Voices of Islam (127 page)

In ‘‘The Spiritual Significance of Marriage in Islam,’’ Jane Fatima Casewit expands upon the points made by Virani and discusses the role that Islamic marriage can play in the development and purification of the soul. The puri- fi ation of the soul is the underlying purpose of Islamic legal prescriptions and is a major goal of the Islamic way of life. If the dissolution of the ego is

Introduction
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needed for the attainment of humility and perfect service to God, then mar- riage provides a perfect opportunity for practicing self-sacrifice, loving mercy, and generosity. Starting from the Qur’anic verse, ‘‘And of everything [God] created a pair’’ (Qur’an 51:49), Casewit explains how the complementarity of man and woman in marriage mirrors the divinely ordained duality that can be found in many aspects of existence. She ends her chapter by discussing marriage and motherhood, bringing up the divine tradition: ‘‘I am God and I am the Merciful. I created the womb and I gave it a name derived from My own name. If someone cuts off the womb, I will cut him off, but if someone joins the womb, I will join him to Me.’’

In ‘‘Respect for the Mother in Islam,’’ Aliah Schleifer—may God’s mercy shine upon her in the next world—continues the discussion of motherhood in Islam that is started by Casewit. This chapter and the one by Schleifer that follows it, ‘‘Pregnancy and Childbirth in Islam,’’ are surveys of motherhood, pregnancy, and childbirth as presented by the most important sources of Islamic teachings and regulations: the Qur’an, Hadith, and Islamic jurispru- dence. Schleifer also provides discussions from selected works of the classical tradition of Qur’anic exegesis in Islam. In ‘‘The Birth of Aliya Maryam,’’ Seemi Bushra Ghazi describes movingly and poetically her own experience of childbirth as a Muslim woman of South Asian origin. Her evocation of the Virgin Mary during her periods of pregnancy and childbirth is particularly beautiful. It is also touching to learn what it means to a Muslim woman to have lost children that were born before their time.

In Islam, whenever Muslims suffer the trial of illness, they are taught to see this experience as a great blessing and an opportunity for the purification of the soul. Virginia Gray Henry-Blakemore in ‘‘Even at Night the Sun is There: Illness as a Blessing from God’’ describes how her understanding of this out- look carried her through a painful and frightening experience of paralysis. In ‘‘Caring for the Ill in Islam,’’ Kristin Zahra Sands tells the poignant story of what it means spiritually to care for a child who struggles with spina bifi and epilepsy. Through her study of the great Islamic saints and mystics, she presents us with multiple levels of giving and caring. The final stage of utterly selfless giving—which is the aim for every person of faith—recalls the example brought to humanity by all of the prophets of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic religious tradition. If we are able to give of ourselves in such a complete and perfect way by truly caring for each other, we will experience the presence of God infusing our very being.

Of all human experiences, life and death are the most important ones that are shared by all people, regardless of religion or origin. In ‘‘Death and Burial in Islam,’’ Rkia Elaroui Cornell describes the attitudes and rituals associated with death and dying. As a way of introducing her discussion, she takes the reader along for the ride as she prepares to wash and wrap for burial the body of a young Muslim bride who had suddenly died in Los Angeles, California. In her chapter, she discusses how Muslims deal with death, including suicides

xxiv
Introduction

and murders, how Islamic tradition describes the experience of death, the nature of the soul and its ascent after death, the reality of the Hereafter, the terrors of the graveyard (especially fascinating are the Moroccan legends of the She-Mule of the Graveyard and ‘‘Ali Wants His Hand Back’’), the prepa- ration of the body for burial, and the Islamic burial service. In ‘‘Reflections on Death and Loss,’’ Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf refl ts on the death of his father, a noted Imam and Islamic scholar in the United States, and the trag- edy of the earthquake and tsunami of December 2004, which took over 100,000 Muslim lives.

The final two chapters in this volume address personal and social life through the prism of Islamic ethics. Kenneth Lee Honerkamp’s ‘‘Sufi Foun- dations of the Ethics of Social Life in Islam ’’ starts with the maxim, ‘‘Sufism is ethical conduct. Whoever surpasses you in ethical conduct, surpasses you in Sufism.’’ He goes on to show how the Sufis combined an ethical
via activa
with their spiritual
via contemplativa.
In doing so, they followed the teach- ings of the Qur’an, the Prophet Muhammad, and early Muslim leaders (
al- Salaf al-Salih
), who continually stressed the complementarity of knowledge and action and the inner and outer dimensions of existence and human responsibility. Particularly important to this tradition were the teachings of the Sufi saint-exemplar, Abu ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami (d. 1021
CE
), who developed in his followers a deep awareness of the moral consequences of their behavior. Honerkamp heavily draws upon the writings of this tenth-century Sufi to make his point. He provides the reader with a fresh per- spective on how and why the teachings of the saint-exemplars of Islamic spir- ituality continue to resonate within the lives of contemporary Muslims and why these teachings remain as relevant today as they were centuries ago.

