Ihsan Center – Islam From The Heart

One of the Uighur Sufi Shrines depicted in the story.

The Spirit Of China’s Sufi Shrines

by Claire O’Neill

March 08, 201312:20 PM

In 2002, photographer Lisa Ross found herself far away from home — in the remote Taklamakan Desert of western China, in what is known as the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.

“I was looking for something,” she says, but “I didn’t know what I was looking for.”

Markers for saints in the desert are maintained by shaykhs, who dig out the sands that would otherwise cover them over time. The number of flags on a marker correlates to a saint’s power at performing miracles.

She had been visiting a friend in Beijing but ventured out to the desert on her own. That’s where she first encountered mazars: handmade holy sites in Sufi Islam, built to commemorate saints who are buried there.

Several trips to China and about a decade later, Ross now has a book out — as well as a show at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City: Living Shrines of Uyghur China.

The Uighurs (also spelled Uyghurs) are Muslims who live in this remote part of China. And these sites are tributes to saints, who in their lifetime were deemed to have healing power that they carried to the grave.

The shrines are located sporadically throughout the sprawling region and are often unmarked. Some of them, Ross says, are easily 500 years old. The sites serve as destinations for pilgrims — who leave offerings in exchange for healing.

But in Ross’s quiet, lonely photos, the pilgrims are obviously missing.

“Intimacy was very important to me,” she says. “I couldn’t really make intimate photographs of people I didn’t know. I wanted to photograph the landscape as if I were making a portrait.”

The shrines aren’t always easy to find — especially for an outsider. It’s not like there’s a handy map to the region. The closest thing Ross found was a 2001 hagiography (or a biography of saints) written in the Uighur language by local scholar Rahila Dawut.

With that as a basic guide, Ross traversed the desert by rickety bus, donkey and foot — accompanied first by historian Alexandre Papas, and later by Dawut and her students.

They managed to find dozens of shrines — but another thing Ross excludes from her photos is the specific location: “As much as it would be awesome for as many people to see these things in person, it would also endanger their existence.”

This part of the world is modernizing, and that could jeopardize some of these places and the traditions. But Ross has captured something that will endure: The spirit of a place.

via The Spirit Of China’s Sufi Shrines : The Picture Show : NPR.

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Celebration of Abraham helps build ‘a true interfaith community’

By HEIDI BAY/Special to The Democrat

Created: 01/19/2013 12:30:50 AM PST

via Celebration of Abraham helps build ‘a true interfaith community’ – Daily Democrat Online.

With the 10th anniversary gathering of Celebration of Abraham, the group is coming full circle, to the ideals that brought them together in the wake of the horrors of the 9/11 terrorist attacks to promote understanding and compassion among Jews, Christians and Muslims.

“Rather than letting suspiciousness and fear of people in our own community push us further apart, we decided to find bonds which could bring us together. It was a radical notion that the members of three Abrahamic faiths could find ways to get along,” said Michael Hirsch, a member of Congregation Bet Haverim who will introduce the program at this year’s event. “At this year’s event, we are looking at the fresh ways in which the CA House Multifaith Living Community participants are working together, hoping the students will be able to provide ideas to community elders who have the ability to implement change consistent with the ‘radical’ ideas that this organization was founded on a decade ago.”

The public is invited to the free interfaith event, which typically draws as many as 300 people of all spiritual paths from throughout Yolo County, Sacramento and the region. The 10th annual Celebration of Abraham will take place Sunday, Jan. 27, from 3 to 5 p.m. in the Community Room at Davis Community Church, 412 C. Street, Davis.

The theme of the 2013 Celebration is “Interfaith Models of Community.” At the event, people will hear from individuals who are modeling interfaith community, focusing specifically on the Multifaith Living Community at CA House on UC Davis campus, which encompasses 38 young people from various religions, including Jewish, Sikh, Christian, Hindu, Muslim and Buddhist, along with some who belong to no particular religion but are spiritually oriented.

“This is a unique resource for interfaith community,” said Helen Roland, a founding organizer of the Celebration of Abraham and member of the United Methodist Church. “It is a program unique in the country. No other school has a true interfaith living community and we hope the students can give us their insights into how to build an interfaith community where ever we are.”

As is tradition, this year’s program will include panel discussions and music, along with intimate discussions among the participants at each table. Questions based on the theme are posed to each table group, with people sharing their experiences and beliefs as they wish. The afternoon completes with a ritual of washing each other’s hands at each individual table and breaking a loaf of bread together as symbols of respect and connection.

Each year at Celebration of Abraham, donations are invited for a charitable organization. This year’s funds will go to the Red Cross specifically to help the victims of Hurricane Sandy.

Celebration of Abraham is sponsored by a number of spiritual organizations, including American Muslim Voice, The Christian Church, (Disciples of Christ) of Woodland, Muslim Mosque of Woodland, Woodland Presbyterian Church, Woodland United Methodist Church, Congregation Bet Haverim/Jewish Fellowship of Davis, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Council on Islamic Relations (CAIR), Davis Community Church, Davis Friends (Quaker) Meeting, Davis Lutheran Church, , Davis United Methodist Church, Lutheran Church of Incarnation, Saint James Catholic Church, St. John’s United Church of Christ, St. Martin’s Episcopal Church of Davis, St. Mary’s Orthodox Coptic Church, Salam Center of Sacramento, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, and the Unitarian Universalist Church.

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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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