Deciphering the Signs of God.pdf

Deciphering
the Signs of God
A Phenomenological Approach to Islam
ANNEMARIE SCHIMMEL

Contents
List of Abbreviations vi
Preface vii
Introducción ix
1. Sacred Aspects of Nature and Culture 1
II Sacred Spacc and Time 47
111. Sacred Action «9
IV. The Word and ihe Script "3
V. Individual and Society >77
VI. God and His Creation; Eschatology 219
VII. How to Approach Islam? 243
Bibliography 258
Indices 280

List of Abbreviations
1
1
h
u
s
n
asi Aháduh-i Malhnaivi, Eurüzanfar
wr ArchaJur Religionswissenscliaft
bifao BulleUn de ¡'Instituí Eraríais d’Arehéologie Orientóle
CJBEDO (Ihnstluh islamische Begegmoig IMumentalimsstelle, Frankfurt
D DlMn-i kablr, Ramr
El Enciclopedia ofIslam, and edilion, Láden 1954-
fue Eiruyclnpedia ofReligión and Elhics. ed. Hasángs, 1908-
IC Islamie Culture, Hyderabad/Deccan
IRA-S Joumal of the Bnlull Instituir ofPersum Studus
JA Joumal Asialu/ue
JAOS Joumal ofthe Ameritan Oriental Soaetf
Joumal ofthe Paleitine Oriental Sodety
Joumal ofthe Rojal Asiatic Soáetr
Mathnaui-ri ma'naivl, ROml, cd. Nicholson
The Moslem (laten Muslimi World
Revise des Eludes Islamiques
IXe Religión in Cxschichle und (¡egenuarl, ;jrd cdition
Reoue de l’Histoire des Religión!
Joumal ofthe Srirntifu Sacien ofSoulh Wat Africa
Die Well des Islams
ItWr JJilschnftJur du Runde des Morgenlandes
JJitschrifl der Deulschen Morgenlándischen Gesellschaji

Preface
To dclivcr thc Gifford Lecturas is a great honour and privilege for any acholar
working in thc general ficld of‘religión’, and I am deeply grateful to the Trustees
of lite Giíford Ixcturcs for having invited me to speak in Edinburgh in thc spring
of 199a an experience which 1 thoroughly enjoyed. Yct at thc same time, the
Iccturcr, ovcrwhelmcd by the ñames of his or her illuslrious predecessors, is
troublcd by the question of whether one can raally do full justice to thc choscn
topic in this case, a phenomenological approach to Islam. It probably seems
preposterous to give a sweeping survey of difieren! aspeets of Islam, a religión
which has been much studied, much misunderstood, and sometimos accuscd by
historiaos of religión as being rather primitivo. At the same time, however,
scholarly study of Islam has in recent ycars attracted more and more peoplc,
spurred on by thc political devclopmcnts in thc Muslim world and in other arcas
increasingly populated by Muslims. Needless to say, many of diese political and
sociological studics have litdc interest in thc ’spiritual’ valúes of Islam, instead
ranging from questions of religious authority to the posilion of children in
medieval Muslim society; from Muslim responsos to Western cducation to thc
changing role of thc Sufis; from thc mcchanics of conversión to the formation
and functioning of the biosphere in the Koran; and conceniing thc question of
human rights and their implemcntation in the modem world. Indeed, it was filis
cvcr-growing amount of literature which made me decide to avoid lengthy and
elabórate references and to mendon in thc Bibliography only works actually
cited in thc text or thc notes. I beg the reader’s indulgence for Üiis way of
handling the material.
The Lecturcs have grown out ofa lifelong occupation with the languages and
valúes of Islam, and from innumerable discussions with Muslim friends, whether
highly leamcd and sophisticatcd scholars in the Muslim lands and in the
diaspora, or simple, illiterate villagcrs, particularly women, in Pakistán, India
and Turkcy. Thcy owe much to the inspiration of my acadcmic tcachcrs in
Islamic Studics - Richard Harunann, Hans Heinrich Schacdcr and Ernst
Kühnel in BerKn, lo mendon only thc most importan! ones - but even more to
my collaboration with Friedrich Hcilcr, who opened the world of the history of
religions to me. These lecturas are dedicatcd to his memory. Similarly, I would
like to thank my students in Marburg. Ankara, Bonn and Harvard, as well as my

viii DECIPIIF.R1NG THE SIGNS OF GOD
friends and all those who have patiently listened to my lectures in Europe, North
América and thc Ncar and Middlc East, and who have alerted mr to ncw
aspects of Idamic thought, an and poetry. I am vcry gratcfui to Dr Shams
Anwari-Alhoscyni, Colognc, for adoming the txx>k wiüi his calligraphic render-
ings of Koranic verses. I also express my gratitudc to my ‘writing ángel’, Christa
Sadozay ma, in Cologne, who typed the manuscript, and to Mr Ivor Normand
MA, in Edinburgh, for his carcful and mcticulous copy-editing of thc text.
Thc Swcdish Luthcran bishop and Islamicist, Tor Andrae, to whom we owe
somr of the most sensitive works about the Prophet Muhammad as well as about
early Sufism, once remarked:
Like any movcmcnt in thc rcalm of ideas, a religious faith has thc same
right to be judged according to its real and vcritablc intentions and not
according to the way in which human weakncss and meanness may
have falsifled and maimed its ideáis.
Trying to approach Islam with this in mind, I hope that the Lectures may help
to clarify somc of thc stnicturcs undcrlying lifc and thought in Islam. Depcnding
on thrir field of interest and s¡x*ciaiization, readrrs will no duubt be able to add
numerous parallels and influcnces, both from Islamic sources and from other
religions. Howcvcr, when such parallels are drawn here, it is not with thc
intention ofdwelling on the 'Reste arabisc.hcn Hcidentums' again, as doesJulius
Wellhausen’s elassie of that ñame (1897); ñor do I want to prove, or suggest, that
this or that extemal influcncc has determined thc dcvclopmcnt of Islam. Nobody
denies that such influcnces exist in Islam; for no religión can grow in a vacuum,
and the religious leader, founder or prophet can only ever use the language to
which his listencrs are - at lcast to a ccnain extent - accustomcd, and whosc
images and symbols they understand. Without soil, air, rain and fertilization by
insccts, no tree - and we may well compare religión to a 'good tree’ (cf. SQra
14:24 - could cvcr grow strong cnough to housc birds or to provide shade and
luscious fruit to those who come cióse to it (as Mawláná Rümi says in the story
of DaqQql in his Matimawi, III 2,005(1*.). Bul these influcnces are not absolute
valúes: a religión takes into itsclf only those ideas, customs and tcndcncics which
are in one way or another compatible with its innermost csscncc. Furthcrmorc,
as every religión has an outward and inward aspcct, any sentcnce, proposition or
legal prcscripdon may be understood and intcrprcted differendy by difieren!
peoplc. Age-old símiles come to mind: thc water takes thc colour of thc glass, or
else the 'whitc radiante ofetemity’, the colourless Light, becomcs visible only in
its rcflcctions in cvcr-changing colours.
My aim is to point to thc colourful rcflcctions, Gocthc’s ‘farbiger Abglanz’;
or, in Koranic words, to try to deciphcr somc ofthc signs, or fyil, which through
their infinite variety point to thc One Truth.

