CLASSICAL RELIGIONS SUMMER '74

GL0BAL RESEARCH ASSEMBLY

GUILD # 20

Islam is a religion of revelation. Its teachings .stress the objective disclosure of God to man through prophecy? and in so teaching, differs from religions that stress the experimental knowledge of God through self­awareness. Islam is more objective than subjective, more rational than poetic. God is understood as more transcendent than immanent. Islamic instruction is more toward the practical "what" than the meaning giving "why". The fundamental teachings of Islam are three: (1) There is no god but God (there is no power to direct the Universe or to fill life with meaning than the one power, that gives life as it is); (2) Mohammed is His prophet (Muhammed has in the Koran given the very Word of God, the final truth about life); (3) Islam (as Muhammed taught, the perfect way of life is submission to God, to the profound indicative of life as it is.)

In Islam, God is the sovereign power that creates and sustains the universe. His purposes are inscrutable. He wills both good and evil. "It is not incumbent upon God Most High to do that which may be best for his creaures" (Al­Nas­afi's creed). He simply says "Be". And it is. He has no co­equals or partners. "He is God alone, God the undivided. He does not beget and He is not begotten. There is none co-equal with him. (Koran, Surah cxii ). Before God, man is totally dependent. His proper status before God is that of servant/slave. God reveals himself to man yet it is not the Divine Being which is revealed, but Divine Will, not personality, but 1aw. God the Revealer remains himself unrevealed. God is the totally other mystery. He is forever beyond man Yet, God is ever present. For the Muslim there is a sense of the "face of God' everywhere constraining. the submission. of the servants. Thus, God is utterly transcendent beyond knowledge and at the same time "nearer to man than his jugular vein." (Koran, Surah. 1:16).

Islam is based on the Koran, the sum total. of statements made by the Angel Gabriel to Muhammed. "God Most High speaks with this Word commanding and prohibiting and narrating. And the Koran is the uncreated Word of God, repeated by our tongues, heard by our ears, written in our copies, memorized in our hearts, yet not simply a transient state in these" (Al-Nasafi's creed). Muhammed, a man of the sixth century, A.D., was not divine. He was the last of many prophets, including Abraham, Moses and Jesus. He was married and lived a fully human life. Through his fidelity to the revelation of God, he became an example to men. He established a new people and tradition. For Muslims, the power of the revelation contained in the Koran is held not in translation or interpretation, but in the continual recitation of this vital life poetry. The Muslim believes that this revelation is protected from error.

The word Islam, itself means the divine pattern which God has set down for nature and man. It is to Islam that each man should conform. A twofold journey, the annihilation of the self and then the' rendering, of obedience to God, comprises the dynamic of embracing the way of Islam. This journey includes awakenment, surrender, witness and service,

The life situation of the Muslim casts him upon the Journey to embracing Islam. Islam was born in the desert where the day­to­day reality of standing ever present to the scorching sun impacts man with his weakness and finitude. In the midst of life's overwhelmingness, he is awakened to the fact that his life is contingent; his position, precarious. There is no escape from the brokenness; there can be no looking for another life. He is ever confronted with the reality life presents to him, and is always faced with the decision to embrace life just as it is.

Man is confronted with the awareness that nothing has final significance or meaning. All things pass away only God endures. Without any earthly hope; he hopes in God. Trust in God involves renunciation of all personal initiative. It requires perfect indifference to anything remotely connected with the self; and complete surrender to the Will of God. This is Islam, Submission to God, peace.

The Muslim comes to know that he is up against the final truth of life, that all of life is determined by God. He knows that in Islam his life is one with his determination, a fact for which he gives thanks. His prayers are not prayers of intecesslor3 asking God for life as he would have it. His prayers are acknowledgment and praise, "There is no God but God. God is Most Great." Thus he bears witness to the truth about life.

In renouncing himself and in surrender to God man discovers he is related to all things He knows that all people are his brothers. Out of lids obedience to God, he takes responsibility for his brother through service. "If men wish to draw near to God, they must seek him in the hearts of men. They should speak well of all wen, whether present or absent s and if they themselves desire to be a light to guide others, then like the sun, they must show the same face to all." (Koran).

