“Lessons from Islam” – Sunday, October 19, 2014

“Lessons from Islam”

Sunday, October 19, 2014 Rev. Bruce Southworth, Senior Minister The Community Church of New York Unitarian Universalist

Readings

(1) Khaled Abou El Fadl is the Omar and Azmeralda Alfi Distinguished Fellow in Islamic Law at UCLA and author of Rebellion and Violence in Islamic Law. The first reading is from his article titled, “The Place of Tolerance in Islam: On reading the Qur'an – and misreading it.” Originally Published in December 2001/January 2002 issue of the Boston Review:

It would be disingenuous to deny that the Qur'an and other Islamic sources offer possibilities of intolerant interpretation. Clearly these possibilities are exploited by the contemporary puritans and supremacists. But the text does not command such intolerant readings. Historically, Islamic civilization has displayed a remarkable ability to recognize possibilities of tolerance, and to act upon these possibilities. Islamic civilization produced a moral and humanistic tradition that preserved Greek philosophy, and generated much science, art, and socially benevolent thought. Unfortunately, however, the modern puritans are dissipating and wasting this inspiring moral tradition. They are increasingly shutting off the possibilities for a tolerant interpretation of the Islamic tradition.

(2) Tariq Ramadan, a reformist Muslim who teaches at Oxford, argues for interpretations of the Koran that respect women’s dignity and reject any literalism, especially when there are internal contradictions of text or cultural oppressions that go beyond Muhammad’s practices. For example, in terms of veiling, he argues that in such cases, “We are forgetting to put things into context. More important than one verse is understanding the overall message of Islam.” He also gives accounts of how early Muslims on the Arabian Peninsula adapted their practices rather than necessarily taking any verse literally.

In an interview in Christian Century magazine (8/21/07, pp. 30, 32), he declares that he is Muslim by religion, Egyptian by heritage, Swiss by nationality (where he grew up), and he adds, “At the same, I’m a universalist by principle…. Deep inside me, I’m nurturing this multiple identity.”

“Something I find in the heart of Islam is universalism” … a God of “love” and “beauty” and “light.”

mystics in every tradition, in poetry, story and explanation, want to awaken us, to remind us, that we are part of the sacred creativity around us and in which we live and move and have our being. Love, God, the sacred… not out there, but in us… with the ritual of prayer simply a tool to give us that clarity.

A man [unjustly confined] in prison receives a gift. It is a gift of a prayer rug. What he wanted of course was a file, a crowbar or a key. But he began using the rug, doing the five-times prayer at dawn, at noon, mid- afternoon, after sunset and before going to sleep. Bowing, sitting up, bowing again... after many days of prayer he notices an odd pattern in the weave of the rug at the point where his head touches. He studies and meditates on that pattern, gradually discovering that it is a diagram of the lock... a picture of the lock that confines him to his cell and it shows how it works. Studying the diagram, he is able to escape [and to obtain his freedom.]

Rumi embraces the symbolism, not a juvenile understanding that material results arise from petitionary prayer. He concludes, “Anything you do every day can open into the deepest spiritual place, which is freedom.”

The practice of prayer can lead one into escape from the false sense of dualism that we often may believe is our state of being.

Clarity… that is, after all, what a religious life, spiritual life is about, isn’t it?

“Lessons from Islam” Rev. Bruce Southworth

Perhaps, you heard about an ugly incident on a late night HBO TV show a couple of weeks ago. Bill Maher and Sam Harris declared that Islam was inherently evil with its intolerance and proclivity to violence… akin to the Mafia.

Actor Ben Affleck and NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristof rebuked them, rightly so, and pointed out that each religious path has its share of extremists. Islam is not alone in that. Nor do particular groups define an entire faith.

Regarding Islam, I recall a visit with the Imam of the Islamic Cultural Center here in New York, not long after 9-11. Part of that conversation included his condemnation of those terrorist acts as irreconcilable with Islam. He said that to harm innocents such as those in the World Trade Center, or the Pentagon, or the airline crew and passengers, to harm innocents is worse than harming the Kaaba, which is the holiest shrine in Mecca and in all of Islam.

He quoted Muhammad, the prophet and messenger of Allah: “To kill an innocent person (just one person) in the sight of Allah is more dangerous than the destruction of this universe.”

He spoke of his “complete condemnation of the unconscionable” aggression and offered on behalf of his community “their deepest collective grief and massive sympathy for the horrific loss of life, property and human dignity.” Not only “deeply hurt and saddened by this tragedy,” he also called these attacks “inhuman acts” which in “the final analysis are directed against all humanity, against civilization, against freedom, against all religions.”

Part of my appreciation for Islam goes back to a visit to Jerusalem in the fall of 1988 with an American interfaith clergy group during the first intifada. I traveled with a cross-section of religious leaders as we sought to learn more at first-hand about the religious and political realities that were causing so much pain on both sides, that still cause such pain, and that still await a just resolution for both Jews and Palestinians. I was able to visit both mosques that are in the city’s center on the Temple Mount, as it is known to Jews, or Haram al-Sharif, as it is known to Muslims.

There you find the stunning golden Dome of the Rock and also al Aqsa Mosque, which is almost as large as a football field in breadth and width. By tradition, it is also the site of the ancient Jewish Temple. It is sacred ground for Muslims for nearly 1400 years and for Jews for thousands of years.

The Dome of the Rock was completed in 691 a. d., not quite sixty years after the death of Muhammad. That golden domed structure is truly stunning with its decorative motifs in geometric and floral patterns and elaborate Arabic script with quotations from the Koran.

[There are no human or animal images. Muslims, for the most part, have been iconoclastic in the original meaning of the word, avoiding all icons, all representations that might be mistaken for images of deity. The Dome - brilliant in its gold color - now is actually a bronze-aluminum alloy, the gold having been stripped away. Beneath the Dome, the mosque is octagonal, eight-sided.]

The marble, the mosaics, the exterior glazed tiles, the proportions, the expanses of gorgeous rugs, and the daylight shimmering through translucent marble brings out exquisite blues, greens, purples, yellows and reds…

It was an altogether luminous, numinous experience.

Inside that mosque, the Dome of the Rock that overlooks the center of old Jerusalem, there is in fact a very large rock.

Isaac and prepared to sacrifice him because of God's commandment to him. Later Solomon's Temple was built above and around the rock, as was the Second Temple that was destroyed without a trace.]

Our Muslim guide told us that according to Islamic tradition, this rock (and it's big - maybe as big as the whole pulpit area here) was where Muhammad ascended to Heaven upon a winged horse when visited by the Archangel Gabriel, taken to Heaven and given some of his first revelations that are now part of the Koran.

In fact, and this much is fact, you can place your hand into a small, protected area and feel as well as see in the rock a horseshoe-shaped indentation. By legend at least, if not in fact, it is proof of this ascension by Muhammad. Also, there are three beard hairs of Muhammad on display, just as in other parts of Jerusalem there are a variety of Christian relics.

This is the legend, and because of it, Jerusalem is truly a holy city for Muslims.

Of all the major religions of the world, Islam in the West is certainly the least understood and often maligned throughout history. The genius and beauty of the Dome of the Rock and of so much Islamic art and architecture stand in glorious contrast to so many of our ugly western stereotypes and caricatures.

The high ethical principles taught by Muhammad stand in gracious contrast to Dante's depiction of Muhammad as residing in one of the lower rings of Hell reserved for schismatics, those who break the unity of the Church. Dante depicts Muhammad split from forehead to bowel with his guts hanging out because of his teachings.

The renown given Islamic scholars for translating and preserving much of the human knowledge accumulated by the ancient Greeks stands in contrast to the ill will generated by Muslim fanatics today.

It is a good thing in our times that there are Muslims speaking up for a moderate Islam, and among those is Reza Aslan, author of No God But God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam. He writes, “… the voice of the moderate majority is too often drowned out by the voices of extremism and fundamentalism.”

As we celebrate Universal Religion here at Community, I turn again to Islam and some of the lessons. I might add that almost one in four of us on this planet is a Muslim, and there are as many as 3 million Muslims in the United States, having tripled over the past 15 years.

Among the lessons: a sense of ethics and community, and our shared divinity.

Similarly, Muhammad was reported to have cried out, “He cannot be a believer. He cannot be a believer. That man is not a believer.” When asked, “Who?” by those near him, Muhammad, the Prophet, replied, “He who sleeps the night with a full stomach while his neighbor is hungry cannot be a believer.”

That powerful sense of community and ethical obligation that is inherent in Islam is just one of the many elements of Islam that I personally find both nurturing and challenging spiritually, even as we are surrounded as we are by images of barbaric deeds of the Islamic State and other Muslim fanatics, though they are in the minority.

A very brief history of Islam takes us back to the visions of a forty-year-old, trusted man of business, who had prospered in the caravan trade. In 610 of the Common Era, over 1400 years ago, Muhammad lived in Mecca on the Arabian Peninsula where we now find Saudi Arabia. There he began to write down words he believed to be spoken by Allah, an important deity but only one of 354 gods of the culture. What he wrote down and its radical monotheism challenged the polytheistic culture. His egalitarianism challenged the business elites. From just a few followers, he gained converts, but also opponents.

Finally, in 622, at age 52, Muhammad had to flee for his life with some of his followers to Medina. That year 622, on the Western calendar, is the first year on the Islamic calendar. There he became a magistrate, a trusted elder, a political leader and statesperson who won many more followers.

In the year 630, he led 10,000 troops against Mecca, which had been harassing his new home city. He conquered it without a battle. He went to the Kaaba and immediately destroyed the idols and consecrated it to God, to Allah. It is to this shrine that a Muslim must make a pilgrimage at least once in his or her life if he or she is financially and physically able. Once in Mecca, victorious, he declared a general amnesty rather than taking vengeance upon those who had been at war with him.

As Islam expanded, vengeance typically did not prevail. Jews, Christians and others generally (but not always) lived in peace. Muhammad's spirit is exhibited in a story: Muhammad was once sleeping under a palm tree only to awaken suddenly to find himself confronted by an enemy standing over him with a drawn sword. "O Muhammad, who is there now to save thee?" his enemy cried. To which Muhammad responded, "God." As his enemy tried to strike him, he stumbled and dropped the sword that Muhammad seized. Muhammad challenged his disarmed adversary, "O who shall save thee, my enemy?" "No one," the man acknowledged. "Then learn to be merciful," Muhammad answered, and he handed the man back his sword.

The word Islam means "submission" - submission to God. It carries with it something of the original sense of the Greek-derived word "enthusiasm" - en theos, gods within, possessed by god. There is a spirit of contagious enthusiasm that still speaks to women and men 1400 years later. 5 ©2014 Rev. Bruce Southworth

Another of the great strengths of Islam is its clarity in terms of ritual practices, which are simple and direct. These are the Five Pillars of Faith.

“There is no God but Allah…”

First is the creed, by which one becomes a Muslim. The careful acceptance of the affirmation, "I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is his Messenger." This affirmation of God's unity is a denunciation of idolatry and a declaration of mindfulness to what is important. That Muhammad is God's Prophet is also a statement intended to prevent Muhammad from being worshipped. It is also a declaration of faith that revelations once given by Moses, Jesus and other prophets are now complete with Muhammad.

Prayer

Second is the practice of praying five times a day: in the morning, at noontime, at mid-afternoon, after sunset and before retiring, each time facing Mecca.

Fasting during Ramadan

The third Pillar is the annual month of fasting called Ramadan, which includes family festivities after sunset. Many years ago, I had likened it to the severe self-denial sometimes found in Christian Lent, and a Muslim friend quickly corrected me. Islam says that fasting during the daytime during Ramadan, to pause in reverence for more than one day a week, for a whole month, helps us to be in touch with our own shared humanity more deeply, our divinity, and our co-creativity with Life, with God.

Pilgrimage to Mecca

The fourth Pillar is the pilgrimage to Mecca where the prominent and the lowly, the wealthy, the common person, and the poor all mingle, each dressed in identical robes - affirming that each truly is a child of God, brother and sister. It was after his pilgrimage that Malcolm X began to shift profoundly in his attitudes and opened himself to a more universal spirit.

Charitable Giving

Finally, there is the duty of giving to charity. The admonition is to give at least 2 1/2% of one's income to help the poor. It’s a minimum. How are you doing? I personally strive to exceed at least 5%.

These five practices provide a profound sense of community and spiritual solidarity among Muslims that transcend the ethnic or national cultures in which Islam has landed. There is much, much more that could be said, and it is impossible to capture fully the breadth and depth of this religion, but this outline is a taste. 6 ©2014 Rev. Bruce Southworth

Like Judaism or Christianity, Islam has its sects, and it is no more fair to judge Islam based upon a radical imam than it is to judge Christianity based upon Pat Robertson or James Dobson. Islam is highly decentralized with considerable congregational autonomy and has many varying traditions, Sunni, Shiite, and Sufi, to name a few, just as Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, and Unitarian Universalists come in many flavors, branches and traditions.

Certainly as a Unitarian Universalist, I have differences with some of the faith convictions of Islam. For one, I believe in continuous revelation, not that it was completed with Muhammad. Take a Gandhi or a King or a Dorothy Day or Starhawk or you or me. We each can experience the holy and teach one another about how to live and love and serve.

Islam’s attitude toward gays and lesbians remains discriminatory for the most part. Cultural patriarchy has often obscured Muhammad’s own affirmation of women’s rights in many, if not all, instances.

But many elements of Islam do resonate within me.

Islam declares itself ultimately to be a way of life, not a religion of the mosque alone, not a matter only of creed or ritual. Good deeds and daily righteousness beckon to us.

Islam reminds me of how easy it is to forget the Source of Life, and Love and Beauty, the wonder of creation, to take it for granted. Forgetfulness and idolatry are something I must attend to.

Islam says, "Give something of yourself away so that you may have meaning to your life. Give of yourself to others."

Islam says we are all sisters and brothers. There is none higher, none lower; there is a family of humanity. The pilgrimage to Mecca in my mind is a powerful image of equality and humility. And because we are sisters and brothers, there must be justice for all.

Again, original sin in Islam is a matter of forgetfulness. So often, we forget, I forget, what is important, precious, and trustworthy. We make our idols and forget they are our creations, our private gods. Therefore, in order not to forget, the Muslim repeats five times a day in prayer, (and more likely hundreds of times a day), throughout the day, "There is no God but God, and Muhammad is God's Prophet."

Which is to say, as a reminder to myself, I am not God sufficient unto myself alone. I did not create the heavens and the earth. I cannot control all that there is. I am a part of the sacred creation, a worthy participant and co-creator, and there is wonder, mystery, and creativity far beyond my abilities to control. 7 ©2014 Rev. Bruce Southworth

Our daily challenge is forgetfulness. Each day also offers abundant opportunities - to seek balance, to offer gratitude, to live with humility and deep connection to Life, to the sacred, to God - while honoring our sacred, ethical obligations.

It is the spirit of Canadian Muslim and journalist Irshad Manji, now a New Yorker, that speaks of the heart of Islam that will make a world of difference. She asks, “When did we stop thinking?” and affirms a vision of her working to give Muslims “a future to live for rather than a past to die for.” (“Change Agents,” Charles Strohmer, Christian Century, p. 26, 8/9/05)

In closing, I first return to several sayings of Muhammad that just as easily could have come from the Buddha, Isaiah or Jesus - teachings our world still needs to hear and to heed, still too often forgotten.

The ethical vision of Muhammad that I embrace counters homophobia and heterosexism, such as, "No one is a true believer unless you desire for your neighbor that which you desire for yourself."

"What actions are most excellent? To gladden the heart of a human being, to feed the hungry, to help the afflicted, to lighten the sorrow of the sorrowful, and to remove the wrongs of the injured."

“There can be no compulsion in religion.”

"When we die, our neighbors will not ask what goods we have left, but of us it will be asked, 'What good have we done?'"

Finally, there is also its spirit so akin to our Transcendentalist heritage, and I close with words of spiritual clarity from Rumi, a Sufi… a mystic Muslim with a sense of oneness, of unity and communion with the divine. Our own Transcendentalist heritage echoes this kind of path that Rumi offers:

“The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don't go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want. Don't go back to sleep. People are going back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch. The door is round and open. Don't go back to sleep.”

Again, Rumi:

Why should I seek? I am the same as God. God’s essence speaks through me. I have been looking for myself!