Introduction*
And Wc shall show thcm Our signa in <he horizons and in themsclvcs.
SQra 41:53

OECIPHEKINO THE SICNS OF COD
When 1 was teaching the hislory of religions at the Islamic Faculty ofDivinity in
Ankara in the 19505, 1 tried to explain to my students Rudolf Otto’s distinction
between the ntfstmum ttemaidum and the mysUrium fasanans - the Numen that
reveáis itself under the aspect of awe-inspiring majesty and faseinating beauty.
Suddcnly one of the students stood up and said proudly: 'Bul, Professor, we
Muslims have known that for centuries. God has two aspeets: Hisjalil - majesty,
power and wrath - and His jamál - beauty, kindness and merey.' Ever since
then, the idea of approaching Islam from a phenomenological angle has becn on
my mind, all the more because I kept Cnding that Islam was badly (if at all)
represented in the few major books in chis field, as though historiaos of religión
stilj needed the admonition ofthe eightecnth-ccntury Germán thinker Reimarus:
1 am convinccd that among those who aecuse the Turkish religión of
this or that fault. only a very few have read the Alcorán, and that also
among those who indeed have read it, only a precious few have had the
intention of giving the words the sound meaning of which they are
capable.
For many historiar» of religión, Islam, a latecomer in history, is still not much
more than ‘a Christian heresy’, as it was repeatedly called for centuries until the
lime of Adolf von Hamack, or else an anli-Christian, inhuman, primitive
religión - ideas which one now encounters rather frcquently owing to the
political situation in the war-tom Middlc East and the rise of fundamentalist
groups. However, the problem is how 10 give an accurate picture of a religión
that strctehes from its eradle, Arabia, to the east through major parts of Asia,
into central China and Indonesia and the Philippincs, and to the west over
Turkey and part of the Balkans to North Africa and its Atlantic borden; that
appcars in vanous parts of Black Africa and gains new convcrts in the traditional
Christian arcas such as Europc and América, partly as a result of the increasing
number of immigrams from the Muslim world, partly also by conversión to this
or that branch of Islam, Sufism, pscudo-Sufism, or fundamentalism alike: a
religión whose sacrcd script is rcvealed in Arabic, bul whose participaras have
composed and still continué to compose innumerable works theological and
literary, catcchisms and poctry, ncwspapcrs and historical studics - in a plethora
of languages among which Arabic, Persian, Turkish, L’rdu and Swahili boast an
inexhaustible traasura of high and popular literatura, not to mention the other
idioms - with Arabic still ruling supreme in the religious sphere. Nobody can
follow up the cver-increasing number of publications in the various fields of

INTRODUCCION XÍ
Islamic studies either, and thus the rescarcher feels handicappcd and somewhal
bopeless when trying to write about Islam, to find a structure that could do
jusóce to ibis often maligned religión, and lo embed il into the general history of
rcligions.
It is certainly possible lo leam about Islam bv using the vertical, that is,
histórica! meihod, and the study of its history is rcfincd day by day thanks lo
documents that come to liglit from üie enormous but bárely tapped sources in
librarles in Easl and West; a hithcrto ovcrlooked inscripción in a mosque in
Zanzíbar or a Muslim poem in a south Indian idiom can opcn surprising insights
into certain histórica! developmcnts, as can a completely fresh look al the very
bcginnings of Islamic civilizaron.
Onc can also use cross-sections to attempt to categorizc diffcrcnt aspccts of
Islam by type of religión. Here, Üie traditional contrasl of 'prophetic' and
‘mystical' rcligions as claboratcd by Nathan Sódcrblom and fnedrich Heder
offers itself comfortably, with Islam apparently constimdng a paradigm of a
‘prophetic’ religión which, however, is lempered by a strong strand of legalism
on the onc hand, and mysticism in its diífcrent forms on the oilier hand. Onc
can also study it from a sociological viewpoint and look at the human condition;
at sects and social groups; the reladon bctwccn master and disciplc; at trends to
univenality and lo expansión by either mission or wat. If onc approachcs it by
applying the differenl concepta of the Divine, one will find an uncompromising
monothcism which, however, sometimos tums inlo 'pantheislic' or monistic
trends by overstressing ihe oneness of the Divine.
Again, onc may ask about its attitude towards the world - whether it is world-
negating, like Buddhism (an attitude that appears among the early Sufis), or
world-dominating. like mainstream normativo Islam. What are its psychological
peculiarities; and how does the Muslim rcact to the encounter with the One God
- is onc moved predominandy by awe, fear, hopc and love, or does one simply
feel unshakablc faith and trust?
AJI these approachcs are valid and offer the researcher ways to understand
a religión, in this case Islam, somewhal better. However, more titán other
branchcs of scholarship, the study of religión is beset with difliculties, the most
important one being the necessity of formulating one's stancc on the object of
one’s research whilc at the same time suspending judgment, sincc onc is
dcaling with something which, after all, constiiutes the most sacred arca in the
Uves of millions of people. Can one really deal with religión in general or in
its specific forms - as if one were dealing with any other objcct of study, as is
nowadays claimed by many historians of religión? Personally, 1 wonder if a
completely objective study of religión is possible when one respeets the sphere
of the Numinous and the feeling of the otherworldly in one's approach, and
realices that onc is dealing with acnons, thought systems and human reactions

xii DECIPHER1NC THF. SIGNS OF COD
and responsos to something thai lies outsidc purely ’scientific' research.
It is thcreforc diflicult to remain distanccd whcn dcaling with religión, and
the personal bias of dte researcher cannot bul be reflccted in the study - a bias
which, in my case, ccrtainly Icans more towards the mystical and poelical trends
inside Islam than towards its legalistic aspect, which, in any case, is not the topic
dealt with hete iaithough it would lie most welcome lo interprei the refined
Islamic legal systcm and its applications in a comprehensivo comparativo work).
In the rarc cases where historial» of religión llave vcnturcd to inelude
specimens of Islamic culture intn their phenomenology, the lack of linguistic
skills is sadly visible, and the tendeney to rcly upon largely outdated translations
has led lo strange shifts in emphasis, such as üie disproportionatc use of oíd
translations of I’ersian poetry in which the imagery of sacred intoxicaúon and
ccstasy abounds, These phenomena ccrtainly have their place in Sufisni, but
should be viewed in relation to the ideáis of mainstream Islam.
Nevertheless, I lielievc that the phenomenological approach is well suited to a
hetter understanding of Islam, cspccially the model which Fricdrich Heiler
devcloped in his comprehensive study Eiíchemungsjbmen und Weun dee Religión
(Sluttgart 1961,1, on whose structure 1 have nltalelled dlis book. For he tries lo
enler into lite heart of religión by studying lirst the phenomena and then deeper
and deeper layen of human responsos to the Divine until he reaches the
innermost sacred core of eacli religión, the centre, the Numinous. the deus
abetonddus. Heiler always liked lo refer lo Fricdrich von Hügel's remark that the
spirit awakcns whcn coming into contact with material things. That is. the
highest spiritual experience can be triggered oíT by a sensual object: a ílower, a
fragrance, a cloud or a person. Islamic thinkers have always ponderad the
relation between the outward manifestations and the Essencc, based on the
Koranic words: ’We put Our signs into the horizons and into themselves’ (Süra
41:53). For lite Musiim, everything could serve as an á>a, a sign from Gnd, and
the Koran repeats this truth over and over again, waming thosc who do not
bclicve in God’s signs or who belie them. The criaturas are signs; the change
between day and night is a sign, as is lite loving encounter of husband and wife;
and mitades are signs (cf. Süra 30:19-25): thcy all prove that there is a living
God who is the originator of everything. These signs are not onlv in lile
'horizons’, that is, in the created universe. but alvo in the human souls, that is, in
the human capacity to undenuand and admire; in lose and human inquisilive-
ness; in whatever onc may fecl, think, and cxperiencc. The world is, as it werc,
an ¡mínense book in which those who have eyes to ser and ears to hear can
recognizc God’s signs and thus be guided by' their contcmplation to tile Creator
flimsclf. Sensual and spiritual levéis meet dirough and in the signs, and by
understanding and inlerpreting them one may be able to understand the Divine
wisdom and powcr; onc will also understand that, as the Koran prtxlairns

INTRODUCT1ON xiii
repcatedly, God (caches by mcans of comparisons, parables and likenesses lo
draw the human heari beyond (he externa!, peripheral faces of creación.
For one has to keep in mind that spiritual aspects of life can be revealcd onlv
by mcans of sensual ones - the wind becomes visible only though the movement
of the grass, as the ninetecnth-ccntury Indo-Muslim poct Ghalib sings; the dust
which wc may scc from far in the descrt hides the eider who stirs it up; and the
foam ílakes on the surface of the ocean point lo the unfathomablc abyss. 'lítese
signs are necessary, for the human hcart longs lo catch a glimpse of the Divine
- even though God is beyond all fontis and imagination and yet one hopes to
'touch' the Numinous power in somc way or another: docs one not rcspcctíiilly
kiss the copy of the Koran in which God's word is wrilten down?
Evcrything can becomc an áya, a sign, not only the verses of the Koran which
are called by chis very ñame. To he jure, it is not the ever-hidden dais abstonditus
but the drus rnrlatus who can be found through them. He, who reveáis His will
through His word; who has talked through the prophets; and whosc guidancc
leads humankind on the right path lo salvation. The Muslims understixxl that
evcrything crcatcd praises the Crcator with its own /«An al-hal, the silenl
cloqucncc - for this is the purposc for which they wcrc crcatcd, Thus, the cntirc
universe could be seen, as it were, in a religious light: ihat is why cvery human
act, even a secmingly profane one, is yet judged from religious viewpoinu and
rcgulatcd according to the divincly revealcd Law.
Gultic and ritual duties too could be intcrprctcd beyond their exiernal
importante as signs towards something higher: prayer is the loss of onc's small
self in communion with che Holy, or tile sacrifice of one’s soul before the
ovcrpowcring bclovcd Ixird; pilgrimagc points to üie never-ending journey of
die soul towards God; fasting tcachcs one to live on light and praisc, as do the
angels; and thus each and every outward ritual fonn could becomc a sign of
spiritual cxpcricncc. But even those who see only the ‘husk’ and dutjfully fulíil
the extemal ntual will still fecl thcmselves lo have obeyed God and thus
prepared themselves for the way that leads to happincss in the Hereafler, for
surrender to God and/or His word is the meaning of the word ulbm.
Likcwisc, symbolic aclions could serve lo ¡Ilumínate ccrlain spiritual aspects of
Islam: henee the Prophct's casting some sand and pebbles against the encmics in
the battlc of Badr (624), upon which Süra 8:17 was revealcd fYou did not casi
when you casi which indicatcs that the one who has been absolutely
obedient to God can act. so 10 speak, through God's power.
There is no doubt that previos» religions have left dieir traces upon Islam, for
every religión has adapted trends and syslems from carlier slrata of religious life
that seemed to express its own conccms, and the colourful buslies of folk Islam
widi their often scurrilous flowers have grown from the same root as the straight
tree of normativo Islam, lile tensión belween the two major aspects of Islam

DECIPHERING THE SIGNE OF COI»
xiv
the normativo Icgalistic and the popular, mystically tingcd onc - forms a
constant thcmc in Islamic cultural history. Thc way in which Islam lias takcn
into ils embrace variegated forms and strange clcmcnts. cspccially in the Indian
and African contexts, is fascinating - as much as the normativo tradilionalists
dislike diese devclopmcnts and regard thcm as contradicting the puré monothe-
ism which is expressed and repeated dtousands of time in thc Miada. the
profession of laith, and in Süra 112, the final word of the Koran about the God
who is Onc, neither begetting ñor begotten.
In both aspeets. Islam knows die concepts of the sacred powcr - baraka,
blessing powcr1 and this word wiU occur frequendy on the following
pages, for not only has thc holy person baraka. but also thc black stone of
the Kaaba radiates it, and thc copy of the Koran is fillcd with blessing
power, as is the sacred Night of Might (cf. Süra 97), in which the ftrst
rcvelaüon took place.
In order to give a form for a cross-section dirough difieren! phenomena of
Islam, die model used by Friedrich Heder appeared to me most convenicnt and
clearer than that of Gcrardus van der Lceuw, admirable as his collection of
material is. Hcilcr’s book and approach has been scvcrely criticizcd by somc
scholars; it has also been summarized in English widi an undue emphasis on the
Christian part of it, which resultcd in a lop-sided picture that lacks the
stupendous brcadth of Hcilcr’s material. To oficr an idea of Hcilcr’s model, I
give overleaf die fine summary by J, J. Waardcnburg (1973) in his Claiiual
Ap/machts la Ihr Sludi oj Religión. voL 1.
Thc model of thc concentric rings may sccm somcwhat artificial; but,
strangely enough, it was prefigured more than a millennium ago in the work of
Abü'l-Husayn an-Nürt (d. 907), a mystic of Baghdad. and apparentiy also by his
contemporary al-Hakim at-TirmidhI.S Based on Koranic verses, Nüri invented a
circular form which lcads, as docs Hcilcr’s model, from thc externa! encounter of
the sacred to the innermost core of religión, thus showing that there is no deity
but God. His fourfold circles read as follows:
Thc breast, ¡ad’. is conncctcd with altan (Süra 39:22) - that is, in our model,
thc institutional, extemal element of religions.
Tile next eircle mentions the heart, qalb. as thc seat of imán. ’faith' (Süra 49:7):
thc heart is the organ through which truc faith, thc interiorization of a mere
extemal acccptancc ofa religious form, can be achieved; it is thus the organ for
thc spiritual aspeets of religious life.
Thcfii'ad. thc inner heart. is thc scat of ma'rifa. intuitive, ‘gnostic’ knowledgc
(Süra 53:11); that means that. here, the divine, immediate ’knowledge from Us’
(Süra 18:65) Ia" l>c realized.
Finally, onc rcachcs thc lubb. thc innermost kcmel of the heart, which is the
seat of laulíd (Süra 3:190), that is, of the experience that diere is only the Onc

