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In the Middle Ages, the Christians of Europe fought the Muslims tooth and claw, calling them heathens, heretics and enemy. In the east itself, Christians and Muslims lived in relative peace: even when Jerusalem (called by Muslims al-Quds The Holy) was in Muslim hands the holy sites of Christianity were administered and cared for by Christians. Europe was hostile to Islam, but alongside this hostility lay a great admiration for the Muslim way of life. A popular book of the times was The Travels of Sir John Mandeville , an account of the journeys of Sir John through Muslim lands, his encounters with Muslims, and even with the Sultan himself. Scholars tell us that this work is fictional, that there was no Sir John, no travels in the East. But the book was more than just a travelogue, more than a medieval version of Lonely Planet . Rather the travelogue guise hid a deeper purpose. The author wrote his book so that the Christians of Europe might learn to be better Christians by being confronted with the piety and virtue of Muslims. Muslims, he claimed, lived a holier and more pious life than most Christians, following God's law more fully and more exuberantly than those who follow the true religion' of Christ.
Globally, we live today in a world where the divine-human work towards peace demands an understanding of the unique genius of Islam, a religion that like Christianity and Judaism extols the worship of the God of Abraham. In fact, in regards to my own particular spiritual life, the beauty of Christianity was revealed to me through the beauty of Islam, which continues to hold a special place in my heart. When I have the good fortune to teach on Islam, I tell my students that I only became a Christian because I very nearly became a Muslim. And so I wish to provide an extremely brief (but hopefully useful) account of Islamic spirituality; a spiritual path that we all, as Christians, share with Muslims in the Eucharistic feast.
Like all religions, Islam has many different kinds of spirituality but we can, nevertheless, discuss the core of Islamic spirituality; that which informs the spiritual life of all Muslims. With Christianity and Judaism, Islam tells a story of the Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve. But while the notion of Fall' is essential to Christian understandings of human nature, Islam has no such concept. Adam and Eve did not wilfully disobey God but rather forgot their duties as God's stewards and, out of forgetfulness, ate of the forbidden tree. This sets the tone for all Islamic spirituality: the human being is prone to forget their stewardship, their sacred place in the cosmos, and hence their inherent human dignity. And so Islam is a religion of remembrance. This notion should be familiar to us all; when Christ instituted the Eucharistic feast He charged His disciples to do this in remembrance of me ' remembering God is an essential part of the Christian life.
Remembrance of God or dhikr informs every aspect of Muslim life because there is no part of life that does not belong to God. Islamic culture developed so that one would be reminded of God at every turn. To pray five times a day is to be continually reminded of God throughout the day and its activities and Islamic dress is designed to facilitate the bodily postures of prayer: the postures of prayer themselves remind the body of God. While in Christian churches many read from prayer books and pew sheets, Islamic prayer should not be read but recited. This means that not only must one remember the various postures but also have by heart passages of the Koran recited during prayers. In fact there are many in the Muslim world who have the entire Koran by heart. Knowing the Scripture like this means that one's thoughts, values and speech are shaped by, reflect and express the Word of God. To be Muslim is to remember God with every aspect of our being.
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart , and with all thy soul , and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength:
Further, Islamic arts, architecture, story-telling, social and family life are all reminders of God. The greatest of the Islamic arts, calligraphy, focuses almost exclusively on passages of Scripture and the geometric patterns that adorn many buildings, and which we tend to see as merely decorative, are instead intricate pictorial expressions of God's creation of the universe and the beauty of the infinite variety in infinite order that He created. Muslims, from whatever country, are encouraged to learn Arabic, and for one reason only: because God spoke Arabic to the Prophet.
To live as a Muslim in a Muslim society is to be continually recalled to God's Infinite Presence in all aspects of human lives. I believe that this is the fundamental reason why Islam is the fastest growing religion in the western world; in fact, while the terrorist attacks in New York in September 2001 provoked great fear of Islam and much hostility towards innocent Muslims, at the same time the rate of conversion amongst westerners increased. Many people desiring to live a life devoted to God and finding themselves unable to do this in modern society has discovered that path of courageous devotion opened to them through the life is Islam.
Can we, as Christians, learn from this? Yes! And more, we probably should.
Jesus, son of Mary, said: O Allah, Lord of us! Send down for us a table spread with food from heaven, that it may be a feast for Us, for the first of us and for the last of us, and a sign from Thee. Give us sustenance, for Thou art the Best of Sustainers. Allah said: Lo! I send it down for you. And whoso disbelieveth of you afterward, him surely will I punish with a punishment wherewith I have not punished any of (My) creatures.
The Holy Koran, 5:114-15
Al-hamdu lillah God be praised!
Graeme Castleman