The Sufi connect

Shahira Naim

Growing up in a progressive Muslim family strongly rooted in Sufism, I have always been inspired by Sikhism, which is perhaps the only religion truly practising the ways of the Sufis.

“If the people use the wealth bestowed on them by God for themselves alone or for treasuring it, it is like a corpse. But if they decide to share it with others, it becomes sacred food,” says Guru Nanak Dev.

In the concept of sharing one’s wealth and how it becomes sacred food, I see a link with the practice of serving langar at gurdwaras across the world. Moving beyond gurdwaras, langar is now contributing to restoring faith in the almost forgotten universal values of brotherhood. The large-hearted Sikhs have taken their community kitchen to one of the most dangerous places on earth — Syria — which everyone seems to have abandoned, almost as if it has fallen off the world map.

Collaborating with the locals, a group of Punjabi NRIs has been providing freshly baked bread to around 14,000 war-torn families.

At another trouble spot, while the world was debating the Rohingyas issue, a group of Sikhs reached Teknaf, the southernmost town of Bangladesh, and set up community kitchens, daily providing food to over 30,000 refugees.

The practice, perhaps taken from the Sufi khanqahs, has been kept alive by Sikhism in the true spirit of selfless service to humanity, irrespective of caste and creed. Also, Sufi mystic Baba Farid’s verses appear in Guru Granth Sahib under three sections. While the poor are fed outside masjids and temples as charity, the followers of Sikhism themselves reach out to those in distress across the world and serve them food with dignity, lovingly cooked by the believers, who also contribute by way of money and sewa.

To me, serving humanity thus is the highest form of religion.