INTRODVCTtON XV
who was and shall be from etemity to etemity without a companion, visible and
tangible onlv when He reveáis Himsclf to humankind.
All üie outward manifestations, the diíTcrent forms of revelations, are signs.
The word about God is, in Rümi's lovcly phrasr, like ‘the scent of hcavcnly
applc traes’ (.w VI 84). The externáis are as neccssary as the breas! to endose the
mysteries of the hcart, but the Essencc of dic Divine remains forever hidden; the
human being can only scizc the hrm of His favour and try to find the way to
Him through His signs.
The similarity betwcen Nürí’s four cirdes of raligious expeliente and
Friedrich Heiler’s circular structure scems to indícate to me that there is a way
that is at least to a certain extent legitímate for my undertaking; for, as the early
Sufis likcd to recite:
u-afi kulli diay'tn lahu sháhidun
ladullu ’alá annahu wáhidun
In everything there is a witncss to H¡m
that points to the fact that He is Onc.
Everything - from the stonc to the dogmatic formula - calis out Quaae suptr nos.
‘Seck beyond us!’ The plurality of signs is necessary to veil the etemal One who
is transcendent and yet ‘doser than the neck vein’ (Süra 50:16); the plurality of
signs and the Unicity of the Divine bclong together. The signs show the way into
His prcsencc, where the bclievcr may finally leave the images behind.
For •everything on earth is perishing but His Face’ (Süra 28:88).
NOTES
1. For general surveys, scc CharlesJ. Adams (1967;, The history of rcligions and
the study of Islam’; Willcm Bijlcfeld ¡1972). ‘islamic Studies within (he perspec-
tive ofthe history ofrcligions'; J.Jaiques Waardcnburg (1980), ‘Islamforschung
aus religionswisscnschaftlichcr Sicht’; idem (1978), Otlii 1.1I and popular religión
in Islam*; andJames E. W. Roystcr (1972). ‘The study of Muhammad. A «urvey
of approachcs from (lie perspcctive of the history and phcnomcnology of
religión*.
2. Joscph Chdhod (1955), ’La barato chrz les arabes ou l’influence bicnfaisantc du
sacre*.
3. Paúl Nwyia (1970;, Extgrit <oranupu d langage mystujut. p. 3268.; cf. also al-Haklm
at-Tirmidhi (1958), Alfarq bqjma'wadr wal-qalb ... ed. N Heer.

DECIPHERINO THE SIGXS OF OOD
Holy
I. The umU ofaula mamftslatimu comprises «bree sectors:
i'i the sacred object, the sacred room in which the cult takes place,
the sacred time, in which lite most important ritual is per-
formed, the sacred rnmber, bv which the sacred objects, rooms,
times, words, pcoplc are mcasured, the sacred acl (rite).
2) the sacred wmt. (1) the spoken word: a) the word of God, the
incantation, the ñame of God, the oracle, the myth, the
legend, the prophecy, the gospel. the doctrine; b) the word to
God, prayer in adoration, penance, praise, thanksgiving, sup-
plication, surrender; c) the sacred silencc; (2) the written word:
the holy scripturc.
3) the holy mm and the holy rommumtf. All that is within the
scope of the physicallv observable, visible, audible, tangible.
Religión is not an airy spirituality, but a phvsical communion
with the Divine.
II. The lirst inner ring is the umUofretigioui imaginaban, the thoughts,
images, ideas conceming God's invisible being and visible works:
t) tile conceplion of God (theology),

INTRODUCCION xvii
2} the conception of creation (cosmology and anthropology,
including original conditions and original sin},
3) the conception of rcvcladon: the intiniation of the divine will
in the ptoclainted word, in hislory, in the soul (Christology),
4) the conception of redempdon: (1) the redeemer; (2) the objcct
of redemption; (3) the road to redempdoti (soteriology),
5) the fuUiUment in the future or in the worid to come (eschatol-
ogy).
III. The second inner ring represents the uertíofreligious expeliente, i.e.
what happens deep down in the soul, as opposed to the fanciful or
racional images of God. the religious valúes which are laid aside
in the confrontation between man and sacred objeets and in the
performance of sacred acts: l) reverence (towards the divine in
itself, its holiness', 2) fcar. 3) faith and complete trust in God, who
reveáis himsclf, works, rules, lovcs, and hclps, 4) hopo, 5) love,
yeaming for God, surrender to him, reciprocation of God’s love.
Next to thesc valúes, there are peace, jov, and the urge to share.
Thcn there are the extraordinary religious cxperienccs: inspira-
don, sudden conversión, vocatíon and cnlightcnment, visión and
audidon, ecstasy, cardiognosis and lite various extensión* of
physical powcrs, such as automatic speaking and wriling, speak-
ing in foreign tongucs and stigmadsation, and so on,
IV, The okjame worid ofreligión, the ccnter of the circles, is the Divine
Realitv, which is understood through all externa! manifestadora,
inner notions, and cxperienccs of the soul, in a double sense:
ti as the Deui raelalus, the God who has his face towards man, as
absolule holiness, truth, jusdee, love, merey, salvation. the
personal God, experienced as ‘Thou‘ and as a being of
communion (Trinity),
2) as the ZVus ipse or abscondúus, the divinity, experienced as ‘It’, as
absolute unity,
There is a correlación between che segments of the various rings: the
physical forms of expresión, thoughls, feelings, corrcspond Cnally to
divine realitv. Although that reality can never be completely expressed
in human forms of expression, thoughls, and experiences, there is a
certain correspondence to the divine, the analogía mlir: the created being
corresponda to the non-crcated divine being.

