Indeed, the Hour is Coming

Peace, one and all…

‘And We have not created the heavens and the earth and that between them except in truth.  And indeed, the Hour is coming; so forgive with gracious forgiveness’
(The Quran 15:85)

Pearls from the Seas of Blog

Peace, one and all…

Here are links to some interesting posts that I have recently come across.  Enjoy and may Allah make them useful.

• Cultural Anarchlyst: Gender & Sexuality in Islam Bibliography
• Dervish (Umm Yasmin): Approaching the Quran (text); Approaching the Quran (podcast)
• Islam from Inside: We have adorned for each society their acts
• Katib: Minouche is My Mentor; Bring Joy to Your Fellow Man
• Dharmakara’s Prayer: The Dynamic Between Spirituality and Religion
• The Green Witch: Diametrically Yours; Dawkins, Faith and Atheism
• Women & Spirituality: On Balanced Giving (Amina Wadud)

Update: Julaybib of Cultural Anarchlyst has very kindly sent me a link to an extended, online bibliography.  Jazak Allah (if I had a hat I’d be tipping it now)!

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

Listen, My Heart

Peace, one and all…

Hazret Mevlana Rumi (may God sancitfy his secret):

‘Listen, my heart,
don’t be deceived by every intoxication:
Jesus is intoxicated with God,
the ass is intoxicated with barley’
(Mathnawi IV. 2691 trans. Shaykh Kabir Helminski)

 

Then You Are Truly Safe

Peace, one and all…

‘Answer the Sufi call, as best as you are able, in this world, with a loving heart and honestly.  Then you are truly safe in this world and in all the other worlds’
(Salik Hamzavi)

Knowledge Looks After You

Peace, one and all…

Imam Ali (may God ennoble his countenance) said:

‘Knoweldge is better than wealth.  You have to look after wealth; knowledge looks after you’

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

Thinking About Meaning

Peace, one and all…

Sometimes, when I learn something new or when I come to a greater understanding of something ‘old’, I am tempted to think that I have understood its actual meaning.  But, upon reflection, it would be more honest to say that I had arrived at a meaning.  All of our attempts to find meaning in this world are provisional.  In reality, meaning is a multi-layered thing.  It has outward levels and inward levels and beyond all such things lies reality itself.  Tradition holds that there are seven levels of meaning in the Quran.  If this is the case with God’s revelation, then we should expect the wider world (which is also a revelation, or a sign – ayah – from God) to be similarly multivalent.

When I participate fully and truthfully then, in that moment, my meanings may strike a chord with higher truth, as an untrained singer might briefly sing in harmony with a heavenly choir.  But, the meaning is not mine.  It does not belong to me, in a final, absolute sense.  If I participate, it is because God has allowed me to.  If I arrive at a meaning it is because God has blessed my understanding.

This is not suggest that we should not struggle to learn new things, and to explore new meanings.  After all, our struggling attempts to understand are also God-given.

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

‘Facing’ Spirituality

Peace, one and all…

Of late, I have been reading as voraciously as I can around the broad topic of spirituality – specifically, what it is, what it is not and what it means in our complex 21st century world.  I have also had the opportunity to discuss some of these issues with others, both online and in the real world.  I value such conversations deeply, as I am convinced that, in many important respects, meanings are formed through discussion.  That is, our initial, provisional meanings are fleshed out in respectful conversations with others.

This is why I have been particularly enjoying David Ford’s excellent book on Christian theology: Self and Salvation: Being Transformed.  Although, as yet, I have only had the chance to read the first couple of chapters, it sets out a lively and interesting framework for exploration.  As such, I wanted to share a couple of paragraphs from this work.  I found them profound, as well as beautiful.  Enjoy…

‘We live before the faces of others.  Some are there physically, others in memory or anticipation.  We have been formed face to face from our earliest days, deeper than conscious memory.  A baby is welcomed – amazed gratitude, hugs and kisses, feeding, anxious oversight, eyes meeting, the first smile, accompanying singing and speaking, friends and relatives come to see.  It is a face exactly like no other, mark of individuality and uniqueness, constantly moving and changing.   But who is it like?  It is part of genetic history, features formed by race and family, a one-off that constantly displays its origins, the type of continuity with novelty.

Already too it is part of cultural history, has been involuntarily taken into a particular family, society and period.  What meanings are already played out in these first encounters?  How is this particular baby received and understood?  What are the habits and customs, the codes and influences, which are distilled into communication with this new person?  What does it mean to be firstborn?  Or female?’ (p. 17)

‘How are you related to your face?  Why does that sound a rather odd question?  Partly because it does not ring true in separating face and self.  Yet it would also seem odd to identify face and self.  Obviously, you are more than the outside of part of your head.  Yet that last phrase is clearly inadequate as a description of the face.  To meditate on the face is to find an approach to a range of key questions about the self.  The face often seems to be a pivotal ‘interface’ between two aspects of the self’ (p.19)

Links to previous posts:

• Talking Past Each Other?
• Spirituality in Higher Education
• What is Spirituality?  A Few Random Thoughts
• What is Spirituality?  Some Interesting Quotes
• What is Spirituality?  Some Recent Thoughts

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

Live Creatively

Peace, one and all…

‘Be brave enough to live creatively. The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You cannot get there by bus, only by hard work, risking and by not quite knowing what you are doing. What you will discover will be wonderful; yourself’.
(Alan Alda)

Courtesty of the Book Foundation

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

For All My Faults…

Peace, one and all…

To travel means to encounter both fear and danger.  To travel is to risk an encounter with thieves and bandits.  But, to let fear and danger hold me back from travelling smacks of cowardice.  For all my human weaknesses, I do not want to live with only one eye open.  For all my faults, I do not want to die a coward’s death.

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

Trust

Peace, one and all…

Although it is not easy, I must trust that the course of my life is directed, and the rudder of my ship lies in the Beloved’s firm hand.  And so, when I sail into shallow waters I must remember that this is for a purpose.  The place in which I now stand is exactly where I need to be and the lessons I am now struggling with are those which are most fit, and hence most needed. 

I must have trust in the One who guides.  I must come to realise that life is never wasted, when viewed from God’s perspective.  Or, to put it another way, opportunities for growth exist within each passing moment: here and here and here.

I must open my eyes and see.  I must open my ears and hear.  I must open my heart and become.

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

Talking Past Each Other?

Peace, one and all…

Of late, I have been once again reading around the topic of spirituality – what it is, what it is not and what it means in this contemporary world of ours.  Insha Allah, I am currently writing up some thoughts and questions on this topic and plan to offer them soon. 

As I was reading something, I was struck by a sudden thought: attempts to define spirituality often seem to talk past each other.  Some writers strive to focus on the historical, cultural and linguistic origins and meanings of this world.  Others place more emphasis on what might be called the symbolic meaning of the term (as a kind of quest for truth and purpose).  But, does it have to be a case of either or?  Could both approaches be highlighting useful components of this hard to define term?  Are they simply talking past one another?

Just a thought and Allah knows best.

Links to previous posts:

• Spirituality in Higher Education
• What is Spirituality?  A Few Random Thoughts
• What is Spirituality?  Some Interesting Quotes
• What is Spirituality?  Some Recent Thoughts

Current Reading:

• J. Carrette & R. King (2005), Selling Spirituality: the Silent Takeover of Religion, London: Routledge
• P. Heelas & L. Woodhead (2005), The Spiritual Revolution
• P. Sheldrake (1991), Spirituality and History, London: SPCK
• A. Wright (2000), Spirituality and Education, London: Routledge/Falmer

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

God & All Goodness

Peace, one and all…

‘Grant, O God, thy protection,
And in protection, strength,
And in strength, understanding,
And in understanding, knowledge,
And in knowledge, the knowledge of justice,
And in the knowledge of justice, the love of it,
And in that love, the love of all existences,
And in the love of all existences, the love of God,
God and all goodness’
(The Universal Druid Prayer, by Iolo Morganwg)

Qawwali in the Rain!

Peace, one and all…

Here is a very nice qawwali I recently came across, by Sher Ali and Mehr Ali.  It’s split into three parts and is entitled Maula Ali.

Enjoy…

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

 

He Had Sought Me

Peace, one and all…

‘At the beginning I was mistaken in four respects.  I concerned myself to remember God, to know Him, to love Him and to seek Him.  When I had come to the end, I saw that He had remembered me before I remembered Him, that His knowledge of me had preceded my knowledge of Him, His love towards me had existed before my love of Him and He had sought me before I sought Him’
(Bayezid Bistami, may God sanctify his secret)

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

Learning to Talk: Concerning Others

Peace, one and all…

Here are some further hadith materials relating to the ethics of speech and interaction.  These relate to the following previous posts:

Learning to Talk

Learning to Talk as a Muslim

Learning to Talk: Some Resources

Learning to Talk: More Resources

Learning to Talk: Some Issues to Consider

Learning to Talk: the Place of Adab

The Prophet (alaihi al-salatu wa al-salam) is reported to have said:

‘Whoever spies on a group’s private conversation knowing they would dislike him doing so shall have lead poured into his ears on the Day of Judgment’
(recorded by Imam al-Bukhari)

‘Moderation in spending is half of sustenance, friendliness toward people is half of intelligence and asking good questions is half of knowledge’
(recorded by Imam Baihaqi)

‘The believer is one who is sociable, and there is no good in one who is not sociable nor in one who is not met sociably’
(Imam Baihaqi)

‘Whoever advises his brother concerning a matter, knowing that correct guidance lies in another direction, has betrayed him’

‘Gatherings are to be kept in confidence’
(Abu Dawud)

 ’When there is a group of three, two of you should not converse in private, excluding the third, until you meet others, as it may offend him’
(Bukhari & Muslim)

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

Pursue Knowledge, Even Unto China…

Peace, one and all…

As I have struggled to grow towards wholeness, I have been struck by the idea of growth as travel.  I have found the metaphor of travelling both useful and suggestive.  Such a conception is useful because it feels indelibly human: wandering in search of something greater than ourselves seems to be an almost quintessential feature of what it means to be human.  It is suggestive because it implies that we can renew ourselves, we can turn away from psychic dead-ends; we can leave unworthy behaviours and conceptions behind us as we walk; it suggests that beyond all the emotional turbulence of life lies a calm inner self – one which journeys ever onwards.

In an important hadith, the Prophet (alaihi al-salatu wa al-salam) is reported to have said:

‘Be in this world as though you were a stranger or a traveller’. 

I find this a particularly profound tradition.  It provides a basic orientation towards life, a fundamental method of being in the world.  A traveller depends on the generosity and hospitality of others.  A traveller must therefore understand and strive to practice the adab of travel, or the proper manners of a wanderer.  Everything that a traveller encounters must be respected and met with honour, especially since we are always so utterly dependent upon the generosity of our True Host, God.  Being a traveller also suggests that the final destination lies beyond this world.

These thoughts are, for me, reinforced by another hadith, in which the Prophet (alaihi al-salatu wa al-salam) is reported to have said:

‘Whoever leaves home to seek sacred knowledge is on the path of Allah until he returns home’

On one level, this hadith underlines the value of travelling to learn about Islam, and its injunctions, obligations and responsibilities.  On another level, it could well speak to the idea of leaving our habitual selves behind us as we pursue learning.  That is, if we understand our entire lives as a kind of religious/spiritual journey then we are, insha Allah, in fact always travelling along God’s path.

Another famous tradition is relevant in this regard.  The Prophet (alaihi al-salatu wa al-salam) is reported to have said:

‘Pursue knowledge even to China, for its pursuance is the sacred duty of every Muslim’

As I understand it, some scholars of hadith have declared this to be a very weak tradition.  In other words, some have been uncertain of its authenticity.  Even, as is sometimes the case, if this statement was made by someone other than Muhammad (alaihi al-salatu wa al-salam), it is still profound.  The pursuit of knowledge is for all of us; everyone has a duty to learn, and a right to follow that duty – even unto the outermost limits (China is perhaps here used as a symbol of the outermost limits of human knowledge/experience).  Travel is thus an inherently democratic affair – to which every woman, man and child can aspire.

The significance of travel as a metaphor can also be found elsewhere in the Islamic tradition.  The Quran, for example, refer to the traveller as ‘ibn al-Sabil’, or ‘son of the Way’.  In 2:177, wayfarers are described as being eligible for receiving zakat (the compulsory wealth tax).  That is, they are entitled to monetary support.  On a deeper level, we are thus all required to aid a traveller.  Or, if we are all travelling in one form or another, in truth we are all obliged to help each other.

