Plain Talk

By Mursi Saad El-Din

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I came across an interesting news story in last week's London Observer. It had the title "Sufi or not Sufi?", and it refers to a lecture that will be given sometime between November 22-28. What attracted my attention were two things, first that it will be given by Dr Martin Lings who is 96 and who was at one time keeper of oriental manuscripts and in charge of Quranic manuscripts at the British museum. Lings was my lecturer at Fouad Al-Awal's University (now Cairo University) between 1939 and 1943 when I graduated.

Lings used to lecture us in English life and thought and I can still picture him with his reddish crown of hair and a beards to match.

The beard was an affirmation of the fact that he embraced Islam. In fact he became a devout Muslim, and went so far as to adopt the name Abu Bakr, his second name slipped my memory. Although he came to the university in European dress, when he was off duty he dressed in a gubba and quftan.

He often invited us to dinner at his rather modest flat in Giza which was furnished in the Arabesque style with cushions strewn on the floor. Dinner was served on the tabliya (a low table) and we used to sit uncomfortably I must say, cross legged on the cushions. We thoroughly enjoyed the meals and listening to Lings expounding his ideas about Islam and Sufism.

The second thing that attracted my attention was the occasion. Lings will be giving his lecture during a week of events focussing on Islam and in the words of Vanessce Thorpe in The Observer, "to address concerns raised by the 'War on Terror' and improve understanding of the links between Islam and British Culture".

The event is called "Islam Awareness Week" and Ling's lecture will be proceeded by a lecture from Sheikh Hamza Yussif, the founder of the Zaytuna Institute in California who will look at Shakespeare's sonnets from a Sufi perspective. In his lecture, from which The Observer gives some excerpts, Lings will claim that Shakespeare's works resemble the teachings of the Islamic Sufi sect.

There have been a number of theories about Shakespeare's links with some Christian sects but Lings will try to prove that the playwright was "a member of a religious or spiritual order which can best be compared to the philosophy of Sufism".

"Shakespeare would have been delighted," says Lings. "We can see he obviously knew a lot about some kind of equivalent sect or order." He goes on to argue that the guiding principles of Sufi thought are evident in Shakespeare's writing. The plays, he believes "depict a struggle between the dawning modernist world and the traditional, mystical value system. And, like the Sufis, the playwright is firmly on the side of tradition and spiritualisms.

Lings believes that some characters in some of the best known works "exemplify the Sufi quest of purification", while others represent Shakespeare himself. He goes on to argue that the journey of Edgar, in King Lear, is like the Sufi's search for the truth, in which the seeker is helped by angelic characters and impeded by diabolic agents. Prospero, in The Tempest, and the manipulative Duke of Vienna in Measure for Measure reflect "the teachings of a spiritual order akin to Sufism in their words".

Lings further claims that Prospero's line "we are such stuff as dreams are made of" is a complete fit, and that King Lear's words echo Sufi ideas when he tells his faithful daughter Cordelia, "Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia, the Gods themselves throw incense."

According to the story, on the final weekend a souq will take over the premises with stalls selling Eastern wares. The outside walls of the theatre on the banks of the Thames will be illuminated with scenes from Islamic culture.