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| Qawwali & Audition in Islam
 admin  2006/5/2 18:18
 1798  130
Qawwali "Rhythm of the Souls:"
By Kaleem Hussain,
The history and spiritual essence of qawwali sounds and melodious renditions in Islam come in various styles, tones and formats. There is no clearer example of this then the recitation of the Holy Quran which is recited by Qaris throughout the Islamic world in up to seven different rhythmic formats. The plain, rhythm and spiritual sustenance that the recitation of the Holy Quran gives to the body, mind, heart and soul is unquestionable as it is through this remembrance that hearts find tranqulity, peace and rest. There are also verses in the Holy Quran pertaining to the melodious harmonic sounds that were used to praise God where the mountains and birds would join in unison to hymm the praises of God through the blessed voice of Prophet Dawud (AS). In the classical Islamic tradition we also find many prose of poetry and naat praising the Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) from famous personalities like Hassan bin Thabit (R.A) and Imam Sharafuddin al Basuri (R.A) renowned around the Islamic world for the famous Qasida Burda Sharif. In the myst of such grandeur and immense spiritual, rhythmic and melodious rank, one asks where does the tradition of qawwali music fit in this universal picture. This article aims to touch briefly on the history of qawwali music, it's importance and spiritual significance.
Historical & Religious Significance of Music
The historical roots of playing or listening to music have a range of stories. Equally, sounds in their various tones can be melodious and unmelodious to the ear creating differences of opinion between what are beautiful sounds and those that have the opposite effect. From a Quranic perspective, there is a clear admonition of many of the Jahiliyya practices that existed in arabia prior to the coming of Islam such as continous clapping to divert people away from God. However, it is very difficult to make a clinical judgment on such issues due to the nature and evolution of societies at the time. The arabs, historically were renowned for being a poetic society and through the advent of Islam many of the prior practices were abolished or adjusted to fall within the realms of islamic tenents and practices. Equally, it is also questionable whether one can tag any rendition of "sound" through the vocal cord or instruments as being called "music" in the contemporary sense. The reason being, that in the religious traditions many "sounds" and "hymms" have been used for praising the Divine. There are a range of opinions on the permissibility or impermissibility of "listening to music." The classical traditions "in favour of music" are many and have been mentioned by Imam Abu Hamid al Ghazzali's (R.A) famous text Ihya Uloom al Deen. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) mentioned:
"Allah has not sent a Prophet except with a beautiful voice," and, " Allah listens more intently to a man with a beautiful voice reading the Quran than does a master of a singing girl in her singing." It is related of Anas ibn Malik (R.A) (d.715) that the final Apostle of God "used to make him sing the huda (caravan song) when travelling, and that Anjusha used to sing it for the women and Al-Bara ibn Malik (R.A) (the brother of Anas) for the men. Al-Ghazzali testifies that the huda "did not cease to be one of the customs of the arabs in the time of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), and in the time of the companions, and that it is nothing but poems equipped with agreeable sounds (samat tayyiba) and measured melodies (alhan mauzuna). In terms of the singing girls there are hadith narrations that the beloved Prophet considered them "allowable." One narration states that the Prophet had heard the voice of the singing girl when passing the abode of Hassan ibn Thabit (R.A). Asked by the poet if it was sinful to sing, the final Apostle of God replied "certainly not." There are also traditions of Hazrat Aisha (R-anhuma) on this topic. One tradition narrates that Abu Bakr (R.A) came into Hazrat Aisha's (Ra) quarters in the days of Mina, and with her were two girls playing tambourines (dufuf) while the beloved Prophet was wrapped in his robe. Abu Bakr (R.A) rebuked them, but the Prophet uncovered his face and said "leave them alone, Abu Bakr (R.A), for it is the time of the festival." Another narration reads how the women greeted the beloved Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) from the housetops with recitation (inshad) set to melody (lahn), and accompanied by the beating of the tambourines. There are also many more narrations including the famous rendition "Tala-al-Badru Alayna" by the kids of Medina.
In light of the brief explanation above, the four great legal schools of islamic jusrisprudence, Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi and Hanbali, broadly decided against the permissibility of "listening to music." However, many treaties have been written by both legalists and layman to prove the opposite. In Islamic jurisprudence, there are also rules on the ethics of disagreement and various consensus opinions can be derived from these rules. Imam Abu Hanifa (ra) (699-767) did not like singing, and appeared to look upon musical instruments as permissible. Imam Malik (ra) (715-95) also forbade singing. Imam Shafi (ra) (767-820) commented that singing is a sport which is disliked and which resembles what is false; he who meddles much with it is light of understanding and you shall reject his testimony, but did render "music" itself permissible. Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal (ra) (780-855) disliked listening to music (al-sama). In consideration of these classical traditions, what can be deciphered from this brief analysis is that the validation of "playing or listening to music" has divergant opinions and is very much based on the ethics, circumstances and context upon which such activities take place.
(1) Al-Sama
Many would claim that the famous "mehfile sama" traces its toots in the classical sufic tradition. Historically we have had arab musicologist like al-Kindi (d873) and al-Farabi (b872) who have composed and written on the effects of music. Music and trance can also be linked to the Ikhwan al Safa (Brothers of Purity) who flourished in Al-Sasra in the 11th century. It is none other then the famous Abu Hamid Muhammad al Ghazzali (ra) (1088-1111) in the eighth section of the Ihya Uloom al Deen (The Revival of Religious Sciences) titled Kitab adab al-Sama Wa-al-Wajd ("Book of the Right Usages of Audition & Trance") who unified the knowledge during his time. The famous modern Islamic philosopher & thinker Dr Alama Muhammad Iqbal (1873-d1938) had the following comment to say on the topic of music & rhythm:
"The music is controlled sound. When the control is gone, the music is turned into noise. Breath in our throat is a wave of air. When imprisoned in a reed it becomes a melody. Music is the food for lovers, for it helps in concentration of thoughts...When the component parts of an organic whole subject themselves to some discipline, harmony or balance is produced & in the matter of sound such harmony leads to music. Without discipline the sounds are discordant; subject to discipline they provide rhythm & haromony." (2)
What this short example shows is that there are rules, practices and special etiquettes when engaging and "listening to music." Such rules, eqtiquettes and practices can make the experience spiritually enlightening and enhancing for the participant and listener, but when it is practiced beyond certain prescribed boundaries it's rendition may lose its effect, spiritual significance and impact making it for some classical islamic scholars falling outside the realm of what is permissible in Sharia. It is very much a question of taste (zawq) and experience that enables people to render the benefits of the sama. Such practices can also be found in the famous Mevlavi spiritual sufi turuq of Islam founded by Hazrat Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi (ra) (1207AD-d-1273AD) also expounded the spiritual significance of sama through the famous whirling dervishes and using the reed flute as an instrument to vocalise the yearnings of the heart. The Mevlavi rites and sama symbolise the divine love and mystical ecstacy that is developed and aim to unite one's heart with the Divine. The "music" and the "dance" are designed to induce a meditative state for the love of God. Mevlavi "music" contains some of the most core elements of eastern classical "music" and it serves mainly as accompaniment for the poems of rumi and other sufi poets. The words and syllables of the poetry are connected to the musical sentences as the tradition in the Mevlavi path is that "Dervish music" cannot be written in notes as notes do not include the soul of the dervish.
The Significance of Qawwali in the Chistiya Turuq of Islam
Many commentators trace the birth of classical qawwali to the famous Chistiya sufi turuq of Islam. The archbearer of the Chistiya turuq traces its roots back to Abu Ahmad Ishaq Shami Chisti (ra) who died in (d 329-941CE) in Damascus, Syria where he lies buried on mount Qasiyun: whereas Khawjah Moinuddin Hasan Chisti (ra) (1143-1234) whose resting place is in Ajmer Sharif which is in a district called Rajistan in India spread the turuq in the then Hindustan region famously know as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh today. The actual area of Chist can be found in Afghanistan from where the name is derived. In terms of how and why qawwali arose and became famous with the chistiya turuq has many different narrations. The majority of the people in India at the time when Khawjah Moinuddin Hasan Chisti (ra) arrived followed zorastorian practices, Hindu rites, customs and traditions. One of the famous instruments attributed to those associated with the Hindu faith would use is the Bhajah which is an instrument that can be used for devotional music and prayers according to the tenents of the Hindu faith, customs and traditions. When Khawjah Moinuddin Hasan Chisti (ra) arrived in India, they realised that alot of people were attracted to this musical symposium and contemplated on how they can get the people attracted to the faith of Islam in such an environment. One of the beautiful features of the faith of Islam is to spread the message with wisdom and wise counsellling. Equally, our beloved Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) stated in a hadith narration that "speak to people according to the level of their intellect/ understanding." The Chistiya Sufi order is famous for using the words of wisdom and poetry written by Sufi mystics of years gone by to spread the message of Islam based on peace, love, tolerance and justice. The famous words of the Sufis sometimes are termed as "Kalam." Khawjah Moinuddin Hasan Chisti (ra) synchorinised the famous "Kalams" of the Sufis with the Bhajah used by those associated with Hinduism in their devotional prayers. Although Hazrat Khawjah Moinuddin Chisti (ra) did not know the language of Hindustan because he spoke Persian, he converted about nine and half million people into the fold of Islam. Hazrat Khawjah Moinuddin Chisti (ra) did not conquer India with his sword but with a message based on love (muhabbah). The response was amazing, as many people in India began to embrace Islam simply by attending the synchorinised version of "Kalam" gatherings, praising the holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and using certain percussion instruments.
The word qawl in arabic can mean axiom, dictum and in sufi terminology linked to dhikr, the remembrance of God. It is from here many would find the origins of classical qawwali music developed. The Chistiya spiritual chain has many famous Sufis who continued the legacy of Khawjah Moinuddin Hasan Chisti (ra) throughout south asia such as Khawjah Qutubuddin Bakhtiyar Khaki (ra) (d1236), Khawjah Fariduddin Masud Ganje Shakar (ra), Khawjah Alauddin Ahmed Sabir Kalyari (ra) Khawjah Nizamuddin Awliya (ra) and Khawjah Nasiruddin Chiragh Dehlvi (ra). Amongst this illustrious list of the Chistiya turuq with reference to qawwali can be included Hazrat Amir Khusraw (ra) (1253-1325) who mastered the art of "persian music" which would be played at the court of Ala-al-din Khilji, Sultan of Delhi (1296-1316). Hazrat Amir Khusraw (ra) introduced both a persian & arabic element in south asian music. It becomes clearly apparent that how the importance of qawwali music in the history of the Chistiya order developed over the years in order to attract the masses in Hindustan to the faith of Islam mainly due to the circumstances and environment these famous sufi sages found themselves living in. The Sufi mystics prime aim is to direct all to the Divine and fill the hearts of the masses with the love the Divine and the beloved prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Qawwali, provided that vehicle to propogate the words of the Sufis (Kalam) and attract the masses in Hindustan towards Islam gradually diverting them away from the customs and traditions of Polytheism which many of the forefathers of those residing in Hindustan had followed previously.
The Mehfile Sama Qawwali Gatherings
The mehfile samaa gatherings have developed to have an important signifigance for those associated with the Chistiya Sufi Turuq. The norm is to have sama gatherings on every Thursday and events of spiritual significance such as the "Urs" which is a word used similar to a wedding ceremony and implies the date that a Sufi sage passed away and the soul is united with the Divine. The traditional shayukh would prefer only those to attend such gathering who understood the significance and spiritual "zawq" (taste) that is derived from the mehfile sama. The sama gathering would be conducted under the direction and guidance of the Shaykh who would ensure that appropriate etiquettes are maintained during the session to attain marifat (Closeness to God). The instruments that would be used at such gatherings would range from the tarana, dholak, harmonium, kartal, raba, sitar, sarana, saringda and the tabla. In order to create the cultivation and rhythms during the samaa gatherings, the parties would also clap along with the percusssion instruments to create background sound levels for the qawwals to vocaly read the famous kalams and qasidas of the Sufi sages. The language in which the qawwali is auditioned could range from arabic,farsi, purbi, punjabi, hindi and urdu. The mantaras and the "kalam" would be used as a message to create a state of spiritual ecstacy for the attendees so they may taste the levels of Divine pleasure or marifaat. In the mystical language such states are called "hal" which has many different levels ranging from "baqa" to "fanah." The spiritual nourishment that such gatherings provided for the attendees is at times difficult to put into words as the whole experience is based on tasting and establishing the love and remembrance of God into one's heart. The sama gathering can also have a therapeutic helping in healing ones mental, outer (zahir) and inner (batini) state.
The topic of the mehfil sama is covered in the wiritings of one of the later Chistiya turuq Shaykhs, Khawjah Nasiruddin Chiragh Dhelvi (ra) in their book Miftah-al-Aashiqeen (The Key/ Opening for the Lovers). It is narrated that shaykh Nizam-al-Haq Washiudddin (ra) mentioned four different opinions/ types and levels of sama in the light of Sharia. One is "permissible", the second "impermissible," the third is "makruh" and the fourth is "mubah." Based on the Quranic verse "Izazhikirullah Wajilat Qulubohum" (In the remembrance of God hearts experience a trance state) the shaykh explained if through the samaa one's heart has a higher state of "wajd" which can be termed as a "trance" and that leads to the nearness of the Divine based on spiritual ecstacy, then the samaa is "muba." However, if the effect is the exact opposite on the attendee, then the sama falls into the level of impermissible. Equally, shaykh Waliuddin (ra) mentioned in the same book the the samaa is "Sitare Haq," ("sound plane of truth") which those people who have the inner taste, love and yearning can benefit in terms of their spiritual states. The same question as to the permissibility of sama was posed to Khawjah Nizamuddin Awliya (ra) to which they replied sama is used to create a "raqhs" (spiritual elevation) for adherents of the sufi path, however it is neither permissible nor is it impermissible and those who deem it impermissible should avoid it, whilst those who deem it permissible should try their best to attend. A similar opinion was also mentioned by Shaykh Ahmed Sirhind (ra) from the Naqshbandiya spiritual turuq on the topic stating they neiher condemned the practice nor endorsed it.
Famous Qawwals of Classical & Contemporary Times
There have been many changes to the style and format of qawwali music as expositioned in the Chistiya Sufi path. Some have divided it into the south asian tradition linked predominately to the sufi shrines of the Indo-Pak region, whilst others give it a more elaborative eastern orientation. The changes in the mannerism of how qawwali music is performed was carried out by many great Ustads (teachers, guides) who understood and had mastered the rhythmic melodies and lyrics associated with this art. The well known Ustads of classical qawwal were Ustad Fateh Ali & Ustad Mubarik Ali Khan, Ustad Karam Din, Ustad Chajju Khan, Ustad Muhammad Ali Faridi, Ustad Santu Khan and Ustad Bakshi Salamat. It was amongst through these illustrious names of Ustads that changes to the style and form of qawwali developed at the same time maintaining it's classical roots. In the Indo-Pak region, the well known qawwals & qawwali groups are Aziz Mian who adopted a different style to the art with famous lyrics such as Nabi Nabiya & The Sabri Brothers.
Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (1947-1997)
To many the king of qawwali and master of the classical and contemporary age was none other than Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan born in the Faisalabad district of Pakistan. His family lineage houses many great qawwals such as his noble father Ustad Mubarik Ali Khan (d1969). The inner secrets of this great art of qawwali was something that tended to be passed down through the family tree by word of mouth from father to son under the guidance of specialist Ustads. At the age of 16, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was taught by his uncle Ustad Salamt Ali Khan. He briefly merged with the brother of his noble father Ustad Mubarik Ali for a short period until he passed away in 1971. It was at this stage that Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan added a unique dimension to the field of Qawwali music when he had to traverse independently in this discipline. It was at the shrine of Hazrat Khawjah Data Ganj Baksh at Lahore; Pakistan,better knows as Syed Abul Hassan Bin Usman Bin Ali Al-Hajweri (ra) (11th century mystic famous for the book Kashf-al-Majub) where Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan performed in 1987 and the attendees were left in awe & praise of this new talent who set the scene alight. From there on Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Qawwal party became household names doing many tours around the world to spread the musical wisdoms that qawwali music had to offer. Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali khan produced many great qawwali lyrics that are played to this day on radio stations and people's audio players around the world. Famous lyrics such as "Allah Huu, Allah Huu" & "Har Dam Ali Ali Dam" are just a dip in the ocean of the magnanimous effect he had in developing qawwali music to a new level which made this source of music renowned worldwide.
Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan passed away in 1997 and with him went a great legacy and rich talent in the field of qawwali music which will be difficult to surpass for many a generation. During the latter stages of his life, the form of qawwali music played began to move away from the classical traditional roots to a more modern tone to cater for the demands of today’s contemporary age and settings. Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's nephew Rahat Ali Khan still continues to perform, write and sing qawwali lyrics both in a classical and modern style continuing the family tradition. However, for many the real sustenance of qawwali music resides with the old sufi masters who developed this art in the mehfile sama through their kalam for a purely religious & devotional purpose. The art was then mastered by famous Ustads of the spiritual path trancending through to Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan who not only mastered the art of qawwali like no other and kept the art in line with it's classical roots for the vast majority of his life. There is no doubt that the classical rendition of qawwali music has a great legacy and fulfilled an important function for it's time in the asian subcontinent. The mehfile sama is still an important feature in many sufi shrines in the Indo-Pak region today where adherents of the spiritual path attend these functions for their spiritual sustenance. The key for many on the path, is preserving this great qawwali tradition in line with it's classical roots aimed in the main at praising the Divine and establishing the love for the Holy Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh), so that it does not fall into the category of the impermissible due to the additions, alterations and violations of the rules and etiquettes that the great masters of the years gone by had set to perform this unique art..
(1) Narrations from Al-Ghazzali's famous treaties Ihya Uloom al Deen
(2) Excerpt from the "Life of Iqbal" By Prof. Masud-ul-Hasan Vol 1 & 2
(3) H.G. Farmer "A History of Arabian Music." Goodward Books, 2001
(4) "Haste Bahist" Malfuzhat Khawjhgane Chist. Maktaba Jamia Nooriya, Delhi,
India
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| The Destruction of Holy Sites in Mecca and Medina
admin 2006/3/10 19:07
1791 177
The Destruction of Holy Sites in Mecca and Medina
By Irfan Ahmed
The Arabian Peninsula, the cradle of Islam, is being demolished by hardliners. In countries such as Saudi Arabia almost all of the Islamic historical sites are gone, but this is not the first time they have been destroyed
In 1802, and army led by the sons of Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab (the founder of Wahhabism) and Muhammad ibn Saud occupied Taif and began a bloody massacre. A year later, the forces occupied the holy city of Mecca. They executed a campaign of destruction in many sacred places and leveled all the existing domes, even those built over the well of Zamzam. However, after the army left, Sharif Ghalib breached the truce, inciting the Wahhabis to reoccupy Mecca in 1805.
In 1806, the Wahhabi army occupied Medina. They did not leave any religious building, including mosques, without demolishing it, whether inside or outside the Baqi’ (graveyard). They intended to demolish the grave of the Prophet Muhammad, may the peace and blessings of God be upon him, many times, but would repeatedly change their minds. At this time, non-Wahhabi Muslims were prevented from performing the Hajj (pilgrimage). In 1805, Iraqi and Iranian Muslims were refused permission to perform Hajj, as were the Syrians in 1806 and Egyptians the following year. The Saudi leader at the time wanted the pilgrims to embrace his Wahhabi beliefs and accept his Wahhabi mission. If they refused, he denied them permission to perform the Hajj and considered them heretics and infidels—ignoring the word of God in Sura al-Baqara:
And who is more unjust than he who forbids that in places for the worship of God, His name should be celebrated? Whose
zeal is (in fact) to ruin them? It was not fitting that such
should themselves enter them except in fear. For them there
is nothing but disgrace in this world, and the world to come,
an exceeding torment. (Qur’an 2:114)
The Wahhabi army’s destruction campaign targeted the graves of the martyrs of Uhud, the mosque at the grave of Sayyid al-Shuhada’ Hamza bin Abdul Muttalib and the mosques outside the Baqi’: the Mosque of Fatima al-Zahra, the Mosque of al-Manaratain, and Qubbat’ al-Thanaya (the burial site of the Prophet’s incisor that was broken in the battle of Uhud). The structures in the Baqi’ were also leveled to the ground and not a single dome was left standing. This great place that was visited by millions of Muslims over many centuries became a garbage dump, such that it was not possible to recognize any grave or know whom it embraced.
The occupation of the holy places by the army and their preventing Muslims from performing Hajj led thousands of people to flee Mecca and Medina to escape religious persecution. The Muslims started to complain and express their concerns, and public opinion put pressure on the Ottoman Caliph to liberate and rebuild the two holy places and once again permit the Muslims to perform the pilgrimage. Accordingly, an army led by Muhammad Ali Pasha, the Caliph’s viceroy in Egypt, was sent. When the forces arrived in the Hijaz, a number of tribes marched in support of the army, which regained control over Medina and then Mecca.
In 1818, the Wahhabis were defeated and they withdrew from the holy places. The Prophet’s Mosque, the Baqi’ and the monuments at Uhud were rebuilt during the reigns of the Ottoman sultans ‘Abd al-Majid I, ‘Abd al-Hamid II and Mahmud II. From 1848 to 1860, the buildings were renovated and the Ottomans built the domes and mosques in splendid aesthetic style. They also rebuilt the Baqi’ with a large dome over the graves of the Prophet’s daughter Fatima al-Zahra, Imam Zainul ‘Abidin (‘Ali bin al-Hussain), Imam Muhammad ibn ‘Ali al-Baqir and Imam Ja‘far al-Sadiq. The graves of others related to the Prophet found at the Baqi’ include those belonging to Ibrahim (son), ‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan (Companion and son-in-law), Saffia bint Abdul Muttalib (aunt), Atika bint ‘Abd al-Muttalib (aunt), Al-‘Abbas ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib (uncle), Fatima bint Assad (Imam Ali’s mother), ‘Abd Allah ibn Ja‘far bin Abi Talib (cousin) and Aqil ibn Abi Talib (The Prophet’s cousin).
The grave of the Prophet’s father ‘Abd Allah was in Dar al-Nabigha of the Bani Najjar, the house of where the Prophet learned to swim. However, his father’s grave was exhumed 17 years ago and transferred to the Baqi’. The area of the house today lies under the marble covering the plaza surrounding the mosque.
A number of the Prophet’s wives (the Mothers of the Faithful) were buried in the Baqi’: ‘A’isha, Hafsa, Juwayriya, Saffia, Sawda, Zaynab bint Khuzaima, Zaynab bint Jahsh, Umm Habiba and Umm Salama. The tomb of Khadija, the Prophet’s first wife, is in Mecca because she died before the Hijra (migration of Muslims to Medina). Her grave is in the Hajun cemetery, known as Maqbarat’al-Ma’la. The tomb of Maimouna, another wife, is also in Mecca in an area known as Sarif, which lies on the side of the Hijra Road, nearly 13 miles (20 kilometers) outside Mecca.\
On April 21,1925, the domes in the Baqi’ were demolished once more along with the tombs of the holy personalities in Maqbarat’al-Ma‘la in Mecca, where the Holy Prophet’s mother, wife Khadija, grandfather and other ancestors are buried. Destruction of the sacred sites in the Hijaz continues till this day. Wahhabis say they are trying to rescue Islam from what they consider innovations, deviances and idolatries. Among the practices they believe are contrary to Islam are constructing elaborate monuments over graves and making supplications there.
The Mashrubat Umm Ibrahim—which was built to mark the location of the house where the Prophet’s son, Ibrahim, was born to Mariah, his Egyptian wife—also contained the grave of Hamida al-Barbariyya, the mother of Imam Musa al-Kazim. These sites were destroyed over the past few years.
I recently met with one of the leading political leaders of Medina and took the opportunity to speak to him about the destruction of these holy sites. He told me that the sites were not being demolished, but that torrential rain in Medina was washing away the old buildings! I told him the mosque and tomb of Sayyid Imam al-Uraidhi ibn Ja‘far al-Sadiq, four miles from the Prophet’s Mosque, was destroyed by dynamite and flattened on August 13, 2002. Imam al-Uraidhi is ninth in line from the Prophet. I also asked him about the plan to demolish the last remnant of the historical vestiges of the Messenger of God, namely his noble birthplace, which has been converted into a library, “Maktabat Makka al-Mukarrama.” There was no answer.
Within the last 10 years, Muqbil ibn Hadi al-Wadi’i, a student at the University of Medina, wrote a thesis titled “About the Dome Built over the Grave of the Messenger,” sponsored by Sheikh Hammad al-Ansari. In this paper, the student demands that the noble grave be brought out of the Mosque. He says the presence of the holy grave and noble dome are major innovations and that they both need to be destroyed! His thesis received very high marks. Last year, the city planning board of Medina painted the famous green dome of the Prophet’s Holy Mosque silver. After intense protests by the citizens of Medina, the board restored the dome to its original color.
In the Ottoman part of the Prophet’s Mosque, at the center of the three sections raised a bit from the ground level are three circles. The first, toward the west, corresponds to the grave of the Prophet. The next two toward the east correspond to the graves of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq and ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab. Above the circles are invocations including “Ya Allah” and “Ya Muhammad.” The latter was removed and replaced it with “Ya Majid” by adding the dot under the ‘ha of Muhammad to make it jim and two dots under the second mim of Muhammad to make it ‘ya. There are qasidas written by rulers of the Muslim world, such as Sultan ‘Abd al- Hamid. Many verses of the famous Burda of al-Busayri had also been painted over. On the Qibla side, the brass partition that is divided into three sections between two columns, the authorities have also tried to cover the famous two verses inscribed in the east from the story of al-‘Utbi as mentioned by Ibn Kathir in his Tafsir. “O best of those whose bones are buried in the deep earth, and from whose fragrance the depth and height have become sweet! May I be the ransom for a grave in which you dwell, where purity, bounty and munificence.”
If one raises his head a bit, he will see on the first section of this partition a green banner, on which the words of the Almighty are framed in yellow:
O you who believe! Raise not your voices above the voice of
the Prophet, may blessings and peace be upon him and his
family, nor speak aloud to him in talk, as you speak aloud to
one another, lest your deeds be rendered fruitless while you
perceive not. (Qur’an 49:2)
The Sacred Chamber has four exterior doors: on the south, Bab al-Tawba (The Door of Repentance), on the north, Bab al-Tahajjud (The Door of Night Prayer), on the east, Bab Fatima (the Door of Fatima), and on the west, Bab al-Nabi (The Door of the Prophet)—also known as Bab al- Wufud (The Door of Delegations). These gates have been present since the year 668 AH except for the Gate of the Night Prayer, which was installed in 729 AH. Inside there are two gates, one on either side of the triangular part of the interior compartment. All of these doors are covered by brass shelves holding Qur’ans, an attempt to prevent the public from looking inside the Sacred chamber.
The Wahhabi religious authorities are, unfortunately, on a fast track. In 1998 the grave of Amina bint Wahb, the Prophet’s mother, was bulldozed in Abwa and gasoline was poured on it. Even though thousands of petitions throughout the Muslim world were sent to Saudi Arabia, nothing stopped this action. One of my late teachers, Sheikh Sayyid Muhammad ibn ‘Alawi al-Maliki, a Meccan who was a great historian on the holy sites and inherited his knowledge from his father and forefathers who were all teachers of the holy Haram, showed me pictures of the grave of Sayyida Amina marked with a pile of stones after the destruction. The House of Khadija was excavated during the Haram extensions, then hurriedly covered over so as to obliterate any trace of it. This was the house where the Prophet received some of his first revelations and it is also where his children Umm Kulthum, Ruqqaya, Zaynab, Fatima, and Qasim were born. Dar al-Arqam, the first school in Islam where the Prophet taught has also been demolished. It was in the area of Shi’b ‘Ali near the Bab ‘Ali door opposite the king’s palace. It is now part of the extension of the Haram.
The authorities plan to demolish the house of Mawlid, where the Prophet was born. About 60 years ago, this house, which used to have a dome over it, was turned into a cattle market. Some people then worked together to transform it into a library, which it is today. It is lined with shelves of books about Mecca, most of them written by Meccans. But the library is under threat again because of the new Jabal ‘Umar project, one of the largest real estate development projects near the Grand Mosque. The birthplace of the Prophet is to make way for a car park and hotels. About 99% of real estate owners in the Jabal ‘Umar area are shareholders in this company. The owners have been provided with financial incentives, including what they used to receive as rents, combining five-star facilities under the luxurious Le Meridien banner. The Meridien Towers will allow several thousand housing units in Mecca to be available during specified periods of time, for a one-off, fixed fee, giving the towers 25 years of shared ownership in Mecca. This scheme allow outsiders, whether Muslim or not, to invest in the city; they will be allowed to buy from a range of properties that can be used, sublet, resold or given as a gift.
For the holy month of Ramadan in Mecca, authorities built a wall enclosure in the Haram for women to pray there so men will not be able to see them. However, this has also blocked women’s visibility of the Ka‘ba while they perform their prayers. The tawaf (circumambulation) for women has also been restricted to certain times. We don’t know if these changes are permanent or just for Ramadan.
In Medina, of the seven mosques at the site of the Battle of the Trench (Jabal al-Khandaq), where Sura al-Ahzab was revealed, only two remain. The others have been demolished and a Saudi bank’s cashpoint machine has been built in the area. The remaining mosques will be demolished as soon as the new mosque being constructed is ready. One of the mosques slated for destruction is Masjid Fath, the mosque and rock of victory, where the Prophet stood during the battle of the trench praying for victory. On the rock is where he received God’s promises of victory and of the conquest of Mecca.
Dr. Irfan Ahmed is Joint Chairman of the Islamic Heritage and Research Foundation, which was formed to help protect and preserve the holy sites in the Hijaz. For more information contact islamic_heritage@hotmail.com
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| Cultural Details of Istanbul
admin 2006/1/30 15:01
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Mausoleums and graveyards
As a rule the date of a sultan's death did not coincide with the date of construction of his mausoleum because it was the custom to bury the deceased sovereign immediately and to erect a tent over his grave. The mausoleum was built at a later date. İstanbul's oldest monumental mausoleum is the Mahmud Paşa Mausoleum, built in 1464. It is, with the enamelled tiles in shades of light and dark blue which cover its outer walls, an exquisite continuation of the old Turkish tradition. The mausoleums of Sultans which stood next to the mosques bearing their names are all major achievements of this branch of Turkish art. Of these the Mausoleum of Mehmet the Conqueror, severely damaged in the earthquake of 1766 was rebuilt before the end of the l8th century. However, the mausoleums of Selim 1, Crown Prince Mehmed, Süleyman the Magnificent and his wife, Hürrem Sultan, Ahmed I, that of Hatice Turhan Sultan next to Yenicami and those of Selim III, Murad (II and Mehmed lll, which are next to Ayasofia,were all built in the l6th and l7th centuries and are works of dazzling beauty as far as their interior decoration, particularly the enamelled tiles and painted designs are concemed. Of these, the tomb built for Selim II in 1577 by Sinan is square with a ring of columns bearing two domes. The outer dome rests on the walls. The interior, and the walls of the entrance hall are covered with İznik tiles. One of the panels of tiles in the entrance hall was removed by Sorlin Doringy and sold to the Louvre Museum in Paris. The adjacent tomb of Murad lll is known to be the work of the architect Davud Ağa. It is hexagonal in shape and has two domes, one inside the other. The interior is embellished with enamelled tiles. The presence of the name of the architect Dalgıç Ahmed Ağa on its mother-of-pearl and ivory-encrusted doors has aroused considerable astonishment. The third mausoleum, built for Mehmed III who died in 1603 is octagonal in form. It is known that this mausoleum, the exterior of which is faced with marble, is, like the others, the work of Dalgıç Ahmed Ağa (subsequently Paşa). The mausoleum of Süleyman the Magnificent was built as part of the Süleymaniye Mosque complex by Sinan and it possesses a majestic quality worthy of that great Ottoman ruler. Around this octagonal building are eaves resting on arches supported by slender columns. The smaller mausoleum of his wife, Hürrem Sultan is, like that of Süleyman, embellished with valuable Iznik tiles. Among the sultans tombs, those of Ahmed 1 next to the Sultanahmed Mosque, of Mustafa III next to the Lâleli Mosque and of Abdülhamid I next to the madrasa at Bahçekapı all reflect the artistic taste of their time and at the same time perpetuate the mausoleum tradition of the Ottomans. The mausoleum of Mahmud II, which stands in a comer of a graveyard surrounded by a wall with windows designed by Garabet Balian (1800-1866) is an example of the Empire style applied in graveyard architecture. The interior of the mausoleum, its decorations and the velvet curtains at its windows make it look like a palace rather than a grave. Abdülhamid II, who had no mausoleum of his own, was buried in the mausoleum of Mahmud II after his death in 1918, following his removal from the throne. Due to the fact that the last of the Ottoman sultans had to be buried in Istanbul, use was made of already existing mausoleums and graveyards within the precincts of mosques. Sultan Abdülmecid lies in a mausoleum built by Garabet Balian in front of the Yavuz Selim I Mosque. Sultan Mehmed Reşad V had stated his desire to be buried in a place where he “could hear the sound of water and children's voices”, and for this reason his neo-classical mausoleum is situated next to a school on the banks of the Golden Horn at Eyüp.
Sinan had designed a number of small grave monuments for himself, among them the one next to his great Süleymaniye Mosque. The graceful, tlowing lines of this modest mausoleum resemble a signature and its harmonious, simple beauty represent the great architect in a manner which provides food for thought. The marble sarcophagus inside this open tomb contains the body of this great man. The inscription on the tomb composed by Sinan's close friend, the poet Mustafa Sai Çelebi, is above the window in the wall suriounding the tomb. A small graveyard has grown up around this mausoleum. Mausoleums of cansiderable aesthetic merit are encountered in various parts of the city and these all belong to important persons who lived in the l6th and l7th centuries. Such examples are the tomb of Barbaros Hayreddin Paşa at Beşiktaş, that of Piyale Paşa in Kasımpaşa the mausoleumş of Rüstem and lbrahim paşa between the tombs of the crown princes, the mausoleum of Hüsrev Paşa, which lies in the area between Fatih and Vatan Avenue and is the work of Sinan, those of Lütfi Paşa to the side of Vatan Avenue, of Siyavuş Paşa at Eyüp, of Gazanfer Ağa at the foot of the Bozdoğan Aqueduct and of Halil Paşa in Üsküdar. Among the mausoleums belonging to important persons who lived in later periods is that of Fuad Paşa which stands in a side street in the Sultanahmed district and has unusual decorations on its facades, and that of Büyük Reşid Paşa, designed by the Italian architect Fossati. The tomb of Grand Vizier Mahmud Nedim Paşa in Cağaloğlu is European in style. On the hill leading form Beşiktaş to the Yıldız Palace we encounter the Sheikh Zafif Mausoleum, the work of the Italian architect D'Aranco, which clearly displays the Art Nouveau style that was favoured by this architect and in fashion at the time. The Turkish neo-classical style, which emerged in the same years and signalled a retum to Turkish aesthetic traditions, is represented in the Mausoleum of Grand Vizier Cevad Paşa next to the tomb of Emir Buharî in the Fatih district. The former is the work of the architect Kemaleddin Bey. The same approach was applied in the mausoleum of Mahmud Şevket Paşa, which stands next to the monument on the high ground at Hürriyet Tepesi. Some of these mausoleums, which as the one of Ayşe Hafsa Sultan in the graveyard of the Sultan Selim Mosque, which was destroyed by the earthquake of 1894, have been abandoned or neglected because of lack of interest, or, like the mausoleum of the then Sheikh-ul Islam, Mustafa Sunullah Efendi ( 1552-1612) next to the Bozdogan Aqueduct, have been occupied as dwellings.
Apart from the above there are a number of saints' tombs greatly revered by the general public in various parts of the city. Some of them have legends dating back to Byzantine times and are revered for reasons which are not very clear. There are even tombs in which nobody is buried and imaginary saints for which names were later invented The tomb of Lâleli Baba, from which the name of the Lâleli district derives, that of Mahmud Baba in the Kuşdili neighbourhood of Kadıköy, of Baba Cafer in the Zindankapısı locality of Eminönü and of Yıldız Baba next to the Stock Exchange in Bahçekapı are the best-known examples of the many saints' graves in İstanbul. Legends have been invented by the public that these tombs have healing properties or even create miracles, which is an example of the survival of Byzantine traditions. The legend about Baba Cafer originates in a Byzantine legend. A symbolic tomb of gigantic proportions on the high ground of Yuşa Tepesi on the Asian side of the Bosphorus by the Black Sea is, according to popular belief, that of a saint by the name of Yuşa. However, the identity of this person has never been discovered. It is a certainty that it is not the Yuşa referred to in the Pentateuch. lf we bear in mind the belief that giants lived on this hill at the beginning of the Early Ages, then it is obvious that this belief passed into Christianity and from there into Islam.
Apart from the above, there are also a number of tombs in Istanbul belonging to historic personages who really lived and these tombs are visited like the tombs of the saints. The most striking of these is the tomb of Sheikh Vefa (d. 1491 ) in the Vefa district. Next to the Koca Mustafa Paşa Mosque is the tomb of Sümbül Sinan Efendi, a member of the Halvetiye Order, who died in 1529, that of Merkez Efendi (d.1552) in Yenikapı, of Karacaahmed in Üsküdar, of Emir Buharî (d.1516) in Fatih and the tomb of the then Sheikh-ul Islam Zembelli Ali Efendi (d. 1526) on the lower side of the Zeyrek Kilise (church) Mosque.
There are also tombs of the Sahabe, or first generation of Muslims, who had come as far as Istanbul and beseiged the city. These, too, are revered by the general public like the tombs of the saints. All of these Sahabe tombs, of which, there are a large number between.Ayvansaray and Edirnekapısı, were rebuilt at the beginning of the l9th century by Mahmud II to appease the people, who were displeased by some of the steps he had taken. The buildings we see today are all in the same architectural style. Among them is the mausoleum of Eyüb Sultan, who occupies an extremely important place in the affections of the Turkish people and about whom we possess reliable information. Halid, son of Ebu Eyüb Zeyd, had marched upon Istanbul at the head of an Arab army in the first century after the death of Mohammed- that is, about 700 AD - and died in battle. He was buried outside the city walls. Although it is generally accepted that this is an accurate account of the event, there is a second version which states that he was sent to Istanbul as an ambassador heading a Muslim delegation; it goes on to say that his group were treacherously attacked and retreated to the city walls, from where they were unable to escape and were murdered. According to this hypothesis, which was put forward by P. Wittek, Eyüp-ü Ensarî died in Ayvansaray and his name underwent a change in pronunciation in the mouths of the common people, the name of this district being none other thân the name of Eyüb himself. While the Turkish army was laying seige to Istanbul in 1453, Ak Şemseddin, a scholar and religious dignitary, came upon the grave of Eyüp. After the conquest Mehmet II had a mosque and mausoleum built in what is now the Eyüp district and in a short space of time this area had become the city's most sacred place. After it had become a place of pilgrimage for members of the public the Ottoman sultans took to girding their swords at Eyüp and large numbers of people wanted their graves to be near this sacred part of the city. Eyüp was for many years a place of spiritual tranquility. However, in recent years a numbers of factories and workshops have sprung up and the incomparable graveyards framing it have been damaged, which is a cause of great concern for the city. The graveyards surrounding Eyüp have been greatly damaged by the building of shanty houses in recent years; gravestones and trees have been destroyed.
A place visited by a great number of people which has nothing in common with the grave of a saint is the Hırka,ı Şerif Mosque, on the Marmara side of the fatih district. This mosque, which has two minarets resembling the capitals of Corinthian columns, is octagonal in plan and of mixed style is the place where the Robe of the Prophet Mohammed is kept. It was built by Sultan Abdülmecit between 1848 and 1851. Inside the mosque there are examples of the calligraphy of Mustafa lzzet Efendi, one of the great masters of the l9th century, of the Sultan himself. The sacred relic which is generally accepted as the Robe of the Prophet Mohammed was brought from the Yemen in h. 1027 ( 1618) by Şükrullah Efendi and was kept in his mansion by himself and then by his descendents, where it could be seen by worshippers who visited the house, The Robe was later taken away and placed in a special building.
There are two types of graveyard in Istanbul. The first are the large graveyards on the outskirts, with their rows of marble gravestones and sarcophaguses shaded by towering cypress trees. Graveyards of this type are a work of art in their own right. One of these is the great graveyard extending from an area outside the city walls almost as far as the Sea of Marmara, which has a number of names according to the district in which it lies. The section opposite Edimekapısı was damaged by road widening in the late 1950's. The graveyard that covers the hillsides above Eyüp is being eaten away by shanty houses. The tree-filled graveyard which, until comparatively recently, extended from Şişhane and Tepebaşı down into Kasımpaşa was completely obliterated during the First World War by Cemal Paşa, the then head of the navy, who did not leave or tree or a gravestone standing. A small, domed mausoleum erroneously thought to be that of Evliya Çelebi somehow escaped this massacre, and it still stands at the top of Şişane Hill. When one descends the hill leading from Taksim to Dolmabahçe one will encounter the remains of an old graveyard on the site of the German Consulate; thousânds of the city's inhabitants rested in peace in this graveyard, shaded by a veritable forest of cypress trees, as can be judged from old photographs; all that remains of it now are the 12-15 graves in the gardens of the German consulate. The gravestones from this graveyard were as was discovered recently during the construction of a new building, in the foundations of the houses that had been demolished to make way for it. Along the shores of the Bosphorus at Rumelihisarı there is a graveyard which extended as far as the sea, leaving room for only a narrow footpath. However, the new road that has been built has encroached on it considerably.
There is a desire general among Turks to be laid to rest on the Asian side of Istanbul, which explains the size of the Karacaahmed Graveyard. Although each part of it has a separate name, this great graveyard is a veritable city of the dead which stretches from Üsküdar along the Bağdad Road towards Kadıköy, where it terminates at the Ayrılık Fountain. It then ascends the hillside and again descends towards Söğütlüçeşme, continues on the other side of the Kurbağalıdere Creek to the rear of the Fenerbahçe Stadium 'at Kızıltoprak. Here the graves of its founder and his family (which still stand) indicated the far end of the graveyard. However, this graveyard, which created a green belt around that part of the city and was filled with gravestones that were minor works of art and bore the names of hundreds of famous persons, is gradually dwindling . New burials in the Karacaahmed Graveyard have resulted in damage to the older gravestones.
It should also be emphasised that the graves of the founders of many mosques, masjids, madrasas, schools, , dervish convents, charity fountains and other charitable works within the city itself were, in a short space of time surrounded by the graves of other people, which created small graveyards, both within the precints of mosques and outside of them. Although many of ' these small graveyards, which were a feature of the city's side streets, no longer exist, it would be an appropriate measure to prevent the tipping of refuse in such places, such as the ,graveyard in Vefa or that near the Nişancı Mosque in Fatih and to protect them. ft is quite natural that the old tree-filled graveyards of the Turks, who have never feared death, should not be regacded as menacing places. The modern graveyards which are an imitation of those in Europe are, for this reason, cold and repellent. The graceful carving, beautiful calligraphy and sentiments expressed in the inscriptions on the Turkish gravestones of old are of particular value in that they retlect the feelings of Istanbul's old inhabitants towards death and display an ability to compose a speech even when on the threshold of this last journey. The gravestone of the mother who died in childbirth at Eyüp, that of a young girl who died when she was about to maıry, that of a gentleman who informs us that he “died of his wife's nagging” at Mevlevihanekapısı and the gravestohe of Ağa Hasan Paşa in the Söğütlüçeşme graveyard, which stated (it was destroyed in the 1960's) that he had lived “but eighty years and a few” are but a few interesting examples of the thousands of inscriptions to be found on gravestones.
http://www.kultur.gov.tr/portal/default_en.asp?belgeno=2062
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| Are the texts given to Prophet Ibrahim(as) hidden on Mount Nimrod?
admin 2006/2/17 10:52
1614 208
HARUN YAHYA
Who could have a better religion than someone who submits himself completely to Allah and is a good-doer, and follows the religion of Ibrahim, a man of pure natural belief? (Qur’an, 4:125)
Prophet Ibrahim (as) is a servant honored with the prophethood by Allah at a young age, and one possessed of superior qualities. Allah chose him from among his people, who ascribed partners to Him, and entrusted him with the duty of communicating the message of His religion. Allah sets out His revelations to the prophet in this verse:
Or do they in fact envy other people for the bounty Allah has granted them? We gave the family of Ibrahim the Book and Wisdom, and We gave them an immense kingdom. (Qur’an, 4:54)
In the above verse it is revealed that the “Book and Wisdom” have been given to the Ibrahim family, in other words to Prophet Ibrahim (as) and his descendants. In other verses, our Lord reveals that He has given “texts” to Prophet Ibrahim (as) as follows:
… the Hereafter is better and longer lasting. This is certainly in the earlier texts, the texts of Ibrahim and Musa. (Qur’an, 87:17-19)
It can clearly be seen in these verses that Allah revealed “texts” to Prophet Ibrahim (as) before the revelation of the Torah to Prophet Musa (as). These texts contain a pure religion based on Prophet Ibrahim’s submission to Allah. Our Prophet (saas) had this to say on the subject:
- [Abu Dharr] asked: "O Messenger of Allah, has anything from the pages of Prophet Ibrahim (as) and Prophet Musa (as) been sent down to you?" He replied: "O Abu Dharr," ["Yes," he said, "such verses were revealed," and began to read them:] "Everyone who cleans himself well, recalls the name of the Lord, and performs the prayers has achieved his hopes. Perhaps you hold the life of this world to be superior. But the Hereafter is more auspicious and more constant. These [truths] also exist in previous pages, the pages of Ibrahim (as) and Musa (as). (Al-Hafiz ibn al-Dayba ` al-Shaybani, Taysir al-'usul ila Jami` al-'usul, 860)
Prophet Ibrahim (as) Was a Pure Muslim
Throughout history people have debated what religion Prophet Ibrahim (as) actually belonged to. Jews regard him as one of the Jewish prophets and maintain that they are following his path. Christians also regard him as a Jewish prophet, but differ from the Jews in claiming that he is subject to Prophet ‘Isa (as), who was to come after him.
The fact is, however, that in the Qur’an Allah states that those who discuss the religion of Prophet Ibrahim (as) and his descendants have no information on the subject. In addition, Allah also reveals in verses that the debate over whether Prophet Ibrahim (as) was Christian or Jewish is an irrational one:
People of the Book! Why do you argue concerning Ibrahim when the Torah and Gospel were only sent down after him? Why do you not use your intellect? You are people arguing about something of which you have some knowledge. Why then do you argue about something of which you have no knowledge? Allah knows; you do not know. (Qur’an, 3:65-66)
The Qur’an is the source of reference that gives us the most accurate information regarding Prophet Ibrahim (as). That is because the Qur’an is the only one of Allah’s Books that has not been corrupted. One certain fact about the religion of Prophet Ibrahim (as) is revealed thus in one verse:
Ibrahim was neither a Jew nor a Christian, but a man of pure natural belief – a Muslim. He was not one of the associaters. (Qur’an, 3:67)
The debates over the religion of Prophet Ibrahim (as) will be definitively resolved when the originals of the texts Allah revealed to him are uncovered. As revealed in the verses above, it is revealed that Prophet Ibrahim (as) is a Muslim who believes in Allah as the “One and Only god.” The realization of this with the emergence of the texts will be a means whereby members of various religions come to turn to Islam.
Prophet Ibrahim (as) was born in this region. He also communicated his message to the pagan tribe in this region. His struggle against Nimrod, the leader of that tribe, also took place in that region.
It is believed that the originals of these texts are inside the 2500-year-old remains on Mount Nimrod, in the province of Adiyaman in South-East Turkey.
Parts of the region that have still not yet been reached should contain his tomb, relief inscriptions, treasure and considerable information about that period. There is also a strong likelihood that the texts of Prophet Ibrahim (as), regarded as a criminal element by the rulers of the time, are there. A very excellent system was probably established to conceal this very important scripture and information in the deepest and most inaccessible locations, where it is protected against falling into the wrong hands. In fact, due to the difficulties and dangers of access, these protected areas have still not been explored. However, it may well be that scrupulous research conducted using the latest technology will allow this most important information to be brought to light. The opening up of these enormous masses of stone will be very difficult. Therefore, a special system needs to be established, and the opening up of the mountain must be commenced from end parts. A retaining wall needs to be constructed to protect against rockfalls, and partial evacuation may need to be carried out to prevent a possible disaster in the region. In addition, those who placed this very important information and scripture there may have considered the fact that the region could not be conquered during years of attacks due to its geographical location. For example, despite being very small, the Commagene Kingdom resisted Persian and Roman attacks for years, and was never overthrown. This is another manifestation of the credible nature of the region.
Mount Nimrod and the Secret of the Tomb
The Mount Nimrod temple, which, according to historical sources, dates back to 3,000 years after the time of Prophet Ibrahim (as), is regarded as one of the world’s most important cultural treasures by a great many international organizations, including UNESCO. It has been the subject of archaeological excavations since it was first brought to light in the 19th century, with Turkish and foreign archaeologists investigating it. The top of Mount Nimrod was cleared by human hand during the construction of the remains, only a part of which have still been unearthed, and 6-ton blocks of stone were dragged from kilometers away and erected on the summit.
There is another very important point on which Turkish, German and American archaeologists working on Mount Nimrod are agreed. A second area has been prepared and carved out inside the mountain. It is thought that this is a tomb chamber. Countless tunnels have been dug since Roman times up to the present in order to locate these chambers. Yet none of these initiatives has had any success. The fact that it has been so well concealed makes scientists think that this region is very important and contains highly significant information. Archaeological excavations in the region must continue in the light of this. This discovery, which will cast light on the history of religions, alter members’ of different religions perspective towards Islam and, most important of all, that will show Prophet Ibrahim’s (as) true religion as compatible with his legacy, must be made, and the work must be accelerated.
Prophet Ibrahim (as) Was a “Community in Himself”
Ibrahim was a community in himself, exemplary, obedient to Allah, a man of pure natural belief. He was not one of the associaters. (Qur’an, 16:120)
Prophet Ibrahim (as) held Allah above all things, sought only His approval, was sincerely devoted to Him, and feared and trusted only Him. Although opposed by many people, who wished to kill him or even cast him into the flames, he remained determined in his struggle to make the religion of Allah prevail, thanks to his courage and submission, which stemmed from his faith.
All believers must adopt these superior moral values of Prophet Ibrahim (as) for themselves and, even if they are all alone, they must still be courageous, determined, true, submissive and strong-willed like him. What they need to do in order to do this is to genuinely submit to our one and only Lord, fear only Him and take Him as their only friend. That is because even if a believer finds himself totally isolated in a community of unbelievers, his enthusiasm and strong desire to attain the good pleasure of Allah will encourage him to always behave in an auspicious manner, to live according to religious moral values and to preach these to others as a requirement of Qur’anic moral values. He always acts with the strength imparted by the knowledge that Allah is always by his side, and always protects and supports him. Whoever exhibits the same moral values as Prophet Ibrahim (as), who binds himself to Allah with the same devotion and submission, may hope, like Prophet Ibrahim (as), to be given the strength of being a “community in himself.”
http://www.harunyahya.com/articles/mount_nimrod.html
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| Shame of the House of Saud: Shadows over Mecca
admin 2006/8/26 8:09
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Daniel Howden | The Independent | 19 April 2006
(Picture on the left is the House of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace)).
Previously unseen photographs reveal how religious zealots obsessed with idolatory have colluded with developers to destroy Islam's diverse heritage.
There is a growing shadow being cast over Islam's holiest site. Only a few metres from the walls of the Grand Mosque in Mecca skyscrapers are reaching further into the sky, slowly blocking out the light. These enormous and garish newcomers now dwarf the elegant black granite of the Kaaba, the focal point of the four million Muslims' annual Haj pilgrimage.
The tower blocks are the latest and largest evidence of the destruction of Islamic heritage that has wiped almost all of the historic city from the physical landscape. As revealed in The Independent last August,the historic cities of Mecca and Medina are under an unprecedented assault from religious zealots and their commercial backers.
Writing in response to the article, Prince Turki al-Faisal said that Saudi Arabia was spending more than $19bn (£11bn) preserving and maintaining these two holy sites. "[We are aware] how important the preservation of this heritage is, not just to us but to the millions of Muslims from around the world who visit the two holy mosques every year. It is hardly something we are going to allow to be destroyed." This rebuttal sits at odds with a series of previously unseen photographs, published today, that document the demolition of key archaeological sites and their replacement with skyscrapers.
Saudi religious authorities have overseen a decades-long demolition campaign that has cleared the way for developers to embark on a building spree of multi-storey hotels, restaurants, shopping centres and luxury apartment blocks on a scale unseen outside Dubai. The driving force behind this historical demolition is Wahhabism the austere state faith that the House of Saud brought with it when Ibn Saud conquered the Arabian peninsula in the 1920s.
The Wahhabis live in fanatical fear that places of historical or religious interest could give rise to alternative forms of pilgrimage or worship. Their obsession with combating idolatry has seen them flatten all evidence of a past that does not agree with their interpretation of Islam.
Irfan Ahmed al-Alawi, the chairman of the Islamic Heritage Foundation, set up to help protect the holy sites, says the case of the grave of Amina bint Wahb, the mother of the Prophet, found in 1998, is typical of what has happened. "It was bulldozed in Abwa and gasoline was poured on it. Even though thousands of petitions throughout the Muslim world were sent, nothing could stop this action."
Today there are fewer than 20 structures remaining in Mecca that date back to the time of the Prophet 1,400 years ago. The litany of this lost history includes the house of Khadijah, the wife of the Prophet, demolished to make way for public lavatories; the house of Abu Bakr, the Prophet's companion, now the site of the local Hilton hotel; the house of Ali-Oraid, the grandson of the Prophet, and the Mosque of Abu-Qubais, now the location of the King's palace in Mecca.
