UNESCO urges Libya to stop destruction of Sufi sites

UNESCO urges Libya to stop destruction of Sufi sites Paris August 28 2012

UN cultural body UNESCO on Tuesday called on Libya to immediately cease the destruction of Sufi holy sites after Islamist hardliners wrecked shrines across the country.

UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova expressed “grave concern” at the destruction of Sufi sites in Zliten, Misrata and Tripoli and urged perpetrators to “cease the destruction immediately”.

“I am deeply concerned about these brutal attacks on places of cultural and religious significance. Such acts must be halted, if Libyan society is to complete its transition to democracy,” she said in a statement.

“For this, we need dialogue and mutual respect. Libya’s future prospects depend on its inhabitants’ ability to build a participatory democracy that respects the rights and the heritage of all its citizens.”

Several Muslim shrines have been attacked in recent days, including those of the mystic Sufi strand of Islam.

Islamist hardliners on Saturday bulldozed part of the mausoleum of Al-Shaab Al-Dahman, close to the centre of the Libyan capital.

The demolition came a day after hardliners blew up the mausoleum of Sheikh Abdessalem al-Asmar in Zliten, 160 kilometres (100 miles) east of the capital.

According to witnesses, another mausoleum — that of Sheikh Ahmed al-Zarruq — was destroyed in the port of Misrata, 200 kilometres east of Tripoli.

Hardline Sunni Islamists are opposed to the veneration of tombs of revered Muslim figures, saying that such devotion should be reserved for God alone.

The Sufis, who have played a historical role in the affairs of Libya, have increasingly found themselves in conflict with Qatari- and Saudi-trained Salafist preachers who consider them heretical.

Sufis say Islamists in Egypt could squeeze out their traditions

 

Sufis say Islamists in Egypt could squeeze out their traditions

Al Arabiya News 29 August 2012 By SHAIMAA FAYED AND ABDEL RAHMAN YOUSSEF
REUTERS CAIRO AND ALEXANDRIA

Down the narrow alleyways of Cairo’s Sayidda Zeinab neighborhood, 100 men sway their heads and clap in rhythm as they invoke God’s name.
“O how you have spread benevolence,” chant the men, some dressed in ankle-length galabeya robes, to celebrate the birth of Fatima al-Zahraa, the daughter of the Prophet Mohammed. The men are followers of the centuries-old Azaimiya Sufi order who seek to come closer to God through mystical rites. Some say their traditions are now threatened by Islamists elbowing for influence after the overthrow of Egypt’s veteran leader Hosni Mubarak. Tensions have long rumbled between the country’s estimated 15 million Sufis, attached to some 80 different orders, and ultra-conservative Salafists who see Sufi practices such as the veneration of shrines as heresy. The ousting of President Mubarak in February has loosened state control over Islamist groups that he suppressed using an emergency law in place since 1980. As Sufis seek to defend traditions dating back centuries, what began as a loose religious identity could be gelling, gradually, into a political movement. “If the Sufis stood side by side, they could be an important voting bloc ... but their political and organizational power is less than their numerical power,” said political analyst Nabil Abdel Fattah. Alaa Abul Azaim, sheikh of the Azaimiya Sufi order, says moves by Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood and Salafi groups to enter formal politics endanger religious tolerance and oblige Sufis to do the same. “If the Salafists or Muslim Brotherhood rise to power, they could well cancel the Sufi sheikhdom, so there has to be a party for Sufis,” Abul Azaim said. Shrines dedicated to saints are central to Sufi practice and can be found in towns and villages across Egypt, but they are frowned upon by Salafists. Many are built inside mosques and contain the tombs of saints. They are often highly decorated, using wood and mother-of-pearl. Some religious conservatives also dislike Sufi moulids -- festivals celebrating the birthdays of saints that have become carnival-like events popular even among non-Sufis in Egypt. Moulid music has found its way into pop culture, such as the well-known puppet operetta “El Leila El Kebira” (The Big Night).
Fears for the future of Sufi traditions were underlined in April, when two dozen Islamists wielding crowbars and sledgehammers tried to smash a shrine used by Sufis in the town of Qalyoub north of Cairo. Their plan failed when residents rallied to defend the site revered for generations.

Salafist leaders denied their followers were behind the shrine attack and condemned it, while making it clear that they oppose the shrines. “The Salafi call does not reject Sufism,” said Sheikh Abdel Moneim el-Shahat, official spokesperson for the Salafi movement in Alexandria. “We reject (the practice of) receiving blessings from tombs and shrines because it is against Sharia law.” He said Salafis believe religious blessings can only be sought from the Black Stone of the Kaaba in the Saudi city of Mecca. Millions of Muslims circle the stone during the Hajj pilgrimage. Egypt’s constitution forbids political parties formed on overtly religious lines. That has not stopped Salafist groups such as al-Gama’a al-Islamiya and the once-banned Muslim Brotherhood moving to create parties to compete in September elections. No overtly Sufi party has emerged -- adepts of Sufism, with their emphasis on personal development and inner purification, have till now seen little sense in forming a political movement. But one nascent party, al-Tahrir (Liberation), has pledged to defend their interests and, by doing so, has built most of its membership from among the Sufi community. “There is no doubt that the (Islamist) flood that’s coming ... scares them,” said the party’s founder Ibrahim Zahran.
Affirmative political action would mark a departure for Egypt’s Sufis, who have tended to submit to the will of Egypt’s political leaders since the 12th century.

“From Sultan Saladin al-Ayubi until Mubarak, Sufism was used by the state to reinforce its legitimacy,” said sociologist Ammar Aly Hassan.

In a sign they are more ready to challenge authority, sheikhs of 13 Sufi orders have staged a sit-in since May 1 calling for the removal of Sheikh Abdel Hadi el-Qasabi, the head of the Sufi Sheikhdom who was appointed by Mubarak in 2009. They say Sheikh Qasabi broke a tradition of ordaining the eldest sheikh to the position and they refuse to have him as their leader as he was a member of President Mubarak’s disbanded National Democratic Party. Many Sufis oppose the idea of an Islamic state promoted by Islamists who take the Iran’s theocracy or the Wahhabi ideology of staunchly conservative Saudi Arabia as a model.
Sufi Sheikh Gaber Kassem of Alexandria criticised the political ambitions of the Muslim Brotherhood and its slogan “Islam is the Solution.”
“This is a devotional matter, a religious call ... so how are they entering politics? Is this hypocrisy?” he said.

