Voices of Islam (126 page)

The scholar thought, ‘‘Can this old man not even understand simple lan- guage? Oh, I’ll go ahead and show him just to get this over with.’’ So the scholar welcomed the old man in, took him to the sink and began going through the motions quickly, explaining each one.

Afterward, the old man said, ‘‘Now I will do the
wudu’
to make sure that I have understood correctly.’’ But the old man proceeded to get everything wrong!

The scholar exclaimed, ‘‘No! No! That’s all incorrect! Were you not watch- ing? Did you not understand?’’

The old man said simply, ‘‘I guess you were not able to teach me how to do

wudu’
properly,’’ and he left.

Bewildered but curious, the scholar asked his doorman if he knew the old man. His doorman said ‘‘Yes, of course! That is the great saint of our city, well-known all across the Muslim world!’’

Shocked and ashamed, the scholar rushed out and went to the house where the saint was known to live. He knocked on the door. When the saint opened it, the scholar knelt at his feet and said, ‘‘Please forgive me. Please, sir, teach me to do
wudu’.
’’

The saint said the following, ‘‘There is no need to ask my forgiveness. But there is something you should understand. When you were trying to teach me about
wudu’,
you were talking all the time. That is wrong. When you do
wudu’,
you should concentrate on the ablution alone. You should be praying to Allah to forgive you whatever sins you have committed. You were not doing
wudu’,
you were just washing yourself.
Wudu’
must be done with concentration and repent- ance. Remember that.’’
1

The saint then proceeded to explain that as one washes one’s hands, one prays, ‘‘Oh God, forgive me for the thoughtless and wrong deeds that I have committed and let what I do from now on be pleasing in Thy sight.’’ As one rinses out the mouth, he implores, ‘‘Forgive me for all that I have said that has been low and heedless and may everything I say from now on be

Introduction
xix

permeated with goodness and love.’’ When one wipes the ears, one asks of the Lord, ‘‘Please let me only listen to what is blessed and prevent me from opening myself to the hearing of faults and unmerciful chatter!’’ When wip- ing the top of one’s head, the worshipper should request that God purify his own thoughts and intention so that he may better serve His Creator with humility. As the feet are cleaned, the believer mindfully concentrates on where his feet take him and prays, ‘‘Oh Lord, let all of my movements take me nearer to Thy Divine Presence and not in the direction which distances my soul from You.’’

The ablution in Islam is performed with the intention of asking for for- giveness and renewal—of becoming clean for prayer, when we draw near to God. If you were preparing to spend time with a very important person for whom you had much respect, you would shower and make yourself as pre- sentable as possible. If we take such care for people in this realm, we must surely do the same for God; a physical and mental washing is the very mini- mum we can do. The following story told by a friend of mine illustrates the importance of preparing with care for the meeting with God:

A teenage daughter and her friend were going out to meet some friends at a cafe´, but wanted to perform the midday prayer beforehand because they would be out for the greater part of the afternoon. They quickly made their ablutions, and to save time, they threw towels over their heads instead of going upstairs to get their head scarves, as they were only praying among themselves in their own home. They then went into the living room, where the mother was also about to pray.

The mother saw the towels on their heads and asked, with a disapproving eye, ‘‘What is this?’’

The daughter replied, ‘‘Oh mother, we had to be downtown five minutes ago! We’re in our own home! Does it really matter?’’

The mother replied, ‘‘Imagine you were going to meet the Queen of En- gland, would you walk into the palace and right up to her throne to greet her looking like that? No, you would be ashamed. You would take hours to prepare and you would dress up in your very best. This is not the Queen of England you are about to meet. It is God. The King of Kings, the very meaning and source of kinghood and queenhood!’’

The point of this story is not that Muslims should spend hours preparing for prayer, but rather to stress the importance of the consideration and care one takes before approaching the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe.

