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Ahmed Dede (born 2 July 1960) is an Islamic sheikh, and a follower of the Sufi order of Islam, who helps spread Sufism and the art of Sufi Whirling [1] in the United Kingdom. He has appeared on British television several times.
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Ahmed Dede (born 2 July 1960) is an Islamic sheikh, and a follower of the Sufi order of Islam, who helps spread Sufism and the art of Sufi Whirling [1] in the United Kingdom. He has appeared on British television several times.
His parents, the Pattisahusiwas, came from the Maluku island of Saparua in Indonesia. In the 1950s they emigrated to the Netherlands. On 2 July 1960, Ahmad was born in the village of Balk. He was the seventh of nine children. In 1966, they moved to Ridderkerk. In 1976 his father died. Shortly afterward, Ahmad announced 'on my 22nd birthday, I shall die'. He never really knew why he said this. In 1981, leading up to his 22nd birthday he began to talk about his strange statement. Others suggested it symbolised the death of the old Ahmad, and he would have a spiritual 'rebirth'. Shortly after this, he dedicated his life to Allah (God). He claimed to have had strange dreams, and went on a retreat to an old mosque for two months. When he turned 22, during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, he read his first book about Sufism called 'Whirling to Allah'. In 1985 he met the Sufi saint Grandsheikh Sultan Muhammad Nazim al Haqqani an-Naqshbandi. He became a follower of the saint and swore an oath to follow the Sufi Mevlevi Order. While both of them were together in England, in 1986, the Grand Sheikh gave Ahmed his personal blessings. He then worked at Sufi camps and classes and in 1994 began to believe that the Holy Opening, the first surah (chapter) of the Qur'an could be used as a gateway to spread Sufism. Then, in 1995, his brother, Djailani died, and this saddened him significantly. He then claimed to receive visions of his Grand Sheikh helping him through this difficult time, and teaching him to spread the message. Since then he has travelled around Europe teaching Sufi Whirling through classes, courses, and his music.
He has released an album with songs on it called Forever Haqqani. Despite the fact that many Muslims regard music as a diversion from Allah, Dede has said that if a song is about Allah it cannot be a diversion but a tool to get to feel Allah.
Ahmad has appeared on the popular BBC Sunday morning religion and spirituality based program, The Heaven and Earth Show . He also appeared on Channel 4's program, Spirituality Shopper. He then appeared on Japanese NTC TV's Cooking with Pete (奋斗终), giving Pete a lesson on how to properly cook an omelette.
Sufism, also known as Tasawwuf, is a mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic purification, spirituality, ritualism, asceticism and esotericism. It has been variously defined as "Islamic mysticism", "the mystical expression of Islamic faith", "the inward dimension of Islam", "the phenomenon of mysticism within Islam", the "main manifestation and the most important and central crystallization" of mystical practice in Islam, and "the interiorization and intensification of Islamic faith and practice".
A tariqa is a school or order of Sufism, or specifically a concept for the mystical teaching and spiritual practices of such an order with the aim of seeking haqiqa, which translates as "ultimate truth".
The Mevlevi Order or Mawlawiyya is a Sufi order that originated in Konya and which was founded by the followers of Jalaluddin Muhammad Balkhi Rumi, a 13th-century Persian poet, Sufi mystic, and Islamic theologian. The Mevlevis are also known as the "whirling dervishes" due to their famous practice of whirling while performing dhikr. Dervish is a common term for an initiate of the Sufi path; whirling is part of the formal sema ceremony and the participants are properly known as semazens.
Sufi whirling is a form of physically active meditation which originated among certain Sufi groups, and which is still practiced by the Sufi Dervishes of the Mevlevi order and other orders such as the Rifa'i-Marufi. It is a customary meditation practice performed within the sema, or worship ceremony, through which dervishes aim to reach greater connection with Allah. This is sought through abandoning one's nafs, ego or personal desires, by listening to the music, focusing on God, and spinning one's body in repetitive circles, which has been seen as a symbolic imitation of planets in the Solar System orbiting the Sun.
