Mukabele

The mukabele, a ritual of the rebirth of the spirit, is concerned with the transformation of substance. In essence and structure it is a further development of the zikr practice… In the mukabele, the participant is put directly in touch with the world of spirit through the impact of rhythm, music and poetry, bypassing laborious verbal definition of abstract speculation. Anyone who wishes to fathom the mystery of the mukabele need not, initially, ask for an explanation of the symbolism of the various parts of the ritual. Reverence for its disciplined form alone, laid down to the last detail, leads the novice to an experience of its profound content. The mukabele reveals itself through itself. Mukabele means “face to face”, which goes back to a verse in the Koran which says “wherever you turn, you see the face of God”. The experience of the mukabele is of a state where religious power, in the true sense of religio, becomes effective; the transcendence of duality makes ethical considerations superfluous. In order to attain this experience of ‘at-one-ment’, there is asked of one a complete surrender of all one clings to — this is the sacrifice the mukabele asks of the dervish.

(Marie-Gabriele Wosien, The Mukabele of the Mevlevi Order of Dervishes, 1982)