Fatimah, Mary and the Divine Feminine in Islam

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Mary in Islam

 

(The angel) said: " I am only a Messenger from your Lord, (to

announce) to you the gift of a righteous son. " Qur'an 19:19

 

Mary is an important figure in Islam, where she's honoured as the

mother of the Prophet Jesus.

 

But anything like the veneration of Mary at Walsingham would be quite

unthinkable for Muslims - so where do they look for the feminine

aspect of the divine, and where do they find it?

 

When you look at the Quran it has one description of the essence of

the divine. And language fails to describe the essence of that

entity, which is indescribable and cannot be defined. But there is a

description in the Quran, and the description is androgynous.

Androgynous, gender-less, or even better, beyond gender.

 

My conclusion is that the divine as defined in the Quran is gender-

less or even beyond gender. However, if the Quran is divinely

inspired, when it was recorded it was recorded by a patriarchal

culture. And the divine was turned into a He. So when you read the

Quran you will find that " God said " , " Allah said " , and then " He said " .

Fadia Faqir, Jordanian-British writer and feminist

 

And yet, if the Qur'an is divinely inspired, as Muslims believe, does

this text inspired by God reveal a feminine side of God? There are

attributes like compassion, kindness, and forgiveness, says Fadia -

but to call them feminine may not be useful:

 

If God is an essence, you can't apply gender norms to an essence. So

I wouldn't go there myself. The feminists in the West, they have

turned God into feminine; they say she rather than he. And I don't

know if it's going to be useful for us to turn God into a she. We

cannot define God. So to apply gender is a bit hasty.

 

Fadia Faqir, Jordanian-British writer and feminist

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/women/femininedivine_3.shtm\

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Fatimah, Mary and the Divine Feminine in Islam

 

At the very core of Islamic philosophy there is evidence of what can

be called a vision of the Motherhood of God.

 

In the first Sura of the Koran, the Fatiha that is recited by

millions of Muslims in their daily devotions, God is called Al

Rahmin, the merciful and compassionate one. " Ramin " is derived from

the Arabic for " womb " or " matrix " , mercy is also a feminine

attribute, and so Muslims are reminded that God can be either woman

or man. Every day God is compared to a mother and woman.

 

While the Muslim vision is often perceived to be authoritarian and

punitive the Koran, on close inspection, is filled with descriptions

and vision of God's more feminine attributes such as gentleness,

providence, love, universal compassion and tender-heartedness.

 

Muhammad was himself a living example of the Divine's infinite

capacity for forgiveness: many times he forgave enemies who had

committed unspeakable atrocities against him and his brethren.

 

The religious intolerance that characterises the behaviour of many

Muslim communities today is inconsistent with the heritage of

tolerance that is professed by the Islamic tradition. For example,

the Koran clearly states in several passages that any person who

lives a life of holy reverence is welcomed into paradise regardless

of their religion. Muhammad openly praises both Judaism (Abraham is

deeply respected within the Koran) and Christianity (Muhammad

frequently praises Jesus and Mary in the Koran).

 

Even more surprising is the Koran's reverence for Mary, mother of

Christ. Muhammad (and also in later Islamic theological scriptures)

regarded Mary as the most marvellous of all women, a high adept and

living example of the pure and holy life. Later Koranic commentaries

describe Mary as an intervening force between God (Allah) and

humanity. This intervening force is characterised by Allah's mercy,

forgiveness, sweetness and humility- the embodiment of Allah's love

for creation.

 

When Muhammad retook Mecca he began a programme of removing the pagan

influences from the Kaaba, the most holy of Muslim sites. He removed

many frescoes and images that he considered inauspicious but he

specifically left on the walls a fresco of the Virgin Mary and her

child.

 

In one of the most powerful Hadiths ( prophetic sayings of Muhammad)

it is reported that Muhammad said, " Paradise is at the feet of the

Mother " . Does this suggest that the feminine aspect of God is an

important and essential pathway to the attainment of supreme

consciousness?

