.Ms Phillippon spent a year in Peshawar in 1999-2000 working at the French Cultural Centre, of which she was later appointed deputy director.
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Sufism is thriving in Pakistan

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Pakistan's mystical Islam thrives
By Asim Butt, Karachi August 11, 2005 from BBC News

The Abdullah Shah Ghazi shrine is a magnet for devoteesThe mystical form of Islam espoused by Sufi saints for hundreds of years continues to thrive in Pakistan despite opposition from religious hardliners and the authorities.
As the sun sets on a Thursday evening, hundreds of working class people descend on a shrine to the eighth-century mystic, Abdullah Shah Ghazi, in Karachi.
The shrine is located on a hill in the upmarket Clifton district of Pakistan's financial capital, flanked by swanky shopping malls and the posh residential area of Defence.
In the grounds below the shrine gather electricians, plumbers, construction workers, vagabonds, transvestites, prostitutes. Encircled by a cheering crowd, men take turns in a weightlifting competition.
Another circle dances to the drumbeat of the shrine's dhol players.
Devotional singing, or "qawali", emanates from an enclosure adjacent to the open grounds, yet another crowd swaying under its spell.
Holy nights
The men, for this public space is overwhelmingly male-dominated, belong to all the ethnicities and sects that make up Pakistan, mixing freely in a city rife with divisions.

Many homeless people are drawn to the shrine's grounds
Food stalls, bonfires, stereo-players, huddles of ganja-smoking men, smaller ones of heroin users, others swigging local brews, make up this multi-ethnic weekly party that rocks into the early hours of the morning.
Although Thursdays are traditionally holy nights when devotees pray at Sufi shrines, the revelry at Shah Ghazi seems to have little to do with prayer.
Music, dance and drugs, though proscribed by orthodox Islam, are the traditional vehicles of devotion here - as they are at most shrines in Pakistan.
Sufism has historically provided Islam with an alternative to orthodoxy and has won it most of its converts.
Sufi saints created mass appeal through their merging with pre-existing faiths of the region and their ability to align themselves with popular interests.
The mass appeal of saints like Shah Ghazi and others persists in spite of 200 years of opposition from puritanical reformers and the state.
From the late 19th century on, reformers sought to purify Islam by rejecting elements they believe had crept in through Sufism.
Exiled
Under the colonial regime, although landed Sufis were used as intermediaries between government and subjects, ascetics were seen as a threat and criminalised.

The shrine is also a centre of entertainment
Similarly, while ancient Sufis were viewed as genuine agents of spirituality, living mystics were dismissed as frauds.
The 19th Century Sufi, Mewa Shah, also buried in Karachi, was jailed and eventually exiled by the British.
According to legend, Mewa Shah alighted the ship taking him into exile, said his prayers on the waves of the Arabian Sea and mounted a large fish which took him back to the shores of Karachi.
Post-colonial Pakistan has had a schizophrenic policy towards Sufi shrines.
By subsuming them under the Auqaf department, the state has sought to weaken the powers of the spiritual heirs of the saints.
Established under Ayub Khan in 1959, the Auqaf department received its charter from Javed Iqbal, the son of Pakistan's founding visionary poet, Mohammad Iqbal, who actually bemoaned the superstitions of Indian Muslims.

Karachi's dispossessed come for free food
The pamphlets published by the department expunged the miraculous from the legends, repainting the lives of Sufi saints in a modernist light.
The powers of the department were expanded further under the pseudo-socialist government of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1976 and have persisted through Zia ul-Haq's Islamist dictatorship and Pervez Musharraf's rule of "enlightened moderation".
Meanwhile, state functionaries and politicians have continued to seek legitimacy from the shrines by turning prayer visits into public appearances and photo opportunities.
Although tributes paid by devotees are siphoned through the Auqaf department, alms are also received by the dozen or so kitchens that run along the front of the shrine.
The money is used to provide two daily meals to anyone in need. The most destitute thus encamp outside the shrine, among them glue-sniffing runaway children, heroin addicts and other homeless men and women.
The Sufi shrines offer the underclass spiritual sustenance, a social valve of entertainment, and a safety net of free rations.
It is a bond that has not been loosened by militant Islam.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4746019.stm
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Fethullah Gulen Special Edition of The Muslim World
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'Movement's Schools One of the most Promising Education Enterprises'
[Summaries of the Articles Published in The Muslim World Special Gulen Edition] Sept. 14, 2005 from Zaman

