Sunday, August 31, 2008

Understanding Mutual Woundedness

By Amy Frykholm, "Three faiths, three friends Seattle's interfaith amigos" - The Christian Century - USA
Tuesday, August 26, 2008

The third annual interfaith Passover Seder meal at University Congregational Church in Seattle was a "bring your own wine" event. Tables for 300 guests were impeccably set with goblets and fresh flowers; two kinds of charoset (a pasty blend of fruit and nuts prepared according to both the Ashkenazi and Sephardic styles); two kinds of horseradish (raw and sauced); and baskets of matzo. The tables buzzed with lively conversation.

Rabbi Ted Falcon stood at the front with a guitar player and two singers. He is a trim, white-bearded man who is constantly making jokes, but he also has an air of underlying seriousness, intensity, even melancholy.

"OK," he said. "We'll begin on page 22 of your handout." After two days of watching Falcon lead services, I had learned that he never begins on page one. He is likely to start on page 22, continue on page 11 and move on to page two.

"The Haggadah takes us on a spiritual journey," he says. "We learn to be freed from our inner pharaohs, travel in our wilderness and form our own dreams of the Promised Land.

"The participants at this event—which sold out three weeks before—were Jews, Christians and Muslims. Many came from Bet Alef, Falcon's "meditative synagogue" that meets in one of Seattle's suburbs. Some belonged to University Congregational Church, which was led by Pastor Don Mackenzie until his retirement in June. Others belonged to an experimental congregation led by Sufi Muslim teacher Jamal Rahman and known as the Interfaith Community Church. (Rahman calls it a church, he says, for "lack of a better term"; it's for people who meet on Sundays to explore their "spiritual paths" together, he explains.)

Falcon not only invited members of these three congregations to the Seder but asked Mackenzie and Rahman to speak. And Falcon didn't want generic spirituality talk from them; he wanted Mackenzie to mention Jesus or Paul and Rahman to refer to Muhammad and the Qur'an.

This kind of interfaith gathering is an increasingly common phenomenon across the U.S. Interaction between people of different faiths is hardly new, but a qualitative shift occurred after September 11, 2001, says Kathryn Lohre, assistant director of Harvard University's Pluralism Project. "There was a strong interfaith resurgence, driven by the desire of many people, perhaps Christians especially, to get to know their religious neighbors.

"Lohre says grassroots efforts have sprung up in many places. The old-style interfaith roundtables in which academics or religious leaders gathered to discuss their theological differences in formal meetings have given way to more informal efforts. These are often led or developed by laypeople, as in the case of the Interfaith Youth Core in Chicago, the Faith House in Manhattan, Women Transcending Boundaries in Syracuse and Daughters of Abraham in Detroit. People meet to take part in service projects, talk about family, share holiday celebrations or eat ethnic food.

For Rabbi Ted Falcon, Pastor Don Mackenzie and Brother Jamal Rahman, formal and informal meetings have led to deep friendships. They call themselves the Three Interfaith Amigos. The three men host the Interfaith Talk Radio show in Seattle, meet weekly for mutual spiritual direction and have embarked on writing a book together. Not only has their friendship grown over the years, but their congregations have become closer. A member of Falcon's synagogue leads the Gregorian chant group at Rahman's congregation. A meeting at any of the three congregations will likely include members of the other two.

"When we first started, the three of us were like three circles touching," Falcon says. "But over time, our circles have become more interlocked. We are still distinct circles, but we share more and more together."

In Seattle, the work of the Three Amigos has spawned the Northwest Interfaith Community Outreach, led by business executive John Hale. This organization helps to sponsor interfaith events and encourages what it calls interspiritual communication. Hale has a salesperson's easy smile and ready handshake—he seems like a man who would be comfortable in a corporate boardroom. So it was a little surprising and even unsettling to hear him speak the language of contemporary spirituality. Raised as a Presbyterian, Hale says that his upbringing "lacked nourishment," a nourishment he didn't find until he converted to Catholicism and discovered interfaith work.

For Hale, interfaith work involves both a conversation and a way of life. "It is heart work," he says, "not head work." The image that Hale likes—adapted from Meister Eckhart—is that each faith is a house with a basement. Deep in the basement is a trap door. If you go deep enough, you fall through the trap door into the shared river that flows beneath all faiths, the source of them all.

Hale's assertion of oneness would likely make Lohre at the Pluralism Project cringe. Many people, she notes, think interfaith conversation means "moving toward relativism." But "the assertion that 'at root all religions are the same' just isn't true. If you do any kind of careful comparative religion, you understand just how different religious traditions are." People do not need to adopt the rhetoric of "oneness" in order to care about their religious neighbors, Lohre argues. Relying on that approach misses the complexities of the various religions.

The Three Amigos would in some ways accept and in other ways reject Lohre's point. "The question of boundaries is absolutely essential," Falcon insists. "I must find a way to connect with another faith without taking on its identity. What we are doing is acknowledging other faiths as legitimate paths to a shared universal." The three recently discussed a newspaper editorial that criticized Christian groups for holding Seders in their churches—as if the Seder is a tradition possessed by Christians. The three agreed with the critique. Their own interfaith Seder, they noted, is a Jewish celebration, led by a Jewish rabbi, but with interfaith elements.

The three are also dissatisfied with the kind of interfaith service in which participants try to find a lowest common denominator of faith. Far more intriguing and satisfying to them is offering hospitality to one another in their respective congregations and working with one another on common projects. When they speak at one another's events, they speak from their own Jewish, Christian or Muslim tradition. They cite their own sacred texts and tell stories from their own traditions.

Nevertheless, the Three Amigos also tend to blur the boundaries. For example, Mackenzie has asked Rahman and Falcon to help him serve the elements of communion at a service at University Congregational. For him, it is deeply meaningful to have Rahman and Falcon holding the baskets of bread as the congregation comes forward to share in this central Christian ritual. It links the three men and the three faiths together. It is important to note that the UCC has a tradition of open-table fellowship at communion and that at University Congregational the elements are called "the bread of life" and "the cup of blessing." This communion service does not focus on the christological distinctives of the meal the way that many other Christian services would.

Falcon said that, for him, being part of a Christian communion service at the church felt like being on sacred ground. Sharing bread and wine is very much a part of Jewish culture, and he has himself hosted the sharing of bread and wine with his two friends in many other contexts, including the moment of entrance into the celebration of Shabbat. He said that though he would not hold a communion service in his synagogue, he believed he could participate in communion without taking on a Christian identity. Falcon likens faith and faith traditions to vehicles—when he is in Mackenzie's church, he is temporarily riding in that vehicle. That doesn't mean the vehicle becomes his, but he can ride along in it for a while without compromising his own. Likewise, he can invite others to ride in his vehicle.

Mackenzie observes, "I think Christians have misunderstood the Great Commission. When Jesus says, 'Go and make disciples of all nations,' we think he means go and make Christians of all nations. But he doesn't say that. To be a disciple of God means to be a disciple of love. Maybe he means that we are called to help people find the way of love." Mackenzie, who was a Presbyterian minister before serving at University Congregational, cherishes the theological and ecclesial freedom he finds in the UCC and believes that it has helped to foster the deep interfaith relationship he has with Falcon and Rahman.

The Three Amigos also emphasize that they are all members of Abrahamic traditions. Their shared ancestor makes possible a conversation about oneness or about what Rahman calls their "large and dysfunctional family" that would be more difficult to conduct with those outside the Abrahamic faiths. The three are in conversation with Hindus and Buddhists, but "for now," Rahman says, "we have a lot of work to do to heal the rifts in our own family."

The Three Amigos have not shied away from difficult conversations. The height of personal conflict came in the still-unfinished process of writing a book together. "There was," says Falcon, "a line written by Jamal about which I said, 'If that line is in the book, then I am not in the book.'" As Rahman recalls it, the line was about the security wall built by Israel: "The wall may keep out suicide bombers, but it cannot keep out the cries of oppression and injustice that could break through a thousand walls." For Falcon, who grew up in a passionately Zionist family, and who remembers that his grandfather planted a tree for him in Israel every year on his birthday, that particular sentence was too one-sided—it failed to recognize the suffering on both sides that is at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The two resolved the issue by agreeing never to sign one-sided statements issued by their communities. Whenever a request comes to sign a petition or a public letter, they refuse if the issues are presented in a way that takes into account only one side of the story.

Rahman is a slight Bangladeshi man, a third-generation Sufi teacher with an infectious, musical laugh. He teaches about Islam primarily through stories, humor and quotations from the Qur'an and the poet Rumi. He is a Sunni Muslim who believes that he is called to serve Seattle's unchurched. While not hawkish, he does highlight the suffering of Palestinians and issues a strong condemnation of Israel's policies. "What kept us talking, what allowed us to wander into this territory and stay while we tried to understand each other better, was that we were already longtime friends," says Falcon. "We had a lot invested in our relationship."

The Three Amigos' experience is emblematic of a larger reality in the U.S. today, says Haim Beliak, a Reform rabbi who is a member of several interfaith associations and a board member for the Progressive Jewish Alliance in the Los Angeles area. Because Christians and Jews in particular have been in conversation now for many decades, a level of trust has been built. Serious conversations about Israel and Palestine can take place between them because they have a history that is distinct from the tradition of Christian anti-Semitism. The challenge now is to include Muslims in such discussions and thereby resist what Beliak sees as a tendency in some quarters for Jews and Christians to pit themselves against Muslims by emphasizing a "Judeo-Christian" tradition. "When I hear that phrase," Beliak says, "I feel as if I were being speared by the hyphen."

Recently, Mackenzie, Falcon and Rahman reflected on who was showing up at interfaith events and who wasn't. They acknowledged that it is often easier to communicate across the lines of faith than to communicate with members of their own traditions who are suspicious of interfaith work. Falcon is ordained in the Reform tradition, but his synagogue is unaffiliated; he invented the term "meditative Reform" to describe the kind of Judaism he practices. Rahman designates himself a Sufi teacher, which places him to a certain degree outside conventional Muslim structures—though those structures are comparatively loose.

On the Christian side, the three acknowledged that they have their own biases against conservative Christians, whom they tend to see as narrow-minded and prejudiced against Muslims. In response, the Amigos decided to attend together a service at Christian Faith Center, a megachurch with two campuses in Seattle, led by pastor Casey Treat.

During his sermon on the day the Three Amigos visited, Treat remarked that "Christians and Jews share the same God, but Allah is a different matter." Mackenzie and Falcon both gasped. After the service, Rahman, Mackenzie and Falcon were invited to Treat's office. Rahman used the occasion to say to him, "I don't think Jesus would have said what you did about Muslims."

Rahman, Falcon and Mackenzie later worked with members of Treat's congregation on a Habitat for Humanity project for a local Muslim family. One important lesson from the experience, Rahman says, was the recognition that while he, as a Muslim, feels wounded by the behavior of many Americans, he is not alone in that feeling: many Christians also carry wounds. By understanding this mutual woundedness, the Three Amigos say, they have become much more patient when they confront people who disagree with their interfaith work. Instead of responding with anger or accusation, they try to ask more questions.

They used this insight when Rahman was asked by the director of Camp Brotherhood, an interfaith retreat center with a long history in Seattle, to donate a copy of the Qur'an that would be placed in the center's chapel alongside the Bible and the Torah. The proposal turned out to be controversial among the camp's board members, so the idea was dropped—and the board ended up removing all holy books from the chapel, something the three were not happy about. But instead of responding angrily and forgoing their association with Camp Brotherhood, the three have continued to try to meet with the board members to find a mutually agreeable solution.

Lohre of Harvard is convinced that informal interfaith efforts like that of the Three Amigos will continue to grow. If such efforts had been merely a reaction to September 11, they would have faded long ago. But because so many people are now involved in interfaith friendships and because so many interfaith activities have involved young people, interfaith work is not likely to vanish—and the relationships can only deepen. The most successful groups, Lohre says, provide acts of service and hospitality as well as activities for people of different generations.

Not everyone is prepared to applaud such encounters. Anxiety about the loss of "shared values" is heard from many corners, leading some people to turn inward. And interfaith conversations are clearly in their early stages—they have not yet been a force in stopping wars, nor have they succeeded in shutting the doors of Guantánamo or in healing the wounds in the Middle East. But thousands of people have had concrete encounters with neighbors who belong to a different religious faith.

One often hears quoted in interfaith circles these words of God from the Qur'an: "O humankind, we have created you out of a single pair of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes that you might come to know one another." [49:13]

At this point in history, coming to know one another remains a critical task.

Saturday, August 30, 2008

With the Power of Love


By Anand Krishna, "Sufi solutions to world problems " - The Jakarta Post - Jakarta, Indonesia
Monday, 25 August, 2008


Sufi solutions to world problems: This was the title of my paper prepared for the Conference on Sufi Movements in Contemporary Islam, held in Singapore on Aug. 14 and 15, 2008, under the auspices of the National University of Singapore and the independent Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

Along with the writer, Indonesia was represented by Prof. Azyumardi Azra, one of our prominent scholars. The organizers clearly took great pains to ensure that all the five continents were represented by scholars, professors and renowned thinkers of world.

Unfortunately, however, a good majority of them interpreted Sufi thought as Sufi-"ism", thus putting it on par with the other isms.

Sufi is not an ism. It is a way of life. Arab historian Al Beruni (973-1048 AD) wrote in his magnum opus on India that the word Sufi is derived from pailasopa, Greek for "love of wisdom". It has nothing to do with suf -- Arabic for wool -- or the woolen garment worn by the followers of the Sufi path. He further quotes Abu-alfath Albusti, who connects Sufis with safi or purity; thus a Sufi is one who lives purely, in the purity of simplicity.

A Sufi is not a renegade; he/she does not run away from society. He/she is not a recluse. Some Sufis may choose to live as hermits, but that is their choice. That is neither a requirement nor a condition to be a Sufi.

A Sufi today must remain in society and work for its betterment. I firmly believe that it is the Sufi thought that can save the globe. Hisham of the University of Warwick, UK, spoke on "Sufism and the War on Terror". He elaborated on how marketable Sufism is in the West today. It is being seen as an antidote to terrorism and violence in the name of Islam. But he also agreed that most of the Westerners funding so-called Sufi institutions were actually groping in the dark, not knowing which other way to go.

No, both Sufism and the institutionalization of Sufis cannot be a solution to the world's problems. Indeed, they will create more problems. In our own country, we have such examples aplenty.

The moment the Sufi way of life is institutionalized and becomes an ism, it is seen as a threat by all other established institutions, especially the religio-political institutions. Such institutions, as shown by history, have always been hostile, for they cannot do what the Sufis can. They cannot hold their parties together with the power of love, as Sufis do. They are fear-based societies, whereas the Sufis are love-based.

Sufi thought or way of life, without its institutionalization, is the solution to the world's problems today. Sufi thought must permeate our thoughts and penetrate through the thick and rigid blocks of our minds. The Sufi way of life must change our entire outlook toward life, and then we will have an entirely new society. We will have an enlightened society.

"My heart has opened up in every form: It is a pasture for gazelles, a cloister for Christian monks, a temple for idols, the Kaaba of the pilgrim, the tables of the Torah and the book of the Koran. I practice the religion of love: In whatsoever directions its caravan advance, the religion of love shall be my religion and my faith," wrote Ibn Arabi (1165-1240).

A society which is based on mutual understanding and appreciation and not merely tolerance is the need of the hour. The Singaporean minister for the environment and in charge of Muslim affairs, Yaacob Ibrahim, quoted the scholar Ibn Khaldum who described a Sufi as one who retires from other things and turns to God.

Good explanation, but the retirement required of a Sufi today is that of the heart. A Sufi's heart must not be attached to worldly things. His/her mind must be freed of all temptations. With a free heart and mind, a Sufi must remain in society.

We need Sufi economists and Sufi politicians who are not greedy and power hungry -- who are in the society to serve it. We need Sufi religious ministers who do not promise heaven hereafter but strive to create a heaven on earth. We need Sufi educationists to teach us how to unite in love and not divide in hatred.

Prof. Bruce Lawrence from Duke University in the United States quoted a very famous tradition wherein the Prophet's companion Hazrat Abu Bakr made an announcement that the Prophet was dead, but Islam lived on. For the Sufis, pointed out Bruce, both the Prophet and his teachings, his way of submission to the Lord's will are very much alive.

It is not enough that we study his life; we have to live the way shown by him. For, as pointed out in the Holy Koran, at the end of the day it is our behavior which matters: "On the day when their tongues, their hands, and their feet will bear witness against them as to their actions." -- 24:24

The Writer is a spiritual activist. Visit him at http://anandkrishna.org/eng/

Friday, August 29, 2008

It Speaks Directly to Alienation


By Eddie Harrison, "Five questions for...Dr Alan Williams" - Metro - London, UK
Monday, August 25, 2008

The Whirling Dervishes of Turkey, followers of Sufi mystic Rumi, will perform their unique dance this weekend.

Persian scholar Dr Alan Williams will read from and talk about Rumi's work and its influence.

What will people see at this event?
A contemplative, peaceful, stately and graceful performance with a number of dervishes turning anticlockwise on stage, climaxing with a reading from Rumi. They're performing a Sema, which comes from a Persian word and means listening or auditioning. My talk will discuss how the Sema has developed into this form.

What kind of religion is Sufism?
Sufism is the mystical tradition of Islam, a side the West doesn't know much about. Since the 1970s it's gained some popularity among Westerners looking for an alternative to Christianity.

Why is Rumi's work and Sufism so popular at present?
An American poet called Coleman Barks started adapting his work, which led to interest from celebrities like Madonna.

Why does Rumi's poetry inspire people?
Although he's a 13th-century figure, he doesn't write like a medieval poet, he writes from the heart. His central theme is separation from each other and God, and the idea of overcoming that. It speaks directly to alienation and the fragmentation of society and individuals.

What else does your talk cover?
I'll be reading from my first volume of translations of Rumi, published by Penguin in 2006. The translation of the others will probably take me the rest of my life to complete.

Talk: Thu Aug 28, The Hub, 348-350 Castlehill, Edinburgh, 11am, £6. Tel: 0131 473 2000.
Performance: Fri Aug 29 and Sat Aug 30, Festival Theatre, 13-29 Nicolson Street, Edinburgh. 7.30pm, £10 to £28. Tel: 0131 473 2000. http://www.eif.co.uk/

Alan Williams
Rumi Spiritual Verses
Penguin Classics
ISBN-10: 0140447911
ISBN-13: 978-0140447910

Looking for Classic Turkish Tastes

ANN/TZStaff report, "Sultanahmet square getting ready for holy month of Ramadan" - Today's Zaman - Istanbul, Turkey

Monday, August 25, 2008

İstanbul's Sultanahmet square -- named after the famous Sultanahmet Camii (Blue Mosque) -- has long been the center of traditional Ramadan entertainment in the city and it is now being prepared to play this role once again.

Speaking to the Anatolia news agency, Eminönü Municipality Mayor Nevzat Er said the Sultanahmet Ramadan Festivities are the most familiar and popular activity of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting, in İstanbul.

Er said it will be the 14th year of the municipality-sponsored festivities and that some special activities will be held in the amphitheater next to the Firuzağa Mosque in Sultanahmet square. He stressed that the activities will not damage any of the historical sites there. On the contrary, he said, they will serve as an introduction to the historical part of the city for many people.

The mayor explained that they will not spend any public funds to organize these events, adding that profits from the rental of bazaar space to vendors will be the main source of funding.

The festivities will begin with recitations from the Quran and a concert of Sufi music next Monday after the Terawih prayer, a congregational prayer that Muslims perform after the night prayer during Ramadan.

Later in the month the after-Terawih program will feature speeches from prominent national figures, in addition to Sufi music performances. Every day there will be a fast-breaking meal, a Karagöz and Hacıvat shadow puppet show for children, story telling and plays telling the tales of Nasreddin Hodja.

Once again a traditional bazaar will be set up in Sultanahmet Square this year. There will be 80 stands in the bazaar, featuring Turkish cuisine, gift shops and traditional crafts. There will also be vendors throughout the square selling traditional foods such as kestane (roasted chestnuts), mısır (corn on the cob), kumpir (stuffed baked potato) and delicious drinks such as salep and boza. Gözleme (stuffed flatbread) and macun, a sort of cold taffy, will also be available for anyone looking for classic Turkish tastes.

[Picture: To ensure safety and hygiene, janitorial workers and security guards will be on duty every night].

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Festivities Continue in Sehwan

Associated Press of Pakistan, "Festivities continue in Sehwan" - The Post - Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
Friday, August 22, 2008

Islamabad: Celebrations started Thursday in Sehwan Sharif, marking the annual Urs of Sufi saint Hazrat Lal Shahbaz Qalandar.

Thousands have thronged to his shrine for the three-day festivities celebrating his life, and the lanes and streets of Sehwan were packed with devotees, singing and dancing, in praise of the saint.

A devotional dance, widely known as 'dhamal', is a feature of the annual Urs.

Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, whose real name was Syed Muhammad Usman was born in 1177 AD in Marwand, Iran. He reportedly stayed in Sehwan for six years and is believed to have performed several miracles. He reportedly died at the age of 97.

The PIA was operating special flights for the three-day celebrations, for the convenience of those travelling to Sehwan. Additional railway services were also offered during the three-day period.

The Moderate Voices of the Sufi Tradition

By Jay Tolson, "Paying Attention to the "Other Islam" - U.S. News and World Report - Washington, D.C., USA
Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, U. S. efforts to identify and support moderate voices within the Islamic world have been inconsistent and fumbling. Yet it is becoming increasingly clear that the long-term success in fighting terrorism will depend far more on the result of Islam's own internal debate than on the outcomes of the fighting in either Iraq or Afghanistan.

To the extent that it can influence that debate, the next U. S. administration might consider paying closer attention to followers of the Sufi tradition, a mystical and philosophical current within Islam. ("Sufi" itself as a term may have derived from the Arab word for wool, in reference to the simple, rough cloak worn by early Muslim ascetics).

In his new book, The Other Islam: Sufism and Global Harmony, Stephen Schwartz, a journalist and executive director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism in Washington, D.C., argues that Sufism "offers the clearest Muslim option for reconciliation between the Judeo-Christian and Islamic worlds, as well as fulfillment of the promise that Islam shall be a religion of peace." U. S. News spoke with the author, himself a convert to Islam.
Excerpts:

What is Sufism?
Sufism is the esoteric, metaphysical, and mystical tradition within Islam, similar to and influencing [Jewish mystical] kabbalah and Catholic spirituality. It is the tradition in Islam that looks behind the sacred texts, behind the practice, behind the outward manifestations of the religion, seeking the inner truth, the truth of the heart.

When and where did Sufism emerge within Islam?
Sufis say that Sufism begins with Islam itself. There is the famous concept that the Creator was a hidden treasure who wanted to be known. And almost all Sufis trace their lineage back to Caliph Ali, who was a relative and fourth successor [caliph] of Muhammad. The first Sufis are generally considered to be the Basra school in southern Iraq in the first century and a half after the death of the Prophet, and actually the first famous one is a woman, Rabiya Al-Adawiyya. She was the first person to speak eloquently of divine love and love for God and God's love for creation and humanity.

Of the some 1.2 billion Muslims today, approximately how many are Sufis?
Husain Haqqani, who is now Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, had a conversation with me about this, and he said that we were pretty legitimate in saying that half of the Muslims in the world either are Sufis or consider themselves to be pretty much under Sufi influence or in some ways follow Sufi precepts. When you start breaking it down demographically and look at large Muslim societies like India, Indonesia, Egypt, Morocco, French-speaking west Africa, Turkey, and some parts of Central Asia, that figure of about half makes sense.

I've developed the proposition that you have two kinds of Sufism. You have a kind of generally diffuse Sufism in Muslim societies where basically the Islam of the whole society is very saturated with Sufism. Indonesia is one specific example of this. Then, overlapping with that, you have societies with the organized tariqat [orders], where Sufism is a social institution. In countries like Morocco, Kosovo, Turkey, Sufism is really belonging to a movement, going on Tuesday or Saturday night to dhikrs [ceremonies devoted to remembering God]; it's having a sheik and going to regular lectures, and participating in some of the social-welfare activities.

Taking a complicated case such as Iran, would you say that its deep Sufi tradition could potentially be a counterweight to the political-ideological Islam that now dominates?
I would say in Iran, and also in Saudi Arabia and to a less visible extent in Iraq, Sufism represents the main cultural, social, and religious alternative to the ideological forms of Islam that have recently dominated.

In Iran, the situation is very complicated because of the obstacles to reporting on what is really going on inside the country. Part of the argument of my book is that in both Saudi Arabia and Iran the Sufis can provide the basis for a transition away from the model of ideological Islamic governance toward a more normal type of society in which religion plays a large role, just as it does in Mexico or Poland, but a normal role.

Why have some Muslims, particularly those called fundamentalists or puritans, objected to Sufism?
There are two objections. There is the theological objection, which begins with Ibn Taymiyya in the 13th century and continues with Wahhabisim starting 250 years ago, and that simply says that the Sufis elevate the saints or the sheiks or the Prophet himself to the equivalent of God, that this is like the Christians who view Jesus as a divine being, and that this is against the Islamic principle that only God is worthy of worship. That is the theological objection.

But in the 19th century, you have a situation in which the Ottoman Empire is heavily involved with Sufism; you also have the Persian Empire, which became Shia under Sufi guidance. These empires are the leading Islamic states at the time, and there was a group of Islamic reformers who looked at the situation of Islam, and especially the weakness of Islam faced by the West and the problems of western imperialism, and they said, "Well, Islam is weak because of the superstitious practices of praying over graves, the dhikrs, following sheiks, believing in saints."

So you have two streams that object to Sufism, the stream of puritanism and the stream of reformism. And course they could hook up and combine, as they did in Wahhabism.
As you point out in your book, Wahhabis are probably the biggest foes of Sufism.I've said for a long time you can have two visions of Islam as a religion, just as we can have two visions of Christianity as a religion.

You can view religion as a fairly narrow set of doctrines that require fairly rigid obedience in which the emphasis is on strictness, discipline, and outward adherence. Or you can see religion in civilizational terms. If you think the world is impressed when a young Muslim commits an act of terror, you are wrong, because the world is much more impressed by cultural achievements. The picture of the Taj Mahal means a lot more than a headline about a bombing to make people respect and become interested in Islam. The biggest difference to me is that Wahhabis don't view Islam civilizationally. They're against decorating mosques, against music, against anything beyond saying the prayers, going to the mosque on Fridays, keeping the prayers limited, maintaining this extremely puritanical, fundamentalistic, and limited view of religion as a set of doctrines according to which you live life in a very limited manner.

If you see that there is a variety of Islamic cultures, if you accept, for example, that most Indonesian women are not going to cover their faces, if you see that each of the Islams, the Islam of the Kazakhs or the Islam of the Moroccans, has a specific cultural character that is still Islam and believes in one God, one Prophet, and one Koran but also accepts that there is much else that goes with it, that's the Sufi mentality.

Why has the United States, and particularly the public-diplomacy arms of the government, been so poor at recognizing and highlighting the importance of Sufism, Sufi leaders, and Sufi organizations and, where possible, supporting them?
First of all, it's a daunting task for any westerners to engage with these issues. I've been engaged with them for a long time, and it's hard to sort them all out.

There is no denying that in the State Department and in the legacy of public diplomacy in dealing with the Islamic world, there has been a bias in favor of dealing with the official authorities, with the clerics, with the Saudi structures, with the Wahhabis and others who claim to represent a normative Islam and who have behind them the vast oil wealth and the special role of Saudi Arabia as an ambiguous but long-standing partner of the United States.

Public diplomacy has not attracted people who know or have much interest in this, and also there is a bias in academic study toward a normative and official Islam.
Now, if the United States or the West were to embark on some sort of wholesale embrace of the Sufis, that could conceivably lead to a problematical outcome. Sufism has always thrived because of its autonomy and its independence, and we can't compromise its spiritual autonomy in the name of a short-term or even long-term political advantage.

However, there are certain things, just in terms of the human-rights responsibilities of western democracies, that we should be able to do for the Sufis. In places where Sufis are under physical attack from Wahhabis—for example, in Macedonia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, or Iraq—I think democratic governments, human-rights organizations, and NGOs have a moral responsibility to point this out and engage in diplomatic interventions and to make it clear they are on the side of Sufis.

But first of all, that means that they have to sit down with them, meet with them, get to know them, invite them to diplomatic receptions, and consult with them fairly regularly. As long as the consultation is one that is based on respect instead of vulgar recruitment, I think it would be beneficial for both sides.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

From His Infinite Store

By M.V. Kamath, "Spiritual renaissance and Sri Ramakrishna" - Organiser - New Delhi, India
2008 Issues: August 24

The 19th century was remarkable in many ways. Between 1526 and the first Battle of Panipat and the slow deterioration and final collapse of the Mughal Empire in 1857, a period of roughly three centuries and a quarter, Hinduism was under great strain.

With the arrival of the British and Christian missionaries, Hinduism was under no less strain. Islamic and later Christian onslaught had led Hindu society to do some hard thinking.

In Bengal, the first state to come under British administration, it led to the establishment of the Brahmo Samaj. It was also Bengal which gave Hinduism one of its most powerful protagonists. One suspects that the times called for such a man.

Born on February 17, 1836, to a devoted and deeply religious couple, Kushudiram and Chandra Devi Chattopadhyaya, he was named Ramakrishna. Called Gadadhar in his childhood—his friends called him Gadai—Ramakrishna was to make history as few others of his time like Dadabhai Naoroji (1825-1917) or Pherozeshah Mehta (1845-1915) did.

We must remember the times. Those were days when the British looked down on Indian culture and civilisation in no uncertain terms as low, and condemned Hinduism as backward and mired in superstition. It was fashionable among the newly set up Bengali intellectuals to heap scorn on their own ancestral religion.

Something had to happen. It did. A child was born in a mud and thatch hamlet of Kamarkapur, eighty six miles north west of Calcutta. Then history took its course. Right from his boyhood, Ramakrishna as the child was named, showed spiritual tendencies. The author, Mehrotra, says that, “all while during those sylvan years (of his boyhood), Gadadhar’s body and mind were being made ready from within, for the awesome transformations that were to thrust him into terrifying, unknown, unlimited inner spaces.”

Terrifying is the right word. It is unimaginable that while he was still a boy, he attained spontaneous samadhi, a state of superconsciousness that was an unthought of phenomenon to the family. Once, when a Brahmin guru who was appointed to initiate Gadadhar into priesthood and had whispered a holy word in Gadadhar’s ears, it is reported that he uttered a loud cry and plunged into deep concentration that lasted for about five days!

There was strange ‘relationship’ between Gadadhar and the Goddess Kali. If he felt separated from Her, he would fall into a trance! As the appointed priest to Dakhshineshwar Temple, it is said that he was in daily communion with the Mother Goddess. Sometimes he would feel he had lost Her. His search would drive everyone at Dakshineshwar to paroxyms.

Some thought he was a mad man. His behaviour was unexplainable. In his young days he was known to be very caste conscious. Strange to think that he would be that. But he overcame it. He was frequently unconventional. Sometimes he would spend a great part of the day and night in a cremation ground, deep in meditation.

One never knew what he would do or what would happen to him at any given moment of time. Once, when performing a ritual, he began to shake uncontrollably and gradually became rigid and went into samadhi. This was to become a major feature of his life in the years to come.

His family got him married to a beautiful girl who came to be known as Sarada Devi. That didn’t change Sri Ramakrishna, as he came to be known. He merely became his wife’s spiritual guide. He left his child bride with his mother and worked at Dakhshineshwar where he undertook sadhana.

Then a women, a Bhairavi, came into his life who guided Sri Ramakrishna methodically, meticulously and consciously to peaks of spiritual vision and even took him through tantric sadhanas. She was to leave him in due course.

Then an advaitin monk, Totapuri by name, came into his life, towards the end of 1864. This was to lead Sri Ramakrishna into another mode of spiritual attainment. He went into nirvikalpa samadhi for an unbelievable six months without food or water. It is difficult to believe all these feats in this day and age. But these are recorded.

Once, a friend who had become a sufi told Sri Ramakrishna of the values of Islam. Without hesitation, Sri Ramakrishna decided that he would seek them. He dressed himself like a Muslim, with a prayer cap, recited Islamic prayers five times a day and even felt disinclined to see the forms of Hindu gods and goddesses, to the utter disgust of his devotees.

Then he gave that up and practiced Christianity, fascinated by the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Years later he was to say that all paths lead to the same source and all religions are true, Sri Ramakrishna’s spiritual journey lasted long and unevenly, but in the end he was to reach a stage where his spiritual status was acknowledged in full and he began to attract disciples from every segment of society.

Mehrotra says Sri Ramakrishna “gave to them all, without stint, from his infinite store of realisation”. Among them was Narendranath Datta, who was later to be transformed into Swami Vivekananda, born in Calcutta on January 12, 1863 of an aristocratic Kayastha family. How Narendra was transformed from a cynical, questioning young man to an ardent devotee is a story told in detail.

Narendra was at first violently disturbed by Sri Ramakrishna’s spiritual power. How could he become a disciple of a mad man, he would ask himself. Sri Ramakrishna eluded judgment. He was a challenge and a riddle. It was when Sri Ramakrishna knocked down Narendra by the mere touch of his palm, that Narendra was to realise the spiritual prowess of one he took as his guru.

Sri Ramakrishna passed away on August 16, 1886 when he was hardly fifty. Sarada Devi was distraught until she heard the words of faith: “I have only passed from one room to another.”

One can’t imagine a more thrilling recounting of the story of the Saint of Dakhshineshwar. It is even difficult to imagine that such a person existed.

It must have taken Mehrotra years of immense research to write this magnificent biography, but he has done full justice to his subject. To say that it is an illuminating work is to make an understatement. Sri Ramakrishna was Thakur, the Master. This book tells how it all came about and understandably holds one spell-bound with the mystic unfolding of events.

Thakur: A Life of Sri Ramakrishna; Rajiv Mehrotra; Penguin Books; pp 178, Rs 250.00

Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi-110 017

On a Space Odyssey in the Inner Landscape of the Travellers

By Kanakalatha Mukund, "Travel encounters" - The Hindu - Chennai, India
Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Persian travel narratives of a crucial period of transformation and contact

Travel writing constitutes a distinctive literary genre, combining subjective perceptions with objective description of distant peoples and places, which open a window to an alien world to the reader.

However, the abiding perception is that the medieval and early modern travel-account is the sole preserve of European travellers; along with this goes the implicit assumption that western travel writing is “factual” while the “other” (that is Asian) travel writing is “fictional”.

This persists in spite of the long tradition of travel writing in Asia, from China which has produced many travel accounts, like the works of Chinese Buddhist monks Fahien and Hsuan Tsang among others, combining “travel-description linked with xenology.”

From West Asia we have, in the medieval period, the accounts of India by al-Biruni and later, by Ibn Batuta.

The main contention of the authors is that there exists a large volume of non-western travel literature little publicised though it might be. They specifically concentrate on accounts produced in different social and historical contexts in an extended region from Iran to India which was “inhabited by ‘Indo-Persian’ culture.”

In this zone, Persian was the dominant language and had become the main language not only of migrants from Iran or central Asia, but also of the local Hindus. There was thus a shared language, culture and literary tradition forged by the extensive use of Persian.

