Local Lessons

The title of my khutbah today is “Local Lessons”.

I’ll start with the story of Jonah from the Quran: “And truly Jonah was of the ones who were sent when he fled from his people to the laden boat. He cast lots with them and he had been of the ones who were refuted. Then the Fish engulfed him while he was the one who is answerable. If he had not been of the ones who glorify, he would have lingered in expectation in its belly until the Day they are raised up. Then We cast him forth on the naked shore while he was ill. We caused a plant of gourd to develop over him. We sent him to a community of a hundred thousand or they even exceed that. And they had believed so We gave them enjoyment for a while.” (37: 139- 149)

Out of all the prophets in the Quran, Jonah was – by far- the most reluctant. Running away from his mission, boarding a ship, and if that wasn’t far enough, getting swallowed by a great fish or whale. Now at the bottom of a cold, dark ocean, inside a slimy fish- probably smelled pretty bad, completely alone, completely isolated-but he’s alive. Miserable, but alive. The only way he could get out of his predicament was to praise the One whom he had denied- God. The praise got him out, and now Jonah was obligated to face his mission. And so this most reluctant of all prophets, became the most successful of all prophets. His message reached his community and they were spared destruction- for a time.

Jonah comes up again in a hadith of the Prophet Muhammad. In a disastrous early mission, Prophet Muhammad and his adopted son Zayd, traveled to Ta’if. The citizens of Ta’if refused to listen to the message, and Prophet Muhammad and Zayd were run out of town by street children throwing rocks at them. They were throwing a lot of rocks, the men were bleeding. They found refuge outside the town in the orchards of Utbah and Shaybah, from the Quraysh tribe. Feeling sorry for their fellow Meccans, they sent their servant Addas to give the men some grapes. When the servant Addas heard the Prophet say “Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Reheem” , he was curious and started up a conversation with Prophet Muhammad. When Muhammad asked him where he was from, Addas said, “Nineveh” and Prophet replied” The town of Jonah the just, son of Amittai!” Addas was shocked that an Arab knew of Jonah, so he asked Prophet about Jonah. Prophet replied, “We are brothers. Jonah was a Prophet of God, and I am a Prophet of God.” When Addas heard this, he converted to Islam.  And I’m sure that for the Prophet, bruised and battered from his encounter at Ta’if, he felt this citizen from Jonah’s town offering him refreshment, was surely an ayat from God , telling him to stay the course, stay on the path.

I’ve started with these stories about Jonah, the reluctant prophet, because I can identify with them to a certain extent. I think everyone here knows, or if you don’t you will soon be hearing about it, that since January I have reluctantly become involved in a local political campaign. It has taken up a tremendous amount of my time and energy, and it will continue to do so until April 2, election day. At least I have a deadline. I definitely had a choice here. I could have stayed at home and not get involved. I don’t like talking up strangers and I hate confrontation. However, I feel that this particular issue- funding public school education- is tremendously important to my family and my community on many levels, and so I feel an obligation to be involved. My mother was a public school teacher, and in following the ‘pay it forward’ philosophy, I need to get involved. I have seen what happens to communities when public education is not funded properly- this goes back to my home state of California, and the results are truly disastrous. Finally, I believe a well educated citizenry is essential to a truly healthy democracy. Demagogues and oligarchs, who do not want anything to change so as to secure and maintain their power, try their best to keep their citizens in intellectual poverty.

I have learned many lessons in joining this political campaign, some of which I will share today, particularly in the context of Quranic principles.

1.       An uphill battle

2.       Do my efforts matter?  cheerleading/ talking people off the ledge

3.       Finding humanity in them-

An uphill battle- the struggle in context. In Prophet Muhammad’s time, I believe, his society was in a period of transition. There were tribes with great wealth and privilege, a greater wealth disparity being generated by the trade routes through Mecca, and there were more people living on the fringes of society- street children unclaimed by any parent, people who belonged to low caste tribes, or no tribes at all. Slavery was widespread, and along with this privilege came abuse and mistreatment of these captive human beings. In this context of extreme inequality, Prophet Muhammad brought a new message of accountability to God, community and parental responsibility and economic reform. This was a tough sell, particularly to the privileged tribal elites. Currently in the United States, I feel we are experiencing similar upheavals and inequalities. In the book, “The Unwinding: an Inner History of the New America”, author George Packer writes:

“No one can say when the unwinding began- when the coil that held Americans together in its secure and sometimes stifling grip first gave way. Like any great change, the unwinding began at countless times, in countless ways- and at some moment the country, always the same country, crossed a line of history and became irretrievably different.

     If you were born around 1960 or afterward, you have spent your adult life in the vertigo of that unwinding. You watched structures that had been in place before your birth collapse like pillars of salt across the vast visible landscape- the farms of the Carolina Piedmont, the factories in the Mahoning Valley, Florida subdivisions, California schools. And other things, harder to see but no less vital in supporting the order of everyday life, changed beyond recognition- ways and means in Washington caucus rooms, taboos on New York trading desks, manners and morals everywhere. When the norms that made the old institutions useful began to unwind, and the leaders abandoned their posts, the Roosevelt Republic that had reigned for almost half a century came undone. The void was filled by the default force in American life, organized money.

….The unwinding brings freedom, more than the world has ever granted, and to more kinds of people than ever before- freedom to go away, freedom to return, freedom to change your story, get your facts, get hired, get fired, get high, marry, divorce, go broke, begin again, start a business, have it both ways, take it to the limit, walk away from the ruins, succeed beyond your dreams and boast about it, fail abjectly and try again .And with freedom the unwinding brings its illusions, for all these pursuits are as fragile as thought balloons popping against circumstances. Winning and losing are all-American games, and in the unwinding winners win bigger than ever, floating away like bloated dirigibles, and losers have a long way to fall before they hit bottom, and sometimes they never do.” Pp 3-4

This is our dunya.

My struggle, is to pass a school referendum for infrastructure repairs at the public high schools. The last time this school district passed something like this was 1962, when the voting population had gone through WW2 and understood the importance of collective effort. In 2019, we have a hard time with this concept. This is the third time the referendum is on the ballot.

George Packer explains the current attitude towards education”

“ In the midst of economic stagnation, education had become a status game, ‘purely positional and extremely decoupled’ from the question of its benefit to the individual and society.

In Silicon Valley you didn’t have to look far for evidence. The public schools that had once been the pride of California belonged to a statewide system ranked forty-eighth in the country, chronically underfunded and in crisis. Private schools had become an option for more and more families, but so had something novel in American history: a privatized public education. Schools in the prosperous towns of Silicon Valley had come to depend on massive fundraising to stay at the top. The elementary school in Woodside, with four hundred seventy kids, was supported by a foundation- begun five years after Proposition 13, in 1983, to save the job of a special ed teacher from budget cuts- that pulled in two million dollars a year.

…..A few miles away, in East Palo Alto, elementary schools had no foundations and chronically lacked textbooks and classroom supplies. In California’s public schools there was a long way to fall.

The same held true for universities. The University of California’s world-class system saw its budget cut by nearly a billion dollars, more than 25 percent, in four years, and by 2012, facing billions more in cuts, was on the verge of collapse. That year, Stanford announced that it had raised $6.2 billion in a five-year capital campaign, during a financial crisis and recession- the largest amount in the history of higher education. “ pp 391-392.

When American society has reduced the meaning of education to just another notch on the status belt, how can you convince people to follow the Quranic concept of , “Lord increase my knowledge.” (Qur’an 20:11) The Qur’an uses the word “knowledge” in various forms 854 times and many Quranic passages urge human beings to think, consider, and reason. And it is not just Quran, in the hadith tradition we have sayings such as "Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave." And "Seeking Knowledge is a duty upon every Muslim male and female.'”

Public education funding is an uphill climb in today’s dunya, and I can’t help but think that battling ignorance was also a major obstacle in Prophet Muhammad’s time, given the 854 mentions of ”knowledge” in Quran.

Another aspect of my current struggle, or education jihad, is trying to convince volunteers of the value of their effort. It can be really hard to motivate even the most well intentioned people. They are reluctant to sacrifice their time. Time. Back in the Prophet’s day, people had to sacrifice their lives. Granted one’s life is different from one’s time, but a very similar attitude, “Do my efforts really count?” still applies.

In Quran, we find examples of motivating the reluctant in 2:154 “And say not of those who are slain in God’s cause, “They are dead:; nay, they are alive, but you perceive it not.

