The Idea of Holiness in Islam

Thomas MICHEL, SJ

Editor's Note: Fr. Thomas Michel, SJ., former bureau chief for relations with Muslims at the PCID, is presently Secretary of the Office for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs (OEIA) of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences (FABC).

Islamic spirituality is a path to holiness by which a Muslim, by internalizing the spiritual riches found in Islamic life and practice, is gradually transformed into a person who desires to respond to God's grace with faith and love and to do God's will in all things. In this paper, I will try to present the main characteristics of Islamic spirituality and to note points where Islamic and Christian concepts of holiness coincide, as well as areas where the outlooks of the two religions would tend to diverge. In this way, I hope that some areas will emerge where the particular characteristics of Islamic and Christian holiness might open doors for discussion and growth between Christians and Muslims in dialogue. I will conclude with brief personal reflections on the encounter between Christian and Muslim spirituality.

1 — A QUR'AN-CENTERED SPIRITUALITY

Islamic spirituality is a Qur'an-centered spirituality. Reading, reciting, listening to, studying and reflecting on the Qur'an make up a great part of the devotional life of Muslims. As Muslims believe the Qur'an to be the literal word of God, God's own speech, their encounters with the Qur'an are for them meetings with God who reveals, teaches, and forms believers in holiness.

The centrality of the Qur'an in the spiritual life of Muslims is evident in many ways. Islamic education of children begins by learning to read the Qur'an. Religious training begins not with simple catechisms or summaries of faith, but by coming to know the Arabic text of the Qur'an. This approach might seem surprising given the fact that for over 80% of Muslims Arabic is a foreign language, one that few Muslims will ever master during their lifetimes. At the young age at which they begin to memorize portions of the Qur'an, it is not only non-Arab Muslims who understand little of the text. Because of its archaic language and the Qur'an's allusive, associative style, even modern Arab children can understand little of what they are memorizing.

Thus, content, at the earliest stages of Islamic education, is secondary to the immediate encounter with the Speech of God, the Holy One. Understanding is expected to come with time, training and exposure. For those who practice Islam seriously, there are countless occasions to come to understand the meaning of the message. In the Islamic world, educational programs at the mosques, Qur'an study groups, sermons, newspaper columns, and magazine articles center on Qur'anic teaching and its applications.

The focus on the Qur'anic text, even before and beyond its meaning, points up a central Islamic element of Qur'an-based spirituality. The Qur'an is not simply a book to be read, understood and followed. It is God's own message for humankind, the very encounter with which is for believers an act of faith, reverence, and piety, a personal encounter with the God who speaks. When Muslims listen to a recitation of the Qur'an, their ears glorify God; when they recite the Qur'an, their vocal chords recite a speech that is God's own; in memorizing Qur'anic verses, Muslims take God's own revelation and make it a part of their mind, brain, and person.

The first encounter of Muslim children with the Qur'anic text is by memorization, achieved through oral recitation in common and then through private study. While every Muslim is expected to memorize portions of the Qur'an, the Islamic community grants a special place of honor to those who have memorized the entire Qur'an. Such a person is called hafiz; (m.) or hafiza (f.) It is considered sinful for a hafiz; to allow this competence to lapse through negligence, and thus the hafiz is taking on a lifetime responsibility or trust. A Christian scholar has underlined the importance of memorizing the Qur'an for Muslims by likening it to a Christian's reception of the Eucharist, by which Christ himself physically enters the believer and, as food to bring about health, growth, and sustenance, becomes a transforming part of the believer's very self. So also are the brain and memory of the Muslim fed and sustained by God's own speech.

Communal listening to the recited Qur'an forms Muslims into a community of those who "hear the Word of God and keep it". In predominantly Muslim countries, Qur'an recitation can be heard continually on radio and television. Evenings of Qur'an recitation are relaxed but serious occasions of religious socializing. National and international Qur'an recitation competitions are an Islamic equivalent of Eucharistic Congresses among Catholics.

Reciting the Qur'an is a sacred act, demanding careful attention and preparation. It begins, like all Islamic duties, with an act of intention (niyya), by which the Muslim consecrates the time and his/her efforts to God's service. The spiritual implications attached to the act of recitation, in that the Muslim is not simply reading a book aloud but voicing divine speech, can be seen in AlGhazali's ten-step instructions for one who is preparing to recite the Qur'an:

1. Reflect on the importance of what you are about to do; remember God's kindness in delivering His speech to humankind;

2. Consider the greatness of the Speaker, that it is God's own words you will speak;

3. Enter fully into the world of the Qur'an, abandoning your own thoughts;

4. Ponder the words, do not simply hear them passively;

5. Try to understand the meanings [the levels of meaning] contained in the passage;

6. Get rid of all obstacles (personal preferences, pride, preconceived ideas) that prevent you from hearing the message in its purity;

7. Be aware that this is a message first for you, not simply for others;

8. Respond emotionally (e.g., grief, fear, hope, gratitude) to the message;

9. Reach a state where you realize that the message is from God, not from you;

10. Hand over the act completely to God; get rid of any sense of your own ability.

Recitation of Qur'anic verses are an essential part of the salat, the daily ritual prayer, which means that Muslims who perform salat conscientiously will recite (or listen to) the Qur'an five times a day. Every Friday sermon begins with Qur'anic verses, and the recitation of the Qur'an begins ceremonies such as marriage, circumcision, and burial, as well as the opening of various occasions like meetings, academic congresses, festivals, and parliamentary sessions.

Public recitation of the Qur'an is paralleled by the reading of the Qur'an in private, the primary devotional act of Muslims. The Qur'an has been divided into 30 approximately equal parts so that the Muslim can read one section every day in a month. Particularly during the month of Ramadan, many Muslims try to read the entire Qur'an. The sections of the Qur'an are further subdivided into smal1 portions of 3-4 pages for daily reading and reflection.