After thus setting out the basic contours of the background of the book, the authors begin a leisurely exploration of various travel accounts (safar nama) to India. The main objective of the authors is not to interpret the travel accounts by breaking up the text into “bite-sized fragments” but to “consciously follow its grain.”

Muzaffar Alam and Sanjay Subrahmanyam take the reader on a space odyssey over four centuries of the changing political landscape of India. They begin with a Sufi saint who fled from Delhi before Timur’s invasion to reach Gulbarga in the Deccan. The other two early travellers, Abdur Razzak and Nikitin, are better known and visited Vijayanagara and the Bahmani kingdoms at the height of their power and glory.

After an account of two “courtly encounters” with the Mughals, two chapters are devoted to travellers from Iran who came to India to seek their fortunes in the service of the Mughals. These capture a gamut of complex perceptions on the part of the travellers. Mughal India was clearly the most prosperous state in the region and was the land of opportunity for Iranians. Yet they remained convinced of the superiority of their own culture, while India was the inferior “other” with its largely non-Muslim population.

The authors point out that the present-day vision of a magical third world of solidarity certainly did not exist in the early modern period, and that the bonds which did exist were based on a few common points of reference.

Exchanges
While these works represented travel from the west to the east, people also travelled from India to the west. We are referred to the work of Khwaja Abdul Karim who travelled to Mecca accompanying Nadir Shah after his conquest of Delhi.

The last chapter deals with exchanges between the Ottoman Empire and the Mughals who, though conscious of their own importance and power, also regarded the Ottomons with deference because they were the custodians of the important Islamic centres of worship. This was acknowledged as a reference point of higher authority, and Tipu Sultan, in fact, used his interactions with the Ottomons to legitimise his own standing as the ruler of Mysore.

The book has an easy flowing style with a lively commentary on the various travellers visited in the book though the authors at times seem too caught up in the inner landscape of the travellers, which renders some parts of the book a little tedious. It must also be said, that the bizarre descriptions in the travel accounts do lend themselves to the observation that these are travel fiction and not facts.

This is a book that needs to be read at a leisurely pace for its flavour to be fully absorbed and appreciated.
INDO-PERSIAN TRAVELS IN THE AGE OF DISCOVERIES 1400-1800: Muzaffar Alam, Sanjay Subrahmanyam; Cambridge University Press, Cambridge House, 4381/4, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhli-110002. Rs. 695.

Through Suffering Beyond It

By Dr. Nilanshu Kumar Agarwal, "Poetry of Immense Grief: An Interview with Kamla Kapur" - My Himachal - Sirmour, Himachal Pradesh, India

Monday, August 18, 2008

Kamla Kapur is a sensitive poetic voice, who lives half the year in a remote Kullu Valley in the Himalayas and the other half in California. Her poetry and short stories have been published in the original English and in Hindi and Punjabi translation in several journals and magazines.

In 1977, she won the prestigious The Sultan Padamsee Award for Playwriting in English. Her full length play, The Curlew’s Cry, was produced by Yatrik, New Delhi. A Punjabi translation of her play, Clytemnestra was produced by The Company in Chandigarh.

Her award-winning Zanana, was produced at the National School of Drama, New Delhi. Seven of her plays were published in Enact, New Delhi.

Since 1985, Ms Kapur has been commuting between the USA and India. Her full length plays, Hamlet’s Father, Kepler Dreams, and Clytemnestra were showcased at the Marin Shakespeare Festival in San Francisco, Gas Lamp Quarter Theatre in San Diego, and Dramatic Risks Theatre Group in New York, respectively. She was selected by the New Mexico Arts Division as the Playwright in Residence for two years.

She has recently completed her first novel, The Autobiography of Saint Padma the Whore, a chapter of which was published by in Our Feet Walk The Sky (Aunt Lute Press, Berkeley, California, USA), and a fantasy novel, Malini in Whirlwood.

Ms. Kapur has published two books of poetry: the critically acclaimed, As A Fountain In A Garden (Tarang Press. Del Mar, CA, USA-Hemkunt Publishers Private, Ltd., India, 2005) and Radha Sings (Rolling Drum and Dark Child Press, USA, 1987).

Ms. Kapur was also on the faculty of Grossmont College in San Diego, California for 18 years and taught creative writing courses in play writing, poetry, creative non-fiction, fiction, and courses in mythology, Shakespeare, and Women’s Literature. Kamla Kapur was also a freelance writer for The Times of India, The Hindustan Times and The Tribune; she had taught English Literature at Delhi University too. This multi-faceted literary genius talks to Dr. Nilanshu Kumar Agarwal in an illuminating email interview.

NKA: Pain is of paramount importance in As A Fountain In A Garden. For example, the expression “and left me/ here, / with this absence, this gift/ of grief” emotionally presents a glimpse of the seething volcano of grief inside.

Has the production of the just-mentioned poetry collection helped you in the release of your emotions of grief, anxiety and pain? I suppose, by the creation of this collection, you must have found some release, as literature is cathartic and therapeutic. What do you say?

KK: I don’t know how I would have survived the experience of my husband’s suicide without processing it through poetry.

It’s not to say that people who don’t write poetry don’t survive, or survive well, but without the outlet of poetry I might have fossilized in my grief, or developed a chronic habit of sorrow or even bitterness, and certainly a debilitating regret and guilt.

Poetry that is not merely release – crying is also that – is an adventure of the soul in its journey towards itself. It demands an utter honesty of experience and expression without which writing remains only cathartic and does not touch the depth at which it becomes art.

The discipline of crafting a poem with patience and honesty gave me the perspective and the detachment to pursue a subject that was very painful for me. Making art in this sense is the highest spiritual activity of humans, for it takes one through suffering beyond it.


(...)


The interviewer, Dr. Nilanshu Kumar Agarwal, is Senior Lecturer in English at Feroze Gandhi College, Rae Bareli, (U.P.), India.

His interviews with a number of contemporary literary figures, as well as his research papers, book reviews, articles and poems have appeared in publications, including The Vedic Path, Quest, Pegasus, IJOWLAC, The Journal, Promise, The Raven Chronicles, Yellow Bat Review, Carved in Sand, Turning the Tide, Blue Collar Review, Bridge-in-Making, Confluence, Poetcrit, Kafla Intercontinental, Hyphen and South Asian Review. His book on Stephen Gill is to be published shortly.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Relentlessly Displaced

By M.D. Nalapat, "Jammu confronts separatists" - Organiser - India
2008 Issues: August 24

After more than four years, during which only a high degree of public vigilance as well as a determined stand by the military prevented the UPA from effectively agreeing to a joint control of Kashmir with Pakistan, the people of India know that the Sonia team is unwilling to protect the secular ethos of India from the jihadist assault.

Apart from re-igniting jihad in Kashmir, the second major “contribution” of the Sonia team has been the spread of jihadist impulses from Kashmir to the rest of India. Till a resident of India’s hi-tech capital drove an explosives-laden car into an airport in the UK, our country could with pride point to the fact that none outside Kashmir had fallen prey to the blandishments of those who have made a business out of terrorism. Not a single Indian Muslim fought in the Kashmir insurgency, as distinct from nationals of the UK, Germany, Sudan and of course Pakistan. After more than four years of Manmohan Singh and Shivraj Patil, cities such as Mumbai, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Bengalooru and Jaipur are hosting teeming colonies of jihadists. The intention of this multiplying brigade is to damage the prospects for India to emerge as a significant economic force. Should jihad become a routine of daily life in the metropolises, as the recent blasts indicate is happening,that would push India’s growth rate back to the 2 per cent “Nehru Rate of Growth”. As it is, the deliberate deflationary policies of the Sonia team have led to a deceleration in growth and an acceleration in inflation.

Already, corporates across the world are re-appraising their plans to shift major centres to India, and are choosing alternative locations in places such as Singapore,which have governments that are better able to combat international jihad. By the time Manmohan Singh demits office in 2009, India will most likely have joined Pakistan at the bottom of the list of countries where international investment is headed.That would be a victory for the ISI as sweet as the revenge they are now exacting on the US in Afghanistan for displacing the Taliban in 2001.

Since 1974, when Indira Gandhi decided to hand over Kashmir to Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, the state has moved steadily away from its secular traditions. From the outset, the new dispensation made clear through its policies that it was concerned only with the wellbeing of the Kashmir Valley and did not care for Jammu and Ladakh. Also, that Sunnis would enjoy a privileged status, with Shias and religious minorities being treated in a second-class fashion. Subsequently, within the Sunni community, Wahabbis were given preference, and moderate groups steadily marginalised. The expansion in the number of religious schools teaching exclusivism and hate that began during the latter half of the 1970s has continued unabated to this date. It is from these schools that thousands were recruited to fight the ISI-sponsored jihad in Kashmir. Interestingly, the number of Wahabbi youths illegally going across the Line of Control increased sharply after the Farooq Abdullah administration was replaced in 1984 with that led by his brother-in-law G M Shah, a change imposed by the architect of the 1974 re-installation of Sheikh Abdullah, Indira Gandhi.

Shah embarked on a process of open communalisation of the Kashmir administration, hoping thereby to win a base for himself. Wahabbis replaced Sunni moderates in positions of responsibility, and religious schools began sending selected students to Pakistan’s training camps, without any reaction from the central government. It was because New Delhi slept over Kashmir from 1984 to 1988 (the same way that the UPA is sleeping now) that Pakistan was able to launch a deadly insuregency in 1989 that almost separated the state from the rest of the country geographically. Although the sacrifice of the military and the security forces prevented the ISI’s plans from succeeding, the mental landscape of the Kashmir Valley has evolved in a manner far more congruent with the fanaticism of jihadists across the border than the Sufi traditions of Kashmir. Today, Sufi influence has all but vanished in the state, in part because of the fact that almost all national media outlets—both print and television—allow Wahabbis to monopolise column space and airtime. Secular, moderate voices among the Sunnis are ignored and even derided, during the few times that they are allowed to present their view. And since 1990, when the wahabbist Mufti Mohammad Sayed was appointed Home Minister of India by V P Singh, the Wahabbis have sought to expand their poisonous grip to include Ladakh and Jammu as well. Sufi, Shia, Hindu and Buddhist traditions are being relentlessly displaced by the Wahabi ethos. Small wonder that Jammu is now wracked by bombs, and Ladakh is going the same way.

Although the Congress Party won most of its assembly seats by promising an administration that would respect all groups, faiths and regions, yet on Sonia Gandhi’s intervention Mufti Sayed was thrust down the throats of moderate Kashmiris as chief minister. He worked to ensure the spread of influence of those favouring jihad, and has been so succesful that Kashmir today is where it was in 1988: on the cusp of a jihad. How many innocent lives, how many brave servicemen, will need to be sacrificed to save Kashmir from the perli that is now upon it? And will there ever be a reckoning for those national leaders guilty of having revived jihad in Kashmir, six years after its back had been broken in the field? Unlikely. At worst, they will go into exile to Italy, a land filled with noble architecture and immense scenic beauty.

Whether Muslim, Sikh, Christian or Hindu, each citizen of this country will face a grim future, unless international jihad be halted from its current all-India expansion. It was not accidental that the Union Home Ministry enabled SIMI to escape a ban, by giving insufficient evidence to the Delhi High Court. In like fashion, lack of will ensured the escape from Malaysia of Ottavio Quatrocchi in 2002. Evidence that had convinced a Swiss court had apparently not been enough for a Malaysian court, leading to the inference that official agencies then were as reluctant for their presumed target to lose as the Home Ministry has been in the case of SIMI.

After more than four years, during which only a high degree of public vigilance as well as a determined stand by the military prevented the UPA from effectively agreeing to joint control of Kashmir with Pakistan, the people of India know that the Sonia team is unwilling to protect the secular ethos of India from the jihadist assault. And in the form of the peoples movement in Jammu against the June 29 surrender by Governor N N Vohra to the dictates of the fanatics, the people have now taken matters into their own hands. Should the number of bombings and other jihadi outrages grow in the months ahead, what is happening in Jammu will get replicated across India. This is nothing less than a popular movement against Wahabbism, as reflected in official surrender to jihadist dictates. Across the major cities of India, people are on the verge of taking matters into their own hands,when confronted by the impotence of a state functioning under the control of Sonia Gandhi. Today Jammu, tomorrow the nation.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Dust Capable of Loving and Writing

By May Kaddah, "Bahgat’s Books" - Egypt Today - Cairo, Egypt

August 2008 Volume # 29 Issue 08

Religion, politics and humor can be a tricky mix, but Ahmad Bahgat’s writing on Egyptian life hits the mark

Contemplative and quiet, satirical and resonant, mystical, deep and almost intangible. These are words that describe the long trail of thoughts left behind in the books of writer Ahmad Bahgat.

Especially observant of the world around him, Bahgat has written social satires that portray his understanding of Egyptian culture over the years.
In his short stories and novels, Bahgat explores the psyche of Egyptian men and women; of husbands and wives and their struggle in everyday life to fit into a cultural frame set by religion and tradition. Empathetic with the underdog in society, his plots also portray hardships in the life of petty employees inflicted by governmental negligence and nonchalance. Never lacking in humor, he explores major social corruption and the typical Egyptian mindset with the simplest of words.

Aiming to explain great truths in a way that anyone can understand, Bahgat communicates with his readers through plain language. As a daily columnist in Akhbar Al-Youm, his style throughout his books remains unpretentious, with a narrative, journalistic voice. Having also written the socially critical piece, Kilmitayn We Bass (Only Two Words), for radio, he doesn’t lack skill in reaching the mind of his audience through his lively imagination and poignant sense of humor.

Simplifying the Complex
Bahgat’s language remains simple even when tackling more complicated subjects. He ventures into the realm of religion, narrating stories from the Qur’an and exploring different religious dimensions. The introductions of his books always refer to an internal voice which compels him to write about Allah and his messages to mankind. In the introduction of his most popular book, Anbeya’ Allah (The Prophets of Allah), he explains in his own words, “I was writing as if another person inside me was dictating.”

Bahgat takes it upon himself to decipher these messages as he finds them in the lives of prophets and animals mentioned in the Qur’an. In Allah fil ‘Aquida al-Islameyya: Resala fil Tawhid (Allah in the Muslim Faith: a New Message in Monotheism), Bahgat explains that most modern books about God only trace the development of the idea of God for mankind.

He specifically dedicates this book to Muslims as he explains, in the words of Imam Mohamed El-Ghazali, that most books written about monotheism for theology students are difficult to understand, with tough language. With plenty of faith and inspiration, Bahgat tries to fill this gap between man and his understanding of the divine by analyzing and referring to stories of the Qur’an.

Yet, in his own words, he seems burdened with the task, as he confesses, “I know it is daring for dust like me to write about God. But what can be done if God has created dust capable of loving and writing?”

Religious Contemplations
Even though he started out by writing social satires and comedies, a religious undertone always constitutes part of Bahgat’s plots. He writes about an ongoing battle that began at the beginning of time between forces of good and evil. Earth is the battleground and the bounty is mankind.

The history of this battle is recounted in the masterpiece of his religious writing, Anbeya’ Allah. This popular piece has been published 35 separate times and translated into five languages, including English and German. Each version has sold over 10,000 copies.

The subject and title of the book is a classic subject in the world of Islamic theology, but Bahgat’s book remains unique in its ability to communicate with a broader audience through simple use of the Arabic language. The Qur’an is comprehensively explained, as Bahgat points out reasons for existence and the direction in which mankind is heading.

Giving a Voice to Animals
Divine messages are not only sent by humans to other humans but also by animals to humans. What may seem just a bird, a mammal or a plant is in fact to Bahgat an aya (sign) of Allah — a divine message. “I used to think of animals that accompanied prophets or were in his service and would visit the zoo almost everyday and stand in front of cages trying to break the obstacle of silence that enwraps these creatures and realized that there is genuine honesty in these creatures that doesn’t exist in human beings.”

Not finding a single book telling the tale of these animals, Bahgat took it upon himself to shed light upon these creatures who have been lost in what seems to him the greater light of prophets. This resulted in the Qassas el-Hiyawan fil Qur’an (Stories of Animals in the Qur’an).

“I did not envy [the prophet] Solomon for the gold with which he covered his palace walls because I know that when he died he did not take any of it with him. I did not envy him either because he could master the jinn, because I have no desire to enslave anybody. I did not envy him either for being a Muslim because I have been taught Islam by the most perfect of Muslims. I envied Solomon for one thing: the ability to understand the language of birds and animals and to speak with them.”

The personification of the animals played the most significant role in the writing of his book. As Bahgat explains, “the dominant weaving of this book is done in an artistic way, meaning it has imagination and creativity yet there are two other main streaks with this main weave and they are the religious and scientific streaks.”

In the religious thread, Bahgat explains, the plot is the same as that of the prophet the animal is serving but narrated from the animal’s point of view. For the scientific side, he researched the habits of the animals in his book to keep their behaviour factually accurate.

Repeatedly, the voices of animals wonder at the evil nature of mankind. The crow describes that on the day when he had to teach Cain how to bury Abel, “I felt an invisible force directing my wings towards Cain. I didn’t like Cain [but] a blessed angel ordered me to fly to him so I landed in front of Cain and started digging.

I evened the wings of the dead crow to his side then I put him in his grave. I screamed twice then piled dust over him then looked at the son of Adam. I flew towards the West and heard Cain as I was flying away, screaming how he failed to be like me and bury his brother. I imagined his cry was full of regret.”

Regardless of the evil or ignorance that emanates fr om mankind, Bahgat doesn’t fail to point out the superiority of humans. At the end of his narrative, the crow confesses that even though he knows the tragedy of Cain and Abel may repeat itself, he doesn’t know the wisdom behind it and admits, “It is not my job to know maybe mankind does.”

Containing 16 different stories of the Qur’an’s animal characters, Qassas el-Hiyawan fil Qur’an digs deep into history to understand and attain lost facts. Bahgat explains that, “all the time while writing I felt that the history page that tells the story of these animals has long been turned, but I am sure that nothing gets lost, not a word, not a sentiment, not an image or a situation.

