Part I: Religious Literature (continued)

 

E. Religious Stories from Later Works (Turkish, Persian, and Indian Illustrated Manuscripts)

 

Stories of Prophets such as Joseph, Adam, Noah, Abraham are widely illustrated in the Islamic world (especially in Turkish, Persian, and Indian art) in spite of the resistance in Islamic cultures to show human forms in art. In the 16th-century, the Ottoman Turkish Sultan commissioned (paid people to write) a work on The Life of the Prophet Muhammad Siyar-i Nabi. It was written by a blind Turkish poet and later illustrated. Illustrations are not acceptable to some conservative groups of Muslims, even though the Prophet's face is covered with a veil, but it was at the request of the sultan.

The Life of the Prophet Muhammad Siyar-i Nabi

 

(Click on the title above to see the entire set of pictures which can be enlarged. The text has been adapted by Professor Barbara Saromines-Ganne, Univ. of Hawaii.)

 

Amina, the mother of Muhammad, was told by a group of angels that she would give birth to a prophet. She should name him Muhammad which means "highly praised".

At the age of 25 Muhammed married a wealthy 40 year old widow, Khadija, who was his employer. She is shown here to the right of the Prophet. By this marriage Muhammed was relieved of all financial burdens. Together the two had 6 children.

One day in 610 while he was meditating on a mountain near Mecca, Muhammed received revelations from God through the archangel Gabriel. Muhammed turned away but the face of the angel appeared everywhere.

After this meeting Muhammed felt that perhaps he was possessed by evil spirits. He continued to pray and eventually the angel Gabriel appeared again and said to him "Your Lord hath not forsaken thee (given up on you), nor is he displeased...." Muhammed was then told to call men to God.

One evening angels came to Muhammed and prepared him for a night journey which would take him through Paradise. According to the legends, Gabriel removed and washed his heart and then returned it to his body having filled his soul with faith and wisdom.

The Night Journey. Muhammed traveled through Paradise mounted on a creature named Buraq which had the face of a man the body of a mule and the tail of a peacock. Muhammed passed seven heavens and at the end he saw the unveiled face of God.

Muhammed's first convert was his wife Khadija. After that early converts included members of his clan and a few friends. Among them were the first four successors,or caliphs, who led the faithful after his death. One of the early converts was Abdullah ibn Masud. As Muhammed attempted to recite the Qur'an in front of the Kaaba, the idol worshiping Meccans beat him.

During the journey from Mecca to Medina Muhammed and his converts (people who changed their religion) slept the first night in a cave. Satan, in blue, led the soldiers from Mecca after them. But the cave was protected by Allah who put a spider's web and a dove's nest in front of the entrance suggesting that no one was inside.

In Medina the followers began to build a structure that would be a house for the prophet and also serve as a mosque. Muhammed himself helped in the building where he would live and worship in extreme simplicity. The house was built of mud-brick, palm trunks for columns and palm leaves coated with mud for partitions and roofing. It had a courtyard with a shelter for his poorest followers at one end. Here they are all at work on the construction.

The faithful came to pray and Muhammed mounted the pulpit and began to preach. He told the people to "Love God with all your hearts, and weary not of the word of God or its mention".

 

When Muhammed was 63, in 632, the Angel of Death appeared and offered him a choice of staying on earth and living forever or going to join Allah in heaven. He chose to go to heaven, which upset his devoted daughter, Fatima, who can be seen here behind the prophet. He was buried in his house, in the room of Aisha, one of his eleven wives. He distributed his belongings to the poor and told his followers to keep the faith. His soul was then taken to heaven by an angel.

The Prophet Joseph's adventures with his brothers have been a source of inspiration for many Islamic poets and artists. Below is an illustration from a Persian story of the "Seduction of Yusef". To the right is a miniature in the Turkish book Zubdat-al Tawarikh in which Joseph is shown enthroned with his father in Egypt in spite of all his adventures with his brothers. See "The Miniatures of the Zubdat-al-Tawarikh" (16th century).

 

Detail of Persian Art, Bihzad: "Seduction of Yusef"
from Sa'di, Bustan, Herat, 1488, Cairo Library

 

Turkish art showing Joseph enthroned with his father, by Zubdad, 1585.

 

 

F. Religious Poetry - The Poems of Sufi Mystics

Around the 12th-century there was an important religious movement in Islam. Many people tried to find a closer connection to God through experience, rather than through only reading the Qur'an and scholarship. A group of "Sufi Mystics" began to preach the love of God and connecting to Him through poetry, chanting, music, dance, fasting, and almost "hypnotic prayer". There was a strong reaction from conservative Muslims, but the Sufis helped spread Islam to thousands of people across the Islamic Empire. This was a movement outside of the Arabian center of Islam, and was especially popular with people in Persia, Turkey, India, North Africa, and elsewhere.

Rumi (Jalaluddin Rumi - 1207-1273) was the most famous of the mystic poets. He wrote in Persian, not Arabic. His poems tell of the love of God and the connections that people can make with Him. In Turkey, even today, his poems are accompanied by (go together with) Turkish music and the dancers whirl and aim at union with the Divine. The music and the dance are designed to bring about meditation (deep thought) on the love of God. To learn more about this dance, see "Sema, A Spiritual Journey". The Sema ceremony (whirling ceremony) is also described and illustrated [here].

 

Here is a poem on God's forgiveness from Look! This is Love - Poems of Rumi, translated by Annemarie Schimmel

 

Come, come, whoever you are.
Wonderer, worshipper, lover of leaving.
It doesn't matter.
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come, even if you have broken your vow
a thousand times
Come, yet again, come, come.

 

Rumi I Am Wind, You are Fire, Translation by Annemarie Schimmel

Sufi mystics dancing in ecstasy, Persian, 15th century. From Cultural Academy

O you who've gone on pilgrimage -
where are you, where, oh where?
Here, here is the Beloved!
Oh come now, come, oh come!
Your friend, he is your neighbor,
he is next to your wall -
You, erring in the desert -
what air of love is this?
If you'd see the Beloved's
form without any form -
You are the house, the master,
You are the Kaaba, you! . . .
Where is a bunch of roses,
if you would be this garden?
Where, one soul's pearly essence
when you're the Sea of God?
That's true - and yet your troubles
may turn to treasures rich -
How sad that you yourself veil
the treasure that is yours!

 

from Look! This is Love - Poems of Rumi, translated by Annemarie Schimmel*(minor change in last lines)

 

Oh, if a tree could wander
and move with foot and wings!
It would not suffer the axe blows
and not the pain of saws!
For would the sun not wander
away in every night ?
How could at every morning
the world be lighted up?
And if the ocean's water
would not rise to the sky,
How would the plants be quickened
by streams and gentle rain ?
The drop that left its homeland,
the sea, and then returned ?
It found an oyster waiting
and grew into a pearl.
Did Yusaf not leave his father,
in grief and tears and despair ?
Did he not, by such a journey,
gain kingdom and fortune wide ?
Did not the Prophet travel
to far Medina, friend ?
And there he found a new kingdom
and ruled a hundred lands.
You lack a foot to travel ?
Then journey into yourself!
And like a mine of rubies
receive the sunbeams. Travel
out of yourself. Such a journey
will lead you to your self.
It leads to transformation
of dust into pure gold!

 

"Only Breath" from The Essential Rumi translations by Coleman Barks

ONLY BREATH

 

Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu,
Buddhist, sufi, or zen. Not any religion
or cultural system. I am not from the East
or the West, not out of the ocean or up
from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not
composed of elements at all. I do not exist,
am not an entity in this world or the next,
did not descend from Adam or Eve or any
origin story. My place is placeless, a trace
of the traceless. Neither body or soul.
I belong to the beloved, have seen the two
worlds as one and that one call to and know,
first, last, outer, inner, only that
breath breathing human being.

 

 

In these poems you can see how Rumi connects Islamic themes (such as the story of Joseph / Yusaf, the pilgrimage to the Kaaba, and the caravan) to the connection to God through love and faith. Rumi's religious faith gives him complete happiness, or ecstasy.

 

Sufi poetry often uses symbolism, such as:

Learn more about symbolism in Arabic and Persian poetry [here].

Learn more about Rumi and his Poetry:

Many of Rumi's poems are found here. Three more short poems: "A Reed", "From the Inside" and "Quatrains" and more poems by Rumi are given. (For example, see "Many Wines" and more.)

Go to Page One: Religious Literature - The Qur'an

Go to Page Two: More Religious Literature

You are here at Page Three: More Religious Literature

Go to Page Four: Poetry

Go to Page Five: Stories and Tales

Go to Page Six: Other Types of Literature (Sayings, Travel Books, Puppet Theater)

 

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