Sufism is the path of spiritual education and teaching, and it is considered to be the heart of the Islamic tradition. It also expresses the Islamic culture and in a way it is its soul. Therefore, Sufism is above all a spiritual experience, a « Dhawq », a personal taste. It has been throughout history the very source of literary, poetical, intellectual, artistic and musical creativity. On a more global scale, which has not been completely explored yet, its profound and creative legacy, added to its teaching in civic and spiritual education, have inspired the development of society.

Through its annual program, The Fez Festival of Sufi Culture endeavors to highlight the link between this individual and spiritual experience and the diversity of its cultural and social expressions.

Indeed the Sufi Path has the specific ability to establish a direct connection between the inner self-transformation and a collective transformation. This interaction between the individual and the community gives birth to a lively culture, that changes with time and location, but which aims to sustain universal values. At all times, it teaches and promotes the way we can attain the highest level of human, social and individual achievements. Music, arts or literature inspired by Sufism and expressed in the languages and cultures of the Indian subcontinent, Africa, the Maghreb, Asia, Central Europe and the Middle East, all urge us to step beyond our self-centredness (collective or individual) in order to understand the universal message of love, understanding and compassion.

This means that our cultures should not be considered simply as plain heritage or legacy from the past, but rather as vehicles for deep messages to be transmitted to present-day societies. Among those messages, we can find the celebration of an ultimate sense of beauty – the beauty defined by Dostoïevski as the only value able to save the world – expressed by acting nobly and leading a life of wisdom; such an art of living that represents the very heart of a civilisation.

To connect these different cultures and the values they carry, it is important today to make people aware that Islam is also a project of civilisation.

In addition, we can consider how this project can provide answers to challenges in local or global contemporary societies; how it can, together with other pilot schemes, other philosophies, other cultures or civilisations, “give soul to globalisation”. But if we want to make this possible, the human being and his aspiration to reach universal values and more especially the ones of solidarity and compassion, must definitely become the very heart of our political and economic concerns and accountabilities.

Thus, over ten days, the Fez Festival of Sufi Culture hopes to achieve, albeit on a modest scale and in a symbolic way, an essential paradigm for the survival of humanity and a progression towards development in terms of quality and solidarity (and not only of quantity, as is advocated by the financial standards of development).

The Festival seeks to reveal new paths within the Islamic Cultures, and on a more global scale towards what Edgar Morin (we are very happy to have him with us at this third edition) has called “Politics of civilisation”.

Thus Fez, with its Forum “Giving Soul to Globalisation” and its Festival of Sufi Culture, might become the very bedrock of experience in this field. It may appear a very small action, but on a quality scale, it is an important one. If this attempt to initiate a society based on love, understanding, solidarity and, what’s more, one that’s completely open to the dialogue between all cultures and religions of the world, can succeed here, then it can succeed everywhere. As the Japanese say: “The blooming of a single flower is the proof of spring”.