Hafez

I posted something on my blog yesterday that seems to have gone down with at least some readers. It was something I wrote, so to speak, and I posted it on my blog (and Urdu ke Naam), with the disclaimer that I knew some will be touched by it--in whatever way--but if you're put off by either metaphysics, tasawwuf (Sufism), abstractions, or weird, personal transliteration schemes, PLEASE, PLEASE, do not read on. I really don't want to get into detailed discussions of any kind.

The feedback since has been gratifying. It is my desire to bring the poets and qawwals of South Asia to as wide an audience as "Rumi-o-Hafiz-o-Khayyam". We all read these elders, and we all need to. But especially in this day and age we (all of us; South Asian or not; Muslims and not, Sufi-leaning or not, Westerners and not) need to connect and reconnect with the living tradition they represent--one very importand and rich part of which is rooted in South Asia. We need to connect with the zawiya, or angle, facet, of Islam that was, and still is, rooted so deep in the lands from where all we hear nowadays is "Deobandi", "Taliban", "Maududi", "Terrorism", and on and on.