Islamic calligraphy isn’t just a gorgeous style of art, but a symbol for how rich and diverse the Islamic world truly is

For all of the artistic forms the Islamic world has produced, calligraphy seems to be the most pre-eminent. It is entwined in the popular consciousness with Islam itself; mosques around the world proudly display the shahada and the bismillah, and these are featured – in calligraphic script – on the flags of many Muslim countries. Calligraphy has travelled across the Muslim world, transliterating many languages and morphing into many different schools of styles; it has even influenced Western styles of illustrated books and penmanship. This article does not focus on calligraphy entirely, but rather will show how the religious, historical, and cultural backgrounds of the different Islamic cultures informed the development of calligraphy – from the way the Qur’an and the Sunnah view art, to the history of the Arabic script and its transmission, to the way calligraphy travelled around the Middle East, and finally to how the actual production of calligraphy and the training of calligraphers influences its style.

Essentially, the ubiquity of calligraphy in the Islamic visual arts can be traced to the fundamental religious concepts of shirk – that it is forbidden to associate any other entity with Allah, thus risking tawhid, or the “oneness of God.” These other entities can be anything – from the “little gods” (ilah) of greed, capriciousness, and atheism, to the polytheistic deities displaced by Islam at its birth – but for the purposes of this essay, shirk is synonymous with idolatry. To humans, God cannot be comprehended with our own senses or mentality; it is only possible to see the results of His work on Earth and infer His qualities from that. Since God is fundamentally beyond the scope of the human, any attempt to reduce Him to a visual representation is heretical. Idols and icons of God detract from tawhid – that is, it places an intermediate entity between the worshipper and God – and “nothing must stand between man and the invisible presence of God” (Burckhardt, 1976 : p.34).

Within the Qur’an itself, there are many verses dealing with proscriptions in producing images of the divine – in particular, the story of Abraham destroying the idols in 20:52-7. As well as this, many hadith tell of the Prophet Muhammad’s disapproval of not only the makers of religious idols, but any visual depiction of animate beings like humans and animals. This again is to do with shirk – humans acting with arrogance and equating their creations with the creations and creatures of God.

Artists were encouraged to draw plants, landscapes, and abstract pictures instead. Historically, this prohibition against animate figures can explain the flowering of abstract design, calligraphy included, across the Islamic world; it also shows why mosques and other Islamic religious centres lack the anthropocentric art that is usual in their Christian counterparts (e.g., Jesus’ crucifixion, icons of the saints, etc.). Visual depictions of humans and animals do exist in the Muslim world on a smaller scale – murals and frescoes were painted in liberal enclaves like al-Andalus and ‘Abbasid Baghdad, and both Persia and Turkey have supported robust traditions of miniature painting and illustrated books since the 13^th century (Eastman, 1933 : p.22-3). However, the common theme underlying all these works is that they were usually small and for private viewing only; murals were not found outside the palace walls, and illustrated books and paintings were hobbies for nobles, and not for mass consumption. Calligraphy, with its abstract, non-representational style, and the general veneration of language and writing in Islamic culture, became the dominant art form within the Muslim world.

To adequately explain the first appearance of Islamic calligraphy, two distinct questions should be asked – what sort of script did the first Muslims write in, and where did it come from? And what is the history of the written, illustrated Qur’an that actually used calligraphy?

Answering the former question, Arabic script evolved from Nabatean, which in turn came from a script termed Proto-Sinaitic. Only a few examples of Proto-Sinaitic have been found, all dated to c.1900 BCE (Man, 2000 : p.189), but it is postulated that Proto-Sinaitic was one of the first alphabetical scripts developed (rather than ideographic or “symbolic” scripts, like Chinese). Since the actual spoken languages across the region all belonged (and for the most part still belong) to the Semitic language family, it was relatively easy for one script to be adapted to many languages; an archaic form of the Arabic script was known to the first Muslims, even if they were for the most part illiterate. The production of copies of the Qur’an was the first step to greater literacy in the Muslim community (the umma).

The first Qur’ans that still survive today were written in a thick, angular, straight style called Kufic, after the city of Kufa in modern day Iraq, a center for book production; most date to the 8^th or 9^th centuries. According to tradition, it was ‘Uthman’s successor, Ali, who first used and popularised this style over others (Schimmel, 1984 : p.3-4). Kufic was not cursive like modern Arabic script is; rather, five-sixths of letters were supposed to be straight against one-sixth of curved. This meant that the angular, thick lines of Kufic were very easy to chisel into metal or stone – the first Islamic coins and tombstones feature inscriptions written in Kufic (Schimmel, 1992 : p.4-7). A slanted subset of Kufic appeared around the same time, in copies of the Qur’an found in and traced back to the cities of Mecca and Medina. This style, called Ma’il, did not seem as popular as Kufic, but represented the first step towards the more recognisable cursive classical calligraphy. As Islam spread across the Middle East, different varieties of cursive script developed. This development was helped by the spread of sophisticated paper-making technology. Though paper had been known of and used since the start of the ‘Abbasid Caliphate in 751 (Coomaraswamy, 1929 : p.50), more durable vellum had been used to create Qur’ans up until the 10^th century. However, with the importation of high-quality Chinese paper, and the creation of royal paper mills in Baghdad, cursive styles began to appear in both the Qur’an and in official documents of the era; the first wholly paper book can be dated back to 870 (Schimmel, 1984 : p.16). The differences between each style of writing were studied and placed into groups: the “six cursive scripts” or al-aqlam al-sittah, as conflated by the master calligrapher and ‘Abbasid vizier, Ibn Muqla (885-940). These six groups were:

1. Nashk – everyday script; the precursor to the modern Arabic used worldwide. It is the most basic cursive hand; at first it was not used much to write Qur’ans or important state documents, but for everyday writing purposes. However, after the 15^th century, nashki underwent a “renaissance” and it appeared in many books across the Islamic world (Schimmel, 1970 : pl.IX).
2. Thuluth – “one-third” (named after the angle of the slant of its letters); the most common decorative script used in Islamic cultures. Ibn Muqla called it “the mother of the cursive scripts.” Thuluth is more extravagant than Nashki writing, with long, flowing lines and elegant curves, and it was often used in medieval times to decorate the veneers of buildings (Coomaraswamy, 1929 : 54).
3. Muhaqqaq – a script derived from thuluth and used by the Mamluk sultans of Egypt in the 13^th century, and Safavid Persia in the 15^th century; most of the sultan’s royal documents were written in this hand. It was considered to be drier than thuluth, with pointed letter endings and very high “tall” letters (Schimmel, 1992 : p.16).
4. Rihan – a less-extravagant version of muhaqqaq; it is distinguishable from thuluth by the pointed ends of its letters. After Ibn Muqla’s time, rihani writing fell out of favour and is not very well attested (Tabbaa, 1991 : p.122).
5. Tawqi’ – the official hand used by the ‘Abbasid caliphate under Yaqut al-Musta’simi, the successor of Ibn Muqla. The letters in tawqi’ are straighter than in other varieties, though it is still very much a decorative style, rather than an everyday one; it was mainly used to write out court documents and royal decrees (Schimmel, 1970 : p.7)
6. Riqa’ – a more informal, less “monumental” version of tawqi’, riqa’ is still used today as a secondary writing style. Like tawqi’, it flattens out elongated curves and high letters for ease of writing; it is known as the “copyist’s hand” (Shimmel, 1984 : p.23-4).

As well as these definitive styles that were used across the Islamic world, there existed regional variations that were used by specific cultures. The most well-known of these include:

1. Maghribi, which arose in North Africa sometime in the 14^th century, and owed more of its stylistic origins to Kufic than the cursive scripts; thick lines and tall, straight letters were emphasised (Schimmel, 1992 : p.32-3).
2. Ta’liq or “hanging,” that was used – from the time of its conquest – to write exclusively in the Persian language. It evolved into Nasta’liq in the 15^th century; Nasta’liq separated the letters far more than other styles did, and often wrote them on differing levels for artistic effect (Schimmel, 1992 : p.34-7). It was the preferred script for writing poems and for accompanying miniature paintings.
3. Diwani – the extremely elaborate calligraphy of the Ottoman Empire; it first appeared around the time of Suleiman in the 16^th century; Suleiman was apparently a master calligrapher himself. Diwani is extremely complex and difficult to learn – its rules were only taught to a select few, but exponents of the art could create images out of calligraphy (Coomaraswamy, 1929 : 58).

The basic method of production for all of these hands is essentially the same – the calligrapher uses a reed stylus/pen called a qalam, a supply of ink (hibr), and usually an inkpot as well (dawaat). The ink was collected from “lampblack”; that is, the remnants of oil found in burnt oil-lamps, though other methods existed, like burning tar or pitch (Schimmel, 1984 : p.40). At first, in the early days of Islam’s expansion, only black or brown ink was used; however, it is common to find manuscripts in which a later scribe has gone over their predecessors’ work with coloured inks, especially since not all the early Qur’ans used the same spelling. By the turn of the millennium, though, calligraphers could choose to write in many different dyes and inks, and color their books with such luxuries as lapis lazuli and gold leaf (Schimmel, 1970 : pl.XXII). The form of the calligraphy was also dictated by the material the words were written on; because only parchment was used to create the earliest books, cursive scripts would be too hard to write effectively on them.

The invention of paper directly led to the explosion of cursive styles. To prepare the paper for calligraphy, the artist had to first apply ahar, a conditioning mixture that consisted of rice powder, egg white, and starch, to make the paper smooth. Any further unevenness was smoothed out by a stone, traditionally an agate. Once the page was complete, sand was thrown over it, both to soak up the excess ink and as a blessing (Schimmel, 1984 : p.41-2).

The actual training of a professional calligrapher (khattat) was another matter entirely; though most Muslims of education knew how to write the basics of the nashki or riqa’ styles, the future khattat must seek the patronage of a master teacher (sheik). This idea of seeking guidance through a teacher comes directly from the influence of Sufism –  in fact, almost all master calligraphers were Sufis as well. Students had to train constantly, using a mashq (practice slate); on a given day, they would study only the permutations of one letter, though of course the style of training varied from teacher to teacher (Schimmel, 1984 : p.48). Most commonly the rules of form laid down by Ibn Muqla were the most studied. If the students were successful enough in their endeavors, the teacher would award them an ijaza (lit.,  “permission”), a certificate that showed that their sheik considered them adept enough to be a khattat. These ijaza were vital in showing the different lineages of styles across the Islamic world. One final, surprising feature of the calligraphers and their students was that so many of them were women – calligraphy was seen as a pious career for both sexes; many Ottoman princesses were considered master calligraphers in their own right (Schimmel, 1970 : 47).

In conclusion, Islamic calligraphy inherently shows the growth and development of Islam itself, through its aniconic styles of art, to the growth in usage of the Arabic script, and to the blossoming of distinct local variants of Islamic culture. Through all this, it is possible to trace the respect and awe Muslims held for writing, and calligraphy in particular, linking it with the heart of religion. An old Arabic saying puts it best by saying, “Purity of writing is the purity of the soul” (Schimmel, 1992 : p.1).

