Sufis strive to protect their heritage in war-torn Libya



Issued on: 22/08/2021 - 

A 2012 attack forced the Sufi seminary in the Libyan town of Zliten to close, but in recent years it has discreetly reopened to students of the mystical Islamic tradition Mahmud TURKIA AFP

Zliten (Libya) (AFP)

Bullet holes scar the minaret of the Sufi mosque in Libya's Zliten, but followers of the Muslim mystical tradition are working to renovate and preserve their heritage.

A handful of students sit cross-legged on the floor of the mosque in the Asmariya zawiya, transcribing on wooden tablets as their teacher chants Koranic verses.

Elsewhere in the complex, named for its 16th-century founder Abdessalam al-Asmar, scholars pore over old manuscripts on theology and Islamic law.

The zawiya -- an Arabic term for a Sufi institute offering a space for religious gatherings, Koranic education and free accommodation to travellers -- also includes a boarding school and a university.

Historian Fathi al-Zirkhani says the site is the Libyan equivalent of Cairo's prestigious Al-Azhar University, a global authority in Sunni Islam.

But despite Sufism's long history across North Africa, Libya's plunge into chaos after dictator Moamer Kadhafi was ousted in a 2011 revolt gave a free hand to militias.

They included hardline Islamists, who are deeply hostile to Sufi "heretics" and their mystical nighttime ceremonies aimed at coming closer to the divine.

"(Previously) dormant ideological currents, with backing from abroad, took advantage of the security vacuum to attack the zawiyas," Zirkhani said.

In August 2012, dozens of Islamist militants raided the site, blowing up part of the sanctuary, stealing or burning books and damaging Asmar's tomb.

But today, craftsmen are busily restoring terracotta tiles and repairing damage caused by the extremists.

Students at the Asmariya zawiya come from all corners of the Islamic world to study the Sufi tradition, which has a long history in North Africa 

Mahmud TURKIA AFP

The tomb is surrounded by scaffolding but still bears its green silk cover, delicately embroidered with gold.

The zawiya hosts several hundred students, including many from overseas, who enjoy free food and lodging.

"I came to Libya to learn Koran here," said Thai student, Abderrahim bin Ismail, in faltering Arabic.

Houssein Abdellah Aoch, a 17-year-old from Chad wearing a long blue tunic, said he was working hard to commit verses to memory.

"I'm hoping to memorise the entire Koran then go home and become a religious teacher," he said.

- 'Fear and mistrust' -

When the call to prayer rings out, all rise and head through an arcaded courtyard to the mosque for noon prayers.

Libya's longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi viewed the Sufis with suspicion but after his 2011 overthrow, Sunni extremists posed a greater threat to the mystics 

Mahmud TURKIA AFP

It is a scene repeated daily for hundreds of years, but the zawiya has had a turbulent few decades.

Kadhafi, who ruled Libya with an iron fist for four decades after seizing power in a 1969 coup, was suspicious of the Sufis.

"He infiltrated the zawiya with his secret services, creating a climate of fear and mistrust," said an employee, who asked to remain anonymous.

"Kadhafi chose to divide the Sufis to control them better."

But Kadhafi's authorities "loosened the stranglehold in the mid-1990s, which allowed the zawiyas to regain their autonomy," he added.

After Kadhafi's overthrow in 2011, another danger emerged. The attack in Zliten, on the Mediterranean coast east of Tripoli, was echoed across the country.

Islamist militants used diggers and pneumatic drills to destroy numerous Sufi sites across Libya -- attacks echoed in Iraq, Pakistan and elsewhere.

Zirkhani says the people who attacked the complex in Zliten were "extremists known to the state".

But in the chaos of post-revolt Libya, they have never been held to account.

The zawiya has also suffered from a lack of funds as it seeks to rebuild and restore its treasures.

Zirkhani showed AFP dusty old manuscripts he wants to preserve for posterity.

The seminary has a large collection of old Islamic manuscripts that historian Fathi al-Zirkhani is eager to preserve for posterity

 Mahmud TURKIA AFP

"We have neither the means nor the know-how to restore them," Zirkhani said. "We need help from (UN cultural agency) UNESCO and European institutions."

But there are some signs of hope for Sufis in Libya.

