Friday, November 04, 2011

In Our Daily Lives

By Staff Reporter, *‘Preserve Sufis’ messages of spirituality, pluralism’* - Daily Times - Lahore, Pakistan; Sunday, October 30, 2011

‘Tareeqat - Seven Elements of Living Sufism in Pakistan’

Islamabad: Amongst a huge gathering of academicians, representatives of various international organizations, members of civil society organizations and human rights activists on Saturday night, Dr Kamran Ahmad, author of ‘Roots of Religious Tolerance in South East Asia’ launched his book ‘Tareeqat - Seven Elements of Living Sufism in Pakistan’.

Mehergarh organized the event. The book provides the reader with the essence of Sufism that we all experienced in our daily lives.

The programme included talk by the author. Ahmad said this book comes from the heart. “I don’t want the reader to indulge in the intellect of Sufism but to feel what it is, he said that an incident happened two years ago in my office, there was a terrorist attack and a suicide bombing on the office in which I lost some dear colleagues and friends, I had blood on my hands and till date I still have blood on my hands because I consider myself partially responsible for what happened.

He further stated that such acts of terrorism would not thrive in our country if there weren’t a significant number of people ready to justify or give excuses for the acts of these terrorists.

He also said all I feel is that we need to protect the spirituality that we have experienced for thousands of years rather than having a small minority shaping us or becoming a face of Pakistan in front of the rest of the world.

“We need to acknowledge, protect and preserve the spirituality of the land which we can easily lose if we keep putting ourselves in boxes and not connecting with others on a human level, if this growing religiosity did not culminate in picking up body parts, we would not be against it. We believe in pluralism,” he added.

The gathering indulged them in the Sufi performance by Farrukh Mehdi.

The ambience of the event matched the theme of Sufism and Spirituality. He sang poetry of Buleh shah, Baba Farid, Suchal Sarmast, Waris Shah and Shah Hussain. At the end a Sufi music programme was organized.

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Friday, November 04, 2011

In Our Daily Lives
By Staff Reporter, *‘Preserve Sufis’ messages of spirituality, pluralism’* - Daily Times - Lahore, Pakistan; Sunday, October 30, 2011

‘Tareeqat - Seven Elements of Living Sufism in Pakistan’

Islamabad: Amongst a huge gathering of academicians, representatives of various international organizations, members of civil society organizations and human rights activists on Saturday night, Dr Kamran Ahmad, author of ‘Roots of Religious Tolerance in South East Asia’ launched his book ‘Tareeqat - Seven Elements of Living Sufism in Pakistan’.

Mehergarh organized the event. The book provides the reader with the essence of Sufism that we all experienced in our daily lives.

The programme included talk by the author. Ahmad said this book comes from the heart. “I don’t want the reader to indulge in the intellect of Sufism but to feel what it is, he said that an incident happened two years ago in my office, there was a terrorist attack and a suicide bombing on the office in which I lost some dear colleagues and friends, I had blood on my hands and till date I still have blood on my hands because I consider myself partially responsible for what happened.

He further stated that such acts of terrorism would not thrive in our country if there weren’t a significant number of people ready to justify or give excuses for the acts of these terrorists.

He also said all I feel is that we need to protect the spirituality that we have experienced for thousands of years rather than having a small minority shaping us or becoming a face of Pakistan in front of the rest of the world.

“We need to acknowledge, protect and preserve the spirituality of the land which we can easily lose if we keep putting ourselves in boxes and not connecting with others on a human level, if this growing religiosity did not culminate in picking up body parts, we would not be against it. We believe in pluralism,” he added.

The gathering indulged them in the Sufi performance by Farrukh Mehdi.

The ambience of the event matched the theme of Sufism and Spirituality. He sang poetry of Buleh shah, Baba Farid, Suchal Sarmast, Waris Shah and Shah Hussain. At the end a Sufi music programme was organized.

No comments: