well, since yesterday I found myself mentioning Rumi and Saudi in the same breath (something not easy to do), it seems it's time for a bit of Rumi himself. I especially like this Rumi "poem" because of what it might say about bloggers, blogger communities and other possible digital sufis.
Search the Darkness
Sit with your friends, don't go back to sleep.
Don't sink like a fish to the bottom of the sea.
Surge like an ocean, don't scatter yourself like a storm.
Life's waters flow from darkness. Search the darkness, don't run from it.
Night travelers are full of light, and you are too: don't leave this companionship.
Be a wakeful candle in a golden dish, don't slip into the dirt like quicksilver.
The moon appears for night travelers, be watchful when the moon is full.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Sufism in Saudi?
This topic deserves far more seriousness and time than I am going to give it here and now, but the question of where Sufism is and was in Saudi is an important one. Let me offer these cursory half-"baked" reflections.
The one Imam in Saudi Arabia I have had one-on-one visits with (for about six weeks during Arabic lessons) did not like Rumi, one of the central figures in Sufism, at all. When I asked him why he said "Rumi thinks God is in everything." He did not go on to say "there is no God but God," but he was definitely heading in this direction. But am I turning him into a charicature by stopping here? How do we contextualize what he said, do it in an intelligent manner, take it seriously, and go beyond the cliche's?
First of all we need to bring in the Wahabi sect (see Wikipedia on this if needed), a conservative version of Islam connected to, and in many ways stemming from, the two-century old religious establishment of the same name. The sect gets its name from its founder: a man named Ibn Wahab who teamed up with the House of Saud in the 18th century to found a partnership that eventually became the country. In the past, the Wahabis are said to be responsible for doing less admirable things, like destroying "idoloatrous" shrines to various Islamic saints and manifestations of popular religion, some of which did and does stem from Shi-ism, that other major Iranian religious export. Today the Wahabis are supposedly in control of Saudi education.
I must stress again that this needs to be explored further than I am doing now. The only thing I am offering is a small, tiny even, bit of insight into this society today and where the Sufis are in it. So then, what I think we can say is this: the anti-Sufism we hear, and imagine we might hear, about in Saudi is there and is alive. We can also speculate that it is part of Saudi's top madrasas or "seminaries." Why? The guy I witnessed air these views graduated from Medina university, one of the most importnat schools in the country and trainer of its religious establishment. He works for this state supported religious establishment now. And as they say, the acorn never falls far from the tree.
But what do we do about this? Does this mean Sufism does not and cannot exist here? Is this a question we should even be asking?
The only hope, I envision is in reminding ouselves of the geopolitical nexus Saudi sits in with respect to India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. These places are soooo close to Saudi and the Gulf and gives it millions of workers. A third of the 20 million people in Saudi are foreign workers from south Asia. Many of them are semi-permanent residents here and in the Gulf. Another intersting tidbit is that India and what I will call "greater-Persia" are also the places where Sufism survived and thrived the most heartily in centuries past. These areas produced schools of Sufi thought and learning that survive right up to the present day and which kept the teaching alive throughout the "middle east." Why should this not be the case even now? Without doing any real research on this other than observing what I see in the small but possibly representative speck of this country's social world, I'd say the Sufi mindset could still be lurking and limping along here, but also confident of who and what it is, and that it is. How do I know? Because you, by reading this, and I, by writing it, are "brining it," even though neither one us might be "Asian."
M XYZ
The one Imam in Saudi Arabia I have had one-on-one visits with (for about six weeks during Arabic lessons) did not like Rumi, one of the central figures in Sufism, at all. When I asked him why he said "Rumi thinks God is in everything." He did not go on to say "there is no God but God," but he was definitely heading in this direction. But am I turning him into a charicature by stopping here? How do we contextualize what he said, do it in an intelligent manner, take it seriously, and go beyond the cliche's?
