ALMISKEENAH

 

LEAVING HERE, GOING THERE. [Four authors, four impressions]

HERE….

Asad. 1932   (p.249-)

"The multitude of palm trunks in the orchard weaves a grey-green twilight into its background, making it appear endless. The trees are still young and low; sunlight dances over their trunks and the pointed arches of their fronds. Their green is somewhat dusty because of the sandstorms which occur almost daily at this time of the year. Only the thick carpet of lucerne under the palms is of brilliant, faultless green….

The sky, glaringly lighted by the afternoon sun, lies glass-clear over opalescent clouds, and the city is bathed in a blue, gold and green-streaked light. A high wind plays around the soft clouds, which in Arabia can be so deceptive. Never can you say here, ‘Now it is cloudy; soon it will rain’: for even as the clouds mass heavily, as if pregnant with storm, it often happens that a roar of wind comes suddenly from out of the desert and sweeps them apart; and the faces of the people who have been waiting for rain turn away in silent resignation, and they mutter, ‘There is no power and strength except in God.’- while the sky glares anew in a light-blue clearness without mercy…..

But in spite of the multitude of people and the narrowness of the street, there is no hurried frenzy here, no pushing and jostling: for in Medina time does not ride on the wings of pursuit.

But what might appear even more strange is that despite the great variety of human types and costumes that fills them, there is nothing of an "exotic" medley in the streets of Medina: the variety of appearances reveals itself only to the eye that is determined to analyze. It seems to me that all the people who live in this city, or even sojourn in it temporarily, very soon fall into what one may call a community of mood and thus also behaviour and, almost, even facial expression: for all of them have fallen under the spell of the Prophet, whose city it once was and whose guests they now are….
Even after thirteen centuries his physical presence is almost as alive as it was then.
It was only because of him that the scattered group of villages once called Yathrib became a city and has been loved by all Muslims down to this day as no other city anywhere else in the world has ever been loved. It has not even a name of its own: for more than thirteen hundred years it has been called ‘Madinat An-Nabi’, ‘the City of the Prophet’. For more than thirteen hundred years, so much love has converged here that all shapes and movements have acquired a kind of family resemblance, and all differences of appearance find a tonal transition into a common harmony.
This is the happiness one always feels here- this unifying harmony. Although life in Medina today has only a formal, distant relationship with what the Prophet aimed at; although the spiritual awareness of Islam has been cheapened here, as in many parts of the Muslim world: an indescribable emotional link with its great spiritual past has remained alive. Never has any city been so loved for the sake of one single personality; never has any man, dead for over thirteen hundred years, been loved so personally, and by so many, as he who lies buried beneath the great green dome."

GOING….

Bogary 1947   (p.448)

"On the last day of our sojourn, after paying the Farewell Visit to the holy shrine together with a large number of fellow pilgrims, Auntie Asma fainted, or at least that is what I presumed at the time. Her cloaked body went down in front of the railing surrounding the holy shrine. He sudden fall shook the grillwork that protected the tomb and caused an uproar that soon had worshippers and the mosque guard in attendance. Auntie Asma just lay there, her hands clasped to the railing, while those nearest to her tried to lift her up. Throughout the incident, I found myself repeating the hawqala-"There is no power or might except in God"- and reciting the Fatiha over and over asking God inwardly not to let Auntie Asma die here, far from her home and the rest of her family. When at last she attempted to stand, I thanked God for granting my supplications and protecting us from a possible tragedy. I was not aware at the time that what had taken place was nothing more than dramatics on the part of Auntie Asma. She had conceived of staging a fainting fit in order to come into contact with the railing surrounding the holy tomb. She herself told me later that she was renowned for collapsing there and that she could never contemplate returning to Mecca without first resting her hand on that green grille…."

Ibn Jubayr  580 A.H.  (p.211)

"On the evening of that blessed day we bade farewell to the blessed rawdah and holy tomb. Ah what an uncommon parting, perturbing the mind in dismay until it is unsettled, and so commoting the soul from its pangs that it dissolves into fragments. What think you of a site where one must whisper farewell to the Lord [Muhammad] of those that were and those that are to come, the Seal of Prophets, the Apostle of the Lord of the Universe. In truth it is a place which makes men’s hearts to break and sends the heaviest and most sluggish minds to ecstasy. O sorrow, sorrow! Each one reveals his yearning (for the place) and finds no means to leave it or any way to resignation. In the awful grandeur of that sight nothing could be heard save wails and lamentations, and all with the voice of the moment seemed to recite:

‘My love demands that I should stay,
But fortune send me on my way.’

