By Muhammad Maroof
Shah
October 30,
2020
Who doesn’t
appreciate being appreciated? Indeed we die for want of appreciation as Heschel
has noted. Our task is become praiseworthy (as distinguished from seeking
praise as Aquinas noted) and to praise and praise what is praiseworthy. The
desire for appreciation/praise expresses itself in countless ways including
desire to be loved that is so universal or pursuit of excellence and being
worthy of praise.
The deepest
motive for creation is God’s desire to be appreciated in the mirror of universe
and the very first words of the Quran declare praise to Him. The essence of
prayer is gratitude that follows from appreciation of the gift of life.
Theology
can be expressed in terms of the grammar of appreciation. It is in this light
that we need to greet path-breaking Jehan-e-hamd-o-na’t published by Na’t
Academy Jammu & Kashmir and edited by Prof. Jowhar Qudusi who has devoted
his research career to this genre. We Kashmiris and the Urdu speaking world owe
him and his team gratitude for this treasure.
Now we
have, under the supervision of Prof. Margoob Banihali, a journal devoted to
na’t. Here I try to sum up the deeper meaning of Na’t that in turn explains
need for such works and their central theses.
The meaning
of life is praise for life and if we can’t praise it, we confront despair and
suicide. The basic difference between believer and non-believer is, as Iqbal
noted, in affirmation or rejection of love.
Masjid e Nabwi
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And love in
turn presupposes attractiveness or praiseworthiness of the object of love. The
meaning of life is Life itself and this we denote by the terms reserved for the
Principle of Manifestation, the Logos, Indwelling Life, Haqqeeqati Muhamiidaya.
Humans are
ceaselessly involved in celebrating life or offering durood to the Principle of
Unveiling of Life. The believers love the Prophet (SAW) more than themselves
because he is the ideality of self or primordial divine image in which man is
created.
Our task as
humans is to keep pursuing excellence. Humans excel one another in the gift of
praise of what is worthy of praise. The measure of our real success in life is
how excellent is our praise for the Praised one and the envoy of the One for
whom alone al praise is due.
This volume
discusses almost everything important in the traditions of Hamd and Na’t and may be described as almost encyclopaedic in
scope. I wish Na’t academy prepares encyclopaedia
of Urdu, Kashmiri Hamd/Na’t.
Controversial
issues such as failure to observe due attention to spiritual hierarchy or adab
and non-orthodoxy of certain verses in major poets such as Iqbal, not to speak
of lesser mortals, mixing of boundaries of Hamd,
Na’t and mankabt, are also discussed in detail. It clarifies numerous
questions including those dealing with definitions, history, contributions of
non-Muslims to Na’t, formalization and mystical, philosophical, theological and
other dimensions of Hamd/Na’t etc.
What
connects and in many ways unites hamd and na’t – and cognizance of which
dispels key anxieties of those who fear the cardinal sin of association of
partners with God – is celebration of praiseworthiness of Life and positivity
of manifestation. If we pay attention to the ontology of messengerhood, we
would appreciate how hamd, na’t and mankabat can’t be distinguished in absolute
terms and how the key notion of light of Muhammad informs all of them.
God in His
essence is not known and thus not praised but is praised only thanks to the
attributes or the unveiling of His riches in the world of manifestation. God is
praised to the extent the Messenger makes him known.
Read in
light of doctrines of Ibn Arabi and classical Seerah works such as Ash Shifa by
Qadi Iyad and multivolume works of Tahir ul Qadri and Imam Muhammad bin Ismail
Nabhani, we may note the following points for better appreciation of various
issues raised in the volume under discussion.
• “This age
is the age of na’t, the age of the Prophet.” The fact that so much is written
in the name of na’t today shows our age has its own blessings and paves way or
unfolds coming golden age as is implied in traditional accounts of end times.
• Better
than seeking to show separate category of na’t poetry and then lament its
absence in particular periods, it would be more fruitful to see all great
poetry as a species of na’t. Poetry is a window to the Sacred and as such it
consecrates.
• Given the
Prophet (SAW) is understood as the Perfect Man who in turn mirrors or is a
locus of manifestation of divine attributes and there is great convergence in
many important names of God and the Prophet and we know the Messenger as an
Envoy of Absolute and it is God Himself who blesses life or praises the
Prophet, we can’t write na’t as it should be written (we can’t excel God’s
praise of Muhammad as Ghalib noted) or must ceaselessly perfect this art.
• The
argument that na’t by non-Muslims is not real love as otherwise they would have
embraced Islam isn’t convincing. We can’t explain away or dismiss the passion
and conviction and to that extent saving power of such verses as the following
from non-Muslim poet Shad.