Visitors to the Muslim world are struck by the five prayers that Muslims perform each day and how much prayers are respected by everyone in the society. When a person is being praised it is more common to hear, ‘‘He never misses his prayers,’’ than ‘‘He is the CEO of this or that company.’’ Often, one will hear, ‘‘Well, if we’re going to play tennis at the club at four o’clock, we could do the afternoon prayers at a place beforehand, and then be fi shed in time to do the sunset prayers at such-and-such a place

xx
Introduction

afterward.’’ It is wonderful to see an entire day organized around prayer. It is quite a surprise to be in a busy office and notice that the secretary suddenly stands up from her typing and lays out her prayer rug next to her desk and proceeds to pray. At prayer times, hallways in offi buildings stand in for mosques. Prayer is part of the normal flow of daily life.

Muslims often mention how good it is that the five canonical prayers inter- rupt the daily routine, allowing one to step away from the day’s problems and enter into a time and space where one can breathe freely and get in touch, at least for a few minutes, with the sweetness of Ultimate Reality. If a person is talking with a friend about last night’s dinner party, for example, and he hears the
adhan,
the call to prayer, immediately he becomes aware of the contrast between the burdensome reality in which he remains and the sacred, freeing space to which he is being called, between the narrowness of the secular world and the expansiveness of the Sacred. When a person is undergoing per- sonal diffi ties he may hold, for a while, the position of the prostration (
sajda
) where the forehead touches the ground and one is the most low before God the Most High. At such times, a Muslim has ample opportunity to recognize the reality of human dependence on Divine Mercy.

But, what of the time between the prayers? Does the rest of our life become secular and separate from the atmosphere of prayer? Of course, we may forget the beauty we experience in prayer, but ultimately, the five prayers are reminders of how we should live always, throughout the day and night. Our suffering comes from our distance from God, and our distance truly lies in our forgetfulness. The famous Muslim scholar Abu Hamid al-Ghazali wrote that we should live our lives as if, in one week, the King were coming to stay as a guest in our house. How would we keep house if we knew that the King was coming? And how would we ‘‘keep house’’ if the King was coming to visit the house of our heart? In Islam, the believer must do her best to live impeccably on all levels, always with God in mind.

One way in which this mindfulness becomes apparent is through language. Another thing that strikes the Western visitor to the Muslim world is the fre- quency with which God is mentioned in ordinary conversations. If you seem a bit agitated, someone may turn to you and quietly counsel, ‘‘God is with the one who is patient.’’ If you undergo a trying experience, someone may state, ‘‘Put your trust in God.’’ If you are worried about the success of an endeavor, someone may chime in, ‘‘God is Powerful over all things.’’ When- ever you admire a possession or a child that belongs to another person, you must be sure to state
Ma sha’ Allah
(This is what God has willed) in order to prevent the appearance envy or covetousness. One hears
In sha’ Allah
(God willing) all the time in the Muslim world, since one would not dare pre- sume that one’s hopes or plans will automatically turn out as one expects; they will only happen if it is the will of God.

The phrase that one hears most often—sometimes in every sentence—is
al- Hamdulillah
(Praise be to God). The reason for this is as follows. As

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xxi

Muslims, we must be thankful to God for all God gives us in our lives, includ- ing both blessings and trials. Instances of success and failure are like course adjustments that always bring us closer to the Center. If we treat all that occurs in our lives as gifts from God, as opportunities for spiritual realization, and accept them with gratitude, we can witness our life as part of an ongoing process of drawing closer to the Creator. It is deeply moving to be present when someone who has just lost a child or has received dreadful news says,
al-Hamdulillah,
praising God with all his heart. The following folk tale illus- trates the seriousness with which this attitude of thankfulness is taken in Islam:

A merchant of Cadiz went to the dock one day to receive his merchandise, which was scheduled to arrive that morning from Tunis. Upon his arrival he was told, ‘‘The boat with all of your cargo was shipwrecked and everything was lost.’’ The merchant looked down in the direction of his heart, then looked back up at the man and said, ‘‘
al-Hamdulillah
.’’

A week later, the merchant received a knock at the door. When he opened it, he saw the man from the dock at his doorstep. He said, ‘‘Sir, I was mistaken! It was another boat that shipwrecked last week! The boat with all of your cargo landed safely this morning. Nothing was lost.’’

