SUFISM

CULTURE: THE DIVINE MUSIC OF KASHMIR

Mubashar Naqvi 

Published March 12, 2023

Kashmiri Sufi music occasions the coming together of locals in the valley | Photo by the writer

Nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas, the beautiful valley of Kashmir is renowned for its breathtaking landscapes, serene lakes and snow-capped mountains. But, there is more to this region than just its natural beauty.

The valley of Kashmir is also home to a rich musical tradition that has been passed down many generations and through centuries. Among the various forms of music that are native to this region, Kashmiri Sufi music emerges as very captivating and soul-nourishing.

The roots of Sufism in Kashmir can be traced back to the 13th century, when the legendary Sufi saint Sheikh Noor-ud-Din Wali arrived in the valley from Central Asia. He is known to have played a crucial role in spreading the message of Islam through his mystical teachings and, particularly, his use of soulful music.

The followers of Sheikh Noor-ud-Din Wali, also known as Nund Rishi, developed a unique form of music that combined the traditional folk music of Kashmir with the mystical teachings of Sufism. This music is known as Kashmiri Sufi music.

The rich and vibrant tradition of the mystical music of Kashmir is slowly becoming a relic of the past in Azad Jammu and Kashmir

KASHMIRI SUFI

Kashmiri Sufi music is characterised by its soulful lyrics, haunting melodies and mystical themes. The lyrics of Sufi music are often inspired by the teachings of the Sufi saints and poets, who believed in the power of music to connect with the Divine — symbolising love, compassion, and tolerance. The music is also deeply rooted in the folk culture of Kashmir, and the lyrics often incorporate elements of nature, love and spirituality.

The music is performed by a group of musicians who use traditional instruments such as the santoor, rabab and harmonium, along with traditional Kashmiri percussion instruments such as the tumbaknari and the dholak.

Kashmiri Sufi music is also characterised by its meditative and trance-like quality. The repetitive rhythms and hypnotic melodies of the music are designed to induce a state of spiritual ecstasy in the listener. This is achieved through the use of ‘call-and-response patterns’, where the lead singer chants a line and the chorus responds with a repeating phrase or melody.

One of the most unique features of Kashmiri Sufi music is its emphasis on improvisation. While the basic structure of the music is often pre-determined, individual musicians are given the freedom to improvise and add their own personal touches to the music. This improvisation creates a sense of spontaneity that is rare in other forms of music.

One of the most important aspects of Sufi music is the devotional qawwali. Characterised by its repetitive rhythms, and with lyrics often including verses from the Quran, as well as the teachings of the Sufi saints, the qawwali is an integral part of the Sufi tradition and it is believed to have the power to heal and soothe the soul.

“Kashmiri Sufi music has a special place in my heart,” says Zia Naqvi, an educationist and photographer who hails from Multan, and is currently based in Islamabad.

He says he connects deeply with Kashmiri Sufi music.

“It is a profound and spiritual form of expression that speaks to the deepest parts of the human soul. It has the power to uplift and transport us to a higher state of consciousness, connecting us to something greater than ourselves. To me, there is nothing quite like the experience of listening to Sufi music in the beautiful landscape of Kashmir, surrounded by the majesty of the mountains and the peacefulness of the valley.”

MUSICALLY DIVIDED

Across the Line of Control, the popularity of Kashmiri Sufi music has grown significantly over the years, and many music festivals are organised in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir throughout the year, showcasing the talents of local musicians and promoting the rich musical heritage of the region.

One of the most popular music festivals is the Sufi Music Festival, which is held annually in the month of October in the Indian-held valley. The festival attracts music lovers from all over the world.

Unfortunately, there has been little cross-border exchange of music among Kashmiris. The few offerings that have materialised have been primarily in the Kashmiri language, which is now understood by a diminishing number of individuals in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

While a handful of liberation-themed songs have garnered some degree of fame, they cannot be regarded as representative of the transcendent Sufi music tradition that has played such a crucial role in the cultural identity of the Kashmiri people.

RELIC OF THE PAST?

The land of Azad Jammu and Kashmir is a hidden gem in the Himalayan region, blessed with breathtaking natural beauty and a rich cultural heritage that has been passed down through centuries. Yet, as time marches on, the people of this region seem to be losing touch with their roots, neglecting the very essence of what makes them unique.

In particular, the hauntingly beautiful strains of Kashmiri Sufi music, which have long been a staple of the region’s cultural identity, are being forgotten and neglected, as if they were mere relics of the past.

Some other factors are also threatening the enchanting rhythms of Kashmiri Sufi music in AJK. The conflict-ridden region has led to the curtailment of cultural activities and weakened the social and religious structures that have long supported Sufi music. Moreover, the rise of conservative ideologies also dismisses music and artistic expression as un-Islamic, further driving younger generations away from Sufi music.

Globalisation has also introduced Western musical influences, prompting a shift in the musical preferences of Kashmiri youth towards modern genres and leaving the mellifluous tunes of Sufi music to languish. This has put Sufi musicians in a precarious position, with limited opportunities to share their art.

It is a tragedy that such a rich and vibrant tradition, which has touched the hearts and souls of so many generations, should be allowed to fade away into obscurity, without so much as a second thought.

“Kashmiri Sufi music is not just music,” says social activist and documentary film producer Zahid Nisar. “It’s a language of the heart that speaks of love, peace and harmony. In a world that’s increasingly divided, we need more of such music that unites us and reminds us of our shared humanity.”

The beauty of Kashmiri Sufi music must be preserved, cherished and shared with the world, so that it may continue to inspire and uplift all those who hear its divine melodies.

The writer is based in Muzaffarabad and writes on culture, tourism and higher education. He tweets @SMubasharNaqvi

Published in Dawn, EOS, March 12th, 2023

AP PHOTOS: Sufi religious order finally able to gather again

By MOSA'AB ELSHAMY

PHOTO ESSAY 1 of 17

Members of the Sufi Karkariya order reach out to kiss the hands of their leader during a religious celebration of the prophet Muhammed's birthday, in Aroui, near Nador, eastern Morocco, Monday, Oct. 18, 2021. It was the first such gathering since the pandemic. The order, the Karkariya, follows a mystical form of Islam recognizable by its unique dress code: A modest yet colorful patchwork robe. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)


RABAT, Morocco (AP) — Followers of a Sufi religious order convened on a Moroccan village near the city of Nador for the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad in the first such gathering since the pandemic.

A few hundred faithful, known as Fuqaras, from France, Tunisia, Ivory Coast and other countries, met for the weeklong Islamic holiday celebration.

The order, the Karkariya, follows a mystical form of Islam recognizable by its unique dress code: A modest yet colorful patchwork robe.

In the rituals, they surrounded their order’s leader and founder, Sheikh Mohamed Fawzi al Karkari, kissing his hand and pledging religious allegiance to him as they prayed and chanted. Later in the night, the faithful formed circles and danced in fervent movements that symbolize verses from the Quran according to believers.

From March 2020 until July 2021, large religious gatherings in Morocco were banned because of the pandemic. Mosques and thousands of Sufi shrines were also closed for sporadic periods.