UNESCO calls for immediate stop to destruction of Sufi religious sites in Libya

UNESCO calls for immediate stop to destruction of Sufi religious sites in Libya

 UN News Center

A lone protester holds up a placard condemning the destruction of a Sufi shrine in Tripoli as he approaches the site of the demolition. Photo: UNSMIL/I. Athanasiadis

28 August 2012 –

Noting that “destroying places of religious and cultural significance cannot be tolerated,” the head of the United Nations agency tasked with safeguarding the world’s cultural heritage today spoke out against the destruction of various Sufi religious sites in Libya, and called on the perpetrators to cease immediately. “I am deeply concerned about these brutal attacks on places of cultural and religious significance. Such acts must be halted, if Libyan society is to complete its transition to democracy,” the Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Irina Bokova, said in a news release.
“For this, we need dialogue and mutual respect,” she added. “Libya’s future prospects depend on its inhabitants’ ability to build a participatory democracy that respects the rights and the heritage of all its citizens.”
According to media reports, ultra-conservative Islamists damaged major Sufi shrines and libraries in the north-western town of Zliten, the city of Misrata, and the capital, Tripoli, over recent days, reportedly with the acquiescence of members of the security forces.
The affected sites are the Islamic Centre of Sheikh Abdussalam Al-Asmar in Zliten, the Shrine of Sidi Ahmed Zaroug in Misrata, and the Mosque of Sidi Sha'ab in Tripoli. The sites are revered by Sufis, a branch of Islam known for its moderation but considered heretical by some branches of the Islamic faith.
Ms. Bokova also urged the Libyan authorities and society at large to exercise their responsibility in protecting cultural heritage and sites of religious significance for future generations.
In addition, she welcomed the Libyan government’s condemnation of the destruction, and indicated that UNESCO stands ready to provide assistance to protect and rehabilitate them.
Libya has been undergoing a democratic transition over the past year. In July, it held its first free elections in decades, in the wake of the toppling of the regime of Muammar al-Qadhafi. The former leader ruled the North African country for more than 40 years until a pro-democracy uprising last year – similar to the protests in other countries in the Middle East and North Africa – led to civil war and the end of his regime.
Some 2.7 million Libyans took part in the polls to vote for members of the new National Congress. The election was conducted in a largely peaceful manner, receiving praise from international observers and the Security Council.

Prominent Sufi dies in Dagestan suicide bombing

Prominent Sufi dies in Dagestan suicide bombing

Boston.Com Globe Newspaper Company, August 28 2012

MAKHACHKALA, Russia (AP) — Thousands of mourners converged on a cemetery in Russia’s republic of Dagestan on Tuesday night for the burial of a top Muslim religious leader who was killed in a suicide bombing hours earlier, Russian news agencies said. Said Afandi, a leader of Sufi Muslims in the region, and five of his followers were killed by a female suicide bomber in an attack at Afandi’s home in the village of Chirkei, said Dagestan Interior Ministry spokesman, Vyachelav Gasanov.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility or identification of the bomber, but the attack could be linked to tensions between Sufis and the Wahhabi sect that is the core of the insurgency in the republic. Afandi was a frequent public critic of Wahhabism. In July, a top Muslim cleric in the Volga River republic of Tatarstan was gunned down and the republic’s chief mufti was wounded when a bomb ripped through his car. Both victims had been vocal critics of radical groups that advocate a strict and puritan version of Islam known as Salafism.

In a visit to Tatarstan on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin presented state awards to the wounded mufti, Ildus Faizov, and relatives of the slain cleric Valiullah Yakupov.

Putin called for interethnic harmony and said of extremists: ‘‘You cannot defeat a unified, multinational, strong Russian nation because on the side of truth and justice are millions of people who fear nothing, who cannot be intimidated and know the price of peace.’’

The killing of Afandi highlighted the violent tensions that persist in Dagestan, even as neighboring Chechnya has become relatively pacified and orderly after two wars in the last 20 years between separatists and Russian forces. Clashes with militants and attacks on police occur almost daily in Dagestan.

The Interfax and RIA Novosti news agencies said witnesses reported tens of thousands of mourners came to Afandi’s burial. Also Tuesday in Dagestan, a border guard opened fire on colleagues at a barracks, killing seven before being shot to death himself, Gasanov said. There was no indication of motivation.

Sanam Marvi, a crusader of Sufi tradition

 

Sanam Marvi, a crusader of Sufi tradition 

by Sher Khan The Express Tribune 23 August 2012

LAHORE:  After her brilliant renditions on “Coke Studio”, Sanam Marvi has proven that she has a timeless and legendary voice. In a small home on the periphery of Lahore, Marvi is only concerned about one thing – music. In an interview with The Express Tribune, she shares some insight about her music and the message she aims to spread. Marvi sees herself as a crusader of the Sufi tradition, lending a voice to it through her songs.

“My goal is to spread the message of Islam and truth,” says Marvi. Lately, her Sufi-qawwal music has spread far and wide with vocal appearances in Bollywood films such as London Paris New York and The Dirty Picture. She is also routinely invited to Sufi festivals and has toured France and Morocco with plans to go to the United States as well.
Sufi music seems to be entering the mainstream today and the reason for that, Marvi explains, are initiatives such as the popular classical music show “Virsa Heritage Revived” broadcast on PTV and “Coke Studio” which have spread awareness and sparked an interest among the public for Sufi music. Marvi says she holds immense respect for Rohail Hyatt, whose work she feels has been mystically inspired.
She also has great admiration for the host of the “Virsa Heritage” show, the well-known socialite and cultural icon from Lahore, Mian Yousuf Salahuddin. Marvi refers to him as a father figure who she feels has done a lot to promote the Sufi tradition.
“I think the most important thing is spreading the Sufi kalam,” says Marvi, explaining that her father was a Sufi singer. “That is my focus – spreading the kalam to all corners of the world wherever my voice leads me.”
Recent projects
Marvi recently collaborated with Lahore based pop-rock band Symt on “Coke Studio” and tested her vocals in a more modern sounding track, “Koi Labda”.  The single has become one of the most addictive tracks of the season.
“Koi Labda” is an intriguing track as it portrays Marvi in a completely different kind of vocal light and style, accompanying the vocal prowess of Symt’s Haroon Shahid. “I didn’t know I was going to be in the song, so it was kind of a surprise,” says Marvi. “It was very different, Rohail bhai told me to try singing this song and try singing it in a new style and make it seem as my own, so I tried to show that I could do these songs too.”
Speaking more about the importance of her venture, Marvi states, “Modern music is how younger audiences will connect with the Sufi kalam. My son who is quite young is already singing ‘Koi Labda’, and that’s what this is all about – having music for all ages.”
Her more recent project is a collaboration with Mekaal Hasan, which is scheduled to release soon. Hasan is producing a song which will feature Marvi alongside a group of international musicians.
She has also lent her voice to songs in various collaborative Sufi music albums released in India. One such popular track is “Mera Tumba” by which Marvi contributed to the album Teri Rehmatein.
“In India, there was not much interest in Sufi music a while back but that has changed. People there now enjoy this music so much that each song of mine is stuck in their minds,” says Marvi.  “I think that it’s a positive thing that interest is growing,” she concludes optimistically.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 24^th, 2012.