I
Sacred Aspects of Nature and
Culture
Of His signs are the night and the dav and the sun and the moon.
Süra 41:37

. a DECIPIIERING IHE SIGNS OF GOD
INANtMATE NATLRE1
From earliest times, human beings have been impressed and oftcn overawed by
the phenomena of naturc which they observe l'rom day lo dav in their
cnvirontnenl. They certainly felt awe when looking al stones, which never
seemed to chango and which could easily he taken as signs of power and, at a
later time perhaps. as represenring ctemal strangth. In the ancienl Semilic
teligions, stones. in particular those of unusual shapc, wcre regarded as lilled
with power, mana, and rite fascination with stones expressed in the Oíd
Tcstamcnt by the story ofJacob and the stone of Bcthcl - has continued down
through the ages.
Turkic propios wcre cqually fascinated by stones and their mysterious powers:
stones about ta¡ bebeklm stones which slowly turned into childrcn ara
frequent in Turkey. Stones are used m rain-producing rituals espccially jade),
and small niyytl laclan tervt to indícate whether onc’s intention, niyya, will come
truc, which is the case when the stone sticks on a fíat surface such as a
tombstone.'
Syria and Palestino, the homo of the ancienl Semilic stone culi, still boast
strangely-shapcd stones which are sometimos considerad to be resting places of
saints. In Syria. rollsloncs are supposcd to give some of their ‘power' to a person
over whose body they are rolled. To heap stones into a small hill lo malte a
saint’s tomb beforc it is cnlarged into a tntc shrinc seems common practicc
cvcrywhcrc. be it in the Ncar East or in the Indo~Pakistani regions.'
Mythology speaks of a rock which forms the foundation of the cosmos; of
groen colour, it lies deep under the earth and is the basis of the vertical axis that
gocs through the universo, wltosc central point on earth is the Kaaba. The black
stone a meteor in dte south-eastern comer of dio Kaaba in Mecca is the
point to which believers tum and which they strivo lo kiss during the pilgrimage,
for, as a mystical hadlth claims: 'lite Black Stone is God's rigltt hand'.' This
stone. as legend tells, is pre-existent, and. wliilc n was white in the lx-ginning, it
turned black from the hands of sinful propio who touchcd it year afier year.
However, this black stone, described in wondcrful and fancilul images by
pious poets, is by no means the only important stone or rock in the Nfuslim
world. The Dome of the Rock in Jcrusalcm is cxtremely sacred because, so it is
said, all the prophets befóte Muhamtnad rested ibera, and lite Prophci of Islam
met with them at the beginning of his heavenly journey to perform the ritual
prayer on this very spot. The stone beneath the actual dome is blcsscd by
Muhammad's fbotprint, and some traditions oven claim that the rock hangs free

SACRED ASPECTS OF SATURE AND CULTURE 3
in the air, At the end of time, Israfti, the archangel, will blow the tnimpet that
announces resurrection from this very rock. The spiritual - besides the histórica!
connection betwccn the two sacred places with siones (Meaa and Jerasalem)
is evident from the poética! idea that the Kaaba comes as a bride to the Dome
of tlie Rock.5
Not only in Jcrusalem can one see the impnnt of the Prophet's foot, qadam
¡astil. One ftnds such stones in various countries, often brought lióme by pious
pilgrims especially in India - even Emperor Akbar, otherwise rather critica! of
lslamic traditions, welcomed lite arrival of sutil a stone which his wife Salima
and his aunt Gulbadan liad aequired during their pilgrimage.*' Often, majestic
buildings are crected over such siones, which the laitliful touch to panicipate in
their barata and tlien pass their hands over their body. As early as c. 1300, the
reformer Ibn Taymiyva (d. 13281 fought against the custom of touching a stone
with the Prophet’s footprint in Damascus, something that appeared to hito as
puré superstition, incompatible with the faith in the One God.’
Shia Muslims know of stones with the impression of ’All’s foot. A centre of
this cult is the sanctuary of Maulali (Mawla ’AlI) on top of a steep rock near
Hyderabad/Deccan. where one can admire an ¡mínense ’footprint’.
The iniportancc of stones is reflcctcd in the symbolic use of the term. Rúmi
compares the lover to a marble rock that reverberares with the Beloved’s words
and echoes them (o 1. 17,867:, but even more importanl is Ibn ’Arabfs idea that
the Prophel is a miar bahl. a 'puré stone’ on which the Divine message ivas
imprinted, as it wcrc - an idea that continucd down through the centurics and
which is prominent in the thcological work ofShah VValiuliah of Dclhi id. 1762).*
Stones could serve lo expresa the aspect of Divine VVralh, as in the numerous
Koranic references to the ’stoning’ of disobedient peoples (Sara 105:4 et al.;. In
this connection, the ’stoning of Salan’ is administered during the pilgrimage by
the casting of three times seven pebbles on a ccrtain spot near Mina, and Salan
is always referred to as njtoi, ‘stoned’, i.e. accurscd.
Numerous olher cusloms are connected with stones: thus, among lite Persian
KhaksAr dervishes, it is customary to bind a rather big stone on one’s stomach
the sang-i-qanll'al, ‘stone of contentment’, which points to the suppression of
hunger for that is how the Prophct overeante his hunger.9 A spccial role is
asi ribed to gemstones, some of which were regarded as filled with barata. Early
Muslim scholars had a vast knowledge of mineralogy and enlarged the inherited
Greek mineralógica! works by their observations. Henee, precious and semi-
prccious stones play a considerable role in folklore and literature.
It is said that the Prophel hiniself recommcndcd the use of 'aqli¡, agatc or
camelian.'" a stone that was plenliful in Yemen and which therefore becamc
connected with the whole mystical symbolism of Yemen whence the ’breath of
the Mcrciful’ reached the Prophel lAif no. 195). Muslims still like to wear an