It’s all hidden in the memory of time and becomes a secret eventually and it is known that looking for secrets is difficult [but] it was as if something was whispering inside me and telling me about all these secrets and where to find them.”

With such an interest in secrets, it is not surprising that Bahgat also ventured to write about Sufism.

Fascinated by the spiritual side of Islam and not just the ritualistic, Bihar el Hob ‘ind el Sufiyya (The Sea of Love of the Sufis) remains Bahgat’s most romantic book. Religion is an art to be mastered with love, he says.

“This book is about the art of divine love.” In it, the spirit and the mind join to explore and obey a higher power through love.

Not surprisingly, when it comes to inspiration, especially for his religious writings, Bahgat explains, “inspiration is God’s bestowal of success on a human.” The Sufis he most admires are El-Junaid, Jalal El-Din El-Rumi and El-Nathri.

Social Satire
Bahgat’s social satires analyze the life of the Egyptian lower classes and attribute their actions to their inherently Egyptian good nature — or to the whispering of the devil. In many ways, his early writing points to the religious direction to which he was headed later on in life.

In 30 Seconds of Love, a compilation of short stories exploring different social dimensions, his story, A Conference of Egyptian Devils, portrays the everyday life of devils as a mirror image of humans and their daily activities. The issue of the life of the masses and government shortcomings are raised as a young Egyptian devil struggles, exhausted and frustrated, with his work to corrupt Egyptians, for the simple reason that Egyptians are already so corrupt.

A conference is held for the young devil, along with 20,000 others who have filed for unpaid leave from their work in Egypt, or asked to be relocated, to give them a chance to defend themselves. This satire mocks the Egyptian social and governmental hierarchy through scenes of the everyday life of the typical poor Egyptian citizen.

Not lacking in humor, this conference takes place on the moon, “where there was a life-size picture of the son of Adam and under it a slogan for his fall. The General Director of Evil said ‘the participants should note that in spite of our animosity with human beings, we do not wish to take on their bad manners when speaking to elders.’”

As young and old try to defend themselves, an old and wise devil sends a message to the reader that, “all we do as devils we don’t actually do, it’s all acts of circumstance.” He then concludes, “In all honesty, we can not earn a living anymore in Egypt mankind has beat us [in doing evil] there.”

Politically Poignant
Political and social critiques are best portrayed in Tuhotmos 400 Bishart (Thutmosis 400, Conditionally), Bahgat mixes comedy with political sarcasm.

Thutmosis is the first Egyptian space shuttle that travels to the moon after 399 failed trials, piloted by characters Bayoumi, Tafida and Atrees. Unfortunately, the shuttle gets lost in space because they can’t find the moon, which seems to have changed its location.

The shuttle enters open space, which is regarded as American territory. Meanwhile, Tafida decides to make the hearty garlicky meal of molokheya to raise her team’s spirits and opens the shuttle windows to let in some air. Not familiar with the smell of molokheya, the Americans conclude that the Egyptians are testing nuclear weapons in space.

Unmerciful sarcasm throughout the book mocks reactions of Egyptian government employees to what started out as an event to boost national pride and instead became an international crisis between Egypt and America.

Though Bahgat’s books are religiously inclined, he does venture into the world of politics. After the death of Anwar Sadat, he was nagged by actor Ahmed Zaki to write about the life of the assassinated president. The result was the script for the blockbuster movie Ayam El-Sadat (Days of Sadat) starring the late Ahmed Zaki, Mona Zaki and Mervat Amin.

Besides the excellence of the cast, Bahgat’s approach contributed to the success of the movie due to his adherence to historical facts — an approach which gained him praise and appreciation from the Sadat family and the public.

The author’s social comedy Muzakirat Zowg (Diaries of a Husband) was produced as a TV series that portrays the marital relations of the lower and middle classes and features the theme of nagging wives. Also the movie Imra’a min Al-Qahira (A Woman from Cairo) featuring Magda El-Khateeb was based on his work.

Bahgat’s journalistic career placed him among the Egyptian people and helped him hone a simple and friendly voice that Egyptians young and old can respond to.

Highlights of his career include his coverage of the 1967 war, which earned him respect as a writer for Akhbar Al-Youm. He was later assigned by the same newspaper to meet with Alberto Moravia, one of the leading Italian novelists of the twentieth century.

Touring the world in pursuit of his journalistic career has left Bahgat with deep humanitarian concerns.

In his Sandouq el Dunya (The Box of the World) column, a daily feature in Akhbar Al-Youm, which he continues to write today, Bahgat provides commentary on what the average Egyptian faces in their daily life.

At the end of a career that has left many others in the shade, Bahgat leaves a trail of books behind him that make their way as quietly and humbly through the world as he has done throughout his life, and will continue to for years to come.

[Picture by Khaled Habib]

[Also on Ahmad Bahgat books: Sarcasm and Sufism by Samir Sobhi Al-Ahram on Authors A to Z http://www.arabworldbooks.com/authors/ahmad_bahgat.html#selections].

Plans for Smooth Flow

Staff Report, "Urs of Baba Bulleh Shah" - The Daily Mail - Islamabad, Pakistan
Monday, August 18, 2008

Kasur: District Coordination Officer (DCO) has directed officers of various departments to make necessary arrangements for providing best possible facilities to the devotees reaching here for 251 st urs of Sufi saint Baba Bulleh Shah beginning from Aug 25.

He issued the directions while presiding over a meeting to review the arrangements for the annual urs.

The DCO also directed traffic police to make plans for smooth flow of traffic in the city.

[Baba's picture is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulleh_Shah].

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Immensely Missed

APP, "Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s 11th death anniversary observed" - Associated Press of Pakistan - Pakistan
Saturday, August 16, 2008

Islamabad: The 11th death anniversary of world’s most outstanding vocalists the great Sufi qawwal Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was observed Saturday.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the Pakistani singer who had worked with such Western musicians as Eddie Vedder, Peter Gabriel and progressive guitarist and producer Michael Brook, died at age 48, a private TV channel (Geo News) reported.

Born into a family with a centuries-long tradition of qawwali singing, Khan began recording in the early ‘70s after ignoring his father’s wishes that he pursue medicine.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and was considered as one of the greatest Qawwals in the world.

Khan was a master of qawwali singing, which combines lyrics from Sufi religious poems with hypnotic rhythms and vocal chants.

He never performed in English: he sang in Urdu, Punjabi and Farsi. Khan also captivated many Westerners, including such musicians as Vedder, Joan Osborne and the late Jeff Buckley, as well as Hollywood types like Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins.

Khan had made a great impression on the music scene with his mix of Eastern poetic music with that of the West.

After travelling to London for treatment for liver and kidney problems, Khan was rushed from the airport to Cromwell Hospital, where he suffered a fatal heart attack.

Khan departed from this sphere on the 16th of August 1997, and will be missed immensely by his fans all across the globe.

[Picture from: http://tinyurl.com/66kyqj].

They Have a Message for Us

By Yoginder Sikanand, TwoCircles.net via Mudassir Rizwan, "A different Jammu that I know" - Indian Muslims - San Diego, CA, USA
Saturday, August 16, 2008

The agitation over the Amarnath shrine in Kashmir has now threatened to snowball into a full-fledged communal conflict.

The violence and the passions that have erupted in its wake are reminiscent, although on a much smaller scale, of the terror and mayhem that tore apart Jammu in 1947 in the wake of the Partition.

Some two lakh Muslims, according to some accounts, are said to have been slaughtered in the Jammu region, and many more forced to flee across to Pakistan, while, at the same time, the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley remained almost entirely peaceful.

Communal forces have long had a strong presence in Jammu (and in the Valley as well) and the current agitation in Jammu and the economic blockade of the Kashmir Valley has provided them with a chance to rear their ugly heads once again.

Jammu is burning. Slogan-raising irate mobs. Vehicles and offices on fire. Roads blocked. Long spells of curfew. Dozens of houses of Gujjar Muslims, who have consistently opposed the on-going violence in Kashmir, burnt to ashes. A Jammu different from the one that I like to remember.

For the past almost two decades I have been visiting the Jammu province almost every year without fail, to meet friends, visit places and trek in the mountains.

Jammu advertises itself as the 'City of Temples', but I find the scores of dargahs, gracefully-domed shrines built over the graves of Sufi saints or Pirs that are scattered across the town, more interesting.

Unlike temples and mosques, people of all faiths and castes flock to the dargahs. They provide the only arena where people of different communities participate together in common worship and devotion. They have a message for us in these times of hatred and violence in the name of religion and community, one that few care to hear, as the seemingly endless war in Kashmir and the on-going agitation in Jammu so tragically illustrate.

The stories that are told about several of the shrines in the town—their foundational myths, one could call them—reflect a fascinating historical process of negotiation of inter-community relations in a harmonious way.

These stories are often invoked to stress the point that people of different religions should live together in peace, that God is one, that all humans, at a certain level, are basically the same, and so on.

The first major Sufi to come to the Jammu region was Pir Raushan Ali Shah, whose dargah is located near the famous Raghunath Mandir, in the heart of Jammu town.

He is said to have performed many miracles, which, so it is claimed, so impressed the Hindu Raja of Jammu that he became his devotee and requested him to settle in his city. When the Pir died, the Raja had a grave constructed for him, which today is a popular place of pilgrimage for Hindus and Muslims alike.

Tucked away in an obscure corner of the market named after him in Jammu's busy commercial district is the dargah of Pir Lakhdata. After his death, it is said, half his body was taken by his Muslim disciples and buried according to Muslim rites. To his Muslim followers he is known as Zahir Pir.
The other half of his body was cremated by his Hindu followers, who revere him as Pir Lakhdata.

Another such shared shrine, skirting the boundary walls of the Jammu airport, is the sprawling dargah of Baba Budhan Ali Shah, which is particularly popular among the local Sikhs, for the Baba is said to have been a close friend of Guru Nanak.

At Ramnagar, on the outskirts of Jammu on the road to Srinagar, is the popular Sufi shrine of the Panj Pirs, the five Muslim saints.

Legend has it that five brothers of a Muslim family spent many years at the spot where the shrine stands in meditation and then left to go their own ways.

One day the five Pirs appeared in a dream to the Maharaja and admonished him for sleeping with his feet pointing to their chillah, the place where they used to meditate. The next morning, the Maharaja ordered the spot to be excavated, and an umbrella and five kettledrums were found.

Believing this to be a holy place, he ordered the construction of a dargah there. He then appointed his royal charioteer, Alif Shah, and a Muslim woman, Khurshid Begum, as custodians of the shrine.

The last time I visited the shrine it was looked after by a Hindu Rajput, husband of Khurshid Begum's daughter.

And then there is the shrine of Pir Mitha, located on a promontory on the banks of the Tawi, and connected, through myth and ritual to a Shaivite shrine on the other side of the river.

The Pir is said to have come to Jammu in the reign of Raja Ajab Dev in the 15th century. One day, the story goes, the Raja's wife fell seriously ill. The Pir cured the queen by performing a miracle, as a result of which the king and many of his subjects became his disciples.

Because of this, he had to face stiff opposition from some Hindu priests. His most vehement opponent was Siddh Garib Nath, a Shaivite yogi. However, the two soon became friends. Indeed, so close did they become that they decided to settle down together in the cave where the Pir lived. This cave is known as Pir Khoh or the 'Cave of the Pir'.

Legend has it that the yogi entered the cave and travelled all the way to Mattan in Kashmir, never to return again. After he disappeared, his disciples came to Pir Mitha, requesting him to accept them as his followers. The Pir declined, instructing them to be faithful to their own guru.

When this failed to satisfy them, the Pir relented somewhat and told them that they could, if they wanted, take his title of 'Pir', associated with Muslim mystics. That is why the cave is today called as Pir Khoh and the heads of the Nath yogis who still reside there are known as Pirs.

As I read and hear about Jammu going up in flames, my mind travels to the shrine of Baba Jiwan Shah, in the heart of Jammu town, where I have spent numerous quiet evenings simply watching people—Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and others—pray and distribute food to itinerant mendicants.

The Baba, born in the mid-nineteenth century, took to the Sufi path at a young age, traveling from his native Punjab and finally settling in a Muslim graveyard in Jammu, preaching and making disciples, who included Hindus as well as Muslims.

Among these were Pratap Singh, ruler of Jammu and Kashmir, and his brother Amar Singh. The Maharaja fixed a regular monthly stipend for him and would often invite him to his palace. But, true to his Sufi tradition, he seemed to have cared nothing for power and pelf.

One of his chief disciples was an impoverished man from the Chamar or leather-working caste, considered as 'untouchable' by caste Hindus, who now rests in a dargah of his own adjacent to that of the Baba.

Shrines of men who trod the mystical path, who transcended narrow barriers of caste and creed. Shrines that speak of a different Jammu. Of the possibility of a different way of looking at, dealing with and going beyond with communal differences.

As I pen these lines, I wonder what the men who lie buried below their domes would have to say about the mayhem that is tearing apart their town and beyond in the name of religion and community.

[Visit Two Circles.net http://www.twocircles.net/]

[Picture: Jammu &Kashmir, Amarnath land row. Photo: The Indian Muslim].

Friday, August 22, 2008

Very Bright Future

By Nirmika Singh,"Keep the Faith" - Express India - India

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Sukoon brings alive forgotten songs of Sufi saints

One band is defiantly holding on to the sounds of the past. Sukoon, the month-old Sufi band, is celebrating the growing love for Sufi sounds.

The band moves beyond the usual Abida Parveen and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan numbers, and is going deep into the spiritual rhythms.

“We perform songs by lesser known Sufi writers like Hazrat Mir Dard and Shamsh Tab Rez Baba, apart from Amir Khusrau and the great Baba Bulle Shah,” says Amjad Khan, 31, percussionist of the six-member band.

His brother Kashif Ahmed plays the sarangi while Arshad Khan does wonders with the esraj, one of India’s many dying instruments.

The band is already teaming up with foreign musicians. They have just returned from a tour of Sweden, Austria and Italy, and have their bags packed for more shows abroad.

“It is sad that we do not receive the kind of response in our own country that we get abroad. Here, even mediocre bands that are packaged well are more popular,” laments Siraj Khan as he plucks an Egyptian tune on his mandolin.

It is a treat to watch Sukoon members, with the melancholic sarangi competing with the upbeat darbuka, a Turkish percussion instrument, or the resounding double bass to reach an uplifting crescendo before retreating to a softer and milder plane.

“Our father and teacher, esraj maestro Ustad Allauddin Khan, was doubtful when we wanted to experiment with world music. But he was reassured after watching one of our performances,” says Kashif.

They remain positive. “We will be cutting our album next year and have many concerts booked till then. The future of Sufi music looks very bright,” smiles Amjad.

[Picture: A Man Playing Sarangi. Etching by François Balthazar Solvyns. Photo from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarangi].

The Way to Correct Mistakes

By Paramanand Soobarah, "More shootings in Jammu and Kashmir" - Mauritius Times - Mauritius
Weekly Issue 329, Friday, August 15, 2008

More shootings in Jammu and Kashmir

In retaliation for the reversal of the decision to grant some land for the purpose of creating reception facilities for Hindu pilgrims at the Amarnath Shrine in Kashmir, the Hindus of Jammu blockaded the road to and from Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir [India].

This was a serious blow to the economy of Kashmir and of India, as all the produce of that state is routed to other Indian cities through Jammu. Last week a number of Hindu activists were killed in police firings; the number is not clear as the killing of a Hindu is not a great matter for the present government of India.

It would have been unreasonable to expect the Kashmiris to take this lying down. A large crowd including traders decided to march towards the Line of Control that separates the Indian and Pakistani parts of Kashmir; if they could not send their produce to Indian cities, they could try sending them to Pakistani ones: they have to live. They were stopped by the Police who fired live bullets at them: thirteen Muslims have been killed in the scuffle. Tension in Kashmir is at an all-time high.

The killing of protestors and rioters by police is a shameful crime wherever and whoever by it is committed. It is a matter of great shame that a country that sends satellites around the earth and is planning an expedition to the moon does not have the right equipment for crowd control. Even Israel uses rubber-coated bullets against Hamas rioters.

The normal device used against determined rioters is the water canon. In America they have developed a device that emits rays much like those of microwave cookers that can repel crowds very effectively. If set to work on a serious project, Indian scientists can without any doubt develop devices that control rioting crowds without have to kill or maim any rioter.

The best weapon any government can have against rioting is not to allow any situation to develop into a riot.

It is when politicians and two-way communications between the authorities and the public fail that rioters take over. In the present case it might have been possible to get away with the question of the land for the pilgrims if the plot were smaller, just the amount needed for the facilities, with the rest being a park accessible to everybody, whether a pilgrim or not.

All governments can make mistakes, but the way to correct mistakes is also an important matter.

If Chief Minister Goolam Nabee Azad had been allowed to negotiate with the Muslim protestors about the matter, he could have come up with a face-saving solution.

There certainly is a minority among the Muslim protestors who are not interested in reaching any peaceful solution with the Indian government: they have their own mission from across the border. The way things were handled has only served to make matters worse.

There is no saying how matters will end. No people have ever accepted to live quietly under gun law for ever. But in this case there seems to the added complication that the nature of the people seems to have changed, from Sufism to militant Islamism.

Is Kashmiriyat gone for ever?

[On this topic, read also: http://sufinews.blogspot.com/search?q=Arjimand]

[Picture: Portrait of Maharaja Gulab Singh, former Governor of Jammu of the Sikh Empire of Ranjit Singh, in 1847. (Artist: James Duffield Harding). Photo from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jammu_and_Kashmir].

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Understanding Mutual Woundedness
1 comment:
By Amy Frykholm, "Three faiths, three friends Seattle's interfaith amigos" - The Christian Century - USA
Tuesday, August 26, 2008

The third annual interfaith Passover Seder meal at University Congregational Church in Seattle was a "bring your own wine" event. Tables for 300 guests were impeccably set with goblets and fresh flowers; two kinds of charoset (a pasty blend of fruit and nuts prepared according to both the Ashkenazi and Sephardic styles); two kinds of horseradish (raw and sauced); and baskets of matzo. The tables buzzed with lively conversation.

Rabbi Ted Falcon stood at the front with a guitar player and two singers. He is a trim, white-bearded man who is constantly making jokes, but he also has an air of underlying seriousness, intensity, even melancholy.

"OK," he said. "We'll begin on page 22 of your handout." After two days of watching Falcon lead services, I had learned that he never begins on page one. He is likely to start on page 22, continue on page 11 and move on to page two.

"The Haggadah takes us on a spiritual journey," he says. "We learn to be freed from our inner pharaohs, travel in our wilderness and form our own dreams of the Promised Land.

"The participants at this event—which sold out three weeks before—were Jews, Christians and Muslims. Many came from Bet Alef, Falcon's "meditative synagogue" that meets in one of Seattle's suburbs. Some belonged to University Congregational Church, which was led by Pastor Don Mackenzie until his retirement in June. Others belonged to an experimental congregation led by Sufi Muslim teacher Jamal Rahman and known as the Interfaith Community Church. (Rahman calls it a church, he says, for "lack of a better term"; it's for people who meet on Sundays to explore their "spiritual paths" together, he explains.)

Falcon not only invited members of these three congregations to the Seder but asked Mackenzie and Rahman to speak. And Falcon didn't want generic spirituality talk from them; he wanted Mackenzie to mention Jesus or Paul and Rahman to refer to Muhammad and the Qur'an.

This kind of interfaith gathering is an increasingly common phenomenon across the U.S. Interaction between people of different faiths is hardly new, but a qualitative shift occurred after September 11, 2001, says Kathryn Lohre, assistant director of Harvard University's Pluralism Project. "There was a strong interfaith resurgence, driven by the desire of many people, perhaps Christians especially, to get to know their religious neighbors.

"Lohre says grassroots efforts have sprung up in many places. The old-style interfaith roundtables in which academics or religious leaders gathered to discuss their theological differences in formal meetings have given way to more informal efforts. These are often led or developed by laypeople, as in the case of the Interfaith Youth Core in Chicago, the Faith House in Manhattan, Women Transcending Boundaries in Syracuse and Daughters of Abraham in Detroit. People meet to take part in service projects, talk about family, share holiday celebrations or eat ethnic food.

For Rabbi Ted Falcon, Pastor Don Mackenzie and Brother Jamal Rahman, formal and informal meetings have led to deep friendships. They call themselves the Three Interfaith Amigos. The three men host the Interfaith Talk Radio show in Seattle, meet weekly for mutual spiritual direction and have embarked on writing a book together. Not only has their friendship grown over the years, but their congregations have become closer. A member of Falcon's synagogue leads the Gregorian chant group at Rahman's congregation. A meeting at any of the three congregations will likely include members of the other two.

"When we first started, the three of us were like three circles touching," Falcon says. "But over time, our circles have become more interlocked. We are still distinct circles, but we share more and more together."

In Seattle, the work of the Three Amigos has spawned the Northwest Interfaith Community Outreach, led by business executive John Hale. This organization helps to sponsor interfaith events and encourages what it calls interspiritual communication. Hale has a salesperson's easy smile and ready handshake—he seems like a man who would be comfortable in a corporate boardroom. So it was a little surprising and even unsettling to hear him speak the language of contemporary spirituality. Raised as a Presbyterian, Hale says that his upbringing "lacked nourishment," a nourishment he didn't find until he converted to Catholicism and discovered interfaith work.

For Hale, interfaith work involves both a conversation and a way of life. "It is heart work," he says, "not head work." The image that Hale likes—adapted from Meister Eckhart—is that each faith is a house with a basement. Deep in the basement is a trap door. If you go deep enough, you fall through the trap door into the shared river that flows beneath all faiths, the source of them all.

Hale's assertion of oneness would likely make Lohre at the Pluralism Project cringe. Many people, she notes, think interfaith conversation means "moving toward relativism." But "the assertion that 'at root all religions are the same' just isn't true. If you do any kind of careful comparative religion, you understand just how different religious traditions are." People do not need to adopt the rhetoric of "oneness" in order to care about their religious neighbors, Lohre argues. Relying on that approach misses the complexities of the various religions.

The Three Amigos would in some ways accept and in other ways reject Lohre's point. "The question of boundaries is absolutely essential," Falcon insists. "I must find a way to connect with another faith without taking on its identity. What we are doing is acknowledging other faiths as legitimate paths to a shared universal." The three recently discussed a newspaper editorial that criticized Christian groups for holding Seders in their churches—as if the Seder is a tradition possessed by Christians. The three agreed with the critique. Their own interfaith Seder, they noted, is a Jewish celebration, led by a Jewish rabbi, but with interfaith elements.

The three are also dissatisfied with the kind of interfaith service in which participants try to find a lowest common denominator of faith. Far more intriguing and satisfying to them is offering hospitality to one another in their respective congregations and working with one another on common projects. When they speak at one another's events, they speak from their own Jewish, Christian or Muslim tradition. They cite their own sacred texts and tell stories from their own traditions.

Nevertheless, the Three Amigos also tend to blur the boundaries. For example, Mackenzie has asked Rahman and Falcon to help him serve the elements of communion at a service at University Congregational. For him, it is deeply meaningful to have Rahman and Falcon holding the baskets of bread as the congregation comes forward to share in this central Christian ritual. It links the three men and the three faiths together. It is important to note that the UCC has a tradition of open-table fellowship at communion and that at University Congregational the elements are called "the bread of life" and "the cup of blessing." This communion service does not focus on the christological distinctives of the meal the way that many other Christian services would.

Falcon said that, for him, being part of a Christian communion service at the church felt like being on sacred ground. Sharing bread and wine is very much a part of Jewish culture, and he has himself hosted the sharing of bread and wine with his two friends in many other contexts, including the moment of entrance into the celebration of Shabbat. He said that though he would not hold a communion service in his synagogue, he believed he could participate in communion without taking on a Christian identity. Falcon likens faith and faith traditions to vehicles—when he is in Mackenzie's church, he is temporarily riding in that vehicle. That doesn't mean the vehicle becomes his, but he can ride along in it for a while without compromising his own. Likewise, he can invite others to ride in his vehicle.

Mackenzie observes, "I think Christians have misunderstood the Great Commission. When Jesus says, 'Go and make disciples of all nations,' we think he means go and make Christians of all nations. But he doesn't say that. To be a disciple of God means to be a disciple of love. Maybe he means that we are called to help people find the way of love." Mackenzie, who was a Presbyterian minister before serving at University Congregational, cherishes the theological and ecclesial freedom he finds in the UCC and believes that it has helped to foster the deep interfaith relationship he has with Falcon and Rahman.

The Three Amigos also emphasize that they are all members of Abrahamic traditions. Their shared ancestor makes possible a conversation about oneness or about what Rahman calls their "large and dysfunctional family" that would be more difficult to conduct with those outside the Abrahamic faiths. The three are in conversation with Hindus and Buddhists, but "for now," Rahman says, "we have a lot of work to do to heal the rifts in our own family."

The Three Amigos have not shied away from difficult conversations. The height of personal conflict came in the still-unfinished process of writing a book together. "There was," says Falcon, "a line written by Jamal about which I said, 'If that line is in the book, then I am not in the book.'" As Rahman recalls it, the line was about the security wall built by Israel: "The wall may keep out suicide bombers, but it cannot keep out the cries of oppression and injustice that could break through a thousand walls." For Falcon, who grew up in a passionately Zionist family, and who remembers that his grandfather planted a tree for him in Israel every year on his birthday, that particular sentence was too one-sided—it failed to recognize the suffering on both sides that is at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The two resolved the issue by agreeing never to sign one-sided statements issued by their communities. Whenever a request comes to sign a petition or a public letter, they refuse if the issues are presented in a way that takes into account only one side of the story.

Rahman is a slight Bangladeshi man, a third-generation Sufi teacher with an infectious, musical laugh. He teaches about Islam primarily through stories, humor and quotations from the Qur'an and the poet Rumi. He is a Sunni Muslim who believes that he is called to serve Seattle's unchurched. While not hawkish, he does highlight the suffering of Palestinians and issues a strong condemnation of Israel's policies. "What kept us talking, what allowed us to wander into this territory and stay while we tried to understand each other better, was that we were already longtime friends," says Falcon. "We had a lot invested in our relationship."

The Three Amigos' experience is emblematic of a larger reality in the U.S. today, says Haim Beliak, a Reform rabbi who is a member of several interfaith associations and a board member for the Progressive Jewish Alliance in the Los Angeles area. Because Christians and Jews in particular have been in conversation now for many decades, a level of trust has been built. Serious conversations about Israel and Palestine can take place between them because they have a history that is distinct from the tradition of Christian anti-Semitism. The challenge now is to include Muslims in such discussions and thereby resist what Beliak sees as a tendency in some quarters for Jews and Christians to pit themselves against Muslims by emphasizing a "Judeo-Christian" tradition. "When I hear that phrase," Beliak says, "I feel as if I were being speared by the hyphen."

Recently, Mackenzie, Falcon and Rahman reflected on who was showing up at interfaith events and who wasn't. They acknowledged that it is often easier to communicate across the lines of faith than to communicate with members of their own traditions who are suspicious of interfaith work. Falcon is ordained in the Reform tradition, but his synagogue is unaffiliated; he invented the term "meditative Reform" to describe the kind of Judaism he practices. Rahman designates himself a Sufi teacher, which places him to a certain degree outside conventional Muslim structures—though those structures are comparatively loose.

On the Christian side, the three acknowledged that they have their own biases against conservative Christians, whom they tend to see as narrow-minded and prejudiced against Muslims. In response, the Amigos decided to attend together a service at Christian Faith Center, a megachurch with two campuses in Seattle, led by pastor Casey Treat.

During his sermon on the day the Three Amigos visited, Treat remarked that "Christians and Jews share the same God, but Allah is a different matter." Mackenzie and Falcon both gasped. After the service, Rahman, Mackenzie and Falcon were invited to Treat's office. Rahman used the occasion to say to him, "I don't think Jesus would have said what you did about Muslims."

Rahman, Falcon and Mackenzie later worked with members of Treat's congregation on a Habitat for Humanity project for a local Muslim family. One important lesson from the experience, Rahman says, was the recognition that while he, as a Muslim, feels wounded by the behavior of many Americans, he is not alone in that feeling: many Christians also carry wounds. By understanding this mutual woundedness, the Three Amigos say, they have become much more patient when they confront people who disagree with their interfaith work. Instead of responding with anger or accusation, they try to ask more questions.

They used this insight when Rahman was asked by the director of Camp Brotherhood, an interfaith retreat center with a long history in Seattle, to donate a copy of the Qur'an that would be placed in the center's chapel alongside the Bible and the Torah. The proposal turned out to be controversial among the camp's board members, so the idea was dropped—and the board ended up removing all holy books from the chapel, something the three were not happy about. But instead of responding angrily and forgoing their association with Camp Brotherhood, the three have continued to try to meet with the board members to find a mutually agreeable solution.

Lohre of Harvard is convinced that informal interfaith efforts like that of the Three Amigos will continue to grow. If such efforts had been merely a reaction to September 11, they would have faded long ago. But because so many people are now involved in interfaith friendships and because so many interfaith activities have involved young people, interfaith work is not likely to vanish—and the relationships can only deepen. The most successful groups, Lohre says, provide acts of service and hospitality as well as activities for people of different generations.

Not everyone is prepared to applaud such encounters. Anxiety about the loss of "shared values" is heard from many corners, leading some people to turn inward. And interfaith conversations are clearly in their early stages—they have not yet been a force in stopping wars, nor have they succeeded in shutting the doors of Guantánamo or in healing the wounds in the Middle East. But thousands of people have had concrete encounters with neighbors who belong to a different religious faith.

One often hears quoted in interfaith circles these words of God from the Qur'an: "O humankind, we have created you out of a single pair of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes that you might come to know one another." [49:13]

At this point in history, coming to know one another remains a critical task.
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Saturday, August 30, 2008

With the Power of Love
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By Anand Krishna, "Sufi solutions to world problems " - The Jakarta Post - Jakarta, Indonesia
Monday, 25 August, 2008


Sufi solutions to world problems: This was the title of my paper prepared for the Conference on Sufi Movements in Contemporary Islam, held in Singapore on Aug. 14 and 15, 2008, under the auspices of the National University of Singapore and the independent Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

Along with the writer, Indonesia was represented by Prof. Azyumardi Azra, one of our prominent scholars. The organizers clearly took great pains to ensure that all the five continents were represented by scholars, professors and renowned thinkers of world.

Unfortunately, however, a good majority of them interpreted Sufi thought as Sufi-"ism", thus putting it on par with the other isms.

Sufi is not an ism. It is a way of life. Arab historian Al Beruni (973-1048 AD) wrote in his magnum opus on India that the word Sufi is derived from pailasopa, Greek for "love of wisdom". It has nothing to do with suf -- Arabic for wool -- or the woolen garment worn by the followers of the Sufi path. He further quotes Abu-alfath Albusti, who connects Sufis with safi or purity; thus a Sufi is one who lives purely, in the purity of simplicity.

A Sufi is not a renegade; he/she does not run away from society. He/she is not a recluse. Some Sufis may choose to live as hermits, but that is their choice. That is neither a requirement nor a condition to be a Sufi.

A Sufi today must remain in society and work for its betterment. I firmly believe that it is the Sufi thought that can save the globe. Hisham of the University of Warwick, UK, spoke on "Sufism and the War on Terror". He elaborated on how marketable Sufism is in the West today. It is being seen as an antidote to terrorism and violence in the name of Islam. But he also agreed that most of the Westerners funding so-called Sufi institutions were actually groping in the dark, not knowing which other way to go.

No, both Sufism and the institutionalization of Sufis cannot be a solution to the world's problems. Indeed, they will create more problems. In our own country, we have such examples aplenty.

The moment the Sufi way of life is institutionalized and becomes an ism, it is seen as a threat by all other established institutions, especially the religio-political institutions. Such institutions, as shown by history, have always been hostile, for they cannot do what the Sufis can. They cannot hold their parties together with the power of love, as Sufis do. They are fear-based societies, whereas the Sufis are love-based.

Sufi thought or way of life, without its institutionalization, is the solution to the world's problems today. Sufi thought must permeate our thoughts and penetrate through the thick and rigid blocks of our minds. The Sufi way of life must change our entire outlook toward life, and then we will have an entirely new society. We will have an enlightened society.

"My heart has opened up in every form: It is a pasture for gazelles, a cloister for Christian monks, a temple for idols, the Kaaba of the pilgrim, the tables of the Torah and the book of the Koran. I practice the religion of love: In whatsoever directions its caravan advance, the religion of love shall be my religion and my faith," wrote Ibn Arabi (1165-1240).

A society which is based on mutual understanding and appreciation and not merely tolerance is the need of the hour. The Singaporean minister for the environment and in charge of Muslim affairs, Yaacob Ibrahim, quoted the scholar Ibn Khaldum who described a Sufi as one who retires from other things and turns to God.

Good explanation, but the retirement required of a Sufi today is that of the heart. A Sufi's heart must not be attached to worldly things. His/her mind must be freed of all temptations. With a free heart and mind, a Sufi must remain in society.

We need Sufi economists and Sufi politicians who are not greedy and power hungry -- who are in the society to serve it. We need Sufi religious ministers who do not promise heaven hereafter but strive to create a heaven on earth. We need Sufi educationists to teach us how to unite in love and not divide in hatred.

Prof. Bruce Lawrence from Duke University in the United States quoted a very famous tradition wherein the Prophet's companion Hazrat Abu Bakr made an announcement that the Prophet was dead, but Islam lived on. For the Sufis, pointed out Bruce, both the Prophet and his teachings, his way of submission to the Lord's will are very much alive.

It is not enough that we study his life; we have to live the way shown by him. For, as pointed out in the Holy Koran, at the end of the day it is our behavior which matters: "On the day when their tongues, their hands, and their feet will bear witness against them as to their actions." -- 24:24

The Writer is a spiritual activist. Visit him at http://anandkrishna.org/eng/
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Friday, August 29, 2008

It Speaks Directly to Alienation
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By Eddie Harrison, "Five questions for...Dr Alan Williams" - Metro - London, UK
Monday, August 25, 2008

The Whirling Dervishes of Turkey, followers of Sufi mystic Rumi, will perform their unique dance this weekend.

Persian scholar Dr Alan Williams will read from and talk about Rumi's work and its influence.

What will people see at this event?
A contemplative, peaceful, stately and graceful performance with a number of dervishes turning anticlockwise on stage, climaxing with a reading from Rumi. They're performing a Sema, which comes from a Persian word and means listening or auditioning. My talk will discuss how the Sema has developed into this form.

What kind of religion is Sufism?
Sufism is the mystical tradition of Islam, a side the West doesn't know much about. Since the 1970s it's gained some popularity among Westerners looking for an alternative to Christianity.

Why is Rumi's work and Sufism so popular at present?
An American poet called Coleman Barks started adapting his work, which led to interest from celebrities like Madonna.

Why does Rumi's poetry inspire people?
Although he's a 13th-century figure, he doesn't write like a medieval poet, he writes from the heart. His central theme is separation from each other and God, and the idea of overcoming that. It speaks directly to alienation and the fragmentation of society and individuals.

What else does your talk cover?
I'll be reading from my first volume of translations of Rumi, published by Penguin in 2006. The translation of the others will probably take me the rest of my life to complete.

