'Sufism' Focuses on Spirit, Rejects Stereotype

Amid the shrill chatterings of hurried students rushing to class at the Center for Government and International Studies (CGIS South), the mystical images on the walls of the bottom floor remain placid and vibrant. “Sufism: Mystical Ecumenism,” the exhibition of photographs by Iason Athanasiadis currently on display at CGIS South, includes pieces from Iran, Pakistan, Syria and Turkey. “The exhibit is a visual journey through Bilad ash-Sham, Khorassan, and the Punjab,” says the Harvard Gazette, “chronicling the movement and rhythm of zikr, the ecstatic ceremony practiced by Sufi orders around the Muslim world.”

Through the use of photography, Athanasiadis, a photojournalist and former Nieman fellow, seeks to shed light on oft overlooked aspects of Islam, allowing for a better understanding of what has become a world religion intensely scrutinized by mainstream media. The photographs represent Islam as meditational, peaceful, and beautiful.

“Sufism focuses on how an individual develops his or her own personal devotion to God,” says Ali S. Asani, professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures at Harvard University. “It is about becoming less egocentric and more God-centric.”

Walking through the exhibit, this act of personal devotion is plain to see. In one photograph, a meditating man shakes his head passionately. The viewer can tell from his eyes that the man is experiencing mystical elation.

Post-9/11, the Muslim world has, by and large, been portrayed in the media in conjunction with politics, international relations, and violence. Images like those described above are rarely seen.

“It is so easy to fall back on stereotypes. Images produced and reinforced through movies and other media offer tempting caricatures of the complex world we live in, not just of Muslims but of numerous others in our midst,” says Na’eel A. Cajee ’10, president of the Harvard Islamic Society. “The media we expose ourselves to powerfully impacts us, and it often makes it easy for us to think we know, but we have no idea.” Regrettably, Americans are seldom familiar with the personal elements of Islam.

“Muslim societies have been perceived in the media as one dimensional,” Asani says. “But there are many other dimensions, such as art, literature, music and poetry, which create a very rich mosaic rarely portrayed.”

This mosaic is what these photographs begin to reveal.

“I was struck by how well [the photographs] were selected to portray at least three important themes of peace, passion, and submission. These themes are of course central in Sufi thought, but they are also very important Islamic themes, though rarely ever associated with Islam either by the media here, or by those outspoken violent agents who pull the world’s attention to themselves with their violence and their claim to represent Islam,” says Dr. Sadeq Rahimi, postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

Passion fills the images of meditational prayer or whirling dance. Motion enlivens each image as tresses fly in rapturous movement. Yet despite the perceptible presence of spirituality, the images are personal and human. These people are in simple rooms, often in simple clothes, giving insight into the day-to-day practices of Muslims.

Rahimi believes that initiatives such as the CGIS South exhibition allow for a more complete understanding of Islam, which would foster better appreciation of Muslim culture by Western societies.

Cajee says that photography and, more broadly, the media can and should be used to reveal similarities—such as religious devotion and prayer—between U.S. and Islamic societies. “People have this politicized image of Islam, but for the overwhelming majority of the Muslim umma [community], it’s simply personal, devotional. These photographs help us to understand what ordinary Muslims aspire to and how similar those aspirations are to any other community,” Cajee says. “Just as the media around us has the power to forge stereotypes, it also has the power to shatter them.”

Indeed, because the photographs reject media stereotypes in order to focus on Islam’s spiritual elements, we are able to consider the religion not as constantly problematic but rather as a peaceful way of life.

“We can see the complexity, the beauty of the Muslim world. The exhibit highlights the crucial relationship between religious adherence and cultural values and helps us understand both better,” says Paul Beron, director of the outreach center at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies.

The exhibition has proven an effective way of communicating the crux of Muslim spirituality. But this is just one small step.

“Much more needs to be done. This should ideally be part of a larger project at Harvard incorporating the arts as powerful vehicles to foster learning and teaching about cultures that are not properly understood,” Asani explains. “This would be in keeping with the recently released recommendations of the Task Force on the Arts.”

“The images are able to emphasize something that is normally absent for typical media reports,” says David R. Odo, Harvard lecturer on anthropology and visiting curator at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. “[But] there is no single form of knowledge sufficient to capture or understand human experience. We need to use many forms. Photography, and indeed the arts more generally, can contribute to this.”

Yet even this small exhibition is able to produce a powerful effect for many viewers. Rahimi says, “It is vital for all of us to remember the message of the Sufi, to remember that love is the only way forward, and the only way to peace within or in the world is through a passion for love and submission to beauty of the universe. I think it is a wonderful moment in time for us to go and rediscover the message of love that is the Sufi doctrine, and the media can certainly play a significant role in doing so. There is definitely a lot of joy within Islamic cultures that is awaiting discovery.”