The zawiya was closed for six years following the 2012 attack. But in 2018 it discreetly reopened, and Sufis have been able to exercise their customs more publicly.

Last October in Tripoli, they took to the streets of the old city to celebrate the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed -- a festival frowned upon by more austere currents of Islam.

© 2021 AFP

Introducing Sufism

A longing deep within us

Islam thrives on diversity, something that is particularly apparent within its body of mystic practice, known as Sufism. In his new book, Marian Brehmer introduces us to the many forms of Islamic mysticism. By Lisa Nealp

How is it possible to write about mysticism when its true essence can't be captured in words? Author Marian Brehmer solves this problem by describing various different approaches that take us closer to its core. His book Sich den Durst aneignen ("Acquire thirst"), collates Sufi practices. Most prominent among these are poetry, music, the veneration of saints and sema, the meditative practice of spinning on your own axis which is often falsely described as a dance.

Where there are questions, answers will be given; where there are ships, water will flow. Spend less time seeking water and acquire thirst! Then water will gush from above and below. (Jalaluddin Rumi)

Following on from Der Schatz unter den Ruinen ("The treasure among the ruins"), Brehmer's second book takes us on another journey into the world of Sufism. Driven by his own "thirst" for spirituality and self-knowledge, in this book he focuses even more strongly on the sensory level. He works with photos, poems, interview extracts, background information and his own experiences. 

Men engaged in a Sufi ritual: each chapter in Brehmer's book provides an introduction to the

 cultural influences on how mysticism is practiced in Islamic countries across the Middle East

 and beyond, and in so doing helps us to understand the diversity inherent in Sufism

The photos he has collected over the past few years, with their intense colours, are a particularly vivid reflection of how deeply involved he has become with the world of Sufism. The pictures also display Brehmer's eye for symmetry and his gift for observing quiet moments.

A gallery of photos

The four main chapters are put together from travels in the world of Sufism, and are divided up into regions: Anatolia and Syria; Persia; South Asia; Al-Andalus and Morocco. The book is more than just an attractive coffee-table volume, however, partly thanks to its spiritual clarity and intercultural sensitivity, which shines through at various points.

Brehmer knows the Sufi worlds in which he moves. He became acquainted with the spiritual life as a child in India, and has travelled a lot over the past 12 years. He took Iranian studies at university, speaks fluent Persian and Turkish, and lives in Turkey, where he has been based for several years now.

Each chapter provides an introduction to the cultural influences on how mysticism is practiced in these places, and in so doing helps us to understand the diversity inherent in Sufism.

Following on from "Der Schatz unter den Ruinen" ('The treasure among the ruins'),

 Brehmer's latest book takes us on another journey into the world of Sufism. 

Driven by his own "thirst" for spirituality and self-knowledge, he focuses on

 the sensory level – working with photos, poems, interview extracts, background information

 and his own experiences. His colourful images are a particularly vivid reflection 

of how deeply involved he has become with the world of Sufism

The pleasure that Brehmer takes in wonder, travel, poetry and beauty comes across in his language, and the book's form and content are thus well suited to one another. His narrative style takes up an aspect of every mystic path: a tension between images that touches a wordless longing in us.

"The sleeping car in 'Sleeper Class' is a colourful potpourri of people and noises. A tea seller walks through the compartments carrying a heavy thermos flask. His nimble hands pour steaming, milky tea into cardboard cups. [...] A group of barefoot intinerant Hindu ascetics, swathed in saffron-coloured cloths, are engaged in animated conversation."

He goes on: "In the middle of all this, on one of the blue upholstered bunks, sit two older gentlemen whose bushy white beards identify them unmistakeably as Muslims. [...] Shortly after sunset, the two men take white prayer caps from their bags and, without getting up from the bunk, assume a more concentrated posture. Then they close their eyes, murmur the Fatiha, the first sura of the Koran, hunch their backs and place their hands on their thighs."

The courtyard of a mosque in Fez, Morocco: the revolutionary thing about the 

mystical path is that you don't find God in temples, mosques and churches, but

 in your own heart. For this, your heart must be open and cleansed of all illusions.

 The long path of inner transformation is not a straightforward one; the author 

describes this process in the words of the great Sufi master and poet Jalaluddin

 Rumi as "being cooked"

In contrast to his first book, the author chooses not to use first-person narration, although we see, smell and learn to understand these worlds from his point of view. But the book is not a theological treatise or geopolitical analysis, either. And that is not down to any lack of subject knowledge on the author's part.

Islamic mysticism is a living thing

The author’s expertise is evident in the foreword and the precision with which he describes phenomena such as the Ahi and other orders; Malang (Pakistani dervishes); people like the female Indian mystic Mirabai and the Persian saint Charakani; and peculiarities such as the introduction of music into religious practice by Moinuddin Chishti.

The author's spiritual clarity is shown in the book's core statement: the revolutionary thing about the mystical path is that you don't find God in temples, mosques and churches, but in your own heart. For this, your heart must be open and cleansed of all illusions.

How is it possible to write about mysticism when its true essence can't be captured in words? Author Marian Brehmer solves this problem by describing various different approaches that take us closer to its core. His book collates Sufi practices. Most prominent among these are poetry, music, the veneration of saints and sema, the meditative practice of spinning on your own axis which is often falsely described as a dance

The long path of inner transformation is not a straightforward one. The author describes this process in the words of the great Sufi master and poet Jalaluddin Rumi as "being cooked".

"You must forget yourself, If you want to find Him [God] at your side. (Strange are the times, Sain Bullhe Shah)".

The diversity of Sufism shows that Islamic mysticism is a living thing. This doesn’t apply to the other two Abrahamic religions to quite the same extent.

Jewish mysticism, kabbala, finds the majority of its followers in Hassidic communities in the USA and Israel. Christian mysticism is practiced in various individual religious orders, in the form of retreats (for meditation) and in contemplative orders such as the Carmelites.

The German-speaking world, however, lacks the visible, everyday forms of Christian mysticism.

And what we have lost here is more than just a great treasure on the Christian path to self-understanding.

The gap it leaves creates too much space for esotericism, which – just like an orthodoxy which is too worldly – can endanger a free spiritual life in any form of religion.

The more one engages with Christian mysticism, the more appealing it can become.

And it will be easier to gauge whether this might be one way to fall (back) in love with Christianity once we have access to "bridge-building" books like Brehmer's on Sufism for the Christian faith.

Until that point, it is worth taking inspiration from this book, because: "[t]he mystic knows that the countless spiritual paths of the world are like hiking trails that lead up different sides of a mountain to the same peak".

"There may be differences in the character and the vegetation of these paths – some are short and steep, while others wind slowly upwards over a long distance – but ultimately, the destination is the same".

Lisa Neal

© Qantara.de 2023

Translated from the German by Ruth Martin

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: My Favorite Muslim 

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Egypt's tanoura puts kaleidoscopic spin on dervish tradition

Egypt's kaleidoscopic whirling dervish performance, known as 'tanoura', is a world away from those of Turkey, who trace their origins to the teachings of Sufi poet and mystic Jalal al-Din Rumi - (RUMI)

Khaled DESOUKI

by Sarah Benhaida
June 9, 2022 — Cairo (AFP)


In a 500-year-old stone theatre in the Egyptian capital, two young dervishes spin ceaselessly. Slowly, then all at once, they are consumed in a flurry of vivid fabrics.

Born into a lineage of whirling dervishes, Mohamed Adel, 20, takes great pride in the uniquely Egyptian interpretation of the centuries-old ritual known colloquially as "tanoura", or skirt in Arabic.

"I choose the colours and the shapes that are sewn into the skirts," Adel said, pointing to the folds of his purple skirt with green and yellow appliques moments before stepping on stage to perform at a folk art festival.

The kaleidoscopic performance is a world away from the UNESCO-listed whirling dervishes of Turkey, who trace their origins to the teachings of Sufi poet and mystic Jalal al-Din Rumi.


Distinguished by their white robes, camel-wool hats and fealty to ascetic Sufi spiritualism, the ceremonies in Turkey bear only a fleeting resemblance to the psychedelic performances popular in Egypt.

Sufis in Egypt, who number more than 15 million, with nearly 80 different orders, adopted the ritual, progressively adding colours and rhythms, turning the spiritual practice into a folkloric art in its own right.