Talk: Thu Aug 28, The Hub, 348-350 Castlehill, Edinburgh, 11am, £6. Tel: 0131 473 2000.
Performance: Fri Aug 29 and Sat Aug 30, Festival Theatre, 13-29 Nicolson Street, Edinburgh. 7.30pm, £10 to £28. Tel: 0131 473 2000. http://www.eif.co.uk/

Alan Williams
Rumi Spiritual Verses
Penguin Classics
ISBN-10: 0140447911
ISBN-13: 978-0140447910
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Looking for Classic Turkish Tastes
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ANN/TZStaff report, "Sultanahmet square getting ready for holy month of Ramadan" - Today's Zaman - Istanbul, Turkey

Monday, August 25, 2008

İstanbul's Sultanahmet square -- named after the famous Sultanahmet Camii (Blue Mosque) -- has long been the center of traditional Ramadan entertainment in the city and it is now being prepared to play this role once again.

Speaking to the Anatolia news agency, Eminönü Municipality Mayor Nevzat Er said the Sultanahmet Ramadan Festivities are the most familiar and popular activity of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting, in İstanbul.

Er said it will be the 14th year of the municipality-sponsored festivities and that some special activities will be held in the amphitheater next to the Firuzağa Mosque in Sultanahmet square. He stressed that the activities will not damage any of the historical sites there. On the contrary, he said, they will serve as an introduction to the historical part of the city for many people.

The mayor explained that they will not spend any public funds to organize these events, adding that profits from the rental of bazaar space to vendors will be the main source of funding.

The festivities will begin with recitations from the Quran and a concert of Sufi music next Monday after the Terawih prayer, a congregational prayer that Muslims perform after the night prayer during Ramadan.

Later in the month the after-Terawih program will feature speeches from prominent national figures, in addition to Sufi music performances. Every day there will be a fast-breaking meal, a Karagöz and Hacıvat shadow puppet show for children, story telling and plays telling the tales of Nasreddin Hodja.

Once again a traditional bazaar will be set up in Sultanahmet Square this year. There will be 80 stands in the bazaar, featuring Turkish cuisine, gift shops and traditional crafts. There will also be vendors throughout the square selling traditional foods such as kestane (roasted chestnuts), mısır (corn on the cob), kumpir (stuffed baked potato) and delicious drinks such as salep and boza. Gözleme (stuffed flatbread) and macun, a sort of cold taffy, will also be available for anyone looking for classic Turkish tastes.

[Picture: To ensure safety and hygiene, janitorial workers and security guards will be on duty every night].
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Thursday, August 28, 2008

Festivities Continue in Sehwan
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Associated Press of Pakistan, "Festivities continue in Sehwan" - The Post - Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
Friday, August 22, 2008

Islamabad: Celebrations started Thursday in Sehwan Sharif, marking the annual Urs of Sufi saint Hazrat Lal Shahbaz Qalandar.

Thousands have thronged to his shrine for the three-day festivities celebrating his life, and the lanes and streets of Sehwan were packed with devotees, singing and dancing, in praise of the saint.

A devotional dance, widely known as 'dhamal', is a feature of the annual Urs.

Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, whose real name was Syed Muhammad Usman was born in 1177 AD in Marwand, Iran. He reportedly stayed in Sehwan for six years and is believed to have performed several miracles. He reportedly died at the age of 97.

The PIA was operating special flights for the three-day celebrations, for the convenience of those travelling to Sehwan. Additional railway services were also offered during the three-day period.
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The Moderate Voices of the Sufi Tradition
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By Jay Tolson, "Paying Attention to the "Other Islam" - U.S. News and World Report - Washington, D.C., USA
Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, U. S. efforts to identify and support moderate voices within the Islamic world have been inconsistent and fumbling. Yet it is becoming increasingly clear that the long-term success in fighting terrorism will depend far more on the result of Islam's own internal debate than on the outcomes of the fighting in either Iraq or Afghanistan.

To the extent that it can influence that debate, the next U. S. administration might consider paying closer attention to followers of the Sufi tradition, a mystical and philosophical current within Islam. ("Sufi" itself as a term may have derived from the Arab word for wool, in reference to the simple, rough cloak worn by early Muslim ascetics).

In his new book, The Other Islam: Sufism and Global Harmony, Stephen Schwartz, a journalist and executive director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism in Washington, D.C., argues that Sufism "offers the clearest Muslim option for reconciliation between the Judeo-Christian and Islamic worlds, as well as fulfillment of the promise that Islam shall be a religion of peace." U. S. News spoke with the author, himself a convert to Islam.
Excerpts:

What is Sufism?
Sufism is the esoteric, metaphysical, and mystical tradition within Islam, similar to and influencing [Jewish mystical] kabbalah and Catholic spirituality. It is the tradition in Islam that looks behind the sacred texts, behind the practice, behind the outward manifestations of the religion, seeking the inner truth, the truth of the heart.

When and where did Sufism emerge within Islam?
Sufis say that Sufism begins with Islam itself. There is the famous concept that the Creator was a hidden treasure who wanted to be known. And almost all Sufis trace their lineage back to Caliph Ali, who was a relative and fourth successor [caliph] of Muhammad. The first Sufis are generally considered to be the Basra school in southern Iraq in the first century and a half after the death of the Prophet, and actually the first famous one is a woman, Rabiya Al-Adawiyya. She was the first person to speak eloquently of divine love and love for God and God's love for creation and humanity.

Of the some 1.2 billion Muslims today, approximately how many are Sufis?
Husain Haqqani, who is now Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, had a conversation with me about this, and he said that we were pretty legitimate in saying that half of the Muslims in the world either are Sufis or consider themselves to be pretty much under Sufi influence or in some ways follow Sufi precepts. When you start breaking it down demographically and look at large Muslim societies like India, Indonesia, Egypt, Morocco, French-speaking west Africa, Turkey, and some parts of Central Asia, that figure of about half makes sense.

I've developed the proposition that you have two kinds of Sufism. You have a kind of generally diffuse Sufism in Muslim societies where basically the Islam of the whole society is very saturated with Sufism. Indonesia is one specific example of this. Then, overlapping with that, you have societies with the organized tariqat [orders], where Sufism is a social institution. In countries like Morocco, Kosovo, Turkey, Sufism is really belonging to a movement, going on Tuesday or Saturday night to dhikrs [ceremonies devoted to remembering God]; it's having a sheik and going to regular lectures, and participating in some of the social-welfare activities.

Taking a complicated case such as Iran, would you say that its deep Sufi tradition could potentially be a counterweight to the political-ideological Islam that now dominates?
I would say in Iran, and also in Saudi Arabia and to a less visible extent in Iraq, Sufism represents the main cultural, social, and religious alternative to the ideological forms of Islam that have recently dominated.

In Iran, the situation is very complicated because of the obstacles to reporting on what is really going on inside the country. Part of the argument of my book is that in both Saudi Arabia and Iran the Sufis can provide the basis for a transition away from the model of ideological Islamic governance toward a more normal type of society in which religion plays a large role, just as it does in Mexico or Poland, but a normal role.

Why have some Muslims, particularly those called fundamentalists or puritans, objected to Sufism?
There are two objections. There is the theological objection, which begins with Ibn Taymiyya in the 13th century and continues with Wahhabisim starting 250 years ago, and that simply says that the Sufis elevate the saints or the sheiks or the Prophet himself to the equivalent of God, that this is like the Christians who view Jesus as a divine being, and that this is against the Islamic principle that only God is worthy of worship. That is the theological objection.

But in the 19th century, you have a situation in which the Ottoman Empire is heavily involved with Sufism; you also have the Persian Empire, which became Shia under Sufi guidance. These empires are the leading Islamic states at the time, and there was a group of Islamic reformers who looked at the situation of Islam, and especially the weakness of Islam faced by the West and the problems of western imperialism, and they said, "Well, Islam is weak because of the superstitious practices of praying over graves, the dhikrs, following sheiks, believing in saints."

So you have two streams that object to Sufism, the stream of puritanism and the stream of reformism. And course they could hook up and combine, as they did in Wahhabism.
As you point out in your book, Wahhabis are probably the biggest foes of Sufism.I've said for a long time you can have two visions of Islam as a religion, just as we can have two visions of Christianity as a religion.

You can view religion as a fairly narrow set of doctrines that require fairly rigid obedience in which the emphasis is on strictness, discipline, and outward adherence. Or you can see religion in civilizational terms. If you think the world is impressed when a young Muslim commits an act of terror, you are wrong, because the world is much more impressed by cultural achievements. The picture of the Taj Mahal means a lot more than a headline about a bombing to make people respect and become interested in Islam. The biggest difference to me is that Wahhabis don't view Islam civilizationally. They're against decorating mosques, against music, against anything beyond saying the prayers, going to the mosque on Fridays, keeping the prayers limited, maintaining this extremely puritanical, fundamentalistic, and limited view of religion as a set of doctrines according to which you live life in a very limited manner.

If you see that there is a variety of Islamic cultures, if you accept, for example, that most Indonesian women are not going to cover their faces, if you see that each of the Islams, the Islam of the Kazakhs or the Islam of the Moroccans, has a specific cultural character that is still Islam and believes in one God, one Prophet, and one Koran but also accepts that there is much else that goes with it, that's the Sufi mentality.

Why has the United States, and particularly the public-diplomacy arms of the government, been so poor at recognizing and highlighting the importance of Sufism, Sufi leaders, and Sufi organizations and, where possible, supporting them?
First of all, it's a daunting task for any westerners to engage with these issues. I've been engaged with them for a long time, and it's hard to sort them all out.

There is no denying that in the State Department and in the legacy of public diplomacy in dealing with the Islamic world, there has been a bias in favor of dealing with the official authorities, with the clerics, with the Saudi structures, with the Wahhabis and others who claim to represent a normative Islam and who have behind them the vast oil wealth and the special role of Saudi Arabia as an ambiguous but long-standing partner of the United States.

Public diplomacy has not attracted people who know or have much interest in this, and also there is a bias in academic study toward a normative and official Islam.
Now, if the United States or the West were to embark on some sort of wholesale embrace of the Sufis, that could conceivably lead to a problematical outcome. Sufism has always thrived because of its autonomy and its independence, and we can't compromise its spiritual autonomy in the name of a short-term or even long-term political advantage.

However, there are certain things, just in terms of the human-rights responsibilities of western democracies, that we should be able to do for the Sufis. In places where Sufis are under physical attack from Wahhabis—for example, in Macedonia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, or Iraq—I think democratic governments, human-rights organizations, and NGOs have a moral responsibility to point this out and engage in diplomatic interventions and to make it clear they are on the side of Sufis.

But first of all, that means that they have to sit down with them, meet with them, get to know them, invite them to diplomatic receptions, and consult with them fairly regularly. As long as the consultation is one that is based on respect instead of vulgar recruitment, I think it would be beneficial for both sides.
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Tuesday, August 26, 2008

From His Infinite Store
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By M.V. Kamath, "Spiritual renaissance and Sri Ramakrishna" - Organiser - New Delhi, India
2008 Issues: August 24

The 19th century was remarkable in many ways. Between 1526 and the first Battle of Panipat and the slow deterioration and final collapse of the Mughal Empire in 1857, a period of roughly three centuries and a quarter, Hinduism was under great strain.

With the arrival of the British and Christian missionaries, Hinduism was under no less strain. Islamic and later Christian onslaught had led Hindu society to do some hard thinking.

In Bengal, the first state to come under British administration, it led to the establishment of the Brahmo Samaj. It was also Bengal which gave Hinduism one of its most powerful protagonists. One suspects that the times called for such a man.

Born on February 17, 1836, to a devoted and deeply religious couple, Kushudiram and Chandra Devi Chattopadhyaya, he was named Ramakrishna. Called Gadadhar in his childhood—his friends called him Gadai—Ramakrishna was to make history as few others of his time like Dadabhai Naoroji (1825-1917) or Pherozeshah Mehta (1845-1915) did.

We must remember the times. Those were days when the British looked down on Indian culture and civilisation in no uncertain terms as low, and condemned Hinduism as backward and mired in superstition. It was fashionable among the newly set up Bengali intellectuals to heap scorn on their own ancestral religion.

Something had to happen. It did. A child was born in a mud and thatch hamlet of Kamarkapur, eighty six miles north west of Calcutta. Then history took its course. Right from his boyhood, Ramakrishna as the child was named, showed spiritual tendencies. The author, Mehrotra, says that, “all while during those sylvan years (of his boyhood), Gadadhar’s body and mind were being made ready from within, for the awesome transformations that were to thrust him into terrifying, unknown, unlimited inner spaces.”

Terrifying is the right word. It is unimaginable that while he was still a boy, he attained spontaneous samadhi, a state of superconsciousness that was an unthought of phenomenon to the family. Once, when a Brahmin guru who was appointed to initiate Gadadhar into priesthood and had whispered a holy word in Gadadhar’s ears, it is reported that he uttered a loud cry and plunged into deep concentration that lasted for about five days!

There was strange ‘relationship’ between Gadadhar and the Goddess Kali. If he felt separated from Her, he would fall into a trance! As the appointed priest to Dakhshineshwar Temple, it is said that he was in daily communion with the Mother Goddess. Sometimes he would feel he had lost Her. His search would drive everyone at Dakshineshwar to paroxyms.

Some thought he was a mad man. His behaviour was unexplainable. In his young days he was known to be very caste conscious. Strange to think that he would be that. But he overcame it. He was frequently unconventional. Sometimes he would spend a great part of the day and night in a cremation ground, deep in meditation.

One never knew what he would do or what would happen to him at any given moment of time. Once, when performing a ritual, he began to shake uncontrollably and gradually became rigid and went into samadhi. This was to become a major feature of his life in the years to come.

His family got him married to a beautiful girl who came to be known as Sarada Devi. That didn’t change Sri Ramakrishna, as he came to be known. He merely became his wife’s spiritual guide. He left his child bride with his mother and worked at Dakhshineshwar where he undertook sadhana.

Then a women, a Bhairavi, came into his life who guided Sri Ramakrishna methodically, meticulously and consciously to peaks of spiritual vision and even took him through tantric sadhanas. She was to leave him in due course.

Then an advaitin monk, Totapuri by name, came into his life, towards the end of 1864. This was to lead Sri Ramakrishna into another mode of spiritual attainment. He went into nirvikalpa samadhi for an unbelievable six months without food or water. It is difficult to believe all these feats in this day and age. But these are recorded.

Once, a friend who had become a sufi told Sri Ramakrishna of the values of Islam. Without hesitation, Sri Ramakrishna decided that he would seek them. He dressed himself like a Muslim, with a prayer cap, recited Islamic prayers five times a day and even felt disinclined to see the forms of Hindu gods and goddesses, to the utter disgust of his devotees.

Then he gave that up and practiced Christianity, fascinated by the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Years later he was to say that all paths lead to the same source and all religions are true, Sri Ramakrishna’s spiritual journey lasted long and unevenly, but in the end he was to reach a stage where his spiritual status was acknowledged in full and he began to attract disciples from every segment of society.

Mehrotra says Sri Ramakrishna “gave to them all, without stint, from his infinite store of realisation”. Among them was Narendranath Datta, who was later to be transformed into Swami Vivekananda, born in Calcutta on January 12, 1863 of an aristocratic Kayastha family. How Narendra was transformed from a cynical, questioning young man to an ardent devotee is a story told in detail.

Narendra was at first violently disturbed by Sri Ramakrishna’s spiritual power. How could he become a disciple of a mad man, he would ask himself. Sri Ramakrishna eluded judgment. He was a challenge and a riddle. It was when Sri Ramakrishna knocked down Narendra by the mere touch of his palm, that Narendra was to realise the spiritual prowess of one he took as his guru.

Sri Ramakrishna passed away on August 16, 1886 when he was hardly fifty. Sarada Devi was distraught until she heard the words of faith: “I have only passed from one room to another.”

One can’t imagine a more thrilling recounting of the story of the Saint of Dakhshineshwar. It is even difficult to imagine that such a person existed.

It must have taken Mehrotra years of immense research to write this magnificent biography, but he has done full justice to his subject. To say that it is an illuminating work is to make an understatement. Sri Ramakrishna was Thakur, the Master. This book tells how it all came about and understandably holds one spell-bound with the mystic unfolding of events.

Thakur: A Life of Sri Ramakrishna; Rajiv Mehrotra; Penguin Books; pp 178, Rs 250.00

Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi-110 017
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On a Space Odyssey in the Inner Landscape of the Travellers
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By Kanakalatha Mukund, "Travel encounters" - The Hindu - Chennai, India
Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Persian travel narratives of a crucial period of transformation and contact

Travel writing constitutes a distinctive literary genre, combining subjective perceptions with objective description of distant peoples and places, which open a window to an alien world to the reader.

However, the abiding perception is that the medieval and early modern travel-account is the sole preserve of European travellers; along with this goes the implicit assumption that western travel writing is “factual” while the “other” (that is Asian) travel writing is “fictional”.

This persists in spite of the long tradition of travel writing in Asia, from China which has produced many travel accounts, like the works of Chinese Buddhist monks Fahien and Hsuan Tsang among others, combining “travel-description linked with xenology.”

From West Asia we have, in the medieval period, the accounts of India by al-Biruni and later, by Ibn Batuta.

The main contention of the authors is that there exists a large volume of non-western travel literature little publicised though it might be. They specifically concentrate on accounts produced in different social and historical contexts in an extended region from Iran to India which was “inhabited by ‘Indo-Persian’ culture.”

In this zone, Persian was the dominant language and had become the main language not only of migrants from Iran or central Asia, but also of the local Hindus. There was thus a shared language, culture and literary tradition forged by the extensive use of Persian.

After thus setting out the basic contours of the background of the book, the authors begin a leisurely exploration of various travel accounts (safar nama) to India. The main objective of the authors is not to interpret the travel accounts by breaking up the text into “bite-sized fragments” but to “consciously follow its grain.”

Muzaffar Alam and Sanjay Subrahmanyam take the reader on a space odyssey over four centuries of the changing political landscape of India. They begin with a Sufi saint who fled from Delhi before Timur’s invasion to reach Gulbarga in the Deccan. The other two early travellers, Abdur Razzak and Nikitin, are better known and visited Vijayanagara and the Bahmani kingdoms at the height of their power and glory.

After an account of two “courtly encounters” with the Mughals, two chapters are devoted to travellers from Iran who came to India to seek their fortunes in the service of the Mughals. These capture a gamut of complex perceptions on the part of the travellers. Mughal India was clearly the most prosperous state in the region and was the land of opportunity for Iranians. Yet they remained convinced of the superiority of their own culture, while India was the inferior “other” with its largely non-Muslim population.

The authors point out that the present-day vision of a magical third world of solidarity certainly did not exist in the early modern period, and that the bonds which did exist were based on a few common points of reference.

Exchanges
While these works represented travel from the west to the east, people also travelled from India to the west. We are referred to the work of Khwaja Abdul Karim who travelled to Mecca accompanying Nadir Shah after his conquest of Delhi.

The last chapter deals with exchanges between the Ottoman Empire and the Mughals who, though conscious of their own importance and power, also regarded the Ottomons with deference because they were the custodians of the important Islamic centres of worship. This was acknowledged as a reference point of higher authority, and Tipu Sultan, in fact, used his interactions with the Ottomons to legitimise his own standing as the ruler of Mysore.

The book has an easy flowing style with a lively commentary on the various travellers visited in the book though the authors at times seem too caught up in the inner landscape of the travellers, which renders some parts of the book a little tedious. It must also be said, that the bizarre descriptions in the travel accounts do lend themselves to the observation that these are travel fiction and not facts.

This is a book that needs to be read at a leisurely pace for its flavour to be fully absorbed and appreciated.
INDO-PERSIAN TRAVELS IN THE AGE OF DISCOVERIES 1400-1800: Muzaffar Alam, Sanjay Subrahmanyam; Cambridge University Press, Cambridge House, 4381/4, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhli-110002. Rs. 695.
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Through Suffering Beyond It
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By Dr. Nilanshu Kumar Agarwal, "Poetry of Immense Grief: An Interview with Kamla Kapur" - My Himachal - Sirmour, Himachal Pradesh, India

Monday, August 18, 2008

Kamla Kapur is a sensitive poetic voice, who lives half the year in a remote Kullu Valley in the Himalayas and the other half in California. Her poetry and short stories have been published in the original English and in Hindi and Punjabi translation in several journals and magazines.

In 1977, she won the prestigious The Sultan Padamsee Award for Playwriting in English. Her full length play, The Curlew’s Cry, was produced by Yatrik, New Delhi. A Punjabi translation of her play, Clytemnestra was produced by The Company in Chandigarh.

Her award-winning Zanana, was produced at the National School of Drama, New Delhi. Seven of her plays were published in Enact, New Delhi.

Since 1985, Ms Kapur has been commuting between the USA and India. Her full length plays, Hamlet’s Father, Kepler Dreams, and Clytemnestra were showcased at the Marin Shakespeare Festival in San Francisco, Gas Lamp Quarter Theatre in San Diego, and Dramatic Risks Theatre Group in New York, respectively. She was selected by the New Mexico Arts Division as the Playwright in Residence for two years.

She has recently completed her first novel, The Autobiography of Saint Padma the Whore, a chapter of which was published by in Our Feet Walk The Sky (Aunt Lute Press, Berkeley, California, USA), and a fantasy novel, Malini in Whirlwood.

Ms. Kapur has published two books of poetry: the critically acclaimed, As A Fountain In A Garden (Tarang Press. Del Mar, CA, USA-Hemkunt Publishers Private, Ltd., India, 2005) and Radha Sings (Rolling Drum and Dark Child Press, USA, 1987).

Ms. Kapur was also on the faculty of Grossmont College in San Diego, California for 18 years and taught creative writing courses in play writing, poetry, creative non-fiction, fiction, and courses in mythology, Shakespeare, and Women’s Literature. Kamla Kapur was also a freelance writer for The Times of India, The Hindustan Times and The Tribune; she had taught English Literature at Delhi University too. This multi-faceted literary genius talks to Dr. Nilanshu Kumar Agarwal in an illuminating email interview.

NKA: Pain is of paramount importance in As A Fountain In A Garden. For example, the expression “and left me/ here, / with this absence, this gift/ of grief” emotionally presents a glimpse of the seething volcano of grief inside.

Has the production of the just-mentioned poetry collection helped you in the release of your emotions of grief, anxiety and pain? I suppose, by the creation of this collection, you must have found some release, as literature is cathartic and therapeutic. What do you say?

KK: I don’t know how I would have survived the experience of my husband’s suicide without processing it through poetry.

It’s not to say that people who don’t write poetry don’t survive, or survive well, but without the outlet of poetry I might have fossilized in my grief, or developed a chronic habit of sorrow or even bitterness, and certainly a debilitating regret and guilt.

Poetry that is not merely release – crying is also that – is an adventure of the soul in its journey towards itself. It demands an utter honesty of experience and expression without which writing remains only cathartic and does not touch the depth at which it becomes art.

The discipline of crafting a poem with patience and honesty gave me the perspective and the detachment to pursue a subject that was very painful for me. Making art in this sense is the highest spiritual activity of humans, for it takes one through suffering beyond it.


(...)


The interviewer, Dr. Nilanshu Kumar Agarwal, is Senior Lecturer in English at Feroze Gandhi College, Rae Bareli, (U.P.), India.

His interviews with a number of contemporary literary figures, as well as his research papers, book reviews, articles and poems have appeared in publications, including The Vedic Path, Quest, Pegasus, IJOWLAC, The Journal, Promise, The Raven Chronicles, Yellow Bat Review, Carved in Sand, Turning the Tide, Blue Collar Review, Bridge-in-Making, Confluence, Poetcrit, Kafla Intercontinental, Hyphen and South Asian Review. His book on Stephen Gill is to be published shortly.

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Monday, August 25, 2008

Relentlessly Displaced
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By M.D. Nalapat, "Jammu confronts separatists" - Organiser - India
2008 Issues: August 24

After more than four years, during which only a high degree of public vigilance as well as a determined stand by the military prevented the UPA from effectively agreeing to a joint control of Kashmir with Pakistan, the people of India know that the Sonia team is unwilling to protect the secular ethos of India from the jihadist assault.

Apart from re-igniting jihad in Kashmir, the second major “contribution” of the Sonia team has been the spread of jihadist impulses from Kashmir to the rest of India. Till a resident of India’s hi-tech capital drove an explosives-laden car into an airport in the UK, our country could with pride point to the fact that none outside Kashmir had fallen prey to the blandishments of those who have made a business out of terrorism. Not a single Indian Muslim fought in the Kashmir insurgency, as distinct from nationals of the UK, Germany, Sudan and of course Pakistan. After more than four years of Manmohan Singh and Shivraj Patil, cities such as Mumbai, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Bengalooru and Jaipur are hosting teeming colonies of jihadists. The intention of this multiplying brigade is to damage the prospects for India to emerge as a significant economic force. Should jihad become a routine of daily life in the metropolises, as the recent blasts indicate is happening,that would push India’s growth rate back to the 2 per cent “Nehru Rate of Growth”. As it is, the deliberate deflationary policies of the Sonia team have led to a deceleration in growth and an acceleration in inflation.

Already, corporates across the world are re-appraising their plans to shift major centres to India, and are choosing alternative locations in places such as Singapore,which have governments that are better able to combat international jihad. By the time Manmohan Singh demits office in 2009, India will most likely have joined Pakistan at the bottom of the list of countries where international investment is headed.That would be a victory for the ISI as sweet as the revenge they are now exacting on the US in Afghanistan for displacing the Taliban in 2001.

Since 1974, when Indira Gandhi decided to hand over Kashmir to Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, the state has moved steadily away from its secular traditions. From the outset, the new dispensation made clear through its policies that it was concerned only with the wellbeing of the Kashmir Valley and did not care for Jammu and Ladakh. Also, that Sunnis would enjoy a privileged status, with Shias and religious minorities being treated in a second-class fashion. Subsequently, within the Sunni community, Wahabbis were given preference, and moderate groups steadily marginalised. The expansion in the number of religious schools teaching exclusivism and hate that began during the latter half of the 1970s has continued unabated to this date. It is from these schools that thousands were recruited to fight the ISI-sponsored jihad in Kashmir. Interestingly, the number of Wahabbi youths illegally going across the Line of Control increased sharply after the Farooq Abdullah administration was replaced in 1984 with that led by his brother-in-law G M Shah, a change imposed by the architect of the 1974 re-installation of Sheikh Abdullah, Indira Gandhi.

Shah embarked on a process of open communalisation of the Kashmir administration, hoping thereby to win a base for himself. Wahabbis replaced Sunni moderates in positions of responsibility, and religious schools began sending selected students to Pakistan’s training camps, without any reaction from the central government. It was because New Delhi slept over Kashmir from 1984 to 1988 (the same way that the UPA is sleeping now) that Pakistan was able to launch a deadly insuregency in 1989 that almost separated the state from the rest of the country geographically. Although the sacrifice of the military and the security forces prevented the ISI’s plans from succeeding, the mental landscape of the Kashmir Valley has evolved in a manner far more congruent with the fanaticism of jihadists across the border than the Sufi traditions of Kashmir. Today, Sufi influence has all but vanished in the state, in part because of the fact that almost all national media outlets—both print and television—allow Wahabbis to monopolise column space and airtime. Secular, moderate voices among the Sunnis are ignored and even derided, during the few times that they are allowed to present their view. And since 1990, when the wahabbist Mufti Mohammad Sayed was appointed Home Minister of India by V P Singh, the Wahabbis have sought to expand their poisonous grip to include Ladakh and Jammu as well. Sufi, Shia, Hindu and Buddhist traditions are being relentlessly displaced by the Wahabi ethos. Small wonder that Jammu is now wracked by bombs, and Ladakh is going the same way.

Although the Congress Party won most of its assembly seats by promising an administration that would respect all groups, faiths and regions, yet on Sonia Gandhi’s intervention Mufti Sayed was thrust down the throats of moderate Kashmiris as chief minister. He worked to ensure the spread of influence of those favouring jihad, and has been so succesful that Kashmir today is where it was in 1988: on the cusp of a jihad. How many innocent lives, how many brave servicemen, will need to be sacrificed to save Kashmir from the perli that is now upon it? And will there ever be a reckoning for those national leaders guilty of having revived jihad in Kashmir, six years after its back had been broken in the field? Unlikely. At worst, they will go into exile to Italy, a land filled with noble architecture and immense scenic beauty.

Whether Muslim, Sikh, Christian or Hindu, each citizen of this country will face a grim future, unless international jihad be halted from its current all-India expansion. It was not accidental that the Union Home Ministry enabled SIMI to escape a ban, by giving insufficient evidence to the Delhi High Court. In like fashion, lack of will ensured the escape from Malaysia of Ottavio Quatrocchi in 2002. Evidence that had convinced a Swiss court had apparently not been enough for a Malaysian court, leading to the inference that official agencies then were as reluctant for their presumed target to lose as the Home Ministry has been in the case of SIMI.

After more than four years, during which only a high degree of public vigilance as well as a determined stand by the military prevented the UPA from effectively agreeing to joint control of Kashmir with Pakistan, the people of India know that the Sonia team is unwilling to protect the secular ethos of India from the jihadist assault. And in the form of the peoples movement in Jammu against the June 29 surrender by Governor N N Vohra to the dictates of the fanatics, the people have now taken matters into their own hands. Should the number of bombings and other jihadi outrages grow in the months ahead, what is happening in Jammu will get replicated across India. This is nothing less than a popular movement against Wahabbism, as reflected in official surrender to jihadist dictates. Across the major cities of India, people are on the verge of taking matters into their own hands,when confronted by the impotence of a state functioning under the control of Sonia Gandhi. Today Jammu, tomorrow the nation.
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Sunday, August 24, 2008

Dust Capable of Loving and Writing
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By May Kaddah, "Bahgat’s Books" - Egypt Today - Cairo, Egypt

August 2008 Volume # 29 Issue 08

Religion, politics and humor can be a tricky mix, but Ahmad Bahgat’s writing on Egyptian life hits the mark

Contemplative and quiet, satirical and resonant, mystical, deep and almost intangible. These are words that describe the long trail of thoughts left behind in the books of writer Ahmad Bahgat.

Especially observant of the world around him, Bahgat has written social satires that portray his understanding of Egyptian culture over the years.
In his short stories and novels, Bahgat explores the psyche of Egyptian men and women; of husbands and wives and their struggle in everyday life to fit into a cultural frame set by religion and tradition. Empathetic with the underdog in society, his plots also portray hardships in the life of petty employees inflicted by governmental negligence and nonchalance. Never lacking in humor, he explores major social corruption and the typical Egyptian mindset with the simplest of words.

Aiming to explain great truths in a way that anyone can understand, Bahgat communicates with his readers through plain language. As a daily columnist in Akhbar Al-Youm, his style throughout his books remains unpretentious, with a narrative, journalistic voice. Having also written the socially critical piece, Kilmitayn We Bass (Only Two Words), for radio, he doesn’t lack skill in reaching the mind of his audience through his lively imagination and poignant sense of humor.

Simplifying the Complex
Bahgat’s language remains simple even when tackling more complicated subjects. He ventures into the realm of religion, narrating stories from the Qur’an and exploring different religious dimensions. The introductions of his books always refer to an internal voice which compels him to write about Allah and his messages to mankind. In the introduction of his most popular book, Anbeya’ Allah (The Prophets of Allah), he explains in his own words, “I was writing as if another person inside me was dictating.”

Bahgat takes it upon himself to decipher these messages as he finds them in the lives of prophets and animals mentioned in the Qur’an. In Allah fil ‘Aquida al-Islameyya: Resala fil Tawhid (Allah in the Muslim Faith: a New Message in Monotheism), Bahgat explains that most modern books about God only trace the development of the idea of God for mankind.

He specifically dedicates this book to Muslims as he explains, in the words of Imam Mohamed El-Ghazali, that most books written about monotheism for theology students are difficult to understand, with tough language. With plenty of faith and inspiration, Bahgat tries to fill this gap between man and his understanding of the divine by analyzing and referring to stories of the Qur’an.

Yet, in his own words, he seems burdened with the task, as he confesses, “I know it is daring for dust like me to write about God. But what can be done if God has created dust capable of loving and writing?”

Religious Contemplations
Even though he started out by writing social satires and comedies, a religious undertone always constitutes part of Bahgat’s plots. He writes about an ongoing battle that began at the beginning of time between forces of good and evil. Earth is the battleground and the bounty is mankind.

The history of this battle is recounted in the masterpiece of his religious writing, Anbeya’ Allah. This popular piece has been published 35 separate times and translated into five languages, including English and German. Each version has sold over 10,000 copies.

The subject and title of the book is a classic subject in the world of Islamic theology, but Bahgat’s book remains unique in its ability to communicate with a broader audience through simple use of the Arabic language. The Qur’an is comprehensively explained, as Bahgat points out reasons for existence and the direction in which mankind is heading.

Giving a Voice to Animals
Divine messages are not only sent by humans to other humans but also by animals to humans. What may seem just a bird, a mammal or a plant is in fact to Bahgat an aya (sign) of Allah — a divine message. “I used to think of animals that accompanied prophets or were in his service and would visit the zoo almost everyday and stand in front of cages trying to break the obstacle of silence that enwraps these creatures and realized that there is genuine honesty in these creatures that doesn’t exist in human beings.”

Not finding a single book telling the tale of these animals, Bahgat took it upon himself to shed light upon these creatures who have been lost in what seems to him the greater light of prophets. This resulted in the Qassas el-Hiyawan fil Qur’an (Stories of Animals in the Qur’an).

“I did not envy [the prophet] Solomon for the gold with which he covered his palace walls because I know that when he died he did not take any of it with him. I did not envy him either because he could master the jinn, because I have no desire to enslave anybody. I did not envy him either for being a Muslim because I have been taught Islam by the most perfect of Muslims. I envied Solomon for one thing: the ability to understand the language of birds and animals and to speak with them.”

The personification of the animals played the most significant role in the writing of his book. As Bahgat explains, “the dominant weaving of this book is done in an artistic way, meaning it has imagination and creativity yet there are two other main streaks with this main weave and they are the religious and scientific streaks.”

In the religious thread, Bahgat explains, the plot is the same as that of the prophet the animal is serving but narrated from the animal’s point of view. For the scientific side, he researched the habits of the animals in his book to keep their behaviour factually accurate.

Repeatedly, the voices of animals wonder at the evil nature of mankind. The crow describes that on the day when he had to teach Cain how to bury Abel, “I felt an invisible force directing my wings towards Cain. I didn’t like Cain [but] a blessed angel ordered me to fly to him so I landed in front of Cain and started digging.

I evened the wings of the dead crow to his side then I put him in his grave. I screamed twice then piled dust over him then looked at the son of Adam. I flew towards the West and heard Cain as I was flying away, screaming how he failed to be like me and bury his brother. I imagined his cry was full of regret.”

Regardless of the evil or ignorance that emanates fr om mankind, Bahgat doesn’t fail to point out the superiority of humans. At the end of his narrative, the crow confesses that even though he knows the tragedy of Cain and Abel may repeat itself, he doesn’t know the wisdom behind it and admits, “It is not my job to know maybe mankind does.”

