Egypt’s Board of Sufi Orders has instructed its branches throughout the country to abide by new Endowment Ministry (Awqaf) regulations so as to allow them to continue performing their traditional zikr rituals.
“We want to make sure these rituals don’t violate the sanctity of our mosques,” said Endowments Minister Hamdi Zaqzouq.
The ministry set down nine conditions that Sufis must abide by in order to perform the ritual, including a ban on the use of megaphones and loudspeakers so as not to disturb others.
Supreme Sheikh of the Sufi Orders Abdel Hady el-Qasby said that the ministry’s conditions were in line with Sufi ideology. “Those who violated the regulations in the past did not belong to acknowledged Sufi orders in the first place,” he said.
The Sufi zikr ritual is performed to remind worshipers of God’s benevolence towards man.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