- 'Escape' -

Every time it is the same: Adel steps into a counter-clockwise twirl. As his skirts bloom, he raises his right arm to the sky, to receive divine blessing, and reaches his left arm to the ground, delivering the blessing to the public.


Then he picks up the pace.

His steps grow faster, and he unties the cords that hold his different skirts together, raising one high above his head.

The topmost tanoura represents the sky, the one below the earth.

As he spins the first above his head while the other forms an undulating disc around his waist, he recounts the story of genesis, and how the sky and Earth were separated.

This rendition is no small feat, with each skirt weighing nearly 10 kilograms. If Adel deviates from his axis or loses the rhythm of his feet, he can fall and drop them.


"At the beginning, of course I would get dizzy and even fall sometimes," he told AFP. "But training every single day, either on stage or at home, I escape somewhere else with the music."

To the sound of Sufi chants, percussion beats, or the haunting melodies of the traditional flute or rababa -- a lute-like string instrument -- the revolutions of the dervishes of the Giza Troupe for Folkloric Arts seem as unstoppable as the planets.

- 'Like flying' -

Side by side, but without their skirts ever coming in contact, they perform acrobatics as they spin.

They throw their skirts above their heads, catch them midair, fold and unfold the flag of their Sufi order, their spirals never ceasing.

For Ali Morsi, 25, it is a labour inspired by "the love of God and the Prophet Mohammed".


Though the Egyptian version of the art has become a festive occasion, most practitioners hold to the roots of the ritual in the mystical tradition of the Muslim Mevlevi Order, founded in the 13th century by Rumi in Konya, present-day Turkey.

Today, it is a staple of Egyptian tourism, with some dancers, particularly in hotels and entertainment venues, attaching lights to their skirts for an added surprise factor, to the delight of tourists and spectators.

Both spectacle and ritual, tanoura is indispensable for artists like Adel and Morsi, who cannot imagine making their living any other way.

"It's like I'm flying, I can no longer feel my body, I am no longer on earth," said Morsi, who has been a dervish for 11 years.

"I only think of God and nothing else."

SEE http://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2006/02/my-favorite-muslim.html

Haji Malang: The Sufi shrine caught up in a religious row in Mumbai

BBC
Sun, January 28, 2024 

The Haji Malang dargah is said to be more than 700 years old

A Sufi shrine frequented by Indians of all faiths made headlines recently after a top political leader said that he wanted to "liberate" it for just Hindus. The BBC's Cherylann Mollan visited to understand what the controversy was about.

The ascent is no easy feat, with some 1,500 rock-cut steps separating the devout from their destination: a Sufi saint's tomb that has become a seat of faith, legend and disputed history.

The Haji Malang dargah (shrine), sitting on a hill on the outskirts of Mumbai in the western state of Maharashtra, is said to house the tomb of an Arab missionary who came to India more than 700 years ago. Like many other Sufi shrines across India, the dargah is seen as a symbol of assimilation and tolerance, despite being at the centre of a religious dispute.


When I visited, both Hindus and Muslims were offering flowers and a chadar - a piece of cloth offered as a symbol of respect in Sufi traditions - at the saint's tomb. The belief is that any wish asked for with a "pure heart" will be granted.

The shrine's managing board mirrors this sense of respectful co-existence - while two of its trustees are Muslims, its hereditary custodians are from a Hindu Brahmin family.

People of all faiths visit the shrine

But earlier this month, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde stirred controversy by reviving a decades-old claim at a political rally. He asserted that the structure, traditionally considered a dargah, was a temple belonging to Hindus, and declared his commitment to "liberating" it.

Mr Shinde did not respond to the BBC's request for comment.

His claim comes at a time when some prominent mosques and Muslim-made monuments in India are mired in disputes over claims that they were constructed by demolishing Hindu temples centuries ago.

In the 1980s, Mr Shinde's political mentor, Anand Dighe, spearheaded a campaign to "reclaim" the Haji Malang dargah for Hindus. In 1996, he reportedly led 20,000 workers from the Shiv Sena party inside the dargah to perform a pooja (a Hindu act of worship).

Since then, Hindu hardliners, who refer to the structure as Malanggad, have continued the practice of performing pooja at the shrine on full Moon days, occasionally leading to clashes with Muslim devotees and locals.