References

• Burckhardt, Titus (1976) Art of Islam: Language and Meaning, trans. French by Peter Hobson, London : Islamic Festival Trust.
• Al-Bukhari, Muhammad ibn Ismail (c.846) Sahih al-Bukhari, trans. Arabic by Muhammed Muhsin Khan, University of California (database) http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/engagement/resources/texts/muslim/hadith/bukhari/
• Eastman, Alvan C. (1933) Islamic Miniature Painting, Parnassus, vol.5 no.7, New York : College Art Association.
• Gruber, Christiane (2009) Representations of the Prophet Muhammad in Islamic painting, Muqarnas,  Necipoglu, Gulru & Leal, Karen (eds.), vol.26, Cambridge : Harvard University Press.
• Man, John (2000) Alphabeta, London : Random House.
• O’Connor, M. (1986) The Arabic Loanwords in Nabatean Aramaic, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol.45 no.3, Chicago : Chicago University Press.
• Denny, Frederick Mathewson (1989) Qur’an Recitation: A Tradition of Oral Performance and Transmission, Oral Tradition http://journal.oraltradition.org/files/articles/4i-ii/2_Denny.pdf
• Akram, A.I. (1970) The Sword of Allah: Khalid bin al-Waleed, His Life and Campaigns, Rawalpindi : National Publishing House (database)
• http://web.archive.org/web/20020224232028/http://www.swordofallah.com/html/bookhome.htm
• Schimmel, Annemarie (1984) Calligraphy and Islamic Culture, New York : New York University Press.
• Schimmel, Annemarie (1992) Islamic Calligraphy, London : Metropolitan Museum of Art.
• Coomaraswamy,Ananda (1929) Arabic and Turkish Calligraphy, Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts, vol.27 no.162, Boston : Museum of Fine Arts.
• Schimmel, Annemarie (1970) Islamic Calligraphy, Leiden : E.J. Brill.
• Tabbaa, Yasser (1991) The Transformation of Arabic Writing: Part I, Qur’anic Calligraphy, Ars Orientalis, vol.21, Michigan : Smithsonian Institution and Department of the History of Art.

In the remarkable interfaith city of Urfa, the author is surprised by extraordinary generosity which exemplifies the city’s “living faith.”

Sanliurfa, known to the Turks as “Urfa the Glorious,” is often described as a city of many faiths. It is indeed glorious, for a more impressive interfaith site than this one would be hard to find outside of Jerusalem. Legend has it that Adam met Eve on the Göbekli Mound outside of town. The two sons of Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac, were born in nearby Harran. Isaac met his wife Rachel while drawing water at a well in Harran, and their love story charted the destiny of the world, for their descendants included Moses, King David and Jesus. The descendants of his brother, Ishmael, included Mohammed, founder of the Islamic faith. The name of Urfa is scattered countless times throughout the verses of the Old Testament. The city later became known as Edessa, seat of the first major Crusader state of the Outremer, established during the First Crusade of Baldwin II in 1096. Edessa became an important center for the spread of Christianity and the revival of Greek learning, through translations made here into Syriac, the local language spoken by Jesus, then into Arabic, and finally into Latin and the European languages.

On my recent visit to this very hot city in southeastern Turkey, I could not help but be impressed by the cultural, historical, spiritual and mystical atmosphere of this capital of many faiths. When I walked through the rose gardens of the Hasan Padishah Mosque on my way towards the Pool where Abraham’s Sacred Fish swam, I could feel the memory of the prophets of many faiths. As I trod on stones polished by centuries of Biblical footsteps, I observed the crowds coming on pilgrimage to the site, many of whom would continue on to Mecca to complete the Hajj.

Yet faith does not just lie in the historical past of Urfa. Today, it is still a city of living faith, as I recently experienced.

Urfa is dotted with several splendid bazaars, reached by narrow backstreets just wide enough for one donkey to pass. These bazaars echo with the sounds of Turkish, Kurdish, Persian, and Arabic. Djellabias, facial tattoos, keffiyeh scarves, Salvar pants, tee-shirts and tennis shoes all mix in a colorful jumble of traditions and cultures. I went to the Kazzaz Bazaar to watch the silk weavers and to hear the hammering of its famed coppersmiths. I went to the Sipahi Bazaar to admire the bright Kurdish rugs. I went to the Ucuzluk Bazaar to buy some isot pepper.

I had read about isot, the celebrated red pepper of Urfa, and was fascinated by it. What did it taste like, I wondered, and is it really as scorching hot as the infamous palate-exploding habanero pepper of my southwest United States? Just what is it that makes it so special – so special that the people of Urfa consume 70 tons of isot pepper in their kebabs per day? It is certain that it is not just the 46 degree centigrade (115 F) weather that heats up this city, but all that fiery red powdered fuel, too. Isot would also appear to have something more explosive than its blazing taste. A team of scientists from the University of Nottingham, in England, intrigued by the link between the heavy consumption of isot and the very low cancer rates in this area, has carried out research on the pepper. Their research has provided conclusive evidence that isot pepper does indeed possess substantial anti-cancer properties.

I stopped in a spice shop where I was immediately taken in hand by the young owner, Abdulhekim. A tower of colorful spice sacs made from striped kilims rose in a tower against the wall, many of them containing different varieties of isot. When I asked to buy some, I first received a lengthy and informed lesson on their different qualities and textures from Abdulhekim: wetter vs. drier, big flakes vs. small flakes, sweeter vs. smokier, and so on, including his confirmation of its proven effectiveness against cancer cells. Tea was shared, stories were exchanged, politics were discussed and jokes were told, for that is the way business is done in Turkey, even for a handful of pepper. He told me I definitely needed to purchase the most expensive variety; the “best quality kind” he assured me. He knew his stock, so I took his word, and I wanted the best quality for sure.

As he scooped out my order of the searing pepper flakes into a paper bag, I said in a low voice, “I am bringing this pepper back for my friend Enciğim who lives in America. She was sick this past year, but she has bravely finished her treatments and is healthy once again. But I would like her to eat some of this pepper every day to keep her that way, just like you do here in Urfa.”

When he finished weighing out the pepper and wrapping it up, I took out my wallet to pay. He flicked his head up in the emphatic Turkish gesture to say “No!” He brushed my wallet away and placed the package in my hands.

“This is a gift. This is my gift to your friend. May Allah’s mercy and the city of Urfa and its pepper keep her healthy and strong for many, many years to come. That is my wish for this gift. Take it home to her from me.”

Yes, all the way from the dawn of time until today, Urfa is a glorious city of living faith.

Annemarie Schimmel was born in Erfurt, Germany, in 1922. She grew up in a home full of talk about mysticism and philosophy. She was one of the young Germans of the 19th and 20th centuries who fell asleep with the Stories of 1001 Nights. Her father, a postal worker, was deeply interested in mysticism. During the Nazi era, the young Annemarie discovered her passion for the Arabic language and Arab culture. Once a week, she received private lessons in Arabic and Islamic Studies by Hans Ellenberg, whom she called Efendi. Already, at the age of 19, she had completed her doctorate on the subject, “The Position of the Caliph and the Qadis in Late Medieval Egypt.” She published more than 120 books and studied and translated, among other things, Arabic and Persian poets such as Mawlana Rumi, Ibn Ataullah, Hallaj, Yunus Emre, and Muhammad Iqbal, who wrote about mysticism and the love of God. As an Islamic scholar, she is still highly esteemed in the East and the West. Here is just one example:

Love

In passion deep my heart fell –
Just look, what love has made of me!
I gave my head to strife and pain –
Just look, what love has made of me!
I silently weep to myself,
While love stains me in blood,
Can’t be sober, can’t be confused –
Just look, what love has made of me!
Yunus Emre

The languages she knew included Turkish, Persian, Urdu, Turkmen, French, Pashto, Hindi, Kurdish, Swedish, and also Arabic, which she was able to speak in more than 10 dialects. Besides her talent for learning languages, she was also a gifted speaker and gave lectures in Turkish, Persian, and Arabic that sometimes lasted hours.

She had a special passion for ornamentation, calligraphy, and architecture. Almost all of her published books are illustrated and many a chapter is introduced with calligraphic verses from the Qur’an. One of her books is titled, In the name of Allah the All-Merciful.

Annemarie Schimmel has received many awards and honors: honorary doctorates from the universities of Konya, Islamabad, and Sind; the Hilal-i Imtiyaz Medal (the highest award in Pakistan); the Gold Medal of the city of Istanbul; the Arts and Science Medal of the Republic of Turkey; the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade; and the Federal Cross of Merit. Thanks to her strong commitment for a better understanding between nations, her advice was taken seriously all over the world. Since her death, she has not been forgotten; in the Pakistani metropolis of Lahore, for instance, a main road was named after her – the Hiyaban-i Annemarie Schimmel Road. In Iran, she is much appreciated and often quoted. In Turkey, she became immortal as the unforgettable Cemile.

The bridge builder

“Nowadays broader circles of our society realize that a certain understanding of other cultures is needed to avoid the dangerous generalizations the media are replete with. It is a must to learn about the history of the ‘other.’ In my opinion, it is very important that we also address the intellectual history of Islam, recognize its outstanding cultural achievements, and strive to find common ground, even if it is sometimes difficult.”

During her life as a scholar, Annemarie Schimmel focused intensively on improving understanding between Islam and the West. With her in-depth analysis, she communicated the ideological and artistic content of Islamic culture, and especially its beauty and intellectual wealth – not only to German or European readers, but also to Americans and other cultures. She was always committed to dialogue, and made an effort – through media, literature, and face-to-face meetings – to get Christians interested in Islamic culture and Muslims interested in Christian culture. In the verses of famous Islamic poets and mystics she met the “true” Islam, which is embedded in believers’ hearts and waiting to be discovered.

For her, the first prerequisite for dialogue is knowledge of one’s own culture and the other culture, be a person Christian, Jewish, or Buddhist.

“Without mutual knowledge there is no mutual understanding, without understanding there is no mutual respect and no trust, and without trust, there is no peace, but the risk of a clash.”

Annemarie Schimmel would never have entered a dialogue without knowledge about the culture of her counterpart. In her view, people should keep and practice their religions. They should take it seriously, but at the same time, try to get to know other cultures and values and to accept them. In many conversations and interviews, she regretted that the Christian and the Islamic cultures knew so little about each other, because if they knew, they would surely appreciate each other – which she experienced over and over again during her long stays in Islamic countries. According to her, even brief conversations with taxi drivers can be very valuable in this regard.

She became friends with countless people from other cultures. Her image of Islam was not shaped primarily by her years of occupation with Islamic literature and art, but rather by the encounters with Muslim friends around the world and from all walks of life, who invited and received her lovingly in their houses and made her familiar with their culture.

Ms. Schimmel traveled with her mother from Edirne to Konya and Gaziantep, throughout Anatolia. They met with many people, from all layers of society, every one of whom taught them another personal piece of Turkish culture.

“We have to get to know other cultures better. You never finish with it; there is always something new to learn and to do: reading, giving lectures, and just keeping people informed. Everybody who knows Islam knows that Islam and terrorism have nothing in common,” she said in an interview. She relied on a quote of St. Augustine’s, “Res tantum cognoscitur quantum diligitur” (You only understand what you love), and on an Arabic proverb, which is mentioned in the prose works of Rumi: “Man is the enemy of what he does not know.”

Only a few Christians know that in Islam, Jesus is considered a forerunner to Muhammad and therefore enjoys the highest esteem in the eyes of Muslims, whereas Muhammad has a negative image in the West, peace be upon them both. Ms. Schimmel complained about this. In her book Jesus and Mary in Islamic Mysticism, she noted that Jesus is mentioned in the Qur’an in 15 chapters and a total of 93 verses, and that Mary is the only woman who is mentioned in the Qur’an by name – and thus is of great importance to all Muslim women.

Her greatest concern was a dialogue of equals. In Germany, she regretted and criticized that, for a long time, Catholic bishops had no other dialogue partners than Turkish engineers and distributors. She deemed this fact a main obstacle to understanding. Therefore she encouraged the German government to educate Imams and German-Islamic theologians. Eight years after her death, her wish came true. In April, 2011, the inauguration of the Centre for Islamic Theology at Tübingen took place – a milestone for interfaith dialogue in Germany.