The Karkariya Sufi order was founded relatively recently, in the are where they are now meeting.

The term Sufi is broad and includes hundreds of movements spread all over the world. Each Sufi order is defined by its leader or its books. Morocco has hundreds of Sufi orders and the kingdom encourages and supports their presence as a moderate form of religious devotion, as well as maintaining soft power with Sufi orders across West and North Africa.

As the order spread beyond Morocco, it ruffled feathers. In 2017, Algerian media and some religious figures criticized the Karkariya order for the perception that the Morocco-founded order was infringing on Algeria in a “religious invasion.”

Yet Algerian members were still able to travel to Morocco, up until this year when relations took a nose dive and Algeria severed diplomatic ties with its neighbor.

Khaled El Jidoui, a Tunisian member who studies computer science at Stanford University and became a member alongside his brother and father, says joining the order was “the best decision of my life,” pointing to the impact it had on the social and practical aspects of his life.

Asked about the colorful outfit, he describes the mosaic as his “identity,” where every patch represents different facets of his life aiming to “merge together into one white.”

Imad Ali Saeed, a Yemeni researcher and scholar described the pride he felt at being one of Sheikh Al Karkari’s students, noting that he learned about the order during his time researching Sufi sects in Morocco it was the “superiority” of knowledge of the leader that convinced him to join.

Mohammed Shaibani, a businessman from Mauritania, described a 30-year search across West and North Africa for a mentor and his happiness to have gathered again after the pandemic with his fellow members.

A cat rests as members of the Sufi Karkariya order pray during a religious celebration of the birthday of the prophet Muhammed, in Aroui, near Nador, eastern Morocco, Monday, Oct. 18, 2021. 

(AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)

SEE

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for SUFI 

ISIS WAR ON SUFIS
Afghanistan’s Sufis Are Under Attack

Recent bombing of a mosque in Kabul shows the growing security problems facing the Taliban government

Fazelminallah Qazizai     

Afghan followers of Sufism recite poetic verses from the Koran at the Pahlawan Mosque in Kabul, Afghanistan / Robert Nickelsberg / Getty Images

As I passed through my final years of high school in Kabul, it did not cross my mind that I might be able to go on and study at university. My father had just died from a long illness and, like so many Afghan teenagers, I was already thinking about how I might be able to support my family. We were poor enough that I had only one set of shirt and trousers to wear to my last two years of classes, so I knew I would have to find a job sooner rather than later.

I graduated from school in 2006 and, although times were tough on a personal level, there was a sense of optimism in much of the country back then. It’s true that security was starting to deteriorate, but memories of the 1990s civil war were still fresh in everyone’s minds, and there was a widespread belief that the international community would not abandon Afghanistan again.

After trying and failing to find a job with various NGOs for reasons none of them cared to explain, I was persuaded by one of my younger brothers to visit a local Sufi — “tasawwuf” — mosque in the hope that it might change my luck. I must admit that I initially laughed at his suggestion, not because I disliked Sufis but because I was skeptical of any practices that went against my belief in the more traditional tenets of Islam. I regard myself as a socially progressive Muslim who shows his devotion to God in conventional ways. I could not see how a visit to this particular mosque might be any better for me than praying in my usual mosque or at home. In the end, however, I agreed to go there to boost the morale of my brother and mother.

We cycled to the Khalifa Sahib mosque in Aladdin, a neighborhood in west Kabul near Parliament and the American University, and sat down to talk to one of its scholarly custodians. I remember him being a kind man who listened quietly from under his flat white turban as I explained about my futile search for a job. He then took out some paper talismans and told my brother to burn or smoke one at night. Another one he gave us was to be put in a glass of water, dissolved and drunk the next morning.

We obeyed his instructions and, while my luck didn’t change in the short term, it did eventually. I later found work as a journalist and graduated with a degree in Islamic law from Kabul University. I do not attribute this change in fortune to the Sufi mosque, but I have always looked back on that visit with fondness. I was a young man — a boy, really — going through a hard time, and it meant a lot to me to receive the kindness of a stranger, however eccentric his advice might have been.

Unfortunately, this memory of a more innocent time has taken on a melancholy hue in recent weeks. On April 29 an explosion ripped through that same Sufi mosque after Friday prayers. At least 10 people, and perhaps more than 50, were killed. There is confusion about whether the blast was a suicide attack or the result of a bomb planted at the scene, but it was not an isolated incident. A week earlier, on April 22, the Mawlawi Sekander Sufi mosque in the northern city of Kunduz was hit by a similar attack that killed at least 33 people and wounded dozens more. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for that blast and is also believed to have been behind the bloodshed in Kabul. With Shia Muslims as well as Sufis being increasingly targeted, it is clear that attempts are underway to ignite a sectarian war in Afghanistan. History suggests this will not work, but nothing is certain anymore.

Sufism has roots in this country that are far older than the kind of ideology practiced by the Islamic State. While Afghans are often wary of its more esoteric aspects — such as the way worshipers engage in “dhikr” (chanting) to show their devotion to God — its mysticism has traditionally been a source of comfort for many people here. The sick visit Sufi shrines in search of cures for cancer or depression; infertile women go to them looking for the miracle they need to have a child. This has started to change in recent years and of course it would be better if everyone trusted in science, but it seems churlish to rebuke Afghans for finding hope wherever they can. During times of darkness we occasionally need artificial light.

Sufism is not a sect or a type of jurisprudence but a form of Islamic belief that emphasizes the mystical, peaceful aspects of our religion and prioritizes inner contemplation. As far as the Islamic State is concerned, this is enough to make Sufis idolators. But attacks such as the one on April 29 in Kabul are attacks on the heritage and culture of all Afghans. We do not have to be Sufis to understand and appreciate the role that Sufism has played in our history.

There are four main Sufi orders in Afghanistan and the wider region: the Chishti, the Qadiriyya, the Suhrawardiyya and the Naqshbandi. The Chishti originated near Herat in western Afghanistan, and some of our greatest poets were Sufis. The most famous of them, Jalaluddin Rumi, was born in Balkh in northern Afghanistan in the early 13th century. The United Nations cultural agency (UNESCO) celebrated his work in 2007, the same year I went to the Sufi mosque in Kabul. The U.N. secretary-general at the time, Ban Ki-moon, described Rumi’s work as “timeless” and praised his “humanist philosophy.” We Afghans also claim Abdur Rahman Baba, a 15th- and 16th-century Sufi poet from Peshawar, as one of our own and continue to draw inspiration from his writing.

Afghan Sufis fought against the Soviet occupation of our country in the 1980s, just like more hardline jihadists. Three of the seven Sunni mujahedeen parties during that time were led by Sufis. They may not have been as militarily effective as their rivals, but their followers still made enormous sacrifices in the name of defending Afghanistan and Islam.

Although the Taliban’s relationship with the Sufi community is complex, it is certainly not openly hostile. Afghan Sufi scholars have been vocal in their support for the current government and often refer to Sirajuddin Haqqani, the minister of interior, using the honorific “Khalifa” — a title traditionally given to Sufi disciples who reach scholarly levels of enlightenment. The respect seems both genuine and mutual, and it is arguably a good example of the compromises we Afghans need to make if we want our country to move forward. The shamans who always used to roam around Kabul collecting alms are no longer visible on the streets and seem to have been discouraged from carrying out their rituals in public since the Taliban’s takeover, but that is the only sign I have noticed of the Islamic Emirate possibly acting against Sufism.

