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rug

(82,333 posts)
Wed Jun 29, 2016, 07:48 AM Jun 2016

Ramadan: Atheism



Calligraphy by Afghan artist, Baba Orang

published: 01:12 june 28, 2016 >> updated : 17:39 june 28, 2016
Feature Desk

I had a big dream. I wanted to visit the Mazaar of Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti in the deserts of Rajasthan, in Ajmer. How would I get there? I didn’t know anyone in Rajasthan even though my jasmine wearing, wanderlusting grandfather was an ardent supporter and fan of the Defender of the Poor, another name of reverence for Moinuddin Chisti.

People told me that you cannot go to his Mazaar. He has to take you there. Uh-oh. What does that mean? I just kept hoping and dreaming. Eventually, he took me there in 2008 with the help of some very good friends in Bombay, who had connections in the city of Ajmer, where I could room and board.

Once there, I bought baskets of rose petals. I was an atom in ecstatic motion flowing among the graves of Chisti and his friends - spreading rose petals. Then Bakar Baba, one of the attendants of the Mazaar noticed my feverish activity and invited me to attend an evening prayer inside the Mazaar next to Moinuddin Chisti’s grave. I was the only person there with the other attendants of the Mazaar. I cannot express to you the quality of the molecules in that space as the sun was setting, thousands upon thousands of birds singing in the nearby trees, incenses burning and the attendees singing their prayers. All I could remember was feeling that my heart was not large enough to hold this beauty, that it might collapse with the weight and it would be okay if it did because I was happy.

Moinuddin Chisti lived between the 12th and 13th century across Western Asia until he settled Ajmer, India. He was a philosopher, a reconciler, a connector, a communicator. I wouldn’t call him a Saint, and I am pretty sure he wouldn’t like that either. He understood Islam as Beloved Mohammad understood it: a way of life based on love, submission to a force that is much more incredible than our finitude, relaxing with strength into living a social justice movement, not complacent religion, but a living breathing movement that is about symbiosis of people and planet, including the cosmos.



http://www.dhakatribune.com/feature/2016/jun/28/ramadan-atheism#sthash.nPfiCfCk.dpuf
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