Abdal Hakim Murad – Winter Reading List 3
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Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala Rasulillah, we're early
wasafi. Woman, we're alert. So this is the chilly time of year
when we come up with books in these long winter evenings. And
this year, we will be taking a quick look at five works, which I
think diverse but intriguing, which insha Allah will benefit us,
you know, inward and outward journey is
an age in which we tend to be more attached to screens than to pages.
And I think that that's unfortunate, we're more ourselves
more in control of a text if it's physically in front of us than if
we're waiting for a story to unfold at a pace determined by
some distance director with his or her own agendas. So looking at
book number one of this yours review list. This is by the
British Muslim novelist, Sarah Louise Baker, from Utah to
eternity, a Mormon Muslim journey.
And you have to be something of a super linguists to decode the
various scripts which are on the cover there is Japanese there,
there is what is almost certainly Malay because as part of the
journey, we go to Indonesia, and there is also the inscription in
reformed Egyptian, which apparently is one of the sacred
languages in which the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, found his
revelation. There's still some examples of this, here and there,
but I don't think many people aren't able to read it. So it's an
unusual kind of novel insofar as although it seems to be a standard
conversion narrative, from falsehood to truth and
bewilderment to certainty. self discovery comes along the way, but
it's set in the rather unfamiliar environment of the Mormon
missionary experience in modern Japan. It follows the story of a
Mormon missionary from Salt Lake City as he sent on the two years
of mission work which all young woman males are required to
perform as part of their membership of the Mormon Church,
as he embarks on the considerable task of trying to persuade the
Japanese people of the truth of the revelations that were given
through the angel Moroni to Joseph Smith, in the
forest at Nauvoo. And we get some quite interesting vignettes into
the,
to us perplexing teachings of Mormonism, and some also
interesting insights into the nature of modern Japanese
religion, the corporate society there the difficulty it is for
people to move out of their existing habitation in a very
conformist, hierarchical kind of society. And then we find the
story of this Mormon missionary who bumps into some Muslims, and
becomes increasingly intrigued by the idea that it might be only one
God, that the God might not have a kind of physical form.
And that the God of Abraham has spoken finally and decisively
through the Holy Quran. And he converts to Islam returns home to
his conservative Mormon family in Salt Lake City, where his parents
spring a series of surprises on him including being more or less
kidnapped by cult exit counselors and it becomes really quite
alarming he escapes from them. I won't introduce too many spoilers.
There's a romantic dimension in the book as well, which I won't
give away. But here is what happens to him when he escapes
from the counselors or these D programmers and manages to get on
a bus heading for California away from Salt Lake City.
After the excitement of getting away reality dawned what next,
deciding that he would wait until he got there he leaned back in his
seat and watch the featureless landscape go by. There were a few
disapproving looks when the bus stopped at a rest station and Jake
laid his mat on a grassy area to do his prayers. But he couldn't
care less. He had survived the D programmers who cared about
embarrassment. The worst they could do to him was haul him off
the mat. You remember the story one of the people who hated the
Prophet Muhammad's message came and dumped animal innards on Him
while He was praying. What could be worse than that? What was
exhilarating for Jake was to be a stranger here and right from the
first known as a Muslim. He noticed a few nudges and sneers in
his direction as he got back on the bus. The old man who had been
sitting next to him seemed to shrink away towards the window. So
some insights into modern Amma
reckon Islamophobia as well as the problems faced by so many who have
made the journey to the full monotheism of Islam.
So book number two on my list this year is a poetry collection.
This is the Diwan of city Muhammad ibn Al Habib,
which has recently been reissued in a version that has not just the
Arabic, the edited Arabic with full vocalization, for those who
like to memorize and to sing these very popular poems, but also,
transliteration and also an English translation. This is by
updraft man Fitzgerald, who is Associate Cambridge Muslim college
they've been helping us with Arabic training in Marrakech in
Morocco. The author died in the early 1970s. But this Duenas has
had quite a disproportionate impact on the development of
Islam. In the Western world. It's been through many editions many
translations. Many people have memorized many of the poems, and
there's something about their classicism even though the author
lived in the 20th century, which reminds us of how living a
tradition this form of Islamic devotion remains. So just to read
some of
the poetry with updraft man's translation. I snuck federal law
her in Nala hook Karim in Rachmat in lead daddy Khattab, Amin Zela
Lee.
I seek forgiveness from Allah Truly, Allah is most generous and
merciful to the one who turns from his errors in repentance. I asked
forgiveness from Allah for my sins and errors in front
transgressions, allusions and false hopes. is forgiveness from
Allah for my pride and envy, and for pretentious actions done
before the wealthy.