2 — THE PATH TO HOLINESS IN THE PILLARS OF ISLAM

Well-known are the five pillars of Islam: the profession of faith (shahada), the daily prayers (salat), the tithe for the poor (zakat), the fast of Ramadan (sawm) and, for those who are able, the pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca. These are basic obligations for every Muslim which, if one were to omit without sufficient cause, that person would be considered culpable. Since the pillars of Islam are essential to the obedient practice of Islam, it might be worth exploring the implications for spirituality contained in these acts.

a. The profession of faith (al-shahada)

The profession of faith in the Oneness of God and the prophethood of Muhammad is that which constitutes a person a member of the Islamic community (umma). The first part of the profession "There is no god but The God" expresses the universal dimension of Islam, that which Muslims share with other monotheists, while the second part, "Muhammad is the messenger of God" expresses that which is unique, particular to Islam, and distinguishes Muslims from other religious communities.

The profession of faith, preceded by the personalizing words "I bear witness that...", is proclaimed from the minarets five times a day in the adhan, the call to prayer. It is significant that after every line of the call to prayer, a period of silence is inserted so that Muslims have time to repeat the phrase silently in their hearts. The point is that Muslims should not remain passive listeners to the call but, by repeating it inwardly, they make it their own.

The shahada has many functions in Islamic life. When a baby is born, the parents immediately whisper the profession of faith into its ears, so that the first human words heard will be those that make the child a Muslim. In Islam there is no rite of initiation comparable to Baptism. A new convert to Islam professes the shahada in the presence of witnesses and is thereby considered a Muslim.

As the shahada marks the entry of a person into the Islamic community, so is it also the passport to the next world. Dying persons are encouraged to recite the profession of faith so long as they are conscious, and if they are not conscious or in a coma, the bystanders are to whisper the prayer in their ears. A common Egyptian Prayer for a Happy Death is as follows:

"O God, enlighten my heart with the light of faith at the end of my life when my death throes are upon me, that I may say: 'I bear witness that there is no god but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God."'

Finally, the shahada is the most proper form of dhikr, repetitive prayer, which Muslims are encouraged to repeat over and over, whether in informal prayer gatherings or as ejaculatory prayer to accompany the ordinary tasks of daily life. Mystically-oriented Muslims hold that the shahada is the eternal speech of paradise. As one of the best beloved Turkish hymns puts it: "The rivers of heaven sing, 'There is no god but God."'

b. Ritual daily prayer (al-salat)

Best-known among among the pillars of Islam is the daily ritual prayer. This might be called "liturgical" prayer in the sense that the form and content have been handed down by the community since the time of Muhammad and Muslims are not free to make personal variations. How to perform salat is the first prayer taught to Muslim children; it is preeminently "prayer" for Muslims, to the extent that another term (du 'a) is used for all other forms of prayer.

Although the salat is not a lengthy prayer and can be accomplished in less than ten minutes, the timing of the prayer is significant. The prayer is a reaffirmation of submission to God at the key moments of the day: at dawn, the start of a new day; at high noon, at the moment of intense daily business; midafternoon, when the day begins anew in those parts of the world that have an afternoon repose; after sunset, at the close of the daylight hours, in the evening before retiring. As such, the prayer may be compared to Christian monastic practice of consecrating the day to God by structuring work, rest, study, eating, and recreation within the rhythm of the recitation of the Divine Office.

Before undertaking such a momentous and august activity, Muslims must purify themselves with water. The ritual of physically washing the hands, feet, and face, with special attention to the organs of the senses - nose, ears, mouth - symbolizes the inner purification that is the proper disposition for prayer. When they have defiled themselves through a ritually impure action, they must perform a full bath before entering into the state of prayer.

Similar to the prayers of Christian liturgy, the salat is actually made up of many separate parts, each of which speak to various elements of Islamic spirituality. Like al1 devotional acts in Islam, the salat begins with a prayer of intention. This is an entering into a sacred state, a dedication of the act totally to God. After performing the prayer of intention until the conclusion of the prayer, Muslims may look neither right or left nor depart from the content of the prayer. If one should do so, the act is void and must be performed again.

A characteristic of salat is that it is accompanied by fixed bodily postures. These positions distinguish this prayer from mental or vocal prayer in that the body, mind, and senses (speech and hearing) are coordinated in the act. "Islam" means the submission of one's life totally to God, and the positions of the body, culminating in the full prostration with forehead, hands, and knees touching the ground, symbolically represent this submission. The series of prostrations is generally repeated 2-4 times, according to the particular prayer time. The full prostration, a position that expresses simultaneously surrender, humility, and trust (in that position, one is defenceless against any aggressive action) so perfectly expresses the relationship of the dependent creature in front of the Almighty Creator, that Muslims are forbidden to prostrate themselves before any living or dead person.

Within the ritual, there are various other forms of prayer. The ritual opens with the phrase: "Glory to God and sing His praise". By proclaiming the glory of God (subban'Allah) in praising Him (bi-hamdihi), the Muslim believes that he or she is joining the heavenly chorus of angels who continually proclaim God's glory. Outside the ritual salat, glorfying God with the "subhan" is one of the most common forms of private devotional prayer. Praising God (al-hamdu li'llah) is a common expression which Muslims (and Christian Arabs) make at times of joy, good fortune, and, more surprisingly, tragedy. The idea is that all things that happen, both good and bad, come from God and God should be praised in them all.