Mumin Jo Nahi Hu To Mei Kafir Bi Nahi Shad
Is Zumrae Sae Aagah Hae Sultani Medina
• The
problem of singing Qawwali being against Shariah needs to be revisited as the
place of certain forms of music in Islamic tradition is secure, criticisms of
certain legists notwithstanding.
• If we
want to understand the central importance of poetry of praise in Islamicate
cultures, we need to understand metaphysical foundations of praise as
explicated in Ibn Arabi. “And [Muhammad] has no banner but [the one of] Praise,
that being the returning of all the ultimate ends of commendation to God, as in
His saying, ‘Praise belongs to God’ (al-hamdu li-l-Lāh) and to no other! [For]
in the [whole] world there is positively no expression (lafz) that does not
give some evidence of commendation – I mean a fair commendation – although the
source to which it is attributed is [only] God.”
• Na’t
gives us access to the world of spirit or peace in the repose of being. It is
available to all humans and given God is the Wudood and the Irresistible He
can’t fail to find us in the circle of those who praise Muhammad (SAW).
“The more
they blaspheme, the more they praise God” said Eckhart and we can assert this
about blaspheming the Prophet. The Prophet (SAW) can’t be mocked. Only the one
who mocks is mocked. How can the Mehmood – the very ground/object of praise –
be reviled? One can only imagine mocking him.
• Iqbal, on
whom many pages are written in this volume, was rooted in Sufi metaphysics. He
helps explain the Persian saying stating one must beware of Prophet though may
take liberty with God. (…Ba Muhammad Hushyar).
He has said
many astounding things that should silence many a theological critic of na’t.
He said all the roads lead to the Prophet and that all are really searching for
Him. The universe and history are not explicable except in terms of movement of
love towards him.
Loyalty to
Muhammad secures one access to Loh-O-Qalm.
All these claims if approached with exoteric theology may appear dangerously
close to associating partners in God’s power.
To be human
is to cultivate relationships and gratitude for the gift of being and this is
also the essence of faith. Awe (proper rendering of taqwa) as distinguished
from fear of God is the primary response towards the fascinating world and its
author and it too is associated with praise of what one encounters.
The fruit
of faith is celebration of life as a carnival of joy. For understanding how the
Prophets brought glad tidings that na’t tradition especially attests to, note
that religion itself is joyful news and a method to bring joy.
The world
is divided into two camps those who know Muhammad and those who don’t know. We
awake daily thanks to the Light of Muhammad that shines in the sun and in the
smiles of the dear ones that sustain us. Everyone who affirms faith in life,
freedom, love and compassion has implicitly affirmed Muhammad.
One can’t
comment on most chapters of this volume for paucity of space. However, it is
better to visit this Garden of Spirit that vivifies. A collection of na’t
should be present in every house that claims to be educated and Muslim. I hope
we are regularly greeted by newer volumes.
Reading the
Messenger’s life and work and understanding metaphysical aspect of Messenger
and Revelation as intellection for the masses and appreciating the best of
philosophers and poets on the value of affirming this life and world as a gift
mediated by Haqeeqat-i-Muhammadiya and underscoring how much we owe to those
who idealize Muhammad (SAW) and what the Perfect Man and his depths and heights
mean for such towering intellects as Ibn Arabi and Rumi and galaxy of sages and
na’t writers, one sees how our age is the age of Muhammad and the age of na’t.
Name any
great thinker who has failed to implicitly or explicitly affirm Muhammad. All
poets sing his glory and beauty if we appreciate the inalienable connection of
poetry with wisdom and the function of the Prophet as teaching hikmah and
content of hikma as universal moral-metaphysical heritage of all cultures.
P.S The
secular world, including aggressively secular fundamentalist France, needs to
understand the trans-theistic supra-personal metahistorical ontological
dimensions of the Messenger and the fact that blasphemy against him is
blasphemy against life and freedom and this is universally unacceptable. It is
blasphemy against a whole culture and civilization that was inspired by the
blessed Messenger (SAW).
May the
blasphemer know what he blasphemes against when it is the question of the
Praised One – the Principle of Manifestation or Pole of Existence which makes
possible the Universe and Life. We can’t blaspheme against the universe. One
can’t spit at the sun or oneself. It is to the Prophet of Islam that we owe a
more liberal world where freedom and equality are treasured. Na’t is the genre
to which poets of other creeds have contributed and we can see Muhammad (SAW)
at the centre of both secular and spiritual history. By virtue of representing
both Totality and Equilibrium, all humans are required to take note of this for
their own individuation. The destiny of the world depends on our response and
view of Muhammad (SAW).
Original Headline: Understanding Our Age as the
Age of Muhammad (SAW)
Source: The Greater Kashmir
URl:
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism