Teachable Moment of the Heart

‘You’re fat!” “And you are fat and ugly!” “If you hit me I will hit you back!” Two small girls in the park were threatening each other. After admiring their rhetoric, I saw that it would escalate, so I intervened: “Girls! Is this the way for Muslims to treat each other! You are Muslims, aren’t you?”



The taller small Pakistani girl agreed, and both girls were silent. Then the taller one began to quiz me. “Are you Pakistani or Arab?” She wanted to know. “I am American,” I said. Surprised, she asked: “How can you be American and Muslim?!”



Still not convinced, the small girl asked me to speak Urdu or Arabic to her. She corrected my one word of Urdu, but did not know any Arabic, and asked me, “Why do you keep saying insha”Allah?”



In the end, the attempt at conflict resolution was largely successful. It was a teachable moment; but for all of us--leading to questions of identity—which tribe I belonged to, and was I inside or outside the circle. In fact, it may be that over half our conflicts relate to such issues of identity, inclusion and exclusion. I can think of several such issues right now in the Arab American Muslim community in New York City. But I won’t go into detail—the Muslim community is divided in so many places, from Palestine to Patterson, New Jersey.



I told each girl to speak nicely even if the other was in the wrong. I tried to sidestep the question of Justice, offering Mercy as an alternative route. And how often do we Muslims take that route with each other? What, and give up our power struggles?!



Islam does offer us an identity— and for many of us an identifiable uniform. But Islam is also a way of faith, not just culture. Islam is a way of knowing and growing instead of an exact map of the self in its relationships. Islam offers questions, including: Where are we going? And what are you? What does it mean for you to be Muslim? What does it mean for me? Islam is a mirror of reflection and a deep source of spiritual life.



For many of us, the narrative of history supports and explains our identity, on the individual as well as collective level. We are Pakistani, African American, from this family, and that street. We are who we have been. We are who we love, and who we hate. But the lessons of history may also begin to free us from set self-definition. We may not ever be truly free. But we can explore our selves without falling off the edges of the map.



This mystery and this freedom is a form of “Unknowing” as mystics may describe it. As Muslims we remember Tariqat and Maarifat and other higher forms of learning. Not everyone is interested in such levels, however. You and I know that traditional religious ways of thinking are labeled “irrational” by the non-religious. But instead, you and I might see spiritual ways of thinking to be complementary to the rational, and not only a repudiation of reason. And though it usually is not, it can be a greater wisdom.



Religious or philosophical, our different ways of thinking may lead to very different conclusions. We have had terrible religious wars. But beyond the crimes of the people of faith we can easily point out the crimes committed by the people of science. Why are people so surprised and demoralized that Doctors in the UK have apparently plotted terror? Many doctors, from revolutionary Che Guevara to the genocidal Radovan Karadzic, even including Dr Bill Frist of the US Congress, have supported the use of force and violence to achieve political ends. In the process, some have clearly lost touch with our shared humanity, not to mention their beside manner.



Perhaps even more seriously, scientists are currently assisting the corporate race to patent the human genome and own the map of humanity and healing. Scientific idealism can be made a slave to greed. And science fuels an economic system that produces global warming.



As noted in recent newspaper reports, most of us would not choose to kill a whippoorwill bird. You cannot really eat it and it is beautiful! But over the last 40 years we have reduced the population by 1.6 million. You and I have killed these birds, because our cannibal economic system paves over the forests, forgets the miracle of life in all its forms. Those feathers stuff your pillows, and the silence of the birds may one night haunt your dreams. If you would only listen.



Science offers trial and error; testing for proofs; honest inquiry. Inquiry must be continuous and open ended. We can not allow scientific method to be cheapened or misued. The recent testimony in Congress showed last week that that the Bush Administration has tried to prevent the former US Surgeon General from speaking freely on matters of health, ending up by censoring his positions on all but a few small issues.



Let Congress continue its inquiries into intellectual and political corruption at home and abroad. And yes, let it challenge Iran. But if the US military accuses Iranian special forces of using Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah militiamen to train Iraqi extremists, let Congress continue to explore and gather verifiable proofs instead of rushing to sign on to denunciations and threats: “You’re fat! “You’re fat and ugly!” “You have yellowcake uranium—give me some!”



Let Mercy descend. Above our heads the infinite question is unfolding, as in an islamic ceiling pattern. Each moment we receive knowledge it may deepen, it may reveal its secret heart, as light passes through a prism and refracts into rainbow hues. The Heart knows what the Mind does not. But do we listen? Beyond its distractions and desires, do you and I really know the Heart?