Universality Applied: in Black, White and Color

Universality Applied: in Black, White and Color

In Mogadishu a new government has replaced the anarchy of the warlords. Will this new Islamist leadership prove repressive? Or, will it find the wisdom to manage power in a traumatized land? A young Islamic warrior tells New York Times reporters: “The name Muslim and the name Al Qaeda are the same to me.” But the leaders do not say this. And these leaders differ. They are not all banning the watching of the World Cup soccer matches. Only some are doing that. They may have ended war, but do they really think they are stronger than the World Cup?!

Exhausted and hopeful, Somalis want to know if there will be peace and justice; Africans wish to know; and of course America wishes to know if investments will be safe. Those who value order more than justice, as the saying goes, will have neither.

An African proverb also states: “Corn can't expect justice from a court composed of chickens.” In any unstable situation, reform must be applied very carefully. Who is in charge? The new leaders meet in their mosques and tents to discuss peace and power. May Allah be with them. But as Otto Von Bismark observed of the Colonial powers, “People who love sausage and people who believe in justice should never watch either of them being made.” May the ingredients be halal in Somalia.

Now here in the USA, imagine you are a Muslim doctor, and a patient comes in who is not Muslim. You look and see a sick person who has made some wrong choices. Perhaps you also do not approve or understand her or his lifestyle. What do you do?

Of course you try your best to heal the sick and the suffering. This service to humanity carries the message of our religion. The extent to which it is not for money and prestige is the extent of the benefit to your soul. Oh shining heart! Service to humanity cannot be provided only to Muslims!

Muslims are spiritually rich. Imagine only providing medicine to the rich! We would be like the Bush Administration driving away so many people to Canada looking for medicine as well as asylum! Are we to only help our family and friends?

Also, a doctor cannot preach to those helpless in his care. In most cases, this would be too close to compulsion. Human desire would damage the delicate healing process. Our message is implicit, not always explicit. As Muslim service providers, we pray and hope that the universal message will be clear in our service. This is true whether we sell meat across a bloody counter, write columns and reports, or sew up a damaged heart. Insha’Allah.

Many of our brothers and sisters can quote sura and hadith, thanks to God. Sometimes I see the brothers and sisters who seem born again, who strive to learn a lot of this knowledge. I sometimes wonder if unlike them I am like one of the Byzantine converts, who adopted the faith without losing an interest in Greek philosophy and the wisdom of the ancients. Maybe too much, my way of expressing insight includes the influences that prepared me for Islam.

But hamduillah early Islam absorbed essential pre-Islamic wisdom and protected it for centuries. Traditions of thought do not begin in seventh century Arabia, nor do they end there.

We 21st Century Muslims need simple and good hearts and stronger understanding of the Prophet and the Companions. But we also will benefit from minds open to diverse inspirations, a compassion for the human enterprise, the capacity to see good in others. If we do not become confused, we can synthesize an effective spiritual understanding. Maybe some cultural forms are not accepted by others. Maybe Sharia is not seen as relevant. But whether we are in Montana or Mogadishu, we can still find common ground for human service in the universal characteristics of Islam.

And between Haram and Halal there is space for human choice. Between the black and white moral laws we accept, there is the colorful universe of human psychology. Transmitting the text means translating it into color of life. For how we live Islam is not always simple, as much as we may wish it to be simple. White light contains all colors; but the prism of our human understanding may allow us to see what we must do to know ourselves. Let us not be among the “slinkers, the runners, the sinkers, by the night swarming.” And let us not live in an imaginary Islam either. In crystal clarity, and in the clearing sky above, the seven colors of the rainbow and other miraculous signs of creation teach us-- in all and everything. Stay awhile and reflect.