I asked forgiveness from Allah for any ugly thought I've had of
another because of being impressed by myself.
I asked forgiveness from Allah for rancor and envy and for the flaws
I concealed in my earlier days.
I asked forgiveness from Allah for uttering bass words and for my
silence in the presence of slander and hurt. I asked for forgiveness
from Allah for fabrications and lies and for self deceptions which
have led me to be lazy.
I asked forgiveness from Allah for using my faculties for sin. And
for anything I've done that trespasses, people's rights. I
asked forgiveness from Allah for any knowledge that makes me stray
from the straight path which requires the fear of Allah.
I ask forgiveness from Allah for any state in which I'm
overbearing, and for any station which leads to fear and shame. I
asked forgiveness from Allah for an action without intention for my
hearts being distracted from the transience of this life. And it
goes on this is poem 16. In the anthology just entitled, is too
far, which is a very wonderful thing and very bouncy, lyrical and
oppositely. Correct. classical Arabic, but even the English, when
read on its own has a real power that reminds us of the author's
spiritual profundity, and his authenticity in the prophetic way
the city, Muhammad ibn Al Habib Rahmatullah, who are they from
Magnus in Morocco, so that I think, in this new edition, very
definitely worth acquiring, particularly for the younger
generation, who may not be familiar with this particular
masterpiece.
Third book that I thought I would talk about is rather different.
This is by Bishop Athanasius Schneider. And it's called the
springtime that never came.
I think it is a Schneider is one of those Volga Germans that
remained in the Soviet Union. And he is now the Archbishop of
Kazakhstan who is based in Astana.
And if you look at the writings of the senior Catholic Catholic
clergy who have been based in Muslim countries, you find that
they have a certain distinctive
intensity to them that is no doubt the result of being regularly
confronted by the other than by the reality of serious monotheism,
very salient in the society. Bishop the federal who is the
famous supposedly skills because he's Matic bishop who didn't agree
with the Second Vatican Council and founded his own version of
Catholicism Society of Pius the 10th, had also been the Archbishop
of Dhaka, very developed place Muslim place in West Africa. And
he writes about how impressed he was by the way in which the Muslim
liturgy was, was intact. So should I do is from a very different
place, but also clearly made, made, inspired and challenged and
deepened by the presence of people have to feed all around him.
The point of this book is to shed light
it on the current crisis that's facing the Catholic Church
something in which we as Muslims, because we live, many of us in
Christian or formally Christian countries need to take an interest
in the decline of the LM keytab. And their replacement by a kind of
nothing, a kind of void is really important for us. And he is
lending his courageous voice to those who are unhappy with the way
Pope Francis's papacy has unfolded. And particularly the way
in which the modernism of the Second Vatican Council in the
1960s is being intensified and pursued in an attempt it seems to
make the religion which is losing members fast Catholic Church in
America, in some regions regions has halved. In the last 50 years
in terms of the number of church goers a lot of parishes have been
closed,
partly as a result of the sexual abuse scandals, but he identifies
some other reasons for this.
And he calls it the springtime that never came because he's
talking about that attempt to modernize the religion that seemed
not so coincidentally to trigger a massive decline in Catholic
observance and the number of young men who want to be priests and so
forth, and their sense of real crisis at the moment. Now, he gets
into some things like apparent sort of skepticism about climate
change, and some rather odd, slightly conspiratorial thoughts
about the COVID 19 pandemic, which one can pass over and in silence.
And he says some quite negative things about Muslims. Sometimes
the bishops don't realize that the Muslims are reading
what they're saying. So he's talking about the growth of Muslim
population in Europe.
There is no doubt that a kind of invasion is taking place before
our very eyes. This is not a spontaneous influx of people, but
an organized, premeditated operation.
careful observation is enough to see that the influx of Muslims is
deliberately supported by anti Christian governments, and above
all, by anti Christian politicians in the headquarters of the
European Union. All these are forces that aim at eradicating
Christianity from Europe.
Well, it's not clear to most right make thinking people that the
politicians in Europe are deliberately flooding the
continent with Muslims in order to reduce the influence of the
church. But this is quite a widespread view the grip
replacement theory which, unfortunately, even though we have
a lot in common with conservatives in the Catholic Church makes it a
little bit harder for us really to engage with them if they're
taking this kind of strident line. Another thing he doesn't like he
really doesn't like Pope Francis and his hyper liberal papacy.
