I ain't No Goofy Soofy

Last week I attended an event at Georgetown University. It was about Islam in America, and the panel included prominent journalists, scholars, and leaders. But there was one panelist who was different from the rest and can be identified with Pakistan more than America. It was Salman Ahmad from the Pakistani Rock group Junoon. Apperently he is in the US now and from a look at his web site it appears he is teaching and keeping himself very busy spreading the word of peace and unity.

I like him. I think his work is great. But I think he could be much more powerful and influential if he backed up some of his claims about sufism with more scholarship. It would just take a couple of books for him to add depth to anything he says about the subject of mystism, music, poetry, and Bulleh Shah.

He says that he is inspired by the sufi poet Bulleh Shah and Sufi Islam. But he seems to display a lack of knowledge about the subject when he speaks. Especially when its to a university crowd or sitting among scholars who may have read up on the subject.

What is his Bulleh Shah's Sufi Islam. He seems to put it at odds with the Islam taught by the Mullahs. I define Islam a submitting to the will of Allah, and when one submits the self ceases to exist. this denial of self can take many forms, one form is the intensely experience based self sacrifice of those called sufis, where remembrance of the divine leads to a self awareness that one is nothing, that there is nothing real, nothing worthy of recognition but Allah. The life of the sufi becomes a series of emotional, experience oriented actions that continue to reinforce this awareness. Yes, This is Islam, this is submission to Allah.

On the other hand, there is the form of submission that recognizes that Allah is not just Real and worthy of recognition and awareness, but that Allah has also given us a revelation composed of words that teach us how to deny our self. That by denying our desire to do what we want and instead do what Allah tells us to do in his revelation, Is this not also Self sacrifice? So is this not also Islam? Yes, This is Islam, this is submission to Allah.

Salman seems to pit these two forms of Islam against each other when he speaks about the subject. I wonder if he is aware of those who have mastered both forms of submission. I think he is.

What he fails to mention is that the Sufi Islam he refers to is actually a form of submission of a specific group of sufis. He should not try to speak for all sufis. he should say that he follows a way of Islam that was practiced by the Qalandars. I love the Qalandars, they are my heroes as well. They are revolutionaries who do not deny Allah, or his Revelation, but deny the authoritarian human who claims to be the advocate of Allah. The Qalandar followed his own path towards the Divine Beloved. This did not mean he violated the revelation. It only meant that he denied the extreme adhereance to ritual and form. His was a life of meditation and contemplation that led to expressions of His love of Allah in any form: the poetry of Baba Bulleh Shah, the dance of Lal Shahbazz, or the philosophical writings of Fakruddin.

To simplify the way of the Qalandar and turn it into sweeping generalizations about Sufi Islam versus Mullah Islam is to miss the point and would make many Sufi Scholars of Mullah Islam lower there head and feel pity at his ignorance.

a new post!!!

its been a while...
so at my wifes request,
i will try to start posting again.

there is much that has happened since the last post.
three words: MAHA SUMR SIDDIQUI


my incredibly cute little baby girl with the chubbiest cheeks.
MASHALLAH!!

She also has a powerful leg slam.
MASHALLAH!!

INSHALLAH,
she will be great at soccer and martial arts.