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Monday, September 24, 2012
Sufis’ message of tolerance has universal relevance: SherryWASHINGTON: Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States Sherry Rehman told an American audience at a cultural event on Saturday night that Sufism embraced the spirit of tolerance and inclusion, and its message was increasingly relevant in this age of competing ideologies.
She was speaking at the Smithsonian Institute, where popular Pakistani Sufi singer Sanam Marvi gave a mesmerising performance, attended by Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar. The new US ambassador to Pakistan Richard Olson, senior American officials and a large number of Pakistani and American followers of Sufi poetry and music attended the performance. In her remarks, Sherry made it clear that Sufism was not a sect of Islam. “Its practice encapsulates the very essence of our faith,” she said.
“For over a decade now we have seen the marketplace of global ideas distorted by new walls of hatred and prejudice. This negativity causes many to lose hope in the project of peaceful civilisations, which instead of clashing, nurtures the best in humanity,” she said.
Sherry said that Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah had actively advocated a plural model of citizenship, asserting that all Pakistani citizens were to have equal rights and privileges, regardless of their religious affiliation.
She explained the audience the message of Sufism as she observed that being “grounded in the mystical connection between the individual and the divine, Sufism embraces the spirit of tolerance and inclusion in both its discourse and practice”. “This is one of the reasons why Sufi saints played a central role in the spread of Islam, especially in South Asia, making it the second biggest and the most practiced religion in the world,” she added. “What could, indeed, be a more appropriate and opportune time to think and reflect about the message of unity, peace, togetherness and patience exemplified by the life and teachings of Sufi saints and their philosophy of life?” Sherry questioned. She said the Sufi doctrine was simple and universal, it said that the light of God abided in the heart of each person.
“The Sufi ‘tariqa’ or the Sufi way guides us on the roads of the inner journey towards discovering the self, for the ultimate goal of reaching the divine light and wisdom that each one of us carries within,” she said. app
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk