Speech by Khalid Nieto at the opening ceremony of the XVI International Symposium of the XXII Jornadas de Cultura Islámica de Almonaster (XXII Islamic Culture Conference of Almonaster)

Opening ceremony of the XVI international symposium.
“Aesthetics, translation and interfaith dialogue.”

XXII Jornadas de Cultura Islámica de Almonaster la Real, Huelva
October 8, 2022

Assalamualeikum, peace to all, good morning.

I am here, invited by the Exmo. City Council of this beautiful town of the Sierra, to share this table with the illustrious people who accompany me. I thank the municipal corporation, its mayor Jacinto J. Vázquez, its Councillor for culture Elisabet Moya and especially Yolanda Benabat, culture technician, who understood that given the theme that this year is exposed, the community precursor and co-founder of these days should say a few words at this event. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Professor Fatima Roldan for making time for us to express before this select audience, the fundamental motivation of our presence for more than 28 years in this town.

Of what I am going to say and to count we have among us a witness and fundamental actor in the development of what has happened in Almonaster in the last 40 years. This person is Mr. Manuel Angel Barroso, whom I greet warmly as always.

In these times, it is not easy to maintain an activity like this, extending more than two decades in a society as changing as the one we live in. And that this happens with the continued presence of a community of Muslims who participate in the organization and offer a program of activities within a climate of coexistence and renewed dialogue, is cause for reflection for all.

And I say renewed because we have had to overcome crises and resolve them with the aforementioned spirit. We will talk about these moments later. Now allow me to take a little trip back in time. A trip to the 13th century. A century full of luminous men and women and of a high ruhanía, I do not like to translate it by spirituality, but not to extend, understand it this way.

FROM THE 13TH TO THE 21ST CENTURY.

I want to mention Iman al Shustari born in a village of Guadix Granada, lived in Fez and died in Egypt. (1212-1269) He is remembered for having introduced the zéjel or moaxaja in spiritual singing and for having composed some exquisite moaxajas that are still sung. The Andalusian Ibn Abad Ar-rundi a century later refers to how these compositions were used in samaa evenings to elevate the audience into the realm of ruhani visions and experiences. Not all Sufi tariqas contemplated chanting as a means of teaching and meditation, although this has been widespread, especially in the Shadilia. (Also transcribed as Al- Shadhiliyya).

Al Shustari, received through al Xatibi the teachings of Sidi Abu Median al Gawz, the illustrious Sevillian of Cantillana, and was a contemporary of Ibn al Arabi al Mursi, the Shaykh al Akbar. Only with these names mentioned we can get an idea of the greatness of the time lived. We know that Shaykh al Akbar did not favor chanting on Dhikrulah nights. But the shadilia that al Shustari came in contact with in Egypt did.

Shaykh Shadili took his knowledge from the great northern Moroccan shaykh Ibn Mashis, passing it on to an Andalusian settled in Alexandria, Abul Abbas al Mursi. This chain continues with Ibn Ataillah Al Iskandari, famous for his great work, El HIkam, maxims that express the path to supreme knowledge and abandonment of all that is not Allah.

Thus taking some leaps the shadilia in Morocco nourishes its transmission with Al Busiri author of Al Burda, Imam Al Yazuli, author of Dala’il al khairat, Shaykh Darqawi one of the greats who left us an excellent work in his “letters” to the muriddin, and after some men of Allah, came Shaykh Mohammed ibn al Habib Al Fasi al Amghari, al idrisi, Al Hasani who has bequeathed us his great Diwan and was the Shaykh who gave ditto to our Master Shaykh Abdelqadir As-sufi, Rahimahulah. And now we come to our destination. It is the idem, the permission, of this last Shaykh, buried in Cape Town, which brought us with continuity to Almonaster la Real, since 1994.

Upwards the chain reaches to the light of the Messenger, Sayyidina Muhammad peace be upon him. But it is not the object to analyze the syllsila of the Qadiri shadili Darqawi tariqa that every year makes the evening of samaa in the mosque. A tariqa with living transmission, whose act in the mosque is none other than to show its internal practice to the knowledge of the seekers and lovers of remembrance in these days. A lailatul fuqara, a night of dhikr, which is done according to an ancient pattern. It begins with a Quranic recitation, or a wird, some qasidas are intoned from the diwan of a gnostic of Allah, (in our case of Shaykh Mohammed ibn al Habib, rahimahulah), the imara or hadrat is made, Al Quran is recited, there is a ders, speech, and after making duas, petitions to the Most High, one moves on to the shared dinner. In some evenings when among the singers sit connoisseurs of mawual chanting, it is when the compositions of Imam Shustari and others are introduced, elevating the atmosphere among the Dhakir.

THE IDHEM FOR THE DHIKR OF ALMONASTER.

