Ihsan Center – Islam From The Heart

Aminah Chishti and “Fana-Fi-Allah”

First woman tabla player breaks social barriers

ISLAMABAD: As the nation’s capital, Islamabad is home to numerous foreigners who are seen donning local dresses in a bid to assimilate with the natives.  However, Aminah Chishti, a US national, not only changed her appearance to fit in, but has managed to assimilate into the man’s world that is classical music by becoming the first female tabla player in the history of classical music to perform at Sufi shrines around Pakistan. 

Chishti is part of the band “Fana-Fi-Allah” — a group of nine devoted foreigners who have dedicated their lives to spread the message of Sufis in the West since 2001. They have performed at hundreds of festivals and concerts worldwide where they share their passion for qawwalis.

Chishti has performed at a number of Sufi shrines and festivals since 2001, the most famous ones being the tombs of Data Ganj Baksh in Lahore, Baba Ganj-i-Shakar in Pak Pattan, Baba Bulleh Shah in Kasur and Baba Lasuri Shah in Faisalabad. In India, she has performed at the tombs of Khwaja Nizamuddin Aulia, Hazrat Amir Khusrau, Pir Inayat Khan and Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti.

With her devotion, she has changed boundaries for women across Pakistan by performing at various shrines where women rarely take on a prominent role.

Chishti’s journey towards Sufism and devoting her life to classical music began when she was given a Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan music cassette eleven years ago. “It was then that classical music just immediately touched my soul and my quest began,” she said.  While travelling back and forth between America, India and Pakistan, her journey led her to the legendary Dildar Hussain Khan, a tabla master who worked and toured with Khan during his heyday. He practices a unique style of tabla playing known to be over 1,000 years old and drafted by the legendary poet Amir Khusro. The style is a combination of ‘jori’ which is used as the treble and ‘dhamma’ which creates a deeper sound. “I came to Dildar with the hope and will to learn” she said “Today I not only perform to spread the message of Sufis in the West but I also teach the rare music form” she added.

Apart from playing classical music she also sings to the tune. Her master, Dildar, while praising her dedication, said she came to him years ago wanting to learn. “People around me raised eyebrows…[why does] a girl from America want to learn the tabla?” he said.

Dildar said Chishti has taken the first and most difficult step of defying the norm and has thus opened the floodgate for many women who want to learn the tabla. “There are many women in our country who admire the sound of the tabla but are restricted to performing in small gatherings or weddings.

The lead vocalist of Chishti’s group, Tahir Qawwal, studies from vocal masters Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Pashupati Nath Mishra, Sher Ali Khan and Muazzum Qawwal. Tahir plays the harmonium and sings the qawwalis. “I was pulled out of my cultural and religious roots at an early stage. I have lived like a beggar in the Himalayas and it has been a journey full of spirituality”.

At a qawali workshop organised by the Institute for Preservation of Arts and Culture in collaboration with the US Embassy at Kuch Khass on Tuesday evening, a number of music lovers gathered to listen to and learn about classical music. The band got an opportunity to play with the Bakshi brothers and Ustad Dildar Hussain’s group. The workshop started with the expert artists explaining the qawaali form of singing, its various styles and techniques. While explaining each stage systematically, Tahir managed to elaborate the style of singing with personal experiences and historical significance. All three groups got a chance to perform individually and ended the performance with a remarkable fusion of all three groups.

Fana-Fi-Allah will be touring all of Pakistan this month, hitting Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Multan, Pak Pattan and Faisalabad.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 5^th, 2013.

Read more at: First woman tabla player breaks social barriers – The Express Tribune

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German scholar Dr. Jurgen Wasim Frembgen reads excerps from his book at the Goethe Institut on Wednesday evening. (Photo credit Dawn)

‘Sufi music is a gift to western listeners’ – DAWN.COM.

PEERZADA SALMAN

Introducing himself and the book to a thin audience, Dr Frembgen said he started listening to Indian classical and folk music at a young age in the 1970s. It didn’t take him long to realise that the reaction of German audiences to eastern music was quite different from that of Pakistani music lovers. While the former reacted to it in a reserved manner the latter sat on the floor and appreciated it verbally (wah, wah) and through gestures. It was then that he started working on classical and Sufi music.

“I can’t play any instrument but am a keen listener,” he said.

Speaking on the genesis of the book, Dr Frembgen said he visited the walled city of Lahore quite a bit and sat with musicians and connoisseurs of music in order to observe their understanding of the subject. He claimed Sufi music was a gift to western listeners in order to help them develop their spirituality. He being an anthropologist could train his ear to have a better understanding of the genre. There were several histories of Indian classical music and its comprehension depended upon what kind of cultural setting the music was based. The atmosphere that’s part of the performance (with agarbattis and dhamal) and the concept of sharing were keeping alive the subcontinent’s music that was indigenous to the region’s value system.