This cordial relationship between the government and the Sufi community may be only a small cause for optimism, but it is worth noting. Given the increased activity of the Islamic State of late and the criticisms that have rightly been leveled at some of the Taliban’s more repressive social policies, we need to recognize that there is still some cause for hope. Whether this can be built on may well depend on whether security gets significantly worse.

A month after the attack on the Sufi mosque in Kabul, the Taliban marked the sixth anniversary of the death of their former leader, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, who was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan in 2016. To honor his memory, several senior officials attended a commemorative event on May 22 in a wedding hall in Kabul, the kind of place that would once have been the scene of raucous late-night parties. Although the atmosphere was measured, the meeting was revolutionary in its own way. The former head of the Taliban’s political office in Doha and current deputy foreign minister, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, used the occasion to call for girls’ schools to be reopened and for women’s rights to be respected. Even that meeting, however, was not allowed to pass peacefully. An explosion hit several vehicles parked outside, causing unknown numbers of casualties. This time a group calling itself the National Liberation Front claimed responsibility. Exactly who they are and what they want is unclear.

These kinds of mysterious attacks took place regularly under the governments of Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani, and the Taliban will be keen to ensure they do not get out of hand. This spring we have often been without electricity in Kabul because the pylons in the north of the country that supply the city are being routinely targeted in sabotage operations. On the streets here no one is quite sure whether to blame rebel groups linked to the old Northern Alliance or hostile states — or, perhaps, both. Even as I write these lines at home now, I have just heard an explosion in the near distance. I will wait for the sound of ambulance sirens or a call from a friend or relative to find out if anyone was hurt.

Fazelminallah Qazizai is the Afghanistan correspondent at New Lines

June 1, 2022

“Letter from Kabul” is a newsletter in which our contributors provide their own unique glimpses into life on the ground in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan

SEE

 LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for SUFI 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for SUFIS

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for ISIS SUFIS 

Hamas targets Sufis in Gaza

Sufis have opposed the way the Hamas government came to power, prompting the movement to shut down their institutions and restrict their religious activities.

Whirling dervishes perform during a festival at the mosque of Nabi Musa, where the tomb of Prophet Moses is believed to be located, in the Judean Desert near the town of Jericho, West Bank, April 8, 2016. - Abbas Momani/AFP via Getty Images

Hadeel Al Gherbawi
@hadola_gh
TOPICS COVERED
Gaza
February 6, 2022 —


A number of Sufi mosques are spread across the Gaza Strip, and each sheikh practices his own way of Sufism. But they all participate in performing the weekly “session,” which is a Quranic session in which prophetic invocations and praises are chanted.

Sufism in Palestine can be traced back to the Mamluk era, and some Sufi families in Gaza have become well known, such as the Sa’afin and Khalidi families.

Sufism has always raised controversy among some Muslims, but it remains a very important issue as many have studied Sufism in an attempt to reach a conclusion about Sufi thought. However, many Sufis refused to talk to Al-Monitor for fear of repercussions from Hamas.

One sheikh of the Alawiyya order told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “The origins of our order [religious institution] go back to Sheikh Ahmad bin Alawi. Sufism is one of the foundations of Islamic beliefs. The weekly session we hold is a clearing of worries and sins; followers gather to remember God and the verses of the Quran without distortion as some describe it and without holding celebrations and drumming.”

He said that he keeps good relations with the Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip, but the order’s rejection of Hamas’ rule is based on the movement’s insistence to rule by force of arms. “There is nothing in the Book of God or the sunna that motivates me to fight those who oppose me with weapons, for God says, ‘And speak kindly to all people.’”

A Sufi affiliated with the Ahmadiyya order told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “Society’s negative view of Sufism stems from the new generation’s ignorance of the true meaning of Sufism. Our only goal is to restore the time of the Prophet Muhammad, and Sufism serves to reform oneself away from the inclinations and malice of political parties and their only interest to assume political positions.”

When Hamas assumed power in 2006, it shut down many Sufi zawiyas (meeting places) on the pretext that they posed a danger to society.

Nasser al-Yafawi, a Gaza-based historian who opposes Hamas’ actions against Sufis, told Al-Monitor, “The Sufis are wonderful. I have visited the Qadiriya, Jaririyah and Rifa’i orders, and I witnessed a full weekly session with them. There is no difference between the orders. Their session is a spiritual imagining of God and their celebrations are considered a religious dance to draw closer to God.”

He said, “At the beginning of its rule, Hamas closed many Sufi zawiyas, claiming Sufis pose a danger to Gazan society. This is a major false accusation because Hamas wants to monopolize the leadership of the Islamic movements. I do not support Hamas’ point of view and unjustified actions. It wants to rule so-called Islamic movements and disagrees with all parties, not just Sufis.”

Yafawi noted, “Some rumors spread about Sufis practicing freemasonry rituals and that they carry out acts that violate social values. Hamas closed some zawiyas of the Ahmadiyya, Shadhiliyya and Alawiyya orders, restricting their movements and preventing them from holding religious ceremonies and weekly sessions. This is a violation of freedom of expression. I have personally verified this and discovered that it’s all malicious rumors and false arguments.”

Meanwhile, many support shutting down Sufi zawiyas. Saleh al-Raqab, a professor of Islamic faith at the Islamic University of Gaza and a former minister of endowments, told Al-Monitor, “Sufism in Gaza is made up of groups affiliated with sheikhs outside the enclave, such as the Shadhiliyya and Alawiyya orders, and they have many heresies and myths, as we see in their many zawiyas, such as dancing in mosques. They have very corrupt beliefs, but in the Gaza Strip they apply them without understanding their meanings, such as begging for the Prophet Muhammad to fulfill their needs.”

He said, “There is also a lot of polytheism, which is exemplified in their book 'The Unity of Being' by Ibn Arabi. This person is an atheist since he sees all existence as one and believes there is no difference between a Creator and a creature. The Sufis here in Gaza practice rituals without the slightest understanding. They kneel to their sheikhs as we kneel to God. They even kiss the sheikhs’ hand and this represents polytheism and disbelief in God. The Sufis do not offer anything to Islam, but separate religion from politics. They are using social media nowadays to attract the younger generation, and this is a disaster.”

Raqab noted, “Dozens of young people are joining Sufism in the Gaza Strip because they have a great spiritual void that needs to be filled. I am not aware of the fact that Hamas closed Sufi zawiyas, nor about restricting their movements and celebrations, because I have seen many zawiyas opening. But they must be closed before they spread further.”

Raqab explained that his doctoral thesis was about Sufi sects from an ideological point of view, and he also teaches these topics to university students as he believes that Sufism in the entire Arab world has major deviations and contradicts Islam altogether.

