Ihsan Center – Islam From The Heart

Artist’s performing Dervish dance of Turkey. Photo: M.Subhash

by: Abha Sharma

In Jodhaa Akbar, Emperor Akbar was picturised as dancing with the group of whirling Dervishes obviously mesmerised by the magic of Sufi music. From Kahe ko Bihai Bides in Umrao Jaan to Khwaja More Khwaja in Jodhaa Akbar to Arziyan Saari in Delhi 6, there goes a long list of popular filmy renditions of the Sufi genre.

Sufi music can cast an enchanting spell on its listeners. What famous poet John Keats said for “a thing of beauty” holds true for Sufi music, since it “is a joy forever.” It mesmerises the performers and the audience alike.

Oscar winning Indian musician, A.R. Rehman has quite a fascination for Sufi music and has composed many Sufi numbers. It has been equally popular with the Bengali singer, Lalan Fakir and Bangladesh’s national poet, Kazi Nazrul Islam. A Pakistani band Junoon is said to have even created the genre of Sufi rock with a fusion of traditional Sufi poetry and hard rock. The name of Hazrat Amir Khusrau (1253-1325) is synonymous with Sufi poetry and even after seven hundred years since he passed away, his keh mukarnis (say and deny riddles) is still an integral part of our folk culture. No farewell (bidai) ritual in a wedding gets complete without the lilting melodies of “Kahe ko bihayee bides re, sun babul more”. Bridegrooms are often asked these riddles in a witty vein. Wo aaye tab shaadi hovay, us bin dooja aur na koye, meethe lage wake bol, Aye Sakhi Sajan? Na Sakhi Dhol! (One can’t get married without it, there is no one like him/it, he sounds so sweet, is it the beloved? No dear, it’s the drum for singing)!

The mystic fervour during every Urs in the country is largely attributed to Khusrau’s poetry which spreads the message of love and harmony. Qawwals consider it sacred to begin their recital with Khusrau’s famous couplet Gori Sewat sej par, mukh par darey kes, chal Khusrau ghar aapne saanjh bhaee chahun des(The fair maiden rests, on a bed of roses, her face covered with a lock of hair, let us oh Khusrau, return home now. The dark dusk settles in four corners of the world) on the occasions of Urs. et married without it,Yet, until 2001, there was no festival in India that celebrated the life of Khusrau or the spirit of Sufi music immortalized by him. Thousands of worshippers throng his tomb and that of Nizamuddin Auliya’s in Delhi during the 16 days Satrahvin Sharif Urs to commemorate their deaths. But a real musical tribute to the memory of the iconic musician, scholar and Sufi poet has started only with the launch of the annual Sufi Music Festival, called Jahan-e-Khusrau.

Organised by the Rumi Foundation and designed and directed by the versatile artist and film maker Muzaffar Ali, the Jahan-e-Khusrau festival has been successful in recreating a Sufi mood in India. According to Ali, the festival aims to celebrate the vision and poetry of the Sufi mystics.

Sufism is a way to purify one’s inner self and beautify it with praiseworthy traits before traveling into the presence of the divine. So this festival is an effort to bridge the gap between hearts and spread the message of love and harmony. In its eleven year old journey, Jahan-e-Khusrau has presented a rare poetry of the mystics of the Indian sub-continent. Besides Delhi, it has equally enthralled audiences in Lucknow and Jaipur. In the past decade, it has invited celebrity Sufi singers, dancers, musicians like Abida Parveen, Sanam Marwi, Azam Ali, Masood Habibi and introduced promising talents such as Zia Khan, Archana Shah and Indira Naik among others.

Sufism or Sufi poetry has traveled a long way through Arabic, Persian and Turkish languages in several continents and cultures over a millennium. Inspired by great Sufi saints like Rumi, Bulle Shah, Rabia and others, Sufi music is purely devotional music. In India and Pakistan, Sufi thoughts have found expression through several musical genres like Qawwali, Ghazal, folk forms from Rajasthan, Sindh and Punjab and Sufiana kalam in Kashmir.The most popular, of course, has been Qawwali, attributed to Amir Khusrau.

Qawwali with its rich combination of mystical poetry and powerful rhythm, suggestive of repetitive zikr (God’s name) takes the audience closer to the core experience of Sufism. That of attaining mystical love and divine ecstasy!

For more than seven centuries, Amir Khusrau’s name has been etched in oral traditions, sung by qawwals, poets and also the common man. With Jahan-e-Khusrau, his legacy of love and harmony will surely live on for many more years.

via: The Hindu : Cities / Delhi : A genre of reverence.

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Published: Friday, Nov 30, 2012, 1:26 IST

By DNA Correspondent | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA

Ruhaniyat 2012, a sufi and mystic music festival, will open in the city on December 1 at Horniman Circle Garden before going to eight other cities across the country.

With a line-up of international sufi troupes, the festival has always enjoyed a pride of place on the country’s cultural calendar. The 12th edition of the two-day festival is organised by Banyan Tree, a cultural organisation that promotes performing arts.

Calling the festival “a unique musical pilgrimage,” Banyan Tree director Mahesh Babu said, “One feels privileged to be part of this festival which, in many ways, is the call of the soul, enlivening centuries of spiritual wisdom. The way immortal works of great mystics are brought to life by mostly unheard of but immensely talented carriers of living traditions from remote parts of the country can be overwhelming.”

