The Significance of the Under-significant
This post has been written in collaboration with Dr. Aliaa Remtilla.
Although much of Surah Al-Baqarah focuses on legal codes, including: divorce, property, rules of war, sex, etc., we interpreted the beginning of Juz' 2 (2:142-2:160) as a directive from Allah to strive both spiritually and ethically.
We start by looking at the ayah just before the start of this section, "That is a community that has passed away. Theirs is what they earned, and yours is what you earned, and you will not be questioned about that which they used to do." (2:141).
This sets the stage for the ayahs to follow as Allah discusses the rituals of facing qiblah and performing the hajj (pre-Islamic rituals).
In 2:142 Allah says,
" The fools among the people will say, "what has turned them away from the qiblah they had been following?" Say, "To God belong the East and the West. He guides whomsoever He will unto a straight path."
In much of the commentary, the authors note that these ayahs were likely in response to the munafiqun ( hypocrites) questioning the Prophet on changing the direction of his prayer from Jerusalem to Makkah. However, we read these verses as a broader commentary on the role rituals play as a devotional expression toward Allah. In 142, Allah directs the Prophet to remind the people of His omnipresence and transcendence by saying the East and West belongs to him, and following it up with an acknowledgment that Allah alone guides righteousness, challenging the act of judgement inherent in the question of the change in direction.
It continues...
"Thus did We make you a middle community, that you may be witnesses for mankind and that the Messenger may be a witness for you. And We only appointed the qiblah that you had been following to know those who follow the Messenger from those who turn back on their heels, and it was indeed difficult, save for those whom God guided. But God would not let your belief be in vain. Truly God is Kind and Merciful unto mankind." ( 2:143)
Allah, in his generosity, allows the existing direction of prayer to continue and seems to acknowledge that the believers had already ascribed a meaning and significance to their qiblah, and He honors that ascribed significance by affirming that, "God would not let your belief be in vain".
The ayahs beautifully continue to affirm the believers' devotion through ritual by highlighting the importance of the essence of the believer's intention...
"We have seen thee turning thy face unto Heaven, and indeed We will turn thee toward a qiblah well pleasing to thee. So turn thy face toward the Sacred Mosque, and whereever you are, turn your faces toward it. Truly those who have been given the Book know that it is the truth from their Lord. And God is not heedless of what they do." ( 2: 144)
Once again, Allah accepts the niyat of those who turn their face toward their qiblah as a turn toward Heaven itself, and the translation by saying "So turn thy face toward the Sacred Mosque", conjures up an image of a beneficent parent allowing their child to continue with a practice/belief however naive it is in its conceptualization simply because the parent understands the tremendous significance it holds for the child. However, Allah's generosity to allow the believer to continue with their pre-Islamic ritual practice, goes beyond mere allowance as Allah accepts the ritual as "the truth" of the believer "from their Lord".
After validating the practice of the Muslims, Allah reiterates a pluralistic message by revealing..
And wert thou to bring every sign to those who were given the Book, they would not follow thy qiblah. Thou art not a follower of their qiblah, nor are they followers of one another's qiblah. Wert thou to follow their caprices after the knowledge that has come to thee, thou wouldst be one of the wrongdoers (2: 145). Those unto whom We have given the Book recognize it as they recognize their children, but a group of them knowingly conceal the truth (2:146). The truth is from thy Lord; so be thou not among the doubters (2:147). Everyone has a direction toward which he turns. So vie with one another in good deeds. Wheresoever you are, God will bring you all together. Truly God is Powerful over all things (2:148).
Even with all the signs one might see in the Book that helps us to justify or explain why we choose our Qibla, God plainly tells us that this is insufficient to convince others to follow. Allah makes clear that each community is to follow their own direction and stay true to their own tradition without forsaking it. Going against, or abandoning ones own expression would be an act of wrongdoing against oneself. This has particular resonance today in a climate where many of us are under pressure to conceal our truth, our traditions, our practices and beliefs. In this we reflect on the moral cost of concealing our truth. Although many might interpret these ayahs as Allah elevating the practice of Muslims above other communities, we believe the message is for each community to confidently practices their own expressions of devotion without coercion.
There are so many points of resonance as we think about these few ayahs of Surah Al-Baqara. We constantly hear questions from within our community about the right way to practice our faith. Allah, in our humble understanding, appears to not only acknowledge a diversity of practice, but goes further to approve this plurality. What might it be to live in this way of God and embrace the diversity of forms of practice - even, or perhaps, especially - when they most threaten our sense of self? Would pushing past this seeming threat to our identity - to our sense of self - help us to better know the simultaneous plurality and unity, immanence and transcendence, that is God?
To go even one step further, is this excerpt only about the specificity - and plurality - of practice? Or could God (also), in these verses, be using the qiblah, the Sacred Mosque, and the practices performed in and through these spaces as a metaphor to insinuate the greater injunction to orient ourselves - "turn our faces toward" - God Himself? At the risk of sounding heretical - but intending this in the vein of a Sufi - is God our qiblah? Our Sacred Mosque? Our Safa and our Marwah? To reduce the profound, powerful, awe-inspiring beauty of these verses to a simple injunction to ritualistic practice as defined by specific forms seems to almost undermine the completely all-encompassing demand that God makes us of all when he says:
So remember Me, and I shall remember you (2:153)
Remembrance. Zikr. Yes, Allah encourages the believer to hold true to their practice, He recognizes that all communities have a direction in which they turn. But whatever way we are turning, the point of the 'turn' is not (just) the physical direction in which we might be facing at the moment of prayer - something that differs from community to community if not from person to person. The turn that all believers make - regardless of interpretation or tradition - is to God. The One. And that turn is constant. Pervasive. All consuming. And even as we do consume ourselves with it, as we 'compete in good deeds', focusing our energies on our larger purpose and devotion to Allah through our ethical behavior and conduct, we necessarily have to try harder. Work harder. Focus more. On turning to God. Because so long as we can think of God as something/one to turn to, we have kept God separate from us. We have not yet realized one-ness with our Creator.
And so we turn to ritual. To practice. To the qiblah. I turn to my qiblah and you turn to yours. And we continue to do so, until we realize that our qiblah is within.
An Al Haqq.(Al-Hallaj, droppin the mic!)
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