I OF COURSE DISAGREE FOR EXACTLY THESE SAME REASONS 

SEE: 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: My Favorite Muslim 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for SUFI 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for SUFISM 

Young Afghan women, men perform whirling Sufi dance together

 © Provided by The Canadian Press

KABUL — A group of young Afghans – both women and men – is coming together in the country's war-torn capital to practice a mystical Sufi Islamic dance.

The group’s founder says she sees their whirling dance, known as Sema, as a way of carving out a space in the country’s deeply conservative society, particularly when it comes to expectations about gender discrimination and dancing in mixed groups.

“I just wanted to express myself and my feelings with Sema dance,” said Fahima Mirzaie, a 24-year-old economist.

She recently danced alongside male members of her troupe at a cultural event hosted in a somewhat incongruous setting – an Italian restaurant in central Kabul. That night, she was the only women from her group dancing, although other women watched and read poetry.

As she spins, one hand reaches toward heaven and the other toward the earth, her white robe flowing, in the familiar image of a so-called “whirling dervish” seen across the Middle East and Central Asia. Dancers spin repetitively in prayer, chanting Allah and gaining in speed, seeking to lose themselves in a spiritual trance that they believe unites them with God.

But Afghanistan is not widely accepting of this mystical interpretation, and Sufism as well as dancing and singing were both rejected by the Taliban. Many Afghan women are wary of the Taliban returning to power in some form as part of a future peace deal, recalling the years of oppression under a strict form of Islamic law. But even in today's Afghanistan, women and men dancing together in public is mostly rejected as being against the country's culture, traditions and religious beliefs.

Most of the members of Mirzaie's dance group, which features men and women performing in public, are Shiite Muslims. They're a minority in Afghanistan that's been targeted for attacks by the Islamic State group, which considers Shiites — Sufi or otherwise — to be heretics. There are other Sufi dance groups scattered across the country's provinces too, primarily men but some women, who perform in front of mixed audiences.

Mirzaie says she’s unfazed by what people may say about her dancing. As part of the generation that's grown up during Afghanistan's latest war, she’s concerned about the violence in her society. She hopes she can change it through Sufism and the poems of Rumi, who's possibly the most well-known Sufi mystic.

Afghanistan has been at war for more than four decades, first against the invading Soviet army, then warring mujaheddin groups in a bitter civil war, followed by the repressive Taliban rule and finally the latest war that began after the 2001 U.S.-led coalition invasion that toppled the Taliban government.

Her group has also used Sufi dance to help them get through the coronavirus pandemic. During a lockdown earlier this year, Mirzaie closed her centre and provided training to her students online.

Now, she’s back whirling in person. At the Italian restaurant, Abdul Ahad, a civil society activist, said he’d been to a few Sufi events in Afghanistan that perform in private, but this was the first time he’s seen women doing it.

Mirzaie’s mother Qamar says she's worried for her daughter. “There’s no security and girls are taunted on their way out to work.”

She says she stays awake at night, waiting until Mirzaie returns home after dancing.

Mirzaie’s father, an ex-colonel in the traffic police, her sister and her mother are among her few supporters.

But despite these concerns, she says she cannot live by someone else’s rules.

“I never asked anyone’s permission for starting it and I will not need anyone’s permission to end it, so I will never stop or surrender to anyone.”

Tameem Akhgar, The Associated Press

A same-sex couple took pictures in traditional South Asian clothes, and now the stunning photos are going viral   POSTING THIS I AM DOING MY VIRAL BIT

Samantha Grindell
Jan 9, 2020

People loved the representation the couple provided for same-sex couples from South Asia. Sarowar Ahmed

A California-based couple named Sufi Malik and Anjali Chakra met on Tumblr, and they've been together since 2018.
They went viral in the summer of 2019 after they did a photo shoot spotlighting their queer, interfaith relationship.
Malik and Chakra are now using their platform to advocate for others in marginalized communities.
"People message us so often to say that they're so happy they found us because they didn't realize that there were any other queer South Asian people out there," the couple told Insider.
You can follow their YouTube channel here.
A California-based couple named Sufi Malik and Anjali Chakra met on Tumblr.

The couple has been together since July 2018. Sarowar Ahmed

Chakra is an event planner and producer, and Malik is an artist and teacher. The two had connected online seven years before they became a couple.

"We had followed each other's blogs on Tumblr for seven years, and somewhere in there we followed each other on Instagram," the 23-year-olds told Insider.

"I DM'd Sufi one day asking if we could talk about her experience as a queer South Asian woman, and she agreed," Chakra said. "Eventually, we met in New York, where Sufi lived at the time."

The couple has been together since July 2018.

The couple went viral in the summer of 2019 when they took part in a brand's photo shoot.

Malik and Chakra went viral in the summer of 2019. Sarowar Ahmed

"The shoot was actually for a brand called Borrow the Bazaar, which rents South Asian clothes to people for special occasions," they said.

"Sufi and I were attending two weddings that weekend, so we did a photo shoot with the brand in exchange for free outfit rentals to wear to the wedding," Chakra explained.

Their photographer, Sarowar Ahmed, tweeted photos from the shoot with the caption "A New York love story," and he got over 50,000 likes.


Malik and Chakra then posted additional photos of themselves a week later, which also went viral.

People loved the representation the couple provided for 

same-sex couples from South Asia. Sarowar Ahmed

"The photos really took off on Twitter, and then we actually hit news websites, papers, and TV within a couple of days in India, Pakistan, and the UK," they told Insider, with people celebrating the representation the photos provided for same-sex couples from South Asia.

"I grew up witnessing and watching different kinds of love, some in my family and some in Bollywood. After I got a little older and realized what my sexuality was, I never saw representation of people who looked like me. I'm so glad I have the opportunity to be that with the love of my life," Malik wrote in an anniversary post.

"We were just in disbelief that so many people loved our photos," the couple said of the online attention.


People showed enthusiasm for their relationship both because Malik and Chakra are queer and because they are an interfaith couple — Malik is Muslim-Pakistani, while Chakra is Hindu-Indian.

T

he couple is also interfaith. Sarowar Ahmed

"We found that the media fixated on those aspects of our relationship a lot when they covered our story, which was interesting to us because our differences have never really been something we dwell on," they told Insider.

"We are careful not to focus on those differences in our content because that wouldn't be true to life for us."

The couple does teach one another about their cultures, however. "There's so much similarity there, because our countries were once one, but also so many differences to explore," they said.

"We cook together and talk about the different types of dishes from each country," they said. "We share music with each other, and Sufi is teaching Urdu slowly but surely. There's so much more to our cultures than those things, but those are the easiest to exchange every day."

"Sometimes Sufi plays the Quran in the car, and other times we'll read prayers to one another just for the sake of sharing how they sound and what they mean," Chakra added. "Both religions have so much to offer and learn from."


"People message us so often to say that they're so happy they found us because they didn't realize that there were any other queer South Asian people out there," the couple told Insider.

The couple are bringing visibility to queer South Asian people. Sarowar Ahmed

"The fun part is that every time we get one of those messages, it's another person also telling us that we are not alone," they said.

"It goes both ways, and that's a really magical feeling."

"Both of us had our own battles to accept our sexuality, so having such widespread support was wonderful and validating to another degree," they added.


