Category: Sufism

Archives Issue #81

FROM THE EDITORS

In Issue 81 of SUFI the theme is Divine Love. Here we explore what many would argue is the most confounding human emotion, love, and the mystery of its divine manifestation. Divine Love lies at the heart of spiritual practice; it is an experience that continues to enrich those who are touched by it, whether they belong to a school of mystical teaching or not. But explaining the experience of Divine Love can be difficult; words falter in its presence. It is also elusive, veiled from our ordinary perception, but then suddenly revealed in the words of a parable, the shades of light in a photograph, the silences between lines of poetry. This edition of SUFI attempts to lift the corner of the veil and share glimpses of Divine Love through art and writings, including a meditation on the legendary lovers, Layla and Majnun; a discussion of mystical eroticism in the Christian and Hindu traditions; reflections on higher love expressed through the internet, photography, film and calligraphy; and Coleman Barks’ observations on the poetry and importance of the great Indian poet and mystic, and Nobel Laureate in Literature, Rabindranath Tagore.

DISCOURSE, ARTICLES, NARRATIVES AND INTERVIEWS

DIVINE LOVE Discourse by Alireza Nurbakhsh, Read entire discourse>

TAGORE’S GITANJALI An Introduction by Coleman Barks

LOVE, PASSION & DIVINITY Interview with Judith Ernst and Vasudha Narayanan by Llewellyn Smith

THE KALEIDOSCOPE OF LOVE – Rumi’s Use of Moving Colors and Shapes in the Divan-i Shams by Fatemeh Keshavarz

LAYLA AND MAJNUN: LOVE IS FIRE AND I AM WOOD – A Sufi Allegory of Mystical Love by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

RAHMANDOTCOM Narrative by Dani Kopoulo

CULTUREWATCH

TURNING TO HAFIZ The Art of Figural Calligraphy by Jila Peacock Read entire article>

FILM REVIEWS

THROUGH THE LENS OF LOVE In Search of Mystical Love on Film by Peter Valentyne
Monsieur Ibrahim (2004)
Bab’Aziz: The Prince Who Contemplated His Soul (2008)
Circle of Iron / The Silent Flute (1978)

BOOK REVIEWS by David Paquiot and Kenneth Avery

The Tangles Braid: Ninety-nine Poems by Hafiz of Shiraz, translated by Jeffrey Einboden and John Slater
Abu Al-Hasan al-Shushtari: Songs of Love and Devotion, translated and introduced by Lourdes Maria Alvarez

POETRY

I say Haqq Haqq, Cry Hu Hu by Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh
Who are You? by Chris Hoffman
From Rumi’s Mathnawi translation by Alireza Nurbakhsh
Unseen by Jeni Couzyn
Vespers by Margaret Chula
Epiphany by Jo Going
Ruach by Emily Wilmer
When My Beloved Lifts a Cup of Wine by Hafiz translation by Jawid Mojaddedi
Love is a Searing Flame by Rob Sternau
The Visitation of Divine Love by Mary Ann Eiler

FEATURED POET

JO GOING, Poet

FEATURED ARTIST

HENGKI KOENTJORO, Photographer

 

(Front Cover Artwork by Greg Spalenka, spalenka.com)

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Divine Love

by Alireza Nurbakhsh

The first time I read Rumi’s story of Moses and the Shepherd, I was struck by the fact that the shepherd was much closer to God than Moses even though the shepherd’s conception of God was not even remotely plausible. Years later, when I revised this story, it appeared to me that Rumi had unravelled a deep mystery of divine love; in order to love God, one does not need to have a correct conception or description of God; what is required is a burning heart.

 

Rahmandotcom

by Dani Kopoulos

In this issue of Sufi, Dani Kopoulos presents an original slant on Love, Passion and Divinity through the ultimate internet dating experience. Dani Kopoulos is a writer and teacher living in New York City. She received her MA in Creative Writing from the New School University in New York and her BA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

(Photo © IStockPhoto.com/NorthLightImages)

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Archives Issue #80

FROM THE EDITORS

THE GENDER ISSUE: ART | POETRY | CULTUREWATCH | BOOK REVIEWS | & more…

From Issue #80 on we have shifted the focus of SUFI to how it could best contribute to raising the spiritual consciousness among people of diverse backgrounds, beliefs and experience, and to introduce more diverse interpretations of the Sufi path and other spiritual disciplines in both a contemporary and historical context.  Thus, in this issue our featured articles and narratives present expressions of women’s experience and perspective of the mystical in modern life – an Asian Sufi living in World War Two Europe, an American woman experiencing the mystical dimension on the streets if Istanbul, a Sufi scholar examining gender bias through a foundational Sufi Text, and an interview with a rabbi who overcame religious and gender prejudices to reach her goals.