Not just about Delhi dargahs

http://tinyurl.com/bud3zdh
The Pioneer, Saturday, 18 August 2012 

inShare

Sadia Dehlvi tells as much about Sufi shrines as she narrates her religious experiences, writes RV Smith
Whatever reason may dictate, faith in shrines of any religion or community is an all-pervading sentiment. Sadia Dehlvi’s book on the Sufi dargahs of Delhi is an eloquent example of this. Sadia has imbibed her love for these memorials from her mother who was able to make an initially doubtful teenager to believe in divine intervention in the lives of people through the intersession of Sufi saints, both men and women. The result is seen in this publication in which historical facts, legends and myths combine with personal experiences to present an interesting treatise for readers — all of whom might not be the ‘believers’ but still enjoy them all the same.
The book is as much about dargahs as it is about Sadia and her experiments with religion. “My engagement with Sufism began as a teenager while occasionally accompanying my grandfather to the dargah of Hazrat Nizamuddin. Apart from the knowledge that dargahs were revered spaces, I understood little else. Years later, my mother embarked on the Sufi path and became a disciple too... I observed that Ammi became softer on us as far as daily religious obligations were concerned and felt relieved. A convent-educated rebel of the 1970s, I had little to do with religion and appreciated the dargah visits in a cultural context,” she writes. “This led me to believe the Sufi path was easier, not requiring religious rituals. Over the years, as my interest in Sufi philosophy deepened, I realised that nothing could be further from the truth. I grew to understand Sufism as a difficult path, more meaningful and demanding of a person than the mere fulfillment of mandatory religious duties. Sufism welcomes you with an all-encompassing compassion, igniting a desire to swim deeper in the ocean of Divinity.”
Sadia then goes back tracing the history of Sufism in India. She tells us about Qutubuddin Bakhtiar Kaki, disciple of Moinuddin Chisti, after whom came Nizamuddin Auliya. Then came Amir Khusrau, whose love for India was more attuned to the Indian milieu. Savour this from Khusrau: “The heavens said that of all the countries which have come out of the earth. among them it is Hindustan that has achieved the pinnacle of excellence.”
Once, when Khusrau accompanied Hazrat Nizamuddin on a stroll, they saw a group of Brahmins praying. Nizamuddin remarked: “Every people have their direction of worship.” At this Khusrau replied: “My direction of prayer is towards the slanting cap.” Interestingly, Hazrat Nizamuddin used to wear his cap with a slant. Khusrau continued, “Lovers of the Beloved take us to Kaabah and to the temple of idols. Lovers of the Friend are not bothered with infidelity and faith.”
Sadia tells us more about Khusrau. “The creation of the sitar and the tabla are attributed to Khusrau. Several Indian melodies as well as the development of qawaali are also attributed to him. His music compositions include khayals, taranas, naqshs and other ragas that celebrate the fusion of Indian and Persian melodies. These were designed to provide novelty in the music assemblies of Hazrat Nizamuddin khanqah (hospice).”
Entry to a Sufi shrine is open to all, except for the dargah of Bibi Sara, disciple of Khwaja Qutubuddin, where only women are allowed. As for women, they avoid the mausoleum of Adham Khan, Akbar’s general.
The Sufis of Delhi were close to the seat of power and many emperors enjoyed their patronage, but this did not deter them from being secular in their approach. Nizamuddin Auliya celebrated Basant with great fervour and there were others who celebrated Diwali as the divine festival of lights. Many unknown aspects of Delhi’s Sufi heritage are brought to light by Sadia to make the book a really enjoyable digression from the mundane cares of life.
Her approach is neither didactic nor fundamentalist. It is the refreshing observation of a woman whose mind is open to both belief and rationality. The language is lucid but at places the description could have been more colourful. The photographs no doubt add to the appeal of the book but black-and-white shots or sketches may have been better. Also, the price could have been a notch lower for the sake of students and retired folk.
The reviewer is the author of the book, The Delhi That No One Knows

Representing a different face of Islam

Representing a different face of Islam
 By Jim Quilty, The Daily Star, August 18 2012