The heart of the ritual prayer is the recitation of the Fatiha, the opening chapter of the Qur'an, followed by an "Amen" in loud voice, and the recitation of Qur'anic verses. The Fatiha, sometimes regarded as the equivalent of the "Our Father" among Christians, plays an important role in Islamic spirituality. It combines praise of the God of the universe and acknowledgement of God's tender, motherly compassion (the Qur'anic terms for "compassionate, merciful" derive from the Arabic word for "womb"), together with a profession of God's unique worthiness to be worshiped and sought for help, and a petition to keep Muslims on the Straight Path of an upright, holy life.

This is always followed by "Amen" spoken in a loud voice. It is the great communitarian affirmation which Muslims share with Jews and Christians. Their pronouncing of the ancient affirmation, boldly and with great confidence after the Fatiha, may be compared to the Great Amen that concludes the communitarian response to the Christian Eucharistic prayer.

Closely connected with the idea of praise is that of thanksgiving. The Qurtanic verse: "Give thanks to the gracious God, if you are His worshipers (16:114)" establishes the place of thanksgiving in the daily prayer. Failing to thank God is an omission for which the Muslim should repent. A prayer of the Sufi Qadiriyya Order states: "I take refuge with You from my failure to thank You".

The notion of "taking refuge in God" is less familiar to Christians but plays an important role in Islamic spirituality. It is an act of throwing oneself upon God's boundless mercy. In the salat, as at every recitation of the Qur'an, Muslims take refuge in God from the temptations of Satan. As in the forementioned prayer, a'udhu b'illah is an act of repentance, taking refuge in God's mercy when one has sinned. On many other occasions of daily life, Muslims take refuge in God: (e.g., on receiving a compliment, they seek God's mercy that they not be tempted by pride; on hearing slander or obscenity, they seek God's refuge that they not give in to illicit enjoyment.)

The prayer of silence finds its place in the salat. At each of the moments of the prayer there is an obligatory pause, a brief time of silence and composure. This is meant to prevent the prayer from becoming a relentless, rote, headlong rush from start to conclusion. Though brief, these moments of silence in the salat form an essential part of Islamic spirituality. Prayer is a privileged moment of contact with the Creator, the Lord of Life, and must never be allowed to become hurried, routine, mindless, heedless of its sacred and august function.

There is no prayer of repentance in the prayer rite itself, but it is recommended that Muslims insert a prayer to seek forgiveness immediately before the greeting of peace. This is usually performed at the morning and evening prayer. The importance of repentance (tawba) in Islamic spirituality cannot be underestimated. Absolutely essential for forgiveness of sin and implying a commitment to reorient one's life according to God's will, sincere repentance brings about the immediate and full forgiveness of all sins through God's gracious action.

No further rite of reconciliation is needed, nor in fact exists in Islam, except in some Sufi circles.

Before the conclusion of the prayer, there is a moment for personal prayers of petition. Sitting, with palms upraised, Muslims express silently their daily needs, hopes, and desires. Thus, while the salat is mainly a prayer of praise and expression of submission, the needs of the believers also find a place. Muslims are further encouraged to express their needs in private prayer (du'a).

Finally, the prayer concludes with a Greeting of Peace towards the community. Having earlier in the rite greeted the prophet Muhammad, the Muslim at the conclusion of the prayer turns to the fellow worshiper on the right and on the left and says "Peace be with you and the mercy of God" (al-salamu 'alaykum wa-rahmatu 'llah)" and receives the response "And with you peace". This offer of peace is the same as that by which Muslims are encouraged to greet members of the community in daily life. In this way, the relationship of believers who come before the Lord together in prayer is seen as the norm and model for their relations in everyday affairs.

c. The tithe for the poor (zakat)

Every Muslim is required to give a fixed percentage of income for the poor of the community. It differs from almsgiving (sadaqa), which is highly encouraged, in that the zakat is obligatory and fixed according to precise rules and calculations. One of the manifestations of Islamic revival is the emergence of "zakat lawyers" in Muslim countries who are specialized in assisting pious Muslims to determine how much they are to pay in tithe. In several countries, such as Pakistan, the tithe is collected from Muslims by the state and used to finance charitable works for the poor.

This practice is opposed by others (e.g., the Muslim Brotherhood), who see the collection and distribution of the zakat as something outside the competence of the state. The tithe should be a personal offering, they hold, given by the Muslim directly to those in need. Their point is that each Muslim must realize that the poor of the community are his or her responsibility, a sacred obligation which is not to be simply written off on a tax form.

In fact, the manner of collecting and distributing zakat varies widely in the Islamic world. It is a common sight in Cairo and Damascus, especially during Ramadan, to see a bread truck pull up at a mosque in a poor neighborhood, and loaves of Arabic bread distributed to all who ask. In Indonesian and Malaysian villages, zakat is paid in rice. A woman preparing the staple food for her family sets aside every tenth handful. The uncooked rice is collected on Thursday afternoons, brought to the mosque, and deposited in a large wooden bin. This is available, with no questions asked, to those who need it. Elsewhere, well-to-do families conscientiously prepare extra food at midday on Fridays so that they can feed the needy after Friday prayers.

We have already intimated the spiritual implications of the zakat. Caring for the poor of the community is not a matter of choice, mood, or feelings of sympathy. It is a required duty for every obedient Muslim, one that may not be ignored without incurring God's anger. Any relationship to God or life of prayer, fasting, and other acts of worship that does not include the element of concrete assistance to the poor of the community is not a fully Islamic response to the Qur'anic message. This teaching is repeated over and over in mosques, newspaper articles, and study groups throughout the Muslim world, especially during Ramadan, and marks responsibility to the poor as a key element in the Islamic understanding of holiness.

d. Fasting during the month of Ramadan

The key elements for Islamic spirituality in the Ramadan fast are remembrance, celebration, communal solidarity, spiritual renewal, forgiveness, and exposure to the experience of hunger.

Ramadan is a time of grateful remembrance in that Muslims believe that the Qur'an was first revealed during this month. In addition to the special prayers thanking God for the gracious revelation of His message to humankind, Ramadan is a time for Qur'an study groups organized among various sectors of society, such as students, housewives, civil servants, and factory workers, and for academic congresses and public Qur'an recitations. During the last week of Ramadan, on the Night of Destiny when the Qur'an is believed to have been sent down from heaven, and when the Day of Judgment is popularly expected to arrive, Muslims are encouraged to spend the entire night in the mosque, reading the Qur'an, listening to its recitation, and performing recommended prayers. It is during this week that the eschatological element of Islamic spirituality, so strong in the early suras of the Qur'an but usually muted in modern Islam, comes to the fore. With the expectation that the Last Judgment might arrive on the Night of Destiny, they hope to be found in prayer when the time comes.

A second element is celebration and social solidarity. Far from being a sad or gloomy period in the Muslim calendar, Ramadan is happiest month, eagerly awaited by Muslims. The ordinary rhythm of daily life is disrupted and, in fact, completely replaced by a "sacred" schedule, with families rising in the early hours of the day, often as early as 2.30-3.00 in the morning, to prepare a light meal to be consumed before dawn. The work day is frequently shortened. In some places schoolchildren are released in their annual vacation. The mosques are more crowded than usual with worshipers, not only for the obligatory prayer times, but with visitors and private worshipers attending lectures on the Qur'an and recitations of the Sacred Book. At the popular level, many Muslims visit shrines and tombs of holy persons during Ramadan, and Sufis hold sessions of dhikr in the mosques. As sunset approaches, an air of anticipation is in the air, food being prepared but not yet consumed, and much movement in the streets, with workers rushing to get home before sunset and families invited out to break the fast hurrying to arrive in time.

Sunset is announced by the call to prayer from the minarets, and in many places by cannons, gunshots, or fireworks. While the more pious perform the sunset prayer before eating, the masses break their fast immediately, in the name of God the Merciful the Compassionate, with traditional and recommended fare - plain water, olives, fruits. The iftar, or breaking of the Fast, is one of the most loved and enjoyed social functions in Islam. Families, neighbors, friends, and colleagues gather at one another's homes or, in modem cities, restaurants, to break the fast, with the result that Ramadan is a period of intense socializing. After the meal, many return to the mosque for night prayer and the long tarawih prayers that are particular to Ramadan. At the conclusion of the tarawih, usually about 10.00 p.m., shops and markets are again open, social calls are made, and special musical programs are aired on television. The socializing goes on until the early hours.

The spiritual significance of Ramadan cannot be underestimated. Communal performance of a long and difficult fast, with many periods of prayer, followed by communal celebration, creates a strong sense of social solidarity.

The disruption of the normal daily schedule, with ordinary activities - rising, eating, praying, shopping - performed at extraordinary hours results in the creation of a sacred time. Business affairs and work schedules are held to a minimum so that the main "business" of Ramadan is the celebration of all that it means to be Muslim. I have occasionally asked Muslim converts to Christianity if they ever feel nostalgia for leaving the Islamic community, and consistently they answer, "Ramadan". To them, modem Lenten practice seems bland and perfunctory by comparison.

Important aspects of the Ramadan fast are spiritual renewal and forgiveness. Like other religious believers, Muslims tend to get slack in performing religious obligations. Perhaps in the matter of skipping prayers, perhaps in harsh treatment of their wives and neglect of the children, or in gossiping, tale bearing, or dubious commercial practices, Muslims fail to live up to the ritual and ethical standards set by their faith. Ramadan is a time for repentance and starting anew, a characteristic it shares with the Christian Lent. The evening tarawih prayers are especially directed towards asking forgiveness for the wrongs committed during the previous year. Muslims believe that God's mercy is boundless and immediate towards one who repents, but during Ramadan God's forgiving grace is superabundant. Muslims believe that through the faithful practice of Ramadan, all their sins are forgiven.

This accounts for the joy with which the Id al-Fitr, the Feast of Breaking the Fast, is celebrated. Although not the first day of the Islamic calendar, the Id is the spiritual New Year of Islam, the new beginning and starting over. Having been forgiven by God, Muslims are taught to forgive one another. Thus, the vertical and horizontal dimensions of forgiveness are joined. Muslims visit parents, relatives, friends, and co-workers during the feast to beg forgiveness for any wrongs they might have committed towards the others during the previous year. In Southeast Asia, this universal practice is called halal bi-halal, which might be translated "setting things aright". The purpose is to prevent grievances, resentments, and estrangements from persisting from year to year, thereby poisoning human relations.

Finally, an aspect of the Ramadan fast often raised in sermons and articles in the Islamic press is the experience of hunger. Muslims who suffer from hunger pangs during the daylight hours are asked to recall the fate of millions of persons in this world who lack sufficient food. Theirs is not a voluntary hunger, like that of fasting Muslims, but a condition enforced by circumstances. Ramadan is thus an experience of conscientization towards the plight of the hungry. Through free-will offerings to the local poor or by influencing government policies, Muslims are urged to address concretely the problems of hunger and starvation.

e. The hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca

The opportunity to make the pilgrimage to Mecca sometime during one's life is the longing of every pious Muslim, but in fact, due to factors of health, responsibilities (e.g., raising children), expense, and simple logistics, most Muslims are never able to fulfill this desire. Because of the ease and speed of travel and economic capability of many Muslims, the annual applications to make the pilgrimage today exceed those of any previous era, far beyond what can be accommodated by the extensive but still limited facilities in Arabia. The norm laid down by the Saudi authorities is one pilgrim for every 1000 Muslims of each nation. Indonesia, with the world's largest Muslim population, this year received 180,000 visas for the hail, and the numbers decrease from there.

Even though for most Muslims the hay remains a dream that will never be fulfilled, the pilgrimage has an important place in the Islamic understanding of holiness. Like the other pillars of Islam, the form and content of the pilgrimage is fixed. The pilgrimage must be made at the proper time and prescribed actions must be performed on the proper days.

The pilgrimage is a reliving of the spiritual roots of their faith. Mecca is not only the scene of Muhammad's birth and early prophetic mission but, as the site of the Ka'ba, the direction towards which all Muslims pray daily. For Muslims, the Ka'ba symbolizes both the unity of the Islamic umma and also the ancient, God-given nature of Islam. Muslims believe that the Ka'ba was built by the prophet Abraham, the first structure on earth dedicated to the worship of the One God. The daily act of praying in the direction of one location is a constant reminder of the oneness of the Islamic community. On the wall of the simplest mosque, in homes and hotel rooms, the direction of Mecca is indicated.

Upon arriving in Mecca for the pilgrimage, Muslims enter a sacred state, a time dedicated totally to God. Normal clothing is replaced by two white sheets. It is forbidden to cut the hair or nails. Sexual abstinence is required until the conclusion of the pilgrimage. The preliminary rites of the pilgrimage revolve about Mecca, particularly the circumambulation of the Ka'ba, as Muhammad and his early Companions had done, and commemorative reenactment of events from the life of Abraham, Hagar, and the baby Ismail.

The central and indispensable act of the pilgrimage, however, takes place some 30 km. outside Mecca, on the slopes of Mt. Arafat. It was here that Abraham was ordered to sacrifice his son Ibrahim, and the site of Muhammad's final sermon. The Day of Arafat is the pilgrimage per se. If it is omitted, one has not performed the pilgrimage and the obligation to do so remains.

Muslims ascend the mountain from their tent city at Muzdalifa in time for noon prayers and remain there until after the sunset prayer. During the time on Arafat, Muslims might pray informally, read or recite the Qur'an, or rest.

To understand the deep spiritual implications of a rite that might seem anticlimactic, one must recall the geography of the place. Arafat, in the midst of the Arabian desert, is one of the world's most arid, hot, and inhospitable locations, and has been since the time of Muhammad. There is no earthly reason why anyone would go there. The only conceivable motivation is spiritual; God has commanded it. Obedient to God's command, "even to the end of the earth" the Muslim professes that the human person finds true fulfillment and identity in obedience to God. Standing in the blazing sun under the hot blue sky of Arafat, the pilgrims, by their very presence, affirm that the ultimate purpose and reason for human existence is found in accepting willingly and joyfully one's creaturehood before God and living accordingly. One might say that a whole lifetime of Islamic experience, as incarnated in the individual Muslim, is symbolically represented in this one act.

The "standing" in the sun on Arafat is always physically uncomfortable and, especially when the pilgrimage falls in one of the summer months, can be even injurious to one's health. The recent account of the experience of a female Muslim underlines both these aspects:

For six hours, my family and I, with the other pilgrims, stood in the heat of the desert. We prayed and read from the Qur'an. My daughters, like many other pilgrims, held an umbrella over their heads for shade, but I felt the need to suffer the effects of a baking sun, as a testimony of my faith. Many men and women were fainting al1 around me, and they were carried off on stretchers to the sunstroke vans, manned by hospital attendants". J. Sasson, Daughters of Arabia, 1994, p. 124).

Upon the return from Arafat, a further moment of the pilgrimage remains to be noted. Halfway back to Mecca, in the village of Mina, Muslims sacrifice a goat or sheep to commemorate the faith of Abraham who was prepared to sacrifice in obedience his own son, Isma'il. At this point, the pilgrims become united with the whole Islamic community around the world who celebrate the second great Islamic feast, Id al-Adha, the Feast of the Sacrifice. Just as the Day of Arafat sums up in one act the Islamic understanding of the meaning and purpose of human life, so the Sacrifice expresses their continuity with the faith of Abraham. It is a moment at which Muslims around the world can vicariously participate in the pilgrimage, performing at their own homes or mosques the same rite performed in Mina.

3 — ISLAMIC SPIRITUAMTY AS IMITATION OF MUHAMMAD

The pillars of Islam, as important as they are, express the obligatory minimum of the Islamic way of life. Each obligatory pillar is complemented by recommended actions whose performance is considered praiseworthy and meritorious, but whose omission is not considered sinful. The profession of faith (shahada) in the Oneness of God and prophethood of Muhammad is amplified in the aqidah, the creed, which centers on the pillars of Islamic faith: belief in God, all His prophets, the Sacred Books, the angels, and the Day of Final Judgment.

In addition to the obligatory salat five times a day, there are recommended times of salat, such as during the night and on special occasions, supererogatory series of prostrations which may be added on to those required, and a vast array of informal prayer, du 'a, which are encouraged but not required. In addition to the prescribed zakat, Muslims are urged to give alms (sadaqa) spontaneously to the poor. To the fast of Ramadan, many pious Muslims add other recommended fasts, e.g., on every Monday and Thursday, or they extend the Ramadan fast by beginning two months early, making it a ninety-day fast. In addition to the hajj; Muslims believe that performing the umra, an informal pilgrimage to Mecca outside the season of the hajj, to be a highly meritorious act. Today, almost 200,000 Muslims every month arrive in Mecca to perform the umra.

The range of recommended actions, which includes both ritual acts such as prayer and instructions on mundane affairs such as receiving guests, eating, traveling, carrying on business, family relations, even the performance of bodily functions, comprise the sunna. It is sunna, for example, to eat everything on one's plate (i.e., not to waste food). It is sunna to offer cologne to guests. It is sunna to say at the conclusion of a journey, "Praise God for a safe arrival" (alhamdu li'llah 'ala salama), a phrase regularly heard among airline passengers when the plane lands safely.

The sunna is derived from the practice of Muhammad and found in the collections of hadith reports of his sayings, deeds, and decisions. As such, an important aspect of Islamic spirituality is the imitation of Muhammad. Muhammad is understood in the Qur'an not only as the Messenger who brought the Qur'an, but also as its first hearer. He is seen as the model Muslim whose life was shaped to the smallest detail by the Qur'anic message. He is their friend and mentor who will interecede for them on Judgment Day.

The role that Muhammad plays for the Islamic community today is well summed up by the recommended prayers at his tomb in Madina.

The Sunni prayer reads:

"I bear witness that you are the Messenger of God. You have conveyed the message. You have fulfilled the trust. You have counseled the community, enlightened the gloom, shed glory on the darkness, and uttered words of wisdom".

The prayer of the Shi'a is even more invocative:

"I bear witness that you have conveyed the Lord's messages and declared His command. You have borne hardship in His cause and summoned people with wisdom and proper exhortation to His way. You have carried out that which was entrusted to you. You have been compassionate to believers and harsh to stubborn unbelievers. You have worshiped with a single-heartedness that brought you total certitude. To me you are as [as beloved as] father, mother, my own self, property, as my own child".

The place of Muhammad in the hearts of Muslims thus goes far beyond that of being simply the messenger who brought the Qur'an. He is the exemplary model and is regarded with affection as towards a family member. On this basis, one can understand the anger and sense of personal insult with which Muslims react to any slander or slur on the character of Muhammad.

Information about the life and deeds of Muhammad is found in the early biographies, but much more the collections of hadith reports that are traced from him. There are over 100,000 hadiths, but only about 2000 are considered soundly authenticated, and hence the basis for Islamic faith and practice. Many of the most characteristic elements of Islamic spirituality, from the form of the daily prayer to the rites of pilgrimage, while not found explicitly in the Qur'an, are recorded in the hadith.

The case of the pilgrimage exemplifies the function of the hadith. When, near the end of his life, after his victory over the pagans of Mecca, Muhammad made the pilgrimage from Madina to Mecca, every detail was meticulously recorded and preserved, so that, until today, hadith imitate in detail the example of Muhammad's own performance of the pilgrimage. The hadith reports not only elaborate upon the teachings of the Qur'an, but they also counsel Muslims on the interior attitude that should accompany Islamic practices. For example, a hadith regarding almsgiving recalls to Christians Jesus' Sermon on the Mount: "If you give alms openly, that is good, but if you give them to the needy in secret, it is even better, and will atone for some of your bad deeds. God is aware of all you do".

Muhammad is not only a model of behavior, but a much loved exemplar. The deep affectionate love that Christians have towards Jesus expressed, for example, in Sacred Heart devotions, or towards Mary and the saints, finds its parallel in the human affection that Muslims feel towards Muhammad. One writer on Islamic spirituality has put it like this:

No one can estimate the power of Islam as a religion who does not take into account the love at the heart of it for [Muhammad]. It is here chat human emotion, repressed at some points by the austerity of the doctrine of God as developed in theology, has its full outlet - a warm human emotion which the peasant can share with the mystic. The love of this figure is perhaps the strongest binding force in a religion which has so marked a binding power. (M. Smidl, Muslim Devotions, 1961, p. 145.)

The Qur'an and sunna form the principal bases of the shari 'a, the Islamic way of life. Containing elements of law, but going far beyond the notion of law, the shari'a indicates the totality of actions and attitudes that characterize Islamic life and society and distinguish them from that of others. Elaborated in the course of time by a subtle art of jurisprudence, the shari'a covers every aspect of human life, from family relations, to the social, economic, and political organization of the community.

The community itself has a role in the determination of the shari'a; when there is consensus of the community regarding an action or element of faith, that is to be considered Islamic. Much stressed in recent decades is the personal contribution (ijtihad) of the individual Muslim, who has a responsibility to apply the shari'a according to the needs of every culture and place and at every period in history. One cannot understand Islamic spirituality if one does not recognize that Muslims, far from being embarrassed by having a religion of law, are convinced that the comprehensive shari'a is one of God's greatest gifts to them. It is an approach to religious life that has more in common with the Jewish attitude towards the Torah and its elaboration in the halaka than one which finds any immediate parallel with the Christian tradition.

4 — THE SUFI PATH TO HOLINESS

Observers of Islam have at times identified Islamic spirituality with the phenomenon of Sufism, and some observers have gone so far as to set up a dichotomy between the "spiritual, interiorized" Islam of Sufis and a dry, legalistic formalism that is said to characterize "official Islam". I hope that all that has preceded has shown the inaccuracy of this judgment. If normative Islam did not itself offer its followers deep spiritual elements, symbols, and emotions, an immediate response of the human person to the Divine in our midst, the message of Islam would appeal to few and its hold on believers would remain superficial and ephemeral.

The Sufis were not out to set up a parallel Islam in opposition to the shari'a. They wanted to mine the riches of spirituality already found in Islamic practices and to draw out the implications for personal growth in holiness. As one writer puts it:

"One should not forget that the shari'a, as proclaimed in the Koran and exemplified by the Prophet, together with a firm belief in the Day of Judgment, was the soil out of which their [the Sufis] piety grew. They did not abolish the rites but rather interiorized them. The performance of ritual prayer, fasting, and pilgrimage to Mecca constituted, for the majority of the early Sufis, the minimal religious obligation without which all possible mystical training would be useless and meaningless". (A. Schimmel, Mystical Dimensions of Islam, 1975, p. 106.)

From the earliest centuries, some Muslims stressed the potential of the Qur'anic message to effect an inner transformation of the believer. In one sense, theirs were voices of protest against the worldly power and wealth that entered the community in the generation after the death of Muhammad. They stressed the need for a simple, prayer-cantered life and adopted many of the harsh ascetical practices of the Christian monks of the desert. Basing their teaching on Qur'anic passages, they stressed the transforming power of God's love in human hearts and understood Islam as a path to attain union of love and will with God.

Spiritual teachers began to attract disciples, and some began to write down instructions for their students and for posterity. Chains of initiation began to develop, so that a student on the path identified, through his spiritual teacher and his teacher's teacher, with one of the great spiritual masters of the past. A1ready by the second century of Islam, these people came to be called "Sufis", although scholars still dispute about the origins of the term.

By the 13th century, most Sufis were inscribed as members of one or another Order or Brotherhood (tariqa), each with its own forms of prayer and patterns of spiritual exercises, often with its own distinctive dress, lodges, and methods of initiation. Having many elements in common with Christian lay confraternities and religious orders, the Brotherhoods often attracted a specific clientele, one drawing mainly from the cultured intelligentsia, another from members of a specific craft guild, yet others from soldiers or from the urban or rural masses. While some were very international and missionary-minded, others identified with certain localities and ethnic groups.

The Sufis saw Islam as a path leading progressively to a union of love and will. Through a prescribed set of spiritual exercises, under the guidance of a spiritual director, the spiritual seeker passed through a series of stations (maqamat) in which he or she strove to overcome the human obstacles to the action of God's grace. The Sufi would have to learn humility, obedience, poverty, patience, diligence, temperance in matters of food and sex, etc. At some point, the Sufi would be blessed with special states (hal, pl. ahwal), when God would enlighten the seeker's heart with strong experiences of love, trust, joy, fear of the Lord, etc. when God would intervene directly by grace to carry the believer farther along the Path. These states were not always uplifting. The Sufis knew the Dark Nights described by the Christian mystics of the Carmelite tradition, when they had to trust in God despite the lack of sensible or emotional evidence.

The final state before reaching the Goal was that of fana' when everything worldly would pass away and all that would remain (baqa) was God's loving presence. The Sufi had arrived at the Truth, the ultimate goal of human life, a union of life with God where the believer no longer had an independent will of his own, but desired nothing but the will of God. Students of Christian spirituality will find surprising parallels between the stages of the Sufi path and the purgative, illuminative, and unitive ways described by Christian writers.

One of the most distinctive characteristics of Sufi spirituality is their development of the Qur'anic injunction to "Remember God often" (33:40). The word dhikr means "remembrance" and can refer to a wide variety of short, repeated prayers whose purpose is to center one's concentration on the immediate presence of God. This is similar to the theomnemie of the Christian Byzantine tradition and the Russian "Jesus prayer". According to the particular tradition followed, dhikr may be done alone and silently, or it can be recited aloud in common, often accompanied by bodily movements, musical chanting and instruments. As noted above, the most widespread prayer formula of the dhikr is the shahada.

A form of dhikr practiced by both Sufis and non-Sufis is the rosary (tasbih), with which the Muslim recites on each bead one of the Beautiful Names of God. Ninety-nine of these names are mentioned in the Qur'an, hence Muslim rosary beads usually have 99, 66, or 33 beads. As each name corresponds to one of God's qualities, the Muslim prayer becomes a meditative reflection on the nature and characteristics of God.

Some mystical traditions have tended towards a type of pantheism, where God is seen as the only true reality, and the transient beings of this universe are no more than epiphanies or shadows of the One Reality. Their view may be regarded as an interpretation of the shahada to mean: "There is no reality but God". This view was not accepted by other Muslims, who felt that it made God wholly immanent and destroyed God's essential differentness and transcendence. The resulting controversy marked many periods of the "middle centuries" of Islamic history.

In this century, the influence of Sufism has declined in the Islamic community, partly due to the criticism of reformers who felt that the preoccupation with personal perfection was a deviation from the original purpose of Islam, partly due to modernizing and secularizing forces within the Islamic community itself. However, in many parts of the Islamic world Sufism is still very much alive and active. West Africa, the Maghrib, Egypt, Sudan, and South Asia are outstanding examples. In the Central Asia, the Sufi orders formed the backbone of resistance to communism, the one societal structure that the communist regime was unable to infiltrate and control. A resurgent interest in Sufism can be seen in modern Muslim publications in Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan, and Indonesia. The Sufi understanding of holiness, while at the moment in eclipse in the Islamic world, must not be discounted as an element of the spiritual life of Muslims.

5 — CHRISTIAN RF.FLECTIONS

What can the Christian learn from a reflection upon on Islamic spirituality? What lessons can we draw that might enrich our encounters with Muslims? Where might we find ourselves challenged by seeing Islamic spirituality as lived by Muslims today? These questions I would like to address briefly in these concluding paragraphs.

1. The encounter with Islamic spirituality is a corrective to the current trend of our secular age, which is to view Islam, not as a religion, an approach to God and locus of divine activity in human lives, but primarily as a geopolitical force. Politicians, journalists, and scholars are preoccupied, some might say obsessed, with Islamic revival, fundamentalism, and political movements, but this is not the way that the Second Vatican Council documents and teachings of the recent Popes have taught Catholics to approach Islam. Our approach as Christians is to seek "the seeds of the Word" and to "discover the treasures of human spirituality". For us, first and foremost, Muslims are fellow believers who claim like us, spiritual descent from the faith of Abraham in the One God.

No doubt there are Muslims who understand Islam to be an all-embracing socio-political movement, and Christians who live among Muslims are rightly concerned about the implications this can have for their own lives. On the other hand, for all Muslims, whether or not they have any interest in politics, Islam is primarily an encounter, in faith and obedience, with God. If we hope to have any meaningful communication with Muslims, it must be on the grounds of our sometimes intersecting and sometimes divergent spiritualities. If this is true for the vast majority of Muslims who are not involved in sociopolitical movements, it is also true for revivalist Muslims. If we are not ready to talk about how God is at work in our lives in the modem world, we will have nothing of importance to say to Muslims.

2. If we ask why Islam seems to be so successful in today's world in retaining the allegiance and active commitment of Muslims despite the secularizing forces rampant in every corner of the globe, much of the reason would seem to lie in its effectiveness in instilling a sense of belonging and direct contact with God. The symbolism of prostration, the Ka'ba, going on pilgrimage, fasting, the greeting of Peace, washing the body, and standing on Arafat are still meaningful and effective ways of expressing spiritual realities that can only inadequately be put into words. These realities challenge Christians to ask whether the decline of symbolic representation of deep spiritual truths does not sometimes make our approach to religious practice too rationalistic and hence unable to engage the whole person, body and soul.

It is too easy to dismiss the fact that Muslims but rarely leave Islam to join another religion as simply due to fear of ostracism or even persecution by family, social milieu, or state. This is undoubtedly sometimes the case, but the deeper reason is that Islamic spirituality has been successful in creating a strong sense of belonging to a community of faith. This is often achieved precisely through those communal actions which involve the most difficulty and physical inconvenience: the Ramadan fast, rising before dawn to pray, standing the blazing sun on Arafat. It would seem to respond to a very human conviction: something that is too easy is not worth doing.

3. When Christians observe the Islamic shari'a (and the parallel development in Judaism), there is a tendency to dismiss these as religions of law. It is as though we remember Jesus' criticism of the legalism of the Pharisees without recalling his words that "not one jot or tittle will be lost until all has been fulfilled". Islamic spirituality should be a reminder that it is legalism which Jesus condemns, an attitude that one is saved by performance, with corresponding judgment passed on those who do not perform. Islam, as it has been taught by the great spiritual masters like Al-Ghazali in the past, and is stil1 taught by many Muslims today, knows that nothing is possible except through God's grace. All the norms and regulations of the shari'a must be internalized and understood in the context of the believer's relationship to the Creator. Nothing is automatic or magical; there is no forgiveness without repentance, no prayer without a "movement of the heart", no true holiness without concrete service to the neighbor in need.

Obviously, many Muslims have a legalistic mentality, and many are intolerant of others. Hypocritical Muslims perform actions to be seen by others or to gain the prestige accorded to hajjis, for example, or to Sufi shaykhs. Others rationalize and compromise, faithful in prayer but corrupt in business practices. Some overemphasize certain elements of the Islamic tradition while conveniently forgetting others. Self-critical Christians, who are not blind to similar occurrences in themselves and in the Christian community, must admit that abuses of religiosity do not negate the real depths of holiness found in an Islamic life when it is followed sincerely and humbly.

4. A real encounter of spiritualities can take place if we perceive its value and are willing to devote time to it. In this paper, I have mentioned some of the elements of spirituality that are of particular concern to Muslims because of the nature of their religion. They are often genuinely interested to know if these elements are found also in the religious life of Christians. But they often have a prejudice, not totally unfounded, that many Christians today are so secularized that their spirituality is shallow and perfunctory. Many Muslims think we pray only once a week. Christians, on the other hand, are not accustomed to talking about matters of inner piety and our lives before God. We might rationalize and tell ourselves that Muslims are not interested in such matters or that they would feel insulted or that we were proselytizing should we speak about the deeper truths of our faith.

Christians must be confident of the riches of faith in God, sacramental life, love of neighbor, service to and defence of the poor, Christian fellowship, popular devotion, mysticism, the vast variety of forms and times of prayer, the action of the Spirit, programs of growth in holiness, lay movements old and new, vows, orders and monastic life, feasts and the liturgical year - all gifts with which God has blessed the Christian community over the centuries. The Christian who rejoices in the spiritual riches we possess knows that there is literally a world of things to discuss with Muslims. The encounter between Christian and Muslim brings together two spiritual universes that demand to be explored together.

From personal experience I can attest that Muslims, for whom God is the most "real" of all realities, show a genuine interest in the inner dimensions of the Christian's life with God. How, when and to whom do we pray? Where is Christ, in heaven or on earth? Why do we say Jesus had to die; could God have not found a more humane way to save us? What is the purpose of committed celibacy? Why do we confess our sins when God is able and eager to forgive directly? What role does the Virgin Mary play in our relation to God? If we claim to be freed from the law, what is Canon Law? Who can be saved: all Christians, only some Christians, or others as well?

These questions, and hundreds more, that have been raised to me personally by Muslims, touch upon issues of Christian spirituality. The questions are often poorly phrased, as are our questions to Muslims, but the interest they imply is no less genuine for that. The only satisfying manner of response is to draw upon the depths of our tradition and to explain how the topic of the question fits into our Christian life with God. In the encounter of spiritualities, the Christian and the Muslim are not out to convince one another that their way is superior. They are fellow travelers on the path, sharing from their riches what makes sense to them and gives direction to their lives. They are fellow believers in a modern world where it is not always easy to believe in God. For both, the crucial question is: "How does God act in human lives and in society? How does God act in my life?"

In dialogue, they find that many of the same concepts are expressed in different ways, but also that the same terms often refer to very different understandings of reality. They find that there are points of contact and points of divergence. In the encounter, it is God who is most active of all, enlightening both with His abundant grace. Are we enriched by the encounter with Islamic holiness? My answer, after all these years, is "yes". Are Muslims enriched by encountering Christian spirituality? I hope and pray that their answer also will be "yes".