The Naqshbandi is a major Sunni order of Sufism. Its name is derived from Baha-ud-Din Naqshband Bukhari. Naqshbandi masters trace their lineage to the Islamic prophet Muhammad through Abu Bakr, the first Caliph of Sunni Islam and Ali, the fourth Caliph of Sunni Islam. It is because of this dual lineage through Ali and Abu Bakr through the 6th Imam Jafar al Sadiq that the order is also known as the "convergence of the two oceans" or "Sufi Order of Jafar al Sadiq".
Haji Bektash Veli was a mystic, saint, sayyid, and philosopher from Khorasan who lived and taught in Anatolia. He is revered among Alevis for an Islamic understanding that is esoteric, rational and humanistic. Alevi and Bektashi Muslims believe the path of Haji Bektash is the path of Haqq-Muhammad-Ali since they were the source of Bektash's teachings. He was one of the many figures who flourished in the Sultanate of Rum and had an important influence on the culture of Turkish nomads of Asia Minor. His original name was Sayyid Muhammad ibn Sayyid Ibrāhim Ātā. He is also referred to as the "Sultan of Hearts" and the "Dervish of the Dervishes". Haji Bektash Veli was a descendant of Musa al-Kazim, the Seventh Imam of Twelver Shi'a Islam.
The Qadiriyya are members of the Sunni Qadiri tariqa. The tariqa got its name from Abdul Qadir Gilani, who was a Hanbali scholar from Gilan, Iran. The order relies strongly upon adherence to the fundamentals of Sunni Islamic law.
Aḥmad al-Fārūqī al-Sirhindī, also known as Imam Rabbani, was an Indian Islamic scholar, Hanafi jurist, and member of the Naqshbandī Sufi order. He has been described by some followers as a Mujaddid, meaning a “reviver", for his work in rejuvenating Islam and opposing the newly made religion of Din-i Ilahi and other problematic opinions of Mughal emperor Akbar. While early South Asian scholarship credited him for contributing to conservative trends in Indian Islam, more recent works, notably by ter Haar, Friedman, and Buehler, have pointed to Sirhindi's significant contributions to Sufi epistemology and practices.
Sufism is the mystical branch of Islam in which Muslims seek divine love and truth through direct personal experience of God. This mystic tradition within Islam developed in several stages of growth, emerging first in the form of early asceticism, based on the teachings of Hasan al-Basri, before entering the second stage of more classical mysticism of divine love, as promoted by al-Ghazali and Attar of Nishapur, and finally emerging in the institutionalized form of today's network of fraternal Sufi orders, based on Sufis such as Rumi and Yunus Emre. At its core, however, Sufism remains an individual mystic experience, and a Sufi can be characterized as one who seeks the annihilation of the ego in God.
Abdullah ad-Daghistani, commonly known as Shaykh Abdullah, was a North Caucasian Sufi shaykh of the Naqshbandi-Sufi order.
Mawlana Khâlid Sharazuri also known as Khâlid-i Baghdâdî and Mawlana Khalid (1779–1827) was a Kurdish Sufi, and poet by the name of Shaykh Diya al-Dīn Khalid al-Shahrazuri, the founder of a branch of the Naqshbandi Sufi order - called Khalidi after him - that has had a profound impact not only on his native Kurdish lands but also on many other regions of the western Islamic world. His writings are among the earliest examples of prose and poetry in Central Kurdish.
The Uwaisī, Silsila or Tariqa (pathway) is a form of spiritual transmission in the vocabulary of Islamic mysticism, named after Owais al-Qarani. It refers to the transmission of spiritual knowledge between two individuals without the need for direct interaction between them. The term Uwaisīyaan refers to those Sufis who have gained the Sufi spiritual chain from another Sufi without physically meeting them in this world. It can refer to a school of Sufism, and its singular form, Uwaisi, refers an individual who is a Sunni Muslim.
