Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that now as the world becomes increasingly polarised; we need the Sufism, more than ever before.
While addressing two-day International Sufi Conference organised by the Sindh Culture Department at a local hotel, the PPP chairman stated that we need the universal language of the mystic to unite us and to bridge the gap across religions, cultures and people.
Scholars on Sufism from twelve countries were invited to the Conference to share Sufi pearls with a carefully selected audience. Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, PPP Sindh President and Minister for Food Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, Minister Culture Sardar Ali Shah and others were also present on the occasion.
“Sufis have only ever spoken of change through the self. It is only when we conquer ourselves from within that we can hope to change that which surrounds us. I am awed whenever I attempt, in my own meagre capacity to learn the ways of Sufism. Such immense power the Sufi attributes to the Self,” he said.
The PPP chairman added that centuries ago, it was the Sufis that spread Islam across the Indus valley through love and harmony, adding that luminaries like Data Gunj Baksh, Rehman Baba, Bulleh Shah and their contemporaries strove tirelessly out of sheer devotion to the deity.
“Today, sadly, extremism is worn like a badge of honour. Those that lie, do so with impunity, peddling fear. Their purpose is simple – to deceive enough people that they may establish a truth of their choosing. Meanwhile, the voice of absolute Truth, (and it pains me to say this), grows dimmer. And this is when we first concede to extremism. The first time we forcibly quell our inner Truth and confirm to an extremist mindset; the first time we pray out of fear and not out of love; the first time we decide that our one voice of reason is not enough to fight the many unreasonable ones – that’s when we decide to lay our weapons before the fight has even begun: the weapons of Truth, of Love, of Acceptance.
“For the very first step towards healing is acceptance. It is as Rumi said, “the wound is the place where the light enters you,” our society stands deeply wounded today; the wound continues to fester, unchecked and untreated. Most of us are too afraid to expose the malaise and let the light shine through it, allowing the healing to begin.
“Sindh is known as the land of the Sufis: from Lal Shahbaz Qalander to Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai; from Sachal Sarmast to Shah Inayat.
“When barbarians attacked the shrine of Lal Shahbaz, they shook us all to the core. The devotees that were martyred took a piece of us with them. We lost our bearings. Devastated. Disoriented. It was then, that mere hours after suicide bombers blew themselves up at that spiritual place, that one man decided he would not cower. He got up and he rang the shrine’s bell. And that bell, while it rang, served two purposes – first, it guided us out of the dark abyss into which we were spiralling, and second, it was the very death knell for every extremist that dared target pluralistic Pakistan.
“Just like that bell ringer was the harbinger of doom for all extremists, we too must not be afraid to give voice to our beliefs. We need to have faith that our lone voice WILL make a difference. We need to find in ourselves, the courage to acknowledge that we are flawed, and the strength to accept that we need help. For if today we allow ourselves to fall silent, then tomorrow, I am afraid there may just be no one left to hear us.
Bilawal urged the audience to deliberate just how we veered so far from the path of the Sufi, and what’s the shortest and most effective way back. “Because I for one believe with all my heart that the salvation of mankind lies in the hands of the Sufi – for it is only he who has the courage to say “I looked in temples, churches, and mosques. But I found the Divine within my heart.”
He also congratulated the Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah, the Minister for Culture Syed Sardar Ali Shah and their team for putting together this spectacular event, which is much needed at this time.
