Myth of Arrival

There are things I do not understand in this world. My dreaming goes from famine to feast; years go by with nothing coming to me while I sleep (or at least nothing I can recall) and then suddenly someone, or something, so detailed and material arrives; it is as if I were wide awake. Last night Lalla Aisha Qandisha visited me to remind me of my link to "love's confusing joy."

For those of you familiar with Morocco and Muslim mythology you will probably be rolling your eyes at this point and saying in a dry, sarcastic voice, "oh, it's going to be one of those dreams, isn't it?" since Lalla Aisha Qandisha, and almost all female djinn,¹ have been reworked in the West as nothing more than cranky succubi; an after thought for men's pleasure.

I hope, however, that I will never be that big of a fool to see our world in such sexist terms. Yes, there are pleasures in this world and yes the world of Spirit can give out gifts, but I do not think this universe was created simply to reinforce certain sad male beliefs that they rest on the top of the food chain. As the Sufi poet Rumi put it:

If you want what visible reality
can give, you are an employee.

If you want the unseen world,
you are not living your truth.

Both wishes are foolish,
but you'll be forgiven for forgetting
that what you really want is
love's confusing joy. (60)

I have never studied (nor have had any interest in) Islamic law; however, since my spiritual teachers are women and since there are Muslim Feminists² just as their are Jewish and Christian Feminists, I think I could follow an Islamic holy woman — or spirit like Lalla Aisha Qandisha — just as easy as anyone else. I suppose one of the big problems with our quest for love is almost all the world's belief systems, while having the burden of potential in leading us to love, also teach that the sexes are not equal and it's man's divine right to exploit that. I do not mean to single anyone out; Riffat Hassan writes that not only Islamic but also Jewish and Christian traditions are all rooted in profoundly misogynistic beliefs.³ True, sadly, which is what makes life difficult for the rest of us and why I do not believe we shall ever have a peaceful world as long as men insist on seeing women as something other than equals.

But no culture or religion is fixed in stone; ideas and people simply change or die. In many parts of the West the common belief is that Islam is anti-woman (which, of course, is pure bollocks). Sexism can be overcome anywhere as long as there are people are willing to work at it. For example, in Saleemah Abdul-Ghafur's anthology, Living Islam Out Loud, I found this manifesto which I reprint here:

An Islamic Bill of Rights for Women in Mosques

Women have an Islamic right to enter a mosque.

Women have an Islamic right to enter through the main door.

Women have an Islamic right to visual and auditory access to the musalla (main santuary).

Women have an Islamic right to pray in the musalla without being separated by a barrier, including in the front and in mixed-gender congregational lines.

Women have an Islamic right to address any and all members of the congregation.

Women have an Islamic right to hold leadership positions, including positions as prayer leaders, or imams, and as members of the board of directors and management committees.

Women have an Islamic right to be full participants in all congregational activities.

Women have an Islamic right to lead and participate in meetings, study sessions, and other community activities without being separated by a barrier.

Women have an Islamic right to be greeted and addressed cordially.

Women have an Islamic right to respectful treatment and exemption from gossip and slander. (153 – 54)

It might take a while for these ideas to become accepted but it is my certainty that they will be part of all our lives sooner or later. As long as we listen to what Lalla Aisha Qandisha and others have to say then we can begin living a life based on confusing love instead of egotistic hatred. That belief is indeed something we should try to teach to future generations.

You, child of fire, are able to transcend
all these years to arrive now in my dream
as my sister, mother, teacher and friend.
I am the worst of sinners, blaspheme
on two legs; everything is just questions
with no answers. The poorest of fortune
tellers can trace my doubts in you, the ones
reserved for all Christian, Jewish, Muslim
faith. And still you come. You and I; without
bodies, only fire, only your lips, kiss
on kiss, on mine. Like burning ash; drifting
and then fusing together. Let my doubt
be a song I sing from that day to this.
I burn, child of fire. Yes, I am burning.

Works Cited

Abdul-Ghafur, Saleemah (ed). Living Islam out loud: American Muslim women speak. Boston, Mass.: Beacon Press. (2005)

Barks, Coleman. A Year With Rumi: daily readings. San Francisco: Harpers (2006)

Goodwin, Jan. Price of honor: Muslim women lift the veil of silence on the Islamic world. Boston: Little, Brown. (1994)

Sharma, Arvind and Katherine K. Young (eds) Her voice, her faith: women speak on world religions. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. (2003)

1. James Randi has this to say of the djinn: (plural noun, pronounced jinn; singular, djinni) In the Muslim religion, spirits with specific supernatural powers, the children of fire. They are corporeal, often taking the shapes of ostriches, snakes, or humans, and can become invisible. In Malaysian magic, there are 190 Black Djinn, evil mountain-dwelling spirits. [back]
2. While it is true Feminism is a world wide movement there are probably more attacks on Islamic Feminism today than ever before. Jan Goodwin, writing in 1994, notes:

   Egypt was the first Arab country to begin education of women in the 1880s, but today, 110 years later, 63 percent of all women are still illiterate. The first feminist movements in the Muslim world were founded in Egypt in the twenties and yet the “Law of Obedience” enacted in 1979 requires a wife to submit totally to the authority of her husband, and the “Law of Return” enables police to forcibly return her to him even if she has fled from her husband's physical abuse. Twenty years ago Egypt prohibited female circumcision, but 80 percent of rural girls, and an estimated 40 percent of urban ones are still forced to submit to this practice, which mutilates their genitalia. In Egypt 25 to 30 percent of all household breadwinners are female, yet fundamentalists campaign for women to stop working.(322) [back]

3. I reprint Hassan's points here not because I believe them (just the opposite) but because it's good to know how people think so you can come up with intelligent and witty rebukes to silence the wagging of tongues. According to Hassan, religious sexism is rooted in these three points: “(1) that God's primary creation is man, not woman … (2) that woman, not man, was the primary agent of what is customarily described as the 'Fall' … (3) that woman was created not only from man but also for man …” (228) [back]

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 17th, 2007 at 5:49 pm and is filed under Original Poetry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.