Ms. Schimmel made the Turkish culture known in Germany and the German culture known in Islamic countries. During a five-year stay in Turkey, she wrote innumerable articles under her pseudonym, Cemile Kıratlı, for the magazines Hayat and Istanbul Dergisi. She did not forget her roots, but at the same time tried to absorb other cultures.

Annemarie Schimmel died in Bonn, in 2003, at the age of 81. Before her death, she said she was looking forward to finally seeing the hereafter with her own eyes, rather than only reading about it. Her last wish was that at her funeral, the opening chapter of the Qur’an be recited. Friends have engraved her life motto in both German and Persian on her grave stone: “People sleep, and when they die, they wake up.”

Conclusion

In her pursuit of understanding, Annemarie Schimmel was a role model for all people. It is important for our society to respect her efforts and follow her example. It is important that the Christian and the Islamic cultures get to know each other better in the future, because this is the only way prejudices and misunderstandings can be reduced. Annemarie Schimmel, Herder, Goethe, Klee, Rilke, Rumi, Yunus Emre, and Iqbal have proved the fact that there are no impenetrable barriers between cultures and religions.

“Then one day – Inshallah, God willing – we will find, as Goethe did, a way that will enrich both sides: the Orient through the encounter with the deep-rooted European culture and us through the knowledge of an infinitely rich past and a versatile oriental culture that comes to light in literature and grammar, in the heights of mysticism, but also in the most beautiful flowers of the arabesques. And then perhaps we may one day say (as Goethe put it once so well): Orient and Occident can no longer be separated.”

A few examples from Schimmel’s works: As Through A Veil : Mystical Poetry in Islam (1982); Mystical Dimensions of Islam (1975); Islam: An Introduction (1992); My Soul Is A Woman: The Feminine in Islam (1997); A Two-Colored Brocade: The Imagery of Persian Poetry (1992); Mohammad Iqbal, Poet and Philosopher (1960); Calligraphy and Islamic Culture (1990); A Dance of Sparks: Imagery of Fire in Ghalib’s Poetry (1983)

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
…For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
“The World is too Much with Us” by William Wordsworth

Rapidly changing technology and an endless stream of entertainment and information are the trappings of modern life. When I read Wordsworth’s poem, an old favorite of mine, I was surprised to discover that life wasn’t so different in 1807 than it is now. It made me realize that in some universal sense, I can also say that the world is “too much with me.”

I drink coffee, listen to the news, buy new shoes, go to lunch with my sister, watch football on TV, and move trancelike from one “thing” to another. Understanding that these attractions of the world have always been a timeless trap, I went in search of a way to be free from this trap and sustain happiness.

I first examined Eastern philosophy, which reaffirmed what every good disciple of Zen Buddhism knows: you have to run away from what attracts you in the world. I have always associated the practice of contemplation with the picture of the Buddha sitting peacefully under a tree, detached from the world, wearing an expression of serenity on his face. This expression is also depicted on Christ’s face as he is suspended above the world on a cross.

While these pictures triggered a longing inside me for a modicum of peace, they also reminded me of the discontentment I experience when the world is too much with me. It turns out that discontentment has been referred to in many ways throughout time. The Taoists call it imbalance, Buddhists call it ignorance. The Qur’an calls it “a sickness/disease of the heart” (2:10). And the famous Christian monk, St. Augustine, describes its opposite, “true contentment,” in the following way:

“… [true contentment is] felt only in the presence of God … Our whole business then, in life, is to restore the heart to health so that God can be seen or felt.”

While our modern Western philosophy seduces us with the possibility that we can be happy by consuming and dominating the world, the appeal of Eastern philosophy is the promise that we can be happy by transcending it. Enviably, Buddha had found a way to sustain happiness, without having to buy a new set of clothes. I wanted to know if sustained happiness was possible for me, too. Since Islam is my religion, I set out to discover something about the contemplative practices in Islam, so I could connect with God through my own tradition.

I had never read or come across anyone who described the traditional practices in Islam as “contemplative.” They are called the five pillars of Islam, and they seem so different from other practices, such as meditation in Zen Buddhism. But Islamic contemplative practices, I discovered, are a blend of the best of both worlds, East and West.

I began by examining the first pillar of Islam: Belief in the Oneness of God, or tawhid in Arabic. Tawhid is the central tenet upon which all other beliefs can rest. It demands an exclusive relationship with God, excluding anyone or anything in any similar relationship. This is a relationship that does not recognize any authority besides God—whether it is one’s parents, teacher, or friend. In other words, it is a relationship that presupposes that humankind is liberated from everything in the material and physical world, in order to experience what is known in Islam as taqwa, or piety—the conscious performance of good and avoidance of evil.

Tawhid (liberation) is manifest in the Buddha seated under the tree, and taqwa (piety) is seen in his facial expression. In Islamic terms, the predisposition of liberation (tawhid) is the foundation of Islamic contemplative practice. It is the same as saying that to sustain happiness, you have to let go of what attracts you in the world.

How is this done in Islam? The quintessential example of “stepping outside” of the world is the disciple sitting for 18 hours in the lotus blossom position. This helped me to describe the two essential characteristics of contemplative practice as being: 1) a physical “stepping outside” of the world; and 2) something painful or difficult, or both.

Islamic prayer bears both these characteristics. The time-out is brief, but it also happens five times a day. In other words, it requires me to step outside of my life and let go (detach), for short periods of time throughout the day, every day. It may not be as difficult as sitting in the lotus position for 18 hours, but believe me the hardest part of this practice is making yourself stop what you’re doing in order to pray.

Meditation and Islamic prayer also share the imperative of self-discipline. Fully conscious of the pain and sacrifice associated with contemplative practices, the Hindus say, tears and prayers go hand-in-hand. I think the biggest challenge for Muslims is finding the time to pray each day. Given the demands of life on one hand and the schedule of five daily prayers on the other, self-discipline is tested in the constancy of personal choices: Do I watch the rest of my favorite TV program or turn it off in time to pray? At which point do I end my phone conversation? When do I stop working on my computer? And, how do I excuse myself from a fun gathering of family or friends just to say my prayers on time?

These choices get to the crux of the spiritual matter. Do I continue participating in the world, or do I stop and step outside of it at punctuated times? I failed miserably at my first attempts to pray five prayers a day. It took me years to realize that trying to squeeze my prayers into my busy life was a futile and backwards approach.

What helped me most was re-reading the oft-repeated command in the Qur’an that says “establish prayer” in your life. I finally figured out that if I could establish my daily life around the commuter train schedule, as I did to get to work, then why couldn’t I establish my life around a prayer schedule?

When I took this approach, I was able to establish prayers in my life. First, it was just one prayer a day, then, two, until ultimately I was praying five times a day. In essence, I had “established” a sacred space and contemplative time in my busy life, creating a virtual sanctuary, with no trespassing. The result has been a virtuous circle of sustained happiness, nurtured by my sustained commitment.

In addition, to be successful in both prayer and meditation, a disciple has to have some effective way to keep the worries and demands of the world at bay. Otherwise, time-out quickly becomes time-wasted. I remember studying transcendental meditation in the early 1970s. The Yogi (practitioner of yoga) taught me to use my mantra (a sound, syllable or word considered capable of creating a spiritual transformation) as a way to focus (which cost me $450 at the time). He said “thought bubbles” of worldly concerns would rise to the surface but that I must release them in order to empty my mind repeatedly.

With Islamic prayer, it is no less challenging to keep focused. But the genius of prayer in Islam is that the prayers are in Arabic, the language of the Qur’an. Learning and memorizing the Arabic language is challenging to all Muslims, whether Arabic-speaking or not (and most are not). But concentration on the Arabic words (which I vaguely understand) and recitation of memorized prayers, coupled with the physical requirements of performing prayer, play a significant role in keeping focused on the task of communion with God.

Next, I tried to determine the times when I had ever felt God’s presence (a sense of taqwa) in my life. The answer was easy. It was during the holy month of Ramadan, a month of fasting from dawn to dusk, another pillar of Islamic practice. Christians, Muslims or Jews who have fasted know that fasting changes your routine life, at the most critical and basic level. I found that even though I was standing in the middle of my life, fasting separated me from everything going on around me.

Analyzing the results of this alternative state (tawhid), I realized that fasting had liberated me from the most basic enslavements of our modern, secular world, allowing my spirit to soar freely above the din. Taking one step further, whenever my personal covenant with God was tested by an aching hunger or profound thirst, I would ask myself: Why am I doing this? And in that moment, when I am most conscious of the extreme sacrifice I am making, I am also acutely aware that I have a choice: I can keep my promise to God to fast, or break it. Thus, when I consciously choose my relationship with God above all else, I experience the pure sweetness of taqwa in the depths of my soul. Taqwa is my constant companion during Ramadan, for every time I make a conscious choice to fast, my heart fills with it.

Prior to making the pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj), I had experienced only fleeting moments of taqwa. But the journey to Mecca is like Alice going down the rabbit hole, leaving her life and traveling to another world for an extended period of time, which is sometimes very scary. Unlike Ramadan, when you resume the semblance of your normal life at the end of the day, nothing is normal during the pilgrimage to Mecca.

Every religion asks us to abandon comfort and familiar ways, or give something up. We get up early to pray, we fast, we hone our virtues, purify our inner self, and treat our neighbors well, with the hope of achieving that Divine communion. We have learned that diligence without assurance is otherwise known as faith.

I know of no other journey that has tested or strengthened my faith as much as the Hajj. Mysteriously, I still cannot fully articulate why this is so. The imams warned us before we left, “You will be out of your comfort zone.” But that was an understatement. This was a journey to a world more foreign and exhilarating than I have ever seen or been. The rituals we had to perform were far beyond my physical capacity. Furthermore, everything about the world that I was familiar with was fading into the past, further and further into obscurity and insignificance.

Ironically, the further I stepped out of my world, the closer I felt to God (a deeper sense of taqwa). At the same time, I became more intimately in touch with myself in a way I had never experienced before. It was a time of self-renewal, and through it all, I held the unwavering belief that God, my Creator, was guiding me. I just humbly submit, and I do not know how or why. All I know is that I had made a choice long ago to fulfill this pillar of Islam, even though at times, I feared I might never be able to afford it. Yet, when I finally had the opportunity to go on the pilgrimage and things got tough along the way, I would always ask myself: Why am I doing this? And the answer always came from my heart: it was my choice and my promise.

“Do not imagine that the journey is short; and one must have the heart of a lion to follow the unusual road, for it is very long…. One plods along in a state of amazement, sometimes smiling, sometimes weeping…” Rumi

Mary Lahaj is a Muslim Chaplain to the community at the Islamic Center of Boston in Wayland, MA.

Walking into a regular salad bar for lunch, one anticipates nothing more than a short and simple exchange of civilities and of course a mixed salad. But there are instances where the wisdom one may receive from the man behind the counter has more variety than the salad.

Busy New Yorkers generally eat lunch at their desks. This is New York, after all, the city where “time is money” and lunch minutes are counted. This meal can be a quick coffee and a sandwich on the go or perhaps a bowl of warm soup. To cater to this eating tradition, there are countless “delis” all over the city where you can dash in and grab a bite to take out for your lunch. One popular trend is to order a freshly-made salad. Many delis are especially-equipped with a glassed-in counter housing a myriad of salad components laid out in bins – carrots, cucumbers, broccoli, tomatoes, beets; you name it, they are all there, for after all, this is New York, where there is something for everyone. You call out your desired ingredients, and a friendly server mixes them up for you, and then packs it up in a plastic bowl for you to take back to your desk.

