Dhákara

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Dhákara is a Sufist term, implying to remember or to recall. It literally means ‘not to forget’. Out of the verb dhákara comes the objective dhikr, which indicates a repetitive prayer. Dhikr has been widely used in Sufism as a solitary or communal practice. The prayer is treated as an ascetic ritual in order to keep evoking the divine. A collective dhikr is guided by the elder worshipper, and it takes place right after the sunset, usually on a Thursday or Friday evening. It involves specific numerical repetitions (for example ten times the first excerpt out of the Coran named Ikhlas or 25 times the word ‘Ya Rahman’- o Merciful One) and in the end, it can be rhythmically chanted by the group in a circle. Drums or cymbals may be introduced, and some worshippers may even stand up and start swaying. By the end, dhikr may become a whirling spectacle. 

 

Dhákara (2017) elaborates similar patterns repeated throughout the piece. The material and sounds used are repeated within a spiral form, as if attempting to create sound out of silence, out of noise. All the instruments involved are striving ‘to remember’ the Sound of the divine, which appears by the end in a plain sight, culminating in fragments of a traditional song. A song that could be one out of many, yet still recalling upon memories of an ideal topos; A common memory space for the people of the Mediterranean and of course, my homeland, Cyprus.