PESHAWAR: Opened about four months ago on Nasir Bagh road, ‘Rumi Spot’ is fast attracting young visitors, seeking spiritual solace and sharpening taste of reading books on mysticism.

It is a private not-for-profit initiative launched for young individuals interested in exploring Sufi thoughts amid light Sufi music and a cup of tea. The Sufi music has been stopped during the month of Ramazan and would be resumed soon after holy month. “The number of visitors has been swelled up over the last months,” the organiser of the initiative told this scribe.

Rumi Spot entertains visitors after Iftar till Sehr time while new timings will be rescheduled following Ramazan and visitors will enjoy Sufi music session as before.

Rumi Spot is in a fact a tea café where books on Sufi scholars and Sufi thoughts are shelved with tea cup on the table and organic food items being served, providing a few moments of spiritual solace and taste of books reading.

People enjoy reading and Sufi music at the café

Ali Ahmad, the chief executive of the novel initiative, told this scribe that Rumi Spot offered organic food and a total sugar-free yet sweet concept of mysticism with a wide range of titles on history of Sufi thoughts in English, Urdu and Pashto.

He said that the purpose behind the project was to attract young individuals affected by uncertain careers and lack of spiritual satisfaction leading towards to involvement in anti-societal activities.

Recently, retired people and university graduates have also began turning up at the spot to find a few moments driving away from worldly affairs and pass time in the company of plies of books alongside a cup of tea and crunch of organic food.

Mr Ahmad was inspired by mystical thoughts of the great Sufi saint Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi (1207-1273), a Sufi poet, jurist and Islamic scholar lived in 13th century in Konya, Turkiye. According to some traditions, Maualana Jalaluddin was born in Balkh province of Afghanistan. He went to Baghdad, Makkah and Damascus and finally settled in Konya where he through his mystic thoughts shaped Muslim outlook advocating for peace, tolerance and patience.

Mr Ahmad said that through his imitative, he wanted to provide a space to all those individuals, who were in search of self-exploration and it could be only though a humble shelf of books, Sufi music and a bite of an organic food item just for brief sojourn.

The poetry of Rumi impacted Muslim thoughts to a great extant though his powerful Persian poems later rendered in several world languages including English, Urdu and Pashto and changed its course till today. The bookshelf contains titles of Rahman Baba, Hamza Baba and Allama Iqbal.

The later had considered Rumi as his spiritual guide while poetic collections of several other local poets also outlined the shelf.

Hamadan Azeem, a university student, said that it was a novel experience as hectic study routine overburdened him. He added that the initiative provided a relief from mental stress.

Mr Ahmad said that his imitative would attract more individuals to enrich Sufi tradition in the city.

Published in Dawn, March 10th, 2025