I buy my “compose-your-own” tossed salad from a salad bar on 60th Street at Lexington Avenue. I always eagerly anticipate the selecting of my ingredients to make a salad just as I want it for that particular day. Let’s see, shall I have tofu or chickpeas today? Will I dare to eat some fresh onions? Shall I toss in a few almonds for flair? The events of my day may be running in total chaos, but I can certainly be in control of my salad.

At my salad bar, the server behind the counter who assembles all my selected ingredients and tosses them together is a young, rotund black fellow with a smile and accent as broad as the Hudson River. I always enjoy my few minutes with him each day, for his smile seasons the pleasure of the tasty lunch to follow.

Today while I was waiting in line, Tony was busy mixing up a salad for the girl in front of me, and I heard him say a few words to her in Arabic. I discovered through their conversation that she was an Egyptian.

Listening to him speak with her, I assumed that he was one of the many African-Americans who have embraced Islam. When it was my turn, I said to Tony, “Oh! I am so impressed! Do you know Arabic? Have you become a Muslim?”

He looked at me, smiled and replied: “No, I am not a Muslim. But I am currently trying to learn Arabic. You know that story of the Tower of Babel in the Bible? It tells us that a whole lot of trouble was caused because people just can’t seem to understand each other. So I thought if I could learn the language of this faith and of these peoples who are certainly in need of having us better understand them, then that would be a positive step to better communication. I look at all the religions in our world, and I thought too, if I could learn to recite a few prayers in Arabic, I would be able feel my own faith in a deeper way.”

His words astonished me. I anticipated a simple, polite exchange of civilities, and instead I received a gift of unexpected, profound perception. As I watched Tony mix my salad, my thoughts tossed up in all directions like the lettuce leaves. I was led to think of many things while I waited for him to finish.

I thought of Queen Cleopatra reciting her line in Shakespeare’s play, “…My salad days, When I was green in judgment, cold in blood…”

I thought of those green salad leaves and my commitment to vegetarianism as a hope for a more respectful communication with our planet.

I thought of the events of that story of the Tower of Babel from the Chapter of Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament of the Bible. I recalled that it related how the people of the earth became so skilled in construction that they decided to build a city with a tower that would reach to heaven. I remember how God came to look at their tower and decided it would only lead the people away from His Infinite Wisdom. Just what had displeased the Lord so in this Tower of Babel construction project, I wondered? Was it because the people were so presumptuous that they could make a building so tall it would pierce the top of heaven? I thought about the construction site of a new skyscraper now rising on Manhattan’s skyline that I had passed on my way to the deli. I wondered about the boastful modern Babel builders of today who vie to make a name for themselves by trying to build the tallest building in the world, yet still do not manage to reach heaven in their earthly ways. I asked myself too, if these buildings of our new world were leading us closer or farther away from God, just as they had in the Old Testament.

I thought about the Twin Towers that used to grace lower Manhattan, and their tragic story.

I also remembered how in the story of Babel all the men on the earth at that time still spoke one language. I recalled in the text how, in reaction to their prideful building of that Tower, God thwarted their plans. He confused their language, causing them to speak different languages so they would not be able to understand each other, and how He also scattered the people of the city all over the face of the earth. I thought about how this story pertained to my life as a cross-cultural communicator and language instructor. I wondered if it was an illusion to think that all the languages of the world could ever come together in one humanity of communication, or rather are we condemned to remain mute among each other?

I thought of all the towers of incomprehension we build in our lives, not just with words, but with thoughts and deeds. I thought of how the outer words of speech and writing create not only beautiful literature, but also in many instances doubts, confusion and arguments.

I then thought of the Sufis and their Language of the Heart, and wondered if that could be the only true language all the peoples of the world could potentially share. I thought of how the Sufis speak and act with a Divine Gift of the language of the heart, where every outer word is a linguistic reflection of their inner peaceful quest for beauty and praiseworthy actions.

I thought about the true Sufi masters, who are not reclusive residents of monasteries, but who live in our midst and go about their business on their quest for finding the oracle of the heart. They are on the Sufi path, which may lead right through your neighborhood. This Sufi may be a shoemaker, a shop clerk, a lawyer, a photographer….or a salad fixer in a Manhattan deli.

But in the end, all these thoughts in my mind circled back to the simple wisdom of Tony’s words. His efforts honored the hope of the verse in the Qur’an which states: “We created you nations and tribes that ye may know one another” (49:13).

Yes, we need to try to give a chance to understanding those around us, whose languages and customs we do not know, so that we can know one another. Tony showed me that there are many individuals making just this effort. As he tossed my salad, I thought of the salad of our world, sometimes raw, sometimes cooked; sometimes flavored with ingredients both savory and spicy, a bowl of mixed greens of both incomprehension and the concord of many paths and peoples.

When he had finished tossing, Tony, with his ever-present bright smile, handed me my container of prepared salad with a flourish. I looked at all the diverse ingredients which had come together to make a salad like none other before it, all now mixed together in delicious harmony. As I took it from his hands, I knew I would be sustained this day not only by the green leaves of nature’s bounteous garden, but also by the green leaves of his salad of hopeful humanity, this salad which Dr. Martin Luther King called our “inescapable mutuality of existence.”

Katharine Branning is the Vice-President, Library, French Institute Alliance Française in Manhattan and author of a series of essays on Turkey, Yes, I Would Love another Glass of Tea. She is also the curator of the exhibit “Song of Stones” dedicated to Seljuk art held in New York and Washington DC.

This article is mostly based on the book of the Spanish historian and paleontologist, Ignacio Olagüe, La Revolución Islámica en Occidente (The Islamic Revolution in the West), also translated into French as Les arabes n’ont jamais envahi l’Espagne (The Arabs Never Invaded Spain), which portrays some of the ideas of the historian and philologist Americo Castro, especially known for his writings about convivencia.

According to the way that history is taught in most Spanish schools, the Moors invaded the Iberian Peninsula in 711 AD. Here, the following question can be asked: Who did the Moors invade? In order to understand this, it is important to give a background of the inhabitants of Hispania at the time. The Iberian Peninsula was populated by Celts, Iberians, Sephardic Jews, Romans and Visigoths. The majority of Visigoths were Unitarian, meaning that they believed in only one God and were waiting the coming of the Messiah. They also saw Jesus as a Prophet. The rulers of Hispania in 711 AD were Visigoths as well. However, it was a civilization that constantly used force as a means of controlling the citizens of the peninsula, which resulted incessant instability. It was at this time that the Arabs, according to many historians, invaded Hispania.

De la Guardia² states that “in no way were the newcomers all Arabs.”³ The leaders came from Damascus, but they were only a few, and the majority that arrived in Hispania were Muslim Berbers. She later added, as well as Dr. Francisco Layna, author and professor of Harvard University: “Everybody that studies history at any university is aware that there was not an Arab invasion in 711 AD. The Gibraltar Canal that separates Morocco from Spain has always been known as a tool for merchants to trade on both the Spanish and Moroccan Coast. Hence, this was not the first time that the Berbers had visited Spain.”4

We can also ask if the Arabs were in a condition to invade Spain in 711 AD or not. In the middle of the eighth century the Berbers brought the Arabs’ progress to a halt twice and this suspended the conquest of Northern Africa for another fifty years. Hence, the Arabs that came to Northern Africa were weak and few and therefore could never have invaded Hispania.

Olagüe adds that people never take the time to think how the “invaders” of North Africa crossed the Gibraltar Canal in a blink of an eye. In other words, how were they able to conquer 544,192 km2, the most mountainous region in Europe, in three years? Even more astonishing is how the 7,000 men of General Tariq, were enough in number, to defeat Rodrigo and his people in the Battle of Guadalete. Olagüe continues: “If our math is right, each of the 25,000 Arabs was responsible for 23 km2. Since this was too easy for them, they ran to traverse the Pyrenees to dominate France.”⁵ How could a person cover 23 km2 especially in those harsh and mountainous conditions? Olagüe writes that “even if these soldiers conquered Hispania in these conditions, they would each have had 23 km2 of land and therefore would be like a needle in a haystack, compared to the other populations.”⁶ Due to these reasons, we can conclude that an Arab invasion never took place. Furthermore, if natives of the Iberian Peninsula would have resented these newcomers, Hispania would have never been Muslim, would have never planted the seeds for the Renaissance in Europe, and would have not had scientific and artistic advancements that later influenced Europe and the American continent. If it were an invasion, the natives would have forced them to leave Hispania as it occurred when Napoleon in 1807 tried to seize Spain and asked permission of the Catholic Spanish Monarchy for his French troops to pass through Spain in order to invade Portugal. However, once in Spanish territory, Napoleon declared himself Emperor of Spain. It was at this point that the Spanish population resisted and with the help of sticks and stones drove the French out of the country. This was never the case when the Muslims arrived in Spain. Actually, the natives from the Iberian Peninsula welcomed them and were happy to see someone that respected their faith and their traditions and had similar beliefs as the majority of the natives of Hispania were Unitarian Christians. They believed in only one God, saw Jesus as a Prophet and awaited the Messiah, exactly as Muslims. The following treaty was signed in 713 CE-within two years after the first organized entry of Muslims into Spain from the south under the command of Tariq ibn Ziyad-between the Arab commander Abdal-Aziz and Theodomir, the Visigothic prince of Murcia, is a proof of the freedoms the natives of Hispania enjoyed after the Arab conquests.

In the Name of God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate. This is the text that Abd al Aziz ibn Musa presented to Teodomiro ibn Gandaris, in virtue in which it is agreed that in the territory will be in peace by the promising it to God, His Prophets and His Messengers that this territory will be protected by God y the protection of His Messenger Muhammad- peace be upon him. Nobody will be forced, nothing will be taken away from you; Nobody will be slaves; you will not be separated from your wife or children; you lives will be respected; you will not be killed and your churches will not be burned down. You will be free to practice your own religion. (Text of the Treaty of the Visigoth Ruler of Murcia, Teodomiro and Abd Al Aziz).⁷

“In the name of God, the merciful and compassionate. This is a document [granted] by ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ibn Musá ibn Nusair to Tudmir, son of Ghabdush, establishing a treaty of peace and the promise and protection of God and his Prophet) may God bless him and grant him peace). We [‘Abd al-‘Aziz] will not set special conditions for him or for any among his men, nor harass him, nor remove him from power. His followers will not be killed or taken prisoner, nor will they be separated from their women and children. They will not be coerced in matters of religion, their churches will not be burned, nor will sacred objects be taken from the realm, [so long as] he [Tudmir] remains sincere and fulfills the [following] conditions that we have set for him. He has reached a settlement concerning seven towns: Orihuela, Valentilla, Alicante, Mula, Bigastro, Ello, and Lorca. He will not give shelter to fugitives, nor to our enemies, nor encourage any protected person to fear us, nor conceal news of our enemies. He and [each of] his men shall [also] pay one dinar every year, together with four measures of wheat, four measures of barley, four liquid measures of concentrated fruit juice, four liquid meastures of vinegar, four of honey, and four of olive oil. Slaves must each pay half of this amount. {Names of four witnesses follow, and the document is dated from the Muslim month of Rajab, in the year 94 of the Hijra (April 713).} “The Treaty of Tudmir” in Reading the Middle Ages: Sources from Europe, Byzantium, and the Islamic World. ed. Barbara H. Rosenwein. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview, 2006, p. 92.

