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Annihilation in God or Just a Party: Sufi Ritual & Performance in Fez, Morocco
Abstract by Mr. Philip Murphy On Session 213  (Modern Sufism)

On Monday, November 24 at 5:00 pm

2014 Annual Meeting

Abstract
Sufis in Fez combine poetry, melody and movement in order to reach a state of annihilation in God, where individual consciousness dissolves and tawḥīd (the oneness or unity of God) may be truly realized. This occurs during a portion of private Sufi ritual called ḥaḍra, which literally translates to presence, and has connotations of Divine presence accessed during the ritual. Although this private ritual activity is alive, today the ḥaḍra is no longer strictly moored to private gatherings in Sufi lodges. Due to official government support, new media, and transnational interest, Sufi ritual circulates through public performances and appears in a variety of contexts. In this paper I demonstrate how dynamic private rituals and public performances inform one another and carry diverse meanings such as a path to annihilation in God, and a way to celebrate at a party. These may seem to be extremely polarized goals. I argue that they are not necessarily so. More specifically I present Sufi ḥaḍra as an embodied ritual and performance that is used to express and realize both Sufi and non-Sufi understandings of the Islamic concept of tawḥīd. I draw on recent scholarship and my own fieldwork in Fez to demonstrate how religious rituals and sacred performances exist in a circulatory system where they continuously inform one another. Boundaries between ritual, performance, entertainment, and everyday acts are dissolved as Sufism circulates in novel ways and spaces and impacts everyday worship and public displays of piety for Sufis and non-Sufi Muslims in Fez.
Discipline
Anthropology
Geographic Area
Maghreb
Sub Area
None