Tuesday, November 3, 2009

 Hu Dost---


Elhamdullillah, it's fajr time one again. It's been an insane, but interesting week. To put it mildly. But, much to be very thankful for. Highlights include a wonderful Oovoo sohbet with Baba, a very good catching-up with my sister,  and the dostness of my dost Selma. 


As many of you know, "Dost" is a Farsi and Turkish word. I don't know all the subtleties of its meaning in Farsi, but in Turkish it conveys the idea of a true heart-friend-- like the English term "best friend" but not comparative.  Like a "soul-mate," but not necessarily romantic. It may even be a person you've met only once-- but your soul recognizes. I've had that feeling with people I met on a Greyhound bus traveling to Georgia. I've had that feeling reading the poems of Kaygusuz Abdal or the letters of Ibn Abbad of Ronda.  Frankly, I have that whenever I listen to  Iron and Wine, The Mountain Goats or even Warren Zevon. Or Bach. Or lately, the music of Gurdjieff (though I'm not so sure about his writings, the music was AMAZING).  It's that finding a soul-within-your-soul in another human being. That is the Dost. Turkish has two words for friend-- "arkadash" is a friend in the usual sense, and then "dost" -- that's what Hazreti Shams and Hazreti Mevlana were to each other... the friendship that is so deep that you are mirrors to one another. It's my favorite word in any language. Well, that and "lugubrious," but that's just because it has a comical ring to it. ;)



May we all become dost to one another, inshallah. 

So while we are on the topic of the dost... here is a clip of one of my favorite bands called HU DOST (named after a traditional Sufi greeting, recognizing the True Dost who manifests in all of us). I suspect that many readers here know this song, but some readers in Turkey and Albania know the song well but have never heard it in English before. Check them out on Itunes... it honestly made me cry to hear some of these songs again! 


Speaking of which, elhamdullillah,  it was wonderful to have a meshk with everyone on Oovoo the other day...




Saturday, October 17, 2009

a poem from Sherif Baba

Sherif Baba has sent a poem to post on this site.  I'm posting now in Turkish, but if anyone can please help to translate it, that would be very much appreciated, inshallah. 
_____
Kibirli  olma-tevazzulu   ol
         İnatcı   olma-iteatkar   ol
         Kindar olma-  affedici   ol
         hırslı   olma- azimli  ol
         Tutucu olma- verici ol
         Öfkeli  olma- uysal  ol
         Laf taşıyıcı olma-itibarlı ol
         Geveze  olma- sukut  ol
         Aceleci olma- sakin ol
         Şaşkın olma--akil  ol
         Taklidci olma-asil ol
         Tenkidci olma-tasdikci ol
         Tahrikci olma-sabırlı ol
         Asi olma -razi ol
         Kaba  olma--nazik ol
         Yıkıcı oLma-yapıcı ol
         Zalim olma- adil ol
         İtici  olma- ilgili  ol
        Bilgiç olma-dinleyici ol
        Karamsar  olma- hoş görülü ol
        Dik başlı  olma-halim selim ol
        Ok gibi olma-  yay gibi ol
        Zanlı  olma-  İZANLI OL.........
  


       Aziz dostlarıma, maddi ve manevi evladlarıma ayine hükmündeki  bu levhamız vasiyetim  olsun.Merkezden asla ayrılmayınız,alemi olduğu üzre kabullenip,hakkınıza
      rıza gösteriniz.. Halkın  içinde Hakkı  yaşayarak birbirinize  ayine olunuz.Vesselam..Mehmed şerif çatalkaya(hilkati) 15 ekim 2009 ıst.maltepe
        
        
 

Friday, October 16, 2009

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

some pictures


With Shaykh Rasheed (Naqshbandi-Mujediddi) and Selma on the Eid a few weeks ago.



With Shaykh Nooruddeen Durkee (Shadhili)  at the I.S.R.A. conference in High Point, NC




One of my favorite pictures of Sherif Baba
 A few new pictures.  I'll try to add a number of new ones over the next week or so, inshallah. 

By the way, I'm finally on Oovoo. I  really have no idea how it works and I'm not on Cem's mailing list, so if you're more "in the know" than I am as to how to catch one of Baba's sohbets on Oovoo please, please, please give me some hints! ;)




Monday, October 12, 2009

Hu....

I'm finally posting again after quite a long while. Inshallah, everyone had a nice Ramadan and Eid (Bayram). Selma and I have had some very nice travels lately, elhamdulillah. We were up at Shaykh Ahmed abdur Rasheed's zawiya in Virginia for the last days of Ramadan, then off to a dhikr with Abdel Haqq and Abdel Hadi in Athens, GA and most recently to West Virginia for a Mevlevi retreat and sema workshops with Jelaleddin Loras.

It was our first time meeting Jelaleddin Effendi, though I've known about him for a good 15 years or so. Mashallah! We loved him and the whole community who gathered for the event. And we were very happy to meet lots of people who know Sherif Baba, too. Many very happy memories of the past were shared and many new ones were created. Eyvallah.

I had a very nice conversation with Jelaleddin Effendi about Baba. I knew that they were friends, but I hadn't realized that he knew Burhan Effendi well. When I asked if they had met, he said "I knew him before Sherif knew him!" with a big smile. He said that he had gone to his house many times, even as a child, because his father (Suleyman Dede)and Burhan Effendi had been good friends and would visit each other a couple of times a year.

Shaykh Ahmed's Naqshbandi-Mujeddidi community was also wonderful as always. Very warm and open-hearted, mashallah. And Abdel-Haqq's dhikr was really refreshing too... I hadn't seen him in about 10 years since I lived in Athens. And finally I seem to have found some decent contacts with the Jerrahi community in Atlanta, elhamdullillah. Inshallah, we may be able to go their dhikrs from time to time.

It's felt like roaming around in a desert for a while, but elhamdullillah, we've had a nice rest in a very pleasant oasis. Inshallah, we will continue to find such places.

I'll try to upload some new pictures in the next day or two, inshallah, so stay tuned. But for now, check out this link to a short film on Soul TV about the Ramadan retreat at Shaykh Rasheed's in Virgina. Selma and I both pop up in it a few times. See if you can figure out which ones we are ;)



It's not letting me post a link, but paste into the browser:

http://soultv.net/index.php

Lots of good things on that site. Click the "Spirituality" tab and then "Ramadan Retreat" under the screen.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Alevi/Bektashi documentary in English

Elhamdullillah, there is finally a documentary about the Alevi/Bektashi viewpoint in English! I believe this comes from an Alevi organization in Germany. Special thanks to AleviArsiv on Youtube for this one. I'm delighted to see this kind of material coming out in English. I would suggest taking some things here with a grain of salt-- they use some ideas that are not exactly traditional to the Alevi/Bektashi worldview (like Kundalini, etc) in order to explain some ideas to people raised in other spiritual traditions. This is perhaps similar to Sherif Baba's use of the Hindu "chakra" concept to explain the 7 levels of the nefs and their relationship to the lataif , etc. I actually think that can sometimes be helpful, but just recognize that words like kundalini are not part of traditional Alevi terminology and probably reflect a lot of the individual film-makers' interest in connecting Alevi and Bektashi traditions in relation to other forms of world spirituality.













_______

and another one about Alevi semah:









Beautiful videos-- I'm so pleased to see things like this coming out in English

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Hu... Elhamdullillah, there is now a lovely video clip of Sherif Baba on Youtube...



From what I can tell from pictures, I think this zikr may be at the tomb of Hz. Marufi in Istanbul (Kartal District). Does anyone know?

Thursday, April 16, 2009

some interesting videos about Laleh Bakhtiar, Progressive Islam, and Islam in America

As-salaamu aleykum,
Hu Erenler--

First of all, I'm very sorry to hear that people in Turkey cannot get access to Youtube at this time. I am wondering is readers in the other countries are able to see them?


First of all, the following are videos of Laleh Bakhtiar, whose recent translation The Sublime Qur'an set of something of a firestorm by rethinking understandings of Arabic words often taken to imply a justification of domestic violence. Mashallah, I think that she is doing excellent and interesting work. She is an Iranian-American, and a student of Syed Hussein Nasr.







Another clip about Islam in America.


And two more about Islam in America.




I liked these videos... elhamdullillah. Perhaps it's true that the Sun is rising in the West. ;) Allahu 'Alim.

Monday, March 16, 2009

dhikr, sofra, and music...

Hu, Erenler...







I thought originally that the above videos were Balkan Rifa'is, but they turn out to be Halvetis (though I'm still thinking they there is some Rifa'i component here.

This one is definitely Rifa'i:



I think these brothers are Halevet-Rifa'i:


I also found this article
http://rrezja.blogspot.com/2008_04_01_archive.html
about dervishes in Kosovo. Like some of the above videos, the article points to some of the interesting connections between tariqas generally seen as Sunni (like the Halveti and Kadiri) and the Bektashi tradition--note the mentions of Sari Saltik, the Bektashi sofra, etc. There is one wonderful mistranslation though-- the Yeni Ceri (the elite soldiers of the Ottoman military, who always had Bektashi chaplains) are often written in English as "Jannisaries". This article humorous mistranslates the word as "Janitors"!

Lastly-- and this is NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH!--- this is incredible documentary footage of Macedonian Rifa'is in 1955. I'll warn you ahead that they use skewers and knives in the film... yikes! Though this is a practice Sherif Baba has outright forbidden, it is certainly a common feature of many branches of the Rifa'i tariqa.



Latif Bolat on Turkish TV


More of Latif:


and mashallah! this video is Latif Bolat is absolutely beautiful:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnFipPL6bmQ

footage from a Bektashi sofra in Turkey:


I believe on the same night.. mashallah


Beautiful music from Iran-- is he Ahl-i Haqq?


This one is definitely Ahl-i Haqq-- they are a mostly Kurdish group in Iran, related to the Alevi (but somewhat different)


And one of the most famous Ahl-i Haqq musicians in Iran, Ali Albar Moradi:



and lastly an absolutely beautiful adhan... mashallah!


Huuu.... Ya Ahmed el-Kebirul -Rifa'i, Ya Hajji Bektashi Veli, Ya Hz. Ali, Ya Hz. Muhammad Mustafa, sallahu aleyhi wa sellim

Sunday, February 8, 2009






Hu, Erenler...

As-salaamu aleykum!

and truly, I am wishing that the One Who Is, in fact, the Peace may be with you... I am not merely resorting to a traditional form of Muslim greeting ;)

Eyvallah, my internet-friend in Konya gave me the go-ahead to send these out:



This is Sherif Baba on his current balcony in Istanbul...



and then at the Urs in Konya, with Sirin Ana...







I have a couple more of these, elhamdullillah... but I'll save them for a rainy day.

May we be what we long for, in the deepest levels of the Truth.

Ashk olsun.

Nedim

Saturday, February 7, 2009

one more of Sirin Ana...

Some dhikr scenes... and Sherif Baba is in them!




Hu! As-salaamu aleykum...

Selma and I have recently become quite intrigued with someone we know very little about. So much so that, Selma is hoping to go to Istanbul to visit her (and also meet Sherif Baba face-to-face for the first time). Inshallah.

The woman's name is Sirin Ana, though more can be found about her in English on the Web by looking up a nickname-- the Red Sheika. Apparently for the reason that she always wears red. There is something about her that Selma and I both found immediately intense and compelling. And I love that she throws chocolates into the crowd during her dhikr.