Abdulkader Thomas also stresses the interrelationship between ethics and spirituality in the chapter, ‘‘Islam and Business.’’ We must not forget the material and mercantile sides of daily life in Islam, which may also be viewed in terms of God’s will and justice. Thomas demonstrates to the reader how a concern for the eternal life of the soul is key to understanding the Islamic ethics of business transactions, including banking and investment. If a person takes seriously the role of steward of God’s creation and believes that all wealth is a trust given to humanity by God, the businessperson has deep rea- sons for realizing what Thomas speaks of as a ‘‘win–win’’ situation in com- mercial affairs. Of particular ethical importance to this endeavor are the avoidance of unlawful profits (
riba
) and various forms of deception (
gharar
) in the practice of business.

For those who know the Islamic world well, what is perhaps so deeply touching about their experiences in this region is the absence of a strictly sec- ular perspective, and the warmth and sweetness of people that literally
live
Islam in their daily lives. These are people who submit to God’s Divine will with peace of heart and joy of spirit. The chapters in this volume, along with the exceptional poems by the American Muslim poet Daniel Abdal-Hayy

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xxv

Moore, provide the reader who has never lived in the Muslim world an opportunity to feel this warmth and taste this sweetness for himself or herself.

NOTE

1. Janet Ardavan,
   Growing Up in Islam
   (Essex, United Kingdom: Longman, 1990), 15.
   

1
‌

T
HE
F
ABRIC OF
M
USLIM
D
AILY
L
IFE

•

Susan L. Douglass

It is common to speak of Islam as a ‘‘way of life.’’ This means that Islam is more than merely a religion or a set of rituals. Islam is a blueprint for life. Its architect is the Creator and its contractor, Muhammad the fi Messenger of God, built a house according to that blueprint and lived in it on earth, as did God’s previous Messengers from Jesus to Adam. According to the teachings of the Prophets, religion is not a summer home that may be opened for an occasional visit, to be closed and ignored at other times. Being a Muslim means being a person who constantly strives to submit and draw near to the One God,
Allah. Muslim,
the term for a follower of Islam, thus does not denote a fixed or secured status, nor is it merely a cultural identity to be distinguished from other identities. Rather, it is a process. Submitting to God (
Islam
) means making the effort (
ijtihad,
from the same Arabic root as
jihad
) to have knowledge of God, to follow the guidance humankind has been given throughout human history, and to realize it in every aspect of life. Religion belongs to God, not to human agency. In short, Islam is something one does; it is not something that one possesses. As the Qur’an reminds us:

It is not righteousness that you turn your faces toward East or West. But it is righteousness to believe in Allah and the Last Day and the Angels and the Book and the Messengers; to spend of your substance out of love for Him, for your kin, for orphans, for the needy, for the wayfarer, for those who ask, and for the ransom of slaves; to be steadfast in prayer and practice regular charity; to fulfill the contracts which you have made; to be fi and patient in suffering and adversity and throughout all periods of panic. Such are the People of Truth, the God-Fearing.

(Qur’an 2:177)

THE NEED FOR A GOD-CENTERED LIFE

Regardless of a person’s wealth, poverty, prominence, or involvement in society, everyone lives within a personal and intimate sphere that can be

2
Voices of Life: Family, Home, and Society

called ‘‘daily life.’’ Daily life is the fabric in which we wrap ourselves. It is also the surface on which we tread, as we move back and forth from private to public spheres. It is the scene where we perceive time as passing heavily or lightly. This time is spent in the presence of the humble self and with people who are most familiar, engaged in the ordinary process of meeting life’s needs on a simple or a grand scale. Daily life is also the field on which we live a God- conscious life. It is the main testing ground for such a life, the distinguishing area between sincerity and outward trappings. Either the principles that inform the Shari‘a, the Law of Islam, find their implementation in daily life or they remain underutilized ideals.

The God-conscious life is not a prison, nor should it be thought of as an extreme way of life. Many people today have become accustomed to thinking of religion as just one part of life, a segment that may be viewed as desirable or undesirable, bounded by a perception that religion is a limited engage- ment. A widespread view of moderation in religion is that the ‘‘Religion’’ indicator light on our personal dashboard should not remain on all the time. Remaining on all the time means that our commitment to religion is excessive or extreme. This separation of religion from daily life was an outgrowth of the struggle in the Christian West to overcome the power and authority of religious institutions, which were perceived as a drag on scientific and social progress. The struggle between religion and science is far from over today. However, the clear victory for science in fields such as astronomy, geology, and physics has led to a backpedaling by historically transformed and weakened religious institutions and has led to the compartmentalization of religious belief. Efforts by ethicists to maintain the links between science and religion have been hampered by this compartmentalization. In the politi- cal and social realms, the battles over religious tolerance, human rights, and participatory government have widened the rift between religious and secular authority. The continuing perception that religion is an outmoded cultural artifact and a cause for confl has given credence to the idea that secularization is a desirable goal for human society. Globally, religion has a bad name. With the rising power of nation-states, the ideas of moderniza- tion, secularization, and imperialism have become components of a political project whose object seems to be the elimination of religion as a meaningful part of life. Other than the former communist societies’ internal efforts against religion, nowhere has this antireligious project been aimed with more potency than against the religion of Islam.