There are also several temples on the hill - like this one just next to the dargah

But political observers say that Mr Shinde's stance may have less to do with faith and more to do with optics. Dighe's campaign had bumped up his appeal among Hindu voters in Maharashtra state.

"Mr Shinde is now trying to position himself as the 'Hindu saviour' of Maharashtra," says Prashant Dixit, a former journalist.

Separate from the national election, Maharashtra - India's wealthiest state - will vote for the state assembly later this year. Securing support from the Hindu majority is crucial for Mr Shinde, given the state's distinctive political landscape, says Mr Dixit.

Elections in Maharashtra are usually a four-way contest between the nativist, Hindu nationalist Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the centrist Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress, each with their own share of core voters.

But Mr Shinde faces an additional complication - in 2022, he and his supporters defected from the erstwhile Shiv Sena.

The rebellion toppled the then-triparty government - an unlikely coalition of the Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP - and forged a new alliance with the BJP to form the new government.

"But while lawmakers might change parties, it's hard to get core voters to switch loyalties," Mr Dixit says. "By raising the dargah issue, Mr Shinde is hoping to appeal to the emotions of the core voters of the erstwhile Shiv Sena and consolidate the Hindu vote bank," he says.

Kushal Misl (left) visits the shrine once every year - a tradition started by his grandfather

Hindu devotees the BBC spoke to had mixed reactions to Mr Shinde's comments.

Kushal Misl, for instance, sees Mr Shinde as articulating what has long been on his mind - a belief that the shrine originally belonged to a Hindu saint and was later taken over by Muslims during invasions in India.

Rajendra Gaikwad shares a similar view but says that he feels uneasy about the ongoing debate. "Whatever is happening in India right now is very bad," he says, and underscores his belief that for him, "all gods are one".

Abhijit Nagare, who goes to the shrine every month, says that it doesn't matter to him which religion the structure belongs to - he likes to visit because he feels at peace there.

Nasir Khan, one of the shrine's trustees, told the BBC that the controversy had led to a dip in the number of devotees visiting the shrine. "People come with their families and don't want to be hassled by miscreants," he said.

The controversy is also hurting local businesses.

Visitors have to climb some 1,500 steps to reach the Haji Malang shrine

The structure sitting atop the 3,000ft (914m) hill doesn't stand alone. The elevation is punctuated with houses, shops, and restaurants carved into the stone and rock over the years.

Mr Khan says that about 4,000 people, both Hindus and Muslims, live there. The locals depend on tourism to make a living, but it's a tough existence.

Locals told the BBC that they struggle to get basic amenities like potable water, especially in the gruelling summer months.

"Water has to be rationed. Each family is given just 10 litres of water per day," says Ayyub Shaikh, a local village council member.

The hill also doesn't have a proper hospital, school or an ambulance.

"An educated person would not want to live here; there's nothing for them to do," says 22-year-old tuk-tuk driver Shaikh, who asked for only his first name to be used.

"All politicians want to do is play games to get votes. Nobody really cares about what the people want."

The sentiment is echoed by numerous locals.

"Hindus and Muslims have co-existed in harmony on this hill for centuries," Mr Shaikh says. "We celebrate festivals together and support each other in times of need.

"Nobody else stands by us - so why would we fight among ourselves?"

We are all creatures of God': Sheikh Mahmoud El Tohamy on Sufi music’s message of tolerance

The Egyptian chanter will perform as part of Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation virtual concert series

Sheikh Mahmoud El Tohamy is a master practitioner of Sufi chants. Courtesy Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation

You don't have to pay to be a student of the acclaimed Sufi singer Sheikh Mahmoud El Tohamy.

The only thing you need is some talent and a hefty amount of patience.

It is always the latter where people slip up, El Tohamy tells The National from his home in Cairo, Egypt.

“A lot of the time, there is an expectation to come and learn how to sing these religious songs and then be ready to perform when they graduate,” he says. “That’s not the way I do things; 70 per cent of the actual course [I teach] is dedicated to spiritual exercises. I want them to understand the spiritual states they are singing about.”

It is for this reason that his Madrassat Al Nashad, which translates to chanting school, has been at the forefront of building a new generation of singers who perform devotional songs, also known as nasheeds.

