Posted on 04/15/2006 11:35:40 PM PDT by Lorianne
The lights are dimmed in a home in northern Tehran. The men, women and teenagers gathered in the large living room close their eyes and rock back and forth to the beat of live music.
As the tambourine and drums beat louder and faster, some members of the group climb to their feet. They begin to swirl slowly in circles and raise their hands to the ceiling. A few fall into trances.
"You can somehow touch relaxation," says 22-year-old Mahsa, who believes that music and dance can provide a direct route to Allah.
"It's a very good sensation, and you think your soul is flying, that somehow you're not in your body."
These Iranians consider themselves Shia Muslims, as do most Iranians, and look to the first Shia Imam, Ali, as a spiritual guide.
But they also call themselves Sufis.
Sufis believe that at the core of all religions lies the same truth and that God is the only reality behind all forms of existence.
They also believe that the individual, through his or her own efforts, can reach spiritual union with God.
Spread of Sufism
Sufism, or Islamic mysticism, appeared in the eighth century in present-day Iraq.
Iranian Sufis say Islamic mysticism has become more and more popular in the country in recent years.
The authorities are concerned that Sufis will do something against them, while on the contrary, Sufis don't interfere in politics at all. They follow the law and are not opposed to the Islamic Republic
Heshmatollah Riazi Iranian academic
No official statistics are available, but Heshmatollah Riazi, a former professor of philosophy and theology in Iran, believes two to five million Iranians practice Sufism today - compared to only about 100,000 before Iran's Islamic Revolution of 1979.
He says Iran is home to the largest number of Sufis in the Middle East.
"Sufis have nothing to gain from superficial religious thoughts, and they seek spirituality," says Mr Riazi.
Nowadays, hundreds of young Iranians are increasingly joining Sufi groups.
"They need something to develop love and their internal sense of freedom."
Some Iranians who are attracted to Sufi sessions say their gatherings provide entertainment and camaraderie.
Others say they like Sufism for its liberal view of religion.
"Official religion has a series of limitations, and its limitations are much stricter than in Sufism," says 20-year-old Ashkan, a member of the New World Unity Sufi group in Iran.
Growing tensions
Many Iranian Sufis also report that the growing popularity of Sufism has contributed to greater tensions between them and certain elements of the Islamic regime.
Earlier this year, violent clashes broke out after authorities ordered the closure of a Sufi house of worship, or Husseinieh, in the central Iranian seminary city of Qom.
Iran - contrary to the propaganda that the world spreads against it - is one of the freest countries of the world, and Sufis also are part of this country and are completely free
Javad Arianmanesh Parliamentary Cultural Commission Members of the Nematullahi Gonabadi Sufi group say the Husseinieh was set on fire and that hundreds of their members who had refused to leave the building were arrested, although most have been released since then.
Qom's governor, Abbas Mohtaj, has said the Sufis were ordered to leave because they had begun building on the property without the necessary permits, the government-run Iran newspaper reported on its website.
Mr Mohtaj has also been quoted as saying the Sufis had ties to foreign countries that were trying to create insecurity in Iran.
But Riazi denies these charges and says the authorities had other motives for shutting down the Husseinieh.
"[The authorities] are concerned that Sufis will do something against them, while on the contrary, Sufis don't interfere in politics at all," says Mr Riazi, a member of the Gonabadi group, which does not have music or dancing at its gatherings. "They follow the law and are not opposed to the Islamic Republic."
Sufism and orthodoxy
In the past, certain Sufi groups have come into conflict with orthodox Islam.
They caused concern among some clergy over the observance of practices that departed from traditional ritual.
Sufi musicians at a gathering in Tehran Some Sufis say before Iran's Islamic Revolution, Mohammad Reza Shah imprisoned some Sufi leaders. They say in the early years after the revolution, the new regime also confronted some Sufi groups - detaining some leaders and shutting down their gatherings.
Sufis look to their own spiritual leaders, while Iran's official version of Islam advocates the practice of following a Marja-e taqlid, or a cleric who is an expert in Islamic jurisprudence.
And in contrast to Sufis, orthodox Muslims believe that a person can never "become" God or be united with him.
Cordial relations
Many Sufis say, however, the Qom dispute was an exception to the generally cordial relations they have had with the government in recent years.
And Javad Arianmanesh, a member of the Cultural Commission in Iran's parliament, says the government does not limit Sufi activities.
"Sufis are one of those groups which mostly act within the framework of Islam," he says.
"Also, because Sufis work within our framework [that of the Islamic Republic], there is no kind of problem for them."
"Iran - contrary to the propaganda that the world spreads against it - is one of the freest countries of the world, and Sufis also are part of this country and are completely free," he says. "They can, based on their own beliefs, perform their own ceremonies."
But a government official who preferred to remain unidentified says the regime's treatment of Sufis is not always consistent because it is based on ambiguous laws.
He explains that on the one hand, Sufi meetings should not be disrupted, but on the other hand, Sufis should not proselytize.
"We asked both the previous and the current governments to have more concrete laws and to form a commission to oversee Sufis' activities because regulations about their activities are contradictory," says the official, who worked for both the previous, reformist President Mohammad Khatami and the current, conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Sufi-ism is a "pacified" version of Islam, often a stepping-stone to the more familiar, violent version of Islam. Most of the adherents of the latter kind of Islam reject Sufis as Muslims.
Was late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan a Sufi? Sufis sound like Islamic version of Bhakti.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhakti
Yes. Nusrat was. So are the members of the Pakistani band, Junoon.
And the latter part, Sufism is essentially Islam toned down with the Bhakti ideals, atleast in Kashmir, where it helped in the fastest mass conversion to Islam. Practically all castes and classes in Kashmir converted.
Sikhism was an offshoot of this movement, but woke itself up to become one of the most dominant anti-Islam forces within the Mughal-ruled Subcontinent.
If the graduates from the Madrassas move toward Sufism, I would count that as a very very good trend.
The movement is mostly in the other direction.
Witness Kashmir. When the Islamic Insurgents entered it from Pakistan (Wahabbist, not Sufi) there in 89', women were forced to wear veils, which was uncommon for Kashmiri women to wear until then (Sufi-ism isn't "strict" in the way traditional Islam is).
In the past Iranian born Sufi's I encountered were extremely pro-Tehran régime (pro-jihad via terrorism), viciously anti-Israeli, praised the Nazis, and blamed America for the world's problems. They are a threatening menace.
Sufis, or Shias? Both are vastly different.
That doesn't sound like Sufis to me. They are more like our Trancendentalists, as I understand it.
Sufi muslim may be a path away from violent Islam.
The whirling dervishes use meditation as a direct path to divinity. Sufi refers to a cheap rough wool cloth, that constrasted with the luxury of the Sunni caliphs. Sufi was once a Shite thing, but now is more Sunni than Shite. Some suggest that it is a push back of Zoroasterism into Islam. Of course that would be a heresy, and others assert that Sufi is an independent movement within Islam.
1. Noone but me can eat my daily bread, so I am at peace.
2. Noone but me can perform my prayers and duties, so I am busy with them.
3. A man must be able to wake, sleep, eat, work, teach, and love, and never forget G-d.
Just a note: I am not a Muslim, but an interested observer from outside. There was a time that the Sufi schools were filled with perverts of all kinds, kind of like Catholic Seminaries. That time is in the past for the Sufi, or so I am told.
Ahhh Yahh. Back in some just remembered day, it was called "Do'n the Horizontal Bop"...with Great Suthin Vigaaah!!
Very objective reporting/propaganda.
The two I knew were Iranian Sufi, and as whacked out on jihadism as radical Shi'ites.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.