Dr. Thomas Michel, who studies how “Sufism” and “modernity” are reconciled in Fethullah Gulen’s thoughts, points at an educational philosophy that is reflected in the hundreds of schools established in Turkey and throughout the world as the most efficient evidence for this.
Michel says that given the lack of integration between scientific knowledge and spiritual values, Gulen and his companions introduced a new style of education which reconciles the two. According to Michel, Gulen neither proposes rigid traditionalism that completely rejects modern values, nor a nostalgic return to the madrasah type education of Ottoman times. Rather he finds an Islamic middle ground that stands in a critical engagement with modernity. In opposition to modernist social planners he regards the real goal of the nations as the renewal or “civilization” of the individuals and the society through moral action and mentality. Michel characterizes the schools established with this philosophy in mind as one of the most impressive and promising educational enterprises that is currently taking place.
Gulen will have played a part if humanity lives for another century
Professor Lester Kurtz, who starts with the supposition that loyalty to faith and tolerance are distant and contradictory notions, concludes that Gulen has managed to reconcile these. Noting that Gulen encouraged others to practice tolerance, not in spite of, but as a consequence of his loyalty to Islam, Kurtz points at the schools as one of the most important areas in which this reconciliation has taken effect. Indicating that these schools constituted a form of humanitarian service, designed for education in the general sense of the term and in order to avoid Islamic propaganda, and he says that if humanity is to live for another century, the voices coming from such faith communities as Gulen’s, would undoubtedly play a part in that.
Those opposing the inter-religious dialogue launched by Gulen are a minority
In the article he co-authored with Dr. Saritoprak, Professor Sidney Griffith indicates that Fethullah Gulen’s ideas have the utmost importance for Muslim-Christian dialogue in the world. The article notes that those who oppose the inter-religious dialogue activities headed by Gulen were rigid secularists and a tiny group of radical Islamists who made up a small minority. The authors determine the basic notions of Gulen’s teachings as “mercy” and “love” and note that Mohammad’s (PBUH) teachings lay at the source of these themes. The authors regard Gulen’s efforts as bearing outstanding importance for contemporary humanity.
Gulen seeks dialogue between religious men and scientists
Professor Osman Bakar describes Gulen as a religious scholar, whose roots lay in the traditional religious sciences and who at the same time is quite familiar with modern Western science. Bakar notes that Gulen’s ideas on this matter have been shaped by its deep faithfulness to Sufi intellectualism, even though he is not an initiate of any Sufi order. Pointing at Gulen’s efforts to reconcile religion and science, Bakar indicates that Gulen’s teachings seek a sincere dialogue not just between Islam and Christianity, but among religious men and scientists from different societies as well. In this regard Gulen’s views are important for the contemporary world in numerous respects, notes Bakar.
‘Settled Ones’ exclude Gulen’s ‘revival movement’ fearing loss of power
Complaining about the shift of hatred in the West towards the non-militant Islamic organizations and congregations after September 11, Professor Elisabeth Ozdalga wrote an article on the Gulen movement to attract attention to the “other faces of Islam”.
Ozdalga examines the Gulen phenomena, which she terms as “the most influential revival movement in modern Turkey” from the theoretical framework discussed in Sociologist Norbert Elias’ book titled ”Modernization Process”.
Ozdalga sees the Gulen movement as being one of the civil interim networks undertaking the role of “mediatorship” and filling the gaps where public institutions have difficulty in integrating citizens with the system during the process of being a modern nation-state.
Terming the Gulen congregation as a “social network” being different from other traditional congregations, Ozdalga says, “The Gulen movement, which attaches so much importance to education, makes a remarkable contribution to the formation of values and identities, which lead to a deepening of the roots of the construction of the nation-state process.”
According to Ozdalga, it is not religion but the fear of “settled ones” regarding the change in the balance of power in favor of “those coming from outside,” just as Elias mentioned on the basis of the reaction towards Gulen, which reached a climax with an audio cassette case (trial) in July 1999.
