Saturday 1 March 2008

Event: Love, Lover and Beloved: An Evening of Sufi Devotions and Ecstatic Music.

Facilitators: Khidmatul Khadim, the International Sufi School, Murshid Saadi Shakur Chishti (Dr Neil Douglas-Klotz), Da’ud Bellak and Jila Peacock.

Venue: Meeting Room, Quaker Meeting House, 7 Victoria Terrace, Edinburgh.

Time: 7pm onwards. Doors open from 6.30pm.

Event Description: The Sufi Way has been called the "Path of Love" and one of the most famous Sufi chants reminds the listener that "God is Love, Lover and Beloved." In many different ways, Sufi music and chant worldwide celebrates the sacred as an evolving relationship rather than a static set of concepts or theologies. The Sufi musicians and teachers assembled here will share music and chant that awakens the heart and revivifies the soul, from the Middle East, Turkey, Africa and Europe (including Scotland). 
	
Presenters will include: Khidmatul Khadim, the International Sufi School, Murshid Saadi Shakur Chishti (Dr Neil Douglas-Klotz), Da’ud Bellak and Jila Peacock. This is a participatory evening, during which the audience will have the opportunity to learn about and join in various Sufi chants and musical meditations for peace. All are welcome to participate in the Sufi devotional and ecstatic spiritual practice!

0. Murshid Saadi Shakur Chishti (Dr Neil Douglas-Klotz): Welcome and Introduction.

1. Khidmatul Khadim, the International Sufi School: The Elixir of the Soul.

The whole universe bathes in perpetual music - that of the rotating Earth, the blowing wind, the waves, the singing birds…

In fact, there can be no life without music. The human being is made up of music: the beating of the heart, the voice, the demeanour; everything within the human is a rhythm. This is why in all religions and all spiritual paths music is at the very heart of their practice. Sufis, who have a particular liking for music, say that music is the elixir of the soul.

Khidmatul Khadim, the International Sufi School (ISS), is the school of peace and service of Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba. Sheikh Bamba was a Sufi mystic and peacemaker born in Senegal in 1853, where he founded the International Sufi School. This Sufi path focuses on the personal development of its members and their awakening to a new level of consciousness: to be a peacemaker and a servant of humanity according to the prophetic model.

Before the individual is able to engage in selfless service, the heart needs to be in peace, free from all forms of conditioning. Hence the importance of Zikrullah, the repetition of the names of the Lord, as a central practice in all Sufi traditions since it purifies the heart and liberates the soul.

2. Jila Peacock: Poems of Hafez.

Reading of poems from Hafez in Persian and in English.

Jila Peacock was born in Iran, and studied and practised Medicine in London before graduating in painting from St Martin’s School of Art in 1984. Moving to Glasgow in 1990, she has been a part-time lecturer in the GSA and is a member of the Glasgow Print Studio.

In 2003/4 she was a Visiting Scholar at New Hall, Cambridge, with an award from the Arts and Humanities Research Board AHRB, to make a hand printed edition of a book of ten shape poems from the Sufi mystic poet, Hafez, of Shiraz, which was exhibited in the British Museum exhibition Word into Art, in 2006. 

Her interest in music and performance has culminated in a major collaboration with composers Sally Beamish and Anoosh Jahanshahi, each of whom have made new settings from Ten Poems from Hafez. This music has formed the soundtrack for her animation film "Tongue of the Hidden," made from the shape poems with Director David Anderson for Channel 4 which premiered at the National Film Theatre in October 2007.

3. Murshid Saadi Shakur Chishti (Dr Neil Douglas-Klotz): Sufi Chants from the Chishtia Sufi tradition.

Murshid Saadi Shakur Chishti will share several chants (dhikr or "remembrance"), from the Chishtia Sufi tradition, which recall the journey of the seeker - from the One, to the One, and in the One.

Murshid Saadi Shakur Chishti (Dr Neil Douglas-Klotz) directs the Edinburgh Institute for Advanced Learning and co-founded the Edinburgh International Festival of Middle Eastern Spirituality and Peace. He is the past co-chair of the Mysticism Group of the American Academy of Religion and has published several books on Middle Eastern spirituality and peace, including Prayers of the Cosmos, Desert Wisdom, The Hidden Gospel, The Genesis Meditations, The Sufi Book of Life, Blessings of the Cosmos and The Tent of Abraham. In 2005 he was awarded the Kessler-Keener Foundation Peacemaker of the Year Award for his work on Middle Eastern spirituality and peacemaking. More information on his work can be found at www.abwoon.com

Interval.

4. Murshid Saadi Shakur Chishti (Dr Neil Douglas-Klotz): Welcome and Introduction.

5. Da’ud Bellak: Love’s Vortex - Jealalud’din Rumi and The Open Heart.

An intimate glimpse and introduction into the Mevlevi (Whirling) Dervishes of Jelalud’din Rumi - The program will include insights into the Mevlevi Dervish brotherhood (Tariqa), stories, and group participation, with Da’ud Bellak. Remembrance of the Divine forms the basis of Sufism and the Path of Transformation through education of the heart. Best known for the sacred dance or Sema, the Mevlevi have a personal, inner activity known as Remembrance which will be made available for the first time publicly in Scotland, and possibly in the UK. There will be an opportunity for questions following the program.

Da’ud Bellak, who was taken as a novice by one of the silent masters of the 20th century, the late Suleyman Hayati Dede and Murshid of Konya, Turkey, in the 1970s and with whom he developed an intimate relationship. Under his direction, Da’ud completed the 1001 days “chille” (spiritual retreat) and the traditional Mevlevi 18 steps of training, possibly the only westerner to have done so. He was initiated as Sheikh (representative) of Hayati Dede, and the Mevlevi Brotherhood. While in the service of his Hayati Dede, he served as his translator, secretary, confidant and travel companion, and is fully schooled in the Mevlevi Dervish path. He is also an initiate of the Helveti-Jeriahi order of dervishes. He has resided in Edinburgh since 1981.  

6. Jila Peacock: Poems of Hafez.

Reading of poems from Hafez in Persian and in English.

7. Khidmatul Khadim, the International Sufi School: An Osmosis of Hearts.

Music has always been at the heart of human existence. It is the means through which man connects with his inner self, and hence with his Creator.

Through music one can taste the beautiful experience of the unicity of the universe, for music transcends all differences, all barriers, pertaining to language, culture, race, sex or class. As Rumi said, music is an invitation to lift the veil which covers our hearts to rediscover, through the experience of the senses, He who is within us and in whom we are. Thus, musicians and listeners form but only one entity: an osmosis of hearts.

8. Murshid Saadi Shakur Chishti (Dr Neil Douglas-Klotz): Thanks and Appreciation.

Cost: £7/£5 (Concessions), on the door, on the night.
Contact: Neill Walker, mesp2008@hotmail.co.uk, 0131 331 4469.