Although there were other capitulation agreements with the same nature dating from 711, this one signed on the surrender of the city of Orihuela has survived to this date. The inhabitants of the conquered territories of Spain were suitably impressed by the tolerance which the Muslims offered them once active resistance had ceased. It is these earlier agreements and their successful implementation that prompted Theodomir and the population of Orihuela to agree to sign the treaty.⁸

If the people that arrived were not Arabs in majority, why are they referred to Arabs in Spain and why was Arabic spoken and even carved in some of their architectural beauties such as the Al-hambra in Granada? Guardia clearly states “they were not Arabs, even when the majority of Spain was Muslim. However, they adopted Arabic as their language.”? Arabic was the language of scholars and Latin was the language of soldiers. Little by little, the natives of the Iberian Peninsula adopted Arabic as their own language, even people from other faiths. In the ninth century, a Bishop of Cordoba wrote: “Many of my colleagues read poems and stories; they study their philosophies as well as the Muslim theologians in Arabic, not to refute them, but to learn how to express themselves in Arabic more correctly and elegantly.”¹⁰

Olagüe states that it took 300 years for the natives of the Iberian Peninsula to adopt and utilize the Arabic language. We can see a wonderful fusion of the jarchas, or poetry from Al-Andalus or Muslim Spain, where it can easily be seen how Arabic and Latin fused. These were love poems that were written in Arabic, and ended in Latin.

Poetry is only one of the many examples of the advances Spain experienced during this era. When in many cities of Europe people walked in streets of mud, people in Hispania walked on pavement, had a drainage and sewage system. Cordoba, once the capital of Al-Andalus, was famous for its scientific advances in medicine. Andalusians had stomach operations and very specialized cataract operations. Some specific instruments that were used at that time in medicine are still used today in the same field.

The first university in the West was founded in Cordoba, Spain. Scholars from all over the world came to gain knowledge in all the natural and social sciences such as medicine, technology for agriculture, astronomy, literature, and jurisprudence to name a few. The city of Toledo is another example of intercultural exchange, where the School of Translation efficiently contributed to the culture of mutual understanding.

Among many inventions Andalusians developed was the astrolabe which was used to determine the latitude of a ship at sea by measuring the noon altitude of the Sun or the meridian altitude of a star of known declination.¹¹ It was with the help of this astrolabe that Christopher Columbus was able to travel to the American continent in 1492.

This intercultural and multicultural convivencia between Jews, Christians and Muslims in Al-Andalus was key to the development of different sciences that later contributed to give birth to the Renaissance in Italy. When the inhabitants of Al-Andalus put emphasis on their spirituality, this was also the time when their scientific and technological advances were strongest, also influencing Catholics in later times.

Towards the last century of Muslim Spain, the Christians had adopted the majority of Muslim traditions as well as the scientific discoveries and advances that they had accomplished during more than 800 years in the Iberian Peninsula.

In conclusion, the Arab invasion is only a myth and Al Andalus was in its majority composed of natives of the Iberian Peninsula and not Arabs. This civilization that spanned across eight centuries was a unique model of respect for other cultures and religions, a model that we can learn a lot from in our times.
Islamic Caligraphy at the Alhambra Palace in Granada,Spain.

Karin de Villa is a Spanish Professor at St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, TX.

Notes

1. The Spanish Word for coexistence, also referred sometimes by Americo Castro as Las Tres Culturas or The Three Cultures: Jews, Christians and Muslims living together in peace during the Muslim rule.
2. One of the contemporary famous Historians and Chair of the University Autónoma de Madrid.
3. De La Guardia, Carmen. Lecture: Jews, Christians and Muslims in Spain and Latin America. Middlebury College: Spain, Madrid, 2006.
4. Lecture: Don Quijote, Spain: Madrid, 2006.
5. Olagüe, Ignacio. La Revolucion Islamica en Occidente. Espana: Cordoba, 2004. 36.
6. Ibid.
7. Historia de Espana, vol. 3. Historia 16 extra XV Madrid, 1980.
8. The Treaty of Orihuela. The Surrender of Orihuela, Spain, 713 C.E. http://cyberistan.org/islamic/treaty713.html.
9. De La Guardia, Carmen. Lecture: Jews, Jews, Christians and Muslims in Spain and Latin America. Middlebury College: Spain, Madrid, 2006.
10. Alvarez, Fe Bajo & Pecharroman, Julio Gil. Historia de Espana. Sociedad General Espanola de Libreria. S.A. de Alcobendas: Madrid, 1998. 48.
11. Morrison, J. The Mariner’s Astrolabe. http://www.astrolabes.org/mariner.htm. 2002.

The group consisted of two priests, a nun, a publisher, and a director. For me as a Muslim, it was the first time I had seen Franciscan monks in their habits, a long, hooded, brown robe, tied at the waist with a white cord, and with large concealed pockets in the arms. I thought they were wearing them simply because they wanted to make everything in the documentary appear as if it were in the Middle Ages, but, no, it was their everyday attire, and they wore their habits all the time we were together.

It was a noteworthy mission that merged from different parts of the US (Texas, California, Ohio) in order to set out on a tiring journey passing through Istanbul, Urfa, Damascus, Cairo, and Damietta, meet lots of people, and visit a great number of places. The project was named the Damietta Project, Damietta being the city where St. Francis of Assisi (d. 1226), the founder of the Franciscan order, met the Muslim sultan in the heat of war in 1219. I learned that it was a very cordial encounter between St. Francis and Sultan Al-Kamil, and the monks hoped that their documentary would serve to build a peaceful world by presenting a model from eight hundred years ago.

John, the publisher in the group, presented to me as a gift a copy of this book by George Dardess. This is why I am referring to this group and their project, for their philosophy resonates in the core message of the book.

Due to the limited space available, I will not give a comprehensive review of the book, for almost every argument carries baggage, and a fair review would entail a lengthy analysis. I will briefly touch on some aspects of the first part of this book, which I believe is an effort by the Franciscan order to help remove interfaith misunderstandings. In this respect, the author, who is a member of both the Muslim-Catholic Alliance and the Commission on Muslim-Christian Relations in Rochester, is the right author, and this makes the book worth reading. The opening prayer given in the introduction indicates the sincere efforts of the author, and thus of the group, to be revealed in the later pages:

God, creator of us all, master of the universe,

we ask you to be present with us

as we search to know you

not only in our own sacred scripture

but also in that of our Muslim sisters and brothers.

help us forget past quarrels

as well as present fears and suspicions.

Help us instead to keep our minds open,

our spirits free,

and our hearts joyful

as we ponder:

whether the god we both worship

is you.

amen.

Praising the Nostra Aetate (Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions) of the Second Vatican Council, Dardess points to a great achievement on the side of the Christian world, as they managed to move away from Dante’s inauspicious depiction of the Prophet in The Divine Comedy, to acceptance of Muslims as worshipping the same God as Christians. Although this step toward dialogue received relatively little elaboration in the Council documents, it was still a positive effort. Nevertheless, this fragile step was threatened after 9/11, which makes books such as this one invaluable contributions to eliminating misconceptions about Islam.

The author’s intention in writing this book is summarized in his willingness to worship together with all humanity, as one family: “If we . . . come to the understanding that we do indeed worship . . . the same God, we can find ways of praying to that God together without violating our significant differences” (p. 6). The author does not deny the fact that it is not easy pass the stumbling block of the Christian attribution of divinity to Jesus versus the Muslim belief that he was not divine, but he argues that the purpose of this book is “to open up the possibility of [such] enrichment, even at the point when dialogue seems impossible” (p. 26).

The author does not skip over details such as the word “Allah,” which is perceived by some non-Muslims as some kind of god for Muslims, like an idol. Dardess carefully notes that “Allah” is not a special name peculiar to Islam but simply the Arabic word for God. Many Christians in the West are not aware that their co-religionists in the Middle East use the word Allah for God, as well. Dardess underlines the fact that God of Islam is not a God of wrath: “… the Muslim approaches God, not in abject fear, but in the profoundest gratitude” (p. 18).

The author lays down a very objective historical background to Islam for novice readers who have a superficial knowledge of its history, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), and the Holy Qur’an. In this section, Dardess carefully notes that “honest dialogue depends upon having enough confidence in our own religious identity to be able to explore the religious identity of others without tension or defensiveness” (p. 30). In the comparison he makes between the Christian Eucharist and Islam’s holy book, the Qur’an, he states a principle, which is essential in true dialogue: “only lovers understand other lovers” (p. 30).

Analyzing further Qur’anic language, the author rightfully underlines that “words like Jihad, Allah, Muslim and Islam have so lost connection [in English] with their original context that they have become more truly English words than Arabic ones. The words convey our own understanding of Islam, not the understanding of Muslims themselves” (p. 31). Dardess points out that it is more of a linguistic challenge than a doctrinal one for Christians to understand the Qur’an. Language differences are no doubt a barrier in any human context, but in the case of the Qur’an, a specific branch of scholarship, tafsir, has been developed since the advent of Islam, as a result of which a number of interpretations have been produced to help readers understand the universal message of the Qur’an, not only for non-Arabs but also for Arabic-speaking believers. Surface reading of the divine text-actually any text-is never a profound reading of it, and it might even be misleading at times. Besides, the emphasis on the preservation of the original text should never be underestimated, for not only in the case of the Qur’an but in all translation works, it is of the utmost significance to be able to refer to the true original text in its original language.

In the Middle Ages, when Muslims were the pioneers in science, their works were translated from Arabic into Latin for many centuries, and this resulted in the European Enlightenment, which, according to the author, is “humankind’s greatest achievement, the one against which [we] must measure all other civilizations” (p.31). This last statement is problematic in itself and needs to be addressed. Western perceptions of the East have been shaped largely within the framework Western social sciences have drawn. The dress sewn for the Western context does not fit the Muslim world and social movements therein; however, social analysts work on the same model in their efforts to understand the East. So, the author’s argument to “measure all civilizations against European Enlightenment” contradicts his overall positive approach to understanding Islam.

Nevertheless, the book is a significant contribution to the literature on interfaith dialogue despite some of the shortcomings pointed out above. However, as the author mentions in the introduction, “the discussion itself is more important than the answer.” Those non-Muslims who are curious about Islam will certainly benefit a lot from this book: What exactly do Muslims believe? How do those beliefs differ from their own? What do Muslims believe about Jesus? Mary? Satan? Creation? The Holy Spirit? Do we worship the same God? Guided discussion questions in each chapter encourage readers towards further reflection and dialogue.

Mathematics, or “the queen of the sciences” as Carl Friedrich Gauss called it, plays an important role in our lives. A world without mathematics is unimaginable. Throughout history, many scholars have made important contributions to this science, among them a great number of Muslims. It is beyond the scope of a short article like this one to mention all the contributions of Muslim scholars to mathematics; therefore, I will concentrate on only four aspects: translations of earlier works, and contributions to algebra, geometry, and trigonometry. In order to understand fully how great were the works of scholars in the past, one needs to look at them with the eye of a person of the same era, since things that are well-known facts today might not have been known at all in the past.

There has never been a conflict between science and Islam. Muslims understand everything in the universe as a letter from God Almighty inviting us to study it to have knowledge of Him. In fact, the first verse of the Qur’an to be revealed was:

Read! In the Name of your Lord, Who created… (Alaq 96:1).

Besides commanding us to read the Qur’an, by mentioning the creation the verse also draws our attention to the universe. There are many verses which ask Muslims to think, to know, to learn and so on. Moreover, there are various sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, encouraging Muslims to seek knowledge. One hadith says, “A believer never stops seeking knowledge until they enter Paradise” (al-Tirmidhi).

In another hadith, the Prophet said, “Seeking knowledge is a duty on every Muslim” (Bukhari). Hence it is no surprise to see early Muslim scholars who were dealing with different sciences.