Yet the same oil-rich dynasty that pumped money into the Taliban regime as they blew up the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan six years ago has so far avoided international criticism for similar acts of vandalism at home. Mai Yamani, author of The Cradle of Islam, said it was time for other Muslim governments to ignore the al-Sauds' oil wealth and clout and speak out. " What is alarming about this is that the world doesn't question the al-Sauds' custodianship of Islam's two holy places. These are the sites that are of such importance to over one billion Muslims and yet their destruction is being ignored," she said. "When the Prophet was insulted by Danish cartoonists thousands of people went into the streets to protest. The sites related to the Prophet are part of their heritage and religion but we see no concern from Muslims."
Lay people, and in some cases even US senators could be forgiven for thinking that the House of Saud has been the guardian of the two holy places for time immemorial. In fact, it is only 80 years since the tribal chieftain Ibn Saud occupied Mecca and Medina. The House of Saud has been bound to Wahhabism since the 18th century religious reformer Mohamed Ibn Abdul-Wahab signed a pact with Mohammed bin Saud in 1744. Wahab's warrior zealots helped to conquer a kingdom for the tribal chieftains. The House of Saud got its wealth and power, and the clerics got the vehicle of state they needed to spread their fundamentalist ideology around the world. The ruler of this fledgling kingdom needed the legitimacy afforded by declaring himself " custodian of the two holy places".
But that legitimacy has come at an enormous price for the diversity of Muslims who look to Mecca for guidance. Once in charge, the Wahhabists wasted little time in censoring the Haj. As early as 1929, Egyptian pilgrims were refused permission to celebrate the colourful Mahmal rites and more than 30 were killed. At the time Egypt severed diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia. Few governments have stood up to them since.
Instead, the homogenisation of Islam's holiest sites was allowed to accelerate into a demolition campaign that now threatens the birthplace of the Prophet itself. The site survived the early reign of Ibn Saud 50 years ago when the architect for the planned library persuaded the absolute ruler to allow him to preserve the remains under the new structure. Saudi authorities now plan to "update" the site with a car park that would mean concreting over the remains. "The al-Sauds need to rein in the Wahhabists now," warns Dr Yamani. "Mecca used to be a symbol of Muslim diversity and it needs to be again." But with oil prices and profits, at record highs, there is little sign the House of Saud is listening.
Sami Angawi, a Hijazi architect who has devoted his life to a largely doomed effort to preserve what remains of the history of the world's greatest pilgrimage sites, said that the final farewell to Mecca was imminent. " What we are witnessing are the last days of Mecca and Medina."
Mecca's skyline
Giant cranes and half-constructed skyscrapers tower over the Grand Mosque in Mecca. Six new property developments, including the Bin Laden group's Zam Zam Tower, are transforming the character of Islam's holiest city
ISLAMIC HERITAGE FOUNDATION
Mountain of light
The mountain of light, or al Nour, is next in the Wahhabis' sights. Home to the Hira'a cave, it was here that the Prophet is said to have received the first verses of the Koran. Hardline clerics want it destroyed to stop pilgrims visiting. At the foot of the hill there is a Wahhabi fatwa: " The Prophet Mohamed (PBUH) did not permit us to climb on to this hill, not to pray here, not to touch stones, and tie knots on trees..."
ISLAMIC HERITAGE FOUNDATION
The Prophet's wife's grave
The ruins in the foreground are the remains of the grave of the Prophet's wife, Al Baqi, destroyed in the 1950s. The mutawi religious police are present night and day to prevent anyone placing flowers on the site, or even praying in the proximity of the graves
THE ISLAMIC HERITAGE FOUNDATION
Al Oraid Mosque
The 1,200-year-old mosque, site of the grave of the Prophet's grandson al-Oraid, is seen here being dynamited. Gathered around the site are Saudi religious police with their distinctive red scarves, who appear to be celebrating
THE ISLAMIC HERITAGE FOUNDATION
Related:
House of Sayyida Khadija
The House of Sayyida Khadija was rediscovered during the Haram extensions in 1989, then hurriedly covered over so as to obliterate any trace. This was the house where the Prophet Muhammad received some of his first revelations and it is also where his children Umm Kulthum, Ruqqaya, Fatima, Zaynab, Qasim and ‘Abdullah were born…
Destruction of historic Mecca under Saudi Trusteeship
"Destruction of the most precious sites in Islam for fear of idolatry by some, is akin to killing a child for fear that he may grow up to be less than pious. Instead of fearing, the idolatry of the historic structures, they could be used as instructional tools for the upcoming generations…"
"Stop the destruction of the birthplace of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in Makkah"
http://www.petitiononline.com/rasul/petition.html
Source: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article358577.ece |
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| The Destruction of Makkah: Saudi hardliners are wiping out their own heritage.
admin 2006/2/1 20:17
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The destruction of Mecca: Saudi hardliners are wiping out their own heritage
By Daniel Howden
The Independent
06 August 2005
Historic Mecca, the cradle of Islam, is being buried in an unprecedented onslaught by religious zealots.
Almost all of the rich and multi-layered history of the holy city is gone. The Washington-based Gulf Institute estimates that 95 per cent of millennium-old buildings have been demolished in the past two decades.
Now the actual birthplace of the Prophet Mohamed is facing the bulldozers, with the connivance of Saudi religious authorities whose hardline interpretation of Islam is compelling them to wipe out their own heritage.
It is the same oil-rich orthodoxy that pumped money into the Taliban as they prepared to detonate the Bamiyan buddhas in 2000. And the same doctrine - violently opposed to all forms of idolatry - that this week decreed that the Saudis' own king be buried in an unmarked desert grave.
A Saudi architect, Sami Angawi, who is an acknowledged specialist on the region's Islamic architecture, told The Independent that the final farewell to Mecca is imminent: "What we are witnessing are the last days of Mecca and Medina."
According to Dr Angawi - who has dedicated his life to preserving Islam's two holiest cities - as few as 20 structures are left that date back to the lifetime of the Prophet 1,400 years ago and those that remain could be bulldozed at any time. "This is the end of history in Mecca and Medina and the end of their future," said Dr Angawi.
Mecca is the most visited pilgrimage site in the world. It is home to the Grand Mosque and, along with the nearby city of Medina which houses the Prophet's tomb, receives four million people annually as they undertake the Islamic duty of the Haj and Umra pilgrimages.
The driving force behind the demolition campaign that has transformed these cities is Wahhabism. This, the austere state faith of Saudi Arabia, was imported by the al-Saud tribal chieftains when they conquered the region in the 1920s.
The motive behind the destruction is the Wahhabists' fanatical fear that places of historical and religious interest could give rise to idolatry or polytheism, the worship of multiple and potentially equal gods.
As John R. Bradley notes in his new book Saudi Arabia Exposed, the practice of idolatry in the kingdom remains, in principle at least, punishable by beheading. And Bradley also points out this same literalism mandates that advertising posters can and need to be altered. The walls of Jeddah are adorned with ads featuring people missing an eye or with a foot painted over. These "deliberate imperfections" are the most glaring sign of an orthodoxy that tolerates nothing which fosters adulation of the graven image. Nothing can, or can be seen to, interfere with a person's devotion to Allah.
"At the root of the problem is Wahhabism," says Dr Angawi. " They have a big complex about idolatry and anything that relates to the Prophet."
The Wahhabists now have the birthplace of the Prophet in their sights. The site survived redevelopment early in the reign of King Abdul al-Aziz ibn Saud 50 years ago when the architect for a library there persuaded the absolute ruler to allow him to keep the remains under the new structure. That concession is under threat after Saudi authorities approved plans to " update" the library with a new structure that would concrete over the existing foundations and their priceless remains.
Dr Angawi is the descendant of a respected merchant family in Jeddah and a leading figure in the Hijaz - a swath of the kingdom that includes the holy cities and runs from the mountains bordering Yemen in the south to the northern shores of the Red Sea and the frontier with Jordan. He established the Haj Research Centre two decades ago to preserve the rich history of Mecca and Medina. Yet it has largely been a doomed effort. He says that the bulldozers could come "at any time" and the Prophet's birthplace would be gone in a single night.
He is not alone in his concerns. The Gulf Institute, an independent news-gathering group, has publicised what it says is a fatwa, issued by the senior Saudi council of religious scholars in 1994, stating that preserving historical sites "could lead to polytheism and idolatry".
Ali al-Ahmed, the head of the organisation, formerly known as the Saudi Institute, said: "The destruction of Islamic landmarks in Hijaz is the largest in history, and worse than the desecration of the Koran."
Most of the buildings have suffered the same fate as the house of Ali-Oraid, the grandson of the Prophet, which was identified and excavated by Dr Angawi. After its discovery, King Fahd ordered that it be bulldozed before it could become a pilgrimage site.
"The bulldozer is there and they take only two hours to destroy everything. It has no sensitivity to history. It digs down to the bedrock and then the concrete is poured in," he said.
Similarly, finds by a Lebanese professor, Kamal Salibi, which indicated that once-Jewish villages in what is now Saudi Arabia might have been the location of scenes from the Bible, prompted the bulldozers to be sent in. All traces were destroyed.
This depressing pattern of excavation and demolition has led Dr Angawi and his colleagues to keep secret a number of locations in the holy cities that could date back as far as the time of Abraham.
The ruling House of Saud has been bound to Wahhabism since the religious reformer Mohamed Ibn abdul-Wahab signed a pact with Mohammed bin Saud in 1744. The combination of the al-Saud clan and Wahhab's warrior zealots became the foundation of the modern state. The House of Saud received its wealth and power and the hardline clerics got the state backing that would enable them in the decades to come to promote their Wahhabist ideology across the globe.
On the tailcoats of the religious zealots have come commercial developers keen to fill the historic void left by demolitions with lucrative high-rises.
"The man-made history of Mecca has gone and now the Mecca that God made is going as well." Says Dr Angawi. "The projects that are coming up are going to finish them historically, architecturally and environmentally," he said.
With the annual pilgrimage expected to increase five-fold to 20 million in the coming years as Saudi authorities relax entry controls, estate agencies are seeing a chance to cash in on huge demand for accommodation.
"The infrastructure at the moment cannot cope. New hotels, apartments and services are badly needed," the director of a leading Saudi estate agency told Reuters.
Despite an estimated $13bn in development cash currently washing around Mecca, Saudi sceptics dismiss the developers' argument. "The service of pilgrims is not the goal really," says Mr Ahmed. "If they were concerned for the pilgrims, they would have built a railroad between Mecca and Jeddah, and Mecca and Medina. They are removing any historical landmark that is not Saudi-Wahhabi, and using the prime location to make money," he says.
Dominating these new developments is the Jabal Omar scheme which will feature two 50-storey hotel towers and seven 35-storey apartment blocks - all within a stone's throw of the Grand Mosque.
Dr Angawi said: "Mecca should be the reflection of the multicultural Muslim world, not a concrete parking lot."
Whereas proposals for high-rise developments in Jerusalem have prompted a worldwide outcry and the Taliban's demolition of the Bamiyan buddhas was condemned by Unicef, Mecca's busy bulldozers have barely raised a whisper of protest.
"The house where the Prophet received the word of God is gone and nobody cares," says Dr Angawi. "I don't want trouble. I just want this to stop."
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| In Saudi Arabia, a Resurgence of Sufism
admin 2006/5/2 18:17
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In Saudi Arabia, a Resurgence of Sufism
Mystical Sect of Islam Finds Its Voice in More Tolerant Post-9/11 Era
By Faiza Saleh Ambah
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, May 2, 2006; Page A13
JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia -- A hush came over the crowd as the young man sitting cross-legged on the floor picked up the microphone and sang, a cappella, a poem about Islam's prophet Muhammad. His eyes shut tight, his head covered by an orange-and-white turban, he crooned with barely contained ardor of how the world rejoiced and lights filled the skies the day the prophet was born.
The men attending the mawlid -- a celebration of the birth and life of Muhammad -- sat on colorful rugs, rocking gently back and forth, while the women, on the upper floor watching via a large projection screen, passed around boxes of tissues and wiped tears from their eyes.
In a sign of Tolerance, Salman al-Odah, left, the country's most popular puritanical cleric, accepted an invitation from Sufi cleric Abdallah Fadaaq, right, to attend a Sufi celebration. (Izzat Zeiny - Photo By Izzat Zeiny)
The centuries-old mawlid, a mainstay of the more spiritual and often mystic Sufi Islam, was until recently viewed as heretical and banned by Saudi Arabia's official religious establishment, the ultraconservative Wahhabis. But a new atmosphere of increased religious tolerance has spurred a resurgence of Sufism and brought the once-underground Sufis and their rituals out in the open.
Analysts and some Sufis partly credit reaction to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States for the atmosphere that has made the changes possible. When it was discovered that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi, the kingdom's strict Wahhabi doctrine -- which had banned all other sects and schools of thought -- came under intense scrutiny from inside and outside the country. The newfound tolerance Sufis have come to enjoy is perhaps one of the most concrete outcomes of that shift.
"This is one of the blessings of September 11. It put the brakes on the [Wahhabi] practice of takfir , excommunicating everyone who didn't exactly follow their creed," said Sayed Habib Adnan, a 33-year-old Sufi teacher. The government "realized that maybe enforcing one religious belief over all others was not such a good idea."
When Adnan moved to Saudi Arabia from his native Yemen four years ago, Sufi gatherings were often clandestine, sometimes held in orchards outside the city, or in basements and without microphones, for fear of drawing attention. "I couldn't wear this," he said, pointing to his turban. "Or this," he said, pulling at his white cotton overcoat. "Or I would be branded a Sufi. You couldn't even say the word 'Sufi.' It was something underground, dangerous, like talking about drugs."
Sufis here say they are not a separate sect or followers of a separate religion, but adherents to a way of life based on the Muslim concept of ihsan . Muhammad explained ihsan to the angel Gabriel as "worshiping God as if you see Him. Because if you don't see Him, He sees you." Another Sufi characteristic is a strong belief in the power of blessings from the prophet, his close relatives and his companions.
Sufism had previously been predominant in Hejaz, the western region of Saudi Arabia, which includes Muhammad's birthplace, Mecca; Medina, where he is buried; and the Red Sea port city of Jiddah. Muslims prayed often at shrines where the prophet's daughter Fatima, his wife Khadija and his companions were buried. Mawlids were public affairs with entire cities decked out in lights, and parades and festivities commemorating the prophet's birthday and his ascension to Jerusalem.
When the al-Saud family that would later come to rule Saudi Arabia took over Hejaz in the 1920s, the Wahhabis banned mawlids as a form of heresy and destroyed the historic shrines of Khadija, Fatima and the prophet's companions, fearing they would lead to idolatry and polytheism.
Wahhabis, crucial allies in the Saud conquest of the disparate regions that became Saudi Arabia in 1932, were awarded control of religious affairs.
Discrimination against Sufis, among others, intensified after armed Wahhabi extremists took over Mecca's Grand Mosque in 1979, demanding that a more puritanical form of Islam be applied in the country. Though the government quelled the uprising and executed its leaders, authorities were shaken by the incident, and lest other Wahhabis defy them, they allowed them more rein.
Soon after, extremist clerics issued a religious edict, or fatwa, declaring Sufi's spiritual leader, Muhammad Alawi Malki, a nonbeliever. He was removed from his teaching position, banned from giving lessons at the Grand Mosque, where both his father and grandfather had taught, and interrogated by the religious police and the Interior Ministry. After Malki was later attacked by a throng of radicals incensed at his presence in the mosque, he could pray there only under armed guard.
Meanwhile, thousands of cassettes and booklets circulated calling Sufis "grave-lovers" and dangerous infidels who had to be stopped before they made a comeback. Their salons were raided, and those caught with Sufi literature were often arrested or jailed.
The tide finally turned in 2003, with the new atmosphere that took hold following the Sept. 11 attacks, when the future King Abdullah, then the crown prince, held a series of meetings to acknowledge the country's diverse sects and schools of thought. One of the guests was Sufi leader Malki. When he died the following year, Abdullah and the powerful defense and interior ministers attended his funeral. The rehabilitation of his legacy was almost complete.
"We were then upgraded from infidels, to people who are ignorant and practicing their religion wrong," said Wasif Kabli, a 59-year-old businessman.
But many Sufis complain that despite outward appearances, Wahhabis continue to destroy shrines in and around their holy places, their salons continue to be raided and their literature is still banned.
Wahhabis and Sufis view Islam from opposite directions. To Wahhabis, who emerged from the kingdom's stark, harsh desert, a believer's relationship can be only directly with God. To them, Sufis' celebrations of the prophet's life smack of idolatry, and supplications to him, his relatives and companions appear to replace or bypass the link with God.
Sufis answer that the prophet celebrated his own birthday by fasting on Mondays, that he himself offered to intervene with God on behalf of Muslims and that he could often be found in the evenings at the grave sites of his wives and companions.
Last month, on the occasion of the prophet's birthday, a crowd of more than 1,000 gathered to celebrate at a private residence. Sufi books, cassettes and DVDs were selling out in one corner of the large garden where the event was held. Adnan, the Sufi teacher, was one of four speakers who addressed the crowd. He asked: Why are we Sufis always on the defensive? "Nobody asks [soccer] fans for religious proof that sanctifies their gatherings at the stadium because of their devotion to their team," he said. "How come we are always asked for an explanation of our devotion to our beloved prophet?"
Muhammad Jastaniya, a 20-year-old economics major and part of a new wave of young Saudis who have embraced Sufism, said what drew him was the focus on God.
On a recent moonlit evening, Jastaniya sipped sugary mint tea with his friends on rugs spread on the rooftop of a Zawiya, or lodge where Sufis go to meditate, chant or sit in on lessons. The words 'God' and 'Muhammad' were written in green neon lights, and Islam's 99 names for God were stenciled in black paint around the wall. "To be a Sufi is to clear your heart of everything but God," he explained. "The Islam we were taught here is like a body without a soul. Sufism is the soul. It's not an alternative religion -- it can contain all Muslims."
That thought seems to be taking hold, even in faraway corners.
Salman al-Odah, the country's most popular puritanical cleric, who was jailed in the 1990s for opposing the presence of U.S. troops in the kingdom, accepted an invitation to visit Sufi cleric Abdallah Fadaaq's mawlid and lesson last week. The scene at Fadaaq's house was an obvious sign of conciliation.
Al-Odah sat with his hands neatly folded in his lap, wearing a red-and-white checkered headdress and clear wraparound glasses and sporting the short scraggly beard that indicates a conservative. Fadaaq, who at 39 is emerging as the new symbol of Hejazi Sufism, wore the white turban, the white overcoat and shawl typical of Sufis, wooden prayer beads resting on his lap. "It's true that there are differences between the way people practice their faith in this country, and this is an indication that people are using their minds and thinking, which is a good thing," Fadaaq said. "But what we should concentrate on are the expanses that bring us together, like the prophet. We must take advantage of what we have in common."
The photo accompanying this article can be found on the following link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/01/AR2006050101380.html
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| Growing popularity of Sufism in Iran
admin 2006/5/1 10:28
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Roxana Saberi
BBC News Tehran
The lights are dimmed in a home in northern Tehran. The men, women and teenagers gathered in the large living room close their eyes and rock back and forth to the beat of live music.
These Iranian Sufis believe music and dance can provide a direct route to Allah
As the tambourine and drums beat louder and faster, some members of the group climb to their feet. They begin to swirl slowly in circles and raise their hands to the ceiling. A few fall into trances.
"You can somehow touch relaxation," says 22-year-old Mahsa, who believes that music and dance can provide a direct route to Allah.
"It's a very good sensation, and you think your soul is flying, that somehow you're not in your body."
These Iranians consider themselves Shia Muslims, as do most Iranians, and look to the first Shia Imam, Ali, as a spiritual guide.
But they also call themselves Sufis.
Sufis believe that at the core of all religions lies the same truth and that God is the only reality behind all forms of existence.
They also believe that the individual, through his or her own efforts, can reach spiritual union with God.
Spread of Sufism
Sufism, or Islamic mysticism, appeared in the eighth century in present-day Iraq.
Iranian Sufis say Islamic mysticism has become more and more popular in the country in recent years.
The authorities are concerned that Sufis will do something against them, while on the contrary, Sufis don't interfere in politics at all. They follow the law and are not opposed to the Islamic Republic
Heshmatollah Riazi
Iranian academic
No official statistics are available, but Heshmatollah Riazi, a former professor of philosophy and theology in Iran, believes two to five million Iranians practice Sufism today - compared to only about 100,000 before Iran's Islamic Revolution of 1979.
He says Iran is home to the largest number of Sufis in the Middle East.
"Sufis have nothing to gain from superficial religious thoughts, and they seek spirituality," says Mr Riazi.
Nowadays, hundreds of young Iranians are increasingly joining Sufi groups.
"They need something to develop love and their internal sense of freedom."
Some Iranians who are attracted to Sufi sessions say their gatherings provide entertainment and camaraderie.
Others say they like Sufism for its liberal view of religion.
"Official religion has a series of limitations, and its limitations are much stricter than in Sufism," says 20-year-old Ashkan, a member of the New World Unity Sufi group in Iran.
Growing tensions
Many Iranian Sufis also report that the growing popularity of Sufism has contributed to greater tensions between them and certain elements of the Islamic regime.
Earlier this year, violent clashes broke out after authorities ordered the closure of a Sufi house of worship, or Husseinieh, in the central Iranian seminary city of Qom.
Iran - contrary to the propaganda that the world spreads against it - is one of the freest countries of the world, and Sufis also are part of this country and are completely free
Javad Arianmanesh
Parliamentary Cultural Commission
Members of the Nematullahi Gonabadi Sufi group say the Husseinieh was set on fire and that hundreds of their members who had refused to leave the building were arrested, although most have been released since then.
Qom's governor, Abbas Mohtaj, has said the Sufis were ordered to leave because they had begun building on the property without the necessary permits, the government-run Iran newspaper reported on its website.
Mr Mohtaj has also been quoted as saying the Sufis had ties to foreign countries that were trying to create insecurity in Iran.
But Riazi denies these charges and says the authorities had other motives for shutting down the Husseinieh.
"[The authorities] are concerned that Sufis will do something against them, while on the contrary, Sufis don't interfere in politics at all," says Mr Riazi, a member of the Gonabadi group, which does not have music or dancing at its gatherings. "They follow the law and are not opposed to the Islamic Republic."
Sufism and orthodoxy
In the past, certain Sufi groups have come into conflict with orthodox Islam.
They caused concern among some clergy over the observance of practices that departed from traditional ritual.
Sufi musicians at a gathering in Tehran
Some Sufis say before Iran's Islamic Revolution, Mohammad Reza Shah imprisoned some Sufi leaders. They say in the early years after the revolution, the new regime also confronted some Sufi groups - detaining some leaders and shutting down their gatherings.
Sufis look to their own spiritual leaders, while Iran's official version of Islam advocates the practice of following a Marja-e taqlid, or a cleric who is an expert in Islamic jurisprudence.
And in contrast to Sufis, orthodox Muslims believe that a person can never "become" God or be united with him.
Cordial relations
Many Sufis say, however, the Qom dispute was an exception to the generally cordial relations they have had with the government in recent years.
And Javad Arianmanesh, a member of the Cultural Commission in Iran's parliament, says the government does not limit Sufi activities.
"Sufis are one of those groups which mostly act within the framework of Islam," he says.
"Also, because Sufis work within our framework [that of the Islamic Republic], there is no kind of problem for them."
"Iran - contrary to the propaganda that the world spreads against it - is one of the freest countries of the world, and Sufis also are part of this country and are completely free," he says. "They can, based on their own beliefs, perform their own ceremonies."
But a government official who preferred to remain unidentified says the regime's treatment of Sufis is not always consistent because it is based on ambiguous laws.
He explains that on the one hand, Sufi meetings should not be disrupted, but on the other hand, Sufis should not proselytize.
"We asked both the previous and the current governments to have more concrete laws and to form a commission to oversee Sufis' activities because regulations about their activities are contradictory," says the official, who worked for both the previous, reformist President Mohammad Khatami and the current, conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4907406.stm |
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| Jakarta- The Light of God
admin 2006/6/22 17:36
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(Picture of a Mosque in West Sumatra, courtesy of Anna from Indonesia)
Jakarta: The Light of God 1
Dina Zaman | May 25, 2006
It will change your life.
Jakarta as everyone knows is the capital of Indonesia. Home to over 10 million people, the visitor either loves or hates the city. It is here that he sees abject poverty co-existing with the glittery but fragile world of the very rich, very beautiful and famous, and it is in Jakarta that you see colliding worlds, whereby animism, various tribes and cultures, religions clash and mingle. Sometimes they co-exist peacefully, and sometimes, like a married couple, they fight and bicker for the world to see and judge.
Indonesia has always been touted as a model Muslim country that practises secularism. Yes, they do have serious problems: terrorism, the rise and rise of extreme fundamentalism, the on-going battles between liberal Muslims and the conservatives, and even among moderate Muslims there are many routes to salvation, hence teachings that follow the Quran and Sunnah, and teachings that are infused with Hinduism, Javanese or Madurese culture for example, or if you so wish, ‘deviant’ elements. A non-Muslim need not ‘revert’ to marry a Muslim, according to some parties while some authorities cry foul at the act. Islam in Indonesia can be considered as either liberal, open and progressive/moderate/conservative or The Wild Wild West.
I had only two goals when I attended the kursus Nursyifa in Menteng Raya for nine days: one – to learn about tasawuf, which is to immerse myself in soul cleansing and ‘experience’ my prayers on a deeper level, and two – to observe their community work up close.
Why Jakarta?
My trip to Jakarta was met with scepticism and ridicule by a few friends and acquaintances. Indonesia, as far as they were concerned was only good for shopping, women, maids and labourers. The rich were very rich, the poor were very poor and Islam in Indonesia was not to be trusted.
“Why there when you can get the same here? I have a friend in Melaka that does the same, combining religion with motivation, right brain learning… you’re wasting your money going there to discover Islam. Malaysia has everything and more.”
“Well if you’re combining work with pleasure I guess then your trip’s fine… but why Jakarta, I don’t know.”
“The website looks dodgy and I think if you go there, your aqidah will be ruined. You can’t trust these Indons, you know?”
Truly they have forgotten this:
O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other (not that ye may despise (each other). Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of Allah is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And Allah has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things).
(Surah Al Hujuraat, Verse 13)
Briefly, this verse means that we Muslims must not view ourselves superior to others, for our skin colour, culture, language are not deemed important in the eyes of God. What counts is our iman and taqwa (belief and submission to and awareness of God) . Those familiar with unsur tawadlu will understand that it is taaruf for Muslims to learn about their sisters and brothers in faith, as well as their friends of other religions and beliefs, and forge friendships.
But Malaysia boleh kan?
Of course, not all my friends thought the trip was fool-hardy. My family was supportive. I come from a family of great travellers, so I suppose I was just following the beat of the ‘angin mengembara’ when I arrived in Jakarta on 21st April, 2006.
