A few years ago, when American University Professor Dr. Akbar Ahmed and Smithsonian Director Manjula Kumar picked me for the role of a Sufi Sheikh in the famous play Noor, I savored the experience as a kind of personal strategic break from the fast-paced journalistic work.
Like my other fellow journalists, I was mentally living on the streets of Syria and Egypt – the fertile grounds of Arab Spring of democratic movements. But Abdel Fateh el-Sisi in Egypt and Bashar al-Assad in Syria would have none of the aspirations of the people. Showing no mercy for anyone who stood in their way, they massacred their own people to crush their nations’ desire for democracy. The images of death and destruction weighed heavily on all those who followed the moment of promise devolve into the bottomless abyss of human greed for power.
Against that background, I found the play Noor and its powerful dialogue for love and peaceful coexistence a positive disruption, an opportunity to relay the Sufi’s spiritual message of peace.
(l-r Andrea Barron, David Shneyer, Keshava Sumeshen Reddy and Kimberly Cotton lift voices and spirits high. — at Am Kolel’s Sanctuary Retreat Center.
Image Credit: Walter Ruby
This past weekend, I got another opportunity to lift my spirits, when interfaith leaders and friends Andra Baylus and Walter Ruby invited me to a retreat into the quiet brooding bowers of a Maryland sanctuary.
Coming off a demanding week of assignment for the Associated Press of Pakistan, coverage for Views and News magazine and yet another week of mortifying attacks against four elected members of the House, this retreat came as a reprieve.
And what a treat the retreat tuned out to be. Like the play Noor, it came in the midst of an environment challenging the very planks of the American greatness.
Watler Ruby in rapt attention as Gabriel Abbasi recited Rumi’s verses
Image Credit: Views and News
America’s own moment of truth has witnessed some polarizing politics, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and heartbreaking happenings on the Mexican border as well as endorsement of travel bans against entire countries.
Not that in the years between Noor and the sanctuary gathering, I had sold my soul to become an AI-powered robotic professional. I attended several interfaith gatherings and spiritually elevating meetings to find solace in the conflicting times that have challenged Jefferson’s vision of equality and freedom.
Andra Baylus sets the tone Image Credit: Walter Ruby
The two disruptions for me, the play Noor and the multicultural gathering in the sanctuary, spoke directly to the questions of the moment.
While rehearsing for and performing drama Noor (the celestial light), I found it so great that Pakistanis, Indians and Afghans, who could easily be drawn into competitions of identity and prestige, teamed up in a congenial way to put up a show that received praise in the American media.
Likewise, the hot July day eased into a time of harmony at the Am Kolel Sanctuary Retreat Center the Montgomery County of Maryland. The many shades of thoughts spoken in a friendly manner led to some great mutually respectful conversations including reflection on some of the most divisive issues.
Walter Ruby, who co-heads the Jewish And Muslim Allies Acting Together, the organizer of the retreat, injected some great points into the discussion as did Andra Baylus in between ensuring seamless arrangements. Kay Halpem led the Centering Circle while Adam Shamas also recited a poem.
Informal discussions between the events inevitably turned to the politics of fear and xenophobia with a participant offering a positive impact in the form of candidates of color emerging victorious in the state assemblies and the U.S. House of Representatives, where previously they had no chance of making it to the legislature.
Poetry and psalms, recited by Gabriel Abbasi and Herb Levy, floated across the silent sprawling pastures, setting up a date with music and ecstatic dance in the next hour.
Shabnam Curtis recites a Persian poem Image: Views and News
Like the Sufi dervish’s whirling in play Noor, the music and dance – led by host David Shneyer, who sang Hasidic niggunim on his guitar, Turkish musician Murat Bakir’s performance on the Kanun, Andra Baylus’ melodic singing of names of God and Keshava Sumeshen Reddy and Kimberly Cotton’s performance of Hare Krishna touched devotional chords for many.
“Yesterday I was clever,
So, I wanted to change the world
Today, I am wise
So, I am changing myself.” – Rumi
Professor Sahar Khamis, an Egyptian-American scholar, also cited Rumi’s timeless line that a wound is the place where the light enters. making human beings feel the pain of others and be empathetic.
Advancing discussion in groups
The retreat also featured Intuitive Healing Art led by Nazli Chaudhry and Mindful Walking in the Am Kolel Sancturary’s unique Labyrinth, spearheaded by Sara Ellen Swatt.
Then we had Shabnam Curtis who talked about her book My Persian Paradox and later also recited some verses of the great Persian poet Hafiz. Poet Iqbal was an unmissable metaphor of life in discussions with my Persian friends.
When Andra invited me to recite my poetry, I selected my 2015 poem Grasping Eternity, a kind of epiphany after years of humdrum existence. Here is the second part of the poem:
My earthly hands trembled
With the mystique
Of cold and warmth
When I finally felt that I had touched
A streak of light
As if dancing off the melting face
Of a snowflake
Had I plucked from the fleeting time
what I savored most?
The eternal beauty of dew-washed grass
or rain-adorned leaves and flowers
as in the garden of my wonder years
Perhaps, just a little
But there was still more, a lot more
How in a moment I could feel
That life and its trysts held out
Much deeper musings
than what I could dream of
And I had just begun to read them
The takeaway – a basketful of ideas on fostering values of inclusiveness, pluralism and respectful coexistence. That America’s strength centers around its multiculturalism with distinct cultures under one banner. Since then, how intensely have I wished that we all may take out some time from our daily life cycles of competitions and rivalries, inhale a deep breath, pause and form centering circles like at the retreat, and listen to one another in a soul-searching session.
Individually, such well-meaning voices may not be an immediate foil to the clamor of fear and bigotry that has emboldened exclusivists since President Trump’s rise to power but cumulatively these can be a great help. Just as many participants shared their call for love and tolerance in social media posts, amplifying such voices of love and tolerance through interfaith gatherings, community outreach, arts and literature could counter the megaphone-borne divisive narrative.
We have already seen many examples of Americans defending the rights of diverse communities like a chain of love formed around a mosque after it was vandalized, In addition, powerful political voices, immigration proponents and civil society organizations have highlighted the economic and international significance of America’s diversity. Each effort that inspires more people to see value in America’s diversity cements America’s belief in its foundational principles of equality and coexistence and helps keep the American Dream alive.