4 DECIPHERINC THE SIGNS Of COD
agate ring or locket, inscribcd with prayer formulas or Divine Ñames (among tile
Shias, oftcn with the ñames óf the Panjtan). and latcr Pcrsian and ürdu |x>els
have compared themselves to an bezel which contains nothing but the
ñame of thc Divine Bclovcd. But not only bclicvers in general like to wear such
stones; a twelve-pointed agate (symbolizing the twclvc imams of thc Shia) uscd to
be wom by thc mcmbcrs of thc Bcktashi order of dervishes (Hacci Bcktash
Stone).
From ancient times, it was believed that the ruby could aven illncss - and
indccd, in medical tradition, pulverized ruby was an ingredient of mujamh.
'something that cheers you up’, a kind of tranquillizer - henee its connection
with the beloved's ruby lip, or with ruby-like red wine. A beautiful myth tells that
ordinary pcbblcs, when touched by thc sun, can tum into rabies after patiendy
waiting in thc depth of thc mines - an idea that carne to symholize thc
transformation of the human heart which, touched by ihe sun of grace. can
maturc during long periods of patiencc and, by ‘shcdding its blood' in sufTering,
may be transformed into a priccless jcwel.
The emerald is thought to aven evil, but ateo to blind serpents and dragons,
Its grecn colour - thc colour of paradi.se - gave this stone a spedal place in
Muslim thought. Thus, according to a saying, thc lau-Ji matfiz, thc Well-
preserved Tablet on which everylhing is written from pre-etemity, consists of
emerald; it is a trae tabula smaragdina, as it is ateo known from medieval gnostic
imagery. Henry Corbin, then, has followed thc Sufi path which, at Icast
according to some authors like Simnüni (d. 1335), etids in lite light ofthe emerald
mountain: the highest station for the wayfarer who has passed through thc
blackness of mystical dcath."
Thc sight of mountains has always inspired human hearts, and mountains
have often been regarded as seáis of deities all over the world. This was, of
coune, an idea impossiblc in Islam, all thc more so bccausc thc Koran has stated
that thc mountains. though pul in their places to keep the earth stable, are yet
like douds (Sora 27:88) and will lie, in the horran of thc Day ofjudgmcnt, 'like
combed wool' (SQra 70:9). Furthcrmorc, Mt Sinai was shattered by thc manifes-
tation of thc Ixird’s grandeur (Süra 7:143). an event that means for ROmI that it
‘danccd’ in ecstasy (M I 876). Mountains are, thus, nothing but signs of God's
omnipresence; thev prostratc themselves before God (SQra 22:18) along with all
thc other crcaturcs, and vet thc feeling that onc might find more than a purely
earthly expericnce on ccrtain mountains is attested in the Islamic tradition as
well suflice it to think of Abü Qjibays ncar Mccca, according to tradition the
lirst mountain on earth, which latcr served as a mecting place of thc saints, or of
Husevin Gliazi ncar Ankara, the site of the shrinc of a medieval Muslim warrior
saint, and similar places.
Onc could imagine the high mountains as a liminal arca bctwccn thc crcatcd

SACRED ASFECTS OF NATURF. AND CULTURE 5
univcrse and the spacelessness ofthe Divine Icf. the inicial oath of Süra 5a); thus,
Mt Qaf was thought of as a mountain cncircling the wholc carth, cvcn though
the sight of the Caucasus or, in Southcm Asia, of the Himalayas has certainlv
contributed to, or sparked olí, such ideas. In antiquity, somc peoplc tried to
imitatc the sacred mountains, as for cxample in the Babylonian Ziggurat; the
Malwiyya, the spiral minara of Samarra in Iraq, may be the result of
subconscious mentones of this tendeney.
The carth was always experienced as a feminine power, and although the
concept of 'Mother Earth' is not as outspokcn in the Islamic tradition as
clsewhcrc, the Koranic words aecording to which ‘women are your ficlds
(Süra 2:223, show that the connection was a natural one. Was not Adam made
ofdust, the soñ maternal material which was then to be cnlivcncd by the spirit?'9
That is why lblls, Sacan, elaimed superiority over him, as his own origin was fire.
And thus, the dervishes might remind their listeners that all existcnce is dust
except the Beloved after all, man is crcatcd from dust (Süra 22:5 ct al.) and will
rctum to dust. Dust has a purifying quality: when water for the ritual ablution is
wanting, one can perform üte purificación with dust, Uyammum.
The ancicnt myth of the him¡ gamos, the marriage between hcaven and earth
which, as it wcre, preforms human marriage - the ‘sowing of the sccd’ into the
earth and into the females surfaces only in some cases, especially in the verse
of Rüm!, who takes his imagery froin the oldest strata of myths. Although he
rcmarks that ‘the earth likc the wife and the sky likc the man’ are no longer of
interest for the truc seekcr (c L 15,525), the lover may yet addrcss the spiritual
beloved:
You are my hcavcn, I am your carth
You alone know what YouVe put into me!
(d no. 3,038)
Earth and dust become sanclified by conlact with powerful and beloved
peoplc, and, humblc in thcmsclves, aequire new wealth. Sa'dí's story about an
amazingiy fragrant picce of purifying clay, which was permeated with the sccnt
of the beloved who had used it while bathing, points to this feeling. Thus, the
dust of sacred places and of mausoleums can bring blessing: prayer beads and
littlc tablets are formed from the mud of Husayn’s mausoleum in Kerbela for the
use of pious Shiitcs. The Turkish poct I'uzuli (d. 1556) therefore claims with
apparent humility:
My poetry is not mbics or emeralds,
my poetry is dust, but the dust of Kerbela!'5
Dust from Kerbela and Najaf, 'All’s burial place, was deposited in some
mausoleums of Shiite kings in India (thus in the Gol Gunbad in Golconda), just

6 DF-CIHHtKlNG THE SICNS OF GOD
as some dust from Mawlana Rüml’s tomb in Konya was brought lo Iqbal's
mausoleum in ladrare hecattse of the Indo Muslim philosopher-poct’s dcep
veneración for the medieval Pcrsian mystical poct-
Many visitors lo an Indo Pakistani shrine will have been olfcred dried-up
rose petáis and dust from the sarcophagus - and, trusting in the sacred purity of
this dust, they dutifully swallow it. Indeed, the dust of saints’ and sayyids’ tombs
is the truc treasure that a province can boast when Nadir Shali of Irán carne
to conquer Sind in 1738, the Hindú minister of the Kalhora rulers countered his
requests for an immense indemnity by offering him a small bag containing the
most precious thing that Sind had to ofTer, thai is, dte dust of saints and
sayyids.1*
Much more central, however, is the role of water, for ‘We have made alive
evcrything through water’ (Sflra 21:30), and. He has sent down water from the
sky ...' (Sara 13:17), to mention only two prominent Koranic statements with
regard to water.15 Tisis water not only has the power of purifying pcoplc
cxtcmally, bul also becomes as in other religious tradilions a fitnng symbol
for the purification of Itcarts. Water is constantly quaking and moving that is,
as Kisfi’i thinks, its act of exalting the Lord in unisón with all other crcaturcs.
There are numerous sacred springs and ponds in the Islamic worid the
Zatnzam ncar the Kaaba gushed forth, as legend has it, when Hagar, Iclt alone
with little lsma'il, was thirsey. The well is forty-cwo metros dcep. and its water is
slightly salty. Most pilgrims carry some Zatnzam water home in special llasks 10
make the baraka of the spring available to friends and (amily; some also dip their
futuro shrouds into tito well, hoping that the water's blcssing power may
surround thcm in the grave. According to popular tales, the water of the
Zamzam filis all thr springs in the worid during the month of Muharram, while
in Istanbul legend has it that somc Zamzam water was used to build the dome of
the Hagia Sopltia; otherwise it would have crumbled.
In Arabic folklore, especially in Syria and Jordán, fountains are gencrally
thoughl to be fcmininc, although the typc of watery fainos (nixtes) known in
European folklore seems to be absent from tradicional Muslim loro. Salty
springs, on the other liand, are regarded as male; that is why barren women
bathe there.
Springs are often found near tilo shrines of saints, and it is likely that the
locality ofmany sacred places was choscn just bccausc ofthe blcssing ofa nearby
water coursc or fountain. The tank ncar Salar Mas'Qd's shrine in Balitan h is
supposed to cure leprosy. Tile pond of Mangho Pir ncar Karachi seems to be a
pnme example of actiological legends iransforming a wcird prc-Muslim sacred
spot into a Muslim shrine, for not only is this pond cióse to the dwelling-place of
a thirtcenth-century saint. bul it also houses a huge number of enormous
crocodilos whose anccstor the saint, angered for somc reason, produced out ofa

