#sufie

[be-a-muslim-1st]

[arabdoll]

“As you start to walk on the way, the way appears.”

Rumi

[majestativa]

Skilled in the language of the unseen world.

— KHAQANI SHIRVANI ⚜️ Love’s Alchemy: Poems from the Sufi Tradition, transl. by David Fideler & Sabrineh Fideler, (2010)

[timetravellingkitty]

TERRIBLE DAY FOR INDO-PAK RELATIONS

[kaalbela]

In the 16th century in Punjab, Shah Hussain, a Sufi poet and mystic met and fell in love with a Hindu boy called named Madho Lal. Though gay marriage was not legal anywhere in the world before this century, Hussain and Madho defied social conventions and lived together for six years till Hussain's death in 1599. Hussain's poetry is significantly inspired by his relationship with Madho, with some poems addressed directly to him. After Hussain's death Madho continued to live close to where he was buried in present day Baghbanpura in Lahore, and was buried next to Hussain after his death. They continue to lie buried side by side in the same enclosure to this day, and the enclosure is named Hazrat Madho Lal Hussain, embodying one soul living in two bodies.

The annual celebration called Mela Chiraghan or Festival of Lights is held in March in Lahore in order to celebrate the love of Madho and Hussain as well as Hussain's poetry. It is unknown how the ritual was established, but it dates as far back as the the 18th century: there are records of Maharaja Ranjit Singh leading a barefooted procession from the Fort to the mausoleum for this celebration. At present, the festival is conducted over three days and attracts large crowds. Cotton-seed oil lamps are lighted in the streets and houses of the city. Devotees sing and dance and read Hussain's poetry in order to commemorate the triumph of tolerance over forces of bigotry.

[whencyclopedia]

Andromeda

Andromeda is a princess in Greek mythology. She is the daughter of Cepheus, the king of Aethiopia (Ethiopia), and his wife, Cassiopeia. The most famous myth associated with Andromeda is the story of her rescue by the Greek hero Perseus, who saved her from being sacrificed to a sea monster. She married Perseus, and they had several children together.

Andromeda is also one of the best-known and recognised star constellations, which also contains the Andromeda Galaxy, the largest galaxy closest to the Milky Way.

Family

Andromeda is the daughter of Cassiopeia and Cepheus, the king of Aethiopia. However, some sources mention that Cepheus was the king of Joppa (in modern-day Israel). After Perseus rescued Andromeda, they got married, and together they had seven sons and two daughters, including Perses (the legendary founder of Persia, from whom all Persian kings are descended), Helios, Alcaios, Mestor, Electryon, Sthenelos, Cynurus, Autochthe, and Gorgophone.

Continue reading...

[metamorphesque]

But love unexplained is clearer.

Description of Love, Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi

[curtwilde]

The oldest Sufi shrine in Delhi has been demolished.

"The earliest Sufi Shrine in Delhi - belonging to a relative of Prithviraj Chauhan and dating from BEFORE the Turkish conquest - has been Demolished by the Delhi Development Authority in an "anti encroachment" drive.

In the late 12th century, a group of Afghan pastoralists, suddenly burst onto the world stage. In a matter of years, they toppled their rulers of Ghazni and seized major Persian cities like Herat, and then established the major Indian sultanate in Delhi.

We often think of this "Islamic invasion" as the start of the Muslim presence in India. Yet recent scholarship has shown that by the time of Ghori's conquest of Delhi, Muslims were already a central part of Indian society

Some of the earliest mosques are found in Kerala, dating from a few decades after the prophet Muhammad's death. Tamil Pallava, Chola and Pandya kings all built sizeable mosques

Delhi also had a single sufi shrine before the Afghan conquest - this one.

Until 31 January, when it was demolished, the shrine of Baba Haji Rozbih had been located by the Fateh Burj, or Victory Gate of Lal Kot. The grave next to it under a reddish Chador belongs to his female disciple Bibi. Bibi was said to be a close relative of Prithviraj Chauhan who embraced Islam under the aegis of Haji Rozbih.