 

Muhammad's peak defining experience, called the Meraj, saw him

elevated through the seven heavens to the realm of God Almighty at

the resplendant Sidrath where he communed with God, received his

divine visions and instructions and was placed on the inexorable

course of his life-mission to establish Islam. Muhammad was escorted

by the archangel Gabriel (a masculine force) but the vehicle upon

which Muhammad rode was the beautiful " Buraq " . The Buraq was a white

horse with wings and the face of a woman! Clearly suggesting that the

great power by which Muhammad was elevated to the level of supreme

consciousness was ultimately feminine in nature! Some scholars say

that the Buraq is an Islamic symbol of the Kundalini, a force that

Eastern Yogis describe as the Goddess or Divine Mother.

 

Fatimah is another prominent female in the Islamic tradition.

Muhammad revered Fatimah as if she were a divine being, saying " Allah,

The Most High; is pleased when Fatimah is pleased. He is angered;

whenever Fatimah is angered! "

 

Whenever Fatimah would go to the house of Muhammad, he would stand up

out of respect for her and honour her by giving her a special place

to seat herself in his house. He regarded her as a sort of primordial

woman, a symbol of divine womanhood giving her many holy names, such

as: Siddiqah; The Honest, The Righteous; Al-Batool, Pure Virgin; Al-

Mubarakah, The Blessed One; .Al-Tahirah, The Virtuous, The Pure, Al-

Zakiyah ;The Chaste, The Unblemished ;Al-Radhiatul Mardhiah, She who

is gratified and who shall be satisfied; Al-Muhaddathah, A person

other than a Prophet, that the angels speak to; Al-Zahra, The

Splendid; Al-Zahirah, The Luminous.

 

Shias revere the person of Fatimah, Muhammad's daughter and mother of

the line of inspired imams who embodied the divine truth for their

generation. As such, Fatimah is associated with Sophia, the divine

wisdom, which gives birth to all knowledge of God. She has thus

become another symbolic equivalent of the Great Mother.

 

Sunni Islam has also drawn inspiration from the female. The

philosopher Muid ad-Din ibn al-Arabi (1165-1240) saw a young girl in

Mecca surrounded by light and realised that, for him, she was an

incarnation of the divine Sophia. He believed that women were the

most potent icons of the sacred, because they inspired a love in men

which must ultimately be directed to God, the only true object of

love.

 

More generally speaking Muslims are reminded in the Koran that humans

can experience and speak about God only in symbols. Everything in the

world is a sign (aya) of God; so women can also be a revelation of

the divine. Ibn al-Arabi argued that humans have a duty to create

theophanies for themselves, by means of the creative imagination that

pierces the imperfect exterior of mundane reality and glimpses the

divine within. The faculty of imagination is commonly associated with

the Divine Feminine.

 

While official Islam may not consistently describe the role of the

Divine Feminine, this principle has been described and explored at

length in the more esoteric Islamic tradition of Sufism. Sufism

emphasises passionate, mystical adoration of God. Many Sufis (and

other mystics in other religions) seek a spiritual union between

themselves and the divine principle not unlike that between a child

(the Sufi) and his mother (God) or a bride (Sufi) and the husband

(God).

 

The Sufi poetry teaches the feminine qualities of joy, love,

tenderness and self sacrifice on a path of true knowledge derived

from the spiritual heart. The spiritual rebirth of the individual is

not unlike the trial and tribulation of physical childbirth,

according to the Sufis. They take the principle of divine love and

use it to facilitate the process of alchemical transformation from

mundane human to spiritual being.

 

The fanaticism that we see in modern Islam is a new development in a

religion that, in its early history, was famous for its tolerance and

respect for other religions. In Islam's classical period in medieval

Spain and Egypt perhaps only Buddhism rivalled Islam's tolerance. The

fundamentalism that characterises the behaviour of many of today's

Muslims is in fact anti-Koranic.

 

A Sufi Ode to the Divine Mother

On the face of the earth there is no one more beautiful than You

Wherever I go I wear your image in my heart

Whenever I fall in a despondent mood I remember your image

And my spirit rises a thousand fold

Your advent is the blossom time of the Universe

O Mother you have showered your choicest blessings upon me

Also remember me on the Day of Judgement

I don't know if I will go to heaven or hell

But wherever I go, please always abide in me.

 

http://www.sol.com.au/kor/22_02.htm