Muslim: The Adherent

The Muslim's life stance submission to God is manifested in his religious practices. Muslims call the practices the Five Pillars of Faith, prescribed in the Koran. The First Pillar, the Creed, manifests the Muslim's unremitting awareness about life. In the act of Prayer' the Second Pillar, the Muslim acts out his constant remembrance of that awareness. The Third Pillar, the fast is the embodiment of intentional submission to God. Alms is the Fourth Pillar; it is the Muslim's acting out of his obligatory brotherhood. The Fifth and fine] Pillar is the pilgrimage9 which rehearses the full essence of the Islamic faith.

To be a Muslim is to live in the Unremitting Awareness that finally, one stands before nothing other than the power and Mystery of God. "There is no God, but God," the Muslim intones, giving voice to the watchword of his faith. He stands ever present to the overwhelming power that continually forces him into life. The encounter with the unknowable power of God humbles him. He becomes as one standing on nothing and being compelled to walk. "I am the one who lives before the void." he tells himself. "I am the creature ­­ nothing more. And that is good." The Muslim knows that nothing can save him from this stark reality. No intermediary stands between him and God.

The Muslim rehearses his unremitting awareness of God through the recitation of the Creed, the first Pillar. The Creed is the declaration that there is no God, but God and Muhammad is His prophet. The many recitations of the Creed keep the Muslim from forgetting that God is ever present and all­powerful. The recitation of the Creed instills in him single-mindedness, fear of God, the conviction that God's Will must be obeyed. The Creed rehearses for the Muslim that Mohammed's revelation is the final revelation and therefore, what is contained in the sacred Koran is beyond question.

To be a Muslim is to live in Constant Remembrance of the reality of God In the arid setting of the desert, where Islam was born, man could not easily escape the realization that life's power controlled his destiny, for good or ill. Man fights an endless battle with life's givenness ­­ ever accountable, ever humiliated. He comes to know that his only choice is to accept his lucidity. Not to do so would be folly. The Muslim constantly remembers that the fate of every man is in the hands of God and any attempts to persuade himself that life is otherwise results in nothing more than a dangerous flight into illusion.

This constant remembrance is rehearsed in the second Pillar of Prayer. All the faithful face Mecca five times daily in ritual prayer. They wash, bend, lower and prostrate themselves in submission, nose and forehead in the dust. The daily prayer is a corporate act, strengthening the fiber of the Islamic brotherhood. Nothing is left to the individual in the prayer format. His prayer is acknowledgment and praise (remembrance)of God. Following the ritual prayer, and only then, he has the option of offering prayers of supplication. The spirit of Islamic prayer is held in the teachings of Al­Ghazali.

So at this renew to your heart the remembrance of the greatness of Allah, and say 'O the praise of my Lord Most High!' and confirm it by many repetitions, for one repetition is of weak effect. Then, when your heart is moved, and that is evident, let your hope find assurance in the mercy of God, for his mercy makes haste towards weakness and lowliness, and not towards pride and conceit.

Intentional Submission to the will of God is tile Muslim stance. For the Muslim, life is being constantly under the judgment of an alien power. The Muslim knows the futility of attempting to escape the struggle of life. He is continually pushed to let go of his illusions of a secure existence. In his surrender, there is a strange victory. He finds that his weakness is his strength. In the state of submission, he lives beyond expectations, and finds he is perpetually released from the care of this world. Within himself is silence and stillness. The Muslim is compelled to be nothing. True peace lies in the submission of himself to the power which limits him

The Muslim rehearses intentional submission in the Fast, the third Pillar. The fast is observed annually during the month of Ramadan. At that time, the believer abstains from food, drink, smoking and sexual relations from dawn to dark. The Fast is an exercise in self­discipline, of renunciation of the self, an intentional detachment from immediate desires. It reminds man that he cannot serve God if he sets no limit to his desires. As tile Muslim imposes, upon himself the conditions of the fast, so he decides to submit himself to God..

To be a Muslim is to live in a state of Obligatory Brotherhood, commissioned by the order of nature itself to treat all men with equity and justice. The scorching desert teaches the Muslim him awareness of the equality of men. All men, regardless of social distinction or physical characteristics wil1 die without water and protection from the fierce sun. The Muslim experiences his common humanity and grasps the sheer folly of seeing himself as more or less than any other. The indicative of this realization, illuminates for him the fact that God relates to him and his brother as part of His same creation called humankind. This leads man to see that he must necessarily care for his brother. The Islamic faith provides a vehicle through which caring for the needs of the Islamic brotherhood can be carried out.

