abdullah shah - karachi

www.unesco.org/Intangible Heritage

www.sufimovement.net

www.hopeprojectindia.org 

 www.mevlana.net

www.sufiorder.org

Sufism or taṣawwuf (Arabic: تصوّف‎) is, according to its adherents, the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a ṣūfÄ (صُوفِيّ). Another name for a Sufi is Dervish. Classical Sufi scholars have defined Sufism as „a science whose objective is the reparation of the heart and turning it away from all else but God.“Alternatively, in the words of the Darqawi Sufi teacher Ahmad ibn Ajiba, „a science through which one can know how to travel into the presence of the Divine, purify one’s inner self from filth, and beautify it with a variety of praiseworthy traits.“ Classical Sufis were characterised by their attachment to dhikr (a practice of repeating the names of God) and asceticism. Sufism gained adherents among a number of Muslims as a reaction against the worldliness of the early Umayyad Caliphate (661-750 CE[6]). The Sufi movement has spanned several continents and cultures over a millennium, at first expressed through Arabic, then through Persian, Turkish and a dozen other languages. „Orders“ (ṭuruq), which are either SunnÄ or ShÄ‘Ä in doctrine, trace many of their original precepts from the Islamic Prophet Muhammad through his cousin ‘AlÄ, with the notable exception of the Naqshbandi who trace their origins through the first Caliph, Abu Bakr.  Other exclusive schools of Sufism describe themselves as distinctly Sufi. Read more: >here<

Naqshbandi (an-Naqshbandiyyah, Nakşibendi, Naksbendi, Naksbandi) is one of the major tasawwuf spiritual orders (tariqa) of Sufi Islam. It is considered to be a „sober“ order.  The Naqshbandi order is nearly 1,500 years old, and is active today. It is the only Sufi order that claims to trace its direct spiritual lineage (silsilah) to Muhammad through Abu Bakr, the First Caliph and Muhammad’s companion. This lineage also indirectly connects to Ali Muhammad’s cousin, son-in-law and the Fourth Caliph, via Jafar as-Sadiq. In contrast, most other Sufi orders (turuq) trace their lineage through Ali. It is considered that the transmission of spiritual lineage or silsilah, is directly from one Sheikh to another, at or after the time of death or burial. It is not tied to a country, family or political appointment, but is a direct heart to heart transmission. It is also considered that the appointed Sheikh will be in some communication with past Sheikhs. At any one time, there will of course be many other Sheikhs, who will all naturally owe their spiritual allegiance (Beyat) to the current master of the silsilah. Read more: >here<

Sufism, the West, and Modernity – In the twentieth century Sufism began to spread in the West. An uneven and spotty but still useful introductory on-line article is A History of Western Sufism (fixed January, 2005) by Prof. Andrew Rawlinson of the University of Lancaster.  The following articles by Kinney and Bayman illustrate some general trends and issues:

The Sufi Conundrum, written by Jay Kinney, the publisher and editor-in-chief of the magazine Gnosis, discusses a number of issues confronting Americans as they investigate the nature and practice of Sufism today.

Sufism and Modernity (link fixed, Dec. 10, 2004) is a chapter from the on-line book Science, Knowledge, and Sufism, (link fixed 20 August, 2005) by Henry Bayman (author of The Station of No Station: Open Secrets of the Sufis ), a disciple of the Turkish Shaykh Ahmet Kayhan (d. 1998). This particular chapter consists largely of a Sufi analysis of modernity, solidly based upon the writings of other scholars who have written about modernity, scholars such as Marshall Berman, Charles Taylor, and Alain Touraine. Sufism in the West falls into four general categories: http://www.uga.edu/islam/sufismwest.html

  

Surrounding the shrine of Inayat Khan and the other holy places in the Nizamuddin district of New Delhi is a neighborhood where many children live in poverty and isolation. The Hope Project is the outgrowth of a milk program originally begun on Pir Vilayat’s initiative here. These kids go to school there and prepared a program for this event. The Hope Project is supported primarily by donors from all the Orders of Inayat Khan’s lineage. For information contact Quan Yin (quanyinlyn@gmail.com). / Sufism – a mystical strand of Islam – originated in the Islamic cultures of Asia and Africa, but it also has a growing following in the U.S. Its growth is attributed in large part to the teachings of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, a Sufi mystic. To learn more about the man and his teachings, Imran Siddiqui of VOA’s Urdu Service visited his mazar – or mausoleum – in the eastern U.S. state of Pennsylvania, which has become a gathering place for many followers of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen.

The Hope Project  was founded in 1980 by the Sufi teacher, Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan. Moved by the extreme poverty of the people living near the mausoleum of his father Hazrat Inayat Khan, he envisioned a program, which would enable the poor to help themselves.

Located in Basti Hazrat Nizamuddin, the Hope Project currently runs a community health centre, a creche, a non-formal school, vocational training courses, a thrift and credit program, and a women’s micro-enterprise unit.

The project has 70 staff members, many of whom come from the community. It is financed largely by private donations from the international Sufi community and other donor agencies.

Guided by the spiritual ideals of Hzt. Inayat Khan, the Hope Project is driven by the spirit of service to humanity and respect for all religions. It strives to provide people, especially the poor and vulnerable, with opportunities and resources, so that they can realize their hidden potential and determine their own future.

hope

www.hopeprojectindia.org/reports.htm

 

sufism

Children, injured from suicide bomb blasts at a Sufi shrine, are brought to a hospital for treatment in Karachi.

: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/08/world/asia/08pstan.html?ref=asia

swat

Swat’s Refugees (NY Times)

Mevlana_KonyatransparentBG

Sufi dance in front of the tomb of Rumi, a great classical Sufi poet

A short visit  to the mazar in East Fallowfield Pennsylvania

“Kill a Shia doctor a day”, a joint operation by ISI & Sipah-e-Sahaba in Karachi

http://ahmadiyyatimes.blogspot.com/2010/09/pakistan-no-relief-from-discrimination.html

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org http://www.starvedforattention.org

Antonin Kratochvil’s bold landscape images lay bare the (mis)use of land and resources in the American midwest. The US Government Accountability Office has found that the current system of sending domestically produced blended flour overseas costs as much as 34 percent more than buying food products locally. Kratochvil maps the food-aid pipeline from the corn fields of Iowa to the ports of Africa, exposing the inefficiency of the current system and its failure to deliver nutritious foods to young children.http://www.starvedforattention.org

Jessica Dimmock’s intimate portraits of families benefitting from the US government-funded Women, Infants and Children nutrition program (WIC) reveal the other half of the US food aid story. WIC supports a quarter of all American children from birth to age four and has been shown to have dramatically reduced anemia and the rate of low birth weight. The access to nutritious, enriching foods that WIC provides to young American children is a stark contrast to the nutritionally devoid blend of fortified flour dumped on starving children outside the country.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and VII Photo present Starved for Attention, a multimedia campaign to uncover the hidden crisis of childhood malnutrition. Watch 7 of the 195 million stories of malnutrition from prolific and award-winning photojournalists.

Sign the „Starved for Attention“ online petition and be part of the campaign to rewrite the story of malnutrition and demand that the 195 million malnourished children get the attention they need and deserve to escape the deadly cycle of malnutrition.

TAKE ACTION NOW: http://www.starvedforattention.org

www.minesandcommunities.org

http://pipelinesinternational.com

www.eia-international.org 

http://www.pipemag.com