NABLUS, West Bank — The classes in Sufism that Jamila Haroun al-Debai took more than a decade ago changed her life. As a member of the General Union of Palestinian Women, Debai used to attend every funeral and demonstration in Nablus, but today she devotes most of her time to Sufism, describing her devotion as “worth all the work she has done in the past.”
Debai leads a group of 40 women who gather every Monday at the Sheikh Muslim Zawiya, a Sufi religious school, in the heart of the old town in Nablus, to attend the hadra, a collective ritual performed by Sufi orders.
The hadra, which literally means “presence,” starts with adherents reciting the Quran and collectively chanting short prayers, either aloud or silently, while counting on a set of prayer beads. The chanting of rhyming verse is supposed to bring one closer to God, a practice called “dhikr” in Arabic, meaning “remembrance.”
The Nablus zawiya was rehabilitated by the Palestinian Ministry of Religious Endowments 15 years ago. “We used to gather here for religion classes, but we felt that hadra is spiritually richer, so we switched from plain lessons to hadra,” Debai told Al-Monitor. What began with some 10 women two years ago now attracts 40 regulars, some of whom travel from the Jordan Valley and surrounding villages to attend.
AL-MONITOR All-Access gives you unlimited access to all our journalism, the full Daily Briefing, exclusive interviews, premium newsletters, and live events — for less than $2/week.
