By Shahid Shah - The International News - Karachi, Pakistan Sunday, May 6, 2007
Mysticism or Sufism should not be a commodity for sale. Nor should this philosophy be confined to one religion.
It is a philosophy against the concept of religious extremism, which makes a person free from religious slavery and narrows the path between the Creator and creation, research scholars on Sufism told The News in regards to the Sufi Festival in the city.
Touted as the biggest event of its kind, the International Mystic Music Festival 2007 at Bara Dari has failed to attract Karachiites as well as mystic music lovers from other parts of the region.
The mystic music lovers in Sindh hold such events, pay the artistes, but still do not charge the audience. The annual ‘Urs’ of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai and Sachal Sarmast in Sindh attract hundreds of thousands devotees who pay nothing for listening to the spiritual music.
Despite the Rs20 million-grant announced by the Sindh Culture and Tourism Department for the event, charging Rs300 per ticket per day is considered commercialisation of spiritual philosophy. Every thing, including the schedule, is for sale over and above the Rs300 entry fee.
There are several technical mistakes too. Sufism and mysticism are two separate words with the same meaning. The name of the event should either have been Mystic or Sufi music festival. Similarly, the name of the Sindh province, its capital Karachi, and the second largest city, Hyderabad, have been separately mentioned on the printout available for Rs5.
The document should have either mentioned the origin city or the origin province of the artistes.
Although Sufism has no religious bounds, the event management failed to address this very essential spirit of the mystic philosophy. With exception to a few local non-Muslim artists (who also presented “kalam” of the Muslim poets), one would hardly find a non-Muslim name in the event. Even the only group from India is based on Muslim artists; Mazhar and Jawad Ali Khan.
Although ‘Hamd’ and ‘Naat’ are praise of Allah and Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), this type of poetry has nothing to do with Sufism, said Amb Gopang, a research scholar on Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai’s kalam “Shah-jo-Risalo,” besides other Sufism and religious philosophies.
The philosophy of Sufism originates from the Indus Civilization (in contemporary Sindh) some 4000 years ago, said Yousuf Shaheen, author of 12 books on religious and philosophical history including “Haq Maujood” that provides the pre-religion history of the world.
He said people from the Indus Valley had a concept of the one god, Varuna, who did not demand worship from the people. This thought provides the base for Sufism. Later, this philosophy was transferred to Sumer (today’s Iraq) through the scholars of the Indus Valley. Sargo, a great king and the first emperor of known history, came into the Indus Valley from Sumer and Akkad in 2150 BC. He went returned along with some scholars of the Indus valley.
God was not confined to a single religion then. It was not a bone of contention among the people, either.
The people of the Indus valley opened a centre in Ur, a city of Sumer, where they preached the concept of a single God. In the sub-continent, Buddha (500 BC), was one of the biggest Sufis. He followed the philosophy of four other Sufis called ‘four Wakas’ in history. Buddha tried to bring people out of religious slavery, said Shaheen.
He said the connection between God and humans is the basic spirit of Sufism. There is no role for middlemen and religions. Indeed, Sufism negates religions.
However, among Sufi philosophers born in Muslim families, the name of Hussain Bin Mansoor Hilaj (857- 922 AD) is at the top of the list. He was killed by the religious extremists of that time.
Anb Gopang said there were no boundaries of adopting singing or dancing in Sufism, but that the philosophy and the spirit of Sufism, which was against religious extremism, had the main role.
He said images of intoxicated opium addicts sitting at ‘dargahs’ (shrines of religious saints) was not the true picture of the philosophy.
Sufism is a secular and socialist philosophy, as famous Sufi of Sindh, Shah Inayat Shaheed (the martyr), said the person who sows would eat.
He said any event in the name of Sufism would be exploitation of the philosophy. The event, “should be total free. This (the ticket) is commercialisation,” he said.
Even though the event managers of the Sufi Festival have adopted the theme of religious harmony, can they (the managers) really achieve this theme by making the programme accessible to only a few elites in the city? Karachiites may have no answer.