I have some wonderful pictures of her and Baba leading dhikr together in Konya that a friend sent me recently. I'll ask him if I might post them, so you can see them too, inshallah. But for now, I'll just show you some things I found on the web about her.



You will note Sherif Baba is on the left in the crowd, and Cem is playing tef in several of these pictures.

************************************************************************************
The the following story comes from
http://asalamiinturkey.blogspot.com/2008/12/last-two-days.html
************************************************************************************

Last night we were supposed to go to a zikr at a hotel hosted by the Red Sheikha. Ibrahim has been talking about her throughout this trip and she has sounded one-of-a-kind. Yet I had no idea what to expect. Our whole group began to walk over and were about halfway there when suddenly, in the middle of the street, we were met with another tremendous group of women (at least 20), with the Red Sheikha, dressed all in red, being transported in her wheelchair to come meet us at the guest house. This wasn't just any group of women; these were an energetic, celebratory group who were absolutely ready to party in the name of Allah. Kisses and hugs were exchanged right there in the middle of the street until we finally decided to turn and go back to her hotel.

It was there that we had the zikr....right in the hotel lobby, with the Red Sheikha smoking cigarettes directly in front of the "No Smoking" sign. The room was filled with women zikring to their hearts' content. And of course we were all there as well. The energy of having so many women in the center was incredible since so far, most zikrs that I have been to have been very male-dominated. For me, it was empowering to watch and be a part of.

The sad part was when the women were eventually moved out of the center and shifted aside as more men arrived. The energy changed then and I felt less involved.

Another unrelated thought went through my mind as I was watching everything. I realized that a zikr is a lot like other spiritual practices that I have been to, like drum circles, shamanic rituals, or even buddhist gatherings, that can often (certainly not always) be products of communities of people who are new to spirituality or seeking something after having been hurt by their previous tradition. Yet having been part of those circles on more than one occasion, I have felt there to be something disingenuous about them. Somehow the practice seemed disconnected from anything real and often it even felt like there was nothing actually spiritual or grounded underlying anything that was being done.

I feared that's what the zikrs might be like, but while sitting there with the Red Sheikha, especially when it was just the women, I realized that what I was experiencing was absolutely real. Finally I was in a practice that was energetic and exciting but also totally genuine.

The Red Sheikha needed to go to bed due to her health, so we headed home and a few of us gathered with Ismael Baba. He spoke to us about how there are certain kinds of practices that suit each person differently. He was likening this to eating yogurt. He said that some people like their yogurt with honey but others like it with vinegar. So he says you should eat it however you like it because either way you're eating your yogurt. Basically, don't do a spiritual practice that goes against your constitution. Maybe quiet prayer is better for some people while zikrs are better for others. This was a highly empowering conversation since growing up, I became used to just "dealing with" the fact that certain types of Catholic prayer felt totally wrong to me, but I did it anyway. Ismael Baba gave me inspiration that I will be able to find a practice that feels right.

We're just so used to struggling that when something comes easy, we don't believe it can be real. When something feels good, we think it must be wrong. I'm learning the opposite right now. Feeling good is actually right and does come easily, we just need to pay attention and let it happen. For instance, I feel really good when I sing. In fact I feel so happy when I sing, but only recently was I able to identify this as spiritual. It felt too good for me to think of it as a spiritual practice. There was no sacrifice involved, no pain, no suffering, just pure joy. But I've changed my thoughts on this now, and it's joy that I am after; it's joy that we all deserve.
************************************************************************************




***************************************************************************************
And from another blog, http://miketarianist.blogspot.com/2008/12/zikhr-with-red-sheika.html

"This chain-smoking spiritual leader and her bevy of middle-aged women followers with bangles on their scarves rocked the Konya Hotel last night and we joined in the action. This is how to alter the mind and spirit without alcohol or other substances except the ever-present tea and cigarettes. These people know how to laugh and cry and pray and celebrate in worship. And they know how to greet each other and how to welcome strangers.

