‘O ur jehad weapon is love’
Sheikha Cemalnur Sargut is a Turkish Sufi mystic. A former chemistry teacher, she is widely popular among the young in Turkey. Her teachings focus on the application of Sufi principles and ethics in daily life. She spoke with Swati Chopra:
How did you reconcile your study of modern science and philosophy with the Sufi way?
I was born into a Sufi family. In order to find things out for myself, i rejected my family’s ideas and studied philosophy and chemical engineering. I examined philosophers’ lives to see what i could learn from them, but saw that none of them was happy. Nietzsche became mad, Schopenhauer predicted the end of the world.
I turned to Samiha Ayverdi, my Sufi teacher, and asked her to show me somebody who was actually living what he or she was saying. She showed me Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi (1207-1273 A.D.). Some years later, she asked me to teach the young. I said i knew nothing. She said, it is then you can teach. You cannot teach when you claim to know something. You are actually learning when you are teaching.
There are many schools of Sufism. How would you characterise yours?
There are different paths to the Kaabah, one chooses this and another chooses that. My teacher’s teacher, Kenan Rifai, combined the four main Sufi paths, which stand for humbleness, knowledge, love and praying while living in the world fully. We are trying to bring these together.
Was this a new Sufi path?
Yes. Kenan Rifai was a revolutionary, as was Prophet Mohammed who broke the idols which are actually the ideas that bar our intellect, our mind. I try to do the same thing. I am lucky because many people accept me. Perhaps it is because i don’t want to show myself, but the beautiful face of religion.
The Sufi way is of love.
Love is so precious, it is our weapon. Our jehad weapon is love.
Have you ever had to face controversy because of your beliefs?
It happens all the time. My teacher said that if everybody loves you, you are not a real murshid (Sufi teacher). Some people must not understand you, because wholeness is very difficult to understand. People like to make war, to take one side. If you belong to all sides, then they don’t want to accept you.
There is increasing tension between secularists and fundamentalists in Turkey.
Problems are created by a handful of people, and they seem huge because they have big voices. In terms of the headscarf controversy, covering actually means to cover our bad habits.
What is your way of teaching?
We try to live what we learn. When i went to the US 10 years ago, one man said: If i just listen to you, i will think of you for a few days. But because i saw all of you (Sheikha and her students), i saw how to behave, how to be what you say. That is very important.
source:timesofindia
Sheikha Cemalnur Sargut is a Turkish Sufi mystic. A former chemistry teacher, she is widely popular among the young in Turkey. Her teachings focus on the application of Sufi principles and ethics in daily life. She spoke with Swati Chopra:
How did you reconcile your study of modern science and philosophy with the Sufi way?
I was born into a Sufi family. In order to find things out for myself, i rejected my family’s ideas and studied philosophy and chemical engineering. I examined philosophers’ lives to see what i could learn from them, but saw that none of them was happy. Nietzsche became mad, Schopenhauer predicted the end of the world.
I turned to Samiha Ayverdi, my Sufi teacher, and asked her to show me somebody who was actually living what he or she was saying. She showed me Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi (1207-1273 A.D.). Some years later, she asked me to teach the young. I said i knew nothing. She said, it is then you can teach. You cannot teach when you claim to know something. You are actually learning when you are teaching.
There are many schools of Sufism. How would you characterise yours?
There are different paths to the Kaabah, one chooses this and another chooses that. My teacher’s teacher, Kenan Rifai, combined the four main Sufi paths, which stand for humbleness, knowledge, love and praying while living in the world fully. We are trying to bring these together.
Was this a new Sufi path?
Yes. Kenan Rifai was a revolutionary, as was Prophet Mohammed who broke the idols which are actually the ideas that bar our intellect, our mind. I try to do the same thing. I am lucky because many people accept me. Perhaps it is because i don’t want to show myself, but the beautiful face of religion.
The Sufi way is of love.
Love is so precious, it is our weapon. Our jehad weapon is love.
Have you ever had to face controversy because of your beliefs?
It happens all the time. My teacher said that if everybody loves you, you are not a real murshid (Sufi teacher). Some people must not understand you, because wholeness is very difficult to understand. People like to make war, to take one side. If you belong to all sides, then they don’t want to accept you.
There is increasing tension between secularists and fundamentalists in Turkey.
Problems are created by a handful of people, and they seem huge because they have big voices. In terms of the headscarf controversy, covering actually means to cover our bad habits.
What is your way of teaching?
We try to live what we learn. When i went to the US 10 years ago, one man said: If i just listen to you, i will think of you for a few days. But because i saw all of you (Sheikha and her students), i saw how to behave, how to be what you say. That is very important.
source:timesofindia
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