The legal schools of Islam are called madhhabs, or ‘ways of proceeding’ – in that they provide detailed road maps of religiously sanctioned practice.  The Sufi orders are known as tariqas, literally ‘paths’, along which the seeker walks towards God.  The seeker takes detailed instruction on this path from the murshid, or guide.

Travel was also the way of the prophets (alaihim al-salam).  Yusuf and Yunus travelled greatly, and in great hardship (alaihim al-salam).  Ibrahim (alaihi al-salam) wandered from the lands of Ur into Canaan, under divine guidance.  Moreover, he (alaihi al-salam) was not just a traveller, but a commited and gentle host in his own right.  Indeed, his (alaihi al-salam) generosity is justly famed within the Islamic tradition and beyond.  Musa’s (alaihi al-salam) life was filled with many arduous journeys.  Indeed, he (alaihi al-salam) encountered the Burning Bush as he was travelling through the land, and it was here that he was tasked with setting free the Children of Israel that they too might seek God.  Muhammad al-Mustapha (alaihi al-salatu wa al-salam) travelled to Syria as a child, and into the heavens as a man.  And, when the time was right, he (alaihi al-salatu wa al-salam) migrated to Medina and thus began the Muslim count of years.

The more I explore this metaphor, the more profound it becomes.  O God!  Let me be a wanderer, regardless of where this body of mine goes, and let all my destinations end with You.

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

 

The Heart and the Eye are Rivals

Peace, one and all…

‘Mahabbat (love) is said to be derived from hibbat, which are seeds that fall to the earth in the desert.  The name hubb (love) was given to such desert seeds (hibb), because love is the source of life just as seeds are the origin of plants.  As, when the seeds are scattered in the desert, they become hidden in the earth, and rain falls upon them and the sun shines upon them and cold and heat pass over them, yet they are not corrupted by the changing seasons, but grow up and bear flowers and give fruit, so love, when it takes its dwelling in the heart, is not corrupted by presence or absence, by pleasure or pain, by separation or union. 

Others say mahabbat is derived from hubb , meaning ‘a jar full of stagnant water’, because when love is collected in the heart and fills it, there is no room there for any thought except of the beloved, as Shibli says: ‘Love is called mahabbat because it obliterates (tamhu) from the heart everything except the beloved’.

Others say that mahabbat is derived from hubb, meaning ‘the four conjoined pieces of wood on which a water-jug is placed, because a lover lightly bears whatever his beloved metes out to him – honour or disgrace, pain or pleasure, fair treatment or foul’.  According to others, mahabbat is derived from habb, the plural of habbat and habbat is the core of the heart, where love resides.  In this case, mahabbat is called by the name of its dwelling-place, a principle of which there are many examples in Arabic.  Others derive it from habab, ‘bubbles of water and the effervescence thereof in heavy rainfall’, because love is the effervescence of the heart in longing for union with the beloved.  As the body subsists through the spirit, so the heart subsists through love, and love subsists through vision of, and union with, the beloved.

Others, again, declare that hubb is a name applied to pure love, because the Arabs call the pure white of the human eye habbat al-insan, just as they call the pure black (core) of the heart habbat al-qalb: the latter is the seat of love, the former the seat of vision.  Hence, the heart and the eye are rivals in love, as the poet says:

‘My heart envires mine eye the pleasure of seeing,
And mine eye envies my heart the pleasure of meditating’

(Ali ibn Uthman al-Hujwiri, Kashf al-Mahjub, trans. RA Nicholson)

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman

A Teacher Must Be A Student

Peace, one and all…

A teacher stands in debt to those he teaches, for the great honour they have done him in opening themselves.  And, as in all things, the honour of teaching is in fact a deep and sacred trust.  An honest student places their suddenly vulnerable selves into the teacher’s hands.  What greater sacrifice could there be?

This is why a teacher must first be a student themselves.  How can you hope for the gift of another’s heart unless you have first struggled to surrender your own?

Ma’as salama,
Abdur Rahman