And in 3:156-158

“O you who have attained faith! Be not like those who are bent on denying the truth and say of their brethren after having set out on a long journey to faraway places or gone forth to war, ‘Had they but remained with us, they would not have died’ or ‘they would not have been slain’ – for God will cause such thought to become a source of bitter regret in their hearts, since it is God who grants life and deals death. God sees all that you do. And if indeed you are slain or die in God’s cause, then surely forgiveness from God and His grace are better than all that one could amass in this world. For indeed, if you die or are slain, it will surely be uto God that you shall be gathered.”

Even if you have a motivated core group of volunteers, there are going to be set backs. There are going to be life events that threaten to derail your campaign- sometimes in my case, it can be a volunteer having a bad conversation with a potential voter. I call this the “talking them off the ledge” conversation. People can get extremely discouraged and want to give up, particularly if they feel their efforts are not being appreciated.

I think there were times in the Prophet’s life where he felt like giving up, when he felt his efforts were wasted. It was only God’s reassurance that kept him going. Think about how many times you may have come across “talking him off the ledge” ayat? One of the earliest Meccan surahs is Al Muddaththir (The Enfolded One #74)

“O Thou enfolded! Arise and warn! And thy Sustainer’s greatness glorify! And thine inner self purify! And all defilement shun! And do not through giving seek thyself to gain, but unto thy Sustainer turn in patience. And (warn all people) that when the trumpet call is sounded, that very Day shall be a day of anguish, not of ease for all who now deny the truth. Leave Me alone to deal with him whom I have created alone, and to whom I have granted resources vast, and children as witnesses, and to whose life I gave so wide a scope. (74:1-14) “

The last thing I would like to talk about, is finding the humanity in them. What I mean by this is that in a political campaign, it is easy to have an attitude of us versus them. Unfortunately, this attitude is counter productive, because at some point you need to reach out to “them” in order to make them part of “us’.  The prophet understood this, and actively tried to create neutral spaces for conversation and decision making.

PAUSE

In any attempt to change peoples’ minds, whether this is a political campaign or a religious conversion, you have to create situations where conversations can happen. Yes, there are some people who will never listen to what you say, they are too ingrained in what they think and believe. But that is only a few people. The majority of people are unsure. They may be ignorant or they may be lazy. To get people to listen, you cannot come at them with full force zeal. Zealotry, for the undecided, it not motivating, it is simply off-putting. The energy of zealotry is too close in tone to irrationality. If you want your cause to come off as the rational choice, you have to have a calm conversation.

In the Prophet’s time, calm conversations were the outcome of the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah.  Although the Prophet’s followers thought they were getting a bad deal at the time of the treaty, the Quran immediately hailed it as a major accomplishment.

“Verily, We have laid open before thee a manifest victory.” (48:1)

Muhammad Asad notes,

“The Truce of Hudaybiyyah was to prove of the greatest importance to the future of Islam. For the first time in six years peaceful contacts were established between Mecca and Medina, and thus the way was opened to the penetration of Islamic ideas into the citadel of Arabian paganism. The Meccans who had occasion to visit the Muslim camp at Hudaybiyyah returned deeply impressed by the spirit and the unity of Muhammad’s followers, and many of them began to waver in their hostility towards the faith preached by him. As soon as the perennial warfare came to an end and people of both sides could meet freely, new converts railed around the Prophet, first in tens, then in hundreds, then in thousands- so much so that when the pagan Quraysh broke the truce two years after its concession, the Prophet could and did occupy Mecca almost without resistance. Thus, in face if not in appearance, the Truce of Hudaybiyyah ushered in the moral and political victory of Islam over all Arabia.”

I don’t know whether my education referendum will pass in April. If it doesn’t pass, it will pass at some point. The schools will go down in their ranking, property values will plunge, and people will panic. In a crisis mode, they will pass some kind of referendum. I am hoping to by-pass the crisis, but I’m not sure that will happen. Is my community like that of Jonah who listen to the warnings, or are we more like stubborn Pharaoh’s Egyptians, who needed seven plagues and then some to change their minds? I can’t say where my community falls in that spectrum, but I will do my best to “get outside the belly of the fish” and talk to my neighbors in calm conversations.

I would also say that, in some ways, I am grateful for the opportunity of this referendum. Because of this struggle, I have gotten to know some very wonderful people who I otherwise may not have met. I have learned a tremendous amount about my community and how public education is funded in this country. This knowledge and these friendships are tremendous gifts, and for that I am extremely grateful.

Endings and Beginnings

The title of my khutbah today is “Endings and Beginnings”. I chose this theme because today’s khutbah marks an end of an era- it will be the last khutbah at this location. J and O are moving, so this home is no longer available and the format of the Friday jummah will also be changing in 2019. We can talk about this more in the discussion portion, but suffice to say, today for me, feels like an ending.

Before I dig deeper into the khtubah, I would like to take the time to say thank you to J and O, and also B and H and S and J, who have shared their homes with us in fellowship and allowed us to worship in our own particular style with equality of prayer space. Thank you for giving us safe spaces to express our thoughts and opinions in freedom. May God in His generous wisdom reward you for your generosity. Also, I am reminded to thank God for allowing us to live in a country where we have the freedom to worship how we please, the freedom to gather with people we choose , and to express ourselves free from violence. Many of our fellow Muslims around the world are not able to enjoin many or most of these kinds of freedoms because of the government and society under which they live. Thank you God for the United States of America.

When we see an ending approaching, it is a good time for us to sit back and stake stock of what we have learned, what we have struggled with, and what we hope to see in the future-a starting point to set new goals.

Every ending marks the start of a new beginning. We know this from our personal experience, and from Quran. The first thing that might spring to mind when I talk about “ending’ in the Quran is dying and what happens after we die. J gave a very nice khutbah about that a few ago, so I’m not going to use that metaphor today. Instead, I’d like to talk about the process of religious conversion. What happens when we change our minds about what we believe?

I’m going to define religious conversion as the process of switching from one belief system to a different belief system. In the time of the Prophet, the old belief system was based on worship of many gods and goddesses and the world was organized around appeasing these entities with sacrifices and rituals. Mirroring the fragmentation of the deities, society was organized around tribal loyalties. The new religious system which the Prophet gave to his followers was organized around the belief of a single God, Allah, with very different  rituals and sacrifices. Similarly, followers of this new belief system were asked to organize into a single group and if not reject, then at least have weakened tribal allegiances. With this unification of God’s oneness, there must have been tremendous mental pressure on the new converts. Instead of bundling all of life’s unpleasant challenges into the workings of disgruntled gods and goddesses, all the contradictions of life on this planet had to be reconciled into the plan of one divine being Not only were they renouncing the belief system of their tradition and families, but they were also organizing themselves into a community of like minded believers (as opposed to the genetic  basis of tribes). It is perhaps not surprising that this ending of old beliefs and springing up of new ones can make many people undergoing religious conversion prone to psychological dissonance and discomfort. 

One way to deal with this mental pressure is to engage in”end of days” thoughts. The apocalypse of the mental world in their heads is projected out to the belief of an apocalypse of the physical world.  If you read the early Mecca surahs, many of them have a lot of end of days, end of the world imagery.

Surah 100 The Chargers (Al-Adiyat)

In the name of God, The Merciful, the Compassionate- by the chargers, panting, by ones who kindle fire, striking fire, by the raiders in the morning, when they plowed it to a trail of dust and they penetrated the center with it, a multitude. Truly the human being is unthankful to his Lord. And truly he is a witness to that. And he is more severe in cherishing of good. Knows he not that when all that is in the graves is scattered about and shown forth is what is in the breasts, truly their Lord on that Day will be aware of them.

Surah 101 The Disaster (al Qari’ah)

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate- the Disaster! What is the Disaster? And what will cause you to recognize what the Disaster is? On a Day humanity will be like dispersed moths and the mountains will become like plucked wool clusters. Then for him whose balance is heavy will be one whose life is pleasant, well-pleasing. Abut he whose balance is made light, his abode of rest will be the pit. What will cause you to recognize what it is? It is a hot fire.

The later surahs have far less of these apocalyptic references, many of them focused on the day to day problems facing a community of like minded believers. For instance, Surah 49 Al Hujurat (Private Apartments) was revealed in Medina year 9 and is a “how to” primer of how to get along.

49:6 “O You who have attained to faith! If any wicked person comes to you with a tiding, use your discernment, lest you hurt people unwittingly and afterwards be filled with remorse for what you have done.”

49:10 “ Only the ones who believe are brothers, so make things right between your brothers. And be Godfearing of God so that perhaps you would find mercy.”

49:12 “ Avoid suspicion much. Truly some suspicion is a sin and spy not nor backbite some by some other. Would one of you love to eat the flesh of his lifeless brother? You would dislike it. And be Godfearing of God. Truly God is Acceptor of Repentance. Compassionate!”

While the old way of doing things and thinking about the world may be ending, these old belief systems are replaced with new perspectives and beliefs. This is a time of transition, which can be scary, because it is a chaotic time of death and renewal. It can be hard to predict what will remain, and what will be cast off.  Eventually, things settle down.

PAUSE

From Ibn Sa’d’s book The Book of the Major Classes (Arabic: Kitab Tabaqat Al-Kubra), we learn that when Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) died, his companions were thrown into confusion and fear. 

Hazrat Umar shouted in the masjid,  “The Messenger of Allah did not die. He is alive. He was struck by lightning like Moses. If anyone says, ‘Muhammad died’, I will split him into two with my sword.”

However, after leaving the house of the Prophet, Hazrat Abu Bakr went to the Mosque. He heard Umar say, “The Messenger of Allah did not die.” Abu Bakr stopped him and said, “Whoever worships Muhammad (pbuh) should know that Muhammad (pbuh) died. Whoever worships Allah should know that Allah is Hayy (immortal).”

He then recited from Surah Imran ayah 144:

“Muhammad is only a Messenger. Surely Messengers have passed away before him. Then if he should die or be slain, will you turn about on your heels? And he who turns about on his heels will not injure God at all; and God will give recompense to the ones who are thankful.”

Abu Bakr calmed the crowd, and then started organizing.

All the companions learned so much from their time with the Prophet and this served them when they came to take leadership positions. After the Prophet’s death, all of the Khalifah Rashedeen were called upon to do things which were not part of the community’s expectation of their character. Abu Bakr, considered the meek and mild companion, was forced to act as an authoritarian tax enforcer during the Ridda Wars because many tribes would not pay zakat. Umar ibn Khittab, the fierce warrior, exercised compassion and mercy during a terrible drought that struck the Arabian peninsula. Uthman, the refined aristocrat, learned that tribal nepotism had no place in the new Muslim meritocracy, and Ali, the rigid knight, had to negotiate and compromise with his enemies.

While our Friday jummah will be dramatically changing and in some sense, coming to an end, I think the experience of being in this fellowship has changed all of us and I am confident that we will carry many of these lessons forward into other aspects of our lives.

I know for myself, I have learned so much. As one example, I was asked to speak at a recent school board meeting and I presented, what I considered to be, some uncomfortable truths about why a recent referendum had failed. The next day, as I drove my daughter to school, I said to her, “You may get some funny looks from your teachers because I had to speak some uncomfortable truths at last night’s meeting.” My daughter replied, “I think you deliberately seek out situations where you have to bring up your uncomfortable truths.” Maybe she is right. Maybe I am able to bring up uncomfortable truths because  I have had a space here to bring them up, discuss them, and I’ve learned that my friends will still talk to me the following week.

Thank you all for participating in this Khutbah Project. Thank you for your patience and understanding. May God bless you and help you as you carry forth the lessons we have learned here.

My closing du’a is from 2:286, last ayah of Al Baqara: Our Lord! Do not punish us if we forget or make a mistake. Our Lord! Do not load on us a severe test as You did burden on those before us. Our Lord! Do not impose upon us that which we have not the strength to bear; and pardon us and forgive us and have mercy on us, You are our Defender, so help us against the ungrateful people. Ameen

Communication in Color

The title of my khutbah today is “Communication in Color”.  While you might think this was inspired by the oncoming fall foliage, it was actually inspired by a line from the Quran and octopuses- as well as cuttlefish (cousins to the octopus).

The line from Quran is found in 2:138 “Colors from Allah! And who could give a better color than God, if we but worship Him?” Sibghatal-lahi wa man ‘ahsanu minal-lahi sibghah. Wa nahmu lahu ‘abidun.

It is a curious ayah. Sometimes “color” is translated as “Hue” or “Dye”.  The translators have a bit of a problem with it.  The root letters – suad ba ghyn- - signify savour or relish. As an artist I love that, but that is not much help to a translator.  Since the ayah comes in the middle of the theological debate with Jews and Christians, many commenters have said that the “color” or “Dye” is a colloquial expression for “Baptism”, the ayah then means that it doesn’t matter who baptizes you, the fact that you worship God is baptism enough. That is certainly one way of interpreting the ayah and you can leave it at that.

However, when I was reading a philosophy/natural history book called “Other Minds: The octopus, the sea, and the deep origins of consciousness” by Peter Godfrey-Smith, I thought again of this ayah as I came across passages of the octopus and cuttlefish.

Why write a book about octopuses and what does this have to do with consciousness? Godfrey-Smith wrote the book because he is a philosopher interested in consciousness, and he was wondering what it would be like to encounter an alien from a different planet and what that consciousness would look like. If you’ve seen the science fiction movie “Arrival”, that is a similar thought experiment, and interestingly, the aliens from that movie look like octopus or squids. Since he didn’t have access to an alien, he looked at our evolutionary tree. Octopuses and humans share a common ancestor, but our paths diverged millions of years ago. Octopuses live in the sea, we carry the sea within us.  We are related to primates and mammels, octopuses are related to molluscs and clams. Over millions of years, as cephalopods (octopuses, squids and cuttlefish) shed their shells and opted for mobility, they developed a very complex neural network which Is very different from ours. Their brains are organized in a way that looks nothing like ours. Instead of one central brain controlling and directing all action, they have a brain that coordinates discrete activies (i.e. their arms). The analogy Godfrey-Smith uses is human brains are like Paul Revere and the sexton. The sexton lights a candle (one if by land, two if by see), Paul Revere sees the candle and acts. Cephalopod brains are more like a rowboat with eight oarsmen and a coxswain. The coxswain navigates the boat and calls out the time to coordinate the rowers, but each of the rowers is a fairly independent agent. 

We are used to our own consciousness, where environmental stimuli streams are integrated into one single picture. But for many species, this is not the case- the left side doesn’t know what the right side is doing. Particularly for animals with eyes on the sides of their head (not in front like us), the eyes have separate visual fields, and the information is not always passed on to the other side of the brain. For some species, they may be better positioned to evade predators or find food on one side of their body versus the other. Scientists think that if different tasks require different kinds of processing, it might be easier for a brain with specialized sides and not tie them too closely together. I am reminded of studies done in Russia on dolphins (which can’t be done nowadays), but they showed that dolphins sleep on one side of the brain, and then switch- alternating sleep patterns (one side awake, other side asleep). Humans that have had their corpus callosum severed (an early treatment for severe epilepsy) behave fairly normally, unless they are put under special experimental conditions where different halves of the brain are exposed to different stimuli.

“The left side of the brain usually controls language (though not always) and when you talk to a split-brain person, it is the left side show speaks back. Though the right side cannot usually speak, it can control the left hand. So it can choose objects by touch, and draw pictures. In various experiments, different images are provided to each side of the brain. If the person is asked what they have seen, their verbal response will follow what was shown to the left side of the brain, but the right side-controlling the left hand- may disagree. The special kind of mental fragmentation seen in split-brain humans seems a routine part of many animals’ life.” P 86

“To some degree, unity is inevitable in a living agent: an animal is a whole, a physical object keeping itself alive. But in other ways, unity is optional, an achievement, an invention. Bringing experience together- even the deliverances of the two eyes- is something that evolution may or may not choose to do.” P 87

So how does this relate to color? Most cephalopods (not all, but most) are very good at camouflage. They can change their color within seconds to blend in with their surroundings. Remember, these are animals without bones, teeth, or fangs,  who wander along the ocean floor looking for food and evading a huge variety of predators. Furthermore, most of you are familiar with the ink that cephalopods squirt at predators to avoid being eaten. The ink jet is often accompanied with a dramatic color change to scare the predator- or at least get him to open his mouth to release the arm.

Godfrey-Smith describes an encounter with a cuttlefish:

“This animal is three feet long with a skin that can appear just about any color at all and can change in seconds, sometimes much faster than a second. Thin silver lines wander over its head, as if the animal is visibly electrified. The electric lines make the cuttlefish look like a hovering spacecraft. But the disruption to one’s impressions, to all attempts to make sense of the animal, is continual. As you watch, bright red trails lead from its eyes. A spaceship crying tears of blood? …IN the case of large cuttlefish, the entire body is a screen on which patterns are played. The patterns are not just a series of snapshots, but moving shapes, like stripes and clouds. These seem to be immensely expressive animals, animals with a lot to say. If so, what is being said, and to whom?” p 108

“Colors from God! And who could give a better color than God, if we but worship Him?”

What makes the color change capacity of cephalopods so interesting is that they are rather solitary creatures, they tend to be loners and do not tend over their young. They are said to be color blind.

PAUSE

In order to tell the difference between brightness of light  versus color of light, you need to have photoreceptors. Photoreceptor cells have molecules that change shape with different frequencies of light. Most humans have three kinds of photoreceptors, most color vision systems need at least two. Cephalopods have only one.

In behavior test where cephalopods are asked to distinquish between two stimuli that only differ in color, the ones who have been tested, fail.

How can you match color if you cannot see? One explanation is that you use reflecting cells, mirrors in the skin, to reflect back the color from outside. Cephalopods do have these reflecting cells in their skin. But if the animal is matching color behind its back and the color from the front is different, then the cephalopod would need to actively produce the right color- which it can also do using chromatophores it its skin.

What researchers have learned is that the octopus skin can both sense light and produce a response  that affects the skin’s color. The octopus can see with its skin.

Godfrey-Smith writes,

“What could it be like to see with your skin? There could be no focusing on an image. Only general changes and washes of light could be detected. We don’t yet know whether the skin’s sensing is communicated to the brain, or whether the information remains local. Both possibilities stretch the imagineation. If the skin’s sensing is carried to the brain, then the animal’s visual sensitivity would extend in all directions, beyond where the eyes can reach. If the skin’s sensing does not reach the brain, then each arm might see for itese, and keep what it sees to itself.” P 121

“I think that these animals have a sophisticated system designed for camouflage and signaling, but one that is connected to the brain in a way theat leads to all sorts of strange expressive quirks- to a kind of ongoing chromatic chatter.” P 128

By now you are probably thinking, Ok this is interesting but what does this have to do with God?

When we learn about how other organisms live and perceive the world around them, we gain a sense of humility. There are animals that can take the same thing I perceive, light for instance, and they can see it absorbed as a color, or know how it is polarized, or use it to determine what season it is or navigate a thousand mile migration pattern. I can’t do those things, I am not built that way. In appreciating the diversity of others, I am reminded that my perception is limited. I am not omniscient and I am not omnipotent. I am not a god.

In the Quran, 21:28-30

“(God) knows all that lies open before them and all that is hidden from them; hence, they cannot intercede for any but those whom (God) has graced with His goodly acceptance, since they themselves stand in reverent awe of Him. And if any of them were to say, ‘Behold, I am a deity beside Him’- that one We should requite with hell; thus do We requite all such evildoers. Are, then they who are bent on denying the truth not aware that the heavens and the earth were once one single entity which We then parted asunder? And that We made out of water every living thing?. Will they then not believe?”

It is also my hope that as we gain knowledge of the world around us and we see the amazing and beautiful creations God has rendered, that we will become more appreciative of the air, the earth, and the water and all the creatures that dwell therein. If we are grateful and filled with wonder, then we will be less prone to destroy and exploit our world. We will become better khalifas of this planet and strengthen our accountability to God who has charged us with this task of caring for our world.

REFERENCES:
Quran translations: "The Message of the Qur'an" by Muhammad Asad

"Other Minds: the Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness" by Peter Godfrey-Smith 2016  (Fararr-Strauss and Giroux: New York)

The Dunya Blues

The title of my khutbah today is “Dunya Blues“.

When I volunteered to give the khutbah two weeks ago I thought to myself, “no problem.” But in the space of two weeks, just two weeks, I have to say that this dunya has really gotten me down. Watching our president and his behavior towards our immigrants, allies and bullies, has made me very upset. I don’t think I have been this down in the dumps since the George W Bush years. Because my children were too small to remember that time, they think something is really wrong with me. No dear, this is just a repeat, a remix if you will, of things that have happened before. This is the Dunya Blues.

One typical trigger for my Dunya Blues was something I saw on CNN. It said that 55% of the American people disapproved of the President’s handling of his recent trip abroad, but 68% of Republicans thought he did a great job. All I could think of was our recent trip to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest in Germany this summer. At the museum, it became clear that Hitler could do no wrong in the eyes of his supporters. It was only after their major cities were in ruins, their friends and family were killed, they were starving and four foreign armies occupied their country that these people thought “Maybe Hitler wasn’t such a good idea.” I feel like it would take these kinds of events to change people’s minds in our current political climate. If these events sound hellish, I would agree. The events of WW2 were hellish, but perhaps to change people’s minds, Hell is required.

The Quran does assert that some people will not change their erroneous beliefs while they live in this world. The first mention of this is in Surah Baqarah

“Behold, as for those who are bent on denying the truth- it is all one to them whether thou warnest them or doest not warn them: they will not believe. God has sealed their hearts and their hearing, and over their eyes is a veil, and awesome suffering awaits them.” (2:7)

The metaphor of “sealed hearts”, which lead to sealed hearing and vision, is a common motif in Quran.

“Say: ‘What do you think? If God should take away your hearing and your sight and seal your hearts- what deity but God is there that could bring it all back to you? Behold how many facets We give to Our messages- and yet they turn away in disdain” (6:46)

“As for anyone who denies God after having once attained to faith- and this, to be sure, does not apply to one who does it under curess, the while his heart remains true to his faith, but only to him who willingly opens up his heart to a denial of the truth- upon all such falls God’s condemnation, and tremendous suffering awaits them; all this because they hold this world’s life in greater esteems than the life to come, and because God does not bestow this guidance upon people who deny the truth. They whose hearts and whose hearing and whose sight God has sealed- it is they, they who are heedless. Truly it is they, they who in the life to come shall be the losers.” (16:106-109)

“In this way God lets go astray such as waste their own selves by throwing suspicion (on His revelations)- such as would call God’s messengers into question without having any evidence therefor; (a sin_ exceedingly loathsome in the sight of God and of those who hath attained to faith. It is this way that God sets a seal on every arrogant, self-exalting heart.” (40:35)

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People with sealed hearts will never see the truth until they are forced to confront the truth on the Day of Judgment. However, the thing to remember is that for us humans it is difficult to distinguish between people whose hearts are completely sealed versus  those who can be ‘toggled’ into better behavior. Keep in mind that some of the Prophet’s fiercest opponents actually, by the grace of God, came around and were his biggest defenders.

How can people be nudged into better behavior? From the time of our Prophet until today, this question continues to be a major topic of interest and research. The Prophet’s primary tool was the Quran, but not everyone who listened to the Quran heeded those words.  I gave a few examples, but the ‘sealed heart  or ‘hardened heart’ phrase, “ is used more than twenty times throughout the Quran, a testimony to the stubbornness of the population.

We might like to think that facts and data can change people’s behavior, but in our modern age of spin, hyperbole and sophisticated propaganda, real world facts can be held under suspicion in the alternative reality created by these ‘spin machines’.

What makes the spin machines effective is they tap into the human code- our structure of beliefs.  I was reminded of this after  a recent “Westworld” binge, when one of the characters said, “You don’t think people can change?” and the robot replied, “I think the best they can do is live up to their code.” What does a human ‘code’ look like and does this code provide us with some insight as to how better behavior can be encouraged? If you will indulge me, this is my thought experiment: perhaps humans have a code of ethical and moral behavior which they get from an early age- a product of their personality and environment. Human beings act in accordance with this code, and reject ideas or behavior that seem to contradict this belief framework. Good behavior could result if the messaging can conform to the standards of the code. What are some of the codes that Islam teaches us?

In the Islamic Tradition, there is a code which tells humans about not getting too invested in this life, in this world, in this dunya. In this strand of traditional thought supported by sunna, Muslims are told that they should be focused on the next life, not this one. Muslims should prepare for the next life by fulfilling moral obligations in this world, for example by praying and giving charity, and not worry so much about the material aspirations (power, legacies) of this life. Well, after the past couple of weeks, I can really understand where that advice is coming from. Why invest yourself emotionally and spiritually in a world where you have little control and where people and circumstances are certain to thwart your plans and sense of logic?  In times like these, detachment feels , not so much like a philosophical stance, but, more like a survival choice.

Detachment is not the only code in our Islamic Tradition and there are many more options in the Quran itself. One example is in Surah Luqman.  This is considered a mid-Mecca surah, revealed at a time of uncertainty in the nascent Muslim community. I want to emphasize, this was a time of uncertainty, no one knew there was going to be a happy ending of a triumphant march through Mecca. At this time, the Muslim community was growing, but also finding itself under increasing tension with their pagan neighbors. At this time there may have been the beginnings of physical persecution and talk of migration to Abyssinia. The context of this time was turmoil, the rumble of thunderclouds on the horizon, great uncertainty.

In this time of transformation, the surah Luqman was revealed to the Prophet. The surah is named after Luqman, a wise man prone to counseling his son. We are also told Luqman is wise because he is “Grateful unto God” (31:12).

The beginning of Surah Luqman acknowledges the difficulty in changing human behavior:

“But among men there is many a one that prefers a mere play with words so as to lead (those) without knowledge astray from the path of God and to turn it to ridicule: for such there is a shameful suffering in store. For whenever Our messages are conveyed to such a one, he turns away in his arrogance as though he hd not heard them- as though there were deafness in his ears; givbe him then, the tiding of grievous suffering (in the life to come)” (31:6-7)

The surah goes on to say that for people who do listen, there is a great reward. As Osama told us a few weeks ago, much of the advice Luqman imparts to his son consists of the “Ten Commandments” which are repeated in numerous surahs throughout the Quran. These ten commandments are consistent with a code which allows all of us to do some good in this world. We do not have a presence on the world stage that would allow us to facilitate political changes, but we can all do small things which make the world a better place: worship one God, be respectful to our parents, pray, don’t be arrogant, be patient,  and one I needed to hear “But as for him who is bent on denying the truth- let not his denial grieve thee: unto Us they must return and then We shall make them understand all that they were doing. For verily, God has full knowledge of what is in the hearts.” (31:23)

(PAUSE)

Since it is summer and I did call this khutbah the Dunya Blues, I would like to close with a reflection derived from the biggest blues of all in this world- the ocean. Growing up along the California coast, I saw the ocean nearly every day in my youth. A deep royal blue on a sunny day, a cobalt blue dotted with white caps of foam on a windy day, or slate gray as the storm approached. The waves crashing along the shore, the extremes of low tide and high tide, the detritus after a storm- all these things served as a constant reminder of a creation which embodied beauty and strength, ferocity and tranquility. As the Danish author Isak Dineson once said, “The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the sea.”

Surah Luqman also makes mention of a parable in the context of the ocean and ships.  Just so we all understand some of the layers of this important metaphor, I turned to the “Penguin Dictionary of Symbols”. According to the dictionary, the ocean

“…is a symbol of the dynamism of life. Everything comes from the sea and everything returns to it. It is a place of birth, transformation, and rebirth. With its tides, the sea symbolizes a transitory condition between shapeless potentiality and formal reality, an ambivalent situation of uncertainty, doubt, and indecision which can end well or ill. Hence, the sea is an image of death and of life.”

With regards to ships, the dictionary states, “Ships conjure up ideas of strength and safety in the dangers of a voyage and the symbolism is as applicable to space-flight as to sea-travel. The ship is like a star which orbits about its pole, the Earth, but under human control. It is a picture of life in which the individual must choose a goal and steer a course.”

Now that you have some clues about the symbolism, this is the story as related in Surah Luqman:

 “Art thou not aware how ships speed through the sea by God’s favor, so that He might show you some of His wonders? Herein, behold, there are signs indeed for all who are wholly patient in adversity and deeply grateful to God. For when the waves engulf them like shadows, they call unto God, sincere in their faith in Him alone; but as soon as He has brought them safe ashore, some of them stop half-way. None reject Our signs but the ungrateful.” (31:31-32)

The parable of a storm at sea is symbolic to every danger that humans face in life- whether it is a physical danger, or just the passions within one’s own heart.  Just to convey how important this story is, this parable is repeated two more times in Quran.

“Your Sustainer is He who causes ships to move onward for you through the sea so that you might go about in quest of some of his bounty; verily, a dispenser of grace is He unto you. And whenever danger befalls you at sea, all those powers that you are wont to invoke forsake you, (and nothing remains for you) saw Him: but as soon as He has brought you safe ashore, you turn aside (and forget Him)- for indeed bereft of all gratitude is man!” (17:67)

“And so, when they embark on a ship (and find themselves in danger), they call unto God (at that moment) sincere in their faith in Him alone: but as soon as He has brought them safe ashore, they (begin to) ascribe to imaginary powers a share in His divinity and thus they show utter ingratitude for all that We have vouchsafed them, and go on enjoying this worldly life. But in time they will come to know.” (29:66)

Yes our times are uncertain and we may feel abandoned and ignored. But God does not ignore us. He is there for us in calm seas and in rough waters. Our code as Muslims is not to forget His connection to us. We live up to our code when we to keep our hearts open-unsealed- and to listen to His signs. Amen. 

References:

Quran translation  "The Message of the Quran" by Muhammad Asad

"Penguin Dictionary of Symbols" translated from the French by John Buchanan-Brown 1994 (Penguin Books: London)

Three Character Traits and the Test of Ramadan

A few weeks ago I was reading a book called “The Collapse of Parenting” by Leonard Sax. The book was rather alarming because it pointed to some disturbing parenting trends coupled with a lack of discipline with respect to our newer technology- screens and the internet. Leonard Sax is a pediatrician and he bases his observations on thirty years of clinical practice as well as citing studies in the medical literature. Some people say Sax approach to parenting is rather traditional, but I like it. Many of the qualities Sax urges parents to instill in their children are qualities which Islam and the Quran also value. SO my khutbah today will be an exploration of three character traits which Leonard Sax says are crucial to the development of healthy young adults and how these traits are manifested during Ramadan.

The first trait is perseverance. Sax believes if children are not taught perseverance they become fragile children who turn into fragile adults. Children need to learn that they may not succeed the first time they try something, they may need to be patient and work harder to achieve goals, and that their self worth is not built around easy success. He gives two examples, one is a boy who plays video games all day and has a certain measure of accomplishment doing this. His father suggests that he try out for the football team. The boy does, but is told by the coach that he will have to lose 15 pounds, do a rigorous work out schedule and may not be on the starting team. The boy decides not to try out and returns to his video games because that is easier for him. The father lets the boy do so with the refrain, “He should do what makes him happy.” This attitude is, Sax feels, bad parenting because the boy is not learning perseverance. Another example is a girl who takes a challenging AP Physics class. The girl had always gotten straight As and saw herself as a stellar scholar. She started the AP Physics class and it was not easy for her. She really had to struggle even to get a B. This experience plunged her into a near catatonic state of depression because her whole self-worth and identity had been built around this image of herself as the super brainy student. This extreme reaction to a bit of challenge is what Sax calls “fragility”.

Does the Quran value perseverance? Yes it does, and I will give some examples. Sometimes, the word used is “steadfast”.

"Seek Allah's help with patient perseverance and prayer. It is indeed hard except for those who are humble." (2:45)

"Oh you who believe! Seek help with patient perseverance and prayer, for God is with those who patiently persevere." (2:153)

“Be sure We shall test you with something of fear and hunger, some loss in goods, lives, and the fruits of your toil. But give glad tidings to those who patiently persevere. Those who say, when afflicted with calamity, 'To Allah we belong, and to Him is our return.' They are those on whom descend blessings from their Lord, and mercy. They are the ones who receive guidance." (2:155-157)

“Or assumed you that you would enter the Garden while God has not yet know those who struggled among you and known the ones who remained steadfast?” (3:142)

“Oh you who believe! Persevere in patience and constancy. Vie in such perseverance, strengthen each other, and be pious, that you may prosper." (3:200)

"Patiently, then, persevere - for the Promise of Allah is true, and ask forgiveness for your faults, and celebrate the praises of your Lord in the evening and in the morning." (40:55)

How does perseverance manifest itself during Ramadan? Well, it seems self-evident, we have 30 days to fast. And at this time of year, the days get slightly longer and it can be really hot outside. You have to be careful and pace yourself because dehydration can be a real problem. Fasting is about endurance, which isn’t terribly glamorous. It’s about hanging on with sheer willpower, and that is tough. Ramadan is not just about fasting, it is also supposed to be fasting while maintaining patience with others and having good behavior. This is not easy when you are hungry and thirsty. It is really easy to get angry and snap at people, much harder to maintain calm and have patience. Also, with our schedules in the West, we often don’t get enough sleep during the week and have to struggle doing our jobs while sleep deprived in addition to being hungry and thirsty. Sometimes people can’t fast because of medical or other health considerations. Sometimes people have to break a fast for these reasons. Just because you can’t fast does not mean you are a bad Muslim. Many people feel very guilty if they can’t fast, and they shouldn’t. Your identity as a Muslim is not solely based on whether you can fast or not. Don’t  be a fragile Muslim.

The second quality good parents should teach their children is self control. This character quality is reinforced by psychological research which has shown that children who have the most self control, this is tested by how long they can delay getting a reward (delayed gratification), these children have the highest success in life as measured by education and income levels.