BEIRUT: The foyer of NOK Yoga Shala is littered with shoes. You wonder whether this is indeed a footwear-free affair. The young woman lingering nearby smiles in confirmation.
This space, it seems, is ordinarily devoted to the practice of yoga. This evening, however, it is hosting a promotional event for the documentary “Wajd – Music Politics and Ecstasy.”
One part autobiographical tale of discovery, one part history lesson-cum-polite interrogation of Islam, “Wajd” is the work of Syrian-Canadian writer-director Amar Chebib. There might seem some incongruity between the event and the space hosting it – in that “Yoga = Hinduism, Islam = well, Islam” sort of way.
Appearances are informative, but they aren’t everything.
During the half-hourlong rough cut of “Wajd” screened this evening, the filmmaker informs his audience that he was raised Muslim and drifted away from the faith, unable to reconcile facets of Muslim practice with his own belief system.
A couple of years ago he decided to give Islam another shot, returning to Syria to study Arabic. During this rapprochement he become a student of Ottoman classical music, which underlined his feelings of dissonance.
Conservative readings of Islam have determined that the Prophet disapproved of music – confusing for a student of a tradition with a strong devotional component. Another sore point for Chebib is his religion’s attitudes toward women – which to many Western eyes makes women look less equal than men.
“Wajd” is hardly an ad hominem attack on Islam. The message that emerges from the doc’s putative inquiry is that the militant versions of Islam that dominate news coverage, much documentary and blockbuster feature-film production, particularly since 2001, aren’t the summation of the faith.
The “other” Islam, the real subject of the film, is the Sufi mystical tradition that has followed in the wake of the 13th-century Iranian poet and theologian remembered as Mawlana Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi.
It so happens that the questions Chebib asks are precisely the ones that trouble Western intellectuals who would quite like to like Islam, but have been challenged by events in the last decade or so.
Since the Sept. 11 attacks, “Muslim” terms like “Taliban,” “jihadist,” “Salafist” and “Ikhwan” have become synonymous in the Western consciousness with militant bigotry.
While it doesn’t exclude curious audiences from the Middle East and North Africa, Chebib’s depiction of his journey in search of Islam – narrated in his affable North American English – will speak explicitly to Western audiences.
Based on the film rushes, “Wajd” abjures journalistic approaches to documentary in favor of the more intimate first-person narrative favored by young filmmakers and the festivals that project their work.
It’s an interview-based film, drawing on Chebib’s conversations with musicians, musicologists, Islamic scholars and performing artists in Syria, Turkey, Europe and North America. The interviews are sometimes illustrated by historical footage from Kemalist-era Turkey and the Middle East.
At times visually arid interviews play in counterpoint to photogenic performance – whether instrumental playing or Sufi dhikr (group chant originally designed to induce ecstasy), with that of the Mawlawiyya (aka “whirling dervishes”) taking pride of place.
“Wajd” is still a work in progress and the doc’s production company, Salam Films, hosted the NOK Yoga Shala event in order to introduce Kickstarter – the online pledge system it is hoped will raise the film’s post-production funding.
Dima Alansari, the Lebanese-Canadian producer behind Salam Films, hopes Kickstarter will provide a measure of financial independence for idealistic projects like this one – which often don’t have the hooks needed to penetrate the bottom-dollar ethos of international film markets.
It’s bad journalism to assess a film on the basis of what is essentially a trailer. Yet “Wajd” is not the first project to showcase the charms of Sufi Islam for Western audiences – witness the labors of Paris-born Alsatian qanun-player and composer Julien Jalaleddin Weiss and his multinational, Mawlawi-infused Al-Kindi Ensemble.
Neither is it a secret that, since the 20th century, Muslim militancy has frowned upon the ecstatic practices of Rumi’s followers – indeed it is said that one of the things compelling Hasan al-Banna to found Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood was his disapproval of what he saw to be the pernicious influence of Egyptian Sufism.
Since then, a face of stern piety has come to dominate media representations of Islam, making picturesque images of the Mawlawiyya a compelling tool for filmmakers trying to plead the case for a more nuanced Western reception of the faith.
Alansari says that this was one of the main reasons she decided to produce “Wajd.”
“My last coproduction, ‘Journey to Mecca’ [2009] is about [the 14th-century Moroccan traveler] Ibn Battuta. I’m interested in stories that cross the divide, that tell the other side of the story. I myself was educated in American schools in the Middle East. [Between Arab and American students,] there was always a curiosity and a misunderstanding about each other’s culture.”
Film is image. The problem with filmmakers trying to present an alternative face of Islam – effectively swapping footage of ecstatic Sufi practice for that of suicide videos, a collapsing World Trade Center, etc. – is that you run the risk of replacing a hackneyed picture with one that’s even more cliched.
Unfortunately, representations of whirling Mawlawis (in soft focus or in slow-motion) have a long history in Orientalist depictions of the Middle East and Muslim world, and in their demotic inheritors – homespun tourist promotions.
Alansari says she and Chebib are aware of these challenges.
“Being an Arab, growing up here, I’m aware that at any given moment I might offend somebody. There’s no way you can represent anything [in Beirut] without three or four people saying, ‘No that’s not how things are.’
“Yes, Rumi has been romanticized. People do have completely different ideas of what’s really happening on the ground. However, there haven’t been many documentaries talking about [these issues] from a [personal] perspective ... for Amar, Rumi is a role model.
“We’re having so many problems today, it’s important for us to dig deep, to go back into history, and learn from it.
“We are aware of this romanticization and we are trying our best to ground it. We’re finding parallels between what happened then and what’s happening now and we’re trying to show that there are other ways, other things we can hold on to.
“Everybody has the attention span of goldfish these days. They just want to listen to Nancy Ajram. It doesn’t take them out of what they need to get out of. If they were just able to – to look in and ground themselves, they’d realize that this music has so much to offer.
“I think we have to do a little bit of romanticizing,” Alansari says, “just to grab some people, but at the same time try to stay realistic, to the issues on the ground. It’s a bit tricky but we are aware.”
For more information on Salam Films and Kickstarter, see: www.salamfilms.com and kickstarter.com.

Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Culture/Performance/2012/Aug-18/184963-representing-a-different-face-of-islam.ashx#ixzz248Devy8g

The Sufis and William Blake: When Islamic Mysticism and English Romanticism Intersect

 

The Sufis and William Blake: When Islamic Mysticism and English Romanticism Intersect 

By Anouar El Younssi
Morocco World News
Philadelphia, August 17, 2012

William Blake’s poetry and paintings are extremely fascinating, innovative, and controversial with regard to their “prophetic” nature. Personally, I find Blake a very intriguing personality and his works very appealing. He is deeply invested in the “infinite realms” of the spirit and the imagination and is, therefore, very skeptical of the physical world, as perceived through the five senses. Blake is a passionate critic of empiricism’s ability to lead humanity to “real” knowledge – to “wisdom.” For Blake, the Poetic Genius, rather than the physical senses, is the faculty through which human-beings are to perceive “real” knowledge of this mysterious life and of the divine, sublime realms. Such views of Blake’s expressed in his poetry (and paintings) echo the views of a number of Muslim sufis, such as Ibn-Arabi, Al-Ghazali, Al-Bistami, Rumi, and others –mystics who believe in the existence of an infinite spiritual reality to be attained through a faculty that transcends the five senses.

These Sufis, like Blake, believe in the unity of all being or existence. Their ultimate goal is to become one with the Divine. Interestingly, there are so many affinities between Blake’s visionary, prophetic works and writings/sermons of a number of Muslim Sufis. The affinities of Blake’s mystical views with the Muslim Sufi tradition are too powerful to ignore. They are enlightening in that they waken our consciousness to core human concerns, which go beyond artificial differences in language, culture, skin color, nationality, religious beliefs, and so on. Exploring and highlighting those similarities is indeed a good step in healing –or at least alleviating – the unfortunate divide between the so-called Muslim World and the West today.

Both William Blake and the Muslim Sufis are extremely invested in the binary: reality-appearance. J. W. Morris states that according to Al-Ghazali, a very influential Muslim scholar and Sufi, “the deeper reality of the human situation –of din as the ultimate inner connection of every soul with its Divine Source and Ground – is perceived quite differently by those fully accomplished human beings who can actually begin to ‘see things as they really are’” (297). Those who live or experience or have a taste of this deeper reality –which is to be contrasted with a surface reality – are endowed with the faculty that allows them to see and comprehend the essence of things and phenomena that engulf the human situation and experience.

Martin Lings states that the Holy Book of Islam –the Qur’an – itself has both a surface meaning and a deep meaning (29). In other words, the Qur’an answers to both modes of existence and understanding, the apparent and the ultimate – the surface and the deep. From this perspective, the Qur’an caters for the needs of the entire Muslim community and, at the same time, serves the spiritual needs of a select minority, what Lings calls “a spiritual elect.” Lings provides two illustrative Quranic verses: “Guide us along the straight path” / and “Verily we are for God and verily unto Him we are returning” (qtd. in Lings 27-28). To continue reading this excellent article click here

A Sufi Festival organised by Amana Association

A Sufi Festival organised by Amana Association Sat 10 November 3pm onwards

£12 / £10 concession. Richmix

 

A SUFI ART FESTIVAL
Brought by the Qadiri-Boutchichi Order , this festival consists of a calligraphy workshop, poetry, spiritual songs and theatre, using art as a means of spiritual and personal upliftment.
Poetry will be delivered by Avaes Mohammad and Zahidah Dodwell. Contemporary calligraphy will be exhibited, with workshops lead by Muhammad al-Amine Eatwell.  Members of the Qadiri-Boutchichi order will perform Spiritual songs as well as the play, The Madjoub’s Box, along with special guests.  A talk introducing the Qadiri-Boutchichi Sufi order will also feature as part of the events.
The play, ‘The Majdoub’s Box‘ tells the tale of a Sufi’s death, prompting locals to gather at his grave and lay claim to his only possession - A Box. As they imagine what might be inside, often to comic effect, they discover a deeper secret waiting for them…
 Avaes Mohammad: www.avaesmohamad.com
Muhammad al-Amine Eatwell: www.al-ain.ma/about.php

International Seminar : Sufi Voice in Indian Languages from earliest till mid 19th century

The Nehru Centre 14/08/2012 

  There is hardly any land in the world where Sufism flourished so vastly and intensively as it did in the Indian sub-continent where the environment under Vedic influence was congenial and receptive to the messages of love and spirituality. As the Vedic culture spread far and wide in the sub-continent it influenced the myriad languages of this part of the world, assigning them a mystical dimension. In such circumstances, Sufism in Indian sub continent flourished from Kashmir to Cape Comorin and from Multan to Assam. In every village across the sub-continent, there lived a Sufi whose shrine is still an important centre of social and spiritual activities shared by the people of all castes and creeds.

