Adham Center News

Sufi Music at AUC

Dim lights. Incense. The music starts. On a Ramadan night suffused with spiritual evanescence, the Adham Center at the American University in Cairo (AUC) hosted a solo performance by the Sufi musician Dr. Ahmed Samy in the Oriental Hall.

All 150 seats were occupied and people were sitting on the stairs next to the hall doors waiting for the music to begin.

The audience included both Arabs and foreigners who had come to enjoy the first Sufi music night to be held at AUC.

Ahmed Samy played seven pieces: poems of Ibn 'Arabi, Shems - The Sun, Kamar - The Moon, a kasida of Ali Mahmoud, Ya Nasim as Saba, Ya Hussein (original composition by A. Samy), Ya Nasim al Riah (The Soft Wind - words by Al Hallaj and music by A. Samy), and Ya Huwa. Every piece was followed by a warm round of applause from the attentive audience.

"It was refreshing and wonderful to hear Sufi music, especially in Ramadan," said Hajar Gouverneur, a photographer.

Mostapha Majzub, director of a children's educational company and also a Sufi, said that he found the evening very enjoyable and the music marvelous. "It is such a pity that no oriental musician can play without a microphone as Samy does," said Majzub. "The real voice is much better."

Rasha Al-Habashy, an employee of the SIDA company, said that this was her first time at a Sufi musical evening at all. She said that she liked it very much and would attend Sufi concerts in the future.

"I have attended a number of Sufi musical performances but this is my first time at AUC," said Mohammed Desouky, a physicist. Desouky said that Sufi music is very spiritual and reflects the inner reactions of human beings and this makes it special. The rhythm of the music helps reveal much of the human subconscious, Desouky said.

The initiative to organize the event came jointly from Abdallah Schleifer, director of the Adham Center, and Shems Friedlander, chairman of the Adham Center's International Advisory Board, said Dr. Samy.
"They had seen me play at a number of religious gatherings and suggested that I come to perform at AUC," Samy said.

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Earlier, the Adham Center had sponsored earlier an evening of poetry and music by the mystic poet Rumi.

"It would be great if we could organize an event like tonight's once a year or once a semester," said Friedlander.

By Yara Fahmi