A big problem with our Western technological society today is that the internet and social media do not encourage self control. These technologies encourage excess and binge-watching and instant gratification in the form of “likes” and numbers of followers. Most of use grew up in environments where television was only on for certain times of the day, and certainly, when children’s programming was only a small portion of that time. Today, children have access 24/7 to any show that appeals to their tastes and the only thing that restricts them is parental authority. If parents do not implement rules and restraint with regards to screen time, children will not learn self control. Social media does not teach self restraint.

Does the Quran value self control or self restraint? Yes does it, and I will give some examples but first some language and translation caveats. Sometimes the language that is used is for self control is translated as “purify” or “purification”. The other word that is used in Quran is “sabr” which is translated in a variety of ways but typically as “God consciousness” or “God fearing” but which I think you could interchange with self control or self restraint. 

"No one will be granted such goodness except those who exercise patience and self-restraint, none but persons of the greatest good fortune." (41:35)

“And as for him who fears to stand in the presence of his Lord and forbids his own soul from its whims and caprices then surely Paradise is the abode. (79:40-41)

“…and by the soul and what shaped it and then inspired it to its acting immorally and God-consciousness. He who makes it (the soul) pure prospers. Surely is frustrated whoever seduced it.” (91:7-10)

How does self control manifest itself during Ramadan. Well, the Quran spells that out pretty clearly:

“O those who have believed! Formal fasting was prescribed for you as it was presecribed for those before you so that perhaps you would be Godfearing.” (2:183)

The final quality which Leonard Sax says parents need to inculcate into their children is humility. Children need to know that they are not necessarily the best at something, that the world does not revolve around them or cater to their tastes. Humility is the building block to maturity and acknowledging the needs of others as well as the community as a whole.

Again to bash our preoccupation with social media (creator of  the "selfie": social media encourages self promotion and self aggrandizement and pairs this activity with a vision of self identity based on how many “friends” you have (quantity over quality) or “likes” you get on your Facebook page.

Does the Quran value humility? Please judge for yourself from this small selection of verses:

“The servants of the Most Merciful are those who walk upon the earth in humility, and when the ignorant address them, they say words of peace.” (25:63)

“Call to your Lord humbly and inwardly. Truly He loves not the ones who are aggressors.” (7:55)

“Before thee We sent (apostles) to many nations, and We afflicted the nations with suffering and adversity, that they might learn humility. When the suffering reached them from us, why then did they not learn humility? On the contrary their hearts became hardened, and Satan made their (sinful) acts seem alluring to them.” (6:42-43)

I would also like to add a nice hadith I came across:

Abdullah ibn Mas’ud reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “No one who has the weight of a seed of arrogance in his heart will enter Paradise.”  Someone said, “Indeed, a man loves to have beautiful clothes and shoes.” So the Prophet said,”Verily, Allah is beautiful and He loves beauty. Arrogance means rejecting the truth and looking down on people.” Sahih Muslim 91

Does humility play a role in Ramadan? This is not as obvious as the previous traits, but I think it does. I find it humbling that at the end of the day, when we break our fast, we have pure clean water to drink and good food to eat. Sadly, this is not the case in so many parts of this world. We have been blessed by Allah in this regard. While fasting, it is humbling to know how dependent my body is on food and water. I realize, pretty quickly, that I have limits. I cannot”do it all”, and I must slow down. Some things in Ramadan just don’t get done, and that is ok. I find it very humbling when non-Muslims make a solidarity fast with me. They don’t have to fast, but they see the value in fasting and they want to show they respect me and my religion. I find it humbling when I drive by a sign in someone’s yard that says, “To our Muslim neighbors, Blessed Ramadan”. For many people, who we are and how we behave, our personal interaction with non-Muslims—that is their introduction to Islam. It is a very humbling feeling to know that your behavior represents Islam for those outside the religion.

In conclusion, Ramadan can be a great teacher. Ramadan can instill in us the character qualities of perseverance, self control and humility. These are not easy lessons by any means, but as Muslims who believe in delayed gratification, we think these qualities will help us in this life and in the next.

Frivolous Portraits

Today I am going to be giving a khutbah on something I never thought I would give a khutbah on, and I can only attribute this to the Power of Art. My khutbah is called, “Frivolous Portraits”.  These are some reflections on the Syrian refugee crisis which were inspired by Mounira Al Solh’s exhibit ‘I strongly believe in our right to be frivolous’ currently showing in the Contemporary Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago. This past Sunday, Abid had to do some volunteer hours in the city and while he was helping the homeless, I went to the Art Institute. 

In the modern wing, they were having a show by the Lebanese artist Mounira Al Solh. Mounira Al Solh works in Beirut and Zutphen (Netherlands). Her father is Lebanese and her mother is Syrian. Beirut is about two hour car drive from Damascus. She lived in Beirut through the Lebanese civil war in the 1980s, but she could not speak out about the war through her artwork at that time. In an interview with Henrik Folkerts, Al Solh said, “Growing up in the war is not about analyzing; it’s more about surviving. It’s beyond words. Even when you get older, there are traces that you will never be able to analyze or speak about.” However, this changed for her when the Syrian civil war broke out.  Al Sohl said, “I was living in Beirut at the time, and it was like being in the direct image of the war- not the actual war, but its mirror. A direct reflection of its impact, an immediate witness to how people flee and are focused on survival.” This ‘mirror effect’ gave her enough distance to be able to express the experiences of Syrian refugees through art.

The exhibit at the Art Institute is called “I strongly believe in our right to be frivolous” and this title is taken from an interview with the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish.  When Darwish was asked how he felt about being identified as a poet of the “Palestinian cause”, the poet responded that he would prefer to speak about love, life, and great literature. Rather than reducing people to victims or advocates of a political cause, he insisted on their humanity. He strongly believed in the right to be frivolous.

So while this exhibit is about refugees and the political crisis in Syria, it is a lot more than that. For me, this exhibit demonstrated the humanity of the refugees, and the humanity does sometimes get lost when people are reduced to the one dimension of victimhood. Yes, there were stories about trauma, but there was a lot of every day life, hopes, dreams, and humor. The exhibit consists of over two hundred drawings; portraits of refugees the artist drew as she interviewed them. Some people she interviewed more than once, and about their experiences at different points in time. At the beginning of the popular uprising, people were optimistic about the opportunity to live in a freer and more open society. As the civil war progressed, people became more pessimistic, and when people escaped, in addition to trying to adapt to a refugee camp or settling into a new country with a different culture, nearly all of the refugees were grappling with the guilt of leaving friends and family behind.

Another part of the exhibit is embroideries. Some are portraits on, what looked like to me, ready to be assembled throw pillows. There is also an embroidered sperveri, a Greek tradition of decorating canopied bridal beds. This sperveri is decorated on the outside with Ottoman and Greek motifs and when you look at the bed portion there are ten or so stories in Arabic and English which memorialize those lost and deceased. The embroideries were collaborative efforts with women in refugee camps and minority communities.

Al Solh has interviewed refugees in Lebanon, the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Greece, and even Chicago.  She has collected so many different stories and different perspectives. Young Syrian refugees in Lebanon are unaware that Syrian soldiers fought in these Beirut neighborhoods in the Lebanese civil war, and many of the Christian residents still remember the trauma. Refugees coming into Chicago are heavily vetted and come to this county via airplane, a very different experience for refugees coming to Greece via boat or those who have to cross a land border to Turkey or Jordan.

Why I bring up the refugees during a khutbah is not just the fact that they are Arab Muslims, which is one good reason, but I am also reminded that the religion of Islam is full of refugees and immigrants. Our Muslim calendar is dated from the hijrah, the migration of Our Prophet from Mecca to Medina. Even earlier than, a group of Muslims had immigrated to the Christian kingdom of Abyssinia – this group included Uthman ibn Affan and Ruqayyah, the daughter of the prophet who was Uthman’s wife at the time. Our Qur’an has many examples of the migration of the Bani Israel from Egypt to Palestine, and there are a number of ayat concerning migration. Some examples are

2:218 “Lo! those who believe, and those who emigrate (to escape the persecution) and strive in the way of Allah, these have hope of Allah's mercy. Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.”

3:195 “And their Lord hath heard them (and He saith): Lo! I suffer not the work of any worker, male or female, to be lost. Ye proceed one from another. So those who fled and were driven forth from their homes and suffered damage for My cause, and fought and were slain, verily I shall remit their evil deeds from them and verily I shall bring them into Gardens underneath which rivers flow - A reward from Allah. And with Allah is the fairest of rewards.”

16:110 “Then lo! thy Lord - for those who became fugitives after they had been persecuted, and then fought and were steadfast - lo! thy Lord afterward is (for them) indeed Forgiving, Merciful.”

