Charmed by Sufism

[From the French language press]:

Les convertis ont tous des histoires différentes mais, généralement, ce qui les attire vers l’Islam, au-delà de l’appartenance à une même Umma, ce sont les préceptes universels et intemporels et les règles de vie individuelles et communautaire, claires et élémentaires, proposés par la religion musulmane au quotidien.

Meknès Jeunes - Meknès, Maroc - samedi 21 avril 2007

Each convert has a different story but generally what attracts them towards Islam, beyond the [feeling of] belonging to one Community, are the universal and timeless precepts and the rules of life -both individual and communal- clear and elementary, proposed by the Islamic religion.

A religion based on a simple system of belief (only one Creator, no intermediary) and where the collective interest takes precedence over that of the individual.

Some among new converts are charmed by Sufism, the mystical branch of Islam.

Every year hundreds of new converts come to enlarge the rows of the roughly 60.000 followers of the tariqa Qadiriya-Butshishiyya and go on pilgrimage to Madagh, a village ten kilometers [6,2 miles] from Berkane (Oujda).

Jaïme, a thirty years old Spanish soufi, financial director of a textile unit in Moulay Rachid, a district of Casablanca, is still upset by the recent blessing received -shortly after Aïd El Mawlid- from the hands of the octogenarian spiritual Master of the brotherhood in Morocco, Shaykh Hamza.

Whatever the reason for converting, Analysts agree on one fact: it is shortly after September 11, 2001 that the greatest number of conversions to Islam among the Westerners was recorded.

[picture: Shaykh Hamza http://www.sufiway.net/ar_SidiHamzaQadiriBoutchichi.html

visit also http://www.tariqa.org/qadiriya/index.html]