article by Rachel Aspden
This is a long piece in the Guardian UK. There are some encouraging aspects to the article and some that, to me, are not so good.
My journey to the heart of Islam
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buzz
Islam News @ NYT- Women’s Rights in Mideast:
- Driving Miss Saudi: Young women in Riyadh try to balance Islam and modernity as the stunted desert kingdom makes progress in “Saudi Time.”
- A Dispute on Using the Koran as a Path to Jesus: “The Camel Method” for preaching to Muslims has prompted controversy among Southern Baptists.
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Len 7:42 pm on October 23, 2009 Permalink |
Such as? (I’m curious to hear the resident sufis’ opinions on this.)
buzz 8:27 pm on October 23, 2009 Permalink |
I am one of several Sufi salekeen here so I am happy to offer my opinion fwiw…
I like that this program, like IAS.org and Zaytuna have traditional Islamic studies mixed in with Zikr and science of the heart (often known as “ilm-e-qalb”). This legitimizes sufism as the serious and valid study that it is. Sufism is the heart of Islam from the beginning, but Sufism is not stranger to deviants and charlatans just like the orthodox paths suffer from.
I also like the some of these women who have been drinking and partying come to their own free conclusions that the party lifestyle is an empty freedom. That is true and sort of where western culture is now. Sex, Drugs and RnR has been done ad naus…..Something new.
What I find questionable, and I have read about the same herd mentality behavior going on in other far flung western enclaves in Arab countries, is the cultish charismatic worship of the pirs. The groveling and gooning after discarding teas for baraka, it makes me wonder about the leaders a little bit.
There is almost always some fact in all fictions. It is true that a pir becomes a beloved and a complete surrogate for the Divine on the Path of love. This is a very delicate and important stage for Sufis. It is very individual and unique to the Pir (guide) and the salek ( follower). Belief and love are the most powerful tools in the saleks assets for progressing along the path.
Institutionalizing the behavior is cultish and misses the real point of love and devotion earned from a deep and rich relationship between two people. It is the job of the pir to end that kind of mistake among his or her group. Some do it by making the path of love very hard to earn, some do it by avoiding it altogether and fronting more on the scholarly side and waiting for love to show up spontaneously (as it should).
It worries me when it is ignored and makes me think that having big numbers of people around is important and shows deep compromise or corruption. Or that is how I see it.
Len 8:56 pm on October 23, 2009 Permalink |
This is the sort of thing I was curious about. I’m aware Sufism is diverse and there are always bad apples, but I was wondering about the pervasiveness of this kind of behavior…
Buzz 9:06 pm on October 23, 2009 Permalink |
There is a very fine line between right and wrong. This looks wrong to me given they have never even met this guy before. Baraka is true but it is a very intricate and layered reality. It is a deep secret in Sufism.
shams 4:20 am on October 24, 2009 Permalink |
Well….I never was a huge party grrl…I have always been a geekess…..but what seduced me was the intellutual discipline of al-Islam.
I took ballet from the age of 5…..it is more like that, the discipline, the training….the protocol. You give up some things to dance well.
bi la kayfah
shams 4:27 am on October 24, 2009 Permalink |
for me it was always more about sirr than pir.
