Sufism: path to peace and tolerance
By—Ahmad Shah Azami
Published: 18 Jan 2012, The Daily Times
This popular form of Islam is more widespread than the hardline and
extremist version of Wahabiism, which is followed by today’s Taliban and
al Qaeda
A theatre (stage drama) was organised in Peshawar
by the Directorate of Culture, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from January 16 to
January 18 to commemorate the great Pashto sufi poet, Rahman Baba. The
theatre show aimed to give the message of love, peace and tolerance to
the youth of the war-torn province, which is already widely debilitated
by the extremists. The 17th century legendry mystic poet, Rahman Baba,
is one of the most widely respected and read poets of Pashto. It would
not be an exaggeration that all Pashtuns are familiar either with the
name or poetry of Rahman Baba and have either listened to or read his
poetry. It is said that his poetry addresses each and every member of
society and everyone finds a relevant message for himself in it. His
simple, sweet and heart-touching poetry has endeared Rahman Baba to all
Pashtuns. He has always ignored materialism and has given the message of
spiritualism and love to all human beings. Some Pashto poets call him
the “poet of humanity” as his message is not only for a specific tribe,
nation or society but for all human beings. His poetry has been
translated into various languages, including English and Urdu. Following
is a famous poem of Rahman Baba translated into English that has an
inspiring message for humanity:
“Sow flowers so your surroundings become a garden,
Don’t sow thorns; for they will prick your feet,
If you shoot arrows at others,
Know that the same arrow will come back to hit you.
Don’t dig a well in another’s path,
In case you come to the wells edge,
You look at everyone with hungry eyes,
But you will be first to become mere dirt.
Humans are all one body,
Whoever tortures another, wounds himself.”
Sadly
on March 5, 2009, militants set up remote control bombs and partially
destroyed the shrine of Rahman Baba in Hazar Khawani, Peshawar. Later
on, they bombed shrines of other famous sufis not only in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa but also in Punjab and Sindh. Prominent amongst them were
the shrines of Data Ganj Bakhsh, Baba Farid and Abdullah Shah Ghazi.
Despite all bombings and threats, a large number of people still visit
sufi shrines and participate in sufi festivals that shows the love of
the people towards the moderate form of Islam as sufis have played a
great role to spread the message of love, peace and tolerance in the
subcontinent and Central Asia using no swords at all. Their way of
preaching and convincing was quite different from the sharp-edged Islam
of the Middle East.
From day one, Sufism taught the lesson of
peace, reconciliation and humanity and worked for the wellbeing of
humanity across the world. Sufis always made it clear that peace can be
spread in the world with love and brotherhood and bring close all the
people of the world to one another. In this way, they can do away with
their internal feuds, greed and conflicts.
Sufism has adopted
the path of moderation from day one to attract man towards one’s real
self and let one know about the purpose of his creation. This is their
way against the feuds to bring all human beings into the chain of love,
peace and tolerance.
Looking at the behaviour of the sufis, they
kept themselves aloof from wars and taught others the lesson of peace
and they can play the same role even today to show the peaceful form of
Islam. They can show the world how the sufis kept society together with
their message, and how the people having different views and following
different religions were living in peace and coherence side by side.
Sufism
has become an indispensable part of the culture, music, folklore and
architecture of the subcontinent. The tolerant and moderate behaviour of
Sufism has endeared its followers vastly to various social groups of
the region. This popular form of Islam is more widespread than the
hardline and extremist version of Wahabiism, which is followed by
today’s Taliban and al Qaeda.
Sufi literature is widely read in
the region. On the other hand, sufi shrines are not only holy spots but
also cultural and social centres where people from various spheres of
life assemble to seek spiritual satisfaction. Most of the people
consider attacks on sufi shrines as an organised campaign against the
tolerant, moderate and peaceful culture of the region.
Sufism is
not addressing an individual, country or religion. Its message is
universal, focusing on the whole of humanity. In short, it welcomes and
embraces people from all sects and spheres of life. Let me finish with a
poetic piece of the mystic poet of the 13th century Maulana Jalaluddin
Rumi who says:
“Come, come whoever you are...
Wanderer, idolater or worshipper of fire...
Come even though you have broken your vows a thousand times,
Come and come yet again,
Ours is not a caravan of despair.”
The
writer is a Prague-based journalist working with RFE/RL’s Pashto
language service Radio Mashaal Prague. He tweets at
http://twitter.com/AhmadShahAzami
In : Ahmed Shah Azami
Notes