Sufi Mosque

Yesterday evening I went to a traditional Sufi service, similar to what you would call church service. This occurs every Friday afternoon and evening at the Sufi Mosque in the Hamad el-Nil cemetery. The crowd slowly grew as time went on, and a circle formed around the first act which included a few men banging on drums and chanting / singing psalms or poems. After about an hour of the poem singing, the big drums came in and the circle grew much larger and filled with guy twirling in circles and monks chanting, meanwhile the entire perimeter of men in white flowing jalabias, were chanting and singing to the pulsating rhythm of the drums.

In the tomb is buried a man who was apparently without sin, and people come here to ask for a blessing or healing. The descendant of the deceased sinless man arrives and people flock around him. The drums continue their beating and the chanting fills the air.

Sufism is a sect of Islam, which is characterized as a mystical movement. A peaceful section, the follower’s main goal is to become pure before God; to discard and purify all that is unclean within one’s being. It became popular as mainline Islam became more worldly (wealth and power) and abandoned the simple way of life. The guys in the green robes are the monks, similar to the orange robes of the Buddhist monks. These monks carry all their worldly possession on their back.