Talk of Sufism by History Department and FCC Conversations Mar17

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Talk of Sufism by History Department and FCC Conversations

On 13 March 2014, the Department of History in collaboration with FCC Conversations organized a discussion titled ‘Understanding the message of the sufis’. The purpose of the event was to gain more insight into the life, purpose and most importantly the message of the sufis from all around the world.

The event started as Amat-un-Nur Naila Tiwana (Sufi teacher) explained the terms Sufi and Tasawwuf and highlighted the relationship between Islam and Sufism. She also mentioned the importance of Zikrullah and introduced the practice of Zikr through meditation.

Farzana Moon (Ohio-based Poet, Historian and Playwright) shed some light on the lives of various sufis including Rabia, Shams of Tabriz, Rumi, Hafiz, Al-Hallaj and St John of the Cross. She emphasized that their message was of love, peace and harmony. She simply defined the word sufi as ‘love’ and the term ‘Sufism’ as ‘the path to love’. She further added that Sufism is timeless and free of the limitations of creed or religion, “Anyone can be a sufi who wishes to seek God or Beloved inside the heart of mankind through the fire of love. Filling one’s heart with so much love that there is no room left for hatred in there, for anybody or anything. By cultivating such a character of Divine love, the sufi as the paragon of a Lover is united with God, or Beloved, becoming the vessel of inspiration to share his or her message of unity in multiplicity.”

Farzana welcomed questions at the end of her speech and the audience gladly availed the opportunity. Students from the History and Psychology departments read out sufi poetry in Persian, Sindhi, Pashto, Saraiki and Punjabi along with translation. The event concluded with musical performances and a special sufi dance performance by the students.