I had heard of Doctors without Borders and Reporters without Borders, but when I saw a headline in a Pakistani newspaper about Mystics without Borders, it was a first for me and certainly caught my attention.
It turns out a fascinating festival by the name of the “International Mystic Music Sufi Festival” is currently being celebrated in Karachi at the Bara Dari. The festival is being organized by the Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop, which is also the group that has been responsible for the popular World Performing Arts and Theatre Festival held annually in Lahore.
This Sufi festival is the first of its kind in Karachi and certainly an encouraging sign that people are able to express and share their sentiments, devotion, spirituality and passion in diverse ways. This festival is expected to last until May 7, and with an entrance fee of just Rs 300, it promises a lot of entertainment and education to Karachiites. According to the organizers, performers from over 70 countries have been invited to present their specialties in muslim sufi rituals, including music, songs and dances. There are performers from as far away as Syria which can be a delight to watch.
ATP has written before (here, here, here, here, here and here) on some of the great mystic poets and we wish to join the participants in this festival in spirit.
According to the media report:
Usman Peerzada of the Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop said that the group’s main aim had been to bring festivals to Pakistan since 1992 and now, as a result of their efforts, the World Performing Arts Festival had become the largest festival of Asia. “Festivals are living festivals and we aim to make the Sufi festival into just that. So please, own the festival,” he said in his address to the audience.
Daily Times spoke to Faizan Peerzada, the master-mind behind the show, to ask him what his audience could expect out of this festival. “A lot of variety. Some of these performers, like the Syrian performers can alone perform for four hours, but we have condensed it into a performance of 32 minutes so that we can manage 17 performances in one day. We have tried to bring together as many performers here as was possible and each one of them is performing a different Islamic tradition, so there’s a collection of so many aspects, which makes this festival unique.”
and the performances so far seem to have kept up to their high expectations:
The curtain raiser began with a performance by Zain-ul-Abideen Shah also known as Jumman Shah and his troupe of five people who sang a qafi by Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai. Their performance was followed by a mind-blowing performance by Mithoo and Goonga Saeein, who presented an instrumental using dhols while three of their members whirled around, representing the ecstasy so indispensable to the Sufi tradition. The next performance was by an Iranian four-member group called Bidaat, after which Kathak dancer Sheema Kirmani stole the show with her brilliant performance on Ameer Khusro’s aaj rang hai. With her group of two male dancers and two female, she brought the words to life and used the vacuum of the stage as a canvas portraying a beautiful painting that she successfully displayed to an audience that erupted in a round of applause for her.
Another one of the most appreciated performances of the curtain raiser was by Saeein Zahoor who performed a kalaam by Baba Bulleh Shah. Zahoor is a recipient of the BBC World Music Award and performed for an approximate 10 minutes, not a single second of which could be termed as a ‘drag’. A Syrian group called “Sham group of Syrian and Andalusian Music” performed next and recited verses from the Holy Quran.
We hope this Sufi Festival will become a local tradition, and that such art, folk, mystic, music, poetic, dance, and religious festivals will be held regularly in a city that still hosts one of the most diverse and culturally steeped citizenry.
People here are ranting that asking philosophical question is out of islam and that prophet did not proved his point by any logic. Ok. So those generations converted by the miracles performed by the prophet. Pray thy, please tell me why do YOU guys beleive in Islam? Please do tell me.
With the constant mindless and completly devoid of any logic debate going on here, thanks to Munir Alvi , Adnan Sidiqi and such, this site has become a real pain and totally unattractive. Bye bye Pakistaniat.com
P.S. to jay jay, mahi and of their clan. Why do you even talk back to these guys? Dont you see they can not think, ratioanly or otherwise. If you stop this service, probably all of us will be spared of their zero I.Q. torture tactics too.
Salamalikum,
Mahi, we hold our end of the bargain by sticking to Quran and Sunnah! Your argument might have some weight if not for the fact that philosophy usually introduces bidaat in Islam; haven’t you seen enough examples right here. The “walking stick” to be used is the Quran and the Sunnah and the actions of the first three generations who Rasoolillah (saw) himself praised.