This demolition is an UTTERLY MINDLESS LOSS and complete cultural desecration.

What's more the "anti encroachment" drive is apparently scheduled to include the Aashiq Allah Dargah dated to 1317AD which is where the great Punjabi Saint Baba Farid used to meditate, and his small 'chillagah' is still visible here.

Please do share and write about this so we can save what remains! "

- from the historian Sam Dalrymple .

...

This is the third Islamic structure to be demolished in Delhi this month. Isn't it funny how only certain structures are the victim of anti- encroachment drives? This is part of a planned programme by the current right-wing government of India that is violently islamophobic and wants to create a hindu ethnostate modeled after Israel.

[trailofleaves]

“Don't let inner sorrow overtake you, or the temptations of this world seize you. Go, day and night, and pour the drink of love in your mouth— before the final edict of truth closes your lips for good.”

— Rumi, from The Gift of Rumi | Translated by Emily Jane O'Dell

[beesgav]

real ones remember

[be-a-muslim-1st]

[maihonhassan]

I really felt it when Rumi wrote:

"Come on sweetheart let’s adore one another before there is no more of you and me."

“Rumi, Fountain of Fire” Burning Gate Press, 1994.

[maintohthakgayibhaishaab]

sufi cheating on anjali was not on my 2024 bingo card are you SERIOUSSSSS

[majestativa]

Drink the wine of mystic knowledge, but don’t then forget to keep your lips closed.

— ATTAR ⚜️ Love’s Alchemy: Poems from the Sufi Tradition, transl. by David Fideler & Sabrineh Fideler, (2010)

[moishe-pipick]

Ayat al Kursi

[loneberry]

"Attar is one of the greatest poets of the Persian language. Nonetheless, his popularity - both in Iran itself and in the West (Goethe, for example, touched on him only briefly in his West-Eastern Divan) - does not match that of Ferdowsi (d. 1020), Omar Khayyam (d. c.1132), Rumi, Saadi (d. 1292) or Hafiz (d. 1389); occasionally he is even omitted from the line of seven Persian poet-princes in favour of Jami (d. 1492). One pos­sible reason for this is that the composition of his poetry is too artful, too complex to be effective in the town squares and teahouses, while at the same time, many of his stories and figures may seem too coarse, too folk-like and too sarcastic to be at the forefront of the high spir­itual literature cultivated at courts in former times and in middle-class households today. Attar’s poetry, on the other hand, is far less stilted than that of most Persian poets but, rather, unadorned, clear and imme­diate. The pain it expresses is not spiritually filtered as in Rumi, far less metaphysically elevated than in Saadi, and not sublimated into pleasure as in Omar Khayyam - where Hafiz turns the earthly into the mystical, Attar strips mysticism down to its leaden, earthly foundation in order to scream his longing to the heavens." --Navid Kermani, The Terror of God: Attar, Job and the Metaphysical Revolt

.

I asked my professor which masnavi (Persian epic poem) he thinks is the greatest ever written. He replied, Rumi's Masnavi (the only masnavi Rumi wrote). Shock. How can there be a masnavi greater than Attar's Conference of the Birds? (There are 4 authentic Attar masnavis; sadly, as far as I know, Conference of the Birds is the only one that has been translated into English.) Reading through Rumi's masnavi I think I am still team Attar. It's Attar's coarseness I love--he is a poet of mad saints and freaks. In Rumi's Masnavi, the absence of a frame story and the pious/didactic tone is somewhat of a barrier for me. The pieces don't quite hang together, whereas Attar's Conference of the Birds is intricately structured--there are stories within stories within stories, each bird with its idiosyncratic psychology--a narrative arc that mirrors the journey of the soul across the seven valleys. But maybe there is a difference between reading a sufi text for its poetry rather than religious instruction, I don't know.