Dr Frembgen recalled an event where the established flutist Akmal Qadri was playing raga des (a nighttime raga). This made him read the first chapter of the book in which he remembered his visit to the late classical dancer Maharaj Kathak’s house in Lahore in the 1990s where Ustad Hamid Ali Khan was singing ghazals and thumris. It was not just the singing and admiration for the poets whose poetry was being sung but the whole ambience that inspired him (people touching Maharaj Kathak’s feet or appreciating the couplet with loud gestures etc).

The author then touched upon a sensitive topic. He said today there was a debate raging on about whether music was haram, and with bomb blasts at shrines a political angle had entered the whole scenario. There was a need to accommodate differences and celebrate cultural diversity. His book was not a scholarly one but was a collection of small narratives. Dr Frembgen mentioned the name of Dr Ashfaq, a homeopathic doctor and music expert with whom he had many discussions on the emotional dimension to Sufi music. He read out the chapter in which Akmal Qadri was playing raga des on his bamboo flute and commented that ‘a raga can awaken certain masculine or feminine emotion in the listener’.

Dr Frembgen also spoke on a chapter on Shah Latif’s shrine (which he said had undergone quite a few aesthetic changes unlike other shrines) where six to eight musicians sang till morning. “We need music to console our hearts,” he remarked while lauding those who perform at the great Sufi poet’s shrine. He also briefly discussed the difference in behaviours of people that nowadays visited shrines and argued Sufi tradition was at the heart of Islam.

The last bit that Dr Frembgen read out from the book was his experience of being at Baba Shah Jamal in Lahore. The chapter focused on the different people who indulged in trance dance or dhamal.

Replying to a question put to him by an attendee, Dr Frembgen said the dynamics of change were always at work that was why at some shrines the performances had more of an entertainment value, while when he recently visited an area in Karachi he found members of the Sheedi community trying to search their Sufi identity.

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Sheikh Nazim

[From Imam Salim – many years ago Sheikh Nazim and about 30 of his followers came to where I was on a retreat with Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan (ra). It was such a wonderful experience to meet him and his mureeds then. His is one of three silsilas that are linked with the Chishti silsila and we are all united in our quest for true love and connection with the divine]

From the GlobalPost:

Nestled at the end of a street in the Cypriot village of Lefke is a house to which an elderly Sufi Muslim sage draws disciples with a message of love to counter the radical face of Islam.

Sufism traces its roots back to the origins of Islam and focuses on the inner, mystical dimension of the faith and a personal relationship with God, especially through meditation.

It is made up of many orders. Among the most prominent are the Naqshbandi, renowned for their austerity and scrupulous observance of sharia, or Islamic law.

Sheikh Nazim, now very frail at the age of 91, leads a group known as the Naqshbandi-Haqqani, which is more flexible in its teachings, and “is one of the best known Sufi masters in the West,” says Thierry Zarcone, a French historian and specialist in Sufism.

“It’s an Islam that is more flexible, with an acceptable vision. At the same time, (Sheikh Nazim) is playing on the danger of radicalism in the US and Europe… by showing that Sufism is a kind of instrument against radicalism.”

The door is open to all, with a cheerful greeting of “welcome to the house of love,” and visitors are invited in to share one of the day’s two meals.

Inside, the shady arched veranda looks out on a courtyard brimming with flowers and fruit trees.

There’s a steady flow of people into the house in the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, from residents to visiting pilgrims and locals who have come to ask for prayers or to seek a favour.

Among them are Germans, Italians, Swiss, Americans, Russians, and of course Turks and Turkish Cypriots, who converge on the tiny mosque to attend prayers followed by a sermon on “true love,” the love of God.

At the centre of it all is Sheikh Nazim, whose blue eyes, though dimmed by age, still radiate gentleness and affection.

Nazim, who is now mostly confined to a wheelchair and has difficulty talking, was not up to an interview, but he still preaches sermons that are later uploaded to the web by the Internet savvy community.

Nazim embraced the pope

Three years ago, already bent with age and walking with difficulty, he came to the attention of the wider world when the former pope, Benedict XVI, visited Cyprus.

He travelled from Lefke to the Roman Catholic church in the UN-patrolled buffer zone that divides Nicosia.

Benedict was heading into church, but stopped when Sheikh Nazim approached him, and the two shared a few poignant moments in quiet conversation.

“God bless you,” Sheikh Nazim said, before adding: “Pray for me. I am so old,” to which the pope replied with a twinkle in his eye: “I am also old.”

Nazim then embraced the pope and patted him on the back before pronouncing: “Good one. Good one.”

To some, it might have seemed incongruous to see a Muslim cleric embracing the pope, but the message of love, of tolerance is at the centre of Sheikh Nazim’s teachings.

In his book entitled simply “Love,” Sheikh Nazim says that “in every religion, love is the primary force. When you love, you respect.”