First of all we need to bring in the Wahabi sect (see Wikipedia on this if needed), a conservative version of Islam connected to, and in many ways stemming from, the two-century old religious establishment of the same name. The sect gets its name from its founder: a man named Ibn Wahab who teamed up with the House of Saud in the 18th century to found a partnership that eventually became the country. In the past, the Wahabis are said to be responsible for doing less admirable things, like destroying "idoloatrous" shrines to various Islamic saints and manifestations of popular religion, some of which did and does stem from Shi-ism, that other major Iranian religious export. Today the Wahabis are supposedly in control of Saudi education.
I must stress again that this needs to be explored further than I am doing now. The only thing I am offering is a small, tiny even, bit of insight into this society today and where the Sufis are in it. So then, what I think we can say is this: the anti-Sufism we hear, and imagine we might hear, about in Saudi is there and is alive. We can also speculate that it is part of Saudi's top madrasas or "seminaries." Why? The guy I witnessed air these views graduated from Medina university, one of the most importnat schools in the country and trainer of its religious establishment. He works for this state supported religious establishment now. And as they say, the acorn never falls far from the tree.
But what do we do about this? Does this mean Sufism does not and cannot exist here? Is this a question we should even be asking?
The only hope, I envision is in reminding ouselves of the geopolitical nexus Saudi sits in with respect to India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. These places are soooo close to Saudi and the Gulf and gives it millions of workers. A third of the 20 million people in Saudi are foreign workers from south Asia. Many of them are semi-permanent residents here and in the Gulf. Another intersting tidbit is that India and what I will call "greater-Persia" are also the places where Sufism survived and thrived the most heartily in centuries past. These areas produced schools of Sufi thought and learning that survive right up to the present day and which kept the teaching alive throughout the "middle east." Why should this not be the case even now? Without doing any real research on this other than observing what I see in the small but possibly representative speck of this country's social world, I'd say the Sufi mindset could still be lurking and limping along here, but also confident of who and what it is, and that it is. How do I know? Because you, by reading this, and I, by writing it, are "brining it," even though neither one us might be "Asian."
M XYZ
Sunday, December 2, 2007
The Ramadan Gestapo
I actually wrote this during Ramadan and put it on my myspace page. nobody reads myspace blogs. So I stick it here for your reading pleasure, or not.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
 | Ramadan and The Saudi Religious Gestapo It is now the month of Ramadan in the Muslim world. Ramadan is something people hear about outside of this area, but unless you've actually been here duing this time you can't quite understand what it's about. Ramadan requires all Muslims to fast from sun up until sundown. It is supposedly a time of experiencing God's mercy. I guess you take the food, sex and pleasure away during the daylight hours (even though there was not much of it here to begin with) and you appreciate it more at night. You begin to appreciate the little things I suppose, and where they supposedly come from. |
Friday, November 30, 2007
The Lives of Saudi Women: A Sketch
I work at the male branch of a university in Saudi Arabia. Some of us on occasion go over to the women's branch after hours when the women are gone to do various kinds of work: set up computers, deliver exams etc. A couple of months ago, one of the male teachers was at the female campus after hours one day and was setting up a computer in the computer lab. He looked down and noticed that one of the girls had left her art pad/sketch pad under one of the computers. Her name was written on the front of the pad in Roman letters. The male teacher started looking through the sketch pad and was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the sketches and at how talented the girl was.
The teacher was even more surprised when in the middle of the sketch pad he saw a sketch of a man and a woman in the middle of a very engaging coital bout: in formus caninus to be precise, and drawn expertly in minute and exquisite detail. Bulging veins, sweat covered limbs, entwined torsos and faces showing bodies mired deep in the raptures of pleasure were all captured in the finest and most skilled detail.In Saudi Arabian universities for women, women are allowed to uncover their faces and take off their black cloak, known as an abayya, as long as they are indoors. The female teachers who work there tell me "it's a fashion show." And that the students are nearly always better dressed and are more fashionable than their teachers.
