Newsletter of the Claremont Main Road Mosque · Id-al Fitr Edition - August 2012/1433
Vol.2 No.1
Gender Justice And Spiritual Flourishing Dr. Sa’diyya Shaikh In Ramadan, as our bodies experience hunger, fatigue and weakness, those amongst us who generally do not know poverty, or who do not know powerlessness personally or socially, are given the real opportunity to genuinely feel and empathize with people that go hungry every day of the year, or sectors of our society that experience abuse and social weakness. Ramadan thus provides us with the chance to develop empathy, compassion and generosity both at the internal and the external levels, both in the spiritual and material domains. Genuine compassion and generosity demand that we act in our world to transform it and to empower those who are vulnerable. Spirituality demands social transformation, our inner work must transform our personal relationships with other lives and with the world we live in. This month of August also coincides with national celebrations of women, a time where we recall and commemorate that momentous day in 1956 where 20 000 women courageously marched to the Union Building in Pretoria protesting the Apartheid pass laws, laws that invariably diminished all human beings in this country. While for some, this historical event might be seen through purely political lenses. I would argue that from an Islamic perspective these women’s cry against injustice and oppression was founded on a profound and universal spiritual imperative. On Women’s Day and for the month of August we are invited to reflect on ways that our societies could improve the respect and the dignity accorded to women and to protect women in a hostile world. It is a time to rethink the quality of relationships between men and women. There are I propose some very profound overlaps between the month of Ramadan dedicated to weeding out negative spiritual qualities and cultivating beautiful attributes of compassion, generosity and justice on the one hand, and on the other hand, a month dedicated in the secular world to focus on the empowerment of women and celebrate our full humanity. This is therefore a perfect time for each of us to make explicit connections between our spiritual development and how we translate our spirituality into action related to justice and the empowerment of women in our society. Enacting compassion and justice for women is not merely an act of extension to another human being, it is an act of connecting with the divine Beloved. As such, the person who extends to those in need, who acts with fairness and justice in their personal relationships to women and men, is not
simply the benevolent person who attends with merciful compassion to a marginalized ‘other’. In fact the needs and realities of a poor, hungry, ill or oppressed person paradoxically provide a fertile opportunity for a fellow human being to encounter Allah. Moreover the oppressed or hungry person is not merely an intermediary, but in and through that person’s predicament, God as the embodiment of love, is fully present and demanding human engagement. This spin on the spiritual dynamics of such relationships turns the traditional power dynamic between giver and recipient, between the powerful and the powerless on its head. In reality, both parties in this relationship give and receive divine mercy – the humanity and divinity of each is tied to the other and all is a product of divine love. In Islam, mercy, compassion and just action is an integral manifestation of divine love.
“This is therefore a perfect time for each of us to make explicit connections between our spiritual development and how we translate our spirituality into action related to justice and the empowerment of women in our society.” Within Islam the deepest, most vibrant, individually and socially transformative path to Allah is that of love. Love is the very impetus for creation as reflected in the hadith qudsi where Allah said “I was a hidden treasure and I loved to be known; so I created the world so that I might be known” . The path of love is not only a rich and universal spiritual legacy of humankind that we share with all human beings in other religious traditions, but it is also a legacy that can begin to reconfigure some of the very problematic ways in which dominant forms of power have functioned in our communities, especially male power. If we think about love and compassion as defining the most central ways in which we understand our relationship with God, then it is by definition the model through which men and women ought to relate to one another and indeed, all human beings with one another. And love does not allow for abuse and hierarchy, whether through culture and traditions of what women are expected to
Editorial Having come to the end of the blessed month of Ramadan, we give thanks to the guest huffaz, featured in this issue, for having honoured this jamat with their melodious recitations during the tarawih prayers. They have indeed contributed to making this Ramadan an especially spiritually uplifting experience at CMRM. This ‘Id al-Fitr edition includes articles reflecting on the many blessings of this holy month and provides us with some guidance on how we can make the next Ramadan an even more spiritually uplifting experience.
This was a month in which we also celebrated Women’s Day on the 9th August 2012, and the lead article by Dr Sa’diyya Shaik challenges us all to make explicit connections between our spiritual development and how we translate our spirituality into action related to justice and the empowerment of women in our society. In this edition we also report on the strides we, as a masjid community, are making in the Jihad Against Poverty campaign. We once again feature articles by youth in our jamat and would like to encourage more young people to submit contributions for publication in Al-Mizan. Finally, our tribute to Imam Gassan Solomon continues a trend we would like to set, to pay homage to our forebears who inspired this jamat to embrace a comprehensive vision of Islam that is socially responsive and espouses principles of justice and compassion for all. We wish you all ‘Id Sa’id Wa Mubarak
do or be, where they should be seen or not seen, which positions they should hold and which they should not. Genuine love is about self-giving, generosity and nonnegotiably about justice - it does NOT allow for abuse or discriminatory hierarchies.
40-42 Main Road, Claremont, 7708 • 021 683 8384 • www.cmrm.co.za