Translations

Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) said, “Knowledge is the lost property of a Muslim; whoever finds it must take it” [1]; hence Muslims started seeking knowledge. One way they did this was to start translating all kinds of knowledge that they thought to be useful. There were two main sources from which Muslim scholars made translations in order to develop the field of science, the Hindus and the Greeks. The Abbasid caliph al-Mamun (804–832) had a university built and ordered its scholars to translate into Arabic many works of Greek scholarship. Between 771 and 773 CE the Hindu numerals were introduced into the Muslim world as a result of the translation of Sithanta from Sanskrit into Arabic by Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibrahim al-Fazari. Another great mathematician, Thabit ibn Qurra, not only translated works written by Euclid, Archimedes, Apollonius, Ptolemy and Eutocius, but he also founded a school of translation and supervised many other translations of books from Greek into Arabic. While Hajjaj bin Yusuf translated Euclid’s Elements into Arabic, al-Jayyani wrote an important commentary on it which appears in the Fihrist (Index), a work compiled by the bookseller Ibn an-Nadim in 988. A simplified version of Ptolemy’s Almagest appears in Abul-Wafa’s book of Tahir al-Majisty and Kitab al-Kamil. Abu’l Wafa Al-Buzjani commented on and simplified the works of Euclid, Ptolemy and Diophantus. The sons of Musa bin Shakir also organized translations of Greek works.

These translations played an important role in the development of mathematics in the Muslim world. Moreover, the ancient Greek texts have survived thanks to these translations.

Algebra and geometry

The word “algebra” comes from “Al-Jabr”, which is taken from the title of the book Hisab Al-Jabr wal Muqabala by Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (780–850). Al-Khwarizmi, after whom the “algorithm” is named, was one of the great mathematicians of all times. Europe was first introduced to algebra as a result of the translation of Khwarizmi’s book into Latin by Robert Chester in 1143. The book has three parts. The first part deals with six different types of equations:

(ax² = bx) ; (ax² = b) ; (ax = b) ; (ax² + bx = c) ; (ax² + c = bx) ; (bx + c = ax²)

Khwarizmi gives both arithmetic and geometric methods to solve these six types of problems [2]. He also introduces algebraic multiplication and division. The second part of Hisab Al-Jabr deals with mensuration. Here he describes the rules of computing areas and volumes. Since Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, said, “Learn the laws of inheritance and teach them to people, for that is half of knowledge,”[3] the last and the largest part of this section concerns legacies, which requires a good understanding of the Islamic laws of inheritance. Khwarizmi develops Hindu numerals and introduces the concept of zero, or “sifr” in Arabic, to Europe. The word “zero” actually comes from Latin “zephirum,” which is derived from the Arabic word “sifr.”

The three sons of Musa bin Shakir (about 800–860) were perhaps the first Muslim mathematicians to study Greek works. They wrote a great book on geometry, Kitab Marifat Masakhat Al-Ashkal (The Book of the Measurement of Plane and Spherical Figures), which was later translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona. In the book, although they used similar methods to those of Archimedes, they move a step further than the Greeks to consider volumes and areas as numbers, and hence they developed a new approach to mathematics. For example, they described the constant number pi as “the magnitude which, when multiplied by the diameter of a circle, yields the circumference.”[4]

A well-known poet, philosopher and astronomer Omar Khayyam (1048–1122) was at the same time a great mathematician. His most famous book on algebra is Treatise on the Demonstration of Problems of Algebra. In his book besides giving both arithmetic and geometric solutions to second degree equations he also describes geometric solutions to third degree equations by the method of intersecting conic sections. He also discovered binomial expansion [26]. His work later helped develop both algebra and geometry.

Thabit bin Qurra (836–901) was an important mathematician who made many discoveries in his time. As mentioned in the Dictionary of Scientific Biography [5] he “played an important role in preparing the way for such important mathematical discoveries as the extension of the concept of number to (positive) real numbers, integral calculus, theorems in spherical trigonometry, analytic geometry, and non-Euclidean geometry. In astronomy Thabit was one of the first reformers of the Ptolemaic system, and in mechanics he was a founder of statics.”

To give an idea of his importance, we will just give here, without details, one of his theorems on amicable numbers. Two natural numbers m and n are called “amicable” if each is equal to the sum of the proper divisors of the other:

for n > 1, let pn=3.2^2n–1 and qn=9.2^2n–1–1. If p_n–1 , p_n and q_n are prime numbers, then a=2n p_n–1 p_n and b=2ⁿq_n are amicable. [6]

Abu Kamil (about 850–930), an Egyptian mathematician, wrote the Book on Algebra which consists of three parts:

(1) Solutions of quadratic equations,

(2) Application of algebra to geometry,

(3) Diophantine equations.[7],[8]

He improved the work of Khwarizmi and applied algebraic methods to geometry. His research was on quadratic equations, multiplication and division of algebraic quantities. His work also includes addition and subtraction of radicals. He found the following formulas:

ax.bx=abx²; a(bx)=(ab)x; (10–x)(10–x)=100+x²–20x

Abu Kamil also wrote the Book On Surveying and Geometry, which was intended for government land surveyors. There, he stated the nontrivial rules for calculating areas, volumes, perimeters, and diagonals of different objects in geometry.[9]

Ibrahim ibn Sinan (908–946), a grandson of Thabit bin Qurra, was both an astronomer and a mathematician. Fuat Sezgin writes, “He was one of the most important mathematicians in the medieval Islamic world.” [10] He studied geometry, and his work on calculation of the area under the graph of a parabola is especially appreciated. Going further than Archimedes, he introduced a more general method of integration. [11]

Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn al-Husayn al-Karaji (953–1029), also known as al-Karkhi, is regarded as the first person to have developed algebraic operations without using geometry. One of his major works was Al-Fakhri fi’l-jabr wa’l-muqabala (Glorious on algebra). Historian Woepcke recognizes Al-Fakhri as the beginning of the theory of algebraic calculus. [12] Here, al-Karkhi introduced the monomials x, x², x³, … and 1/x, 1/x², 1/x³, … and explained product rules among them. Moreover, he was the first to find the solutions of the equations ax²ⁿ+bxⁿ=c. [13] Al-Karkhi proved the sum formula for integral cubes by using the method of proof by induction, and hence became the first to use this method. [14]

Abu’l Hasan ibn Ali al-Qalasadi (1412–1486) was an Andalusian Muslim mathematician. His main contribution was to introduce algebraic symbolism, and he used short Arabic words for his symbols. For example, he used the symbol for the sound “sh” from the Arabic word meaning “thing” to represent what we call x, the unknown. [15]

Trigonometry

Khwarizmi also contributed to trigonometry. He established accurate trigonometric tables for sine and cosine, and he was the first to introduce tangent tables. [16] In 1126, these works were translated into Latin by Adelard of Bath.

Al-Battani or Albetagnius (about 850–929) was a Muslim astronomer and mathematician. In his research on astronomy he used trigonometric methods which were a lot more advanced than the geometric methods used by Ptolemy. [17] He introduced trigonometric ratios. For example, for a right triangle with adjacent sides a and b, he gives the formula b sin(A) = a sin(90⁰ – A), which is equivalent to tan A = a/b. He was the first to introduce the cotangent function. [18]

Muhammad Abu’l Wafa (940–998), born at Buzjan in Khorasan, introduced the use of secant, cosecant and tangent functions. He gave a new method of constructing sine tables. He calculated sin(30^0) with an accuracy of up to eight decimal digits. He improved spherical trigonometry and proved the law of sines for general spherical triangles. [19] In particular, he developed the half/double angle formulas:

2 sin² (x/2)=1–cos x; sin 2x=2sin x cos x

He was the first to introduce the notion of secant and cosecant, and hence completed the list of all six trigonometric functions. [20]

Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Muadh Al-Jayyani (989–1079) was an Arab mathematician from Andalus. He was the author of The Book of Unknown Arcs of a Sphere which was “the first treatise on spherical trigonometry.” [21] Here he mentioned formulas for right handed triangles and law of sines. He also stated the formula for the solution of a spherical triangle in terms of the polar triangle. [21] He had a strong influence on the West.

Another outstanding mathematician Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201–1274) wrote Treatise On The Quadrilateral, considered the best book on trigonometry written in medieval times, [25] later translated into French by Alexandre Carathéodory Pasha in 1891. In his book al-Tusi made enormous advances in plane and spherical trigonometry. The Dictionary of Scientific Biography [22] states, “This work is really the first in history on trigonometry as an independent branch of pure mathematics and the first in which all six cases for a right-angled spherical triangle are set forth.” The well-known sine law is also stated in this work: a/sin A = b/sin B = c/sin C.

Ghiyath al-Din al-Kashi (1393–1449) produces sine tables of up to eight decimal places. In 1424, he computed 2π to an accuracy of sixteen decimal digits. He wrote a very impressive book on mathematics: Miftah al-Hussab (Key to Arithmetic). His main purpose in this book is to provide sufficient knowledge of mathematics for those who are working on astronomy,surveying, architecture, accounting and trading. [23] He also describes how to find the fifth root of any number. [24]

Unfortunately, the contributions of Muslims often go unrecognized. Muslim scholars contributed to science in many aspects such as mathematics, astronomy, geography, philosophy, medicine, art, architecture and so on. However, today few realize that in that era Islam played an important role in all aspects of life. Europe faced losing the works of major scholars, but as a result of their translations into Arabic most of this scholarship not only survived, but was further developed. Inspired by the Qur’an and hadiths, Muslims sought knowledge for the benefit of humankind. As the Qur’an says, “Are those who know equal to those who know not?”(Zumar 39:9). We should appreciate the scholars of all eras for their contributions to science.

Shirali Kadyrov is a PhD candidate at the Ohio State University, Mathematics Department.

References

1. Tirmidhi, `Ilm, 19.

2. B.L. van der Waerden, A History of Algebra.

3. Ibn Maja, Hadith No: 2719.

4. D. El-Dabbah, The geometrical treatise of the ninth-century Baghdad mathematicians Banu Musa (Russian), in History Methodology Natur. Sci., No. V, Math. Izdat. (Moscow, 1966), 131–139.

5. Y. Dold-Samplonius, A. T. Grigorian, B. A. Rosenfeld, Biography in Dictionary of Scientific Biography (New York 1970–1990).

6. For more, see S. Brentjes and J. P. Hogendijk, Notes on Thabit ibn Qurra and his rule for amicable numbers, Historia Math. 16 (4) (1989), 373–378.

7. R. Lorch, Abu Kamil on the pentagon and decagon, Vestigia mathematica (1993), 215–252.

8. J. Sesiano, La version latine medievale de ‘l’Algebre d’Abu Kamil, in Vestigia mathematica (Amsterdam, 1993), 315–452.

9.J. Sesiano, Le Kitab al-Misaha d’Abu Kamil, Centaurus 38 (1996), 1–21.

10. F. Sezgin, History of Arabic literature (German) Vol. 5 (Leiden, 1974), 292–295.

11. http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Ibrahim.html

12. F. Woepcke, Extrait du Fakhri, traite d’Algebre par Abou Bekr Mohammed Ben Alhacan Alkarkhi (Paris, 1853).

13. Boyer, Carl B. (1991). “The Arabic Hegemony”, A History of Mathematics, Second Edition, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 239. ISBN 0471543977.

14. Victor J. Katz (1998). History of Mathematics: An Introduction, p. 255–259. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0321016181.

15. J. Samso, Las ciencias de los antiguos en al-Andalus (Madrid, 1992).

16. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_trigonometry

17. http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Al-Battani.html

18. http://www.unhas.ac.id/~rhiza/saintis/battani.html

19. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/2127/Abul-Wafa

20. http://www.bhatkallys.com/article/article.asp?aid=3442

21. O’Connor, John J. & Robertson, Edmund F., Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Muadh Al-Jayyani.

22. S. H. Nasr, Biography in Dictionary of Scientific Biography (New York 1970–1990).

23. http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Al-Kashi.html

24. http://www.bhatkallys.com/article/article.asp?aid=3442

25. http://members.tripod.com/worldupdates/newupdates10/id142.htm

26. Heinrich Dorrie, David Antin (1965). 100 Great Problems of Elementary Mathematics: Their History and Solution, p.34–36. ISBN 0486613488.

