The Ottawa Citizen - Ontario, CanadaMonday, November 5, 2007
Whirling dervishes to bring dose of 'eastern spirituality' to Ottawa
Whirling dervishes will appear Tuesday [today] night at Centrepointe Theatre, performing an 800-year-old form of prayer as part of a tribute to the 13th-century Muslim mystic and poet, Rumi.
UNESCO has declared 2007 the year of Rumi to honour the man whose poetry has as much, if not more stature in the Muslim world as William Shakespeare does in the West.
In 1997, The Christian Science Monitor ranked him as the bestselling poet in the United States. Artists as diverse as fashion designer Donna Karan, composer Philip Glass and author Deepak Chopra have turned to Rumi for inspiration.
The word "dervish" derives from "at the doorway," meaning at the edge of entering into a mystical state. The dervishes dance in huge white robes, spinning on their own axis, and around one another, symbolizing the path of the Earth around the sun, and man around Allah. Their tall hats represent the tombstone of the ego.
It takes about three years to become fully adept, although some North American teachers have been offering it almost like yoga, quite divided from any sense of faith, never mind Islam, says Ahmet Karamustafa, a professor of Islamic history and religion at Washington University in St. Louis.
"It certainly has grown more popular in North America and Europe. In some ways, it's another wave of 'eastern spirituality.' It's just the latest on the scene."
Still, most dervishes are dancing to bring the message of Islamic mysticism, not to make money, he says.
The performance is sponsored by the Canadian Institute of Interfaith Dialogue, which also held a symposium on Rumi on Monday.
Whirling Dervishes perform at Centrepointe Theatre Tuesday, November 6 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets $30 to $55.
[Visit the Canadian Institute for Interfaith Dialogue at http://www.ciid.ca/CIID/].
Posts
2 comments:
though the whirling dervish is an 800 year old form of prayer, it is not the prayer that Almighty Allah accepts. Rather if you think about it why didn't Allah just tell Muslims to pray to him, instead of giving us the whole way of worshipping him. The most logical reason would probably be that it was so as we didnt veer from the true way of worship. My meaning of this is that if we started forming our own ways of worship, they would be according to our will or concionce, and as in Arabic nafs. And as it is, the gratest form of Jihad is against your nafs. As we can see, christians recite hyms, which in itself is a form of song it havign a beat to it. And if we look at the Muslims who go to graves and start singign and getting out of their way in the name if "worship", which is wrong. Music is wrong in Islam as we know. And a person who listens to a beat, his/her life becomes based around a beat. His way of walking, talking. And in a quiet environment it is always ringing in their heads. And to prove that listen to recitiation of the quran. It does not have a beat, but its own unique flow. And because the form of worship is created by their nafs as I said, they like that type of worship because as I said it was created by the part of them that if listened to and not fought against will ultimately destroy you. And I'm not being vile towards your beliefa but where has the real prayet i.e. salat gone? aAnd sufi's say that they feel content or a feeling of spiritual well being, well it is only because all the blood is going from your brain into your arms.
And what is a true Muslim. One who follows the sunnah and the Qur'an without interwining it with traditions, which is what is happening here. And where in Islams true pure teachings do you find it saying that the whirling dervish is a form of worship?
You are not getting closer to Allah because Allah has already tod us how to get close to him, and it is not the whirling dervish. It is plainly a ploy of the devil who makes you think that it is right all the while it being wrong. You just entered the wrong sect of Islam, and remember that these sects were created because of the people veering from the straight path. And Islam and Muslim are two different things. Islams teachings are followed by a Muslim, but whatever action a Muslim does that is against Islam is not the fault of Islam because Ialam does not teach that.
And after all my research, I would class myself plainly as a Muslim, but if I had to class myslelf into a sect it would be sunni.
salam
Hearts beat...
Books and words are the work of men - the dance and the song of both wo/man & universe is ever-present.
The rhythm is Divine.
Peace.
Post a Comment