Apparently 25% of the human population in the world is Muslim. One in four human beings. I didn’t know that. Fundamentalists are the extremists who base your value as a human being on how religious and devout you are. They consider Sufism as heretical and Sufism actually arose as a reaction to the extreme Fundamentalism. There seems to be debate on where the term “Sufi” came from, such as the Greek word “sofia” for wisdom, a word for burlap (like the irritating fabric worn by monks), or a Persian word for “soft.” They believe that if religion is something to truly be believed in, then it must transcend earthly laws (even if those laws are from the religion itself) and focus on something deeper, such as Truth and Love. Sufism itself is not a sect, as it has hundreds upon hundreds of sects and denominations within itself though most of them believe that being stuck on following religious laws for the sake of following them borders on idolatry and worshipping the laws themselves rather than God.
Medhi Aminrazavi showed segments of a film I think was called Beyond Words, that was considered very rare footage of an extreme sect of Sufism where initiates engage in acts of self-mutilation as expressions of love and devotion to God. Aminrazavi called this “sacred intoxication” and “sacred madness,” and it followed the idea of being so intoxicated by love that the more you suffer, the more genuine your love for God and your faith in Him. Some people were using knives, as an expression of “cutting off their ego.” Aminrazavi, several times, referred to it as “utter madness.”
There’s even science behind the “high” of these experiences. There’s a branch of brain science called neurotheology, which is the “neuroscience of religion” and it claims that the left temporal lobe is the seat of religious/spiritual experiences. The left temporal lobe lights up during these experiences, but some people are more prone to these religious highs than others.
The lecture was really interesting in that it kept discussing the idea behind “the more you love someone/something, the more you’re willing to suffer for it” and that, apparently, being in love, especially Divine Love, is madness, and that when you’re in love, even if you’re in love with a fellow human being, you’re not acting “rationally.”
How utterly mad being in love must be.