Bilal: First, I want to ignore this shair. Second, how can you put Imam Ghazali and the others (ibn Sina, etc.) together? Please don’t. They were poles apart in their understanding. Imam Ghazali severely criticized ibn Sina and ibn Rushd carried on with some of ibn Sina’s thinking. Imam Ghazali’s use of philosophy was in response to views like that of ibn Sina, and I explained that above. Only a select few think ibn Sina, etc. as scholars of Islam. They are philosopher, tabeeb, etc. Hain, ibn Rushd was a Malaki scholar and wrote a beneficial book called Bidayatul Mujtahid, but shared some of the view of ibn Sina and scholars, such as ibn Taymiyyah and many others, refuted those ideas that he carried on from ibn Sina. Please note that I’m not placing anyone outside the pale of Islam or such. I’m talking about philosophy’s place in Islam. Rasoolillah (saw) never preached the use of philosophical ideas and thus the earlier generations didn’t either. Instead, Abdullah ibn Masood said: Rasoolillah (saw) drew a line for us and then said: “This is Allah’s straight path”. Then he drew lines to its right and left, and then he said, “These are paths, upon every one of them there is a devil calling towards it” [Reported in Musnad of Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal]. It might have been one thing it usage of philosophy wasn’t introducing new ideas in Islam, but that’s not the case.
[quote post=”695″]I don’t understand what is this Nafs that you talk about when you are not even prepared to study how human beings came to recognize something called Nafs and the fact that we can have control over it.[/quote]
Are you saying that Quran and ahadeeth and early sound Islamic literature don’t talk about nafs? I hope not!
[quote post=”695″]They tried to understand, for example, what may be meant by the last verses of Surat Takwir (Chapter 81). They did not think outside of religion, or to just try to prove or disprove the existence of Allah and His message, but to understand why we needed that message, and how to implent it in our lives (beyond the following of rituals).[/quote]
Please check out the link I posted above. You can explain and talk about qadr, taqdeer without having to deal with philosophical ideologies. Read what Imam Shafi’ said in the link I provided above:”The people did not become ignorant and begin to differ until they abandoned Arabic terminology and adopted the terminology of Aristotle.” So, are you going to tell me that ibn Sina or today’s ibn Sinas understood this religion better than Imam Shafi? Also, post exactly what ibn Sina, etc. said about the last ayah of surah at-Takwir. Then, I’ll post the tafseer of that ayah from other sources for people to read.
[quote post=”695″]Unfortunately in the tumultous centuries of orthodix Islam, their learnings were placed outside of Dar-ul-Islam by us, while other civilizations took note and made advances.[/quote]
The way I read this, you yourself are saying that their learnings weren’t part of orthodox Islam and philosophy will make it “less orthodox” (i.e. progressive, I suppose!). I’m talking about Islam–not today’s or yesterday’s or tomorrow’s or a thousand years. I make no distinction between orthodox and non-orthodox.
“while other civilizations took note and made advances.”: That doesn’t make sense. If philosophy was so good for Islam and Muslims and other civilizations took note of such ideas, I would think they would come to love Islam and become Muslim, no? I mean something that “explains” Islam and if one accepts it, then I would think that would lead that person to become Muslim or at least get close to Islam. Now, don’t tell me that today’s West is closer to Islam than us Muslims!!
jayjay, why resort to questioning people’s intentions when have nothing much to say? These vague and loose verses that you quoted are the exact result of today’s sufism and philosophy. Islam should be talked about in crystal-clear terms!!
Can anyone please reccomend a good book (in English) to catch up on the history of Sufism?
Haq Bahoo. Be shaq Bahoo.
Sufi poetry is the message of peace and love. The other day I was very hurt to see Altaf Hussain trying to coopt Bulleh Shah in his speech. At least let the sufi poets rest in peace, bhai.