Date:Friday 24 August 2012

Time: 06:30 pm

Ramadan Beyond Fasting: Sufis and Sweets

Ramadan Beyond Fasting: Sufis and Sweets
By Ilene Prusher Jerusalem Post 08/09/2012                                                                                                                                                            Sufism, Islam’s mystical tradition, has had a relatively quiet presence among Muslims in Israel.

  Photo: ILENE PRUSHER

At sunset, a cannon booms in the Old City and a few shots ring out from adjacent villages, marking the end of the daily fast during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Muslims are seen rushing to get to an iftar, or breakfast meal, after a long, hot day of refraining from drinking and eating.
For most non-Muslims, the sights and sounds of Ramadan end there. And given the soaring summer temperatures, the idea of fasting from dawn to dusk for a whole month sounds exhausting, to say the least.
But those curious to see, hear and taste a little more have been flocking to a Wednesday night series called “Ramadan Rituals in the Old City,” sponsored by the Center for Jerusalem Studies, an extension of al-Quds University. This Wednesday night’s gathering featured an evening of Sufi religious music, played by a seven-man group called Anwar al-Quds (the Luminous of Jerusalem). Sufism is Islam’s mystical tradition, and while its adherents are well-known in countries like Turkey, it has had a much quieter presence among Muslims here.
One of the key aspects of Sufi religious dedication is zhiker, which involves a trance-like repetition of God’s name. The men – including a grandfather, son and grandson from the Sabagh family – sang “Nushkur-Allah” (Thank God) in rhythmic, mesmerizing repetition, accompanied by different forms of drums and the occasional cymbal.
Songs with more elaborate lyrics are about the mawlid – the Prophet Mohammed’s birthday – and are based on Iraqi music scales that date back to the Abbasid era. “In this tradition, the prophet is the connection with God, and you need to sing to him in order to reach God,” explained Dr. Ali Qleibo, a professor of cultural anthropology at al-Quds University and the emcee for the evening.
The international visitors sat rapt, some swaying to the spiritual cadences alongside words they couldn’t understand, some tucking into the sweet, warm namura, a dessert pastry filled with goat’s cheese, which waiters generously passed around the packed courtyard. Local people passing through the Muslim Quarter’s Souk il-Qattanin, some of them on their way from evening prayers at the al-Aqsa Mosque and others shopping for gifts in the passageway decked with festive lights and lanterns, popped in to listen and to take photographs.
“I come from an old, urban family with Sufi roots. At Ramadan, after the iftar meal we sang songs and then we moved to the radio,” Qleibo explained in a discussion after the performance. Organizing performances of Sufi music at iftar is something that in the past happened in the private homes of the wealthy, he said, and now is more accessible as professional religious musicians such as Anwar al-Quds are performing in the public realm. It’s an opportunity to emphasize the rich spiritual practices of Ramadan beyond fasting, which even many Muslims are unaware of. “Even Arabs don’t about know about these traditions,” he said.
A young British couple and their baby, on a two-month visit from London while they participate in an arts fellowship in Ramallah, came because it was an opportunity to enjoy a cultural evening connected to Ramadan. “The educational aspect – the professional attempt to contextualize it – is really helpful,” said Jeremy Hutchinson, a visual artist, sitting with his filmmaker wife, Vanessa, and their ten-month-old son.
Next week’s event will include a tour of local Sufi shrines as well as visits to several places that in the past served as a zawiya, a kind of hostel where religious pilgrims would stay. Formal prayers would be performed in the Noble Sanctuary [the Temple Mount], but Sufi rituals were practiced in the zawiya, says Huda al-Imam, the center’s director. “Today, many families sit down to watch television dramas, released especially for Ramadan, instead.”

App for the Ancients ‘Alif the Unseen,’ by G. Willow Wilson

'Alif the Unseen'
The New York Times Sunday Book Review By PAULS TOUTONGHI Published: August 10, 2012 
  In her 2010 memoir, “The Butterfly Mosque,” G. Willow Wilson told the story of her conversion to Islam, charting her transformation from child of atheist parents to Boston University-­educated undergraduate to faithful Muslim with an Egyptian husband and an apartment in Cairo. Wilson wrote of the contrast between East and West, and of feeling compelled to keep her religious beliefs secret. “In the West,” she observed, “anything that must be hidden is suspect; availability and honesty are interlinked. This clashes irreconcilably with Islam, . . . where the things that are most precious, most perfect and most holy are always hidden: the Kaaba, the faces of prophets and angels, a woman’s body, Heaven.”

It is thus unsurprising that secret identities form the axis of Wilson’s fast-paced, imaginative first novel, “Alif the Unseen” — a book that defies easy categorization. Is it literary fiction? A fantasy novel? A dystopian techno-thriller? An exemplar of Islamic mysticism, with ties to the work of the Sufi poets? Wilson seems to delight in establishing, then confounding, any expectations readers may have.

Alif, her hacker protagonist, is a 21st-­century cyber-gun-for-hire. He provides technical services to pornographers in Saudi Arabia, Islamic revolutionaries in Turkey and bloggers in Egypt, concealing their identities and hiding their locations from the authorities in Riyadh and Ankara and Cairo. He doesn’t discriminate politically: “Alif was not an ideologue; as far as he was concerned, anyone who could pay for his protection was entitled to it.” His greatest allegiance, at least initially, is to the freedom of information.

But Alif lives in a place — known only as “the City” — plagued by significant social ills. It has “one of the most sophisticated digital policing systems in the world, but no proper mail service”; “princes in silver-plated cars,” but “districts with no running water.” This is not a young Ameri­can novelist’s Orientalist perspective on a foreign other, however — Wilson has lived on and off in Cairo for nearly a decade. Though the City explicitly isn’t Cairo, it also clearly is, with its sweet tea vendors, its streets edged with hibiscus bushes, its insistent sprawl.