59:8-9 “And (it is) for the poor fugitives who have been driven out from their homes and their belongings, who seek bounty from Allah and help Allah and His messenger. They are the loyal. Those who entered the city and the faith before them love those who flee unto them for refuge, and find in their breasts no need for that which hath been given them, but prefer (the fugitives) above themselves though poverty become their lot. And whoso is saved from his own avarice - such are they who are successful.”

 One aspect of human nature that does not seemed to have changed very much for the last two thousand years is the pattern of immigration and displaced persons- whether people leave their homes to escape persecution or find new opportunities, the refugee phenomenon has continued for centuries, and does not show any signs of letting up. Whenever the refugee finds themselves in a new environment, inevitably, there is a response to that person from the native population; acceptance and help, or suspicion and hostility.  Religion urges people to be generous to those in need, while the base human survival instinct has a far less open-handed agenda.

PAUSE

Whenever I come across a Muslim artist, I am interested in how they come to terms with the hadith prohibitions on figurative art. These are in Al-Bukhari and Muslim collections and state

1) The most greviously tormented people amongst the denizens of Hell on the Day of Resurrections will be the makers of images (al-musawwirun)

 2) He who makes an image (sawwara suratan) will be punished by God on the Day of Resurrection until he breathes life into it- which he will not be able to do.

The second warning is most likely a reference to Quran 5:110

When Allah saith: O Jesus, son of Mary! Remember My favour unto thee and unto thy mother; how I strengthened thee with the holy Spirit, so that thou spakest unto mankind in the cradle as in maturity; and how I taught thee the Scripture and Wisdom and the Torah and the Gospel; and how thou didst shape of clay as it were the likeness of a bird by My permission, and didst blow upon it and it was a bird by My permission, and thou didst heal him who was born blind and the leper by My permission; and how thou didst raise the dead by My permission; and how I restrained the Children of Israel from (harming) thee when thou camest unto them with clear proofs, and those of them who disbelieved exclaimed: This is naught else than mere magic.” –Marmaduke Pickthall translation

For the legal jurists, Jesus is the only artist who is allowed to create. The Hadith scholar and Shafi’I jurist, Sharaf al-Din al-Nawawi (1234-1278) wrote in his collection of Hadith,

“The authorities of our school and others hold that the making of a picture of any living thing is strictly forbidden and that is one of the great sins because it is specifically threatened with the grievous punishment mentioned in the Hadith….the crafting of it is forbidden under every circumstance, because it imitates the creative activity of God…This is the summary position of our school on the question, and the absolute majority of the Companions of the Prophet and their immediate followers and the succeeding generations of scholars accepted it; it is the view of al-Thawri, Malik, Abu Hanifah, and others besides them.”

By invoking the names of these other scholars, al-Nawawi is implying that ALL the legal schools have the same opinion about figurative art. However, I would argue that with this reasoning, that art “imitates the creative activity of God”, one could also put forward the same argument in discouraging modern medicine, forensic science, anthropology, robotics, and computer sciences. In the Qur’anic reference, the art of bringing birds to life as well as the curing of lepers and the blind and the bringing forth of the dead is all possible only with God’s permission. Do our artists, physicians, scientists, and programmers have God’s permission in practicing their craft? We can talk about this after the khutbah.

While it is true that in many Muslim societies there has been a general discomfort or even outright destruction of figurative art (think of the Bamiyan Buddha statues and the Afghan Taliban), it is also true that there has been a lot of figurative art which was supported by Muslim rulers and other court elites and these artists were regarded with high esteem and status in their societies. Clearly, these patrons of the arts found value and meaning in figurative art which did not constitute worship (idolization) but rather the image led them to discover higher truths.

What are the higher truths that Mounira Al Sohl’s images of refugees tells us? For me, despite a language and cultural barrier, I felt a connection to the humanity the portrait was trying to convey. (Show example here). The portraits, for the most part, were done on yellow legal paper, and what they said during the interview is written as marginalia around the face/faces. I couldn’t read or understand the Arabic, but I could read the expression on the faces: hope, despair, kindness, perseverance, grief, dignity, contentment, trauma, guilt. The legal paper is also a reminder of the status of refugee (stuck in a bureaucracy) and as well as the fragility in the face of change and time. The portrait is a snapshot of a particular person at a particular time in their life. One day you have a normal life, and then a month later, a week, even a day and your life can be thrown into total chaos.

(Recite Surah Al-Asr).

The portrait is a snapshot of a particular person at a particular time in their life. The portrait is not the complete person, it can never be. We are far too complicated beings to be crammed into and summed up in a single snapshot. Even a thousand portraits could not capture the complete person, and all artists and photographers realize this. But an image can help the viewer find their way to a higher truth about the conditions of human existence.

At the end of her interview, Al Sohl said,

“It is a great joy to see those who really fight to make their way into this new life. They have to climb up again with everything they have: their feet, their teeth, their toes, their mouths, to reach a certain level, a bit closer to how they used to live back at home. Many others are slow and won’t be able to go that far. And some are just happy that their children at least will have a life and they forget about themselves…Guilt is a common emotion among the many people I have met. Although their reasons for feeling guilty varied, one should not forget that living in a safe place doesn’t mean that a person’s mind is fully shielded from trauma and violence. As I experienced myself when I came to the Netherlands…once you are in a safe place, emotions rooted in your past come out stronger than ever before.”

Let us thank God for our ability to have empathy for our fellow human beings, thank God for the gift of art which can often facilitate this process. Let us make du’a for the refugees and immigrants, to make their way easier as they make a new life for themselves in a different country, to help them heal and give hope.  Let us ask God to help us make refugees and immigrants welcome and help them to the best of our abilities in a way that is pleasing to God. Amen

References:

Mounira Al Sohl interview based on a conversation on June 1, 2017 in Kassel, Germany conducted by Hendrik Folkerts, Dittmer Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, printed in her artist statement pamphlet for the February 8-April 29 2018  I strongly believe in our right to be frivolous exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago

Interview with Mahmoud Darwish in BOMB Magazine No. 81, Fall 2002

Quran translation by Marmaduke Pickthall

Sharif al-Din al-Nawawi Riyad al-salihin (Garden of the Righteous)

A Worthy Adversary Part 14: The Perplexity of Single-Mindedness

I was reading and I came across this passage:

“But why, Ramsay would ask, do we confine our study to great political and military figures to whom the generality of mankind has attributed extraordinary, almost superhuman qualities, and leave out the whole world of saints, to whom mankind has attributed phenomenal virtue? It is trivial to say that power, or even vice, are more interesting than virtue, and people say so only when they have not troubled to take a look at virtue and see how amazing, and sometimes inhuman and unlikeable, it really is. The saints also belong among the heroes, and the spirit of Ignatius Loyola is not so far from the spirit of Napoleon as uniformed people suppose.” P  358 The Manticore by Roberston Davies.

What struck me about it was characterizing virtue, which we always think of as a good thing, as “inhuman and unlikeable”. If we look carefully at the lives of saints, or political leaders, or political leaders who are considered saints, we often find less than savory sacrifices which are made in the name of the Cause. It isn’t the sacrifices which necessarily bother me, but what I find more unsettling is the single-mindedness of purpose, the unshakable conviction that what they are doing is absolutely right. While I admire focus and concentration and deplore multi-tasking, and I understand that attention to detail and strength of purpose can produce amazing results, I also find the lack of doubt to be very alien to me. I am confused by people who don’t question their own motivations and beliefs. This confusion on my part has led me to today’s khutbah which is called ‘Perplexity of Single-Mindedness”.

My model for single-mindedness of purpose is Iblis. Iblis’ declared purpose is to drive humans off the path to God, to test them and only the ones who are not tempted by Iblis have the possibility of closeness to God. In my previous khutbahs, we have discussed Iblis, his mythic biography as documented in Qur’an, tafsir, hadith, qisas and historical texts in the Islamic tradition as well as the use of the Iblis motif in the Sufi tradition. All Sufis agree that Iblis is a negative force within the spiritual life. However, this didn’t stop Sufis from using the stories of Iblis to engage in discussions of difficult theological topics, such as how one deals with God’s will (irada) and God’s command (amr), particularly when the irada seems at odds with amr; Iblis’ failure to bow before Adam is the classic example of this conundrum. Sufis, such as Rumi, Ibn Ghanim and al-Junayd, who saw Iblis’ primary motivation as unabashed evil (arrogance, power, ignorance, etc) did not see any rehabilitation possibilities and considered Iblis condemned to Hell forever. Iblis as evil and condemned is a primary track of Sufi thought. However, there is a parallel track of thought which sees Iblis in a very different light. This line of reasoning goes back very far, to Husayn ibn Mansur Al-Hallaj (850-922 CE).

Al-Hallaj explored the Iblis motif in his book Kitab al-Tawasin.  This book has been preserved in its entirety in the original Arabic and there is also a Persian translation with extensive commentary by the famous Sufi Ruzbihan Al-Baqli (1123-1230 CE). The Arabic is difficult and often obscure, so the Persian translation is helpful that way, but it is also interesting because al-Baqli has a more traditional Sufi outlook and he really struggles with some of al-Hallaj’s paradoxical and unorthodox views of Iblis.

Al-Hallaj teachings use opposites to pull the reader to considering new possibilities. He uses the Zen “shock and awe” method. The 20^th century Sufi Idris Shah explained it this way,

“If you clap your hands and observe only the movement of the hands, they appear to oppose one another. You have not seen what is happening. The purpose of the ‘opposition’ of the palms was…to produce the handclap.” P 100 The Magic Monastery

Al-Hallaj’s first ‘shocker’ is to mention Iblis and Prophet Muhammad together when he writes, “The only ones whose preaching was sound are Iblis and Ahmad- may God bless him and grant him peace!” In the heavens Iblis preached to the angels about obedience and the Path to God, while on earth he taught mankind the ways of Evil. However, the opposite poles are complementary if you look at their ultimate purpose:

“Because things are known through their opposites, fine white silk is woven with a backing of coarse black wool. The angel can point out good deeds to someone and say to him as an abstract statement, ‘if you perform these deeds you will be rewarded’. But he who does not know evil in the concrete, cannot know good.” Al-Hallaj, Tawasin #19

Al-Hallaj sees both Iblis and Muhammad as essential characters in the unfolding of God’s divine plan. They carry out God’s will unswervingly, despite the pain each much suffer.

“Iblis was told, “Bow!” and Ahmad was told, “Look!”. But this fellow did not bow and Ahmad did not look. He turned his face neither right nor left.’ Tawasin #2

Al-Hallaj backs up this assertion from a verse from Quran “His Eye turned not aside nor did it wander from its orbit.” (Quran 53:17)

In dealing with God’s amr, Iblis relied on his majestic power and spiritual perfection of centuries of obedient worship, while Muhammad was overcome by his own frail humanity and God’s overwhelming power. Al-Hallaj does not ascribe moral significance to this difference, but his translator Al-Baqli repeats the traditional condemnation of Iblis’ preoccupation with power and his underestimation of Adam’s true nature (since Iblis misjudged Adam’s worth, all that prior obedience and preaching is nullified). But Al-Hallaj is going to create even more problems for his translator.

Al-Hallaj singles out Iblis for two estimable qualities: preaching and single-minded obedience. Al-Hallaj even goes on to say that Iblis is a spiritual model for all Muslims because he, more perfectly than any other created being, witnessed the Unity and Oneness of God even at the expense of self destruction.

“There was no monotheist like Iblis among the inhabitants of the heavens. When the essence revealed itself to him in stunning glory, he renounced even a glance at it and worshipped God in ascetic isolation…God said to him “Bow!” He replied, “To no other!” He said to him “Even if My curse be upon you?” He cried out “To no other!” My refusal is the cry, “Holy are you!” my reason is madness, madness for You. What is Adam, other than You? And who is Iblis to set apart one from the other?” Tawasin #6-7

Iblis as the perfect monotheist? Al-Hallaj takes it even further, he uses Iblis and Pharaoh for models of spiritual life because they share the virtue of futuwa, noble and chivalrous qualities of a Muslim knight since both Iblis and Pharaoh demonstrate fidelity and dedication to duty. In the words of Richard Roeper in the TV series “The Night Manager”, “You make a decision. And then you commit.”  Iblis and Pharaoh are fully committed to the decisions they make.

Most people, then and now, are not willing to accept these two anti-heroes as spiritual guides. Al-Baqli took Al-Hallaj’s futuwa designation and reduced by acknowledging their extraordinary but misguided courage. Al-Baqli says any act of bravery is a laudable deed but the morality of the deeds must also be taken into account. He blames Iblis and Pharaoh’s perverted futuwa on going overboard in the ecstatic religious experience, the sin of “I”.  This was Al-Hallaj’s problem when he said “I am the Divine Truth’ “Ana al-Haqq”- he failed to differentiate between himself and God. He saw only the “I” when he should have seen that he only reflects traces of the divine, creative spirit. God’s breathing into Adam did not make Adam divine but allows him to shine forth the spirit of God.

Muslims who idolize reason have a hard time dealing with the paradoxical teaching of Al-Hallaj because instead of ascribing moral blame to Iblis (his pride, arrogance, love of power), Al-Hallaj portrays Iblis as a tragic, martyr figure who, despite his dedicated preaching, perfect monotheism, and eternal loyalty, suffers destruction by the God he lovingly worships. In Al-Hallaj’s Tawasin, Iblis is an example of the power of the mystic contemplation to carry the soul beyond the paradoxes and logical contradictions that permeate everyday experience of materiality and individuality. Perfection of this single-minded mystic contemplation leads to an experience of annihilation in the Beloved.

PAUSE

From the Qur’an, we know that Prophet Moses had an encounter with God on Mount Sinai. The exchange is recorded as;

“And when Moses came to Our appointed tryst and his Lord had spoken unto him, he said: My Lord! Show me (Thy Self), that I may gaze upon Thee. He said: Thou wilt not see Me, but gaze upon the mountain! If it stand still in its place, then thou wilt see Me. And when his Lord revealed (His) glory to the mountain He sent it crashing down. And Moses fell down senseless. And when he woke he said: Glory unto Thee! I turn unto Thee repentant, and I am the first of (true) believers.” Qur’an 7:143

A common Sufi teaching story is Moses encountering Iblis on his way down from Mount Sinai after the crumbling mountain incident. We find this story in Ibn Ghanim, in Ahmad Al-Ghazali (brother of Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali), Farid ud-Din Attar (contemporary of Al-Baqli), and in al-Hallaj’s Tawasin. 

In al-Hallaj’s version, Iblis scolds Moses for gazing on the mountain instead of focusing on God alone. Then Moses asks Iblis if he remembers God. Iblis answers,

“O Moses! His remembrance is my remembrance, and my remembrance is His remembrance: can it be that those who are remembering be anything but united together? My service is now purer, my moments freer, and my dhikr clearer. For I used to serve Him for the sake of my own prosperity; now I serve Him for His. …. He refused me access to others because of my jealous ardor. He deformed me because of my bewilderment; He bewildered me because of my exile. He exiled me because of my service; He made me a pariah because of my companionship; He reviled me because of my praise…He separated me because of my unveiling of Him; He unveiled me because of my attainment of union. He brought me to union because of my being cut off. …If He should torment me with His fire for eternities on end, I would not bow to anyone. Nor would I grovel before any person or physical body, for I know of no adversary to Him, nor any child begotten of Him. My preaching is the preaching of truthful men, and I am a sincere lover.”- Al-Hallaj Tawasin #14-17

We have two distinct, parallel tracks of the Iblis narrative in the Muslim tradition

1) All visions of Iblis are the products of his power of evil deception, despite the emotional quality of his words and the tragedy of his separation

2)  Iblis is a complex and tragic personality who serves as an exemplar of loving self-sacrifice and unquestioning faith to the point where he defies God to serve God.

But both narratives of Iblis have one notion in common: Iblis’ downfall was due to his single-mindedness and blind conviction. In the narrative of Iblis as purely “evil”, he is convinced that he knows man’s fate and man’s flaws and that this gives him the right to not bow down to Adam. In the Sufi narrative of Iblis as a complex and tragic personality, he again is convinced that defying God is the best way to worship and serve God.

What can we learn from this? We are often told by scripture and tradition that we should not follow in the footsteps of Iblis. The PG interpretation of this commandment which our Sunday Schools provide to our children is that Muslims should always obey God. Here is a different – TV-MA rated -interpretation: Avoid the trap of blind zeal. We may think we have it all figured out and we may want to pursue our goals unquestioningly because we are convinced we are righteous. But this was Iblis’ downfall. He forgot to doubt himself. Let us pray that we never forget to doubt ourselves.

References:

The Manticore from The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies (Penguin Books) 1983 p 358

The Magic Monastery by Idries Shah (Octagon Press: London) 1981 p 100

The Night Manager  by John Le Carre and David Farr (BBC miniseries) 2016

Meaning of the Glorious Qur’an translation by Marmaduke Pickthall 1930

Kitab at-tawasin by Husayn ibn Mansur Al-Hallaj, edited by Louis Massignon (Paris: Paul Geuthner) 1913