And he's not alone. Pope Benedict the 16th, Emeritus Pope Benedict
the 16th, when he died
recently, his right hand man, Archbishop ganz fine published
some of his memoirs, shortly after he died would have been difficult
to publish them. While he was still alive because of the odd
situation of having two Pope's or a pope and half a pope.
In which Pope Benedict laments, one of Francis's most apparently
strange and calamitous decisions, which is to massively restrict the
use of the old Latin Mass. This might seem like it has nothing to
do with us, but it's important.
Can you imagine what would happen if some Muslim Pope said, brothers
No longer will we be praying in Arabic, but we will be using this
particular translation of whatever language it is that you're most
used to.
And the Imam will no longer be facing with the congregation to
the direction of prayer, but he will be facing the congregation.
So everybody can see what he's doing. And it will be more
relatable, whatever the argument, you can imagine how catastrophic
and divisive that would be, well, that's more or less what they did
in the 1960s. Taking what is something quite different from
Muslim worship, but very ancient, very beautiful. If you go to a
very imposing
the old Latin Mass, the Tridentine Mass, and replacing it with
something more Protestant, more popular.
That for many of these people is one of the reasons why people
don't go to church, the people who go to the Latin Mass concert in
this country, really a lot of young people that are attracted by
the dignity, the timelessness of the old liturgy.
But the current pope regards that as a threat. So he issued this new
to property of this little document to this Jonas Cousteau
this a few months ago, in which he really makes it very hard for
priests to do the traditional Latin Mass without a lot of
permissions and even applying directly to Rome.
This has caused a real crisis for traditionalists. You can imagine
what would happen if the Muslim world faced that but Alhamdulillah
as this guy more or less recognizes the
liturgy of Islam is what it's always been. And not
coincidentally, the mosques, wherever you go in the Muslim
world absolutely fall to overcrowding everywhere, even in
very secular countries, Turkey wherever
I've been to mosques in Russia, which absolutely packed 1000s and
1000s and 1000s of people, you can see the aid prayer at the Moscow
Mosque, which spills out onto the neighboring streets from the
International Space Station, it's almost half a million people. And
yet the liturgy hasn't been changed. So this is something that
we need to be concerned about, because we don't like the
secularization. And these people are genuinely traumatized by the
fact that they're very authoritarian structures that the
Catholic Church has actually forcing people not to use the form
of worship that was normal in the church for 1000 years. Very
strange. But there's unfortunately, I think the
attribute which Archbishop is right, is going to accelerate the
decline of the churches and their replacement by shopping malls or
more expressions of consumer nothing. So even though much of it
seems to be kind of anti Muslim and a bit parochial, there is much
to learn from the writings of these people who just take
themselves to be upholding the traditional teachings of the
Church. They're not really radical. So that's Bishop
Schneider.
Book number four for this year, Robin, Christine brought back from
the stage to the prayer mat.
Quite a lot of people know reading the her books, and they've been
done into perfectly serviceable English, as I understand, she
tends to write in Turkish, and then they get done into English.
She is a Swiss ballet dancer, quite prominent in her day, who,
through various adventures that she relates, found her way into
the great covenant of Islam. And she now is a dance teacher for
girls in Istanbul where she has settled.
And the book is very devotional very God oriented, very joyful. In
her particular devotional tradition, and some of it is
really very beautiful. It has the feel of a real, spiritual classic
and something universal that everybody can relate to. So here's
just almost at random.
A few lines from a chapter which he calls eternal freshness.
There is eternal freshness at the source. The path of love is the
path of return. If we go back to the roots of our being, if we find
the source of all existence, we will experience the full nature of
being human, the true meaning of who we are. true lovers are
immersed in eternal freshness every moment. This is why when you
sit in their presence, it means drinking from the fountain of
life. Especially in our present world of deep degeneration, people
feel their lives have become meaningless, worthless, tasteless
and aimless. Which makes them feel low, empty, weak, bored, heavy,
and so on.
Looking for some way out of their frustration, they find shallow
satisfactions, which gives them a kick for some moments, a kind of
new experience, but it will have no effect on their state, it will
not help them to remove their dissatisfactions.
There is a source of eternal life, there is a treasure of divine
beauty, there is a home of our origin, the place where we come
from the essential reality of our being, it is a sacred area, this
place is a place of total harmony and contentment. At the root of
our being, purity and illumination will reveal itself, whatever was
hidden will manifest and whatever was closed will open. At the
source, there is the beauty of the divine light shining in endless
brightness through all created realities. At the source, there is
the inexhaustible treasure of love. There is no time or place,
no subject or object, no setting or rising, no beginning or end, no
day or night, or no letters, or sounds, to change for the human
being as possible, if we return to the root of our being,
and it goes on. So it's very powerfully intensely written, but
it's not just a kind of inspirational sermon.