‘Gulen, major representative of anti-violence Islamic tradition’
In the article, which Associate Professor Zeki Saritoprak examines the theological roots of the peace and anti-violence attitude in Islam; gives examples of the representatives of this tradition in Turkey such as Suleyman Hilmi Tunahan, Mehmed Zahid Kotku, Bediuzzaman Said Nursi and Fethullah Gulen.
These people made an important contribution to the formation of a safer and more peaceful atmosphere in the country thanks to their loyalty to the principle of “being against violence despite the pressures imposed by extreme secularists,” according to Saritoprak
Indicating Gulen’s personal experiences that he gained during the “anarchy and military coups” processes that play an important role in his anti-violence attitude, Saritoprak says, “For a peaceful world in the future, Gulen encourages his fellow citizens to establish schools in Turkey and abroad.”
Gulen strongly defends “freedom of faith” for non-Muslims as well, says Saritoprak, concluding that Turkey’s experience of an anti-violence attitude in the frame of Islamic teachings is a valid solution in a period when Islam is identified with violence and barbarism.
‘Lausanne Islam’ Loses Competition with ‘Civilian Anatolian Islam’
Dr. Ihsan Yilmaz examining the secularism process in Turkey explains in his article how non-official Islam is being lived although the Turkish state claiming a “secular mujahidin” role wanted to establish the understanding of Lausanne Islam. He exemplifies the National View’s movement of political Islam and Fethullah Gulen’s movement of Anatolian Islam. Advocating that the Gulen movement that he also defines as the largest civilian movement in Turkey made transformative influences on society, nationalist Islam and political Islam as well, Yilmaz considers Gulen’s discourse in the “moderate Islam” category. Yilmaz depends on Gulen’s use of a flexible language on some issues relating to the authoritarian state not showing tolerance to any rival in the social arena. He exemplifies the efforts of secularist and nationalist circles that could not digest Gulen’s meeting with Pope John Paul II under the context of dialogue among religions, to make the Department of Religious Affairs take on that role.
Ali H. Aslan, Washington: Why a special edition for Fethullah Gulen?
Doctor Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi who is one of The Muslim World’s chief editors explained to Zaman why they prepared a special edition titled “Islam in Modern Turkey: Fethullah Gulen’s contributions”: “The Gulen phenomena is significant for current Turkey. The success of the Gulen education model is one of the reasons explaining its significance. Gulen has a global perspective. His interest for dialogue among religions, cultures and civilizations are perfect. Muslim world has many things to learn from this model.”
Associated Professor Zeki Saritoprak, the Said Nursi Department Chair of the John Caroll University and guest editor of the special editioni said there is a gradual interest in Gulen within the academic world. Associated Professor Hakan Yavuz from the University of Utah, who is known for his studies on Islam in Turkey and the Gulen movement, in particular, found The Muslim World’s special edition significant for two reasons: “Firstly, the Gulen model provides a major opening in a period where Islam is read with a reductionist understanding of terrorism after September 11 in the US. Secondly, the Gulen movement offers a moral system that will cover not only Turks or Muslims; but also all of humanity.”
According to Yavuz, Gulen appears in the articles published in the magazine as a Muslim Turkish intellectual who carried the Islamic understanding shaped around Yunus’ love, Mevlana’s tolerance and Haci Bektasi Veli’s rationality in Anatolia to a universal level and as the leader of a social and moral movement who has turned his thoughts into action. In short, Turkey carries its locality to a universal level with Gulen’s interpretations.
Professor Dale Eickelman from Dartmouth College, a leading figure among academics studying the Muslim world in the US and participated in the publishing council of the magazine, also disclosed: “While most scientists who try to understand the Muslim world focused on Iran, South and Southeast Asia, they underestimate the developments occurring in Turkey. This special edition attracts the attention of a wide academic circle in a period when studies and practices inspired by Gulen’s tenets embark on effects beyond the borders of Turkey and Turkish communities living in foreign countries.

Originally published in Zaman, Sept. 14, 2005.
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Hafez and Iran Today:
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Bigger than Elvis by Robert Tait, published in the Guardian (UK) September 15, 2005

Despite the influence of the west on Iran's popular culture, Hafez, a poet who died over 600 years ago, still gets the crowds flocking, writes Robert Tait.

The pilgrims could have been on day out at Graceland. Representing the full range of the age and socio-economic spectrums, they came to pay homage to an icon of modern popular culture.
But the hero being saluted was not Elvis Presley or any comparable figure from the age of mass communication, but a poet who died centuries ago, and whose messages remain disputed and obscure among even the most literary of his fellow countrymen.

The scene was the tomb of Khajeh Shams ed-Din Mohammed, better known as Hafez, Iran's most celebrated bard, set in an elaborately verdant garden in his home city of Shiraz, more than 500 miles south of the capital, Tehran.
Nearly 620 years after his death, a period spanning myriad political upheavals, traumatic foreign invasions, dynastic changes and revolutions, Hafez remains this polarised nation's most popular figure, a role model who can unite all Iranians.
Day after day, year in year out, they travel from all over Iran to pay tribute at this sarcophagus sheltered under a bulbous cupola. Most come with cameras. Many arrive with books of Hafez's verse, a standard possession in most Iranian households. Some of the hero-worshippers are as young as 12.
It is hard to imagine the youth of modern-day Britain hot-footing it to Stratford-upon-Avon to pay their respects to Shakespeare, or travelling en masse to the grave of, say, Wordsworth, in a mood of popular acclaim.
But poetry is Iran's rock'n'roll. In a country where, despite the best efforts of the Islamic authorities, there is a big infiltration of, and popular demand for, the cultural outpourings of the west, it is also the primary mode of artistic self-determination.
The national cultural landscape resembles a veritable society of deceased poets. Hafez aside, the epic works of Ferdosi, who took 30 years to write the Shahnameh, an opus of 60,000 couplets, Omar Khayyam, renowned in the west for the Rubaiyat, Rumi and Sa'adi all occupy places at the core of the national consciousness.
All are memorialised by spectacular mausoleums (Sa'adi's is less than a mile from Hafez's tomb), street names and statues in town squares.
But in this group of literary immortals, Hafez is the main man. His poems are characterised by the Persian literary ghazal, a style which, according to The Divan of Hafez on sale at the shrine's gift shop, roughly equates to the sonnet.
For some, he is a means to transcend the humdrum existence of the present. "I'm sure the feeling Iranians get from reading Hafez is different from that British people have when reading Shakespeare," said Reza Zand, 57, a businessman visiting from the distant city of Kerman. "It has something to do with the Persian language. Just one word can transform or move you to another world. I feel his poems apply to my life when I read them."
For others, this man of the past offers hope for the future. Fereshte Fourginezhad, 40, from Tehran, had been worried about the marital prospects of her sister and fearful of what lay in store for her hyperactive son.
Seeking sustenance, she consulted one of the self-styled sufis - or mystics - working at the shrine, who acted as a fortuneteller through the medium of Hafez's poetry.
"The sufi opened a book of Hafez poems and read from one that said my sister should wait before getting married," said Mrs Fourginezhad. "The poem also said my son would have a very bright future. I believe in Hafez's poems. When I'm at home and I'm worried about something or want to ask for something, I will open a book of his poems. It's a source of spiritual energy for us Iranians."
It may also be a source of tacit rebellion against the political status quo in a society where more explicit forms of subversion are inadvisable. For Hafez, in his time, was a scourge of the clerical establishment, which he saw a two-faced and hypocritical.
His pen name might mean He Who Can Recite the Qur'an From Memory, but Hafez was distinctly unorthodox in his interpretation of the Islamic holy book. Nowhere is this expressed more eloquently than in his lyrical praise for the joys of wine, an indulgence frowned upon in the Qur'an and banned by Iran's Islamic regime.
"Don't sit on my soil without wine and without a musician, So from your aroma I can rise dancing from the soil..." read the words on his tomb.
Contemporary religious leaders, laying claim to Hafez as much as their more secular compatriots, explain away the bard's alcoholic references as mere allegories for the heady pleasures of religious worship.
It is hard, however, to reconcile that interpretation with such Hafez refrains as: "Drink wine, set fire to the altar but don't give people a hard time."
Despite these ambiguous associations, Hafez's reputation in the Islamic Republic is growing. Next month, the Hafez Studies Centre will stage the biggest celebration yet in his name at the ninth annual Hafez Day in Shiraz, with coinciding international events being held in London, Paris, New York and elsewhere.
The centrepiece will be a symposium discussing the translation of Hafez into foreign languages. He may never become as famous as Elvis, but his literary acolytes are trying to ensure his voice echoes beyond his time and far outside Iran.
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Thursday, September 22, 2005