Sheikh Nazim’s son, Bahauddine, said: “If you love the human and you love the nature and you love the people and you love the animal, that means you are in the right way.”

Jehan Raqab is an Italian-Egyptian who gave up a good job with the United Nations to join Sheikh Nazim’s community.

“I came here once and felt like I was in heaven,” she said. “When I see Sheikh Nazim, he feels your heart with his eyes.”

“I had quite a bit of difficulty with my family (over the move), because I was working with the UN… and suddenly I felt something else was more important.”

Raqab, who is single, came to Lefke three years ago and settled into a simple life that revolves around prayers five times a day and weekly meditations, known as Khikr.

Looking back on her “tasteless” former world of “running, working and shopping,” Raqab said her new one “gave me a sense of satisfaction that my life and work was not giving me anymore.”

She lives near the derga, the common house where dozens of adepts share meals, the men on one side, women on the other, and participate in household tasks, work in the garden or go out to do service in the community.

‘Voice of silent majority’

Bahauddine explained that “we have here people who are originally Muslim, others are converts. We do not make any separation.”

“Our most active communities are in Europe, particularly in London,” he says, while also mentioning others in Istanbul, Los Angeles and the US state of Michigan.

One of Sheikh Nazim’s sons-in-law, Sheikh Hisham Kabbani, has actively promoted the order in the United States in 1990.

And, after a terrorist bombing in London in 2005, he spearheaded the creation of a council of Sufis to get out the “voice of the silent majority” to counter that of radical Islam.

As Bahauddine put it: “We have to explain Islam to foreigners, especially these days as there are so many ideas that are violent.”

“If you look back into the history of Islam, what are the rules? You cannot kill women or children or old people or burn a house. There is no excuse for suicide.

“This is our religion; it is the most beautiful religion. But it is coming into the wrong hands. I am deeply sorry to say this.”

Elderly Sufi in Cyprus preaches love to counter radicalism | GlobalPost.

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The film on the life of Yunus Emre is being shot in 15 different Turkish cities to show the richness of the Anatolian land.

ANKARA – Anadolu Agency

Turkish Sufi and poet Yunus Emre’s life is being adapted to the silver screen by director Kürşat Kızbaz, who previously made a film about Rumi that received big interest around the world. The film will be released in January 2014 with the title ‘Yunus Emre – the Sound of Love’

A new film will focus on the life of Turkish poet and Sufi Yunus Emre, who made a great contribution to the formation of culture and civilization in Anatolia. The film titled “Yunus Emre – Aşkın Sesi” (Yunus Emre – the Sound of Love) tells of Yunus Emre’s adventure in pursuit of “love.”

Speaking to Anatolia Agency, director of the film Kürşat Kızbaz said that he previously shot the film “Mevlana – Aşkın Dansı” (Rumi – The Dance of Love) and it was screened in 65 countries.

He said this time he was working on a film reflecting the love and peace philosophy of the intellectual Yunus Emre, adding that the preparation and shooting process of the film took more than three years.

Kızbaz said that the film was set to be released in the first month of 2014, adding, “This special project brings together many renowned names. Yunus Emre is played by Devrim Erin, the star of the highest-budget movie of the Turkish cinema history, ‘Fetih 1453’. A very special and experienced team of actors collaborated with him in the film. We will present the unique story of Yunus Emre to audiences on Jan. 10.”

Artists including Burak Sergen, Altan Erkekli, Altan Gördüm, Ahmet Mekin, Bülent Emin Yarar, Sinan Albayrak, Suna Selen, Nesimi Kaygusuz, Tamer Levent and Nilay Cafer are taking on roles in the film, said Kızbaz. “These names will appear as historical characters like Rumi, Hacı Bektaş-ı Veli, Tapduk Emre etc.”

War scenes shot in Van 

Kızbaz said they had set up a big place in the eastern province of Van for the Mongol war scenes, and added, “At the same time, we wanted to show all the colors and richness of Anatolia by shooting the film in 15 cities over four seasons.

“While depicting the life of Yunus Emre, who had an impact on the life of millions of people with his love, tolerance and peace philosophy, we received support from many institutions, including the Culture and Tourism Ministry.”

Noting that making such a film carried big responsibilities, Kızbaz said he was the director, producer and scriptwriter of the film and had undertaken a big responsibility in showing such a significant character to millions.

Since they knew the difficulties of reflecting the life of such a mystic character on the cinema screen, they had worked on the script and shooting preparations for more than two years, according to Kızbaz. He said they received invitations from many countries from India to the United States.

The film was shot in Kartepe, Nallıhan, Erciyes, Cappadocia and Hacıbektaş, said Kızbaz, adding that people living in those regions showed them great interest.

CINEMA-TV – Life of Turkish Sufi Yunus Emre adapted to screen.

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