SACKEÜ ASFECTS OF XATURF. AND CULTURE 7
flower. Thc largo pond at Bayezld BisjSmi’s sanctuary in Chittagong (Bangla-
dcsh) is inhabited by utterly rcpcUcnt white tortoises, and in the same atea, in
Sylhet, a well fillcd with fish forms an important parí of the sanctuary.
Even if one concedes thc neccssity for a source of water for ablutions in thc
vicinity of a shrinc-cum-mosque. in such cases ancient traditions still scem to
have survived. As far as thc water for purificación is conccmcd, its quality and
quantity are exaedy deftncd by the lawyer-divines, for to enter the water means
to re-enter the primordial matter, to be purified, rejuvenated, rebom after dying
- henee, thc ablution could bccomc a truly spiritual experience for somc
Muslims, and die theme of entering thc water and being likc a corpse moved
only by the water’s llow is frequent in mystical literatura. Thc oíd Indian tale of
the scepúc who, submerged in water, lived through an entire human life in a
single moment has also reachcd Islam: unbelievers who doublcd thc reality of
Muhammad's nightlyjoumey werc instnteted in a similar way. The best-known
examplc is thc tale of thc Egyptian Sufi master Dashtüti. who had the Sultán
bend his hcad into a bowl of water so that he inimediately lived through an
entire life story.'6
Onc should not shy away from water - it is, after all, its duty, indeed its
plcasurc, to purify the dirty, as Rüml cmphasizcd time and again: the water of
Grace watts for the sinner. The life-bestowing quality of water led almost
naturally to the concept of the Water of Life, the goal of the seekers, far away
ncar the majma' al bataavn, thc ’meeting place of thc two occans’. as is understood
from Süra 18:60, 61. The Water of Ufe is found. likc a grecn fountain, in the
deepest gorges of the dark land, and only Khidr. the prophet-samt. can lead thc
secker there, while even greal héroes such as Alexander missed tile blessed
fountain and failed to achieve immortality.
The earth is supposed to rest on water, thc all-surrounding ocean, but thc
Koran also speaks severa! limes of the ucean on which boats travel (thus Süra
14:33; and of its dangers for travcllers (thus Süra 17:671. who remember the Lord
only during the horror* of their joumey. Onc also fmds the comparison of thc
world with foam-flecks :Süra 13:17:. and in another Koranic verse it is stated that
thc world is ‘decked out fair’ (Süra 3:14). From this point, it was easy for thc Sufis
to sce thc crcatcd universo as small, pretty foam-flecks in tile immense,
fathomless ocean of God mystics in all religious traditions know this image,
cspccially those with ’pantheistic’ tendencies. Are not waves and foam periph-
cral, surfacing for a single moment from the abyss, only 10 return into ir? Ruml
has described this visión:
The ocean billowed, and lo!
Etcmal wisdom appeared
.And casi a voice and cried out

8 DEC1PHF.RING THE SIGNS OF GOD
That was how ii was and bccamc -
The-occan was lülcd with Ibam
and every flcck of this fbam
Produccd a figure like this
and was a body like dial.
And every body-shaped fiock
that hcard a sign from the sea,
It inelted and then retumed
into the ocean of souls ...
(n no. 649I
Tlte joumey of the fragüe boat, that is ‘man', which will be shattered by the
wave of the pre-etemal Covenant, appears time and again in mystical imagery.
Many Sufis, especially thosc writing in later times, were well aware dial there is
only one real cxistencc which wc cxpericncc in different states of aggrcgate:
water, ice, drnplet and rain are all the same, for water, being without a form of
its own, can accept and produce every form.
The image of the ocean for God (or, in poetry. for Leve, which may even be
an ‘ocean of fire*) is generally valid, but the Prophet too has bcen called an
occan in which die Koran constitutes the precious pearl.1’ -More frequent,
however. is the combination of the Prophet with the rain.
For rain was sent down to quicken the dead carth (Süra 41:39). and it is still
called raJmal. 'inercy'. in some arcas of the Turkish and Persian world. Thus it
was easy to find cross-relations between the 'rain of inercy' and him who is
called in (he Koran ralrnalan li' l-'ihmln. ‘Mcrcy for the Worlds' (Süra 21:107).
Muhammad himsclf. as Abü Hafs 'Ornar as-Suhrawardl tells in his ’Auññfal-
ma'árif, was fond of the precious rain, and ‘used lo tum to the rain lo accept
blcssings from it and said, “Onc that was still rcccntly ncar his Lord"'.1®
Was the Prophet, sent with a lifc-bcstowing message to his compatriota, not
comparable to die blessing, fertilizing rain? This thought inspired some of the
finest poems in his honour, especially in the Eastcm Islamic world. The Sindhi
mystical poet, Shah 'Abdul Lapf d. 1752), devoted his .Sur Sárang to him,
ingeniously blending lile description of the parchcd land that longs for rain with
the hope for the arrival of the bclovcd Prophet, who appears as the rain-cloud
that stretches from Istanbul to Delhi and even furdier. A cenlury later, Miras
Ghalib in Delhi (d. 1869) composcd a Persian imtlmai about ‘The Pcari-carrying
Cloud’, i.c. the Prophet, and towards the end of the nincteenth century Mulisin
KakOrawt (d. 1905) sang his famous Urdu ode in honour of the Prophet. skilfully
blending the theme of the cloud and the ‘rain of mcrcy’ with time-honoured
indigenous Indian rain poetry.1’
Bul rain has yet another aspea lo it. It comes from the occan, rises.