Within this megacity, Alif must hide from an authoritarian state that wants to hunt him down and do him harm. This might seem enough to drive a novel. But Wilson adds several layers of complication. Alif has a doomed love affair with an aristocratic woman — a relationship made more difficult by his social status and his mixed Arab-Indian ethnicity. He also ends up in possession of the “Alf Yeom”: a text ostensibly dictated by an enslaved demon to a Persian mystic hundreds of years ago, which the state wants because it may (or may not) contain the secret to creating a quantum-bit-powered supercomputer.

When a betrayal reveals Alif’s location, he is taken into custody, beaten and tortured. But at last he is rescued, and as he goes on the run, we are shuttled into the world of the jinn. Wilson’s tone alternates between serious and playful. In her funniest set piece, a shadowy creature called an effrit asks Alif to fix its “two-year-old Dell desktop,” which has picked up some kind of malware online. Alif is astonished to find Internet access in jinn-land. “Cousin,” the effrit says, “we’ve got Wi-Fi.”

For all its playfulness, “Alif the Unseen” is also at times unexpectedly moving, especially as it detours into questions of faith. In an expansive moment, a secondary character — an imam who like Alif has been tortured by the state — describes a hard-earned revelation: “I have had much experience with the unclean and uncivilized in the recent past. Shall I tell you what I discovered? I am not the state of my feet. I am not the dirt on my hands or the hygiene of my private parts. If I were these things, I would not have been at liberty to pray. . . . But I did pray, because I am not these things. . . . I am not even myself. I am a string of bones speaking the word God.” For those who view American fiction as provincial, or dominated by competent but safe work, Wilson’s novel offers a resounding, heterodox alternative.

Pauls Toutonghi teaches literature and fiction writing at Lewis & Clark College and is the author of the novels “Red Weather” and “Evel Knievel Days.”

Nazareth's Sufis bullied by fellow Muslims

Nazareth's Sufis bullied by fellow Muslims Haaretz  Saturday, August 11, 2012 Av 23, 5772 By Lauren Gelfond Feldinger, Aug.10, 2012

 For decades, the mystical Sufis in Nazareth have celebrated Islam through music and poetry without considering themselves in danger.But nowadays, local Salafis, who practice a more conservative and coercive Islam, bully and beat Sufi leaders to deter them from their practices, Muslim community leaders told Haaretz. "We visit tombs of holy peoples and they say it is forbidden; we chant and they say it is forbidden to use instruments; I say there should be dialogue with Israelis and Jews because the prophet Muhammed received delegations of Jewish tribes," but Salafis object, said Nazareth Sheikh Ghassan Menasra, 44, a leader of the Qadiri Sufi Order of the Holy Land.

Menasra says he and two of his five sons have been beaten in Nazareth and Jerusalem and his wife, an Islamic educator for women, was pushed. Shaken by threats and having tear gas thrown into his home, he spent two weeks in meditation to avoid the fate of Jerusalem Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bukhari, who suffered similar attacks and died of a heart attack in 2010 at age 61.

Such incidents may reflect a growing regional trend of clashes between progressive Muslims and their more fundamentalist brethren. Egyptian Salafis have razed Sufi shrines, Tunisian Salafis injured dozens in riots over work of art and political analysts blame Salafi Jihadis for the bloodshed in Syria.

There are thousands of Sufi supporters who worship in their homes or houses of prayer in Israel.Abdullah Shama

But Salafis and Sufis are both tiny minorities here, with Salafi activity funded by countries like Saudi Arabia, Menasra says. According to research by Middle East expert professor Khaled Hroub of Cambridge University, the small Palestinian Salafi element includes violent radicals whose interpretation of Islam is linked to Saudi Wahabism, but most are nonviolent moderates focused on conservative social and religious programs.

Sufis are famed as whirling dervishes, but the Nazareth Sufis do not practice this tradition. They observe Islamic law, but also include reverent prayers, chanting (zikr), instruments and poetry in their worship. They are often compared to Jewish Kabbalists. The greatest jihad of Islam, according to the Qadiri order that Menasra and his father Abdel-al Salaam head, is overcoming ego, hatred and violent speech and behavior. 

Critics condemn them as "heretics" for their practices, which also include having women teach Islam.

They particularly attack them as "collaborators" for associating with Jews. Menasra is involved with numerous interfaith programs, joins rabbis for meetings with international political leaders and performs Sufi chants with Jewish musicians such as Yair Dalal. Menasra argues that interfaith cooperation was the Prophet Mohammad's way and later was the tradition of Muslim and Jewish mystics in Medieval Cairo, Baghdad, Damascus and Morocco. Interacting with other faiths also helps Arabs, he said.

"We need to talk [with Jews] about the problems of Arab rights in Israel and Palestinian rights," he said. "Muslims can also teach Jews the cultural codes of peacemaking in Islam – politics alone cannot build trust."

The threats started a decade ago, after 10 Nazareth Sufis reached out to other Muslims, teaching "moderate Islam" through op-eds and classes on Islamic text and tradition, led by Menasra, who holds a master's degree in Middle Eastern and Islamic studies, a bachelor's degree in Arabic literature, a teaching certificate in Islamic family law and ordination as a sheikh by the renowned Jerusalem Sheikh Baghdadi.

As they gained followers and began including Jewish communities, threats turned to violence.

Anat Lev-Or of Central Israel, a Jewish teacher of Sufi and Jewish philosophy, says two years ago she witnessed a mob beat Menasra's teenage son, while he shielded his younger brother.

Imam Mahmoud Abukhdeir, spiritual leader of an east Jerusalem mosque, condemned Salafi violence in Nazareth and Jerusalem.

"To many Muslims, the Sufi way is not acceptable, but in Islamic law, such violence is forbidden," he said. "Salafis are against many groups, not just Sufis. They beat everyone--they think they are the only real Muslims."

It is not clear how widespread the Sufi-Salafi conflict is in Israel, because Sufis say they would not report Salafi leaders to the police or Higher Arab Council for fear of retribution. Despite repeated inquiries, Haaretz was unable to locate a Salafi leader to respond. The Salafi movement in Israel is not centralized, but Itzhak Weismann, a professor and Sufi expert at Haifa University, says most Islamist movements subscribe to Salafi principles and consider Sufis "deviators from Islam."

But he noted, "Sufism is based on Islamic texts and tradition. Sufis are part of Islam since the beginning."

"We will not stop"

Scholars date Sufis in the Holy Land to eighth-century Ramle and Jerusalem, with centers developing later in Safed and Hebron. Jerusalem was always an important site of pilgrimage, and several dozen Sufi shrines and graves remain in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Today in Israel there are a few hundred Sufi disciples and thousands of supporters who worship in their homes or houses of prayer, primarily in Jerusalem, Nazareth, Acre, Umm al-Fahm and Baqa al-Gharbiyye.

Sufism, with its many orders and varying customs, is not widespread in Israel because of the exile of Muslim leaders after the 1948 war, Weismann says.

