- Opening hours: Mon. to Fri. 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
This weekend, Saturday 13 April, marks the kick-off of the seventh edition of the Fes Festival of Sufi Culture at the Batha Museum (4:00 PM). The programme includes the presentation of the festival's theme: "Spiritual Nourishment (Qût al Qulûb), Sufism and Creativity". This will be followed later in the evening by a concert of Sufi Muwashahat from Syria, featuring Takht Atthourath and Hamam Khayri (8:30 PM).
"The spiritual dimension, when it exists, is in no way contradictory to other dimensions of art, culture, thought or society, which it can irrigate and nourish," emphasised Faouzi Skali. For the president of the Fes Festival of Sufi Culture Association, which organises the event, "this is what we wanted to highlight in this seventh edition by showing how these two dimensions, the outer (zâhir) and the inner (bâtin), not only complement each other but also allow us to envisage a new source of inspiration and creativity in all the fields that constitute our human culture."
In addition to the workshops and exhibitions that will punctuate this edition, meetings addressing various themes (Sufism and samâa, art, heritage, philosophy, social or contemporary thought) followed by concerts will be offered daily throughout the event.
Regarding the performances, it should be noted that they will be led by Sufi brotherhoods from Morocco, joined by those from Syria, "Quds" (Jerusalem) and Turkey. A wonderful opportunity for the public who enjoy Sufi evenings to discover the deep and moving chants of Sufism.
This programme, which aims to be diverse and rich, will allow festival-goers "to understand how the encounter between spirituality and creativity has been expressed in different cultures of Moroccan civilisation, and more broadly of Islam, in an artistic and intellectual production of great richness and depth," the organising team emphasised during a meeting held on Friday evening in Casablanca.
"Our goal is to open up cultures to the spirituality they can bring us," declared Faouzi Skali during the meeting, which he hosted alongside Abdellah Chrif Ouazzabi, academic director of the organising committee. He added: "Sufism is not a renunciation of the world. In the Moroccan public education system, certain things were overlooked, such as the idea that Sufism was about inner detachment. Which, obviously, is false."
The Festival also intends to pay tribute to the anthropologist and writer Zakia Zouanat. This edition will be marked by thoughts and prayers for this seeker of truth, a great contemporary figure of Sufism who has just passed away, leaving "as a spiritual testament a major work, including the monumental book 'The Kingdom of the Saints'."
The day before, the Festival will pay tribute to Ibn Khatib and Imam El Boussairi.
As the organising team aptly reminds us, the Fes Festival of Sufi Culture Association aims "to help people discover the richness of the spiritual and cultural heritage of Sufism, in Morocco and throughout the world, in its artistic, intellectual and social expressions."
Provider / Source : Alain Bouithy, Libération
