Hub Talk
The Path of Radical Love-A Talk by Dr. Omid Safi
Saturday, August 11, 2018 7:00-9:00pm
Dr. Omid Safi will discuss his new book Radical Love: Teachings from the Islamic Mystical Tradition, including selections from the Quran, Hadith, Rabi‘a, ‘Attar, Ahmad Ghazali, Rumi and Hafez. Radical love or eshq in Persian (and ‘ishq in Arabic) is the flame of divine love in the Islamic mystical tradition that is transmitted from heart to heart. Dr. Safi will discuss this living tradition, its roots in early Islam and its flowering among Muslim mystics or Sufis throughout the centuries. He will also draw upon the messages of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and others to explore what radical love means in our contemporary American and global contexts. Come listen to a transformative voice who helps connect the past and the present, East and West, and love and justice.
Music & Dinner
Musical performance by Mohammad Nejad and Soosan Rod
Dinner will be served at 6:30pm
General admission $20
Childcare
Children ages 2-12 are welcome for storytime, games, and a movie from 6:00-9:00pm on August 11, 2018. Please RSVP to [email protected].
Retreat
Reading Rumi—A Retreat with Dr. Omid Safi
Sunday, August 12, 2018 10:00am-12:00pm
Mawlana (Mevlana) Jalal al-din Muhammad Balkhi or Rumi (d. 1273) has been hailed as the best-selling poet in the United States, and one of the greatest love mystics in the world. While popular renditions of his poems in English often capture something of the spirit of his work, they tend to ignore the Islamic context that nurtured him and the Quranic and Prophetic motifs that permeate his words. As an academic expert in Islamic and Sufi Studies, Dr. Omid Safi is in a unique position to translate Rumi’s poems for contemporary students and seekers. Join us for this session on how to read Rumi’s poetry as a journey towards the divine and a message of healing. This retreat will present Rumi’s teachings as one of healing, taking us from our present state of brokenness and disunity to becoming whole and healed human beings. Join us to see how Rumi’s universal message of radical love and healing is deeply immersed in an Islamic context.
Lunch will be served after the retreat. No prior knowledge of Rumi is required.
General Admission $50.
Bio
Dr. Omid Safi is a scholar of the Sufi path and a leading Muslim public intellectual. He is the Director of the Duke Islamic Studies Center, and specializes in the study of Islamic mysticism and contemporary Islam. Omid writes on liberationist traditions of Dr. King, Malcolm X, and is committed to spiritual traditions that link together love and justice. Omid was recently invited by the family of Dr. Martin Luther King to speak from Ebenezer Church in Atlanta during the national MLK Celebration, and again asked to speak at the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel as part of the 50th annual commemoration for Dr. King.
Omid is the past chair for the Study of Islam at the American Academy of Religion. He has written many books, including Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender, and Pluralism; Cambridge Companion to American Islam; Politics of Knowledge in Premodern Islam; and Memories of Muhammad. His most recent book is Radical Love: Teachings from the Islamic Mystical Traditions, which has just been published by Yale University Press.
Omid is among the most frequently sought out speakers on Islam in popular media, appearing in The New York Times, Newsweek, Washington Post, PBS, NPR, NBC, CNN, and other international media. He leads a summer program focused on diverse religious traditions in Turkey and Morocco, called Illuminated Tours. All of the participants in our program are welcome to take part in Illuminated Tours.
A limited number of tickets will be provided for free for guests who otherwise could not attend. Hub925 members can also receive a discount code. Please contact us at [email protected]