Journey to the Sufi Shrines of Gujarat, book review
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Book Review of In Search of Faith Unconquered: A journey in three acts (Sept. 24, 2005) by Anhad, anhad_delhi@yahoo.co.in

Two young travellers look for hope in ravaged Gujarat. They find it in the sublime silences of spiritual unity which still celebrate healing and love. Text by Manasa Patnam. Pictures by Sahir Raza

The Inspiration: Kabir deeply influenced the Sufi-Bhakti tradition in Gujarat I delve into the nuances of the ‘act of entrance’ as I stand facing the archway of the fort that led into the dargah of Mira Datar. In architectural terms, an act of entrance is a way of conceiving the entire image of the main structure by merely looking at the exterior through its entrance. It is the expectant notion that conjures up visions of splendour, opulence, and architectural richness. But the image also deceives you. You might, by the mere act of proceeding further, discover that the real picture is actually quite different from what was imagined two paces back.Quite predictably, my ‘act of entrance’, my personal archway into the world of Sufism, is narrow to say the least. Metropolitan existence imposes its own set of stereotypes. Think Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan or Abida Parveen. Maybe mystics hanging upside down, practising severe penance. The dargahs, I always thought, are shrines people visited during the Urs. Most importantly, Sufis had to be Muslims and Sufism was an Islamic sect, a sort of religion. Even to me, such notions are becoming false. Almost unconsciously, I plan this journey also to discard my urban baggage and embrace reality, if I can.This is our journey to identify and understand a culture, a culture independent of others, transcending, and rebelling against established orders, shunning religions, and seeking truth. Journeys are difficult to predict and those that aim to seek are even more abstract. A fulfilling journey, I would say, is such that it continues to resonate and haunt even after it is over.
Shah Alam DargahAhmedabadImpressions of another Sufi, Richard F. Burton, keep lingering. He was the quintessential outsider, forbidden to enter the holy city of Mecca. As the city was preserved only for the followers of Mohammed, Burton entered the city disguised as a Muslim. In his account of the holy city, he exclaims:“I may truly say that, of all worshippers who clung weeping to the curtain, or who pressed their beating hearts to the stone, none felt for the moment a deeper emotion than did the Haji from the far north… But to confess humbling truth, theirs was the high feeling of religious enthusiasm, mine was the ecstasy of gratified pride.”Somewhere in the beginning of the journey itself, I realised that the quest for the Sufi is really the quest of the self. So, shaking my head clear of established notions I prepared to enter the shrine of Mira Data.The dargah is situated at Unawa village, Mehsana district, Gujarat. It is enclosed within a fort-like structure and is believed to be more than 300 years old. The dargah contains the shrine of Syed Ali, who, due to his miraculous powers of healing, came to be known as Mira Data (the brave altruist). We are given a guided tour by one of the khadims of the dargah. The khadims are usually descendants from the family of the saint who first undertook responsibilities of maintaining and running the day-to-day business of the shrine.
SarkhejAhmedabadAt first sight, the dargah radiates the usual chaotic synergy of thousands of devotees, mystics and visitors. But as we are led inside, we notice how unique the shrine is. From the entrance an alleyway leads into a chamber where ‘devils’ and ‘djinns’ can be exorcised by cleansing oneself. The chamber contains a small body of water. The idea is so far-fetched that I barely notice other, even more peculiar images. Slowly I notice a number of women wading through the water mouthing obscenities. In the hallucinatory haze created by the myth about the place, the incongruousness of the women screaming obscenities, everything seems like a constructed image…Make thy mind thy kaaba, thy body its enclosing temple Conscience its prime teacher Then, O Priest, call me to pray to that mosque Which hath ten gates Sacrifice, wrath, doubt and malice Make patience thine utterance of the five prayers, The Hindus and Musalmans have the same Lord;What can the Mulla, what can the Shaikh do for man?
They say that when a neighbouring sultan visited Benares, the king of the city, who was an admirer of the poet Kabir, asked him to come and meet the sultan. To the shock of all present, Kabir, rather than bowing before the sultan and the king of Benares, merely offered a common greeting no different than he would to any man. When asked to explain his behaviour, Kabir said the only king in the world was God. “Within the Hindu and the Muslim,” he added, “dwells the same God.”