Are Saudi women are more normal than we think they are, and as they appear (or don't appear) in public? It seems their fantasy lives and aesthetic sense are about as well honed and active as they rest of ours are.The particular male teacher who saw this sketch was an American. There was a very pious Muslim, who happened to be Somali, standing next to him who was horrified at the picuture and immediately started ripping it out of the sketch pad and ripping it to shreds. The American asked why, and was told, wisely, that the girl's name was on the outside of the pad and that if the picuture was found by the wrong people she might find herself in a lot of trouble. So, the strictures on pleasure that exist in a conservative country like this come from all directions, and are both opposed and supported from all directions as well. While there is a lot about this place that is black and white, and very annoyingly so. But there is much that is gray as well. Salam Alaykum
The teacher was even more surprised when in the middle of the sketch pad he saw a sketch of a man and a woman in the middle of a very engaging coital bout: in formus caninus to be precise, and drawn expertly in minute and exquisite detail. Bulging veins, sweat covered limbs, entwined torsos and faces showing bodies mired deep in the raptures of pleasure were all captured in the finest and most skilled detail.In Saudi Arabian universities for women, women are allowed to uncover their faces and take off their black cloak, known as an abayya, as long as they are indoors. The female teachers who work there tell me "it's a fashion show." And that the students are nearly always better dressed and are more fashionable than their teachers.
Are Saudi women are more normal than we think they are, and as they appear (or don't appear) in public? It seems their fantasy lives and aesthetic sense are about as well honed and active as they rest of ours are.The particular male teacher who saw this sketch was an American. There was a very pious Muslim, who happened to be Somali, standing next to him who was horrified at the picuture and immediately started ripping it out of the sketch pad and ripping it to shreds. The American asked why, and was told, wisely, that the girl's name was on the outside of the pad and that if the picuture was found by the wrong people she might find herself in a lot of trouble. So, the strictures on pleasure that exist in a conservative country like this come from all directions, and are both opposed and supported from all directions as well. While there is a lot about this place that is black and white, and very annoyingly so. But there is much that is gray as well. Salam Alaykum
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Tariki and Jiriki
In discussions of Japanese Buddhism you occassionally run across the notion of "tariki" and "jiriki." The Japanese character "ta," which is straight from Chinese actually, means "other, outiside." "Riki" means "power." "Ji," or "si" in modern Chinese, means "self." The notions tariki and jiriki have been part of Japanese Buddhist discourse since Buddhism arrived in Japan from China since the sixth century. Pure Land Buddhism, for example, is often compared to Lutheranism because of its emphasis on grace and the idea that the individual cannot save themselves and must rely upon the Buddha Amitaba to do so. Pure Land Buddhism was and is often distinguished from Zen where the emphasis was placed on individual initiative and the need for working out one's own salvation---a jiriki religion in other words.
Many of us who come to work in Saudi Arabia often see a similar distintion at work between "us" (as if we are all the same) and the Saudis. Saudis, for example, constantly utter the phrase "in sha Allah" meaning "God willing." This phrase is heard especially coming from those who might or might not do what you are asking of them. It is thus heard from bureaucrats when you want them to fix something in your government issued apartment, people in the personnel department where you work when you are waiting for them to process your immigration pepers, and from students when ask them to do some form of homework.
So are Saudis really less used to doing things for themselves than are people in the west? Judging from the Saudi students to whom I teach English and from other Saudis I encounter at my job and in the community, the answer seems to be yes. These students drive like complete maniacs on the highway and in residential areas. One of the leading causes of death in Saud Arabia is car accidents. I have not yet been here six months and have heard of three deaths among the friends or family members of my studednts. And this is only in my classes. There are other teachers I know who can vouch for similar numbers. So the reigning mindset on Saudi highways certainly seems to be a tariki one rather than a jiriki one.
