Daily Times

4th International Sufi Conference with the theme ‘Sufi Heritage: Counterculture Narrative and Peacebuilding in the Era of Globalisation’ began on Friday at Hotel Beach Luxury, Karachi. The two-day conference was organised by the Sindh Culture, Tourism and Antiquities Department.

The conference brings forth the scholars from 13 countries to engage with the cultural heritage narratives and prospects of peacebuilding in the global era.

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) women-wing President Faryal Talpur, who was the chief guest on the occasion, said that the critical transformative potential of the conference would greatly benefit scholars and participants especially the young students.

“I must congratulate the Department of Culture, Tourism and Antiquities Government of Sindh for organising this august international conference, which is a great way of learning, exchanging research, knowledge and values,” she said, while expressing the hope that the conference would be able to conclude with a clear counter-narrative and conducive recommendations for the policymakers.

PPP leader Faryal Talpur says sufism is a counter-cultural narrative in times of cholera. “Let’s reiterate our profound ambitions for the promotion of values such as tolerance, peace and brotherhood in order to crush the rising extremism and intolerance”

“As it is evident from the theme, sufism is a counter-cultural narrative in times of cholera,” Talpur went on to say. “Let’s reiterate our profound ambitions for the promotion of values such as tolerance, peace and brotherhood in order to crush the rising extremism and intolerance,” she added.

Provincial Minister for Culture, Tourism and Antiquities Syed Sardar Ali Shah said the conference is aimed at furthering the message of peace. “It is the fourth year that we are hosting the conference where both international and national experts enlighten us,” said the minister, adding that you may find Sufi traditions and practices worldwide but the Sufi heritage in South Asia and more specifically in Sindh is much significant.

The minister also thanked researchers who come from their homelands to exchange knowledge and their experiences with the participants of the conference.

The first day of the conference included three different sessions. Experts shared their views regarding the theme and papers of renowned scholars were also read during the sessions.

The conference concluded on Saturday with a number of recommendations to the concerned departments to portray Sufi thought and its universal, tolerant values at all levels and use it as a strongest cultural narrative against the extremist ideology.

The conference unanimously gave the following recommendations:

Progressive Sufi cultural heritage should be promoted to counter the extremist and intolerant tendencies in society, and to create interfaith harmony and pluralism.

The relevant department to work for the inclusion of the Sufi Cultural heritage of Sindh on the UNESCO heritage list.

Sufism should be studied with diverse theoretical and methodological inter-disciplinary approaches.

An Endowment Fund should be established to financially help students, faculty and researchers to carry out new research on Sufi cultural heritage.

Efforts should be made for holding regular seminars, workshops, symposia and conferences at local, national, and international levels which will serve as a springboard for countering the extremism and intolerance in the society.

Sufi museums should be established to showcase the Sufi cultural heritage of Sindh.

Sufi cultural heritage should be promoted through various creative cultural expressions like music, literature, drama, theater and films.

The departments concerned should design websites on Sufi cultural heritage to provide digital access to relevant information to those who do not have access to the archives.

The progressive and plural Sufi thought and values should be included in the educational curricula.

The national counter terrorism policy should incorporate and use the pluralist, tolerant, universal values of Sufi thought and philosophy.

Four academic sessions were held on the second day. In the first session of the second day of the conference titled, ‘Political economy of Shrines and Sufi Orders’, four research papers were presented, wherein the speakers elaborated the role of sufi shrines and their economical influence on different Sufi orders. Ms. Nargees Murtaza, in her paper, introduced Maktab-e-Targhat-e-Oveysi Shah Maghsoudi (MTO), a school of Sufism dating back to the time of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), and the founder of the school, Hazrat Oveys Gharani and currently led by Hazrat Nader Angha.

Dr. Sarfraz Khan of Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad presented the case study of district Gujrat in his research paper on the role of Sufi shrines in the migration process. He shed light on the association between migration processes and Sufi shrines in district Gujrat, and told that the process of emigration intensified in 1960s but people found only few opportunities of jobs and earned hardly their basic livelihood.

Third and last paper of the first session was about the Sufism and Economy and its historical perspective and was presented by Dr. Humera Naz of Department of History of University of Karachi. She said that Sufism and economics stand for apart, one focusing its attention on the after-life and next world, and the other concerned with the material life of this world. Her paper explored the material factor which have powerfully influenced the forms of social life as well as the values governing individual and collective life such as the material demands.

During the second session four speakers presented their researches. Prof. Amjad Ali Channar of University of Karachi spoke about the mystical currents in Kierkegaard’s philosophy. He said that the idea of mysticism is based on the purification of oneself in moral and spiritual realms for the sake of truth, reality and God.

Muhammad Abrar Zahoor of University of Sarghoda presented his paper on Bhakti Movement and religious identities in Pre-Modern North India. He analysed the Bhakti movement and interpreted in context of pre-modern conception of religious identities which were fluid in nature and historical conditioning that produced this assimilationist culture.

Harvad PhD student Pei-ling Huang presented her research paper on Shah Latif’s Danburo: a nexus of Sufi devotional practices and ambivalent identities. She told that during her field research in Bhit Shah, the Danburo was the foundational instrument for learning Shah Latif’s musical repertoire and a material nexus of several strands of faith and practice. She thoroughly discussed the meanings that ragi faqirs, the practitioners of Shah Latif’s raag, invoke when talking about the Danburo, from its material construction to techniques of playing the instrument.

Sahar Gul of University of Karachi spoke about the Ethos of Hallaji Ishq and Sufi values. She presented her case study of Hussain bin Mansur Hallaj whose love for God was declared as heresy, and met tragic death as a punishment by the rulers of the time. Through her paper she drew analogies of passionate love of a Sufi, which is subjective, with that of a revolutionary, which is objective.

During third session speakers presented their researches on the Sufi Heritage in Pakistan. Abdul Rehman Kakar of Balochistan University, Dr. Sagar Abro from Larkana, Dr. Sobia Aslam of GCU Faisalabad, Phd researcher Mr. Sirat Gohar of QUA Islamabad and Dr. Sher Mehrani of Department of Sindh University of Karachi presented their respective papers. Which were about a study of Sufism in classic period of Pashto Literature.

Similarly, during the fourth and last session five research papers were presented which were about Contesting Sufism and extremism ideologies. The scholars Dr. Ali Caksu of Turkey, Dr. Sjjad Abro of Jamshoro, Dr. Cyrus Goldrick of Turkey, Dr. Des. Djouroukoro Diallo of Switzerland and Dr. Abdul Qadir of Paris France respectively presented their papers.

After the academic session of the Sufi Conference, a music session was organised presenting different aspects of Sufi Sindhi Folk Music and some Turkish Sufi dance performances till late evening.

Published in Daily Times, April 15^th 2018.