DAR AL ISLAM - SUDAN: WHIRLING DERVISHES

An Islam of Many Paths

As the sun sets behind the Hamad al Niell mosque, the first drumbeats sound in the distance, drawing back the crowd in a receding tide to make way for a motley procession of ecstatic worshipers. These are the whirling dervishes of Omdurman, and their gathering every Friday at dusk, to pay homage to their Sufi leader who lies buried here, is the closest thing the Sudanese capital has to a tourist attraction.

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The dervishes, distinguished by their green and red robes, eclectic prayer beads, charms and Rastafarian-style dreadlocks, represent a kinder, gentler picture of Sudanese society than the one world focuses on in the horrors of Darfur. While Sudan's Islamist government foments war there and disdainfully drags its heels over the implementation of a peace plan, the dervishes follow a mystical Sufi Muslim tradition that seeks harmony and "oneness" with the universe.


"While the Islamists see only one right path, the Sufis see a house on the top of a hill, and understand that there are many different paths to reach the house," says my host, Al-haj Warrag, a liberal Sudanese journalist whose white djellabiah sweeps behind him as we cross the dusty graveyard, approaching the mosque. "There is nothing fanatical about them."

"Nobody here will ask you your religion, or where you come from," he adds. "They just accept you."

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As we leave, Al-haj tells a story containing a typically Sufi rebuke to the authorities: A Sufi leader visits a distant village while he is fasting for Ramadan. When he arrives in the village, the people welcome him by offering a glass of milk. He drinks the milk, preferring to honor their hospitality rather than his own piety.




Pertinent Links:

1) An Islam of Many Paths