"Since 1967, when communications resumed between Muslims in Israel with relatives in West Bank and Gaza, there was a renewal," he said.

In Nazareth, Sufis face not only the threat of extremists, but also difficult living conditions because of government prejudice against development in Arab neighborhoods, said Sufi teacher Khalid Abu Ras. Israel's largest Arab city, with nearly 74,000 residents – 69.5 percent of which are Muslim – is plagued by unemployment, overcrowding, lack of green spaces and, says Abu Ras, inadequate municipal services.

Despite struggles with poverty, threats and violence, the Sufis of Nazareth say that they will carry on as usual.

On a recent evening, twenty family and community members gathered in the Menasra home to break the Ramadan fast. After dinner, the older son played classical Egyptian oud, including works from Umm Kulthum and Mohamed Abdel Wahab. The elder community members chanted traditional songs about the prophet Mohammad. An infant moved with his arms to the music and a grandfather beat an oversized tambourine. The elder Menasra, wearing a traditional tunic and head covering, danced slowly into the inner circle, extending his arms to bless the guests.

Days later, on the Jewish day of mourning Tisha B'Av, several of Menasra's Jewish colleagues who were also fasting joined his family to break the fast.

"Our activity does not make us weaker -- it makes us strong," Menasra said.

There are three kinds of religious people, he explained, quoting Rabia al-Adawiya, a female Sufi saint: "Slaves who worship through fear, merchants who worship for profit and free people who worship through love – this is the way," he said. "The radicals think that they need to stop us in any way, but we will not stop."

Kurdistan participates in Samaa Sufi Music Festival in Cairo

Kurdistan participates in Samaa Sufi Music Festival in Cairo

31/07/2012

CAIRO, July 31 (AKnews) - The Nakia al-Qadiriya religious singing band of the Ministry of Culture in the Kurdistan Region presented religious chants and songs praising the Prophet Muhammad, the Caliphs and the month of Ramadan on the theater of the historical al-Ghouri complex, Qubbet al-Ghouri, as part of the fifth International Sufi Music Festival, Samaa  in Cairo.

Director general of the Culture Ministry in the region and the head of the participating delegation in the festival Kanaan Rashad al-Mufti said: "We participate for the first time in such international festivals and the band presented Sufi songs and monologues. The participating band adopts the Naqshabandi way with the participation of Sheikh Ahmed Kaznzani.

"We participate in this great festival to inform the people that Kurds have culture, history and tradition.

 

"There is common history between Egypt and the Kurdish people and there is spiritual and emotional harmony between the two peoples. We feel that our history of Islam is one and there are common things in all aspects. In addition to that the Kurdish people are educated by Egyptians through the media, and there are branches of Al-Azhar in the Kurdistan Region.

"The cultural exchange between Egypt and the region continues and many bands visit us at the festivals that we have."

The Samaa International Festival kicked off on Sunday under the title "Man is the Home, and Home is the Man". This session is considered the largest in the history of the festival sponsored by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture. Iraq participates with two bands from the Ministry of Culture of the Kurdistan Region and the Ministry of Culture in Baghdad.

By Sara Ali RN/DM/AKnews

The 191st annual Urs of great Sufi Hazrat Sachal Sarmast

191st Annual Urs of great Sufi Hazrat Sachal Sarmast begins today

Radio Pakistan August 3 2012

The annual Urs of great Sufi Hazrat Sachal Sarmast begins at Daraza Sharif in Khairpur district on Friday

The 191st annual Urs of great Sufi Hazrat Sachal Sarmast begins on Friday at Daraza Sharif in Khairpur district. A large number of devotees from all over the country will participate the celebrations.
Sindh cultural department has arranged a National Litrary Conference on the occasion in which scholars and writers from all the country will speak about the poetry and philosophy of Hazrat Sachal Sarmast.

Sachal’s followers oppose state-controlled Sufism

Sachal’s followers oppose state-controlled Sufism
The News International, By Jan Khaskheli Monday, August 06, 2012
Karachi

The conclusion of two-day annual Urs of Hazrat Sachal Sarmast has left the scholars, researchers and creative writers annoyed over the ridiculous approach of some of the officials of provincial Culture Department. The difference between the Culture Department and the Sachal Yadgar Committee (SYC) became obvious when both the entities published parallel invitation cards and invited the people separately.

Criticizing the Culture Department, Prof (retd) Altaf Aseem, former director Sachal Chair, Shah Latif University Khairpur, said: “They (government) want to introduce state-controlled Sufism, which goes against the mindset of the Sindhi people. Being the followers of Sachal we do not believe in any kind of extremism as we want to promote the poetry and thoughts of the Sufi poet”.

Talking to The News, he said that such unnecessary interference by certain elements from the government might close the doors for youth who truly want to work for the promotion of Sufi thoughts in the province.

Aseem claims to have published 21 books on the poetry of Sachal Sarmast while he was the director of the chair. Being active member of the Yadgar Committee, Aseem says that the rivalry between the Culture Department and SYC surfaced after the committee’s budget was increased from Rs150,000 to Rs 2 million by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, who happens to be one of the founding members of the SYC.

It was learnt that the sitting Director Sachal Chair Ayaz Gul did not participate in the activities despite the fact that his name was mentioned in the cards published by both the groups. The reason was that he was not invited officially by the Culture Department.

Amar Iqbal, Assistant Editor of Sarmast - the research journal that carries scholarly articles for the last eight years – said that the SYC used to organise the entire literary and cultural activities, including Mushaira, Adabi conference and Sufi music consort but for the last four years some vested interest elements managed to involve Culture Department officials in manipulating funds.

Amar, himself a renowned poet of Sindhi language, has authored three books.

He said that the committee used to collect these scholarly articles and publish the same on the occasion of Urs, but their journal has not been receiving a single article being read during the conference for the last four years. Despite limited resources the committee has brought out 33rd Sarmast edition during this year’s Urs. The reason is that certain officials were allegedly trying to incise the role of Yadgar Committee.

It is pertinent to mention here that way back in 1959, some young creative writers, scholars and lawyers of that time, including Sindh CM Syed Qaim Ali Shah, had formed Sachal Cooperative Academy to organize literary and cultural activities on the occasion of annual Urs in Daraza. They used to collect donations from individuals to promote literature and encourage scholars to explore the poetry of Sufi poet Sachal Sarmast. Later in 1981, it was renamed as Sachal Yadgar Committee, which too continued the activities with commitment.

Till five years back, the SYC used to get funds from the provincial government which ranged from Rs100,000 to 150,000 for organizing all the events, including publishing the research journal, but the irony started when the CM increased the budget and some greedy people jumped in the field to patronize literary gathering and Mushaira just to mint money. The writers are of the opinion that this approach has annoyed the followers of Sachal Sarmast.

When contacted, Director General Culture Department Rafiq Buriro, while introducing himself as “subordinate of the subordinate”, said that he could not clarify the situation. He advised this scribe to contact the high-ups of the department. The minister herself did not respond despite several efforts to get her opinion in this regard

Rishi of the Valley

Rishi of the Valley The Hindu August 5 2012
Young Kashmiri researcher Abir Bazaz tells Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty what made him go in search of Kashmiri Sufi Nund Rishi

 

Like many young Kashmiris today, Abir Bazaz too is a product of a society in turmoil. Violence and death became a part of his life, compelling him to make a short film Paradise on a River in Hell in 2002. But with the chaotic present bearing scant hope for any great future, the obvious choice in front of Abir was to turn to the past. He wanted answers. Primarily to the Hindu-Muslim dissonance that has engulfed the Valley.

So, quarrying on the history of Kashmiri life, he asked: were we always like this? Was there any attempt at concord between the two? Can we never have a paradigm bedded on peace and harmony? The past didn’t disappoint Abir. He found his answer in Sheikh Nooruddin Noorani, better known as Nund Rishi who walked on Kashmiri soil in the 14th and 15th centuries and showed his people a workable paradigm for coexistence.

In a language that people understood, Rishi went on to institute Sufism in the Valley by successfully establishing an idiom that coupled Hindu and Buddhist thoughts with the real spirit of Islam. He used local idioms, “For example, the Islamic word for divinity is ‘devo’ in his teachings; Allah is called ‘bhugi’ which is Kashmiri for ‘bhagwan’… Nund Rishi’s was one of the few indigenous Sufi Orders of India because other Orders were not born in India but in Persia. Even though rishis of Kashmir have some thoughts in common with the Chistia Order, Chistis were originally from Afghanistan,” Abir found.

Pulled by this great past of his people, Abir, for the last five years — as a fellow with the University of Minnesota — has been researching the Rishi Order and “increasingly realising what were actually the foundations of Kashmir… One of the fundamental concerns of the Order was to avoid violence between the two communities,” points out Abir during a conversation in Shimla. He was there to present a paper on the poetry of Nund Rishi at the 11th Conference on Early Modern Literatures of North India, which is being held for the first time in India.

Abir revealed that Nund Rishi’s teachings were a serious critique of the society then. “His loyalty was with the Kashmiri peasantry, the poor lot. His shrueks (taken from the Sanskrit word slokas) consistently attacked the caste system. It was on the lines of the Bharti poets though his approach was more cautious because of the times he lived in.”

Unlike Kabir, whose teachings were a criticism of Islam and Hinduism, Nund Rishi affirmed both. “His approach was unique because he affirmed his relations with both the Koran and Hindu-Buddhist thoughts. His structure of thought tried to look at a universal shared language, how one community can live together with another,” said Abir.

Nund Rishi emerged at a time of great political crisis in Kashmir. Trying to draw a parallel with today, the paper Abir has written for the conference — hosted by the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies — studies the relations between the negative theology of Nund Rishi and the thinking of death in Sufism

“Here I look at his idea about life and death. Learning to live is also learning to die,” says Abir. Nund Rishi also holds importance in the Valley’s history because he was the first to write in Kashmiri. “Before him, the writings were either in Sanskrit or in Persian.” Today though, he is more or less a forgotten name in Kashmir. “There are contestations now about what Rishism means. Young people don’t really know much about him, some have only heard of him from their parents or grandparents,” says Abir. During his research, he says, “One big problem was that his poetry and texts written about him were in Kashmiri language.” Ironically, Kashmiri is not taught in schools there, so Abir had to teach himself how to read and write his own language. Since some texts about him were in Persian, he learnt that language too.

His research work on Nund Rishi is far from over but he adds hopefully, “At some point I would like to put all of these in book form.”

(Abir Bazaz presented the paper “Die before you Die: Negative Theology, Death and Politics in the Poetry of Nund Rishi (1378-1440)” at the 11th International Conference on Early Modern Literatures in North India that concludes today in Shimla.)

Path to Sufism could lead to global peace, says Qaim

Path to Sufism could lead to global peace, says Qaim International The News, Saturday, August 04, 2012

RANIPUR: The world can benefit from the philosophy of Sufism as it holds the means to overcome the social and economic issues confronting the globe.

This was stated by the Chief Minister of Sindh, Syed Qaim Ali Shah, as he laid a floral wreath on the mausoleum of Hazrat Sachal Sarmast at Daraz Sharif in Ranipur town of Khairpur on Friday on the occasion of the 191st Urs celebrations of the Sufi poet.

The chief minister, while addressing a ceremony on this occasion, said that love, peace, equality and tolerance had been the hallmark of Sachal Sarmast’s message. He said that the mystic poets had played a vital role in spreading the spirit of Sufism.

Shah paid rich tribute to the scholars and poets who had been spreading the message of Sufism. He said that the present PPP government had been following in the footsteps of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto by paying attention to the renovation and maintenance of the shrines of Shah Latif Bhitai, Sachal Sarmast and Lal Shahbaz Qalandar.

The chief minister, while taking notice of the complaints against grabbing of the shrine’s land, ordered the DIG of Sukkur to get the land recovered from the possession of the land mafia. He also asked the police official to launch a crackdown on the drug peddlers.

Shah also ordered installation of tubewells in the area as well as an inquiry into the alleged siphoning off of funds worth millions of rupees meant for repairing the existing tubewells. Meanwhile, Sindh Auqaf Minister Dr Rafique Ahmed told the ceremony that the Auqaf Department by virtue of the 18th Amendment had been devolved to the Sindh government.

A Late-Night Sufi Music Lesson from Istanbul with Oreç Guvenç

A Late Night Sufi Music Lesson from Istanbul by Chris Heagle, On Being August 3 2012

Photo by Emily Heagle

"These songs are poems, the bulk of them are from the 1600-1700 time period. They were a central part of Islamic piety in the Turkish context, and immensely popular in both the urban and the rural context. It was after Ataturk's forced secularization that they disappeared from the public sphere in Turkey, and went underground. People like Oruç Guvenç are central in recovering them not only as pieces of literature, but also as lived, practiced, embodied traditions." ~Omid Safi

At the end of a long day of production in Istanbul, our guide Omid Safi, a professor of Islamic Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (he specializes in Islamic mysticism and contemporary Islamic thought) led us off the beaten path. Barely a block from the tourist-filled Hippodrome and Hagia Sofia is the studio of Oreç Guvenç.
Four floors up a spiral staircase, and beyond a pile of shoes respectfully left at the door, is a modest room lit with florescent tubes.
The walls are lined with traditional stringed instruments and drums, most of which look handmade. One open window to the street below unsuccessfully attempts to offset the heat generated by the 20 people who gathered to play and sing.
We are welcomed, as usual, with hot tea and treated to a remarkable evening. For nearly 30 years, the ethnomusicologist has been a leader in preserving and advancing traditional Sufi music, focusing especially on music as a tool for healing. This is what we heard at this evening's monthly workshop: To listen to samples of the music go here