May God dispose unto us, through this visit to the noble Prophet, an honoured dwelling in Heaven, making him our intercessor on the Day of Judgement and, by His favour, bringing us beside him in the eternal abode. The by His mercy, for He is the Forgiving, the Compassionate, the Bountiful, the Generous."

THERE….

Ibn Jubayr 1183-84   (p.42)

"That afternoon the streets and alleys of Mecca were thronged with camels bearing small dome-shaped enclosures, or howdahs, roped onto their backs and covered with silk drapes and trappings of fine linen. The quality of the decorations varied according to the affluence of each owner, but everyone gave them all the care and attention in their power. They set out in great numbers from Tan’im, the ritual starting point for those making the Umra, so that the howdahs appeared to flow through the valleys and mountain tracks, the camels beneath them adorned with ornaments and moving toward the sacred places without drivers, in collars of silk and with beautiful trappings that sometimes dragged along the ground. There was no one in the city who did not perform Umra that evening. Fires lined the roads on either side and lit torches preceded the howdahs of the Meccan women. When we completed the rites, circled the Ka’ba seven times, and arrived at the concourse between Safa and Marwa hills, we found the road completely lit with fires and lanterns, and thronged with men and women performing the rite on their camels….This remarkable sight, the crowds of people dressed in pilgrim robes, crying out :here I am, Lord, at Your service. Here am I" and the mountains answering with echoes, made one imagine the gathering on the Day of Resurrection. People cried, tears flowed, hearts melted at this sight…."

Michael Wolfe 1990  (p.531)

"The lights of Mecca lay fanned out in a bowl….we were climbing with the crowds up Umm al-Qura Road….Reaching the crest I came up on my toes. Everyone knew what was down there, glowing at the bottom of the valley: the largest open-are temple in the world…..Down below, a mosque in the shape of a mammoth door key completely filled the hollow. Lit from above, roofless at the centre, it seemed to enclose the valley bowl it covered. The proportions of this eccentric structure were staggering. The head of the key alone comprised a corral of several acres. In addition, attached to the east wall, the shaft of a two storey concourse ran on another quarter mile. For so much stone, the effect at night, beneath banks of floods, was airy, glowing, tentlike. Seven minarets pegged down the sides. This was the recent surrounding mosque that encapsulates a much older Ottoman courtyard…..Haram al-Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary. Its 160,000 [square] yards of floor provided room, on a crowded day, around 1.2 million pilgrims. Galleries lit up the second story. Parapets ran right around the roof. From the crest of the hill, the minarets looked canted. I could not begin to guess the building’s height. The outer walls were faced in polished slabs of blue-gray marble, and the marine shades differed stone to stone. The veins shooting through them looked like ruffled surf. The minarets were spotlighted. On every side the valley glowed."

Asad: (p369)

"And there I stood before the temple of Abraham and gazed at the marvel without thinking (for thoughts and reflections came only much later), and out of some hidden, smiling kernel within me there slowly grew an elation like a song.
Smooth marble slabs, with sunlight reflections dancing upon them, covered the ground in a wide circle around the Ka’aba, and over these marble slabs walked many people, men and women, round and round the black draped House of God. Among them were some who wept, some who loudly called to God in prayer, and many who had no words and no tears but could only walk with lowered heads……I walked on and on, the minutes passed, all that had been small and bitter in my heart beagn to leave my heart, I became part of a circular stream –oh, was this the meaning of what we wer doing: to become aware that one is part of a movement in an orbit? Was this, perhaps, all confusion’s end? And the minutes dissolved, and time itself stood still, and this was the centre of the universe…..
NINE DAYS LATER ELSA DIED."

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Six days ago a "new" five day old grandfather died. May Allah Ta’ala pass him this gift of Umrah, Insha’Allah. Ameen.

All good is from Allah Ta’ala whereas mistakes are from this humble speck. May Allah Ta’ala Bless all readers, bringing you all closer to Him and His Rasul SallAllahu alaihi wasallam. Ameen.