The term zekr, like other Sufi concepts, is derived directly from the Quran, where it appears in two basic meanings: to recount, and to remember. The aim of this dissertation was to define the form and meaning of zekr ritual in Qadiriya, one of the three Sufi orders present in contemporary Afghanistan alongside Naqshbandiya and Cheshtya. Finally, the study portrays N’dour as a pop singer whose liberal Sufi perspective on music promotes his legitimacy to perform in the Islamic religious space as well. It study analyzes cultural friction as part of a Senegalese artistic modernization, but also as a contemporary phenomenon speaking to the historical role of the Wolof ‘griot’ (bard) in the peaceful appropriation of Islam. The study approaches the film as a music documentary following N’dour during and after the making of his Grammy-winning yet controversial album released in Senegal as Sant Yalla (‘God Be Praised’, 2003) and internationally as Egypt (2004). Using the documentary, Youssou N’dour: I Bring What I Love (US, 2008), and observation, the study examines what it calls ‘cultural friction’, here a metaphor for the transient conflicts emerging as classically oriented Sufi Muslims condemn and protest against the encroachment of “obscene” practices on religious spaces and symbols. Approaches have emphasized its social and political dimensions, while little attention has been devoted to the symbolic yet important role of Sufi-affiliated pop musicians, especially mbàllax singers, in the grassroots negotiation of faith and religious tolerance in the country. As productive as Talal Asad’s widely accepted conceptualization of Islam as a “discursive tradition” has been, this article proposes understanding Islamic truth, authority, and experience as founded not just in discourse-especially in reference to foundational texts-but in multiple complementary principles of knowing and demonstrating.Īn important body of scholarship has explored the salience of Sufism (‘mystical Islam’) in Senegal. The article focuses particularly on the case of the rapper Tarek Barham. Scholars discussing change and debate in Islam have often emphasized discursive argumentation that refers to foundational texts, or “sharīĪ reasoning.” This article examines four other modes of religious reasoning and demonstration that Fayḍa rappers use in addition to sharīĪ reasoning to present themselves as legitimate representatives of Islam: (1) truths that transcend texts and discursive reasoning (2) the greater good, which may apparently contravene some prescription (3) divine inspiration and sanction, for example through dreams and mystical experiences that reveal a rapper’s mission and message (4) and “performative apologetics,” or a demonstration of exemplary piety and knowledge such that a potentially controversial practice can be reconciled with one’s religious persona. Although many Muslims reject hip-hop as un-Islamic, the mainstream of Fayḍa adherents and its learned leaders have embraced rappers as legitimate spokespeople for the movement. Rappers have contributed significantly to the Fayḍa’s rising popularity among Dakar’s youth, popularizing the Fayḍa’s esoteric teachings through their lyrics. Yet many prominent rappers in Senegal have joined the Fayḍa Tijāniyya Sufi movement and communicate religious messages through their music. Ironically, in practice this sacred 'tradition' exhibits more postmodern features of authorship than contemporary secular Arab poetry. Paradoxes result from coercing the Sufi interauthor into an alien modernist frame of autonomous authorship. The article terms the social network of authors the 'interauthor,' and claims that it is precisely the social analog to the symbolic 'intertext' emphasized through textual repetition. Conversely, every Sufi ('poet,' performer, or listener) acquires authorial attributes.

Since the Sufi author is always network-connected, every poetic practice is always collaborative. Poetic production (primarily the recombination of pre-fabricated units), occurs as much in social performance as in 'private' composition. How do we explain apparent paradoxes: attribution of new poetry to an old saint, to more than one person, or to a performer? The Sufi's world includes a close-knit spiritual-social network, spanning entities (both living and dead), across which text and inspiration flow. This article explores authorship in the Sufi poetry of Egypt.

Missing zekr