“Submit to ritual in order to conquer the self… in other words think of the self as this messy set of patterns that we’ve fallen into and your goal is to break that… and you do that by forcing yourself through ritual… or being forced through ritual, to become a better person” -Michael Puett (Speaking on Confucious philosophy)
Modern western society is obsessed with self-identity, we are constantly interested not only in defending ourselves but also in defining the expression of that self. We want to be authentic, we want to be true to ourselves, find ourselves and never betray who we truly are. But, what if none of that really matters? One of my favorite podcasts for the past couple of years has been Philosophy Bites, a podcast in which a philosopher discusses their field of work and views on different topics in each episode. In one of their recent episodes, Michael Puett discusses why the Chinese spent as much time recording Confucius’s ritual practice as they did his philosophical teachings. Why did they bother letting us know that Confucius would straighten the mats before his students came in, for example, isn’t that just arbitrary information?
When I first listened to the episode a few months back it made me think about the Sunnah and how from an outsider’s perspective it may be seen as obsessive that the companions made a point to give us as much detail of the prophet’s life as they possibly could. Why —for instance, does ‘Aisha tell us that when she was in menses she use to comb the prophet’s hair? Why does this matter? After all, if there is some ruling or lesson to be given from this knowledge couldn’t the prophet, peace to him, or ‘Aisha herself just tell us. We also know that the prophet, peace to him would still lie in bed with his wives while they were in menses. And we know that the some of the prophet’s wives said they would sit near him while he prayed even during menstruation. From these stories, we know that the prophet, peace to him, maintained non-sexual intimacy with his wives even in their menstruation and thus we can draw the ‘Fiqhi’ conclusion that doing so is allowable. Stories give us a different way to understand our faith that Fiqh alone cannot and a stronger encouragement to practice it.
Or even not to practice something. We know that God gives men the right to use ‘physical force’ in the context of marital issues (within the right conditions which are beyond the scope of this post to discuss) but we also know the prophet, peace to him, not only didn’t hit his wives but was disgusted by the practice. And it’s not because his marriages were perfect, he had many difficulties within his marriages (maybe with the exception of Khadija, may Allah be pleased with her). He even contemplated divorcing all of them, yet he never raised a hand to any of his wives. And so despite a permission to use physical force, we find no encouragement to do so within the prophet’s life and thus one would feel discouraged to use physical force against his wife.
In the Quran, there is a verse that says, “O you who believe, when it is said to you, ‘Make room (for others) in gatherings’, then make room, and Allah will make room for you (in the Hereafter). And when it is said, ‘Rise up’, then rise up, and Allah will raise those, in ranks, who have believed and are given knowledge. Allah is well-aware of what you do.” It can be easy to read this verse in Surah Al Mujadila about making room for others and not pay much mind to it, looking instead for the “spiritual meat” of the Surah or possibly the “fiqh meat” of the Surah —for example in that Surah, God forever bans an Arab practice where men would put their wives in limbo somewhere between divorced and married, we also learn in that Surah that God hears the calls of the oppressed and listened to a woman painfully crying out to Him for help. Yet God does not say anything arbitrary in the Quran, every verse is of value. And the prophet’s lived example as the ‘walking Quran’ makes it harder to simply brush over this verse as unimportant. In ‘The Works of Day and Night’ by Jalal Al-Din Al Suyuti, translated by Rashad Jameer, we’re told that when a man came into the Masjid the prophet, peace and blessings to him, made space for him and said, “Truly a Muslim has rights. If his brother sees him (coming to sit down), he should make space for him”. Here the prophet, peace to him, reinforces God’s divine words through speech and action.
So often we approach the mundane aspects of religion as unimportant. (Western) Christianity has done this almost entirely but even among Muslims, there is a growing sentiment to desire the “spirit” of Islam without the rules. And a minority movement of ‘Quran-only’ Muslims who completely disregard the Sunnah. But the truth of the matter is that we cannot attain what our righteous predecessors had —spiritual enlightenment, if we do not do what they did. Which is also why the far more popular sentiment in the Muslim community that we don’t need scholars/shuyukh is also problematic, especially in the West. It is one thing to read the Quran and gain further confirmation when reading seerah but it is another to see a living example in real time. If we have nothing but books to rely on we will not gain the full understanding of what it means to live a prophetic life. And this doesn’t only mean taking baya with a sheikh, to live amongst righteous people and in a righteous community for a period of time is incredibly beneficial.
As I read the section on ‘Daily Practices For sitting and Standing’ in Suyuti’s book, one practice, in particular, stood out. When the prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, would stand he’d say, “Glory be to Your Lord, the Lord of Honor, [He is] above what they ascribe [to Him]. May peace be upon the messengers. Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds.” It stood out because I’d heard it many times before. Back in Jordan, this is what Sheikh Nuh would say after his lectures, right before standing up. I began to realize that whenever he said it he was either finished or about to finish speaking. And thus I’d already ‘learned’ the dhikr through his example before opening the book.
A part of being like the righteous predecessors of the past is not simply to seek their ‘spiritual sayings’ we must also seek out their mundane everyday ways of being, and seek out those who continue to preserve it and —inshaAllah, begin to practice it ourselves.
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Art: “Girl Who Fills The Vase” by Osman Hamdi Bey
Consider picking up a copy of my book, 40 Hadith of ‘Aisha, An English collection of 40 Hadith narrated by the beloved wife, scholar, and sage ‘Aisha bint Abu Bakr, available here. Also, consider signing up for our monthly newsletter here: bythefigandtheolive.com/newsletter. And don’t forget to subscribe to our podcast, new episode next Sunday: iTunes Soundcloud
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