The merchant again looked down toward his heart, and then looked back up at the man and said, ‘‘
al-Hamdulillah.
’’

The man asked, ‘‘Why do you always look down fi and then say
al- Hamdulillah
?’’

The merchant replied, ‘‘In order to make sure that there is no change in my heart—whether I have lost everything or lost nothing—that I am truly grateful to God for whatever He decides to give me in this life.’’

The attitude of Muslims all over the world toward the treatment of the eld- erly is enviable. In the Islamic world, there are no old people’s homes. The strain of caring for one’s parents in this most difficult time of their lives is considered an honor and a blessing, and an opportunity for spiritual growth. God asks that we not only pray for our parents but also act toward them with limitless compassion, remembering that when we were helpless children they preferred us to themselves. Mothers are particularly honored: the Prophet Muhammad taught, ‘‘Paradise lies beneath the feet of the mothers.’’ When they reach old age, Muslim parents are treated mercifully, with kindness and selflessness.

In Islam, serving one’s parents is a duty second only to prayer, and it is the right of the parents to expect it. It is considered despicable to express frus- tration when, through no fault of their own, the old become difficult to man- age. The Qur’an says: ‘‘Your Lord has commanded that you worship none but Him, and be kind to parents. If they reach old age with you, do not say ‘Uff!’ to them or chide them, but speak to them with honor and kindness. Treat them with humility and say, ‘My Lord! Have mercy on them for they cared for me when I was little’’’ (Qur’an 17:23–24).

xxii
Introduction

This volume contains many excellent chapters that will help clarify the nature of personal, family, and commercial life in the Muslim community. In ‘‘The Fabric of Muslim Daily Life,’’ Susan L. Douglass investigates what living a day-to-day life as a Muslim really means. She also looks at other soci- eties that do not function within a God-centered framework and discusses the challenges that Muslims face living in such societies. In her chapter, the reader follows a Muslim from the time of arising at dawn through the sacred rhythm and cycle of the day’s devotions and activities. Matters discussed include Islamic dress—with considerable discussion of the issue of women’s covering—hygiene, permissible food and fasting, public and private activity, family and marital relationships, and the natural world in the view of Islam.

In ‘‘Islam, Culture, and Women in a Bangladesh Village,’’ Sarwar Alam separates the reality of Islamic social life from its scriptural ideals and portrays some of the struggles that Muslim women face in the South Asian country of Bangladesh. By presenting the results of original research that he conducted in Bangladesh in 2005, Sarwar demonstrates the influence of adapted percep- tions and customary patterns on the way that the scriptures of Islam are understood on the ground. He provides important information on many aspects of social life, including marriage and divorce, inheritance,
parda
(called
purdah
in other South Asian countries), purity and pollution, and the important role of the
shalish,
the village council, in restricting the political and social roles of women in Bangladesh’s rural communities. In this chapter, rural women of Bangladesh speak with their own voices through excerpts of hundreds of hours of recordings that Sarwar made during his research. In dif- ferent ways, they express a sentiment that Sarwar uses to conclude his chap- ter: ‘‘What God gives, a man can take away.’’

In the chapter ‘‘Marriage in Islam,’’ Nargis Virani provides some of the scriptural and legal background for the domestic relations discussed by Sar- war Alam in the previous chapter. Virani discusses the terminological mean- ing of marriage in Islam, the nonsacramental nature of the marriage contract, the form and stipulations of the contract, and preferred and forbid- den marriage partners. She also discusses the Twelver Shiite practice of tem- porary marriage (
mut‘a
), which differs considerably from the permanent marriages contracted by both Sunnis and Shiites. Perhaps the most intriguing part of her chapter is the final section ‘‘The Personal Voice: Growing Up in a Polygynous Household,’’ in which she discusses her own experience of grow- ing up in a household where her father had two wives, and her difficulties in expressing what it means to have ‘‘two mothers’’ to immigration authorities and others in the West.