Now, the couple is trying to use their platform to help other minorities through their YouTube channel.

The couple advocates for other marginalized groups. Sarowar Ahmed

"We're aware that a big part of our having the audience that we do is because of certain privileges we hold — cis privilege, and also thin privilege and light-skin privilege, which are especially emphasized in the South Asian community," they told Insider.

"To us, using our platforms responsibly means sharing about others doing important work for our communities without those privileges."

"We also love sharing about artists and small business owners who are queer, trans, or people of color," they added.

You can follow their YouTube channel here, as well as find out more about their individual businesses.


Chakra and Malik also use harassment from people as an opportunity to advocate for others who are dealing with prejudice.

The couple has experienced negative online attention 

since going viral. Sarowar Ahmed

"I think the most important thing we did was remind ourselves that the people attacking us with homophobic mindsets are from places or communities that are more conservative than the people we've chosen to surround ourselves with," they said of harassment they have experienced.

"It comes to us online, but for others, it's discriminatory laws, closed-minded communities, and real-life violence."

"That's typically how we frame discussions about the hateful messages we get — we try to amplify the voices of those facing the real-world issues those words reflect," they added.


"We always make each other's lives easier," they said of their relationship.

The couple told Insider they compliment each other.

Sarowar Ahmed

"We are each good at really different things, so in our everyday lives, we just complement each other so well," they said of their relationship.

"Sufi helps me slow down, prioritize, and be mindful when I'm overworked, and I help Sufi believe in herself and jump in when she has new projects and opportunities but doesn't have the confidence to take that first step," Chakra said.

"One thing we're both really good at is making the other person belly laugh, and we do that often," the couple added.

---30---

Bangladeshi star's comeback after Islamist death threats

Issued on: 13/11/2020 

For years Sufi singer Rita Dewan captivated millions of followers in Bangladesh with her haunting ballads, but nowadays she lives in fear each performance will be her last 

Munir Uz zaman AFP


DOHAR (Bangladesh) (AFP)

For years Sufi singer Rita Dewan captivated millions of followers in Bangladesh with her haunting ballads.

Today, she lives in fear each performance will be her last.

Accused of defaming Islam and targeted by religious radicals -- a growing force in the Muslim majority country -- she spent months in hiding to escape death threats.

Rarely going out in daylight, she and her family fled to rural shanties and often went without food whilst living underground.

"YouTube is flooded with videos of Mullahs calling for my beheading," she tells AFP in tears. "I was too afraid to go to the toilet even. In rural areas they are mainly outside. I felt like [extremists] would find me and decapitate me."

Sufi Islam is considered deviant by conservative Muslim groups who oppose its mystical interpretation of the Koran.

The movement still has tens of millions of followers worldwide, but in Bangladesh the rise of hardliners has meant numbers are dropping.

In recent years, some two dozen Sufis have been killed by extremists in the South Asian country, some hacked to death.

Sufism has a long tradition in art and academia ranging from the poet Rumi to mathematician Omar Khayyam to modern Pakistani star Rahet Ali Khan.

But Sufis beliefs are increasingly under attack as un-Islamic and conservatives want to introduce strict blasphemy laws in Bangladesh, with the death penalty for offenders.

- Agony and ecstasy -

Dewan has been under pressure since a Youtube clip she appeared in went viral, attracting a storm of criticism.

In it she makes comments about Islam in a singing duel against another artist, who plays a God.

Conservatives have filed at least four cases against Dewan accusing her of damaging religious sentiments and defaming Islam, a charge currently punishable by life in jail.

She insists the clip was taken out of context and shows just a few minutes of an eight-hour performance.

The star apologised but it was too late to stop the threats.

"Some Mullahs have used their sermons to brand me a coward prostitute and told people to kill me if they can find me," she explains.

The star is to make a first appearance in court on Sunday but decided to come out of hiding to perform an eight-hour show for fans at a famed Sufi shrine.

The 38-year-old said her "ecstasy" at being able to perform again was tempered by terror after seeing two men in the crowd she feared were fundamentalists who might harm her.

They left after two songs, but experts say such intimidatory tactics are not unusual.

Saymon Zakaria, a Bangladeshi researcher on traditional music said Sufi art is now under threat from those who want a hardline Islam imposed in the country.

"The situation is very critical," Zakaria told AFP .

- 'Harrowing time' -

Rights researcher Rezaur Rahman Lenin said the cases against Dewan were part of a pattern to "censor artistic works".

"Artists and their performance are barred, and artists and academics detained and judicially harassed and persecuted on the grounds of insulting or hurting religious feelings," he said.

Male Sufi singer Shariat Sarker spent more than six months in jail this year after being accused of defaming Islam and is now in hiding because of death threats.

Dewan has already missed more than 60 shows because of police concerns about safety and security and says that as a result she has lost thousands of dollars in earnings.

"All of a sudden we became poor. My husband and my daughter are part of my team. All members of my troupe suffered. It's a harrowing time."

The star, who left school at the age of nine to train as a singer and regularly performed to vast crowds, is unsure how she can carry on.

Despite her recent show many shrines are still reluctant to work with her.

The court case makes Dewan fear for her own future but she remains defiant that the art will endure.

"No matter how powerful these Mullahs are this Sufi music tradition will live on in this country. Mullahs have called these songs haram -- prohibited in Islam -- but nowhere in the Koran is it said that music is haram," she insists.

"I am sure this music tradition will live on forever. It has been going on for centuries. People love it. It is pure joy. And Sufis will live here. It was the Sufis who brought Islam here centuries ago, not the hardliners. Bangladesh is the land of Sufis."

sa/tw/lto

My Favorite Muslim

Abou el Moughith al Hussein ibn Mansour al Hallaj

أبو المغيث الحسين إبن منصور الحلاج

ana'l -Haqq - I am the Truth.

(this is the saying which apparently earned al-Hallaj his martyrdom - al Haqq also means God)

The school of Islam that most represents the heresy of Gnosticism, freethinking, the enlightenment values that so offend the fundamentalist Christian, Jew and Muslim alike, is Sufism.

One of the greatest Sufi thinkers a gnostic, a freethinker, an apostate and heretic was Mansur el Hallaj, who when after meditating for a long period was asked what he learned of Allah, and replied; "I say, I am the Absolute Truth. Inside my cloak is nothing but Allah.". For this he was stoned to death.

Not unlike the mythological stoning and death of Hiram the builder, whom the Freemasons draw on as the source of their initiatory wisdom. The mythos is about the building of Solomon's temple and the betrayl of the architect Hiram Abiff for whom, like Mansur el Halaj, the truth was that he was God. For this heresy he was stoned to death. The modern version of this legend is key to Masonic teachings, showing a link however tenuous to Sufism as well as hermeticism.

The Old Testament of the Bible, on the evolution of the work, says to us:

"Hiram Abiff fused two bronze columns. It had each one eighteen elbows of stop, and a thread of twelve elbows was the one that could surround each one by the columns. They were not massive, but hollow; the thickness of its walls was of four fingers. It fused bronze capitals stops upon the columns; of five elbows of height the one and five elbows of height other... It erected the first column of the right and it gave the name him of Jakin, and soon the column of the left and gave the Boaz name him. As it ends of the columns were a species of iris. Thus the work of the columns was finished ". (I Re 7, 15-22).