Yayasan Terapi Nursyifa is based in dusty, muggy Menteng Raya. To say it is in the poorest district would not be the truth, as there are poorer areas in Jakarta. It is clean, orderly and organised, in spite the visitor passing downtrodden shacks that were homes to individuals. One had a comb of overripe bananas hanging in the window, for sale. Young children played barefoot in the rain, and men and women sat by the roadside, chatting or staring into space. During the day it reminded me of my kampong in Gong Kapas, and early in the night, there was this festive atmosphere as stalls selling snacks and noodles dotted the road. Later at night however, there was a slight feeling of menace as the neighbourhood observed strangers going back to their kos.
But when one visits Nursyifa, one is not to mind the outside world. You are here to heal and learn about yourself.
Yayasan Nursyifa is actually the residence of HM Bambang Irawan S and his wife, Ibu Retno Dewi, or as she is more popularly, Ibu Haji. The couple with their two sons – Mas Reno and Mas Arno - and a group of volunteers, meet with people from all walks of life who have come to learn about themselves, as well as forget the stresses of 21st century life. Tasawuf is about the purification of the heart and soul and the principles of piety and virtue. And before anyone starts entertaining thoughts of a Sufi cult with drums beating and swirling dervishes, at Nursyifa, the penghayatan/experience of God is conducted via zikirs and the application of teachings from the Quran and Hadith to daily life, a marriage of science and theology, which in Islam is redundant, for science comes from God, as everything else.
Prior to coming to Jakarta I visited the website and I admit that I was quite apprehensive about Nursyifa. I’ve visited the Malaysian version of Nursyifa - Darul Syifa - Datok Harun Din’s headquarters in Bangi before - and I sure as hell was not looking forward to seeing dementia, possession and ghostbusters running around. With due respect to Dato Harun Din, I had a headache when I visited his ‘clinic’. It was mayhem. So when I surfed the website, what with blinking stars and music, I thought, Oh God, what have I got myself into, I asked myself.
There was and is a difference. Unlike in Darul Syifa where there were healers to spook demons out of a person, at Nursyifa, you healed yourself. And your demons could be psychological, medical, only you knew what would heal you and only you healed yourself, for in Islam there is no intermediary when you spoke to God. You talk to God ‘directly’ through your prayers and supplications. There are no djinns or spiritual angels and incesne as a conduit to help you, everything was based on your purification. For surely, all ills come from the heart.
Seeking knowledge
I arrive at Nursyifa. Some of the visitors smile shyly and some look at me unabashedly.
“Assalamualaikum,” I say as I knock on the door.
“Waalaikumsalam, mbak. Why are you here?” a kindly and plump lady greets me.
“To learn. Actually, I don’t know. I was told to come visit and learn about the Yayasan.”
“Oh yes. You’re the writer that has come to observe us. You’ll have to see Ibu Haji then.”
I enter the house which is teeming with visitors or pasien, and at my feet are kittens and cats that swat at passing feet and play with anyone that has the time for them. I learn later that Ibu Haji loves cats and keeps about 15 of them in a specially built air-conditioned shelter.
I like this place already.
The Light of God II will be published in two weeks.
DINA ZAMAN lives in Kuala Lumpur with her family.
Jakarta: The Light of God, Part 2
Dina Zaman | Jun 7, 06 10:51am
Astaghfirullah
I beg forgiveness of Allah
La illah ha illallah
There is no God but Allah
Al Fatihah (The Opening)
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
Praise be to Allah, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds;
Most Gracious, Most Merciful;
Master of the Day of Judgment.
Thee do we worship, and Thine aid we seek.
Show us the straight way,
The way of those on whom Thou hast bestowed Thy Grace, those whose (portion) is not wrath, and who go not astray
Recitations
For the next nine days, before each group zikir sessions, we recite each of the above 100 times. There are a number of group sessions throughout the day. Two in the morning, one after Zuhur prayers, another after Asar, then a break before the sessions are resumed after Maghrib prayers which are held as a jemaah, and then another after Isya. You would think that each session is easy for all you have to do is chant the zikirs on a chair, but you will be surprised to know that when you perform the sessions, you will find that you are fighting yourself physically, mentally and emotionally. You're looking at probably four to five hours of zikirs each day.
You will be shown to your seat, and you will be taught how to breathe. Those familiar with yogic breathing and pranic healing may find this extremely familiar. Tuck in your pelvic muscles, and rectum and breathe normally as you sit upright and recite La illah ha illallah repeatedly throughout the 30 minute session. Do this throughout the day, together with other clients from all walks of life. You are taught too, to not just pray using your tongue, ‘secara lisan’ but also to experience the zikirs in your heart through visualisation. As if you see the Surah Al Fatihah cleansing your heart from all the blackness - nafsu amarah yang didalangi oleh Syaitan - anger, sadness, vengefulness, negativity. Curiously enough, as you chant and pray that all your worries and ills are taken away, your hands move instanteneously, in keeping to the beat of your zikirs.
The sessions are held in the living room of Bapak Bambang or Bapak Haji’s home. No caves, no dark rooms and certainly no incense. The room is well-lit, and the comforting smell of cakes and pastries promise a feast after the sessions. Yes, whatever little Nursyifa receives from visitors and patients goes towards the maintenance of the foundation, the jamu concoctions that are served to all the clients as well as snacks.
It’s a calm setting. As each one sits in his or her chair, praying and reflecting on their past, present and future, tears are shed. Regret is sighed out aloud. Some sit and smile as they chant. But sometimes the atmosphere is interrupted as a patient fights with his demons. Moans, screams, anger - surupan ghaib? Evil supernatural forces at work? Or manifestations of psychological stress? Again we are reminded to turn to God, for only He can help materialise our wishes, and that only we decide what lives we want. If He wills it, it will come true. Kun fa ya kun.
Looking at yourself
There is a rhythmic hum in the room as everyone chants their supplications. Some are calm as they pray to God, while some weep. The volunteers speak softly to the clients, consoling them. One begins rocking in his chair a tad too violently.
"As you cleanse yourself, your true self comes out. So if you are like a monkey, you move like one when you zikir," a volunteer smiles when I ask why.
I am supposed to close my eyes as I pray but I cannot resist peeking to observe a man weeping and moaning, it hurts, it is eating me up, whimpering in pain. There is something eating me! he calls out and then he falls to the floor. One of the male volunteers helps him up, and calms him down. ‘You will be fine, just be positive and you will be well," he advises.
The team comprising Bapak Haji, his wife and sons, and the volunteers, do not look like ethereal beings. The volunteers wear sleeveless jackets over their shirts, with Nursyifa emblazoned at the back of the jackets. Bapak Haji and his sons wear shirts and trousers. I expected them to wear robes, with long flowing beards, but the men are clean shaven. Ibu Haji is firm in her dealings with clients but dresses daintily in a head-scarf that matches her clothes. In fact, the visitors that come are a mixed bag of Muslims and non-Muslims. Some wear the hijab, some wear loose scarves and the men visit in work clothes. No one has kohl on their eyes, no one turns up in flowing robes and none of the men I meet have facial hair. During the lunchtime zikir, executives turn up in jackets and knee length skirts.
I ask how come there isn’t anyone dressed like an ustaz or ‘properly’ as back in Malaysia, holy men wear robes, kopiah, the baju melayu... and if anyone’s to turn up in a skirt and shirt to a religious place, she’d be met with snide remarks and glances.
"We can’t turn people away because they’re not dressed in a hijab or a robe. We don’t even dress that way because we’re normal people, passing tools and life skills to the ummah. Who knows, maybe after being with us, the women will cover up. But we don’t impose on our patients. We just help them to realise, heal."
"We’re servants of God. We are nobodies. Who knows, maybe when they leave, they become better people. And yes, non-Muslims can come too. They do not utter our zikirs, because they have their own religions, so we teach them skills like meditation, motivation. Islam is not exclusive; look at our Prophet, he was cordial towards his Jewish neighbours. He went to their funerals."
In between zikir and counselling sessions, the volunteers as well as the two men - visit hospitals. Counsel the poor. The weak. It’s a tireless task, but one that the volunteers look forward to with a smile. It is as if they do not sleep - at Nursyifa they teach, counsel, help with light physiotherapy, and in between the zikir sessions, it’s off to the other side of Jakarta. Sometimes they visit the homes of dying people. I think of what my friends that work with street people have told me: how our country fears so much of priests, Buddhist and Christian, coming to convert the ailing Muslims, when in reality there are so few Ustazs and Muslim volunteers that visit the third class wards of public hospitals. There are one or two, but that's too few.*
My deal with God
It is not easy meditating this way. Too many things come to mind - anger, work, sadness - and I find it hard to concentrate. Monkey mind, as a former yoga teacher told a bunch of giggly women (my friends and I) once.
"Ayoh, Mbak Dina... fikiran keroh," Mas Arno says.
Let go. Let go of all the anger and sadness, he advises me.
I look at him. He must be joking. If he only knows what I have gone through.
He smiles. "Let go."
"How about this. I pretend to forgive all that have hurt me until one day I really believe that I’m forgiving them. By then I’d have forgiven them fully?"
He laughs. "If that works for you, why not?"
Before he attends to another client he tells me that when one prays, have an intention - niat - first and smile.
"Smile?"
"Iya. Kenapa mau bengis apabila berhadapan dengan Allah? Greet Him with happiness, even if your heart is heavy."
How on earth does one recite zikir with her pelvic muscles and buttocks tucked in, breathing, imagining the light of God cleansing one’s self, asking for forgiveness and rebirth, smiling at the same time?
This is a feat for pious gymnasts.
"You can do it," Ibu Ida tells me.
Here are the stories I heard
I overhear an elderly man say to his wife:
There must be something wrong with me. During the session, they said to imagine your parents, your family forgiving you... all I saw was my late mother, and my step-father. But my father, my real father, all he had for a face was this black space. What is wrong with me? I asked him to forgive me too but all I could see was this black dot.
Your father died when you were a baby. That’s probably why you can’t remember how he looks like. Your late mother never kept his photos, his wife said.
But he can’t not have a face. He’s my father. My real father.
A man in his early forties has been coming to Nursyifa because he is trying to find ways to love his second wife.
"You see, my first wife, she died of kanker. She wasn’t pretty or clever. A simple nurse. But everyday, even though she lost more and more of her looks due to her illness, I fell in love with her even more. From the day we married until the day she died, we were like two teenagers. Everyday we were in love with each other!"
"Then she died. "
"Three years later I remarried. She’s very pretty, a manager! Very clever, she can speak English, you know? We have one daughter. But aduh... no matter how much I try, I cannot love her like how I loved my late wife. Kami bersama seminggu sekali Bapak! (We're intimate only once a week!)"
We try hard not to laugh, because he is earnest and sincere in finding a way to love his second wife.
"Once a week is good, Bapak," one of the volunteers offers, "some people don’t get it at all!"
Mirth erupts.
"Eh, I am serious! She’s a good woman, she deserves to be loved. Maybe I’m crazy?"
One of my zikir partners is a good-looking man. A senior executive, Disco Boy has been coming to Nursyifa to heal his busted liver. He developed cirrhosis and after getting ‘quite fed up’ with conventional medicine, he saw Nursyifa featured on television and decided to visit.
"I was quite nervous. I hardly prayed! Did I have to be an ustaz to come heal? But I was surprised by the warm reception. So I’ve been coming every other day since. I’m not religious or anything like that yet, but I feel more at peace with myself. And I think because I am less stressed, my liver is getting better."
Still go clubbing, Disco Boy?
"Once in a while. Funny, but I feel like I’m sullying myself if I do something naughty now. Aneh."
Everyone has a story. Cancer, loss of confidence, fear of djinns, there is always something to talk about. And they travel all the way to Nursyifa. I meet a man from Palembang who has come to heal his sick son, and I meet a spry 80 year old woman that looks exactly like Mak Enon, who takes the bus to and from, amounting to five hours of travel, every three days. To them, it is a small sacrifice to find peace, even if their session lasts an hour.
I even meet a few Malaysians that have come on a spiritual cum pleasure trip to Jakarta. What does Nursyifa have that Malaysia does not, I ask the women.
"The practise of healing in Malaysia is all about economics and status. Certain ulamas cater to certain people. If you want something more ‘down to earth’ you may end up sesat, because you don’t know where these ustazs had their learning," one of them sniffs.
"It’s nice to be here. No one judges you. No one gossips or talks about you here. Back in Malaysia, if you fart, the whole country would know."
Heavens, are we Muslim-Malaysians that bad?
"Auntie ni bukannya pandai sangat pasal bab ugama, politik (I'm not well-versed when it comes to religion or politics)... Indonesia is not perfect. It’s a secular country and it’s got all sorts of Muslims. But the pendakwah here are honest and sincere, and follow the Sunnah. Look at the Nursyifa boys. They work with street kids, prostitutes, eh sini ada one you know, junkies, doesn’t matter Muslim or not, this is real dakwah work: helping the community. In KL... jangan harap."
In the evenings
One way of learning about a country’s culture and mindset is to watch the local programmes. I didn’t bother exploring the city, I was addicted to the television programmes!
I’m guessing at how the channels do their programming, but there seems to be a daily theme for all channels. On one night, it was horror movies all the way. IndoSiar featured this film: TUYUL TUYUL (goblins created from aborted foestuses). On another channel, it was WALI POKOK PISANG. The other seemed to be about a pontianak haunting a family.
The next day it’s all about naughty children receiving their just bits for being awful to their parents. One drama’s about this giddy headed girl that becomes a stripper and then repents. After surfing more channels to see even more stories about retribution, I’m ready to turn into a demure Malay girl. I don’t want to end up in the gutter, with a shrieking transvestite begging me to repent for being rude to my mother. And I’m not passing any banana trees for the matter because I don’t think I can cope with the sight of Sufi mystics going in and out of trees.