How would you comment on the Qur’anic verses “You alone do we worship . . .” (Fatiha 1:5) and “This is the Book: there is no doubt about it. A perfect guidance for the God-revering, pious, who keep their duty to God” (Baqara 2:2).?

In this phrase, the object pronoun “You alone” (iyyaka) is placed before the predicate. This implies a very subtle point: “O God, we wholeheartedly proclaim, acknowledge, and confess that it is only You, and none but You that we turn to, bow before, and seek comfort in. We believe that by Your side alone we can attain serenity and peace.” Another point to note here is the tense; instead of abada, which is the past tense, in this verse na’budu is used for “worship”, the same root in the present. In the past, abada connotes “we did, we made, we performed, etc.” Such a tone, however, would in a way be contrary to the nature of worship, for it sounds like an accomplishment, which implies pride, as if the worshipper fulfilled something all by himself or herself.

The present tense form of na’budu implies that the task is not yet finished, which renders such a misinterpretation impossible. Meaning “we worship,” na’budu refers to the intention and determination to acknowledge the eternal impotence and poverty of humankind before His Presence. This can also be paraphrased as follows, “O Lord! I am determined that I will not sacrifice my freedom to anyone but You and I will not fall in humiliation before anyone or anything. I turn to You fully intent on servanthood and worship; my eyes are fixed upon You and no other. I am filled with a desire for submission and prayer. Resolute to distance myself from anything other than You, I wish to always stand opposed to all that You do not like or want. My intention is my greatest worship; I hope that You will accept my intention as my worship. I plead for Your favor, not in proportion to the number of things that I have done, but to those I have intended to do.”

In this phrase, na’budu, “we worship,” also emphasizes that the worshipper is not alone with such thoughts. Hoping that all others are thinking in the same vein, the worshipper proclaims, “In making this request, I am in full concord with all my fellow worshippers.” Through such an indisputable alliance, the worshipper is empowered with confirmation and testimony, and thus he or she turns to the presence of the Almighty Lord Who meets all needs. In this manner, they can relieve themselves of evil involuntary thoughts, and they can enact a complete form of worship toward the Perfect Divinity.

Perfect guidance

This is the Book: there is no doubt about it. A perfect guidance for the God-revering, pious, who keep their duty to God. (Baqara 2:2)

“Guidance,” in this verse is in the infinitive form. Since the infinitive is a verb form, like in other languages, in Arabic it expresses action and engagement; therefore, it implies that individuals cannot find guidance, or, ultimately, the main goal to which it leads, without having exerted any effort. The word also ends with a tanween (indefinite noun-ending with letter nun); a rule in Arabic grammar suggests that if a concept is used in the indefinite/unconditional form, then its perfect meaning is intended. Therefore, there is no doubt that this book is a transcending divine guidance for the pious. It is perfect guidance for the pious, as it is they who are free from the slightest skepticism, and it is they who are ready to comply with both the injunctions of faith (sharia al-garra) and the principles that are in effect in nature (sharia al-fitriyya). The pious are disposed to acknowledge the truth, and since they are not prejudiced, such perfect guidance can be viable for them alone (with the above-mentioned condition that they have to exert effort).

Nevertheless, there is another use of “guidance” at the end of the same page in the Qur’an in the following verse: “Those (illustrious ones) stand on the true guidance from their Lord” (2:5). Here “guidance” is in the form of a verbal noun (while the infinitive form implies human responsibility, the verbal noun is God’s creation). That is, it is a kind of actual guidance God bestows upon His servants, whomever He will, without the intervention of any cause-effect relationship. As far as we can deduce from the conditional in “for the God-revering, pious,” how one attains such guidance is by attaining a true level of piety. Faith and knowledge of God are the first level of ascending on this path, the last being the pleasure of God Almighty. Finally, as clearly expressed in the verse, only those who can live up to such guidance will attain salvation.

It can be derived from the context of this last verse that guidance is dependent upon God’s having created it. However, the behavior and preferences adopted through the exercise of free will are necessary if such guidance is to ensure safety and comfort in this world and if it is to become a means of salvation in the hereafter for humankind.

To conclude, the first “guidance” is a cause and the second is a blissfully granted result. Both are an answer to the prayer of “Guide us to the straight path” in Fatiha (1:7), while serving as guidelines for those on the road.

Note: See Nursi, The Words, Twenty-Sixth word, Sixth Way, for an explanation on verbal noun and infinitive in Arabic grammar.

What is the Qur’an?

The word “Qur’an,” which comes from the Arabic root q-r-a, means “something that is read or recited repeatedly or diligently.” As a book, the Qur’an has about six hundred pages in Arabic and consists of 114 chapters of 6,239 verses altogether.¹ The longest chapter is about forty-eight pages, and shortest is one line.

The Qur’an is the religious text of around 1.4 billion Muslims worldwide.² Muslims believe that the Qur’an is the verbatim word of God, revealed through Archangel Gabriel to Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, who is the final messenger in a long chain of prophets. The verses were revealed at different times and places over twenty-three years, sometimes as answers to specific questions, or in reference to certain events happening at the time. The Qur’an has been recited and practiced daily by Muslims since its revelation, and it is the first and primary source of Islamic jurisprudence. The Qur’an has to be interpreted in the light of the practices of the Prophet, the second source of Islamic teachings and practices. The record of everything Prophet Muhammad said, did, or approved of is termed hadith in Islamic terminology.³

How did the revelation of the Qur’an start?

In 610 AD, the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was sitting alone in a cave nearby Mecca. He was forty years old, and he was on a spiritual retreat. According to his own account, Archangel Gabriel appeared to him and commanded him to read. He was illiterate, and he replied that he could not read. The angel embraced him in a devastating grip until the Prophet thought he would faint. Then, the angel commanded again, “Read!” The same chain of events occurred, until he was commanded to read for the third time, when he asked, “What should I read?” Upon his submission, Gabriel brought the first revelation:

Read: in and with the name of your Lord Who has created,
Created human from a clot clinging (to the wall of the womb),
Read: and your Lord is the All-Munificent,
Who has taught by the pen,
Taught human what he did not know. (Alaq 96:1–5)

After an initial period of confusion and fright, he eventually came to accept the Prophetic mission given to him by God. He was to announce that there is no God but He, and call humankind back to the service of God, a path they had deviated from long before. From then on, the revelation continued, with some occasional gaps, for twenty-three years.

When the Qur’an was revealed, what was the reaction?

Although there were Christian and Jewish people living in Mecca and nearby cities, idolatry was the predominant religion in seventh-century Mecca. They conceived the Prophet’s monotheistic message as an insult to the religion they had inherited from their ancestors. Also, Mecca was at the center of trade routes, and the Ka‘ba, a holy shrine inside Mecca, was a centre of pilgrimage. The Ka‘ba was filled with idols, and removing them would pose a threat to the economic welfare of the Meccan chiefs. Therefore, most Meccans, especially the rich and powerful, opposed the message right away. They attempted to prevent the message from spreading by verbally assaulting early Muslims. When the Muslim community kept growing slowly but surely, the opponents proceeded to persecute and torture the Muslims. Since the early Muslim community consisted of weak and poor people, they were an easy target. Some Muslims concealed their identities for a while and practiced their religion in secret. When persecution became unbearable, in 610 AD they migrated to Yathrib, a nearby oasis city, in order to be able to practice their religion freely. That city is now known as Medina.

While few people believed the message in the early stages, there are many historical accounts reporting the impact of the Qur’an, even on those who did not convert. They confessed that the Qur’an has a mesmerizing beauty, beyond the most exquisite poems written of that time. Due to the prevalence of oral arts (as opposed to written media), eloquence and oratory was valued and appreciated by the common people at the time. Consequently, the beauty and power of expression of the Qur’an was widely acknowledged. Some famous poets believed the message simply because they perceived the eloquence of the Qur’an to be beyond human capability.⁴

How did the revelations come?

Archangel Gabriel brought the revelations to the Prophet on different occasions, in various forms. When the revelations came, people could detect that it was happening by changes in the Prophet’s condition. He would lose attention to everything else, sweat profusely, and his weight would increase. Once, a companion was sitting together with the Prophet when the revelation came, and the Prophet’s thigh was resting upon his. He thought his thigh was going to break due to Prophet’s increased weight. When the experience was over, the Prophet would recite the verses.⁵

How was the Qur’an preserved?

When the Qur’an was revealed, it was recorded by the scribes of revelation, and subsequently announced to the public. After the verses had been announced, many people memorized them, and recited them daily in their prayers. Since the Qur’anic order of verses is not chronological, the Prophet himself, under divine guidance, would indicate the location and sequence of different verses when the revelations were recorded. The entire Qur’an was compiled based on the records of multiple scribes shortly after the Prophet passed away. The Qur’an compiled from written records was subjected to confirmation by the most prominent memorizers of the Qur’an at that time.⁶ During the time of Uthman, the third caliph⁷ after the Prophet, several copies of the Qur’an were produced and sent to the largest cities under Muslim rule. In time, many copies of the Qur’an were written. Today, Muslims take pride in the fact that all the copies of the Qur’an around the world are the same. The text has remained intact for over fourteen hundred years.

What does the Qur’an say about people of other religions?

Muslims are required to believe in the earlier prophets and their scriptures, in their originally revealed form. The authenticity of the current Gospels and the Old Testament is widely disputed, even by Christian and Jewish scholars. Muslims believe that the original texts were tampered with as they were passed from generation to generation. As such, Muslims regard it as normal that other religious texts contain passages not compatible with Islamic teachings and only believe in the sections supported by the Qur’an or Prophet Muhammad’s sayings.

The Qur’an gives a special status to Jews and Christians and calls them the “People of the Book,” that is, people who received scripture. People of other religions are welcome to choose Islam out of their own free will, but forceful conversion to Islam is explicitly prohibited (Baqara 2:256). People who choose to keep their religion are to be treated respectfully, and if they are living in a Muslim country, their rights are under the protection of the Muslim ruler. Because of this protection, many minorities have preserved their religious identity and have been free to practice their religions under Muslim rule for centuries. Muslims, in daily life, are also required to treat people of other religions kindly and respectfully.⁸

With respect to the question of salvation in the hereafter, the answer is more complex. First of all, even Muslims are not guaranteed to be saved from hellfire, if they do not practice their religion. Faith alone is not sufficient for salvation, and practicing the faith is essential.

