Hafiz Sulejman Bugari: Temple in the Heart

Written for Patria: Academician Esad Duraković 

About Hafiz Sulejman Bugari, I published a rather long text some time ago (Preporod, no. 11/1045, Sarajevo, June 1, 2015) titled The Face of Virtue. Although until then we had never even had coffee together, I wrote very affirmatively about the social and religious activities of Hafiz Sulejman Bugari, at a time when such activities were very scarce and therefore precious.

This is the kind of activity through which one person – and this is rare! – transcends from the personal to the supra-personal: Sulejman Bugari has over time become a landmark of this City, thus not only of the Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina but of the City as such, with a rare ability to communicate most effectively and successfully precisely with those for whom communication with Virtue is most important, and that is young people, whom he irresistibly attracted with his charisma.

Therefore, I did not focus on Hafiz Bugari as a personality, but rather, under a kind of inner "compulsion" (perhaps I could express this in this context with a figurative language close to Bugari's discourse: Angels are never idle!) I presented in that text a phenomenon in Sarajevo, in Bosnia – a phenomenon that is positive in all directions: towards faith, towards members of all faiths, towards the state and society, and which, with such rich activity, inevitably matures into an institution.

When I wrote that text, I did not suspect that the time would come relatively soon to write again, under the same kind of "compulsion," about the authority of Sulejman Bugari, but now on the occasion of his announced departure from Sarajevo, which has always been and in every way, especially in times of crisis, has been a CITY, and Sulejman Bugari's activities have also contributed to this quality. Now I would have to search for a metaphorical title for this text of mine – for example, reaching for the figure of the heart-temple. (Metaphors, by the way, if we know how to use them, are responsible for saving the soul of language; little else, like a successful and effective metaphor, can establish that wondrous connection between the mind and the heart.)

Personally, I am sad about Hafiz Bugari's departure from Sarajevo, but nothing related to him is personal, although many might conclude the opposite – due to his fascinating directness. Everything related to him is, in fact, supra-personal:

As far as I know, he has no personal reasons for leaving Sarajevo, but he has a "mission order" to act elsewhere, to act within the framework of Islamic internationalism, in accordance with the Quran, of which he is a Hafiz, and where it is written how God created humanity diverse so that peoples would get to know each other.

Therefore, in this case too, personal feelings must be overcome, and the community's consciousness cultivated, judging from the perspective of the society's interests, because this is precisely one of the fundamental problems of Muslims (and of course Bosniaks): placing the community's interests above personal interests. With this act, Hafiz Sulejman Bugari has succeeded in giving a lesson on this crucially important topic.

I do not delve into what lessons and motives the Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina will draw from this, but it certainly should – if I may be permitted – draw a useful lesson precisely at the community level.

It is a great thing to know how to turn even what seems like a defeat or a loss into a victory, a gain, with positive energy.