Whether it’s music or food or clothes, a message of acceptance can find beautiful expressions in all aspects of everyday life
In these testing times, when people around the world seem to be driving each other away, meet three women who, driven by the Sufi ideology, are trying to spread the message of love and unity through their creativity.
Through their creativity, these three women are trying to spread a beautiful message
Sonam trained in Indian classical music but found herself drawn to Gospel music and began performing it because she felt a desire to connect with God
“When I was invited to the Dargah in Nizamuddin, the idea of a Sikh girl singing Gospel music in a Sufi shrine moved me. I felt i needed to express the beauty of this through my music” —Sonam Kalra
The Sufi philosophy
“This world is like a mountain. Your echo depends on you. If you scream good things,The world will give it back.If you scream bad things, The world will give it back.Even if someone speaks badly about you,Speak well about him.Change your heart to change the world.”–Sufi mystic Shams Tabrizi Sufism, like Bhakti movement, rose as an expression of protest against the rigidity that had crept into religion. Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, the foremost preacher of Sufism, said: “A friend of God [Sufi saints are called auliya – friends of God] must be generous like a river. We all get water from the river to quench our thirst. It does not discriminate whether we are good or bad or whether we are a relation or a stranger.”So, Sufi saints did not differentiate between rich and poor, castes, religions or sects. For them, all were creations of God and thus welcome and worthy of being loved.
Sufism for Yasmin means a sense of ease and that’s reflected in the clothes she designs
“A Sufi neither puts himself in brackets nor others into brackets, and that’s my philosophy behind the designs” —Yasmin Kidwai
Rana feeds people every time she goes to the Matia Mahal area of Old Delhi
“Since people of all faiths and religions come to dargahs, the food served is vegetarian” —Rana Safvi