Idries Shaw, the Grand Sheik of the Sufi s and historian of their faith, commented on the connection between the Templars and the Sufis:

That the Templars were thinking in terms of the Sufi , and not the Solomonic, Temple in Jerusalem, and its building, is strongly suggested by one important fact. “Temple” churches which they erected, such as one in London, were modeled upon the Temple as found by the Crusaders, not upon any earlier building. This Temple was none other than the octagonal Dome of the Rock, built in the seventh century on a Sufi mathematical design, and restored in 913. The Sufi legend of the building of the Temple accords with the alleged Masonic version. As an example we may note that the “Solomon” of the Sufi Builders is not King Solomon but the Sufi “King” Maaruf Karkhi (died 815), disciple of David (Daud of Tai, died 781) and hence by extension considered the son of David, and referenced cryptically as Solomon — who was the son of David. The Great murder commemorated by the Sufi Builders is not that of the person (Hiram) supposed by the Masonic tradition to have been killed. The martyr of the Sufi Builders is Mansur el-Hallaj (858-922), juridically murdered because of the Sufi secret, which he spoke in a manner which could not be understood, and thus was dismembered as a heretic.’ — Idries Shaw, The Sufis

Mansur el Hallaj remains controversial not only to strict Muslims, but even to
Sufi's.

He was a gnostic, prefering direct knowledge of the universe than faith. He was the model for Michael Valentine Smith in Robert Heinlein's Stranger in A Strange Land. Smith's motto Thou Art God is the grand heresy that all freethinking enlightened heretics have been killed for. He was in fact a deist and a monist.

He was also the original author of the Satanic Verses.

His most well known written work is the Kitab al Tawasin or Ta Sin al Azal, a dialogue of Satan (Iblis) and God, where Satan refuses to bow to Adam, although God asks him to do so. His refusal is due to a misconceived idea of God's uniqueness and because of his refusal to abandon himself to God in love. Hallaj criticizes the staleness of his adoration (Mason, 51-3)

Themes of 'The Erotic' in Sufi Mysticism

by Jonah Winters

Rabi'a seems to have loved a God who was an other, a being who created her and yet was distinct from her. al-Hallaj, though, often has been interpreted as loving a God who was identical with himself. Inspired by Qur'anic verses such as "He who hath given thee the Qur'an for a law will surely bring thee back home again," (28:85), al-Hallaj wrote: "I have become the One I love, and the One I love has become me! We are two spirits infused in a (single) body."[66] This sense of tawhid, of a complete unification of the lover and the beloved, led al-Hallaj to speak of God in very amorous terms. al-Hallaj's biographer Louis Massignon, in describing his ideas of mystical ontology, wrote that, for al-Hallaj, divine union is consummated in "the amorous nuptial in which the Creator ultimately rejoins his creature ...and in which the latter opens his heart to his Beloved in intimate, familiar" discourse.[67]

Al-Hallaj and Hulul:

A Sufi leader by the name Abu Mansoor al-Hallaj went so far in disbelief as to claim he was god himself. He was crucified for his blasphemous claim, and for his defiance of shari'ah, or Islamic jurisprudence, in Baghdad, Iraq, in 309 A.H. (922 A.D.) He said,

"I am He Whom I love; He Whom I love is I; we are two souls co-inhabiting one body. If you see me you see Him and if you see Him you see me."(67)

Abdul-Karim el-Jili, Ibn Arabi's closest disciple, went a step ahead of his master, claiming that he was commanded by Allah to bring to the people his own book, The Perfect Man, the theme of which is pantheism. He claimed that the perfect man could represent all the attributes of God, even though Allah the Exalted is far above the qualities of men.

El-Jili went on to purport to prove that nothing in essence exists in the universe other than Allah, and that all other things, human, animan and non-living are only manifestations of God Almighty Allah. He further asserted in his book that the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) is the perfect man and the perfect god. From these blasphemous theories, el-Jili went on to declare himself to be a god also, and exclaimed, "To me belongs sovereignty in both worlds." (68)

This assertion is blatant enough to condemn anyone who utters it of clear kufr, or disbelief. Whenever such zindiqs, or heretics are mentioned, Sufis live up to their beliefs by invoking Allah's mercy on them, unaware of the fact that tolerance of kufr is itself an act of kufr, and that whoever invokes Allah's mercy on an unbeliever commits a grave sin.

The Tawasin

of Mansur Al-Hallaj

Translated by
Aisha Abd Ar-Rahman At-Tarjumana

The Ta-Sin of the Prophetic Lamp

The Ta-Sin of Understanding

The Ta-Sin of Purity

The Ta-Sin of the Circle

The Ta-Sin of the Point

The Ta-Sin of Before Endless-Time and Equivocation

The Ta-Sin of the Divine Will

The Ta-Sin of the Declaration of Unity

The Ta-Sin of the Self-Awarenesses in Tawhid

The Ta-Sin of the Disconnection-From-Forms

The Garden of Gnosis

The Ta-Sin of the Self-Awarenesses in Tawhid

1. The attribute of the Ta-Sin of the self-awareness in Tawhid is such:
   
   (Alif - the Unity, Tawhid. Hamza - the self-awarenesses, some on one side some on the other. ‘Ayn at beginning and end - The Essence.)
   
   The self-awarenesses proceed from Him and return to Him, operate in Him, but they are not logically necessary.
   
2. The real subject of the Tawhid moves across the multiplicity of subjects because He is not included in the subject nor in the object nor in the pronouns of the proposition. Its pronominal suffix does not belong to its Object, its possessive ‘h’ is His ‘Ah’ and not the other ‘h’ which does not make us unitarians.
3. If I say of this ‘h’ ‘wah!’ the others say to me, ‘Alas.’
4. These are epithets and specifications and a demonstrative allusion pierces this so we could see Allah through the substantive conditional.
5. All human individualities are ‘like a building well-compacted.’ It is a definition and the Unity of Allah does not make exception to the definition. But every definition is a limitation, and the attributes of a limitation apply to a limited object. However the object of Tawhid does not admit of limitation.
6. The Truth (Al-Haqq) itself is none other than the abode of Allah not necessarily Allah.
7. Saying the Tawhid does not realize it because the syntactical role of a term and its proper sense do not mix with each other when it concerns an appended term. So how can they be mixed when it concerns Allah?
8. If I say ‘the Tawhid emanates from Him’ then I double the Divine Essence, and I make an emanation of itself, co-existent with it, being and not being this Essence at the same time.
9. If I say that it was hidden in Allah, and He manifests it, how was it hidden where there is no ‘how’ or ‘what’ or ‘this’ and there is no place (‘where’) contained in Him.
10. Because ‘in this’ is a creation of Allah, as is ‘where.’
11. That which supports an accident is not without a substance. That which is not separated from a body is not without some part of a body. That which is not separated from spirit, in not without some part of a spirit. The Tawhid is therefore an assimilant.
12. We return then, beyond this to the center (of our Object) and isolate it from adjunctions, assimilations, qualifications, pulverizations and attributions.
13. The first circle (in the next diagram) comprises the actions of Allah, the second comprises their traces and these are two circles of the created.
14. The central point symbolizes the Tawhid, but it is not the Tawhid. If not, how would it be separable from the circle?