The students I teach also seem to have a similar view when studying for exams or when doing homework. These students are in an institution where the entire second year is taught in English and where students will take courses in business and science and have to listen to lectures in English taught by speactialists in these disciplines. Some of the first year courses too are mathematics and computer science which are also taught completely in English. At least 60% of the students I teach (who are in the first year, or "prep year" of the program) are at a level of English that prevents them from carrying on a simple conversation in the language; yet they will not do the homework that I give them to help them improve in their handling of basic grammar structures and to acquire the needed vocabulary to communicate on basic topics in English.
So, the "tariki' mentality seems to be widespread here. But does it come from Islam (the word itself means "submission") , which stresses submission, obedience and the denial of the self and putting the family and uluma (the world of Islam) first? Or does it come from living under a welfare state run off of petro-dollars and where self-initiative is not needed? Here, much of the real work is done either by foreigners or by a small band of elite Saudis who actually posses the real skill and knowhow and run the country.
The answer, as usual, lies somewhere in between. The real contradiction however, and the saddest and most confusing thing, is that the few Saudis who do seem to realize that their instututions are set up to engender passivity are the ones who become the new elite. This elite, as far as I can tell, is the only patrioitc group of individuals here. The rest of them, however proud they are of at least thingking of themselves as Saudi, do not seem to realize how they constantly undercut the building and improving of their nation. It is for this reason that I feel like I, who have not even been here six months, am often a better Saudi than those self-understood real Saudis that I encounter everyday living out their bewildering, unconcered and "tariki" lives.
Many of us who come to work in Saudi Arabia often see a similar distintion at work between "us" (as if we are all the same) and the Saudis. Saudis, for example, constantly utter the phrase "in sha Allah" meaning "God willing." This phrase is heard especially coming from those who might or might not do what you are asking of them. It is thus heard from bureaucrats when you want them to fix something in your government issued apartment, people in the personnel department where you work when you are waiting for them to process your immigration pepers, and from students when ask them to do some form of homework.
So are Saudis really less used to doing things for themselves than are people in the west? Judging from the Saudi students to whom I teach English and from other Saudis I encounter at my job and in the community, the answer seems to be yes. These students drive like complete maniacs on the highway and in residential areas. One of the leading causes of death in Saud Arabia is car accidents. I have not yet been here six months and have heard of three deaths among the friends or family members of my studednts. And this is only in my classes. There are other teachers I know who can vouch for similar numbers. So the reigning mindset on Saudi highways certainly seems to be a tariki one rather than a jiriki one.
The students I teach also seem to have a similar view when studying for exams or when doing homework. These students are in an institution where the entire second year is taught in English and where students will take courses in business and science and have to listen to lectures in English taught by speactialists in these disciplines. Some of the first year courses too are mathematics and computer science which are also taught completely in English. At least 60% of the students I teach (who are in the first year, or "prep year" of the program) are at a level of English that prevents them from carrying on a simple conversation in the language; yet they will not do the homework that I give them to help them improve in their handling of basic grammar structures and to acquire the needed vocabulary to communicate on basic topics in English.
So, the "tariki' mentality seems to be widespread here. But does it come from Islam (the word itself means "submission") , which stresses submission, obedience and the denial of the self and putting the family and uluma (the world of Islam) first? Or does it come from living under a welfare state run off of petro-dollars and where self-initiative is not needed? Here, much of the real work is done either by foreigners or by a small band of elite Saudis who actually posses the real skill and knowhow and run the country.
The answer, as usual, lies somewhere in between. The real contradiction however, and the saddest and most confusing thing, is that the few Saudis who do seem to realize that their instututions are set up to engender passivity are the ones who become the new elite. This elite, as far as I can tell, is the only patrioitc group of individuals here. The rest of them, however proud they are of at least thingking of themselves as Saudi, do not seem to realize how they constantly undercut the building and improving of their nation. It is for this reason that I feel like I, who have not even been here six months, am often a better Saudi than those self-understood real Saudis that I encounter everyday living out their bewildering, unconcered and "tariki" lives.
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