A Vision of the Motherhood of God

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Dear Jagbir,

 

Could you please add this to (HSS).

 

Thanks,

 

violet

 

 

 

[For upload to HSS]:

 

 

A Vision of the Motherhood of God

 

At the very core of Islamic philosophy there are glowing traces of what can be

called a vision of the Motherhood of God. In the first " sura " of the Koran - the

famous " fatiha " that is recited by millions in their devotions every day - God

is called 'al-rahmin', the merciful and compassionate one. 'Rahmin' derives from

the Arabic for " womb " or " matrix " , and the mercy of God is clearly meant to be

thought of as a feminine attribute. God to the Muslim is both 'jamal' and

'jadal', both tender and terrible. The Koran, when you read it carefully, is as

full of visions of God's wonderful gentleness toward human beings and His

amazing providential care of them in every way, and of examples of the vast

loving-kindness of God's heart, as it is of visions of hell-fire, judgment,

violence, and furious admonishments. Muhammad himself, constantly and with

wonderful sweetness of soul, stressed God's infinite capacity for forgiveness:

the courtesy with which Muhammad treated his enemies shows how deeply he had

learned his own lesson.

 

The contemporary fanaticism of much of Islam is in fact anti-Koranic; the Koran

makes it clear in several passages that everyone who lives a life of holy

reverence is welcomed into Paradise, whatever their religion. Muhammad is full

of praise for both Judaism (Abraham is revered in the Koran as deeply as in the

Old Testament) and for Jesus - his love for Jesus and his honoring of Jesus's

sublime message radiates throughout the Koran. This " Mother " tolerance of other

faiths was in fact characteristic of Islam in its great age, in medieval Spain

and Egypt, for example. Perhaps only Buddhism has been as tolerant or as

embracing of the truths of others as Islam was in its classical period.

 

Another surprise that awaits anyone who studies the Koran is the Koranic

reverence for Mary, the mother of Christ. Very few Christians know that Mary is

considered by the Prophet to be the very greatest and highest adept of all - the

most marvellous of all women. She is considered, both in the Koran and later in

theological commentaries on it, to have reached the very summit of " servanthood "

(in Arabic 'ubuda') and to be the greatest possible example to any believer of

the transforming and life-giving power of pure selfless adoration of the Divine.

In later Koranic commentaries, Mary emerges as the supreme veil let down by

Allah between himself and humankind, the supreme veil of Allah's mercy,

forgiveness, sweetness, and humility toward his creatures, the supreme sign of

the loving-kindness of God.

 

When the Prophet reentered Mecca and started to cleanse the Kaaba of the images

and frescoes that " sullied " it, he left on the wall the fresco of the Virgin and

her child. In one of the most luminous and enigmatic of 'hadiths' (prophetic

sayings), the Prophet is reported to have said, " Paradise is at the feet of the

Mothers. " What can this mean but that the feminine qualities of adoration,

intuition, capacity for surrender, and infinite cherishing of life in all its

forms are the gateways to supreme consciousness?

 

The " feminine " side of Muhammad's experience of the Divine may have been shelved

or severely clouded over in exoteric " official " Islam; however, its power and

radiance continued in the esoteric aspects of Islam, most notably of course in

the glorious poetry and philosophy of the Sufis. Sufism can be defined in many

ways, but it is primarily and marvelously a path of the heart - a way of

passion, of adoration. For the Sufis, the Divine is considered the beloved,

infinitely majestic and infinitely blissful and tender, and the entire aim of

Sufi mystical discipline is to open the human heart - through prayer and the

recitation of the sacred names of God as well as meditation and dreamwork - to

this infinite beauty that is its own secret identity and power. A great Indian

mystic, Meerabai, said, " All men are women before the Absolute. " No mystical

tradition has cultivated the feminine virtues of tender adoration, receptive to

the Presence in all living things and events, as whole-souledly as the Sufis.

One way of imagining the Divine Feminine is to see it as the path of the lover -

the lover of divine human life, the lover of divine human love and all its

revelatory splendors, the lover of the wonder of so-called ordinary experience

known and lived in its divine ecstatic dimension. Sufi mysticism gives to all

lovers of the Divine Feminine the clearest, richest, wildest, most poignant and

passionate vision of the path of the lover. " Wherever you are, " Rumi wrote, " and

in whatever circumstances, try always to be a lover and a passionate lover. Once

you have possessed love, you will remain a lover in the tomb, on the day of

Resurrection, in Paradise and forever. " He also wrote, " You must be alive in

love for a dead man can do nothing. Who is alive? He to whom love gives birth. "

 

The Divine Feminine

Andrew Harvey & Anne Baring - Conari Press

Berkeley, CA

ISBN 1-57324-035-4 (hardcover)

Pgs. 120; 122-123