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PUBLISHED
April 16, 2023
BERLIN:
For Feride Funda G. Gencaslan, a Turkish expat in Germany and the chairperson of neighborhood house Sufi Zentrum Rabbaniyah in Berlin, Sufism is the one type of expression that aesthetically symbolises the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and the Holy Quran. With the purpose of instructing individuals the “proper conduct” for a cheerful and fulfilling life, Gencaslan says, Sufism has the power to enlighten individuals on particular person and collective ranges.
Citing Baha-ud-Din Naqshband Bukhari, the eponymous founding father of the Naqshbandi Sufi order which Gencaslan and her workforce comply with and promote of their neighborhood house, Gencaslan says the way in which of their Sufi apply is actually the affiliation with the religious chief and neighborhood, the essence of which lies within the congregation and bringing individuals of all backgrounds collectively.
“We heard this from our grasp Mawlana Sheikh Nazim Adil An-Naqshbandi, that neighborhood is vital for Sufism and on the identical time for the event and therapeutic of a person,” Genlaslan contends. “Sufism and our Sufi sheikhs’ primary religious mission has been to assist followers get well from the sicknesses and deficiencies of the guts.”
A lot of this religious enlightenment and the purpose to interrupt misconceptions about Muslims and Islam in western societies like Germany is the driving drive behind Gencaslan and her Turkish-German husband Hajji Emrah’s work at this Sufi centre.
By month-to-month Sufi gatherings within the coronary heart of the German capital Berlin, they invite individuals of all religions and backgrounds beneath one roof with the purpose of spreading the message and teachings of the Sufi path of Islam. That is performed by way of interactive, religious conversations — known as sohbet — on life, emotional well-being and function from an Islamic perspective, adopted by a prayer and meditation involving the standard Sufi whirling. The attendees come from numerous nationalities and spiritual backgrounds.
The Ottoman custom
Mawlana Hajji Emrah, who runs the Sufi evenings as a religious mediator and is the follower of Sufi Sheikh Nazım Adil An-Naqshbandi, feels that as devotees of Sufism they’ve an obligation to share information. The custom comes from the Ottomans who, in keeping with him, adopted the trail of God in an sincere method and lived with different nations in concord.
“We consider in welcoming everybody, no matter faith or nationality. We have now 41 Sufi faculties or methods and the primary method that’s constructed from Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) after which by way of the primary Caliph Abu Bakr (RA) and the fourth Caliph Ali (RA) is Naqshbandi,” including that the custom is carried on from the Prophet (PBUH) until as we speak by way of a sequence known as silsila. The twin lineage by way of Hazrat Ali (RA) and Hazrat Abu Bakr (RA) additionally lends this order the time period “convergence of the 2 oceans”.
As individuals of Turkish origin who stay in Germany, Gencaslan provides that the ban on Sufi orders in 1925 by then president and founding father of fashionable Turkey Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, didn’t fairly separate them from Sufi teachings and in comparison with Muslim communities from different international locations, as Turks, they really feel a powerful reference to their roots and Sufism. Sufism survived and as we speak, by a number of the Turkish expats, it’s also being promoted in international locations like Germany, the place the most important Turkish neighborhood exterior of Turkey resides. In response to stories, greater than three-million individuals with Turkish roots are based mostly right here in Europe’s largest financial hub.
“Throughout our childhood and youth, motion pictures of Sufi saints akin to Mawlana Rumi, Abdulqadr Geylani and Yunus Emre (might their sacred secrets and techniques be blessed and revealed to us) have been proven on Turkish tv,” she contends, including that sharing teachings about respect and tolerance from a Sufi perspective has been their motto. “The poems of Rumi and the songs of Yunus Emre by no means stopped transmitting within the Turkish-speaking world and thus their values have additionally been handed on, particularly the respect and love for our Prophet Muhammed (PBUH).”
In 1994, Gencaslan met Mawlana Sheikh Nazim, a Turkish Cypriot Sufi and one the influential leaders of the Naqshbandi-Haqqani order, on his go to to Berlin for the primary time and since then she has been making an attempt to inculcate his teachings into her life by way of gatherings at Sufi meetups.
“Mawlana Sheikh Nazim hit my coronary heart and my thoughts on the identical time,” she says. “He mentioned Islam is gorgeous. I attempt to comply with within the footsteps of my Sheikh [spiritual leader] and have been concerned with the Sufi-Zentrum Rabbaniyya when it was based and since 2015, because the chairperson of the affiliation.”
On how a sohbet can really enlighten individuals, Gencaslan responds that it “can’t be described, however should be skilled”, citing fascinating results of the Sufi custom when it comes to the therapeutic energy of sohbet and the person suggestions of the religious chief to individuals who attend it.
“Mawlana Rumi mentioned {that a} luminous candle is sufficient to illuminate thousands and thousands of lightless candles,” she encapsulates. “So too, only one sohbet can reply the numerous assorted questions of all of the hearts that attend it.”
Perceptions within the West and Islamophobia
Gencaslan says the West ought to first perceive and settle for the truth that Sufism represents Islam and isn’t unrelated to it. Referring to Mawlana Jelaleddin Rumi’s legacy, whose 750th loss of life anniversary might be marked this yr, she contends that Rumi, as a Muslim, taught and unfold the message of Islam in a “mystical and poetic” method.