On Saturday, May 9, we are going to see the master at work himself, as El Tohamy, 41, will deliver an online concert for Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation’s Ramadan series.

It promises to be a stirring affair, with the performer singing key devotional tracks taken from Islamic history, such as Al Burdah, written by 13th-century Egyptian poet Imam Al-Busiri, as well as some of his own compositions.
The show follows his sold-out concert in Abu Dhabi in February, which took place at New York University – Abu Dhabi Arts Centre.

El Tohamy says the goal with the virtual concert is more than to simply entertain.

“I have been fortunate to travel and perform in many places to showcase the culture and tolerance of Sufi music,” he says. “And with us being in Ramadan, I am even more keen to show the spiritual beauty of the form. This is something that I am aware of, especially during this blessed period.”

The 'commercialisation' of nasheed music

The balance between faith and art has always been prevalent throughout El Tohamy’s career. His father is renowned nasheed singer Sheikh Yassin El Tohamy, and he received his theological training from Egypt's prestigious Islamic seminary, Al Azhar University.

He credits that experience for providing him with spiritual framework in which to view and build his performance career. It is a journey he hopes will remain immune from the growing fame and celebrity culture surrounding the nasheed industry.

“While I am not worried at all about the state of the music itself, what concerns me is the commercialisation surrounding it,” he says. “I have been seeing a lot of people entering the field and thinking more about the ends than the means. By that I mean they are focusing more on the fame and prestige than the goals of the music.”


It is for this reason that El Tohamy has built a rigorous spiritual syllabus into his music school. You can’t be an effective devotional singer, he states, without excellent character.

“One of the key lessons I give the students is to make them not just memorise the words of a particular nasheed or poem,” he says. “But I want them to live it and feel it. I want them to spend a long time thinking about what these words mean and embody the noble qualities it talks about. That way when they perform, they do it with knowledge and passion.”

When it comes to his own career and spiritual path, El Tohamy says the nasheeds and poems he recites have not only been a source of nourishment, but have also played a key role in building bridges with other cultures.


“It has certainly opened my mind,” he says. “The performances I do are really all about promoting tolerance of each other. The more I travel and see the world, I realise that we are all the same. I don’t treat people based on where they come or who they are. We are all creatures of God and we share a common humanity. It is always from this point that I begin.”

Sheikh Mahmoud El Tohamy performs on Saturday, May 9 at 9.30pm on the Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation Facebook page

https://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/music/we-are-all-creatures-of-god-sheikh-mahmoud-el-tohamy-on-sufi-music-s-message-of-tolerance-1.1016436

Updated: May 8, 2020 

SEE http://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2006/02/my-favorite-muslim.html

AND HERE IS ONE I FOUND ONLINE
IT'S NICE WHEN YOU CAN HAVE A SING ALONG 

HE HAS HIS OWN YOU TUBE STATION

HE AND HIS STUDENTS AS CHORUS ROCK THE KABBA AT THE KASBAH 

SUFISM

Bangladeshi mystic fights demons with psychiatry


Shafiqul ALAM
Wed, September 14, 2022 


Evil spirits bedevil the families that seek blessings from an elderly Bangladeshi mystic -- but he knows his prayers alone are not enough to soothe their troubled minds.

Syed Emdadul Hoque conducts exorcisms but at the same time is helping to bust taboos around mental health treatment in the South Asian nation, where disorders of the mind are often rationalised as cases of otherworldly possession.

Hundreds of people visit the respected cleric each week to conquer their demons, and after receiving Hoque's blessing a team of experts will gently assess if they need medical care.

Mohammad Rakib, 22, was brought to the shrine after complaining of "possession by a genie" that brought alarming changes to his behaviour.

"When I regain consciousness, I feel okay," he tells Hoque. But his uncle explains that the student has suffered alarming dissociative spells, attacking and scolding his relatives while speaking in an unrecognisable language.

"Don't worry, you will be fine," Hoque says reassuringly, reciting prayers that he says will rid Rakib of the spirit and to help him concentrate on his studies.

Rakib is then led into a room by the cleric's son Irfanul, where volunteers note down his symptoms and medical history.

"We think he is suffering from mental problems," Irfanul tells AFP.