Here in is a text worthy of comparison with the Tao Teh King, for it is not just a spiritual and moral text, but a scientific one, that in its monism, compares with the ideas of the Tao; all is one all is nothing, and in the works of Heraclites that all is fire. Mansur el Hallaj thus had developed his own school of dialectics as an enlightened Muslim.

The idea is that like the Tao; the Tawhid is all and not all. The very earliest expression of monism. And as a scientist, el Hallaj's text is about the science of cosmology and mathematics. That of the point in space. Which is the origin not only of the idea of mans relationship to the universe, but it has the same religious and philisophical impact as Rene Descartes I Think Therefore I Am. It is the recognition of the indivdual in relationship to the whole, of society that they exist in.

XXXVIII. CONCERNETH THE TEH

1. those who possessed perfectly the powers (Teh) did not manifest them, and so they preserved them. those who possessed them imperfectly feared to lose them, and so lost them.
2. the former did nothing, nor had need to do. the latter did, and had need to do.
3. those who possessed benevolence exercised it, and had need of it; so also was it with them who possessed justice.
4. those whom possessed the conventions displayed them; and when men would not agree; they made ready to fight them.
Teh appears as Chokmah - Binah, Benevolence as Chesed, Justice as Geburah, Convention as Tiphereth. thus Kether alone is 'safe'; even Chokmah-Binah risks fall unless it keep Silence.
5. thus when the Tao was lost, the Magick Powers (Teh) appeared; then, by successive degradations, came Benevolence, Justice, Convention.
6. now convention is the shadow of loyalty and good-will, and so the herald of disorder. yea, even understanding (binah) is but a Blossom of the Tao, and promises Stupidity.
this repeats the doctrine of the danger of Binah. the attack on Tipereth is to be regarded as a reference to the 'Fall', death of Hiram at high noon, etc.
7. so then the Tao-Man holds to Mass, and avoids Motion; he is attached to the root, not to the flower. he leaves the one, and cleaves to the other.
that is, if his raod be toward the Tao. in our language, he adores Nuit; but the perfect Man, when he needs to manifest, is on the opposite curve.
Cf. The Book of Lies, 'the Brothers of the A A are Women; the Aspirants to A A are Men'.

The importance of el Hallaj cannot be underestimated. His thoughts influenced French religious thinking as well as its humanistic spiritual philosophy prior to the advent of the materialist philosophers and it would continue later in the development of existentialism.

Fifty years of French philosophy - Cross-pieces/ Philosophy and religion
Cinquante ans de philosophie française - Traverses - [ Translate this page ]
The heading "Philosophy and religion" was not essential itself: it thus calls some explanations. In this respect, it would not be bad to return to some sometimes forgotten basic obviousnesses. Since the Fathers of the Church until the Rebirth at least, it is clear that philosophy and theology were consubstantielles, no philosophical development not being a long time possible out of the Christian dogma which governed at the same time the ways of thinking and the modes of organization of the concrete existence of the men. It is with Descartes in a sense, Kant especially, one knows it, that philosophy as such will take its take-off while separating from the theological supervision, separation which the French philosophy of the Lights will greet like the triumph (late) of the finally adult reason and of the released thought of the dreams metaphysics. The things, however, are not so simple. The philosophy of Kant congédie not purely and simply the religion, but reinterprets it "within the limits of the simple reason" by integrating into its equations the metaphysical enigma of the radical evil. Philosophy hégélienne in its turn is thought like completion, in the form of the absolute knowledge, of this "phenomenology of the Spirit" in work of oneself whose religion is one of the ultimate figures, and it will be necessary forces it proclamation of "dead of God" in the lyricism of Nietzsche so that one comes from there to think that a systematically atheistic philosophy is possible which opens with the unknown of a new era.

The late arrival in France of Nietzsche, Hegel, Marx as well, undoubtedly explains the long insistence of a spiritualistic philosophy which will have known to resist the power of the rationalist currents (neo-kantian in particular), even frankly scientistic. This tendency could be expressed brillamment in a whole side of the philosophy of Bergson, but also in the analyses metaphysics of Maurice Blondel ( the Action , 1893; The Thought , 2 vol., 1934; The Being and Beings , 1935), of Jacques Maritain ( integral Humanism , 1936; Short Treaty of the existence and existing , 1947) or of Gabriel Marcel ( To be and To have , 1935; Metaphysical newspaper , 1927). This philosophy then appeared able to oppose a Christian humanism to a humanism existentialist which was in a direction its interlocutor privileged, able also to maintain the anchoring of the thought in an ontology inherited the thomism (in a form it is true often scholastic and dogmatic). It is in fact that this "Christian philosophy" mainly moved away from us with the language which she spoke, and which the historical bond between philosophy and theology then strongly distended. However, it is not impossible to suppose that this situation is changing, not certainly in the direction of a return behind, but in that of a revival of the interrogation and dialogue. The collapse of the insurrectionary movements of the années70, the collapse of the communist universe belong to this news gives: handing-over with foreground of the ethical question caused for example by recent progress of the life sciences, the collapse of the Utopias émancipatrices, the new forms of destructuration of the personality which psychoanalysis and psychotherapies approach according to their respective protocols, all that resulted reopening a field of interrogation and in again questioning this long memory of Occident in the heart of which the message of the three monotheisms insists - to contemplate the powerful consistency of a report/ratio of the subject to the law and the history which is formulated there.

ABDELWAHAB MEDDEB - [ Translate this page ]

Massignon, L., The Passion of al-Hallaj, Mystic and Martyr of Islam. Translated by Mason, H. 4 Vols, Princeton, NJ, Princeton, 1982.

Christianity and Islam in Historical Perspective: A Christian’s View by Sidney Griffith, Catholic University of America

Like others of his faith, when Louis Massignon learned the Arabic language and became immersed in the lives of Muslims in Cairo and Baghdad in the early twentieth century he was deeply impressed by the rigor and regularity of their religious observances. He was struck by the power of Islamic mystical poetry, and especially by the life and passion of the Muslim Sufi saint and martyr, Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallaj (d. 922).54 He began an intensive study of the life and work of al-Hallaj, culminating in the publication in 1922 of two major books on the biography of al-Hallaj and on Islamic, mystical vocabulary, works that would revolutionize the study of Islamic mysticism in Europe.55 But personally the most important experience for Massignon was his religious conversion in 1908 in Iraq, from a life of profligacy. as he saw it, back to the intense practice of the Roman Catholic faith he had earlier abandoned. It was precipitated by a dramatic moment in his life, fraught with sickness and physical danger. He always believed that al-Hallaj, the Muslim mystic and martyr, interceded for him with God on this occasion. The experience gave Massignon a deeper, religious appreciation of Islam, and he thereafter and throughout his life sought ways to bring about a rapprochement between Islam and Christianity.56 Eventually he became associated with Charles de Foucauld (1858-1916), the Christian hermit in Muslim North Africa,57 whose spirituality was to inspire many in the twentieth century. In later life Massignon, together with a ‘Melkite’ woman of Cairo named Mary Kahil (1889-1979), founded an ecclesiastically approved sodality of prayer, called in Arabic al-Badaliyya. The purpose of the sodality was for its members mystically to offer their prayer and fasting in behalf of Muslims. A notable, early member of the sodality was Giovanni Batista Montini, the future Pope Paul VI.

