What can centuries-old expressions of faith tell us about hope today?
At Antonine University (UA), the answer took shape through poetry, prayer, improvisation, and the language of Arabic maqām music.
On October 6, 2026, as part of the Wellness and Mental Health Week (WMHW) 2026, held under the theme “The Power of Hope: Let Your Mind and Heart Bloom,” UA presented a maqām concert centered on divine love and hope at its Hadat–Baabda Campus.
Following its successful presentation at the 81st Sagra Musicale Umbra in Perugia, Italy, on September 26, performed by the Maqām Festival Ensemble, the musical journey continued at UA. Presented in Perugia as “Dell’Amore divino,” the oratorio returned to Lebanon with an expanded emphasis on hope, connecting its exploration of Divine Love with this year’s WMHW theme.
Performed by the Antonine University Ensemble for Classical Arabic Music, the maqām oratorio brought Christian and Islamic spiritual texts into dialogue through a musical tradition deeply rooted in the Levant, exploring love, faith, longing, and the human search for closeness to the divine. The program itself was conceived to highlight the spiritual dimension of well-being and the encounter between Christian and Islamic mystical traditions through maqām settings of texts celebrating Divine Love.
The ensemble featured Prof. Nidaa Abou Mrad, Dean of UA’s Faculty of Music and Musicology, who selected the spiritual texts, composed their musical settings, and performed on violin; Ms. Rafka Rizk on vocals and riq; and Dr. Ghassan Sahhab on qānūn.
The concert was held in the presence of UA Rector Fr. Michel Saghbiny; Fr. Jean Al Alam, Secretary General and Vice Rector for Integral Human Development; Fr. Joe Bou Jaoude, Bursar; and Dr. Georges Jalkh, Vice Rector for Administration; alongside heads of departments, instructors, and members of the University community.
Among the guests were Dr. Sayyid Mohammad-Reza Mortazavi, Cultural Counselor of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Lebanon, and Dr. Bassam El-Hachem, President of the American University of Culture and Education.
Where Spiritual Texts Meet the Maqām Tradition
At the center of the concert was a theme that has crossed religious, linguistic, and historical boundaries for centuries: Divine Love.
The program drew on texts spanning Christian scripture, Eastern Christian spirituality, Islamic devotional writing, and Sufi poetry. These included St. Paul the Apostle’s “Hymn to Love” from the First Epistle to the Corinthians; the Supplication of the Lovers from Al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya by Imam Ali Zayn al-‘Ābidīn ibn al-Husayn; the 16th Hymn on Divine Love by St. Symeon the New Theologian; and the “Canticle of the Creatures” by St. Francis of Assisi. They were joined by poems associated with major figures of Islamic Sufism, including Rābi‘a al-‘Adawiyya, al-Ḥusayn ibn Manṣūr al-Ḥallāj, and Muḥyī al-Dīn Ibn ‘Arabī.
Placed together in one musical program, these texts revealed different expressions of a recurring spiritual impulse: the desire to move beyond the self, seek the divine, and understand love as a source of meaning, transformation, and hope.
The musical setting gave this encounter its distinctly Levantine character.
Prof. Abou Mrad selected the texts and composed their music in the style of the Arab art Maqām music tradition of the Nahḍa era, while also incorporating melodies from the Syriac Maronite and Rūm Antiochian ecclesiastical traditions. Improvisation remained central to the performance through violin, voice, and qānūn.
The result placed texts from different centuries and traditions within a living musical practice, allowing heritage to be experienced not simply as something preserved from the past, but as something interpreted and renewed through performance.
Four Musical Journeys Through Love and Hope
The concert unfolded through four waṣlas, each centered on a different maqām and bringing together instrumental forms, spiritual texts, composed melodies, and improvisation.
The first moved through Maqām Ḥusaynī, introducing St. Paul’s “Hymn to Love.” Its closing affirmation that faith, hope, and love endure, with love as the greatest of the three, established the spiritual axis of the evening.
The sequence continued with St. Francis of Assisi’s “Canticle of the Creatures,” followed by poetry by Ibn ‘Arabī expressing love as a spiritual path and identity. Within the same musical journey, Christian praise, Sufi poetry, and classical Arabic musical form entered into dialogue without erasing the particularity of each tradition.
A second waṣla, built around Maqām Sīkāh, turned to the 16th Hymn on Divine Love by St. Symeon the New Theologian, before moving into verses by Ibn ‘Arabī associated with Mary. Through vocal and instrumental improvisation, the section explored how different spiritual traditions have used the language of love, wonder, and intimacy to speak of the divine.
The third journey moved through Maqām Ḥijāzkār. It included selections from the Supplication of the Lovers, attributed to Imam Ali Zayn al-‘Ābidīn ibn al-Husayn, followed by poetry by Rābi‘a al-‘Adawiyya, one of the most influential voices in the Sufi tradition of divine love.
Here, longing became central: longing for closeness, for a love that surpasses worldly attachment, and for a relationship with the divine that can reorient the human heart.
The final waṣla, in Maqām ‘Uššāq, turned to poetry by al-Ḥallāj, closing the program in the language of mystical love and self-transcendence.
Across the four sections, composition and improvisation allowed each text to enter a shared musical space while retaining its own spiritual voice.
Hope as an Experience of the Whole Person
Within a week dedicated to wellness and mental health, the concert expanded the conversation beyond the psychological and physical dimensions of well-being.
Hope can also be nurtured through meaning, beauty, spirituality, culture, and connection. By bringing these dimensions together, the evening offered a space in which maqām music became a form of reflection and different spiritual traditions became points of encounter rather than distance.
This perspective also resonated with the Week’s theme, “The Power of Hope: Let Your Mind and Heart Bloom.” Hope emerged not simply as an abstract idea, but as something generations of poets, mystics, believers, and musicians have sought to express through their own languages and traditions.
Through initiatives that bring together artistic creation, cultural heritage, spiritual reflection, and dialogue, UA continues to approach well-being in its broadest human sense. In doing so, the University creates spaces where its community and the wider public can engage with the traditions that have shaped the region while discovering how their enduring questions of love, purpose, belonging, and hope continue to speak to the present.