Khutbah #8 - 24/04/98

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

Alhamdulillahi rabbil'alamin wa salaatu wa salaamu ala Rasulihi  

Here we go again.

I would like to thank Ali for giving me a break for a couple of weeks. Leading the Jummah prayer every week is not without stress, and it was good to have a wee rest.

Before the break I had talked of Islam in the Community and in the Individual - our group and personal relationships to Islam. And there are things that we might agree and accept as a community, which we don't necessarily accept as individuals. We disagree about things.

We are all different, and see different priorities in life. Our life experiences have shaped us differently, and we all see the world in different ways, and then explain it to each other in different ways. That is the nature of debate - "This is the way things are!" - "No, they are not!"

The world is full of people telling other people how they think they ought to be living their lives, if not always following their own advice, and muslims are no exception. Travelling through South Asia by train sometimes used to drive me crazy, as muslims gathered round to instruct me in what they saw to be the essentials of Islam, and test me on my knowledge. ("Do you know what is the most important thing in Islam, brother?" - Ummmm? - "That your wife should cover her head!" - Oh, right, delegation!)

It felt like school, and even though I was talking to adults it usually felt like we were talking kid's stuff - though on reflection I learned a great deal from their company. Finding the manners to use in different muslim cultures can be hard, but I learned self-restraint, and I don't recall ever shouting "Will you stop talking such absolute nonsense!"

In an Arab minister's ante-chamber I learned how refined such manners can be, however, as a representative from an African country in his national dress was told in no uncertain terms that the pattern between his shoulderblades was improper and haram. With concerned courtesy he said "Thank-you brother". The advice was accepted, and in fact - rejected, politely. We have different viewpoints in Islam, as we do in every other area of life. We are not all looking from the same place.

The last time I was in Madinah I witnessed something which was to have a profound effect on me. I was in the washing area, not far from the Prophet's mosque. I had just made Umrah, and was no longer in Ihram, but all around me men were muhrim, and one, distracted, bumped into another. When he turned to apologise, the man against whom he had collided gave him a torrent of abuse, coughed and spat full in his face.

Why was this so memorable? The apparent anomaly of the spitter's action in that place? There is that about it, it is true (and that viewpoint is one that is almost a standard for what we call the news - Man defiles Sacred Sanctuary!). But there was also the man who was spat upon, who did not retaliate or even remonstrate, and the community who immediately surrounded them, not like a lynch mob, but separating them in a gentle way, looking to care for both their needs.

Muhammad said "Help your brother, be he wrong-doer or wronged". One of his Companions replied "O Messenger of God, I may help him if he is wronged, but how could I be expected to help a wrong-doer?" "You must prevent him from wrong-doing; that will be your help to him." said the Prophet.

*****

Here we all are in the University, a temple of individualism - specialisation. We use languages that are incomprehensible to those who don't share our subject interest. But if we are all individuals, how can we come to any communal understanding?

Well, we can be sure that the foundation of any shared understanding will be simple. It has to be understood by a lot of people. By the same token it has to be subtle, so it can satisfy that breadth of people. We love to build up complexity, but it is easy to get lost in detail, and lose the essential source from which it springs. In Abu Dhabi, when someone asked me for my understanding of Qur'an, as I tried to explain he said "But I know all that - we learn that at primary school" and then proceeded to explain to me some complicated nonsense. Nearly twenty years later, and I'd still probably start by saying the same things. The simple things keep us to the Middle Way.

The different priorities of individuals can also be seen in ourselves. We sometimes feel a need to drive ourselves to our limits, and we sometimes feel the need to relax. In Islam we need to take things easy on ourselves. It is not meant to be a hardship. We have many examples of the Prophet holding people back from excessive discipline. He said that in Fasting you have a duty to your body, and he spoke of Prayer as a time for a rest. Rest and relaxation, but within the net of discipline that is the timing and form of the Prayer (and over the next few weeks I will talk a little more about Prayer).

Islam is meant to be easy, but not self-indulgent. Clearly, what the Companions thought of as ease would be a stringent discipline for most of us. But discipline is a sign of strength. Doing what is hard because you know it makes you feel better, and feeling strong feels good. Out of hardship comes ease says the Qur'an, and then repeats it, so this is an important phrase. Like the work that you put in t build up your muscles or stamina, pushing yourself until it is difficult means that when you rest you build up additional strength. And as with our muscles, so with our spiritual selves.

From the Qur'an, Surah 94 "So truly with hardship comes ease, truly with hardship comes ease. So when you are empty, labour, and to your Lord turn your attention."

O God, forgive us, and have mercy on us, and guide us, and grant us security, and grant us sustenance.