What an immense joy to read the sayings of the Sunni-Sufi mystics of Islam! It is a warm breeze of fresh wind from Above, to be able to contemplate on the sayings and divine words of the Sufi saints of Islam given all the bad news surrounding us—of reports on terrorism, inhumanities and barbarisms all done in the name of a rigid and fundamentalist appropriation of religion. I am a devoted reader of Mevlana Rumi and the works of contemporary Muslim saints and spiritual teachers whose constant words of love, harmony, amity and understanding among peoples of goodwill always reverberate in their messages be it in their writings or in their speaking. I really love Sunni Islam—the true Islam as genuinely practiced by the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and his Holy Companions and his Rightly Guided Caliphs. I feel really sad whenever I read in the news media that the name “Sunni Muslim” is being claimed by those people whose actions strongly belie their claims of being Sunnis. Having freely chosen Islam as my personal creed, my heart feels battered every time I hear from news and various media outfits associating “Islam” and “Sunni Islam” with violence, intolerance or terrorism. I must sadly admit that in some cases, there are self-proclaimed Muslims who are perpetrating violence against innocent civilians, or committing cruelty for sectarian causes. But I must say with conviction that true Islam—the Islam practiced by the Holy Prophet and his Companions—is a very beautiful religion that teaches people to live peaceably among other humans. I must likewise stress here that in many cases Muslims are the innocent victims of occupation, oppression, discrimination, and even ethnic cleansing as in the case of Israelis slaughtering innocent Palestinians en masse—yet oftentimes, these news do not find equal space in our contemporary media. But when so-called “Muslims” are the culprits, the whole Western-dominated media will always point fingers to Muslims as the troublemakers! That is the sad reality of media double-standard of reporting when it comes to Muslims and non-Muslims. I chose Sunni-Sufi Islam as my personal creed because I myself see and experience the beauty of this faith tradition. As a person striving to be a Sufi Muslim, I understand that the message of Islam functions as the culmination of the long series of Prophethood beginning with Prophet Adam, down to Prophet Moses, to Christ Jesus, the Messiah and finalized by the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon them all). For a Sufi Muslim, the message of Prophethood functions within the universal framework of a monotheistic theology that is commonly shared by Jewish, Christian and Islamic faiths. Islam came to make God’s message to humankind all-embracing, universal and all-inclusive. This is my understanding of what Islamic concept of “Risalah” (Prophethood) is really all about. For me, the true message of Islam is unitive and universal for all of humankind—never separative nor divisive. From my reading of the works written by Sunni and Sufi mystics of Islam, I also came to understand that mercy is God’s Essence. That is why in all the 114 chapters of the Holy Qur-an, the “Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim” (i.e., In the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful) is written as the beginning invocation in each chapters. In Islam, the One God reveals Himself to be the Most Compassionate (“Ar-Rahman”) and the Most Merciful (“Ar-Rahim”). A real and true Muslim therefore is one who strives to make mercy and compassion the very raison d’etre and the ultimate goal of his being since his God is All-Merciful and All-Compassionate. For a Sufi, love is the greatest transforming power in Existence since one of the Most Beautiful Names of Allah is “Al-Wadud” or the Most Loving One. A Muslim who claims himself to be a follower of the Sunni Islam of the Prophet Muhammad should therefore exhibit mercy, love and compassion in his daily life and moment-by-moment existence. Yet, sadly, I know that human persons fail miserably in the ideals that their religion impart to them—religious people who claim to follow this and that religion becomes violent, cruel and inhuman to another human being who simply happen to be different from their creedal beliefs. However, I feel it is too unfair to generalize one’s adverse judgment to include all followers of this or that religion. In this case, one must study and see for himself what that particular religion really teaches to its adherents. I believe that cruelty lies in the hardened heart of the person and no religion is immune to this. In one’s fanaticism to uphold and to showcase one’s religion to be the best than the rest, one forgets his sanity, and in the name of religion, one becomes cruel to himself and to others. In these times when religion becomes the cause of human divisiveness and separatedness, the only remedy is for the human soul to remember that the real compass of our humanity and humaneness as persons is the human heart. It is the heart that is softened by God’s constant raining down of mercy, love, grace and compassion that is the potent compass to our fractured, cruel and inhuman dealings with our fellow humans. In the words of that beloved Sufi saint of Turkey, Hazreti Mevlana Rumi: “The ‘heart’ is the house of God’s mysteries. He dwells not in temples made of hands, nor his commands written in a decayed parchment of old stale books. God writes His essential character of Mercy in the warm beating heart of humans who are refined by acts of compassion and love” (From “Fihi Ma Fihi” [It is What it Is]; p. 115). The human heart that is softened by kindness to the other and vulnerable to the cry of the oppressed is the real compass of God’s will on earth. The softened heart is the vessel that facilitates the experience of divine love and mercy to others. To the esteemed readers of this post of mine, let me tell you that there is enough in our respective religions that can make our heart harden into barbarity; in the same way that there is enough in our religions that can soften our heart to be able to respond to the sufferings in others. It is our human heart that chooses which way to go. We have to take good care of our human heart, lest we fall into the very dangerous and perilous pitfall of fanatically obsessing ourselves in our religion and forgetting our basic and primordial humanity. Our heart is dying to say to us by its every beating: “Choose Mercy! You are human first before you are Muslim, Christian, Jew or what have you, or what have you not. Be human first for this is the essence of your lived reality—everything else is just trivial trappings of your ephemeral existence!” Let’s listen to our heart for it is this that makes us truly human and godly. Choose Love, Mercy and Compassion! (Written by Prof. Henry Francis B. Espiritu on September 4, 2014 at 8:28 PM.)
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 14:02:51 +0000
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