There is something in it that comes from the very heart of
Islamic spirituality, which in all of our literature is very love
oriented. the delight of being in the world which is greeted from
the Divine Rama from the Divine compassion and love and the
capacity to see the outpouring of the Divine beneficence on all
sides. So it's definitely
more than inspirational. It is a journey back towards the living
heart of the religion which is the principle of muhabba the principle
of Rama
So finally,
actually very beautiful book which was given to me recently not that
easy to find
And, but I found it very inspiring, beautifully produced
book. And it's called mosques of Bangladesh, mosques of Bangladesh.
I have not been to Bangladesh.
And I didn't really have any kind of idea as to the architectural
heritage of the region, I should have known better because of
course, it's East Bengal, which is that area of the subcontinent,
which is one of the world's great kind of cornucopias of cultural
achievement, architecture, music, everything
that has been goal was was one of the great centers of that culture
right at the end of the trunk road.
And economically very vibrant.
So of course, they had great mosques and Islam came to that
area. It said in the time of the tab out, you know, even earlier,
there are kind of stories have remembered legends of Sahaba, in
Chittagong and so forth. But it was really in the 13th century and
onwards with the Fuji dynasty, that Islam started to move east at
the hands of mostly local converts. And the conversion
process at the hands of itinerant Sufis sheesh does so her word is
NACA, Bundys.
and so forth took place. They were the ones who really
took risks, in some, some cases to bring Islam to the villages of
this enormous, fertile delta. So the mosques
turn out to be amazing, the early period quite sober and austere. In
that wonderful Indian red brick, you think of the red forts and
some of the buildings of Lahore it's not quite like the English
Victorian red brick. It's more restrained than that. Some very
beautiful patterns
are created from this brick in a very Indic kind of style. Some of
the buildings, the early period are really quite monolithic with
few windows,
splendid II ones porticoes, low against brick domes, a few stone
buildings, although as a kind of estuary area, Bangladesh is
basically clay rather than stone. And some of those are quite dark.
In terms of the actual texture and the color of the stone. I'm not
sure where the stone came from. In some of them, they're at Marble
inscriptions. Some of them have Hypostyle halls, some of them are
arcades, many of them have the enormous domes that you associate
with with the Mogul period. So I found this really an eye opener,
and it made me kind of want to go to Bangladesh, the place looks
amazing green, and it seems some of these mosques are actually very
well cared for. They don't look like sort of the ruins that you
find in some other parts of the subcontinent. Despite the climate
and the wildlife the capacity of things to grow with extraordinary
rapidity and humidity of the the monsoon zone, and it takes the
story more or less up to up to the present. There are some 18th
century mosques and 19th century mosques which are ornate but
really interesting. So this was a kind of eye opener for me, as I
say, an unveiling
that Bangladesh has this rich heritage of mosques in some cases
seven 800 years old.
The book is only mosques of Bangladesh, it doesn't have
shrines, Mazhar has palaces and so forth. I'm sure they exist as well
in in profusion. But if you can find the book, I would really
recommend it the photography is good, the printing quality is
good. Sometimes the camera angles a little bit kind of as if they
sent an estate agent out to photograph some of these mosques
because you fisheye lens, which makes you wonder what proportions
actually are, but generally, a beautiful tribute to the heritage
of a country that I think many of us underestimate. So, yep, mosques
of Bangladesh. So I come to the end of this year's little kind of
book review session. So much is being produced now. In the armor
by converts and by cradle Muslims. It's a very
fertile time for Muslim publishing. When I first became
Muslim in any of those books would have been unimaginable. It was
just poorly translated, badly printed books from various corners
of the majoritarian Islamic world. But Muslim publishing Muslim
authoring has really got underway in a big way. And any of these
books, any library would be proud to have them.
So yeah, we're coming of age. Despite all the problems Muslims
are starting to think again. Starting to write beautifully
again, English is becoming an Islamic language, hugely important
transformation is taking place before our very eyes.
So may Allah subhanaw taala give us blessings in this year help us
to read attentively. Help us to read without ego help us to take
notes when necessary. Help us to ensure that from every book that
we read, there is at least one benefit that enriches us and
represents a step up in our informational journey and our
spiritual journey that will benefit us in sha Allah constantly
until we meet our Lord. barnacle on fecal coliform income was salam
aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.