Voices of Islam (68 page)
Authors: Vincent J. Cornell
Time will tell whether or not ‘Umar al-Rish was correct. However, it is fit- ting to dedicate not only this volume of
Voices of Islam
, but also the entire set to his vision. This project could never have been successful without a panoply of voices from throughout the Islamic
Umma
, including those parts of the community that can be found in countries whose majorities are non- Muslim. This Introduction began with the words of Frithjof Schuon, an Alsa- tian Christian convert to Islam who spent most of his career in Lausanne, Switzerland, and Bloomington, Indiana. Its conclusion can be found in the words of the Saudi intellectual Muhammad Asad, who entered Islam as a Jewish reporter named Leopold Weiss for the newspaper
Frankfurter Zei- tung
. Reflecting on the changes that occurred in the Islamic world from his fi exposure to Islam in the 1920s to the publication of his memoir
The Road to Mecca
in the 1950s, he surmised:
Never before
.. .
have the worlds of Islam and the West come so close to one another as today. This closeness is a struggle, visible and invisible. Under the impact of Western cultural infl the souls of many Muslim men and women are slowly shriveling. They are letting themselves be led away from their erstwhile belief than an improvement of living standards should be but a means to improving man’s spiritual perceptions; they are falling into the same idolatry of ‘progress’ into which the Western world fell after it reduced religion to a mere melodious tinkling somewhere in the background of happening
.. .
. If the Mus- lims keep their heads cool and accept progress as a means and not an end in itself, they may not only retain their own inner freedom but also, perhaps, pass on to Western man the lost secret of life’s sweetness.
15
NOTES
Frithjof Schuon,
Spiritual Perspectives and Human Facts
, trans. P. N. Town- send (1969 Eng ed., repr; Pates Manor, Bedfont, Middlesex: Perennial BooksIntroduction
xxviiLimited, 1987), 223. This work was initially published in French under the title,
Per- spectives Spirituelles et Faits Humains.See Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali Salih al-Andalusi,
Sharh rahbat al-aman
(Rabat: Biblio- the`que al-Hasaniyya (Royal Library), manuscript number 5697, 970/1562-3), 4–20. The only discussion in print of Andalusi’s doctrines can be found in Vincent J. Cor- nell,
Realm of the Saint: Power and Authority in Moroccan Sufism
(Austin, Texas: Uni- versity of Texas Press, 1998), 213–218.On the notion of the Shari‘a, see Mohammad Hashim Kamali, ‘‘The
Shari‘a
: Law as the Way of God,’’ vol. 1,
Voices of Tradition
.Edward W. Said,
Orientalism
(New York: Vintage Books/Random House, 1994 anniversary edition of 1978 original), 20–21.The most significant theoretical discussion of the Islamization of Knowledge can be found in Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas,
Prologomena to the Metaphysics of Islam: An Exposition of the Fundamental Elements of the Worldview of Islam
(Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, 1995).Sayyid Qutb,
Ma‘alim fi al-Tariq
(Beirut: Dar al-Shuruq, 2000), 139; see also the English translation of this work, Seyyid Qutb,
Milestones
(Damascus: Dar al-‘Ilm, n.d.), 109–110.Farid Esack,
Qur’an, Liberation, and Pluralism: An Islamic Perspective of Interreligious Solidarity against Oppression
(Oxford, U.K.: One World Books, 1997), 95.Enes Karic¸, ‘‘Islam in Contemporary Bosnia: A Personal Statement,’’ in
Essays (on Behalf) of Bosnia
(Sarajevo: El Kalem, 1999), 96.Enes Karic¸, ‘‘The Universe of the Qur’an,’’ in
Essays,
168.Schuon,
Spiritual Perspectives
, 222.Eyad Sarraj, ‘‘Why We Blow Ourselves Up,’’
Time
, April 8, 2002.Schuon,
Spiritual Perspectives
, 222.Muhammad Asad,
The Road to Mecca
(Gibraltar: Dar al-Andalus, 1980 revi- sion of 1954 first edition), 237.This quotation is from Abu Madyan’s collection of aphorisms, ‘‘The Intimacy of the Recluse and the Pastime of the Seeker’’ (
Uns al-Wahid wa nuzhat al-murid
). See Vincent J. Cornell,
The Way of Abu Madyan: Doctrinal and Poetic Works of Abu Madyan Shu‘ayb ibn al-Husayn al-Ansari (c. 509/1115–1116—594/1198)
(Cam- bridge, U.K.: The Islamic Texts Society, 1996), 122.Asad,
The Road to Mecca
, 347–349.
A
BRAHAM
’
S
C
ALL
: T
HE
P
ILGRIMAGE AND THE
C
ALL TO
P
RAYER
•
Virginia Gray Henry-Blakemore
No longer able to tolerate the community of idol worshippers in whose presence he had grown up, Abraham departed from the Sumerian town of Ur in the Euphrates river valley in about 1750
BCE
. He journeyed to Palestine where he settled in Hebron, south of Bethlehem. In Arabic, Hebron is called
al-Khalil,
the City of the Friend of God. It was there that he purchased the cave of Machpeleh, where later he would be buried along with Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Leah, Jacob, and possibly Joseph. The Tomb of the Prophets in Hebron, which is revered by both Muslims and Jews, stands over the site of this cave. When Sarah, Abraham’s wife, was very old and had still not been blessed with children, she suggested to Abraham—in keeping with tradition
—that he marry Hagar, her Egyptian handmaiden, in the hope that there would be a child. Hagar soon bore Ishmael and it was not long before Sarah miraculously gave birth to a son, Isaac. God told Abraham that he would have two sons from whom two nations would be founded, and for this reason, Abraham must take Hagar and Ishmael to dwell in a new land. From the descendants of Sarah’s son, Isaac, would come Moses and Jesus. Muhammad would come from the family of Ishmael, thereby making Abraham the father of the Jews, the Christians, and the Muslims.