This year, the festival will travel to Raipur and Ahmedabad too, along with Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune and Bengaluru. “With each passing year, the family keeps growing as we discover more and more talent and bringing them to the Ruhaniyat platform. Such dynamism in the line-up has brought newer audiences too,” added Babu.

This edition will feature some unique art forms like Kapalik Pandvani from Chhattisgarh, Sukhnani Ojhapalli from Assam, Ravanhatta ensemble from Rajasthan and Sindhi Saraiki from Kutch. The festival opens with Mystic Drums by P Nandakumar & Group (Kerala), Sindhi Saraiki by Ismali Para and Group (Kutch), Sufiana Maqam ensemble by Oud, Kanoon, Edakka, Kamaycha by Mohammad Farghaly & Group (Egypt, Kerala and Rajasthan), Kapalik Pandvani by Meena Sahu & Group (Chhattisgarh), Tannoura by Dancing Dervishes (Egypt) and Sufi Qawwali by Sabri Brothers & Group (Jaipur).

The second day will feature Sukhnani Ojhapalli by Dron Bhuyan & Group (Assam), Mystic Ravanhatta ensemble by Sugunaram & Group (Rajasthan), Shabad by Bhai Nirmal Singh Khalsa (Punjab), Baul songs by Parvathy Baul (West Bengal), Sufi Qawwali by Chand Nizami & Group (Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah, Delhi).

via Unique Sufi pilgrimage beckons music lovers across India – Mumbai – DNA.

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The Sidra Tree (Ziziphus sp.) in Qatar will be the first tree planted in the new garden.

Dubai: A unique biological garden featuring the plants mentioned in the Holy Quran is being built in Qatar, the host of the upcoming UN climate summit.

The 18th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 8th session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol will take place from November 26 to December 7 this year.

Christened ‘Quranic Botanical Garden’, it is an ongoing project under the umbrella of the global Qatar Foundation Green Project.

The exotic garden coming up in the ‘Education City’ in Doha will serve not only as a place of meditation, but as a research centre for students, apart from educating people about the rich Islamic heritage.

The garden is first of the four components of the Green Projects programme designed to promote conservation and further understanding of the country’s natural resources, Gulf Times reported.

Being first of its kind in Qatar, the Quranic Garden will comprise all the plant species mentioned in the Quran, and those in Sunnah (Deeds of the Prophet) and Hadith (sayings of the Prophet).

It will also exhibit botanical terms mentioned in the Quran, explaining to them the context of modern science.

It will be used to educate people about the importance of conservation and raise awareness about the moral importance of environmental stewardship as well.

“There are so many botanical terms in the Quran, we have to share it with the public,” Fatima Saleh Al-Khulaifi, who works on Green Projects at the Quranic Gardens, said.

UNESCO proposed the idea of this project in 2008. And, the proposal was accepted by Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, the chairperson of Qatar Foundation, who planted the first tree of the project, a Sidra tree.

The Holy Quran is rich with plant life and its sacred words refer to plants native to the region of the earliest Muslims, including those in desert and Mediterranean climates.

It (Quran) also refers to tropical plants from other regions, such as the banana tree and ginger plant. The proposed garden will also feature plants such as the lentil, sesame, pomegranate, fig and henna, among others.

According to Al-Khulaifi, the garden will be ready to open three years from now.

The first tree (Sidra) planted here, the symbol of Qatar Foundation, is an important part of Qatar heritage. It was the traditional meeting place for scholars and travellers, who would gather to share knowledge under the shade of the Sidra. Its fruit and leaves also have medicinal properties.

via Qatar building Quranic Garden.

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Through hikes and rides along the hills of the West Bank, the Sufi Trail is a chance for foreign and local tourists to learn more about the roots of Islamic mysticism. (APTN)

While Sufi shrines and dargahs are being indiscriminantly destroyed by criminals and vandals masquerading as defenders of Islam – In Palestine a group is working through cultural tourism to save this invaluable history.

Sufi Trail reveals secrets of Islamic mysticism

Wednesday, 07 November 2012

The Associated Press West Bank

Perched high on a hilltop, this Sufi shrine was erected in the 16th century to honor the Sufi mystics.And today a group of tourists are gathered to learn more about Sufi mysticism in the Palestinian village of Birzeit, near the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Raed Saadeh is briefing visitors before the start of the Sufi Trail.Saadeh is one of the creators of the Sufi Trail and Chairman of “Rozana”, a Birzeit-based association dedicated to the promotion of agro-tourism as well as architectural and cultural preservation in the Palestinian Territories.Sufi Trail participants are a group of a dozen foreigner and local people interested in discovering the Holy Land through a walk off the beaten track.The first stop is at the al-Qatrawani shrine, a 16th-century sanctuary built on top of a previous Byzantine monastery, its history shrouded in mystery: according to “Rozana”, a local tradition says that it was built in honor of a Muslim holy man, Sheikh Ahmad al-Qatrawani, a mystic from the Islamic Sufi order from the village of Qatra near Gaza; a parallel Christian tradition attributes the name al-Qatrawani to Saint Catherine of Alexandria.The two folk legends are intertwined, as it happens in places with millennia-old history: “Catherine, Qatrawani, so another connection to the name, ok?, Qatrawani, Catherine. And it’s also connected to the same myth, that Catherine actually was descended into Mount Sinai and this guy was descended to this location, so there might be also similarities,” Saadeh explains to the group.

Read  more about this via Sufi Trail reveals secrets of Islamic mysticism.

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