Containing 16 different stories of the Qur’an’s animal characters, Qassas el-Hiyawan fil Qur’an digs deep into history to understand and attain lost facts. Bahgat explains that, “all the time while writing I felt that the history page that tells the story of these animals has long been turned, but I am sure that nothing gets lost, not a word, not a sentiment, not an image or a situation.

It’s all hidden in the memory of time and becomes a secret eventually and it is known that looking for secrets is difficult [but] it was as if something was whispering inside me and telling me about all these secrets and where to find them.”

With such an interest in secrets, it is not surprising that Bahgat also ventured to write about Sufism.

Fascinated by the spiritual side of Islam and not just the ritualistic, Bihar el Hob ‘ind el Sufiyya (The Sea of Love of the Sufis) remains Bahgat’s most romantic book. Religion is an art to be mastered with love, he says.

“This book is about the art of divine love.” In it, the spirit and the mind join to explore and obey a higher power through love.

Not surprisingly, when it comes to inspiration, especially for his religious writings, Bahgat explains, “inspiration is God’s bestowal of success on a human.” The Sufis he most admires are El-Junaid, Jalal El-Din El-Rumi and El-Nathri.

Social Satire
Bahgat’s social satires analyze the life of the Egyptian lower classes and attribute their actions to their inherently Egyptian good nature — or to the whispering of the devil. In many ways, his early writing points to the religious direction to which he was headed later on in life.

In 30 Seconds of Love, a compilation of short stories exploring different social dimensions, his story, A Conference of Egyptian Devils, portrays the everyday life of devils as a mirror image of humans and their daily activities. The issue of the life of the masses and government shortcomings are raised as a young Egyptian devil struggles, exhausted and frustrated, with his work to corrupt Egyptians, for the simple reason that Egyptians are already so corrupt.

A conference is held for the young devil, along with 20,000 others who have filed for unpaid leave from their work in Egypt, or asked to be relocated, to give them a chance to defend themselves. This satire mocks the Egyptian social and governmental hierarchy through scenes of the everyday life of the typical poor Egyptian citizen.

Not lacking in humor, this conference takes place on the moon, “where there was a life-size picture of the son of Adam and under it a slogan for his fall. The General Director of Evil said ‘the participants should note that in spite of our animosity with human beings, we do not wish to take on their bad manners when speaking to elders.’”

As young and old try to defend themselves, an old and wise devil sends a message to the reader that, “all we do as devils we don’t actually do, it’s all acts of circumstance.” He then concludes, “In all honesty, we can not earn a living anymore in Egypt mankind has beat us [in doing evil] there.”

Politically Poignant
Political and social critiques are best portrayed in Tuhotmos 400 Bishart (Thutmosis 400, Conditionally), Bahgat mixes comedy with political sarcasm.

Thutmosis is the first Egyptian space shuttle that travels to the moon after 399 failed trials, piloted by characters Bayoumi, Tafida and Atrees. Unfortunately, the shuttle gets lost in space because they can’t find the moon, which seems to have changed its location.

The shuttle enters open space, which is regarded as American territory. Meanwhile, Tafida decides to make the hearty garlicky meal of molokheya to raise her team’s spirits and opens the shuttle windows to let in some air. Not familiar with the smell of molokheya, the Americans conclude that the Egyptians are testing nuclear weapons in space.

Unmerciful sarcasm throughout the book mocks reactions of Egyptian government employees to what started out as an event to boost national pride and instead became an international crisis between Egypt and America.

Though Bahgat’s books are religiously inclined, he does venture into the world of politics. After the death of Anwar Sadat, he was nagged by actor Ahmed Zaki to write about the life of the assassinated president. The result was the script for the blockbuster movie Ayam El-Sadat (Days of Sadat) starring the late Ahmed Zaki, Mona Zaki and Mervat Amin.

Besides the excellence of the cast, Bahgat’s approach contributed to the success of the movie due to his adherence to historical facts — an approach which gained him praise and appreciation from the Sadat family and the public.

The author’s social comedy Muzakirat Zowg (Diaries of a Husband) was produced as a TV series that portrays the marital relations of the lower and middle classes and features the theme of nagging wives. Also the movie Imra’a min Al-Qahira (A Woman from Cairo) featuring Magda El-Khateeb was based on his work.

Bahgat’s journalistic career placed him among the Egyptian people and helped him hone a simple and friendly voice that Egyptians young and old can respond to.

Highlights of his career include his coverage of the 1967 war, which earned him respect as a writer for Akhbar Al-Youm. He was later assigned by the same newspaper to meet with Alberto Moravia, one of the leading Italian novelists of the twentieth century.

Touring the world in pursuit of his journalistic career has left Bahgat with deep humanitarian concerns.

In his Sandouq el Dunya (The Box of the World) column, a daily feature in Akhbar Al-Youm, which he continues to write today, Bahgat provides commentary on what the average Egyptian faces in their daily life.

At the end of a career that has left many others in the shade, Bahgat leaves a trail of books behind him that make their way as quietly and humbly through the world as he has done throughout his life, and will continue to for years to come.

[Picture by Khaled Habib]

[Also on Ahmad Bahgat books: Sarcasm and Sufism by Samir Sobhi Al-Ahram on Authors A to Z http://www.arabworldbooks.com/authors/ahmad_bahgat.html#selections].
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Plans for Smooth Flow
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Staff Report, "Urs of Baba Bulleh Shah" - The Daily Mail - Islamabad, Pakistan
Monday, August 18, 2008

Kasur: District Coordination Officer (DCO) has directed officers of various departments to make necessary arrangements for providing best possible facilities to the devotees reaching here for 251 st urs of Sufi saint Baba Bulleh Shah beginning from Aug 25.

He issued the directions while presiding over a meeting to review the arrangements for the annual urs.

The DCO also directed traffic police to make plans for smooth flow of traffic in the city.

[Baba's picture is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulleh_Shah].
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Saturday, August 23, 2008

Immensely Missed
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APP, "Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s 11th death anniversary observed" - Associated Press of Pakistan - Pakistan
Saturday, August 16, 2008

Islamabad: The 11th death anniversary of world’s most outstanding vocalists the great Sufi qawwal Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was observed Saturday.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the Pakistani singer who had worked with such Western musicians as Eddie Vedder, Peter Gabriel and progressive guitarist and producer Michael Brook, died at age 48, a private TV channel (Geo News) reported.

Born into a family with a centuries-long tradition of qawwali singing, Khan began recording in the early ‘70s after ignoring his father’s wishes that he pursue medicine.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and was considered as one of the greatest Qawwals in the world.

Khan was a master of qawwali singing, which combines lyrics from Sufi religious poems with hypnotic rhythms and vocal chants.

He never performed in English: he sang in Urdu, Punjabi and Farsi. Khan also captivated many Westerners, including such musicians as Vedder, Joan Osborne and the late Jeff Buckley, as well as Hollywood types like Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins.

Khan had made a great impression on the music scene with his mix of Eastern poetic music with that of the West.

After travelling to London for treatment for liver and kidney problems, Khan was rushed from the airport to Cromwell Hospital, where he suffered a fatal heart attack.

Khan departed from this sphere on the 16th of August 1997, and will be missed immensely by his fans all across the globe.

[Picture from: http://tinyurl.com/66kyqj].

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They Have a Message for Us
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By Yoginder Sikanand, TwoCircles.net via Mudassir Rizwan, "A different Jammu that I know" - Indian Muslims - San Diego, CA, USA
Saturday, August 16, 2008

The agitation over the Amarnath shrine in Kashmir has now threatened to snowball into a full-fledged communal conflict.

The violence and the passions that have erupted in its wake are reminiscent, although on a much smaller scale, of the terror and mayhem that tore apart Jammu in 1947 in the wake of the Partition.

Some two lakh Muslims, according to some accounts, are said to have been slaughtered in the Jammu region, and many more forced to flee across to Pakistan, while, at the same time, the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley remained almost entirely peaceful.

Communal forces have long had a strong presence in Jammu (and in the Valley as well) and the current agitation in Jammu and the economic blockade of the Kashmir Valley has provided them with a chance to rear their ugly heads once again.

Jammu is burning. Slogan-raising irate mobs. Vehicles and offices on fire. Roads blocked. Long spells of curfew. Dozens of houses of Gujjar Muslims, who have consistently opposed the on-going violence in Kashmir, burnt to ashes. A Jammu different from the one that I like to remember.

For the past almost two decades I have been visiting the Jammu province almost every year without fail, to meet friends, visit places and trek in the mountains.

Jammu advertises itself as the 'City of Temples', but I find the scores of dargahs, gracefully-domed shrines built over the graves of Sufi saints or Pirs that are scattered across the town, more interesting.

Unlike temples and mosques, people of all faiths and castes flock to the dargahs. They provide the only arena where people of different communities participate together in common worship and devotion. They have a message for us in these times of hatred and violence in the name of religion and community, one that few care to hear, as the seemingly endless war in Kashmir and the on-going agitation in Jammu so tragically illustrate.

The stories that are told about several of the shrines in the town—their foundational myths, one could call them—reflect a fascinating historical process of negotiation of inter-community relations in a harmonious way.

These stories are often invoked to stress the point that people of different religions should live together in peace, that God is one, that all humans, at a certain level, are basically the same, and so on.

The first major Sufi to come to the Jammu region was Pir Raushan Ali Shah, whose dargah is located near the famous Raghunath Mandir, in the heart of Jammu town.

He is said to have performed many miracles, which, so it is claimed, so impressed the Hindu Raja of Jammu that he became his devotee and requested him to settle in his city. When the Pir died, the Raja had a grave constructed for him, which today is a popular place of pilgrimage for Hindus and Muslims alike.

Tucked away in an obscure corner of the market named after him in Jammu's busy commercial district is the dargah of Pir Lakhdata. After his death, it is said, half his body was taken by his Muslim disciples and buried according to Muslim rites. To his Muslim followers he is known as Zahir Pir.
The other half of his body was cremated by his Hindu followers, who revere him as Pir Lakhdata.

Another such shared shrine, skirting the boundary walls of the Jammu airport, is the sprawling dargah of Baba Budhan Ali Shah, which is particularly popular among the local Sikhs, for the Baba is said to have been a close friend of Guru Nanak.

At Ramnagar, on the outskirts of Jammu on the road to Srinagar, is the popular Sufi shrine of the Panj Pirs, the five Muslim saints.

Legend has it that five brothers of a Muslim family spent many years at the spot where the shrine stands in meditation and then left to go their own ways.

One day the five Pirs appeared in a dream to the Maharaja and admonished him for sleeping with his feet pointing to their chillah, the place where they used to meditate. The next morning, the Maharaja ordered the spot to be excavated, and an umbrella and five kettledrums were found.

Believing this to be a holy place, he ordered the construction of a dargah there. He then appointed his royal charioteer, Alif Shah, and a Muslim woman, Khurshid Begum, as custodians of the shrine.

The last time I visited the shrine it was looked after by a Hindu Rajput, husband of Khurshid Begum's daughter.

And then there is the shrine of Pir Mitha, located on a promontory on the banks of the Tawi, and connected, through myth and ritual to a Shaivite shrine on the other side of the river.

The Pir is said to have come to Jammu in the reign of Raja Ajab Dev in the 15th century. One day, the story goes, the Raja's wife fell seriously ill. The Pir cured the queen by performing a miracle, as a result of which the king and many of his subjects became his disciples.

Because of this, he had to face stiff opposition from some Hindu priests. His most vehement opponent was Siddh Garib Nath, a Shaivite yogi. However, the two soon became friends. Indeed, so close did they become that they decided to settle down together in the cave where the Pir lived. This cave is known as Pir Khoh or the 'Cave of the Pir'.

Legend has it that the yogi entered the cave and travelled all the way to Mattan in Kashmir, never to return again. After he disappeared, his disciples came to Pir Mitha, requesting him to accept them as his followers. The Pir declined, instructing them to be faithful to their own guru.

When this failed to satisfy them, the Pir relented somewhat and told them that they could, if they wanted, take his title of 'Pir', associated with Muslim mystics. That is why the cave is today called as Pir Khoh and the heads of the Nath yogis who still reside there are known as Pirs.

As I read and hear about Jammu going up in flames, my mind travels to the shrine of Baba Jiwan Shah, in the heart of Jammu town, where I have spent numerous quiet evenings simply watching people—Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and others—pray and distribute food to itinerant mendicants.

The Baba, born in the mid-nineteenth century, took to the Sufi path at a young age, traveling from his native Punjab and finally settling in a Muslim graveyard in Jammu, preaching and making disciples, who included Hindus as well as Muslims.

Among these were Pratap Singh, ruler of Jammu and Kashmir, and his brother Amar Singh. The Maharaja fixed a regular monthly stipend for him and would often invite him to his palace. But, true to his Sufi tradition, he seemed to have cared nothing for power and pelf.

One of his chief disciples was an impoverished man from the Chamar or leather-working caste, considered as 'untouchable' by caste Hindus, who now rests in a dargah of his own adjacent to that of the Baba.

Shrines of men who trod the mystical path, who transcended narrow barriers of caste and creed. Shrines that speak of a different Jammu. Of the possibility of a different way of looking at, dealing with and going beyond with communal differences.

As I pen these lines, I wonder what the men who lie buried below their domes would have to say about the mayhem that is tearing apart their town and beyond in the name of religion and community.

[Visit Two Circles.net http://www.twocircles.net/]

[Picture: Jammu &Kashmir, Amarnath land row. Photo: The Indian Muslim].
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Friday, August 22, 2008

Very Bright Future
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By Nirmika Singh,"Keep the Faith" - Express India - India

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Sukoon brings alive forgotten songs of Sufi saints

One band is defiantly holding on to the sounds of the past. Sukoon, the month-old Sufi band, is celebrating the growing love for Sufi sounds.

The band moves beyond the usual Abida Parveen and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan numbers, and is going deep into the spiritual rhythms.

“We perform songs by lesser known Sufi writers like Hazrat Mir Dard and Shamsh Tab Rez Baba, apart from Amir Khusrau and the great Baba Bulle Shah,” says Amjad Khan, 31, percussionist of the six-member band.

His brother Kashif Ahmed plays the sarangi while Arshad Khan does wonders with the esraj, one of India’s many dying instruments.

The band is already teaming up with foreign musicians. They have just returned from a tour of Sweden, Austria and Italy, and have their bags packed for more shows abroad.

“It is sad that we do not receive the kind of response in our own country that we get abroad. Here, even mediocre bands that are packaged well are more popular,” laments Siraj Khan as he plucks an Egyptian tune on his mandolin.

It is a treat to watch Sukoon members, with the melancholic sarangi competing with the upbeat darbuka, a Turkish percussion instrument, or the resounding double bass to reach an uplifting crescendo before retreating to a softer and milder plane.

“Our father and teacher, esraj maestro Ustad Allauddin Khan, was doubtful when we wanted to experiment with world music. But he was reassured after watching one of our performances,” says Kashif.

They remain positive. “We will be cutting our album next year and have many concerts booked till then. The future of Sufi music looks very bright,” smiles Amjad.

[Picture: A Man Playing Sarangi. Etching by François Balthazar Solvyns. Photo from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarangi].
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The Way to Correct Mistakes
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By Paramanand Soobarah, "More shootings in Jammu and Kashmir" - Mauritius Times - Mauritius
Weekly Issue 329, Friday, August 15, 2008

More shootings in Jammu and Kashmir

In retaliation for the reversal of the decision to grant some land for the purpose of creating reception facilities for Hindu pilgrims at the Amarnath Shrine in Kashmir, the Hindus of Jammu blockaded the road to and from Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir [India].

This was a serious blow to the economy of Kashmir and of India, as all the produce of that state is routed to other Indian cities through Jammu. Last week a number of Hindu activists were killed in police firings; the number is not clear as the killing of a Hindu is not a great matter for the present government of India.

It would have been unreasonable to expect the Kashmiris to take this lying down. A large crowd including traders decided to march towards the Line of Control that separates the Indian and Pakistani parts of Kashmir; if they could not send their produce to Indian cities, they could try sending them to Pakistani ones: they have to live. They were stopped by the Police who fired live bullets at them: thirteen Muslims have been killed in the scuffle. Tension in Kashmir is at an all-time high.

The killing of protestors and rioters by police is a shameful crime wherever and whoever by it is committed. It is a matter of great shame that a country that sends satellites around the earth and is planning an expedition to the moon does not have the right equipment for crowd control. Even Israel uses rubber-coated bullets against Hamas rioters.

The normal device used against determined rioters is the water canon. In America they have developed a device that emits rays much like those of microwave cookers that can repel crowds very effectively. If set to work on a serious project, Indian scientists can without any doubt develop devices that control rioting crowds without have to kill or maim any rioter.

The best weapon any government can have against rioting is not to allow any situation to develop into a riot.

It is when politicians and two-way communications between the authorities and the public fail that rioters take over. In the present case it might have been possible to get away with the question of the land for the pilgrims if the plot were smaller, just the amount needed for the facilities, with the rest being a park accessible to everybody, whether a pilgrim or not.

All governments can make mistakes, but the way to correct mistakes is also an important matter.

If Chief Minister Goolam Nabee Azad had been allowed to negotiate with the Muslim protestors about the matter, he could have come up with a face-saving solution.

There certainly is a minority among the Muslim protestors who are not interested in reaching any peaceful solution with the Indian government: they have their own mission from across the border. The way things were handled has only served to make matters worse.

There is no saying how matters will end. No people have ever accepted to live quietly under gun law for ever. But in this case there seems to the added complication that the nature of the people seems to have changed, from Sufism to militant Islamism.

Is Kashmiriyat gone for ever?

[On this topic, read also: http://sufinews.blogspot.com/search?q=Arjimand]

[Picture: Portrait of Maharaja Gulab Singh, former Governor of Jammu of the Sikh Empire of Ranjit Singh, in 1847. (Artist: James Duffield Harding). Photo from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jammu_and_Kashmir].
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