Abraham took Hagar and Ishmael into an arid valley called Bakka, which was located on one of the great Arabian caravan routes where Mecca stands today. Abraham traveled back and forth between his two small families. On one of these visits, after Ishmael had become a young man, God commanded Abraham to rebuild, on the site of a most ancient place of worship, a sanctuary—a sacred House. This is recorded in the Qur’an: ‘‘The First House (of worship) appointed for humanity was at Bakka; a holy place and a guidance for all beings’’ (Qur’an 3:96).
Precise instructions were given by God as to how to build this structure for worship, called the
Ka‘ba,
a word that means ‘‘cube’’ in the Arabic
2
Voices of the Spirit
language. In the Qur’an, God states: ‘‘Remember that We made the House a place of assembly and safety for humanity, so take the station of Abraham as a place of prayer. And we covenanted with Abraham and Ishmael that they should sanctify My House for those who circle round it, or use it as a retreat, or bow, or prostrate themselves [therein in prayer]’’ (Qur’an 2:125).
When Abraham and Ishmael were raising the foundations of the House, Abraham prayed: ‘‘O Lord! Receive this from us; Thou, only Thou, art the All-hearing, the All-knowing. Our Lord, make us submissive unto Thee and of our seed a nation that will be submissive unto Thee. Show us our ways of worship, and turn towards us. Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the Relenting, the Merciful. Our Lord, raise in their midst a Messenger from amongst them who shall recite unto them Thy revelations, who shall instruct them in the Scripture and in wisdom, and shall make them grow. Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the Mighty, the Wise’’ (Qur’an 2:127–129).
After Abraham and Ishmael had completed the construction of the Ka‘ba, God said to Abraham, ‘‘Proclaim unto mankind the pilgrimage. Call them to come and worship Me here.’’ There stood Abraham, in the midst of a vast and remote stretch of desert. ‘‘How far will my call reach?’’ he asked. God replied, ‘‘You call and it is upon Me to make it reach.’’ Then Abraham called, ‘‘O mankind, the pilgrimage to the ancient House has been prescribed for you—so make the pilgrimage.’’
1
More than 2,000 years later, in the sixth century
CE
, Muhammad grew up in Mecca, and, as his forefather Abraham had done in Ur, he despaired of the corruption and idolatry that had come to pervade the sacred precincts. He made meditative retreats in the cave of Hira at the summit of a mountain outside the city. On one of these retreats, the Archangel Gabriel appeared to him and recited the first of the revelations of the Qur’an. Later revelations instituted the
Hajj,
or annual pilgrimage, that is incumbent on every Muslim—who is able to afford it—to make at least once in his or her lifetime. The Hajj is one of the Five Pillars of the Islamic faith.
As the pilgrim moves forward from his or her homeland in the direction of Mecca—from the time he or she walks out of the door of his or her home, travels in a car, fl in a plane, walks, or rides a donkey—he or she verbally answers the Call of Abraham, made nearly 4,000 years ago. The pilgrim repeats certain phrases, referred to as the
Talbiya,
taught by the Prophet himself:
Labbayka Allahumma labbayk, Labbayka la sharika lak.
Labbayka.
Inna al-hamda wa an-ni’amata Laka wa al-Mulka.
La sharika lak.
Abraham’s Call
3
Ever at Thy service O God! Ever at Thy service! Ever at Thy service, Thou hast no partner.
Ever at Thy service!
Surely all Praise and Blessings And Dominion are Thine.
Thou hast no partner.
2
The word
Labbayka,
translated as ‘‘Ever at Thy service,’’ literally means, ‘‘I am answering and responding to You (your call).’’
Upon arriving in Mecca, the pilgrim circumambulates the Ka‘ba
3
and then retires to the valley of Mina. On the Day of Arafat, he or she stands on the Plain of Arafat, amidst millions of pilgrims from all the nations of the world, asking God’s forgiveness. That evening, at sunset, the pilgrims move together through mountain passes, preparing for the next rite, which commemorates Abraham’s overcoming and rejection of the temptation to forgo sacrifi his son. These pilgrims, all humbly attired in
ihram
—a simple garb not unlike a shroud—experience there in the moonlight some- thing like a preview of the Last Judgment. Men and women of all races are intermingled—indistinguishable as regards worldly rank. All stand together before God, who alone knows what is in their hearts.
Just as the call to pilgrimage and the response of the pilgrim are integral to this rite, so also is the
adhan,
the call to prayer in Islam. The word
adhan,
which means ‘‘call,’’ shares the same linguistic root with the words for ‘‘ear,’’ ‘‘listen,’’ and ‘‘permission.’’ When the Prophet Muhammad fled from Mecca and the severe persecutions of his birthplace in 622
CE
, he settled in the town of Yathrib (Medina today). There a vision came to one of his companions, ‘Abd Allah ibn Zayd, in which the exact words of the call to prayer were given:
