Interfaith dialogues are as prominent as they were before. Islamic history has established the importance of dialogues and that Muslims have been conversing not only with themselves but with others. This spectrum was dramatically changed since September 11. There is suddenly a colossal call for Muslims to prove themselves as peace-loving people, and the need for sharing Islam and conversing with others became the order of the day. I have asked myself these questions: What are the conversations which are required of Muslims? Who are asking these questions and making them have these conversations, and why? Importantly, who are the Muslims conversing with?
There is a marked difference in the way Islam was presented prior to September 11. What has been made prominent since then is the spiritual and mystical aspect of Islam that was hardly put to the forefront – even to some Muslims. If we browse through the list of academic scholars teaching in universities, Islamic books being published, the expansion of Islamic mysticism/sufism section at the American Academy of Religion and the speakers at any interfaith dialogues, we will find an expanding focus on sufism through its speakers. Many scholarships are also given to the study of mystical saints in Islam.
Let us turn now to the concept of Sufism. The root meaning of the word Sufi is from the Arabic suf or its meaning as wool, and they are white symbolizing purity. Many earlier sufis donned coarse wollen garments to protest the silks and satins of the sultans. Alarmed by the worldliness they saw overtaking Islam, they sought to purify and spiritualize it from within. They wanted to recover its liberty and love, and to restore Islam to its deeper, mystical tone (Smith 1991).
There are many ways of the Sufis but the main method is through the mysticism of love – love of God primarily, but also love for everyone and everything else. Zikr, or chanting by invoking God’s name is a daily feature of the sufis way of purifying themselves and to bring them closer in love with God. They believe that God’s love was at the core of the universe and the pangs of physical separation from God deepen their love and thereby draw them close to God. Hence, the daily zikr is a physical call by sufis towards God, in reaching God. Many of us are familiar with the famed mystical poet Jalalludin Rumi whose poem “Song of the Reed” is a typical example of this philosophy - the desire to unite with God is not a bodily or materialistic longing: it is the longing of the soul. The spiritual path constantly reminds sufis of this “homeland” through the opening verses of the poem:
“Listen to the reed as it tells its tale – complaining of separation;
Eversince I was parted from the reed-bed, my lament has caused men and women to moan;
I want a bosom: torn apart by such separation, so I may unfold to such a one - the pain and longing of love desire;
Everyone who stays far away from his origin wishes to get back to the time when he was united with it.” (Banks 1997)
Limited by the focus of this paper, we will proceed to examine why the representation of Islam has been focused heavily on spiritual context. It is instructive to look at Asad’s work and his comments on translations in culture, which we can then extrapolate its application in communicating about religion. “My point, is only that the process of cultural translation is enmeshed in conditions of power – professional, national, international … Given that this is so, the interesting question of inquiry if not whether, and if so to what extent, anthropologists should be relativists or rationalists, critical or charitable, toward other cultures, but how power enters into the process of ‘cultural translation,’ seen both as a discursive and as a non-discursive practice” (Asad 1993).
Essentially, we need to examine who the general audience of such interfaith dialogues are and for what intend. They can be divided into two general categories, Muslims and non-Muslims, but by and large, such interfaith dialogues are meant to address the latter as a form of reassurance that Islam is not a religion of terror and that it can co-exist peacefully with the “others”. It is in this language that Sufism has flourished since. Under that condition, Islam is put on the stage against the “others” to defend its values and principles. Speaking a certain language in common is therefore important, particularly if we understand this to include sharing not just language per se, but a repertoire of commonality which includes stories, proverbs, jokes, formulaic expressions or even a textualized canon (Lincoln 2003). As we understood from the quote on Asad earlier, Islam, one against the rest, has no choice but to realize the subtle play of powers and pressures stacked against it in portraying itself as a member of the world community. This was essentially the move that has shaped Islam since September 11, 2001 in the public arena. As Jonathan Z. Smith has articulated in his theories on religion, religion can best be viewed as a network of relationships between social and other factors that can be translated over and over for one’s own purpose (Smith 2004), and in this particular case, Islam being mediated by the language of love – a language, in a specific construct, which is understood by the “others”.
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