Around 1988, Sidi Nafia Perez, at the suggestion of Shaykh Abdelqadir as Sufi, invited me as a traveling companion, to make a return to his origins, to the place where he had retired in search of a life in harmony with nature. We returned to Alhajar, to a village called El Cabezuelo, visited the humble house where he lived, and some of the places he frequented, living from the vegetable garden, some goats and artisan production. We stayed overnight in Almonaster, in a humble pension, which was what we could aspire to then in the mountains, little visited because of the difficulty and narrowness of the road. (Shaykh Nafia was the promoter of the first mosque built in S. Cristobal de las Casas. Chiapas. Mexico). Of all our trip, we made a photographic report, which we gave to our teacher. One of the things we highlighted was the mosque. Until then called as a castle or hermitage, but Manuel Angel had placed on the ascent to the castle, some signs in pyrographed wood that said MEZQUITA. After this trip, we returned to participate in lecture series that this Councilman of culture, usually organized in the premises of the elementary school. And so we got to know Almonaster.

After some years, in 1994, our sheikh resumed this relationship and put us again in the direction of Almonaster. The teachings and calls to change the society of our master had led us to live a community experience. An experience as in the early days of Iberian Islam had been lived in the mountains of Cordoba with Ibn Masarra. We lived in a semi-desert, an abandoned and ruined farmhouse, in Atarfe, Granada, near the Cubillas reservoir, in a time of great drought, next to an old road that led from Caparacena, through the valley of the Colomera river to the village of the same name.

We call this place, a small farm of 5 hectares, Medina Zahara. At the best time, we lived in this place up to 80 people. An experience that requires another story. From the river bed, we had climbed a Menhir up to the hill, where we installed it and built a small garden around it. The climbing of this great stone to its location was a work that put us in touch with the efforts of our ancestors. A tribal work. So, here I was, landscaping our symbol of union and strength.

From the farmhouse a voice called out to me. Emir Khalid, the Shaykh called him. I hurriedly abandoned the task and went to answer the phone. A telephone that in those circumstances was a gift of providence. It worked with solar energy that recharged a battery and emitted by radio wave to the central station.

– You tell me, Sayyidina Shaykh.

-What are you doing, I wonder. -Sowing rosemary. And he alluded me to the famous bullfighter from Seville.

After briefing him on the news and progress, he told me:

-I want you to make two Dhikras. One in the shark of Al Andalus and one in the Garb.

The Shark, in honor of Sidi Bono. In the Alicante area.

The one of the garb in that mosque that Sidi Nafia and you showed me in photographs. In Almonaster. Huelva.

Through knowledge and relationships we undertook the realization of the dhikra of Almonaster. Arrangements were made with the City Council, and with the way clear we started the first dhikra. It took place on Saturday, October 15, 1994, with the work of the Tariqa, both the fuqara who lived in the Medina, as well as those who lived in Granada. It was lived as a mountain Moussem, of those that we had lived in Morocco. A tent was set up to take care of the logistics of the dhikra and the travelers, among whom were the fuqara from Seville who had joined the trip. And that town, then unknown to most Andalusians and Spaniards, received the baraka of our sheikh with the visit of his fuqara.

In 1995 I again took over the direction of the Seville community, and we continued this action in our own way and as an action of the Seville community. These editions were very simple. On Saturday at Magrib we made the evening of samaa and invited the people to dine with us. And on Sunday morning we would recite the Koran, do the prayers and in the afternoon we would return to Seville. This dhikra was so appreciated that they traveled from different parts of Spain to perform it with us. At that time we would cook in the surroundings of the mosque and the night of the dhikra we would stay there warmly.

Some travelers, to finance their travel expenses, began to set up stalls with handmade soaps, incense, hand-painted silks, perfumes, etc. And every year the number of stalls grew.

Our dear Manuel Angel, with the idea of medieval fairs already working, asked us if we could bring more stalls and create a ZOCO. Thus began a new stage that was called Islamic Culture Days. With Dhikr, conferences, Zoco, concerts and street entertainment with various parades. This was already in the year 2000. Date in which is listed the 1st Conference of Islamic Culture in Almonaster. Later the conferences were replaced by the university symposium, which ceased to have the conferences that we traditionally gave. But our community kept two of its own conferences in the event.

I wanted to bring this process to your attention, because we have no doubt that we have contributed to the development, wealth and transformation of this beloved town.

DIALOGUE AND COEXISTENCE.

Since we came here for the first Dhikra, we have counted on our neighbors and lived with them during these days for twenty-eight years. Certainly we have gone through bumps in relationships and deep crises, as well as weathering storms that overwhelmed us like the rest of society. Let us enumerate some of the difficult moments, which were always approached by both parties, City Hall and Community, with the utmost respect and dialoguing attitude.

YEAR 2001. ATTACK ON THE TWIN TOWERS.

With this event, a discourse was imposed, which since then has blamed Muslims and Islam for acts that have nothing to do with their historical reality and general feeling in these times.

But imagine, after the first days were celebrated with a success that pointed to an expanding future, in September 2001, just a month before celebrating the second days, we suffered this execrable attack, with a coordinated media impact that left us compassionate and almost without the capacity to react. But after an initial analysis within our community, we took the attitude of bravely and clearly facing the tragic events that shocked most of the population.