"Once we've taken his details, we will send him to a psychiatrist to prescribe medicines."

- Sufi mystics -

Hoque, 85, and his son are members of the Sufi tradition, a branch of Islam that emphasises mysticism and the spiritual dimensions of the faith.

They are descended from one of the country's most respected Sufi leaders, from whom Hoque has inherited the esteemed title of "Pir", denoting him as a spiritual mentor.


Their hometown of Maizbhandar is one of the country's most popular pilgrimage sites, with huge crowds each year visiting shrines dedicated to the Hoque family's late ancestors to seek their blessings.

Their faith occupies an ambiguous place in Bangladesh, where they are regularly denounced as heretics and deviants by hardliners from the Sunni Muslim majority.

But Sufi mystics have a deeply rooted role in rural society as healers, and Irfanul says his father gives his visitors the opportunity to unburden themselves.

"Those who open up their stresses and problems to us, it becomes easier for us to help," he says. "My father does his part by blessing him and then the medical healing starts."

Hoque is helped by Taslima Chowdhury, a psychiatrist who worked at the shrine for nearly two years, travelling from her own home an hour's drive away in the bustling port city of Chittagong.

"Had he not sent the patients to me, they might never visit a trained psychiatrist in their life," she tells AFP.

"Thanks to him, a lot of mental patients get early treatment and many get cured quickly."

- Veil of silence -

Despite Bangladesh's rapid economic growth over the past decade, treatment options for panic attacks, anxiety and other symptoms of mental disorder remain limited.

A brutal 1971 independence war and the floods, cyclones and other disasters that regularly buffet the climate-vulnerable country have left widespread and lingering trauma, according to a British Journal of Psychology study published last year.

Bangladesh has fewer than 300 psychiatrists servicing a population of 170 million people, the same publication says, while a stigma around mental illness prevents those afflicted from seeking help.

A 2018 survey conducted by local health authorities found nearly one in five adults met the criteria for a mental disorder, more than 90 percent of whom did not receive professional treatment.

But experts say Hoque's referral programme could offer a revolutionary means of lifting the veil of silence around mental health and encourage more people to seek medical intervention.

"It is remarkable given that in Bangladesh, mental problems are considered taboo," says Kamal Uddin Chowdhury, a professor of Clinical Psychology at the elite Dhaka University.

The country's top mental hospital is now engaged in a project to train other religious leaders in rural towns to follow Hoque's approach, he tells AFP.

"They are the first responders," he adds.

"If they spread out the message that mental diseases are curable and that being 'possessed by a genie' is a kind of mental disease, it can make a big difference in treatment."

sa/gle/skc/dhc

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 SUFIS

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

THE WAR ON THE SUFIS CONTINUES

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast, which killed at least eight people.

DW.COM

Pakistan: Deadly bomb blast at Sufi shrine in Lahore

Police say a bomb targeting security forces guarding a Sufi shrine has detonated in the city of Lahore. At least eight people are believed to have been killed so far, with many more wounded.

The blast, a day after the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, went off at a police checkpoint near the Data Darbar, one of the largest Muslim shrines in South Asia.

TELESURENGLISH.NET

Deadly Blast Hits Sufi Shrine in Pakistan, 9 Killed

"Police was the prime target in this attack. We are collecting forensic evidences to ascertain the nature of the blast," said Ashfaq Khan, de

Dawn.com

May 8 at 2:14 AM · 

Prime Minister #ImranKhan took to Twitter to condemn the explosion targeting Elite Force vehicle near #DataDarbar in #Lahore today.
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#LahoreBlast #DawnToday

EDITORIAL: According to media reports, Hizbul Ahrar, said to be a splinter faction of the local Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Of course, this is not the first time that a Sufi shrine has been attacked in Pakistan.

DAWN.COM

Data Darbar blast

The families of the martyred personnel must be looked after by the state.

With the death toll in Wednesday’s Data Darbar shrine blast rising to 11 on Thursday, law enforcement agencies shifted focus to three major terrorist networks of the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Punjab to lay their hands on handlers/facilitators.

Talking about investigation into the suicide blast, a senior police officer told Dawn that two high-profile teams of the law enforcement agencies had been assigned the task to go after three offshoots of the TTP and t...

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