Essays

From the author

These twelve essays were born alongside the music of the album “Osmon ichra. Whispers from the Sufi Universe”. They are not an exposition of Sufi teaching or an interpretation of sacred texts. They are an attempt to tell what I heard in my own songs, and what memories, experiences and questions lie behind their images. The Qur’an, Sufi poetry and other spiritual sources appear here as companions in conversation. I turn to them not to prove myself right, but to understand better the questions to which I myself have no final answers. These songs have a life of their own. The essays should not limit their meaning. Another person may hear something quite different in the same music. And that is natural.

A note on citations: wordings of Qur’anic verses that are not attributed to a specific translation are given as brief renderings of their meaning. Direct quotations are identified in the notes.