Massignon’s experience, while it was dramatically more striking than that of most people, was nevertheless in many ways fairly typical of that of many Christians from the west who lived with Muslims in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Kenneth Cragg, who had a long experience as an Anglican priest in Jerusalem and Cairo, eventually being ordained an assistant bishop of the Anglican see in Jerusalem, was similarly inspired by Islamic religious life. He has written numerous books explaining Islam and Muslims to Christians, becoming in the process the most prominent voice in the English-speaking world to commend a religious respect for Muhammad, the Qur’an, and Islam.58

The Sufi tradition of openess and questioning has led them and other Shia sects to be considered blashphemous and irreligious to those who like their counterparts in the West believe in the literalness of the Koran or the Bible.

This Gnosis that infuses Sufism was later embraced by the great British explorer, linguist, and author Sir Captain Richard Burton. He wrote his famous paen to Sufism and Arabic Gnosticism; the Kasidah, I am sure not without passing knowledge of the work of Mansur el Hallaj.

"All Faith is false, all Faith is true" says Burton in the Kasidah.

Many of el Hallaj's ideas are within Burtons clever text. I say clever because he claims it is an original work in Arabic that he merely translated, when in reality he wrote in Arabic and then translated. In order to get the poetic scanning correct.

NOTE: "Kasidah" is an Arabic or Persian panegyric. A panegyric is a public speech or writing in praise of some person, thing, or achievement; a laudatory discourse, a formal or elaborate encomium or eulogy. According to the ancient rules the author of a "qasîda" must begin by a reference to the forsaken camping-grounds. Next he must lament, and pray his comrades to halt, while he calls up the memory of the dwellers who had departed. The Kasidah is a very artificial composition; the same rhyme has to run through the whole of the verses, however long the poem may be. (OED.)

Burton takes the last name of el-Yezdi. Which in Farsi is Devil or Satan. The Yezedi are a Gnostic sect of believers who exist in modern day Iraq, Armenia, Turkey and Iran. They are Kurds whose religion predates all others in the region.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica 1986' explains : "The Yazidi religion is a syncretic combination of Zoroastrian, Manichaean, Jewish, Nestorian Christian and Islamic elements. The Yazidi themselves are thought to be descended from supporters of the Umayyad Caliph Yazid 1. They themselves believe that they are created quite separately from the rest of mankind, not even being descended from Adam, and they have kept themselves strictly segregated from the people among whom they live. Although scattered and probably numbering fewer than 1,00,000, they have a well-organized society, with a chief shaykh as the supreme religious head and an amir, or prince, as the secular head.

As early as 2000 BC, the vanguards of the Indo-European speaking tribal immigrants, such as the Hittites and Mittanis, had arrived in southwestern Asia. While the Hittites only marginally affected the mountain communities in Kurdistan, the Mittanis settled in Kurdistan and influenced the natives in several fields worthy of note, in particular the introduction of knotted rug weaving. Even rug designs introduced by the Mittanis and recognizable in Assyrian floor carvings remain the hallmark of Kurdish rugs and kelims. The modern minakhani and chwarsuch styles are basically the same as those the Assyrians depicted nearly 3000 years ago.

The Mittanis seem to have been an Indic, and not an Iranic group of people. Their pantheon, which includes names like Indra, Varuna, Suriya, Nasatya, is typically Indic. The Mittanis could have introduced during this early period some of the Indic tradition that appears to be manifest in the Kurdish religion of Yazdanism.

Burtons Kasidah can be seen as a tribute to el-Hallaj and his original Satanic Verses. Because of his dark features, wicked sense of humour and irrelgious views Burton was referred to as "that Devil" by his friends and enemies.

Sir Richard Burton's Kasidah, written in 1880 after his return from Mecca, has been called one of the greatest poems of the Earth, and the essence of the explorer's life and work. In exquisite verse and extensive author's notes, Burton adapts the style, techniques and ideas of the classical Sufi masters such as Hafiz and Omar Khayyam, exploring the limitation of man's undeveloped reason, egoism and self-made religions in fulfilling real human destiny.

Idries Shah devotes almost an entire chapter of The Sufis to The Kasidah, calling it, "One of the most interesting productions of Western Sufic literature... Burton provided a bridge whereby the thinking Westerner could accept essential Sufi concepts."

The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî

or

“Lay of the Higher Law”

“Translated and annotated by his friend and pupil, F.B.”

by

Richard F. Burton

TO THE READER

The Translator has ventured to entitle a “Lay of the Higher Law” the following composition, which aims at being in advance of its time; and he has not feared the danger of collision with such unpleasant forms as the “Higher Culture.” The principles which justify the name are as follows:—

The Author asserts that Happiness and Misery are equally divided and distributed in the world.

He makes Self-cultivation, with due regard to others, the sole and sufficient object of human life.

He suggests that the affections, the sympathies, and the “divine gift of Pity” are man’s highest enjoyments.

He advocates suspension of judgment, with a proper suspicion of “Facts, the idlest of superstitions.”

Finally, although destructive to appearance, he is essentially reconstructive.

For other details concerning the Poem and the Poet, the curious reader is referred to the end of the volume.

F. B.

Vienna, Nov., 1880.

The Sufi's originating in Persia, Iran, are a school of Shi'ism that Dr. Ali Shariati calls Red Shi'ism

Shi'ism is the Islam which differentiates itself and selects its direction in the history of Islam with the "No" of the great Ali, the heir of Mohammad and the manifestation of the Islam of Justice and Truth, a "No" which he gives to the Council for the Election of the Caliph, in answer to Abdul Rahman, who was the manifestation of Islamic aristocracy and compromise. This "No", up until pre-Safavid times, is recognized as part of the Shi'ite movement in the history of Islam, an indication of the social and political role of a group who are the followers of Ali, known for their association with the kindness of the family of the Prophet. It is a movement based upon the Qoran and the Traditions; not the Qoran and the traditions as proclaimed by the dynasties of the Omayyids, Abbasids, Ghaznavids, Seljuks, Mongols and Timurids, but the ones proclaimed by the family of Mohammad.

That "NO" is the libertarian expression we find in the poetic morality of Omar Khayyam, the politics of the Old Man of the Mountain, and in the economic libertarianism of Ibn Khaldun. Like Mansur el Hallaj they were Shia, Persian and Sufi's. Which is why he is one of my favorite Muslim's.

See:The Need for Arab Anarchism

Tags
politics
history
sociology
Arab
Islam
Libertarian

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:

Islam, Sufi, Sufism, el-Hallaj, Gnosticism, Burton, Tawasin, muslims, heresy, heretics,