I’m just basing this half-baked theory on my viewing, but I wonder whether religion, retribution and redemption are ingrained in Indonesians so much that they seem to be obsessed by the Three R's. What else do they have apart from a fierce pride in their language, culture and country? How else do they make sense of their world, which can be violent as well as destitute?
But I am a visitor to Indonesia, and what would I know?
The Light of God 3 will be published in two weeks.
* On May 5, JAIS released a statement that there were no reports of Muslim patients being 'influenced' by non-Muslim missionaries. Please view report.
DINA ZAMAN lives with her family in Kuala Lumpur.
Jakarta: The Light of God 3
Dina Zaman | Jun 21, 06 3:20pm
The logical reader reads what he wants to read
The believer sees beyond meaning - Mas Reno
It has been more than a month since I was in Jakarta. It’s been interesting to note people’s reactions to my little jaunt. From remarks saying that I wasted my time in Jakarta praying, when I could have gone shopping, to someone asking me in all sincerity, “Oh, you like Sufi poetry?” when I said that I had attended a Sufi camp (I didn’t know what else to describe it), right up to acquaintances wanting to know more about the course. What was even more odd was that a few of my Malay friends, hijabed and non, sniffed at the adventure and made snide remarks while my non-Malay friends and non-practising, yes, Muslim friends were delighted with the jaunt.
Mrs. Scott, whose dogs guest-starred in a previous article, repeatedly said, “Whatever you learned there, you keep on at it because I see changes in you. Good ones.”
“Next think you know I can float in the air,” I laughed.
“Aiyoh, that one a bit much lah!”
My two ‘older men’ - Naa Murad and Paul Lau - asked whether it was a tabligh group that catered to the rich. No, Nursyifa was a place for weary souls seeking respite and healing. “Were there drums and dancing?”
“Er, no. No incense either.”
“Was it in a rich neighbourhood like some of these tarikats are situated? No Tengkus and Datuks?”
“No. It’s a normal house that’s been turned into a centre for the destitute. And Ibu Haji has 16 cats. No rich people. Just normal folks.”
“And they accept you for who you are?”
“Yah.”
“Is this like Ayah Pin’s cult?”
“No-lah! It’s all Islamic, follows Sunnah and all, but it’s not like here. Go there and experience it for yourself. They welcome everyone, Muslim or not.”
Poco-poco
On Sundays, Nursyifa conducts free exercise classes and therapy for everyone at the Monas Park in Central Jakarta. The crowd is mixed: men and women of all ages and shapes, and from all walks of life. Stringy young Indonesian boys rub their eyes sleepily as they shuffle into the line, while excited matrons in jeans and leggings and tee shirts squeal as they await Mas Reno to take his place on a podium, to lead the group. Within seconds, Billy Ray Cyrus bellows from the portable speakers,
You can tell your ma I moved to Arkansas
Or you can tell your dog to bite my leg
Or tell your brother Cliff who's fist can tell my lips
He never really liked me anyway
Oh tell your Aunt Louise, tell anything you please
Myself already knows that I'm okay
Oh you can tell my eyes to watch out for my mind
It might be walking out on me today
But don't tell my heart, my achy breaky heart
I just don't think it'd understand
And if you tell my heart, my achy breaky heart
He might blow up and kill this man
Ooo
It’s poco-poco time! The women shriek, and the men whoop. For the uninitiated, feet trip over each other while necks strain to catch sight of Mas Reno showing off the moves. Some dance barefooted while some move to their own beat.
Mas Reno and his band of instructors tell the crowd to wiggle their behinds,
“Depan, depan, mundur, mundur, kwee kwee kwee!”
We giggle and wiggle, kwee kwee kwee.
“Mbak (Miss), where are you from?” A young woman next to me asks.
“Kuala Lumpur!” Kwee kwee kwee.
“Oh! Is it true Malaysians are all rich?” She shouts over Achy Breaky Heart.
That’s another thing. All the Indonesians I meet at Nursyifa are curious; they hope to come visit or work in Malaysia one day, because they hear so many good things about the country. Like Dick Whittington who walked all the way to London because he heard the streets were paved with gold, everyone seems to have a starry eyed idea of Malaysia.
“Well I’m not!” I yell back.
“Oh! Is it because you have too many Chinese there?”
And that stops me in my tracks. A seven o’clock aerobics session coupled with a discussion on race and economics is just damned weird. Besides, I wanted to kwee kwee kwee again.
“Do you have this in Malaysia?” she asks again.
I laugh. Where on earth can such a session be conducted? The Taman Tun park is overrun by families, professionals; the last time I went there, I could hardly breathe, there were that many people. KLCC? We’d be arrested for public disorder. Heck you can’t even hold hands there, and with this butt wiggling thing going on... Lake Gardens? It’s too near JAKIM. We’d all end up under ISA for religious deviation. What normal, rational ustaz would teach a mixed group to kwee kwee kwee?
I know this is cynical of me, but who in Malaysia will do this for free? Nursyifa provided drinks and generous snacks to all at the park gratis. There isn’t any public fanfair - in KL, we’d probably have to have a VVIP to lead the congregation. And every Sunday morning?
I don’t think so.
I ask one of the volunteers why such sessions are held, as I taste a panada, a curry-puff like snack.
“This is sedekah, our contribution to society. It’s healthy and fun. And not all that come participate can afford snacks and drinks. It’s not much, but it’ll do.”
A new life
There is one morning when I wake up with the oddest sensation in my chest.
I jump out of bed, befuddled, clutching at my nightshirt, and in my dazed state - it is 3 in the morning - I look for my heart. It takes me a few seconds to realise that I don’t have a hole in my chest; my heart is inside me, I am not dead.
What a vivid dream, I say, as I sit on my bed, wide awake now.
Yet I feel this hollowness, and I paw at my shirt a few times. Then I remember someone telling me once, that when such a thing happens, it means that a new life begins and one is to fill his or her heart with goodness.
‘It is up to you to fill that space that has been cleared. This is rebirth.’
I go back to sleep, but with the night-lamp switched on.
***
But back to everyone’s Holy Grail to wealth in Malaysia.
I meet a couple with a child that has Down’s Syndrome in Nursyifa. They ask where I am from, and I tell them.
The husband comes forward, and the wife looks panicked, hopeful, and he asks,
“How much can I earn as a labourer there?”
I am stunned.
“My son is ill, and I need money to help him. My wife can’t work because she has to care for him. Please, can you tell how to find a job in Malaysia? I’ll do anything.”
“You will have to go through an agency...”
The wife asks, “Is it true everyone is rich there? That Indonesians that go to work there have better lives?”
I am silent. I do not know how to say that what you see and hear may not be the truth. That it will be tough for them. It’s not even easy for many Malaysians to eke a living. But I am saved from saying the wrong thing, for it is their turn to receive therapy.
It is my last day at Nursyifa. To mark the end of my observation and participation, a small gathering is organised. Over forty orphans have been invited to pray for my well-being. Small packets of rice have been gathered to give each one of them. Ibu Haji asks me to go up to their lecture-cum-family room to meet with them.
Forty-four orphans and their ustaz look at me. Some of the younger ones smile shyly, while a few of the older ones look bored. They probably have had to recite prayers for other people many times, I figure. I smile back. And then the choir begins: the children begin reciting prayers, and in between prayers the Ustaz asks them to pray for my health, career and of all things, my jodoh. I look at Ibu Haji and she smiles impishly.
I have met many orphans before, but this group of fresh-faced children - the sight of them tugs my heart. I look at their clothes, which are yellow from too much sun and wear-and-tear. They are clean, but the signs of age and use glare at me. Some of their scarves are too big for their heads and some of the boys wear trousers that are too tight. I think of my nephew that has never wanted for anything, and again my heart is gutted.
I am told that on Nursyifa’s website there is video streaming, and if I want to follow their zikir sessions, I can click on the link and be part of the group, from the comfort of home. They also have monthly weekend retreats filled with activities such as volleyball, picnics, poco-poco as well as therapy sessions. There’s even an outward bound type like retreat for those that have the hearts of lions.
A former prostitute waltzes past me, as she flirts with a young man. The woman next to me whispers, “She better tell him she has ‘Hi’ Vee.”
“‘Hi’ Vee?” Is he her boyfriend?
“Bukan mbak... AIDs! ‘Hi’ Vee!”
I look at the young girl who has her victim enthralled by her charms. She has lost whatever beauty she has, if she ever had any, and her skinny arms flit as she talks to him. She glances over and our eyes meet. A slight sneer crosses her face, and she turns away, takes her admirer’s hand and they leave Nursyifa, he besotted by her and she haughty, I know what you’re thinking.
I will not meet any of the people I befriended when I leave, and my heart is heavy. The last nine days were filled with prayers and stories; we had bonded. To leave this sanctuary - why is it that I always feel more at home abroad?
***
I am back.
The few that have asked me about my trip shake their heads when they say that such a thing will have difficulty in materialising (in Malaysia). “It’ll either be an elitist activity or some of the Malays will dilute the teachings with nonsense. If they’re really sincere in acquiring the knowledge, let them fly to Jakarta. No, no, much as such a thing will be great in Malaysia, hancur nanti programme (it won’t work).”
In the past one month, kahwin misyar, kongsi raya, to name a few, have blighted the public’s perception of the religion. So many things to do, so many things to write. I wonder why people have to make things so difficult for others, for everyone else. One might as well create a new country then.
I don’t know what the future holds, but I know this for sure: six more months of this (column), and then it’ll be another and new adventure for me.
Glossary:
“Depan, depan, mundur, mundur, kwee kwee kwee!” - Front, front, back, back, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle
Jodoh - romantic life; partner
DINA ZAMAN lives with her family in Kuala Lumpur.
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| North Dakota Is Home to First U.S. Mosque
admin 2006/3/7 7:53
1246 128
North Dakota Is Home to First U.S. Mosque
By Susan Logue
Ross, North Dakota
20 October 2005
Logue report (Download MP3) 1,184 KB
Logue report (Real Audio) - Download 783 KB
Listen to Logue report (Real Audio)
Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the United States, and there are more than 1,200 mosques around the country, with at least one in every state. The vast majority are in major metropolitan areas, especially in New York and California, but America's first mosque was built in one of the least populous states - North Dakota.
Like many immigrants, the Lebanese who arrived on the flat plains of North Dakota in the early years of the 20th century came in search of economic opportunity. Hassan Abdallah says his parents didn't plan to stay.
Hassan Abdallah
"They always talked about how they came to the United States. They were going to get rich and go back to Lebanon. It didn't work out that way. Nobody got rich."
The Abdallahs weren't the only ones who came here from Lebanon hoping to make their fortune and go back home. "There was a bunch of them (who) came," Mr. Abdallah says, "not at once, but they kept coming, helped each other out. There were quite a few here years ago."
And sometime around 1929 or 1930, when they realized they would be staying in North Dakota, working as farmers and raising their families here, the Lebanese community decided to build a mosque.
"What they built was essentially a building that would keep them warm," says Joan Mandell, a filmmaker who has documented Arab communities across the United States and is currently working on a film about Arab Americans in North Dakota.
Ms. Mandell points out that they didn't have indoor heating in rural areas back then. "Can you imagine coming from a warm Mediterranean climate and ending up in northwest North Dakota in the middle of winter?" she asks. "North Dakota is really windy, so they built a basement." The rough wooden building that stood above ground, Ms. Mandell says, was just 1.25 meters tall.
"It was huge down in the basement. It was really big where they prayed," recalls Hassan Abdallah, who was just a young boy when the mosque was being used. "Men would pray and the women would sit off to the side. Us kids would go outside and wrestle. I always thought there were 15 or 16 old-timers that stood in line and prayed."
He recalls that hardly anybody had a car back then, so people arrived at the mosque by horse-drawn wagons and buggies.
"Back in the 30s," Mr. Abdallah says, "they all got together and prayed for rain. And we had an accident before we got home it rained so hard, so I always figured that helped."
The old-timers Mr. Abdallah talks about are now long gone, most of them buried in the Muslim cemetery that adjoined the mosque. Most of their children, who grew up in and around the small towns of Ross and Stanley, moved away.
Now 80, Hassan Abdallah is one of the few Muslims still living in the area. He says by the 1940s no one was using the mosque any more. In the 1970s, the younger members of the community - grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the original immigrants from Lebanon -- voted to tear it down.
"We shouldn't have torn it down really, but we thought it looked -- an eyesore they said," Mr. Abdallah says. "All we had to do was make it look better and we could have kept it. It looked so empty after we tore it down."
New mosque in Ross, ND, built to replace original, oldest mosque in U.S.
But it doesn't look empty any more. At the urging of Mr. Abdallah's sister, Sara Omar, who died last year, a new mosque was built where the old one stood. About 80 people attended the commemoration this summer.
Half the size of the original mosque, but above ground, the building is made of concrete faced with stone, topped with a bronze dome. Inside are four minarets, waiting to be put on the corners of the building and a framed poster bearing images of all of the dead who are buried in the cemetery, including Sara Omar, who never got to see the new mosque completed.
Minarets waiting to be installed
Hassan Abdallah says although he occasionally says prayers in the new mosque, it's really more of a memorial.
According to documentary filmmaker Joan Mandell, the second mosque in the United States was built five years after the one in Ross, North Dakota, by immigrants to Rapid City, Iowa. The simple, white-framed building with a green dome is still standing in the middle of a residential community.
"People refer to that as the first mosque, so it is the first mosque still standing." But the filmmaker says, no one -- including the Muslim community of Rapid City -- has come forward to challenge North Dakota's claim as the home of America's first mosque.
A picture of the now renovated mosque can be seen on the site of the original article:
http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2005-10/2005-10-20-voa14.cfm? |
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