Sufism and Mevlud Tradition in Balkans - A lecture by Imam Senad Agic, Imam, Islamic Cultural Center of Greater Chicago, Northbrook, IL. Head Imam of Bosniaks in America delivered at International Mawlid un Nabi Conference 1994, UIC, Chicago.Sponsored by Naqshbandiya Foundation for Islamic Education (NFIE)
Imam Senad Agic & Group reciting Bosnian Nasheed. Imam Senad Agic, Imam, Islamic Cultural Center of Greater Chicago, Northbrook, IL. Head Imam of Bosniaks in America, recited at International Mawlid un Nabi Conference 1994, UIC, Chicago.Sponsored by Naqshbandiya Foundation for Islamic Education (www.nfie.com)
YouTube Video:
https://youtu.be/O5GqeV1ITow?si=TkoqmZmi292TFq3W
Imam Dr.Senad Agic Biography
Dr. Senad ef. Agić
He graduated from the Gazi Husrevbeg Madrasah in Sarajevo in 1980, and received his higher education at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Sarajevo in 1985. In 2004, he received the title of Doctor of Islamic Sciences and received the Jalaluddin Rumi Award for scientific work and contribution to the field of Islamic history in America. In his extremely interesting and useful research and doctoral dissertation, he scientifically elaborated on the sociological and historical context of the experience of Bosniaks in the USA, the context of the process of assimilation of Bosniaks into the American \"Melting Pot\", as a kind of American path to multiculturalism, and finally the specifics of the experience of the Bosniak population in American society using the example of the community from Chicago. In 2006, he received his Ph.D. in the history of Islam in America from the Graduate Theological Foundation in South Bend, IN, USA, and his dissertation was named the best defended dissertation in 2006 in Islamic studies at this higher education institution (GTF), which is formally affiliated with the University of Oxford. In the same year, he was appointed Professor of Islamic Studies at GTF. He remained in that position until 2015.
He served as imam and administrative director of the Islamic Cultural Center in Northbrook from 1989 to 2010, and in 1994 he was appointed chief imam of the Bosniak Islamic Community of the USA. He remained in that position until 2011. From 1985 to 1989 he worked in the Publishing Department of the Bosniak Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia. From 2010 to the present he has been the imam of the SABAH congregation in Chicago in Franklin Park.
He is the author of the book Muslimanska lična imena, in Bosnian, and Immigration & Assimilation, The Bosnian Muslim Experience In Chicago, The Rhodes-Fulbright Library, Lima, OH: Windham Hall Press, 2004, in English, editor of the monograph “100 Years of Bosniaks in America” in English and Bosnian (2006), co-author of the book on “Hajj and Die”, and author of about fifty works. His translations from English and Arabic, interviews and reviews on the Quran, Arabic literature, religion and violence in Bosnia and spiritual traditions have been published. He has discussed peace and conflict within and between religions on “National Public Radio”, “Voice of America”, “Radio Free Europe”, “IslamRadio.com”, “Deutche Welle”. He has been a consultant and visiting professor at several universities across America. In 2003, he took advantage of a short study stay at Oxford University.
His current interest is focused on traditional moderate Islam without extremism and religious animosity and in favor of coexistence, mutual respect and vital cooperation.
He is one of the founders of the Bosniak Community of America, the SDA party in America, and the Bosniak Congress in North America. He is a member of the Supreme Islamic Council of America, a participant in the First and Second World Congresses of Imams and Rabbis in Brussels and Seville, a former member of the Interfaith Council of the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago, the Executive Board of the “Iqra' International Educational Foundation”, the Executive Board of the “Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago” and a former president of the Northbrook Priests Association.
Claiming Heritage, Renewing Authority: Sufi-orientated activities in post-Yugoslav Bosnia-Herzegovina - Catharina Raudvere. European Journal of Turkish Studies
Abstract:This article discusses the role and status of Sufi groups in Bosnia-Herzegovina today, an issue where Turkish influences are unavoidable, irrespective of whether the focus is on conceptions of the Balkans’ Ottoman legacy or on contemporary arenas for religious alternatives in public life. Today old Sufi establishments face competition from groups with roots abroad both in terms of community leadership and the relationship between the individual groups and the state administration. Sufi-orientated activities play a role within the established Muslim congregations, the ritual aspects in particular attracting previously non-practicing Muslims. Many aspects of the Sufi theme can and should of course be related to the region’s Ottoman past, the authoritarian repression of religion in the Yugoslav Federation, and the war in the 1990s. These particular features have had an impact on religious practices as well as on the institutional organisation of Islam in the region.
The attraction of the Sufi groups active today in Bosnia comes from two sources: first, references to authentic tradition, charismatic leaders, fellowships and groups that offer lifestyles in line with Muslim conduct, and secondly, their tools for establishing independent theological interpretations and for highly individualised spirituality. Bosnian Sufi identity balances between national heritage (with or without political connotations) and a search for spirituality (with or without affiliation to a group or an order); it connects to the contemporary world and its specific issues in a way that is relevant for Bosnians today, as well as being symptomatic of late-modern religion worldwide.
"The first Ottoman Sufis tended to be primarily from among the Naqshibandis and their known centers during this time were established in Bosnia and Macedonia. Announcedly tied to the Sunni ‘ulama, the Naqshibandi were in the vanguard of securing “orthodox” Islam in Bosnia-Hercegovina and the urban centers of the Balkans. There were, in fact, three distinct waves of Naqshibandi implantation into the Balkans during the Ottoman period. The earliest phase of implantation was made through the shaykhs who were the direct representatives (khalifahs) of Khwajah Ubaydullah Ahrar. Notable among these were Mulla Abdullah Ilahi (d.1491), who settled in Serres (Greece) and Shaykh Lutfullah, who established an early Naqshibandi tekke in Skopje. It is also probable that the earliest Naqshibandi teachers in Bosnia (namely Uyran Dede and Temsi Dede) had affiliation with the two previously mentioned shaykhs."
"The Naqshbandī tarīqat first appeared in the Balkans in the fifteenth century in the person of Mollā Abdullah Ilāhī (d.896/1490-1491), founder of the West Turkish branch of the order. Born in the town of Simav near Kütahya, he acquired his exoteric learning at the Zeyrek madrasa in Istanbul before embarking on the Sufi path and travelling eastwards to Khorasan and Transoxania in search of a preceptor. After passing through Herat, he arrived in Samarqand, there to become one of the numerous murīds of the celebrated Naqshbandī pīr, Khwāja ‘Ubaydullāh Ahrār (d. 845/1441). Khwāja Ahrār instructed him in the method of dhikr practised by the tarīqat, and then dispatched him to the tomb of the eponymous founder of the order, Bahā ad-Dīn Naqshband (d. 1389), at Qasr-i ‘Arifān near Bukhara. Here he spent nine successive periods of forty days in seclusion, fasting and meditating. Having thus prepared himself for the task of irshād, he returned westwards to Anatolia as khalīfa of Khwāja Ahrār. He settled first in his birthplace of Simav, but was soon prevailed upon to come to Istanbul. In the capital he attracted numerous adherents, and he established for the Naqshbandī tarīqat that prominent place in the spiritual life of Turkey that it continues to hold to the present day."
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