On: Keep Your Identity Small

[zaidf]

This essay reminds me of this bollywood song:

  Bulla Ki Jaana

  Not a believer inside the mosque, am I
  Nor a pagan disciple of false rites
  Not the pure amongst the impure
  Neither Moses, nor the Pharoh

  Bulleh! to me, I am not known
  ...
  Secrets of religion, I have not known
  From Adam and Eve, I am not born
  I am not the name I assume
  Not in stillness, nor on the move

  Bulleh! to me, I am not known

Full lyrics: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/r/rabbi_shergill/bulla_ki_j...

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTxZy32Fv_0

[ajju → zaidf]

It is astounding how little this liberal face of Islam is known outside of the Indian subcontinent and possibly the educated populace of Iran.

[ajju → ajju]

Also, this is not a Bollywood song. It is a poem by a 17th/18th century Punjabi Sufi Muslim poet Bulleh Shah performed here by a Punjabi Sikh called "Rabbi" with scenes from Hindu majority India in the background and English subtitles.

So many identities :)

[gruseom → ajju]

Well, Rumi is the best-selling poet in the United States. Rightly so, too: the Sufi poets are as great as any poetry ever written, I think, and can be astonishingly modern. That being said, I have the impression that they are distinctly non grata in the vast majority of the Muslim world. No?