DISCOURSE, ARTICLES, NARRATIVES AND INTERVIEWS

THE EXPERIENCE OF NOTHINGNESS Discourse by Alireza Nurbakhsh  

DAUGHTER OF SUFISM The Passion of Noor Inayat Khan by Yousef Daoud

WRESTLING WITH GOD A Conversation with Rabbi Tirzah Firestone Interview by Llewellyn Smith and Kelly Thomson

FROM HISTORY TO HER STORY Women in Sufi Discourses by Safoura Nourbakhsh

UNDER THE MINARET Narrative by Jan Shoemaker

CULTUREWATCH

Low Budget Mysticism / Spiritual tourism in India by Sholeh Johnston
Revealing the Truth/A Rapper on Rumi by Sholeh Johnston
Community, Nur Foundation Working for the Needs of the Poor-Spain

BOOK REVIEWS by Robert Landau Ames and Eliza Tasbihi
A Soaring Minaret by Laury Silvers
Sacred Spaces, A Journey with the Sufis of the Indus by Semina Quraesh, Ali S. Asani, Carl W. Ernst and Kamil Khan Mumtaz

POETRY

Whoever Becomes Nothing Becomes God by Dr. Javad Nurbakhsh
Friend of God by Jeni Couzyn
The Way Under the Way by Mark Nepo
I Was a Fable by Peter Valentyne

FEATURED POET

JENI COUZYN, Poet

FEATURED ARTIST

MINA MOMENI, Photographer ( www.minamomeni.com)

 

(Front Cover Photo Mina Momeni)

 

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Daughter of Sufism

THE PASSION OF NOOR INAYAT KHAN

by Yousef Daoud

Hazrat Noor-un-nisa Inayat Khan, from an esteemed family lineage in India, has in recent decades merged as one of the most illuminated practitioners of the Sufi path of chivalry (javanmardi in Persian or futuwwa in Arabic).  Recognized decades after her death as a Sufi saint, she has been afforded an honor rarely given to Sufis who have not served as a master of a Sufi order. Daughter of Sufism is a biographical account of Noor Inayat Khan’s early life, British Secret Intelligence service and her imprisonment and death in Germany during World War II. (Photo courtesy of International Sufi Order.)

(Photo of Noor Inayat Khan courtesy of Sufi Order International)

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The Experience of Nothingness

by Alireza Nurbakhsh

“In one of his last interviews, my father said that the goal of Sufism is nothingness, and then added, “because it is only when one is zero that one experiences the infinite.”  To paraphrase what he meant in this context: it is only when we do not experience our own individuality that we experience the divine in ourselves and in others.”

(Original Enso by Kazuaki Tanahashi)

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Archives Issue #79

THIS ISSUE IS PART OF AN EARLIER SET OF ISSUES #1 – #79

THE MASTER-DISCIPLE RELATIONSHIP REVISITED – Discourse by Alireza Nurbakhsh

SUBSTITUTIONARY PRAYER AND THE STIGMATA OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI by Dorothy Buck

STUDENT-SELF AND TEACHER-SOUL by Mark Nepo

THE QUESTION OF SHIBLI’S INSANITY by Kenneth Avery

SPEAKER, VOICE AND AUDITION IN THE KORAN AND MATHNAWI by Ahmet Karamustafa

WHAT GOD WANTS YOU TO PONDER – A CONVERSATION WITH PROFESSOR JOHN MCGUCKIN Interview by Llewellyn Smith and Christine Herbes

POETRY from Dr Javad Nurbakhsh, Joy Ladin, Jeni Couzyn, Shamshad Khan, Elizabeth Peacock, Hafiz, and Peter Valentyne

ARTWORK Featured cover photo Detail of wood caring, Jameh mosque, Yazd, Iran, 12th Century ©iStockphoto.com/syagci

BOOK REVIEWS An Emerald Earth: Cultivating a Natural Spirituality and Serving Creative Beauty in Our World by Felicia Norton and Charles Smith

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From History to Her Story

Women in Sufi Discourses

by Safoura Nourbakhsh

The history of women in Sufism has not been written yet.  The problem with our historical understanding of women mystics of the early period and even the later generations is that none of them left any writings. We therefore have to piece together their portraits from the writings of male Sufi historians and biography compilers, who had their own views of womanhood and whether or not it was possible for women to embark on a spiritual path alongside their male counterparts.  This article explores the competing narratives of women in emerging Sufi discourses.

 

(Photo by Mena Momeni.)

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