“Until one has Islamic information of the Holy Quran and the life and teachings of the Prophet (PBUH), one can not correctly comprehend and grasp a single line of his [Rumi’s] poetry,” she says, including that all around the world, individuals know the title of Rumi and his poetry and even atheists quote him, but they don’t need to settle for the easy truth that each one his phrases on love, life and spirituality originated and took inspiration from Islamic teachings.
Born in what’s now Afghanistan within the thirteenth century, Rumi was based mostly in Turkey’s Konya and was launched to Sufism by his father, who occurred to be a non secular scholar. It was additionally Shams Tabrizi’s mysticism that had an affect on Rumi’s poetry.
The damaging picture of Islam
Touching the problem of Islamophobia, Gencaslan believes there’s a rising concern of Islamisation within the West which is “incomprehensible” to practising believers. She says Islam teaches individuals to stay peacefully with fellow human beings and creation as a complete, however the European media misconstrues and presents the narrative relatively negatively by projecting the picture of “oppression, coercion and terrorism” as outcomes of an Islamic lifestyle.
“Islamophobia is principally formed by the European media,” she affirms, including that the results have an effect on peaceable Muslim populations when right-wing governments and events alienate, “denounce and insult” them.
Gencaslan factors out that the numbers converse for themselves. “Assaults on mosques and other people with seen Muslim markings have greater than doubled in Germany and Europe,” she says whereas referring to the rise within the variety of Quran-burning incidents. This has primarily to do with the political right-wing motion that’s rising stronger and stronger in Europe. Muslims right here really feel deserted by their governments and partly by the remainder of the civilian inhabitants.”
Rasmus Paludan, an extremist Swedish-Danish politician, is especially infamous on this regard. Paludan has earned the fame of harassing Muslim migrants in Muslim majority neighbourhoods and out of doors Turkish consulates in addition to making common requires burning the Quran in Scandinavian cities.
The extra Muslim organisations come into the general public eye with initiatives, schooling and knowledge campaigns, in keeping with Gencaslan — who herself is concerned in initiatives like a sustainable iftar marketing campaign throughout Ramazan — the extra they’re attacked.
“This improvement is neither democratic nor human,” she provides. “In spite of everything, democracy is meant to make sure the free improvement of the person persona and freedom of religion. What we are able to see, nevertheless, is that the West is behaving contradictorily in direction of democratic rules on the subject of Islam.”
Gensaslan’s viewpoint backs the assertion of Abdassamad El Yazidi, Secretary Basic of Germany’s Central Council of Muslims, who in his interview to the nation’s nationwide broadcaster Deutsche Welle final month mentioned that Islamophobia has entered the mainstream, grow to be acceptable and could be expressed extra overtly within the nation. A survey of 15,000 respondents, performed by the German Council of Experts on Integration and Migration and introduced within the fall of 2022, additionally discovered the prevalence of anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic attitudes held by one-third to one-half of the respondents.
Melting pot of cultures
To clear doubts and misperceptions about Islam, Gencaslan and her workforce of different Turkish-origin individuals, invite and talk the religious teachings over tea and meditation in Berlin. The teachings and classes are common and have resonated with Muslim and non-Muslim guests alike.
An everyday attendee of Sufi gatherings and now one of many converts to Islam is Valentina from Italy. Previously a catholic after which an atheist, Valentina has been taking part in Sufi gatherings since October 2017. On discovering Sufism, she says, she instantly felt at dwelling and a whole lot of her beforehand held prejudices about Islam have been eradicated by way of it.
At present, she helps to organise meetups and to translate verses from the Holy Quran and religious addresses of the speaker for non-German talking attendees.
“Generally we meet privately in small teams to share our experiences, do Sufi meditations and drink tea collectively,” shares Valentina. “Our small place turns into a bit of melting pot of all cultures. We share meals and experiences, our deepest questions and sorrows with one another, no matter whether or not or not we might meet the subsequent time. We get so many alternative individuals with such various backgrounds, however all have one factor in frequent: we’re all searching for one thing, need to know extra, and have deep questions concerning the that means of life.”
Sufism a ‘common language’
Valentina believes Sufism can play a key position in constructing peace in a person’s non-public life in addition to on this world.
She is impressed by Sufi grasp Sheikh Eşref Efendi’s conferences on interfaith dialogue worldwide as a peace ambassador and even his interactions with frequent individuals on the streets the place he speaks to individuals of various cultures and languages.
“Sufism helps us put God again on the centre of our lives and after we do it, all of the sudden we’re now not separated people, however we grow to be brothers and sisters,” says Valentina. “Sheikh Eşref Efendi can attain out to the Arhuaco indigenous individuals in Colombia, refugees in Cox’s Bazar refugee camp in Bangladesh, in addition to frequent individuals in Africa and India. That’s for me is the proof of how Sufism speaks a common language frequent to all human beings: the language of affection and knowledge.”
Allia Bukhari is a contract author based mostly in Berlin. All details and knowledge are the accountability of the author
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