Sufism, a spiritual bridge to the Middle East...

Most Americans, if asked to name their most immediate associations with Islam and the Middle East, would unhesitatingly reply with words like "terrorism," "fundamentalism," and "fanaticism." From the drama of the Iranian hostage crisis of 1978-9, to the frightful tyranny of Saddam Hassam in Iraq, to the tragic list of victims in the Israeli-Palestinian hostility—the list of negative media impressions seem to be endless. Yet at a time when the U.S. government has been in a sharply hostile relation with Iran and other Muslim countries, an unofficial cultural encounter of profound proportions has quietly been taking place. A thirteenth-century Muslim mystic, Jalaluddin Rumi, is now the best-selling poet in America. The question comes that how has this Persian Sufi poet managed to touch the soul of the West?

For over a thousand years, Sufism—the mystical aspect of Islam—has been a major factor in the lives of most Muslims. HeshmatollahRiazi, a former professor of philosophy and theology in Iran, believes Iran is home to the largest number of Sufis in the Middle East. The Sufi orders emerged in the Middle East in the twelfth century in connection with the development of Sufism of seen in the middle east in the era of twelfth century, which gave people an insight to a mystical current of Religion, and reactions to the strongly legalistic orientation of orthodox Islam. The sudden prominence of Sufism in the West coincides with the startling explosion of interest in spirituality and mysticism that has occurred in the late 1990s and Iranian Sufis say Islamic mysticism has become more and more popular in the country in recent years.

Sufi mystical literature is becoming a medium of communication especially between Middle East and West, giving Middle East its own recognition in spirituality and religion. As seeing the the current state of Middle East together with its own political problems, has resisted the best efforts to be exerted by statesmen for decades. The politicians are predicted to continue dominating the news as part of the endless struggle for power. But beyond these media stereotypes, and on a much more intimate level, Sufism is now taken as spiritual bridge to the Middle East, bonding people from different areas of the World, on the same ground of attaining mystical knowledge.