Blanket
Mulla Nasrudin and his wife woke one night to hear two men fighting under their window. Nasrudin’s wife sent the Mulla out to see what the trouble was. He wrapped his blanket round his shoulders and went downstairs. As soon as he got close to the men, one of them grabbed the blanket off him and both men ran off.
“What was the fighting about, dear?” the Mulla’s wife asked as he came back into the bedroom.
“About my blanket apparently...... as soon as they got it they went away.”
July 21 2005 in Mulla Nasrudin | Read More | Comments [3]
Three Rivers summer schedule
Just a quick note to plug the summer schedule of the Three Rivers project in Barcelona.
They are holding a weekly storytelling group called Mushkil Gusha which meets weekly to tell traditional folk-tales and stories from the Middle East, Iran, Afghanistan and Spain. The group is condcted bilingual Spanish/English and the stories can be told in any language !
Later in the year I may also be conducting a 10 week course on mysticism in Middle Eastern religions. Check out the site for further details.
July 19 2005 in General Stuff | Read More | Comments [0]
Nasrudin
Decided to intermittently post some of my favourite Mulla Nasrudin stories.
For those unfamiliar with the wisdom of this incomparable wise-fool, Nasrudin is a folkloric figure throughout Turkey and the Middle East. Thousands of tales are in circulation about him and are told in tea-houses and gatherings all over the region.
It is said that contemplation of seven Nasrudin tales will provide enlightenment in the manner of a Zen koan - hasn’t worked in my case but they can also serve a dual purpose as jokes so I think it’s allright....
July 17 2005 in Mulla Nasrudin | Read More | Comments [0]
More Malamati Stuff
Posted this on alt.sufi - God knows why - I suppose because that is Shah HQ (someone coined the phrase ‘Shahbots’ there which is really quite good if you think about it). Didn’t come to much though - people started talking about the da Vinci Code and Atlantis instead.
Anyway, as readers will know, I am not by any means a Shah-basher, perhaps a ‘Shahbot’ basher at a push but I’m working on laying down my arms and finding some peace. Hopefully it will happen soon inshallah. Meanwhile I have been thinking again - this time about Shah’s relationship with Sufism and whether he could be ‘not a Sufi’ as detractors such as Moore et al claim and still be ‘the real deal’. Feel free to take these ideas as talking points, evidence of dogmatic assertion or hypothetical postulates depending on your own personal bias.
July 14 2005 in Sufism/Islam | Read More | Comments [4]
Malamati
The Malamatiyya were an ascetic movement that originated in Khurasan in Nishapur in the late third/ninth century and whose origins are traditionally attributed to the teachings of Hamdun al-Kassar (d. 271/884-5) although several later Malamati figures were to claim that their practice derived from the Qur’an . The name of the tradition derives from the Arabic word for “blame” (malama) and signifies “the blameworthy” or “those that draw blame on themselves”.
July 11 2005 in Sufism/Islam | Read More | Comments [4]
Joke
Ok - I need to preface. This IS bashing but aimed at literalists rather than real Christians - see how compassionate I am!
July 09 2005 in General Stuff | Read More | Comments [0]
Sufism
Someone asked me what this Sufism thing is and if I could explain it. Well, the answer is I’m afraid, no - I can’t explain it. But I can give a couple of general outlines of what some people think it is all about.
July 08 2005 in Sufism/Islam | Read More | Comments [0]
Good News
Yep it’s Good News Saturday again at Joe Katzman’s Winds of Change.
I link to the above because it has a Sufi story from one of Shah’s books that is perhaps relevant to the post on Shah elsewhere on this blog. And also because I can’t write about Fortean winged cats like I wanted to because my neighbours held a rap party (mmm my fave...) till 5 am and I am somewhat discombobulated......later.........
July 06 2005 in General Stuff | Read More | Comments [0]
Sufism and Western Literature
A particular interest of mine is the influence of Islamic thought on the formation of Western civilization - specifically in the area of Sufism in relation to western literature. This field is relatively undocumented outside the ranks or Islamic scholars but the parallels and influences are a fascinating study. Numerous Sufic motifs, for example, are to be found in Shakespeare and Chaucer’s pear-tree tale occurs in Rumi’s Mathnavi. Goethe’s debt to Hafiz is perhaps well known but the parallels between Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and the history of Hayy Ibn Yaqzan of Ibn Tufayl are even more striking.
We are currently working on an in-depth overview of this topic and will post it in the articles section when completed. Meanwhile, an interesting introduction to this subject can be found in Farhang Jahanpour’s Western Encounters with Persian Sufi Literature.
For those who are interested in this area there is also a very good article on Arabic influences around Dante at Ed Emery’s archive.
July 05 2005 in Sufism/Islam | Read More | Comments [0]
Cause and Effect
There is a Mulla Nasrudin story that goes something like this:
Mulla Nasrudin was walking along an alleyway one day when a man feel from a roof and landed on top of him. The other man was unhurt but the Mulla was taken to hospital.
“What teaching do you infer from this event, Master?” one of his disciples asked him.
“Avoid belief in inevitability, even if cause and effect seem inevitable!” said Nasrudin
“Shun theoretical questions like: ‘If a man falls off a roof, will his neck be broken?’ He fell but my neck is broken!”
July 03 2005 in Mulla Nasrudin | Read More | Comments [0]
Idries Shah
I have been thinking recently about the extreme pro and anti views Shah engendered. Both camps are really quite amusing.
On the one hand you have James Moore, Gurdjeffian extraordinaire and his ‘definitive last word on the matter’ Neo Sufism, (half of which can still be perused at the preceding link) and on the other, there is the ‘Shah fan club’ who may, or may not, represent a genuine Sufi manifestation.
June 29 2005 in Sufism/Islam | Read More | Comments [22]
Esotericism
As this journal is going to touch in a large part on areas such as mysticism and esotericism, I should at least describe at the outset what I understand by this. Not what it actually is necessarily, because I may be wrong in my understanding. This is just how I understand it at this point in time. I shall probably deny it all tomorrow…
June 27 2005 in Sufism/Islam | Read More | Comments [2]
First Post
Once upon a time Khidr, the Teacher of Moses, called upon mankind with a warning. At a certain date, he said, all the water in the world which had not been specially hoarded, would disappear. It would then be renewed, with different water, which would drive men mad.
June 25 2005 in Sufism/Islam | Read More | Comments [0]
