Coming Soon on DVD from Archetype
A Documentary film on a Sufi spiritual retreat Preview Clip
Once a year in the middle of the month of Shabban "mureeds" of the Demerdache Khalwati Sufi Order in Cairo go into small cells and make a spiritual retreat which has been a tradition in this order for over five hundred years.
Shem Friedlander is the first person to be allowed to film this secret and sacred ceremony.
During the "khalwa" the mureed prays, fasts (as in the month of Ramadan), is silent, remains in seclusion, invokes the Name of Allah, meditates, and maintains a state of ritual purity.
Photographs ©Shems Friedlander
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"Seclusion from people will become inevitable for you, as will preference for retreat (khalwa) over humam associations, for the extent of your distance from creation is the extent of your closeness to God - outwardly and invwardly
Ibn 'Arabi
