Sufi or not Sufi? That is the question

Islam week at the Globe Theatre will link Shakespeare with a mystic Muslim sect

• Vanessa Thorpe, arts and media correspondent
• The Observer, Sunday 24 October 2004

The influence of William Shakespeare on western culture has made him arguably Britain's greatest export. Now it is being claimed that his work resembles the teachings of the Islamic Sufi sect.

The argument will be put forward next month at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London. It comes as part of a week of events focusing on Islam to address concerns raised by the 'war on terror' and improve understanding of the links between Islam and British culture.

While it has been suggested that Shakespeare dabbled with espionage and Catholic political activism, the new theory will attempt to persuade Shakespeare scholars that the playwright was a member of a religious or spiritual order which can best be compared to the philosophy of Sufism.

The respected academic Dr Martin Lings will put forward this thesis in his lecture on 23 November. 'Shakespeare would have delighted in Sufism,' said Lings, who is 96 and an adherent of Sufism. 'We can see he obviously knew a lot about some kind of equivalent sect or order.'

Lings argues that the guiding principles of Sufi thought are evident in Shakespeare's writing. The plays, he believes, depict a struggle between the dawning modernist world and the traditional, mystical value system. And, like the Sufis, the playwright is firmly on the side of tradition and spiritualism.

'It was the end of the Middle Ages and the birth of atheism,' he says. 'It was the beginning of the ideas of enlightenment and the beginning really of the modern era. Shakespeare is the last outpost of tradition.'

Lings believes that characters in some of the best known works exemplify the Sufi quest for purification, while others represent Shakespeare himself.

'I am going to say that it is wrong to say we know very little about Shakespeare because he is present in his plays to a remarkable degree,' said Lings, who was keeper of oriental manuscripts and printed books and in charge of Koranic manuscripts at the British Museum. He argues that the journey of Edgar, in King Lear , is like the Sufi's search for truth, in which the seeker is helped by angelic characters and impeded by diabolic agents.

While the magician-like figure of Prospero, orchestrating the action in The Tempest, and the manipulative Duke of Vienna in Measure for Measure are commonly seen as Shakespeare's alter egos, Lings traces the teachings of a spiritual order akin to Sufism in their words.

The famous line of Prospero's 'We are such stuff as dreams are made on' is a complete fit, he claims, adding that King Lear's words also eerily echo Sufi ideas when he tells his faithful daughter: 'Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia, the gods themselves throw incense.' Lings makes the point that the Bard is 'quite at home' with 'Gods' in the plural.

The International Shakespeare Globe Fellowship Lecture will take place in the middle of the Islam Awareness Week on the 22-28 November and will be preceded by a lecture from Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, the founder of the Zaytuna Institute in California, who will look at Shakespeare's sonnets from a Sufi perspective.

Throughout the week the outside walls of the theatre on the banks of the Thames will be illuminated with scenes of Islamic culture.

On the final weekend a souk will take over the premises, with stalls selling eastern wares. The week will also form part of the 4th centenary celebrations of the first recorded performance of Othello , which will be marked by staged readings of four plays featuring Moors and Turks.

Echoes of Sufism

'Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia, the gods themselves throw incense'

King Lear to his daughter, Act V, Scene III

'We are such stuff as dreams are made on'

Prospero in The Tempest, Act IV, Scene I

• guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

NF Paracha - A Square All-Rounder

NF Paracha - A Square All-Rounder

Juggling books...

With every passing minute I find myself having not read so much more. 'There has to be a way to devour the whole stack' says my conscience and I always have to shut him by telling him 'its not about devouring them you idiot, you need time to digest too!!!'. With an air of heedlessness, my conscience says 'oh well' and continues biting me from the inside...


Last night I got hold of one book from the shelf (that has gotten messier than before!) and started flipping the pages. Somewhere near the first quarter, my eyes glued to the page and I began reading. Surprisingly I had kept the book in the pile of incomprehensible(s)! But now each and every word sank in, as if their beloved was dying to reach out for them only!

I am reading .......?

A discussion on Post-Modernism

While having a discussion on 'post-modernism' with a relative of mine this is what I concluded... A discussion of post-modernism would take much too long. It has shaped our world-view, but mostly in ways that people don't realize, e.g., in familiarizing them with alternative views of what "makes sense". It is the ultimate rebellion against the authority of the canon.

In an explicit sense, only a few people - mainly in academia - are really aware of post-modernism. Its greatest contribution, is to undermine the idea of objective meaning and to expose the essential subjectivity underlying all claims of objective truth. From a traditional viewpoint, it is mainly a "destructive" approach and, indeed, rejects the value of constructed structures. In this, I think, it does not take sufficient account of human nature, which is based on the "real fictions" of agency and self-reference. Formally, it is a much more rigorous approach than traditional theories of meaning and signification.

According to Ali Minai, Assoc. Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Cincinnati (with whom I was having the discussion), we're now seeing the birth pangs of the post-postmodern age, where people are seeking a return to meaning without falling into the old traps of tradition, religion, nationalism, etc., that they have only recently escaped. Of course, not everyone agrees with this direction, e.g., the jihadi movement in Islam and the right-wing in Europe, in America. However, they will lose because this genie is out of the bottle, and is fueled by globalization. The biggest threat to it is that some great calamity, e.g., climate change, may yet turn people back towards parochial ways...

Tough Measures

 

"Autobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful. A man who gives a good account of himself is probably lying, since any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats."  - George Orwell

The much heated debate

Today we had our Reading Club Session after 1. We all were really excited about this particular sitting because the book under discussion and the person going to present it, both attracted our attention. You must have heard of the famous Dan Brown series, and most of you I'm sure must have been perplexed by its plot. Such an amusement this whole concept of the All-Seeing-Eye and the Satanic cults that not a single being on this planet stays untouched by its discovery. It is mystified by the organizations believing in it and the impact remains for too long. In such trance-like moments, we tend to forget our purpose of existence and we are often taken up by the fear that some supernatural force is going to destroy us. Such a pity, this kind of emotion that is likely to be found amongst the youth....that energetic youth who is capable of performing far more valuable tasks in the name of the (only)Creator: 

In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
Say: He is God, the One and Only;
God, the Eternal, Absolute; 

He begetteth not, nor is He begotten;
And there is none like unto Him

                                                                                                    (Surah Ikhlas)

Sir Faheem from Department of International Relations was the visiting guest for the meeting and he felt it was necessary for the students to realize that mental luxury, specially at this point in time cannot be afforded at any cost. This definitely needs further discussion which I'm hoping will take place in the meetings to come. What was most surprising for me was the turn his presentation on the novel took -- Why did Dan Brown, a 'non-believing Jew' write such a blasphemous novel in the first place? Are reading club discussions on books like these generating unwanted political/conspiracy theories? Would the reading of the novel be more lethal than the awareness of a harsh reality one has to face sooner or later? How should the novel be read AT ALL?  (to this I add, why was Dan Brown born in the first place?!!) 


Can we afford to remain in ignorance? Is not our duty clear to us; awareness of (and its rigorous practice) the Islamic tradition being handed down to us through the Prophets (may Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon them)? This needs more attention. 

I am still thinking about the growing chaos in th society, which our presenter rightly pointed out, needs to be dealt with more straight forwardly than in a 'dream-like state' or lets just call it denial. . .       

                                             

:(

... longing for what I parted with precisely five minutes ago... I'm surrounded by complete silence again. Hope to see you all again... Miss you...