Siddhi Sayed Mosque AhmedabadSuch was the following of Kabir, both Hindus and Muslims tried to appropriate his legacy. Ironically, Kabir, during his lifetime, having pioneered the Bhakti movement, renounced both religions and openly attacked the monopoly of established religions. There are several legends in Gujarat about Kabir’s parentage. Some say that he was the illegitimate son of a Hindu widow. To save herself from public slander, the widow left the baby near a pond. A Muslim weaver called Ali (popularly known as Niru) spotted the baby and adopted it. Some writers dismiss this story as an obvious invention, an attempt to associate Kabir to a Hindu family.The year of his birth is vaguely approximated to be 1425 ad. Around the same time emerged the Bhakti movement sweeping vast regions of northern India. The movement waged an unending war against orthodoxy and meaningless ritualism. The Bhaktas who spearheaded the movement came from all classes of Hindu society. Kabir was one of its earliest known proponents in medieval India. The Sufis considered Kabir to be a muwahhid, a man whose main concern is good action.
Born of a low, but skilled caste between the two worlds of Hindus and Muslims, Kabir understood life. “I do not quote from the scriptures,” he wrote. “I simply see what I see.” It is said that he invented his own caste — a caste below all others. Kabir rejected the outward show of the sadhus, ascetics, all ‘godmen’ around him, whom he described as “the thugs of Benares”. He criticised ritualism and priest craft, refusing and denouncing hypocrisy, falsehood and deceitfulness in religions and social ethics. Devotion, penance, austerity, fasting and ablutions were meaningless to him. In one of his hymns, Kabir tells Brahmans and mullas alike that they should not condemn each other’s religious texts as false:
Shahi Bagh Dargah Ahmedabad
Hazrat Wajihuddin DargahAhmedabad
Sarkhej AhmedabadThe Musalmans accept the Tariqat The Hindus, the Vedas and Purans But for me the books of both religions are useless…We arrive at Haji Pir, driving through the cold Kutch desert in the early hours of the morning. Seen in the morning light, the dargah of Haji Pir emerges as a sublime experience. It stands out as a white bastion in the middle of vast expanses of sand. Made entirely of white marble, it displays Central Asian architectural influences.
Located unassumingly at Naragam in the Banni area of Nakhatrana taluka of Kutch district, the dargah of Pir Syed Hazi Ali Akbar too is home to people of diverse faiths and culture. This shrine belongs to the same lineage as the dargah of Haji Pir in Mumbai. Inside the dargah, almost in front of the chamber containing the tomb, is a Jar tree, which supposedly protects the tomb and wards off evil influences.
Jain Temple PavagadhHaji Pir is an important shrine strategically and culturally. Being close to the border between India and Pakistan, this shrine attracts devotees from Pakistan. Haji Pir has tremendous following among people of all religions. They say that whoever donates towards the construction, expansion and repair of the dargah, multiplies his own wealth. There are several such stories of devotees and donors to the dargah having become richer after the donation. Musabhai Dadubhai, a Hindu from Mandvi village in Kutch, is said to have become immensely wealthy after donating money and praying at the shrine of Haji Pir. Arvind Morarji Vanya, a Jain businessman from Mumbai, got a wall of the dargah constructed ten years back and gained extraordinary wealth. Significantly, several devotees here offer coconuts at the mazar, a tradition normally observed in Hindu temples.There is a pond next to the shrine, the appearance of which is attributed to the miraculous powers of Haji Pir. On his arrival in Kutch, he was obstructed by the local Rajputs (Solanki caste leaders). But Haji Pir won them over along with the common people by developing a water body in the middle of the desert. It provided relief to the drought-stricken Kutch. People still believe that the mud at the water-bed has healing properties and it is used to cure many illnesses. The pond is called ‘Sadharna’ as it was dug by a hundred Rajput soldiers…Manasa has graduated from Miranda House and Sahir is a student at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University. They have composed a beautiful book on the syncretic traditions of Gujarat: In Search of Faith Unconquered: A Journey in Three Acts,
Anhad, anhad_delhi@yahoo.co.in

published in Tehelka: The People's Paper (click on the title for the original)
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Town in Turkmenistan included in UNESCO World Heritage List
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Town in Turkmenistan included in UNESCO World Heritage List

Ashgabat, 17 September 2005 (nCa) --- Kunyaurgench, a historical town of Turkmenistan, has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
After Merv, this is the second town of Turkmenistan to be included in the prestigious list.

The decision was taken during the 29th session of the committee in Durban, South Africa.

Kunyaurgench is a living museum. It was the capital of Ghaznavi and Sufi dynasties. One of the decisive battles of Amir Temur took place there.

Mausoleum of Sheikh Najmuddin Kubra is also located in Kunyaurgench. The Sheikh was the founder of the Kubrawi Sufi order that later split into Sunni and Shia branches and has deep roots in Iran and South Asia.

At the height of its glory in the 13th century, Kunyaurgench was considered the largest metropolis of the Islamic world.

At various times it was known as Urgench and Gurgench.

Great Muslim scholars Abu Rehan al-Biruni and Bu Ali Sina (Avicenna) were associated with Kunyaurgench.

Musa Khwarezmi, the father of Algebra, also hailed from Kunyaurgench.
Some of the most famous architectural sites of Kunyaurgench are mausoleum of Turabek Khanum, 60 meters high Kutlug Temur Minaret, and shrines of Sheikh Najmuddin Kubra, Il-Arslan, and Sultan Tekesh.
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Sufi News and Sufism World Report

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Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim

This is just a short note to announce the launch of the Sufi News and World Report Blog.

The primary function of this Blog will be to provide worldwide news about Sufis and Sufism.

Peace and blessings,

'Abd al-Haqq
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