Sufism Inhabits Everything

By Fares Anam - Yemen Observer - Sana'a, Yemen

Saturday, May 12, 2007

German author Anna Platsch was growing increasingly alarmed by the rising tide violence and extremism occurring in Muslim world, when she stumbled on something she thought might contain the antidote: Sufism.

She details her journey toward Sufism in her new book, Open Seal, My Journey to Sufis and Muslims. Platsch gave a reading from the book at German House in Sana’a on Sunday, in German with Arabic translation.

Platsch said that Sufism is dynamically supreme, inhabiting everything, and that it is the silence when it comes to the minds of the people.

“Sufism is evident in the rhythm of each human in the orbits of the world,” she said. The real Sufism came from Yemen, said Platsch. And Yemen has many Sufis.

She wrote about Sufis and other Muslims because the extremist ideas and terrorism are increasing. The solution for the people is Sufism, she believes, because it preaches tolerance and peace for the whole world.

Anna Platsch is an author, psychotherapist and traveler. Her book deals with ideas and the spirituality of Sufis and other Muslim sects. In the last chapter of her book, she pays special attention to Yemen, which she calls a country of a magical fascination, which is also shocking.

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Platsch came to Yemen after an invitation from the Dar al-Salam Organization, which works to control weapons and encourage peace. “Dar al-Salam attracted me through research on the Internet, and I reached out to Sheikh Abdul-Rahman al-Marwani, the director of the organization. He is a Sufi who has established this organization because he gave up on the corrupt judiciary and self-censoring justice,” she said.

“I wrote to him and immediately I received a response from him. He said that he would allocate to me all the time that I needed, and that I could come to Yemen at any time,” Platsch said.

“Work for peace seems like an appeal from the sages,” Platsch said when she was talking about Dar al-Salam and its manager. “Sheikh Abdul-Rahman believes that the establishment of the culture of tolerance is a prerequisite for the deployment of global peace. Terrorism and violence in all their forms and manifestations jeopardize the safety of human beings and hinders the progress of civilization,” she said.

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Amah al-Razzaq Gahaf, Director of the Women’s Development Center and Director General of the Yemeni Traditional Houses, said that Platsch mentioned the pain that is going on in the world in the place of peace, and that we really suffer from a lack of peace and a fear of terrorism rampant in the world.

Gahaf also said that she started thinking from a Sufi point of view, and regarding Sufism as an invitation to peace in the world. “Sufi thinking, albeit distorted in recent years, was supremely humane thinking,” she said.

[picture: Platsch reads her story of discovering Sufism, and its relation to other Muslim groups.]