Sufism

Harmonia walks the candlelit streets of Al-Andalus to tell the story of Ibn Arab, the Sufi mystic whose vision of a widened heart taught that truth can be encountered across cultures, faiths, and differences. From the vibrant scholarship of Seville to a life of travel and spiritual insight, this episode explores how love itself became a form of knowledge --- and why that wisdom feels more necessary than ever in our interconnected world.

In the early Islamic city of Basra, Hasan al-Basri witnessed a dangerous shift: political power learning the language of religion. His refusal to let sacred words excuse moral sleepwalking left a legacy of conscience that still speaks into our world today.

In this episode, Harmonia returns after Matilda Joslyn Gage to tell the story of Shams of Tabriz-the wandering dervish whose fierce honesty transformed Rumi and reshaped the spiritual imagination of a century. Through scenes of Konya's winter streets and intimate conversations between two unlikely companions, we explore how spiritual awakening often arrives in the form of disruption. Harmonia traces Shams's mysterious life, his unsettling brilliance, and the fire he sparked in another soul-asking what it means today to meet someone who changes the course of our inner world.