Tunisian doctor turns hobby into premiere Ramadan event

2009-09-17

Magharebia speaks with the head of the Association of Lovers of Musical Creativity about this year's spiritual music festivals and the place of such music in Tunisians' lives.

By Mona Yahia for Magharebia in Tunis – 17/09/09

[Mona Yahia] Lotfi Mraihi, who heads a Tunisian music lovers' association, believes that everyone needs spiritual music in their lives.

Lotfi Mraihi is a Tunisian physician who loves spiritual music, religious recitation and instrumental music. Mraihi is also president of the Association of Lovers of Musical Creativity, which organises the Spiritual Music Festival, one of Tunisia's main Ramadan events.

Magharebia sat down with him to discuss the festival and the importance of spiritual music during Ramadan.

Magharebia: You're originally a physician, but you're interested in music. What led to this interest?

Dr. Lotfi Mraihi: Music was my hobby. I always had some sort of interest in and love for music with a bit of exaggeration, until it turned into one of my main interests. I became a producer of radio programmes, and a compiler and author of books on the topic.

Magharebia: Can spiritual music survive competition from commercial music?

Mraihi: Spiritual music needs to review and to re-formulate itself. Yet, it still has a social standing, and it meets a certain need in our souls. When people need quiet, they turn to this kind of music. Although its importance in our lives differs from one person to another, it actually exists and doesn't compete with other genres of music.

Magharebia: Why is this music almost entirely restricted to Ramadan?

Mraihi: The holy month of Ramadan makes people slow the pace of the daily needs they have in modern life. The silence of Ramadan makes people meditate. This genre of music has always been present in our lives, but things have changed now. However, it still meets some of our needs.

Magharebia: Do you think that the Maghreb countries will encourage this music?

Mraihi: Countries, as structures, don't encourage it. However, there are some associations and interested people who seek to re-launch this spiritual music and to revive it somewhat, but these are still individual initiatives.

Magharebia: Some countries encourage this genre of music. Is this because encouraging these artistic trends can curb religious extremism and present another side of Islam?

Mraihi: I don't think that music can stand in the face of religious extremism. Extremism has other divergent reasons. But this doesn't hide the fact that this music expresses some sort of moderation in religious practice. Religion bans all that lies under singing, but spiritual or Sufi music or religious recitation feature some sort of moderation, and it's useful for living together in general.

Magharebia: There's always confusion between spiritual music and Sufi music. Is there a difference between the two?

Mraihi: Spiritual music is an artificial phrase; it's as if music itself was spirit-less and we revived its spirit. Spiritual music is a set of musical types that have common features. Sufism, on the other hand, is one genre of spiritual music. It's not religious music, because Sufism doesn't comply with the pure religious teachings. There is the religious music that observes rites and worship, and there is also the religious music that is based on Qur'anic terminology. There is also a music genre that lies between the commercial and spiritual, and between the religious and spiritual.

Magharebia: The festival is in its fifth year. Has it achieved its goals?

Mraihi: The festival is still taking its first steps. A lack of resources prevents us from achieving all goals. However, we are still trying, and there is a long way ahead.

Magharebia: In previous festivals, you were keen to host artists from the greater Maghreb. Why?

Mraihi: This is our natural and vital environment with which we share more than one element and trend. There is a lack of knowledge of that identity, which is of us and for us.

Magharebia: You head the Association of Lovers of Musical Creativity, which organises the festival. Could you tell us about its goals?

Mraihi: The association organises three festivals: spiritual music, religious recitation, and instrumental music. These are specialised festivals that were created to serve the Tunisian musical field. We also want to support Tunisian artists.

Magharebia: Does the association focus on young people?

Mraihi: They are a part of us. We organize workshops, and we support the training they receive, and invite the best music players to help with it.

Magharebia: At the press conference about the festival, you talked about the concept of ijtihad (improvisation) in this year's festival. What does itjihad mean to you?

Mraihi: It's the ijtihad of creators and avoiding repetitions because repetitions mean that there is no ijtihad. In scheduling this edition, we've concentrated on religious chanters who proposed programs that feature creativity and ijtihad.