By Taoufiq Boudchiche
Ms. Khiari is a former Senator, President of the Institute of Islamic Cultures (Paris), Vice-President of the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage (ALIPH) project in conflict zones, representative of President Emmanuel Macron within of this project. On Friday, October 7, she organized, as every year, within the framework of the activities of the Institute, a Mawlid Annabawi ceremony bringing together citizens of the world, originating from Europe, the Balkans, the Maghreb, South Africa Sahara,… A happy moment of communion in joy and spirituality which offered the opportunity to question him about his commitment to Sufi Islam in connection with his vision of religion, politics and citizenship…
Diplomatic Morocco: Your presence at the press conference announcing the 15th edition of the Sufi Culture Festival demonstrates your attachment to Sufi Islam as a culture and way of thinking. Could you tell us more?
Bariza Khiari “It’s beyond attachment!” In fact, I have been bathing in this spiritual water for a very long time, which explains why I attach great importance to accompanying all those who, like Faouzi Skali, President of the Sufi culture festival in Fez, offer the great diversity of Sufi culture to a growing audience.
The programming of the Festival of Sufi Culture, which is enriched each year by high quality debates, allows the maintenance of a flame of intelligence of the heart. The choice for the fifteenth edition of the theme “Science and Consciousness” is not neutral with regard to a troubled world losing its bearings. Unlike other countries in the Islamic area, it is possible in Morocco which has a cultural ecosystem of great openness and it is not surprising that this festival takes place in Fez, spiritual city of the Kingdom. .
Your book Sufism and citizenship, which enjoyed great notoriety when it was published, was visionary in making the link between Sufi Islam and the integration of young Muslims struggling with their identity in Europe and France. Given the tensions that are accumulating on the subject, how could your thinking and advocacy be applied to the current situation?
Everything is a question of education and transmission. There is obviously a lot to do. First, we must explain what Sufism is and what it is not. What it is not: It is not a system of thought and it is not a separate reality of Islam.
What it is: It is the heart of the heart of Islam, its spiritual and esoteric way. It is a spiritual science which feeds as much on gnosis as on Love. It can be approached as much by the knowledgeable as by the most humble. It is an initiation, a path, a journey on the way back to the origin. To illustrate this point, what better than a poem by Jalal Eddine Rumi about the lamentation of the ney:
“Since I was cut off from my rush, my complaint has made the man and the Woman groan. Whoever remains far from his source longs for the moment when he will be united with it again.
It’s also a secular commitment stimulated by spirituality, that’s what I try to explain to young people when I can, as well as in this booklet “Sufism and Citizenship” that you mention. There is no incompatibility between faith and citizenship. They feed off each other. It must be made understood to appease the spirits and not hesitate to make pedagogy of it.
Therefore to approach the definition of Sufism, it is not enough to say that it is an initiatic mysticism; nor that it is a humanism; and, beyond praxis, it must be added that it is also a civic engagement. In fidelity to the spirit of the Mohammadian heritage, both in the spiritual aspect and in the governance of the city, true citizenship takes its roots in the depths of being and true spirituality is embodied in citizen acts. of each day. For example, it means respecting the laws of the host country.
What can I do at my level? I chair the Institute of Islamic Cultures, which is a cultural establishment of the City of Paris. I try with my team to show elements of the diversity of Islamic cultures: this beautiful path of middle Islam: spiritual, free and responsible by offering contemporary art exhibitions, conferences, concerts , Ramadan evenings, teaching the Arabic language, lessons in caligraphy, Arab-Andalusian music and above all the mawled concert.
Let’s dwell on the Mawled cultural festival in essence which is not, I always remember, a canonical festival in the religious sense of the term but a moment of joy which is celebrated in all spaces of Islamic cultures. It is a festive moment devoted to children where families meet to declaim poetry and sing sacred melodies. These songs are similar to gospel in another area of the world. This celebration raises questions for extremists, all the more reason to promote it.
All Sufi brotherhoods such as Alawya, Qadiria, Boutchichia, Bektashis, Mevlevi, Mourides, Tijania, Naqshbandia, Mawlawiyya, Shichti, Shâdhiliyya and many others around the world are in unison with this commemoration of the Prophet’s birth. Let Alphonse de Lamartine in 1853 describe it to us ” If the greatness of the design, the smallness of the means, the immensity of the result are the three measures of the genius of Man, who will dare to compare humanly a great man of modern history to Muhammad……Philosopher, orator, apostle, legislator , warrior, conqueror of ideas, restorer of dogmas, founder of twenty terrestrial empires and of a spiritual empire, here is Muhammad. On all the scales on which we measure human greatness, which man was the greatest?. So, how not to honor and celebrate it!
Sufi Islam, bearer of a universalist humanism, is often seen as a bulwark against religious extremism. Can it be against political extremism and help to calm conflicts, particularly in the Maghreb, a region strongly steeped in Sufi culture?
The Sufism of yesterday and today carries three major hopes:
- Faith is nourished both by dogma and by a living spirituality,
- Faith and reason do not oppose each other, but illuminate each other,
- This spirituality, to be alive, must be a vector of meaning by founding benevolent action.
Because our master-educators plant in us the tree of knowledge and also the seed of benevolence towards others, yes, Sufi Islam is a bulwark against extremism because it is made of education, of good behavior ( adab), it sublimates beauty, creativity and aesthetics.
Yes, this Islam can contribute to appeasing conflicts because it is Peace. Moreover, the Sufi masters in their great wisdom have always gone beyond in order to welcome the Other. They are not concerned with the conflicts which are often the scum of things. They have an objective, beyond revealing spiritual love to ourselves, it is the elevation of consciences to act on reality and thus humanize it. The disciples of the brotherhoods continue to meet and exchange throughout the Maghreb. The Sufi Culture Festival is an example of a place of conviviality, fraternity where the brotherhoods of the whole world come to deliver a plural message made of elevation of the soul, peace, harmony and beauty because as the sage says “Whatever rises, inevitably converges”
In the name of a long companionship, I would like to salute Faouzi Skali for his lifelong commitment to help us rediscover the most vibrant centers of Islamic civilization, to bring together all the sparks of thought, to allow a fruitful dialogue between cultures and to continue to give us moments of intense emotion that elevate and transcend our humanity.
Bariza Khiari: “Sufi culture allows the maintenance of a flame of intelligence of the heart”