We immediately called Manuel Angel, our interlocutor with the Municipality, and we both shared the need to give continuity to the conference by renewing the presence of the Islamic Community. The presentation of that year created an overwhelming expectation. And the national and regional media approached us. As well as several televisions. Our message was clear, “Terrorism is not part of the Muslim belief”, a message and work that we had already been doing with our children and young people in the educational field. We had implemented an educational program based on three principles. “Love for the country. Love for the countryman. Love for the landscape.” Being Almonaster a space for active education in values and coexistence.

2004. CONTENIDOS ERRONEOS EN LA PROGRAMACION DEL SIMPOSIUM.

Since the cultural activities began, especially the conferences, we have had an open participation in them. With the change of format to the university symposium, our conferences, as we said, ceased to be part of this academic program. But by inertia we attended regularly to receive content related to the history of Islam in Andalusia and the Iberian Peninsula. And although in some cases we did not understand the approach, the achievements of this historical period of our history were exposed with a certain positivity. It was not perceived this way, this year 2004, where after analyzing the titles of the academic conferences with those responsible for the City Council, we saw that this spirit of exposing naturally the different aspects of Islam in Al Andalus, had turned in such a way that rather, this cycle was quite the opposite. What we have discovered is that the academic discourse is not alien to personal ideologies, and much less to the interests of the convenient, disseminated from the centers of content creation and implementation of new ideas, to favor certain approaches in politics and ideologization of people. After 2001, the GEORGETOWN speech of the then president José Maria Aznar created an inflection in the valuation of this period of the peninsular history. This was joined by intellectuals and their associates creating a journalistic based historical literature, with a style book, in which the Islamic civilization has been vilified ever since, including the parameters by which Islam expresses itself. Repeated lies have created a fictitious but admitted truth. Now Arabism and medievalism is becoming an organ of reinterpretation of Islam as a way of life. In most cases to confront it negatively, rather than critically. It seems that these two areas of university studies are declining more towards Islamology, an incipient knowledge whose main issue is to redefine the tradition of Islam, using its sources of knowledge, in the pretense of replacing the scholars of the Din. (And as people of genuine knowledge have always said, ALLAHU ALIM, Allah is the Knower and the Wise).

The decision taken by the Department of culture, was a change of director of the conference, starting a new cycle that lasts until today.

2014. RETIRADA Y REGRESO A LA PARTICIPACION.

The presence of our community in international environments, forces us to have at least a common denominator of the contents that we collect in our reports and the understanding of Islam in areas of Foundations and organizations in various Muslim-majority countries.

We had been some years with some discomfort among the participants for not understanding some of the forms chosen to distract. This year in particular there was a parade in which a man characterized as a Muslim was a thief and a drunkard. Our children and young people have always accompanied us, our presence has an educational factor and transmission of vital principles in an active and direct way, and this was an anti-value. Especially when he was called Mohammed in the role played, a derogatory way of naming the Prophet of Islam, peace be upon him. As a result, some of the participants left the edition, and we had to sit down with the theater management and the direction of the conference. And to ask for respect, and to please not be represented in the space where the community was concentrated, which was and is the square that opens under the steps of the church of Almonaster. The community did not leave and we concluded the conference. But the following year, when there were changes in the direction of the community, in Seville and Spain, it was decided not to return to Almonaster, after more than 20 years of presence.

For the Sevillians it was a difficult decision to digest. Since we had assumed the organization over our national entity. So we thought of a strategy that would visualize us, but in retreat. We attended the opening ceremony, gave a gift with the motto of the Seville mosque, beautifully framed, as a thank you to the City Council of Almonaster and its people. We also suggested that the dhikra be replaced by a recital by the Andalusian singer, Iman Kandoussi, and at the same time we asked her to interpret some qasida and translate its content. But it was evident that we were missing. The people wondered where the community was. That year those of us responsible were in South Africa at the Moussem of our teacher, Shaykh Abdelqadir as Sufi. But expectant to the messages from Almonaster. The cards had been played and everything pointed to a definitive withdrawal. But… The new municipal corporation decided that we should return. That we were part of this event since its birth. And that people were asking why we weren’t there. Spring opened with an emotional letter that Yolanda Benabat, on behalf of the Mayor and the councilors addressed to us, so that sitting down we could see how to fix and mutually correct our differences. A meeting was held at the Hotel Posada del Lucero, in the center of Seville capital, and after a dense debate the community decided to return again to the Conference. With a renewed spirit, much more involved in the design and contents and bringing a new element, inviting a country each year from the orb of countries of Islamic tradition. This is how, with the will to work together and with a deep-rooted esteem born of years of mutual action, the conferences grew in drive and renewal.

Coexistence and dialogue are not empty words, they contain in themselves a message that calls for an open attitude towards the other, to accept mistakes and correct each other, to exchange points of view, and to read in the other the best will in their actions and decisions. Judge these facts. And understand that to practice them is not to be side by side without interacting. As if they were oil and water.

Good morning to all, with the wish that what is discussed in this symposium overflows the container of this room and spreads to the people the knowledge and the truth that we serve. Salam.