Sufism has a history in India evolving for over 1,000 years. The presence of Sufism has been a leading entity increasing the reaches of Islam throughout South Asia. Following the entrance of Islam in the early 8th century, Sufi mystic traditions became more visible during the 10th and 11th centuries of the Delhi Sultanate and after it to the rest of India. A conglomeration of four chronologically separate dynasties, the early Delhi Sultanate consisted of rulers from Turkic and Afghan lands. This Persian influence flooded South Asia with Islam, Sufi thought, syncretic values, literature, education, and entertainment that has created an enduring impact on the presence of Islam in India today. Sufi preachers, merchants and missionaries also settled in coastal Gujarat through maritime voyages and trade.
Shaykh Muhammad Nazim Adil Al-Qubrusi Al-Haqqani, commonly known as Shaykh Nazim, was a Turkish Cypriot Sunni Muslim imam and one of the most influential members of the Sublime Naqshbandí Order (tariqa) of Sunni Islam.
Sufism known as Tasawwuf in the Arabic-speaking world, is a form of Islamic mysticism that emphasizes introspection and spiritual closeness with the God. It is a mystical form of Islam, a school of practice that emphasizes the inward search for The God and shuns materialism. About 60% Muslims in Pakistan regard themselves as followers of Sufi saints.
Sufism in Bangladesh is more or less similar to that in the whole Indian subcontinent. India, it is claimed, is one of the five great centers of Sufism, the other four being Persia, Baghdad, Syria, and North Africa. Sufi saints flourished in Hindustan (India) preaching the mystic teachings of Sufism that easily reached the common people, especially the spiritual truth seekers in India. Sufism in Bangladesh is also called pirism, after the pirs or teachers in the Sufi tradition.
Nāṣir ad-Dīn ʿUbaydullāh ibn Maḥmūd ibn Shihāb ad-Dīn more popularly known as Khwaja Ahrar was a Hanafi Maturidi member of the Golden Chain of the Naqshbandi Sufi spiritual order of Central Asia. He was born in Samarkand, a Persian city in Central Asia, to a Muslim family. He was born to Khwaja Mehmood Shashi bin Khwaja Shihabuddin. His forefathers had migrated from Baghdad, and his lineage was connected to Abu Bakr Siddique from his paternal side and Umar Farooq from the maternal side. Khwaja Ahrar was deeply involved in the social, political and economics activities of Transaxonia. He was born into a relatively poor yet highly spiritual family and, at the age of maturity, he was probably the richest person in the kingdom. He was a close associate of all the leading dervishes of the time. Maulana Abdur Rahman Jami was a disciple of his. He learned and practiced the secrets of spirituality under his father and later under Khwaja Yaqub Charkhi.
Sufism, or Taṣawwuf, variously defined as "Islamic mysticism", or, the inward dimension of Islam, is the primary manifestation of mystical practice in Islam. Jordan is considered by many Sufis to be "a spiritual center and a fertile environment for Sufism," at least in part due to the fact that many of the narratives from the Qur’an take place within its modern borders. Many of the Sufis in Jordan today belong to one of six main orders or tariqa: Qadiri, Naqshbandi, Rifa'i, Shadhili, Khalwati, and Tijani. The oral history of Sufi practice in northern Jordan goes back at least as far as the 13th century, and was "documented as early as the 16th century in Ottoman tax registers." Sufism in modern-day Jordan remained prominent through the mid-20th century.
Up until the era of independence, Sufi orders and popular forms of Sufi religiosity dominated the religious scene, with other Islamic movements and groups beginning to emerge only later as branches of other groups already established outside the boundaries of the Hashemite Kingdom.
Sufism is considered as an essential aspect of Islam in Afghanistan. Most people are followers of Sufism and Sufis have a considerable influence on both urban and rural society. Sufism has been part of the country for as long as 1300 years, so Afghanistan is recognised as the "Home of Sufi Saints". Sufism was suppressed by the Taliban when they governed from 1996 to 2001, after which it was regaining its importance.
Sufism has shaped Afghan society and politics for much of the country's history. Today, very few are aware of this legacy. Might the Sufis now provide an important contribution to the stability of the country?
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