The Muslim enacts his obligatory brotherhood through participation in Alms, the fourth Pillar. Those who have been granted material wealth are directed to set aside a specific portion of their wealth and possessions to be used to alleviate the condition of the poor. Alms gives the Muslim a structured means of caring for his brother while at the same time, symbolizing and building Islamic solidarity. "To have is to share," goes an Islamic saying. "Only giving cleanses keeping." Alms detaches him from worldly possessions and brings him closer to God. The giving of Alms holds before the Muslim his interrelationship with all of 1ife.

The fifth Pillar, the Pilgrimage is a drama rehearsal of the total experience of Islam. It is the dramatization of the signal events in Mohammed's life, those that led him to the revelation that full life, or perfect peace, lies in total surrender to that which is overpowering in its eternality. Once in adult lifetime of every Muslim who has the means, he is required to journey to Mecca, the symbolic center of his faith. A set portion of the year is set aside for the pilgrimage and Muslims all over the world join in celebrating the event--even if they have not physically gone to Mecca. In the Pilgrimage, the Muslim sheds his clothing,, shaves his head, bathes, and dons the pilgrim's garb, and then embarks on an intensive series of spirit exercises­­­ journeying, singing, praying, walking, circumambulating ­­­ all designed to rehearse for him over and over again that life is detachment, discipline, total engagement, devotion, strength to overpower evil, homage to the Almighty and sacrifice. Further, that such is the path to life as true victory. One sage captured the interior journey of the pilgrim in his questions so a pilgrim on his return from Mecca:

From the hour when you first journeyed from your home have you also been journeying away from all sins?" He said, "No." "Then," said Junayd, "You have made no journey. At every stage where you halted for the night did you traverse a station on the Way to God?" "No." "Then you have not put on the pilgrim' s garb. When you stood at Arafat, did you stand one moment in contemplation of God? "No." "Then you have not stood at Arafat. When you went to Muzcalifa and achieved your desire, did you renounce all sensual desire" "No." "Then you have, not gone to Muzcalifa. When you circurnambulated the Ka'ba, did you behold the immaterial beauty of God in the abode of purification?" "No." "Then you have not circumambulated the Ka'ba. When you ran between Safa and Marwa, did you attain purity and virtue?' "No." "Then you have not run. When you came to Mina., did all your wishes cease?" "No." "Then you have not yet visited Mina. When you reached the slaughter­place and offered sacrifice, did you sacrifice the objects of worldly desires?" "No." "Then you have not sacrificed. When you threw pebbles, did you throw away whatever sensual thoughts were accompanying you?" "No." " Then you have not yet thrown the pebbles, and have not yet performed the Pilgrimage."

The Pilgrim unites the people of Islam in that it creates a common set of experiences, a bond, an ordeal, through which they pass together. Yet more, it gives every Muslim a structured means through which to journey to the center of life and to see that fulfillment and joy that 1ies in giving up one's will in order to embrace the all­encompassing, unyielding will of God.

The qualities that shine through to the surface of one who accepts the way of Islam are lucidity, humility, loyalty or steadfastness, ant brotherhood. The Muslim is a man of lucidity, intentionally standing present to the facticity of the insecure, creaturely existence of man ­­ eternally given by God. He is a man of humility, living his life, even when it is crushed by fate, seeing himself as a servant or slave of God. The Muslim's life is one of loyalty or steadfastness, enduring his situation with unshakable gratitude to God and continual care for his brother. Finally, he is a man of brotherhood, seeing the necessity of caring for the brother who shares with him a common fate.

Epilogue

To continue the dialogue with Islam, it would be helpful to explore in greater depth the practical relation of the mystical path of Sufism, the Orthodox (Sunna) practice of Islam. In this paper, the Journey of embracing Islam was was done without complete assurance as to the proper relation of the mystical and orthodox teachings. For instance, in Sufism, the Journey of faith is to union with, and knowledge of God, but this seems to contradict the Orthodox teaching of God as a reality that man does not know, but only obeys. A fuller study needs to be made of the Islamic understanding of man. The authors of this study did not adequately identify a concept of sin and correspondingly did adequately identify the Islamic teaching of redemption or atonement, other than in the teaching of the Sufis. This study deals with the issue of the Islamic understanding of what it means to be religious. Another important study could be made on the Islamic concept of community, and of the state.