The Role of Mazbhandari Philosophy / Tariqah in Building Up a World of Peace
Dr. M. Abdul Mannan Chowdhury
Professor of Economics,
Chittagong University
and
President, Maizbhandari Academy

• Najmus Sakib -Dome Dome Jopore Mon.mp3

• MOROMI GOSHTI_Jaber Sarwar-Dekhe Jaa Ree Maizbhandare.mp3

• MOROMI GOSHTI_Jaber Sarwar-Torane Wala Baba Bachane Wala.mp3

• MOROMI GOSHTI_Jaber Sarwar-Kolijar Tukra Noyoner Tara.mp3

Lyrics of Mazibhandari Sufi Songs

Translated in English

• Practice-breathing in and  out- "La ilaha illallah". 

• The Flag Of Oneness Rises Over Maizbhandar

• Let's Hurry-No Time To Wait

• My Heart Is Searching For Maizbhandar

• I Won't Go To Kaaba Or Kashi

A Sufi movement in Bangladesh

Peter J. Bertocci

Peter J. Bertocci is at the Department of Sociology/Anthropology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan 48309-4495, USA

E-mail: bertocci@oakland.edu

This article introduces the Maijbhandari Sufi brotherhood, perhaps one of the most important spiritual groupings in today's Bangladesh. Maijbhandari origins, leadership and shrines are briefly described, and the rootedness of the movement in the country's agrarian history is suggested. The roles of oral and musical performance, as well as buffalo sacrifice, as major ritual forms and practices are discussed and analysed in some depth. The article underlines the centrality of pir veneration and its associated Sufi ideation in Bangladeshi culture as well as in the country's religious politics.

documents/Maizbhandari_Sufi_Bertocci.pdf

Pirs and Semiotic Presence.  A Case of Islamic Anthropology

By
Prof. Manzurul Mannan
E-mail: monzurul@bangla.net

Introduction

This paper analyzes some aspects of the cognitive domain and internal thought process of Pirs.  The Pirs are the Islamic spiritual persons who are popularly known as Sufis in many part of the Islamic world.  The cognitive domain and internal thought process of spiritual persons find its partial expression in their explanation and representation of human body and self.  The thought process of spiritual persons has patterns and structures that form the core of Pir ideology in Bangladesh, and perhaps of the South Asian Sufi world [1].
This study is exploratory in nature and attempts to open new dimensions rather than providing an inference to the established practice of Islamic spiritualism.  This paper is based on the ethnographic materials and also my long association with the spiritual practice at Maizbhander.  Maizbhander become a séance of spiritual persons with the rise of spiritual leader Pir Ahmed Ullah in the last decade of 19th century.  Maizbhander spiritualism is one of the latest developments to the Sufi movements of South Asia. This spiritualism has grown to its present spiritual crescendo by synthesizing culture and religion at the end of 19th and the beginning of 20th century.  This has further contributed a new flavor to the existing syncretistic tradition (Roy 1983).  This paper will proceed on by explaining its theoretical position and the limitations of the semiotic presence.  It will, then, discuss and draw a boundary between the theoretical analyses of Man as exists in semiotic anthropology and Islamic analysis of Man [2].  It will, in turn, forward an analysis of Pirs; the spiritual construction of body and semiotic presence in relation to spiritual hierarchy in order to offer a new perspective on spiritual persons.

Theoretical Construct: Islamic Anthropology

The semiotic anthropology flourishes in the western anthropology primarily through the work of  Charles Peirce (Buchler 1955).  Peirce's semioticism, the quasi-necessary, is another name for logic and a formal doctrine of sign [3] and signs are divisible by three trichotomies: iconic, indexical and symbolic signs (Buchler 1955:98-104). It yields a theory of self that sees it both as the object and the subject of semiotic systems.  It also views that the locus, unity, and continuity of the self would be found in the system of signs, and it will, in turn, create a basis of dialogues between utterers and interpreters of the sign.  Inspired by Peirce's theory, Singer infers man as a "Glassy Essence" (Singer 1980) and considers self as a system of symbols and meaning, which is both a phenomenological and pragmatic conception (Singer, 1980:486).  He views Man's glassy essence consists in his being a symbol and man is a window that frames a vision of the world or a mirror through which the cosmos is reflected (Singer, 1984:3).  Other viewed person as a "Fluid Signs" (Daniel 1984) or symbolic construction (Boler 1963; Cornell 1983).  A semiotic approach sees consciousness as a product of the body, mind and culture nexus that can be best understood by seeing it from a dimensionality principle (Danesi 1998:253).
This paper examines how sign and symbol construct the spiritual persons within the framework of the religion of Islam.  It is, therefore, important not to treat anthropology of Islam from the western anthropology of religion.  Islamic anthropology distinctively represents an alternate discourse of religion.  Western anthropology of religion aims at constructing a reality.  The notion of reality has originated from the word rez, which also means ‘objectification.’  Because of the objectification, the emphasis always placed on visible factors or objects.  However, Islam does not recognize reality; what is more important than reality is the notion of huq, that is, Islam searches for “truth.”   Huq in most cases is invisible, and thereby, Islamic discourse is about the making of visible of the invisible phenomenon. The attempt to transform invisible factors into visible objects opens up avenues and dimensions that in turn create space for discussion to accommodate consensus and conflict.  The continuous creation of space made Islamic discourse more attractive.        The use of western scientific terminologies and the methodology in constructing Sufis led to delink terminologies and methodology from discourse.  Since discourse is a convention of knowledge that is historical to a civilization, this delinking renders terminology meaningless (Davies 1988:149).
The semiotic study or the study of signs gives a different twist when applied to the context of Islam.   The framework of Islamic anthropology opens up a new paradigm on the question of the representation of the inner world of Sufism. While there is a need for Islamic anthropology (Ahmed 1987), it finds its inescapable foundation in the Qur'anic conception of human life and its entailments (Davies 1988:113).  The Qu’ran recognizes spiritual persons through the following verse:

Can he who was dead.
To whom We gave life.
And a Light whereby
He can walk amongst men
Be like him who is
In the depths of darkness,
From which he can
Never come out? 
[Sura VI. An’am, Ayah 122]