Second, the Qur’an is very clear on the fact that every person will be rewarded for all good deeds and will be held accountable for bad deeds, regardless of his or her religion. In this context, the Qur’an states that no action is in vain:

Surely be they of those who declare faith (the Community of Muhammad) and be they of those who are the Jews or the Sabaeans, or the Christians (or of another faith) – whoever truly and sincerely believes in God and the Last Day and does good, righteous deeds – they will have no fear, nor will they grieve. (Maeda 5:69)

On the other hand, unjustified erroneous beliefs, such as ascribing partners to God, are harshly criticized by the Qur’an:

As it is, some say: “The All-Merciful has taken to Himself a child.” Assuredly you have (in such an assertion) brought forth something monstrous – The heavens are all but rent, and the earth split asunder, and the mountains fall down in ruins – That they ascribe to the All-Merciful a child! It is not for the All-Merciful to take to Himself a child. (Maryam 19:88–93)

This, and similar verses (e.g. Maeda 5:72, 73, Tawba 9:30) have led others to believe that people that hold such beliefs are doomed to hellfire. Since salvation in the hereafter is a matter of dispute among scholars, the safe way for Muslims is to avoid making judgments in this matter, since God alone is the ultimate judge. Muslims are neither expected nor encouraged to ascribe people to Heaven or Hell. Let us conclude this section with an authentic saying of the Prophet, narrated by Abu Hurayrah, one of the Prophet’s companions:

I heard the Apostle of God (peace be upon him) say: “There were two men among Children of Israel, who were striving for the same goal. One of them would commit sin and the other would strive to do his best in the world. The man who exerted himself in worship continued to see the other in sin. He would say: ‘Refrain from it.’ One day he found him in sin and said to him: ‘Refrain from it.’ He said: ‘Leave me alone with my Lord. Have you been sent as a watchman over me?’ He said: ‘I swear by God, God will not forgive you, nor will he admit you to Paradise.’ Then their souls were taken back (by God), and they met together with the Lord of the worlds. He (God) said to this man who had striven hard in worship: ‘Had you knowledge about Me or had you power over that which I had in My hand?’ He said to the man who sinned:’ Go and enter Paradise by My mercy.’ He said about the other: ‘Take him to Hell.’”

Abu Hurayrah said: “By Him in Whose hand my soul is, he spoke a word by which this world and the next world of his were destroyed.”⁹

Why is the Qur’an considered a miracle?

Muslims regard the Qur’an as a miracle, beyond the capacity of any human to produce. Scholars point out several miraculous aspects of the Qur’an. One of these aspects relates to Qur’anic predictions that came true about events that took place shortly after verses were revealed, as well as events that took place centuries later. Some examples of predictions are: Mecca’s conquest (Fath 48:27), the Roman victory over the Persians (Rum 30:2–6), that all male children of the Prophet would die before the age of puberty (Ahzab 33:40), and that the body of the Pharaoh (who drowned chasing Prophet Moses through the Red Sea) would be recovered many centuries later (Yunus 10:90–92).

Another aspect relates to scientific facts that were unknown at the time of the Prophet. Among many examples, it suffices to quote the following:

i. The universe started from a single piece (Anbiya 21:30), and it is constantly expanding (Dhariyat 51:47).

ii. Mountains are like masts, that is, the bulk of a mountain lies underneath the earth’s crust (Naba 78:6–7).

iii. The earth is a globe (Naziat 79:30).

iv. Heavenly bodies follow orbits (Anbiya 21:33).

v. The atmosphere is a protective roof for the inhabitants of the earth (Anbiya 21:32).

vi. Plants have genders (Ta Ha 20:53).

Finally, the Qur’an is regarded as a linguistic miracle by Arabic-speakers.

What is the main message of the Qur’an?

The Qur’an talks about a variety of subjects, but according to the classification of Said Nursi, a notable scholar,¹⁰ it has four main themes:

i. The unity of God and His attributes

ii. The notion of Prophethood, and stories of Prophets

iii. The afterlife: descriptions of Heaven, Hell, and Judgment Day

iv. Social regulations and justice: rituals of worship, manners, and regulations governing social and economic life.

Contrary to common misconception, the last category constitutes less than one tenth of the Qur’an. The bulk of the Qur’an details the essentials of belief and places them in the broader framework of God’s attributes and the mission of human beings on earth.

Among the many messages the Qur’an delivers, if one has to be picked as the main message, it is that human beings are created to know and serve the one true God, and are tested during their life on earth. They will be sent to their destinations of Heaven or Hell, depending on their actions in this life.

Was the Qur’an built upon the stories in the Bible?

The Qur’an mentions many of the Biblical prophets by name, and there are commonalities among stories told in the Qur’an and the Bible. However, there are differences as well. Some specific examples are:

i. The Qur’an mentions that the news of the Prophet Muhammad’s (peace be upon him) coming was delivered by the earlier prophets.

ii. When relating the story of Prophet Joseph (peace be upon him), the Qur’an does not use the term Pharaoh to refer to king of Egypt, but the Bible does. Scholars argue that the title Pharaoh did not start to be used until much after Joseph. The preservation of Pharaoh’s body as a sign for later centuries is mentioned in the Qur’an but not in the Bible.

iii. When relating past Prophets’ stories, the Qur’an uses very respectful language, and never ascribes intentional wrongdoing to any of the Prophets. This is in stark contrast with, for example, the stories of Prophet David and Prophet Lot (peace be upon them) in the Bible.

iv. The Qur’an rejects the concept of Trinity, and proclaims that Jesus (peace be upon him) never claimed to be the son of God.

Furthermore, one needs to keep in mind that religion is not a collection of Prophet stories. It is a way of life. In this regard, the Qur’an reiterates the essentials of belief (which, by and large, overlap with those of Christianity and Judaism); reinforces, adds or omits some of the social regulations of earlier religions; and introduces rituals for worship. However, the style of the Qur’an is very different from the style of the Bible; it refers less to historical events and puts more emphasis on God’s attributes and the afterlife. Overall, it would be wrong to claim that the Qur’an is merely an extension of the Bible.

Is violence condoned in the Qur’an?

The topic of peace and war in the Qur’an is very broad; so, it cannot be successfully addressed in the limited space here. The short answer is that violence is never approved in the Qur’an. Peace is the norm in Muslim life, but the need for war on certain occasions is acknowledged. War is only allowed to reestablish peace in and among societies. Legitimate reasons for the declaration of war are:

i. For self-defense

ii. For the protection of weak people against oppression

iii. On account of the violation of peace treaties between Muslims and others, or against those allying with the attackers of the Muslim community, or those attacking members of the Muslim community without just cause.

Difference of religion, that is, simply being a person or nation of a different religion is not considered a legitimate reason for war.¹² Also, a person or a group cannot declare war. Just as justice cannot be executed by individuals but only by government-appointed officials or representatives, so it is only within the government’s authority to declare a war. Moreover, when engaged in warfare, Muslims are bound by wartime regulations. For example:

i. They cannot harm innocents, such as women, children, elderly, people who dedicate themselves to religion in monasteries, and in general, non-combatants.

ii. Torture and rape are prohibited.

iii. Damaging the physical infrastructure, such as the water supply, trees, tilled land, animals, is also prohibited, unless unavoidable.

iv. When the enemy inclines to peace, Muslims are not authorized to continue warfare.

The Qur’an also states that killing an innocent soul is as evil as killing the whole of humankind (Maeda 5:32). Hence, violence perpetrated by terrorist groups and any other form of warfare which breaks these regulations cannot be attributed to Islamic teachings.

Can the Qur’an be translated?

There are many Qur’an translations available in a variety of languages. The scholars are in unanimous agreement that no translation can do justice to the Qur’an. Hence, the reader should not fall into the error of assuming that the message communicated in the Qur’an is limited to that found in its translation. The translations have well-known shortcomings. No language is a perfect substitute for another and the concepts that exist in one language may not exist in others. The style and beauty of expression is almost always lost, and the translator has to choose a specific meaning out of many meanings of a certain word. This is very much true for the Qur’an, in which:

i. Words are used with multi-layered meanings.

ii. Some words map onto specific religious concepts, which should be explained in detail before their meaning can be given.

iii. Many verses refer to other verses or historical events; hence, a contextual explanation is usually necessary.

iv. Some verses are abrogated by others, and the user needs to know the chronological order of revelation before each verse can be interpreted.

Therefore, reading a translation provides a basic understanding, but also raises many questions in the reader’s mind. Those questions can only be answered by referring to a properly qualified teacher or through reading books or articles dedicated to the explanation of certain concepts. Such an explanation necessitates looking at the Qur’an in its entirety, considering the interpretations of leading Muslim scholars, and looking at the practices and explanations of the Prophet of Islam.

Among the most widespread translations are those by Abdullah Yusuf Ali,¹² Marmaduke Pickthall,¹³ and Muhammad Asad.¹⁴ A recent translation by Ali Ãœnal combines the best of the previous translations. It provides detailed annotations, and it is written in modern English.

Why do Muslims recite the Qur’an in Arabic?

Muslims strive to recite the Qur’an in its original language, since only the Arabic version is considered the word of God. It is recited in Arabic in the daily prayers and as a form of worship. But translations and commentaries are available in every language, and readers are encouraged to consult those. The memorization needed for the daily prayers is minimal, and can be done by an uneducated person in a single day. Most people memorize much longer portions of the Qur’an, and people who have memorized the entire Qur’an are not uncommon. Reciting the Qur’an in a beautiful and sad voice is a highly valued Islamic art. “Embellish the Qur’an with your voices, for indeed a beautiful voice enhances the beauty of the Qur’an,” declared the Prophet.¹⁵ Many Muslims also try to learn at least some Arabic to be able to understand portions of the Qur’an. However, knowing Arabic is not essential to be a good Muslim. Being a good Muslim is measured by God-consciousness and by how much one practices the religion.

Conclusion

The Qur’an is considered the word of God by over a billion Muslims. Western readers unfamiliar with the Qur’anic message should familiarize themselves with the Qur’an before making any judgment about it. However, reading a translation only provides a basic understanding, and supplemental reading is necessary. This brief article serves as an introduction to the Qur’an, by providing answers to frequently asked questions. The reader is encouraged to consult the reference list below. Further detailed information is widely available through the Internet and printed media.

References

• Abu Dawud, Sunan, accessed on 06/01/2007at:
• http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/abudawud
• Muhammad (2003), The Message of the Qur’an, The Book Foundation, Bristol.
• Canan, Ibrahim (2004) “Rivayetlerin Isiginda Kur’an’in Cem edilmesi” (“Compilation of the Qur’an in the light of Historical Records”) Yeni Umit April–June 2004,
• Gulen, Fethullah (2000), Prophet Muhammad: Aspects of His Life, The Fountain, Virginia.
• Khan, Muhammad M. (1995), The Translation of the Meanings of Summarized Sahih Al-Bukhari: Arabic-English, Kazi Publications Inc.
• Kurucan, Ahmet (2006), Niçin Diyalog: Diyalogun Temelleri (English, “Why Dialogue? Pillars of Dialogue”), Isik Yayinlari, Istanbul.
• Nursi, Said (1997), The Words, Kaynak Kol. Sti. Izmir.
• Pickthall, Marmaduke (2001), The Glorious Qur’an, New York.
• Unal, Ali (2006), The Qur’an with Annotated Interpretation in Modern English, The Light, Inc., New Jersey.
• Teece, Geoff (2005), Religion in Focus: Islam, 1st ed., Smart Apple Media, North Mankato.
• Wikipedia, Online Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/
• Yusuf Ali, Abdullah (2004), The Meaning of the Holy Qur’an, Amana Publications, 11th ed., Maryland.

End Notes

1. Pagination differs across different prints, but the text does not. The 604-page version refers to Arabic text only, written according to a particular script, which takes longest verse as the measure of a single page, and shortest chapter as a measure of a single line. With roman text and explanations, the translations usually exceed thousand pages.

2. Teece, Geoff (2005)

3. Gulen (2000)

4. Nursi (1958), 25th Word on the Holy Quran

5. Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 52, hadith 85.

6. Canan (2005)

7. Caliph is a historical title given to leaders of Muslim community. It is no longer used.

8. Kurucan (2007)

9. Abu Dawud, Adab, Book 41, Number 4883. Compilation of Sunan was completed on 241 A.H.

10. Nursi (2000).

11. Kurucan (2006)

12. Yusuf Ali (2004). Originally publishes in 1938.

13. Pickthall (2001). Originally published in 1930.

14. Asad (2003). Originally published in 1980.

15. Al-Haakim, al-Mustadrak, 1/236