KARACHI, Dec 13: Reaching ethical and spiritual perfection lies at the core of Sufi ideals and it can be said that a Sufi is a Muslim humanist.

German scholar Prof Dr Jürgen Wasim Frembgen said this here on Tuesday while delivering a lecture on ‘Tolerance in Sufism’ at the Goethe Institut.

Dr Frembgen, a regular visitor to Pakistan since 1981, is the chief curator of the Oriental Department at the Museum of Ethnology in Munich and also lectures in Islamic Studies at the University of Munich.

He said it was important to discuss tolerance in Islam at the present time, when Sufi shrines in Pakistan were under attack. He said certain terms and concepts had been used in Muslim culture to denote acceptance of plurality and non-interference in the religious practices of others. These included the concept of rawadari, staying true to one’s own aqidah without censuring the aqaid of others as well as the maxim ‘love towards all, hate towards none’. Dr Frembgen said these ideas stemmed from the Sufi belief that mankind was one family being the Aulad-i-Adam (Children of Hazrat Adam).

The scholar discussed thirteenth century Andalusian Sufi Mohyeddin Ibn Al Arabi in detail, saying that the great mystic emphasised the concept of hubb al-hubb, or the ‘love of love’. “For these Sufis love is all that exists. The Auliya Allah (friends of Allah) have emphasised love and rahma (divine mercy)”, he said, adding that ninth century Iranian mystic Bayazid Bustami had said that ‘he who gives the greatest leeway is the closest to Allah’.

Dr Frembgen said that in Ibn Al Arabi’s Sufism there was willingness to enter into inter-religious dialogue, and that the great mystic warned against religious exclusivism. In the subcontinent, he said that Baba Fariduddin Ganj-i-Shakr’s thirteenth century khanqah in Pakpattan was a meeting place for Hindu and Muslim divines, while Mughal prince Dara Shikoh brought together Hindu and Muslim thought, most notably by translating the Upanishads from Sanskrit into Farsi. He added that Baba Bulleh Shah, Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai and Sachal Sarmast all rejected dividing people along religious and sectarian lines.

Coming to why people were attracted to the shrines of Sufis, Jürgen Frembgen said the holy men are venerated as saints because of the perceived barakah (grace) that surrounds them. This was why “a mass movement of pious devotees becomes drawn to Sufi shrines. The sacred spaces are open to all, including women and social outcasts. They are also open to devotees of different confessions. For example Lal Shahbaz Qalandar is also revered by Hindus”.

He observed that Sufis oppose the discourse of religious hardliners, which generates intolerance, adding that the Sufis’ ‘live and let live’ ethos sprang from their belief in Tauhid (divine unity).—QAM