[picture: Quaid-e-Azam mausoleum in Karachi]
Mysticism or Sufism should not be a commodity for sale. Nor should this philosophy be confined to one religion.
It is a philosophy against the concept of religious extremism, which makes a person free from religious slavery and narrows the path between the Creator and creation, research scholars on Sufism told The News in regards to the Sufi Festival in the city.
Touted as the biggest event of its kind, the International Mystic Music Festival 2007 at Bara Dari has failed to attract Karachiites as well as mystic music lovers from other parts of the region.
The mystic music lovers in Sindh hold such events, pay the artistes, but still do not charge the audience. The annual ‘Urs’ of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai and Sachal Sarmast in Sindh attract hundreds of thousands devotees who pay nothing for listening to the spiritual music.
Despite the Rs20 million-grant announced by the Sindh Culture and Tourism Department for the event, charging Rs300 per ticket per day is considered commercialisation of spiritual philosophy. Every thing, including the schedule, is for sale over and above the Rs300 entry fee.
There are several technical mistakes too. Sufism and mysticism are two separate words with the same meaning. The name of the event should either have been Mystic or Sufi music festival. Similarly, the name of the Sindh province, its capital Karachi, and the second largest city, Hyderabad, have been separately mentioned on the printout available for Rs5.
The document should have either mentioned the origin city or the origin province of the artistes.
Although Sufism has no religious bounds, the event management failed to address this very essential spirit of the mystic philosophy. With exception to a few local non-Muslim artists (who also presented “kalam” of the Muslim poets), one would hardly find a non-Muslim name in the event. Even the only group from India is based on Muslim artists; Mazhar and Jawad Ali Khan.
Although ‘Hamd’ and ‘Naat’ are praise of Allah and Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), this type of poetry has nothing to do with Sufism, said Amb Gopang, a research scholar on Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai’s kalam “Shah-jo-Risalo,” besides other Sufism and religious philosophies.
The philosophy of Sufism originates from the Indus Civilization (in contemporary Sindh) some 4000 years ago, said Yousuf Shaheen, author of 12 books on religious and philosophical history including “Haq Maujood” that provides the pre-religion history of the world.
He said people from the Indus Valley had a concept of the one god, Varuna, who did not demand worship from the people. This thought provides the base for Sufism. Later, this philosophy was transferred to Sumer (today’s Iraq) through the scholars of the Indus Valley. Sargo, a great king and the first emperor of known history, came into the Indus Valley from Sumer and Akkad in 2150 BC. He went returned along with some scholars of the Indus valley.
God was not confined to a single religion then. It was not a bone of contention among the people, either.
The people of the Indus valley opened a centre in Ur, a city of Sumer, where they preached the concept of a single God. In the sub-continent, Buddha (500 BC), was one of the biggest Sufis. He followed the philosophy of four other Sufis called ‘four Wakas’ in history. Buddha tried to bring people out of religious slavery, said Shaheen.
He said the connection between God and humans is the basic spirit of Sufism. There is no role for middlemen and religions. Indeed, Sufism negates religions.
However, among Sufi philosophers born in Muslim families, the name of Hussain Bin Mansoor Hilaj (857- 922 AD) is at the top of the list. He was killed by the religious extremists of that time.
Anb Gopang said there were no boundaries of adopting singing or dancing in Sufism, but that the philosophy and the spirit of Sufism, which was against religious extremism, had the main role.
He said images of intoxicated opium addicts sitting at ‘dargahs’ (shrines of religious saints) was not the true picture of the philosophy.
Sufism is a secular and socialist philosophy, as famous Sufi of Sindh, Shah Inayat Shaheed (the martyr), said the person who sows would eat.
He said any event in the name of Sufism would be exploitation of the philosophy. The event, “should be total free. This (the ticket) is commercialisation,” he said.
Even though the event managers of the Sufi Festival have adopted the theme of religious harmony, can they (the managers) really achieve this theme by making the programme accessible to only a few elites in the city? Karachiites may have no answer.
[picture: Quaid-e-Azam mausoleum in Karachi]
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