I'm realizing I will miss the call to prayer, especially in the morning. I wonder if I can find an alarm clock that plays a recording. There are other sounds as well I am becoming familiar with, including the musical instruments and the voices. There is a group of music therapy practitioners in and out of the guest house providing another dimension. And the Turkish language itself sounds like music to me."

***********************************************************************************

There are a number of blog entries about her on the web. These seem to be largely from a group that went together on an interfaith Mevlana tour (or something like that... several of the writers seem to be Christian seminarians and at least one is Jewish). Evidently, they went to Istanbul and Konya, not only visiting Mevlana and Shams but also making contact with a scene I was unaware of until recently.

http://dervishbrothers.com/

The Dervish Brothers Center in Konya has a name that makes it sound like a museum of Mevlevi culture. Then you click on the page, and it looks like the website for a rug shop. And, to a certain degree it is indeed a website for a rug shop. It's also becoming quite clear that it is no ordinary rug shop. It's a rug shop in the way that the Silk Road Tea House was a restaurant and cafe. Or Muzaffer Ozak ran a bookstore. ;)

From all I can tell, these are the people who know where the real stuff is happening.

The contact information on their website:

tel (332) 351 54 67, (332) 350 81 88
fax (332) 351 54 67
mobile (0.532) 266 02 70
dervishbrotherscenter@hotmail.com


I lastly, to my delight, there is video of Sirin Ana (with Serif Baba there on the left also) on Youtube.













Mashallah... I love all of this. You can immediately see why she and Baba are friends. Both of them see to carry with them this combination of openness and a love for tradition, an fire that burns so intensely because of the huzur (tranquility) that grounds it, a humor and lightness and sweetness that has been developed by years of difficult challenges. Eyvallah. May Allah preserve them and the work they are doing.

All of this makes me very happy-- elhamdullillah. I'm delighted to have a little window into what Sherif Baba is up to these days and also equally delighted to see others who clearly seem to be on the same page.

Nedim

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

some pictures....



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Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Babacast

Hu, everyone.... and as-salaamu alyekum.

Elhamdullillah, this has been a wonderful and interesting time. Though it has been difficult in many ways (particularly because Selma is half-way across the world) it has also been a time of a lot of inward-looking reflection. Coupled with that, amazing sources for the journey have appeared.

Without getting into too many details, I would just like to thank my longtime dost, Fr. Justin again for a box of beautiful inspirations, and also Azim... mashallah, you both helped rekindle a flame that was seriously needing oxygen.

I am also incredibly grateful for the Babacast...
as many of you know, there is a (usually) 24 hour Sufi radio station on the web:

http://www.sherifbaba.com/web_prolog.htm

Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't for me. I don't know how it will work for you. But, I finally figured out that the key is just keep trying. Sometimes it's not on. Sometimes you can connect, but with no sound. At least two out of three times you'll click on and find great music... but if you get that, stick around. About every 3 tracks will be a sohbet from Sherif Baba. Elhamdullillah... these are wonderfully soul-nourishing and refreshing. If you have liked anything on this site, I highly recommend tuning in. I know most of you already know about these, but I had such bad luck getting it to work that I had almost given up. An e-email exchange with a friend currently in Konya reminded me, and I've been on a wonderful little retreat (in my own home) with Sherif Baba for the last three days. So if you've never checked it out, but you love Sufism and liberal Islam, this is a welcome voice. If you know about it, but have been having trouble connecting, it seems to be working well now (again, I'm not really sure if the problems were Cem's computer(s) or mine. But mashallah, the arsonists of the heart are spreading the fire of ashk (devine love) at http://www.sherifbaba.com/web_prolog.htm

Hu....
Nedim

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Academic article on the Rifa'i Marufi tariqa

Hu...
This is a juicy one for anyone interested in the history of Rifa'i Marufi. It is an article by Turkish professor Atabey Kilic about the order. Unfortunately, it is all in Turkish, except for this abstract:

MA’RİFÎLİK IS A TARİQA WHICH SHOWS ALEVÎ-BEKTAŞÎ-RIFÂ’Î
CHARACTERISTICS IN MANİSA-DEMİRCİ


Ma’rifilik is a tariqa, which was alive between 19-20th centuries, shows Alevî-Bektâşî-Rıfâ’î characteristics and it’s âsitâne takes place in Kartal. Today we can see it’s tradition in Ege Region especially in Manisa-Demirci. There are many mecmuas in Ege University Centural Library about this tariqa. In this paper we aim to give informatin about this tariqa’s tradition, rules and apparel


Here is the article itself (in Turkish)
http://www.turkishstudies.net/sayilar/sayi6/3k%C4%B1l%C4%B1%C3%A7atabey.pdf

Even if you don't know Turkish, it's still a useful thing for any Rifa'i Marufis in America or elsewhere to take a look at. Lots of great pictures from Kartal, and some really interesting pictures from old documents showing the clothing worn in the order 200 years ago. I'm particularly intrigued with the fact that he particularly seems to focus on the Alevi and Bektashi connections. As some of you know, this is one of my major interests as well, and was a major part of my anthropology master's thesis. (which if any curious person would like to read is called "Mending Fences and Setting Fires" and is in the Thomas Cooper Library at the University of South Carolina).

By the way, if any kind person who speaks better Turkish than I do would like to give me a quick summary of his article, I'd be eternally grateful... ;)

As-salaamu aleykum.

Nedim

Monday, January 26, 2009

Hu, Erenler....
As-salaamu aleykum.

This is an incredible BBC documentary, mashallah! I highly recommend watching this. Great footage of Sain Zahour (a Chisti from Pakistan), the Aissawa brotherhood in Morocco (Selma's favorite music), and even Mercan Dede and Mira Hunter (both of whom have Rifa'i Marufi connections), and that's just a fraction of what is on here.


Part One:




Part Two:



Part Three:



Part Four



Part Five

Saturday, January 17, 2009

some pictures...

Hu, everyone. I just thought I'd stop in briefly to post a few pictures of Hazreti Ali, Hajji Bektash Veli, and Pir Sultan Abdal. The ones with the tall hat are Hajji Bektash, the one holding the saz is Pir Sultan, and the others are Hz. Ali. The last one is a painting by Murat Yagan, who is a sort of Circassian post-modern Bektashi who now leads a church (at least kind of) in Canada. Not quite sure what I think about all of that, but he's an interesting and thought-provoking character. Eyvallah. I love that painting-- with the image of Sayyidina Ali in the center and the baglama of Pir Sultan. If you look closely at the bottom, you can see an Alevi semah on the left and a Mevlevi sema on the right.

Had a nice phone conversation with Cem (in Turkey) a couple of weeks ago.

Not a lot of news here, other than that I am missing Selma very much (she is in Morocco) and I am absolutely stunned and delighted to receive an incredible package of Sufi books and music from my longtime dost
Fr. Justin.

Okay, I'm off to bed before a week-long Myrtle Beach trip. Inshallah, I'll get to the Meher Baba Center while I'm there. Every now and then I find some Rifa'i Marufi folks around there too, which would be a treat.

Lastly, inshallah, we will see the inauguration of our new president next week. Elhamdullillah! I can't even begin to say how happy I am about this. America needs this... and inshallah, he will make the most of this. I truly believe that this last election gave America a chance to decide whether we want to live up the the great promise that is in the spirit of this country. Elhamdullillah, the voters chose to do this. I am so happy for this. Now, let's just hope we have a leader and a government that are really able to bring out the best. Allahu Alim. But I have a lot of confidence and enthusiasm.

So, a fatiha for our new president. May he guide us with siyaset in this new era, inshallah. Allah Hadi Allah Hu.

As-salaamu aleykum...






Hu...