SACRED ASPECTS OF NATURE AND CULTURE 9
evaporaúng, to the sky, condenses again in the clouds and retums finally to the
ocean to be united with its original source or else, as was popularly thought, to
become a pcarl enshrined by a puré oyster. Tlte latter is often connected with
the April rain, and to this day in parta ofTurkey drops ofApril rain are carcfully
collectcd and preserved for healing purposes. In medieval times, anisan*
produced vcsscls, called in Turkey núai lasi, for tisis precious rain, which were
often beautifully decorated.
As is natural in areas where droughts are frequent and rain is a real blessing,
the custom of utuyá, the prayer for rain, is found from the carlicst days of Islam;
in such cases, the community ofbelievera went out ofthe town in shabby clothes
to implore Divine help. Many stories of saintly peoplc who, in some way or
another (someúmes cven by thrcatening God), were able to bring down the
heavcnly water rcflcct the important role of the istisqá.
One has, however, lo distinguish bctween the blessing, fertilizing rain and the
dangerous ¡ayl, the torren! or flash flood. The Koran says; ‘Evil is the rain of
thosc who have bren wamed' (Süra 26:173), f°r the Divine wrath can devastóte
their hearts as a rainstorni ruins tile fruits in the orchards. It was the Baghdadian
Sufi Abü'l-Husayn an-Nüri (d. 907) who probably for the first tíme in Arabic
literaturc - beautifully dcscribcd the two kinds of spiritual rain which can
dcsccnd upon the human hcart’s garden either to quicken it or to dcstroy it in
the form of terrible hail (Süra 24:43).“
Most obvious is the danger posed by water, ofcourse, in tlie deluge which, as
is said, began by an overboiling kettlc in Kufa and which destroyed all sinfül
peoplc, while the Ark was takcn to heaven (Süra 29:14). The term bah in the
Koranic rcvclation can be interprctcd as 'ocean' but also as a ‘large river’ such
as tlie Nile; and the Nile connected with the story of Moses as wcll as the
Tigris (owing to its situarion as the river on which the capital Baghdad was buill
in tile mid-eighth century) are the rivera most Ircqucntly mentioned by later
authora. Does the Tigris not consist of the tears which Iraq shed after the dcath
of the lasi Abbasid caliph at the hands of tile Mongol* in 1258? Thus asks a
fourtccnth-ccntury Pcrsian pocl," while KhJqJnl, two centurics earlier, liad
interprctcd the mighty river as tears of mouming for the once glorious Lakhmid
lóngdom of which onlv the ruins of Selcukia-Kiesiphon were left."
However, besides this half-realistic use of the river-imagery, rivera also
aequired a symbolic meaning. The Shiite theologian Kulaynl in the tenth
century seems to have bcen the ftrst to use the comparison of the Prophet with
a mighty river. It is remarkable that Goethe, cight centurics later in Gcrmany
and, of course, unaware of this eariy Arabic text, symbolized Muhammad as a
river which, springing from a small, fresh and refreshing fountain, stcadily grows
and, by carrying with him whatever comes into his way - small brooks, rivulets
and rivera brings them home to the fadicr, the all-embracing ocean. Iqbal

IO DECIPHER1NG THE SIGNS OF GOD
(d. 1938-. the Indo Muslim philosophcr-poei, admired Gocthc's intuitive undcr-
sianding of the dynamics of prophethood. He translatcd (very freely, to be sure)
thc Germán pocm into Pcrsian. Latcr, he cvcn assumcd thc pen ñame ^indarüd.
’Living Strram’, lo point 10 his dosc connecüon with thc spirit of prophetic
inspiration?s
Rivers can also bccome signs of Divine activity. Onc of thc finest expressions
of this fecling is thc Sindhi poct Qa$ Qádan’s (d. 1551) verse:
Whcn the Indus is in spatr then the canals overflow.
Thus thc love of my Bciovcd is too mighty for my souL9*
For thc human hcart is too narrow to contain all thc blcssing water ofthe Divine
grace and love.
Rivers, so it is understood, are not only this-woridly: Paradise is described in
thc Koran at severa! points ¡SQra 48:17 ct al.) as ‘gardens under which rivers
flow’ Fhe cooling, purifving quality of limpid water is parí and pared ofctcmal
beatitude, and Yunus Emrc id. 1321) rightly rings dial the rivers in Paradise
repeat thc ñame of God in an uninterrupted litany (sce below, p. 238).
Sometimes. four paradisiacal rivers are meniioned, and thc stnicturc of many
gardens. especially those surrounding a mausoleum or a kiosk, redecís with its
four canals thc arrangement in che hoped-for Paradise, in which rivers or
founiains like kauthar and mlsabll will refresh the blcssed.
Water in its difieren! manifestations appeant with only a few exceptions,
such as thc drlugr as blcssing powcr; firc, howcvcr, is gcncrally chargcd with
negative power. The word ‘fire’, uscd so frcquently in thc Koran, denotes almost
without exception thc Hellfire. To be sure, God can transform the burning pyre
into a rose-garden, as he did for Abraham, for whom fire bccamc 'cool and
plcasant' Süra 21:69) u’hcn Nimrod had cast him into it; but buming is uttcriy
painful, be it real buming in Hdl or buming in the fire of separation, of
unrequited love, which appears to thc longing lovcr worsc than Hellfire. And
yet, this buming is ncccssary for thc hcart’s purification sce below, p. 95).
Pcrhaps some subconscious reminiscences of the Zoroastrian fire culi added to
thc dangerous aspect of tire in Islam did not Iblís toast of his fiery origin as a
proof of his superiority over Adam? Latcr poets would sometimcs daim that
their hcarts w-cre buming in love more than the great fire temples of ancient
Irán, while folk poets compared their hearts lo thc poltcr’s kiln which docs not
reveal thc fire that rages inside?5
Howcvcr, despite aüurions to Hel), fire also has iis positive qualitics. It gains
its specific place by the Divine manifestation through thc burning bush on Mi
Sinai. This was a wholcsomc fire, and latcr poets have tended to compare the
red lulip dial looks indeed like a llame lo thc fire on thc sacrcd mountain.
Another expression of thc Divine aspect of fire is the frcquently-used image of

SACRED ASRECTS OF SATURE ANO CULTURE II
the ‘iron in fire', a symbol well known in both the Christian and the Indian
tradiüons. Rüml explains the ani’l-haqq. '1 am the Truth' (= 1 am God: of the
martyr mysdc al-Iiallaj (d. 922) by comparing him to a píete of iron in the fire:
the red, glowing iron calis out 'I am fire'. and yet its substancc is still iron, not
fire m II i,347ff.). for no absoluto unión between inan and God is possible as
long as the material, bodily aspeas of the creature persist.16
A difieren! use of fire occurs in al'HallAj’s story of the moth which, slowly
approaching the candle, first sees its light, then feels its heat and finally
immolates itselfin the llame, to assume complete identification (ser below, p. 23).
But is it not so - as a later pool asks - that die moth knows no difierencc between
the candle of the Kaaba and that of lite idol temple? The end of the road is, in
eidter case, complete annihilation.
Candios are lighted in mausolcums and shrines and used during festivo nights
in honour of a saíne In Turkey, Xluslims used lo celébrate kaiulll, ‘candle', dial
is the nights of major feasts such as the Prophct's birthday or of his hcavenly
joumey, and the mosques are dccoratcd with artisrically illuminatcd signs and
inscriptions. These, formeriy of live candles, have now of course been replaced
by eleclric bulbs, and thus the modern woman who formeriy might have placed
a candle near a sacred placo to fulfil a vow may now simply bring a bulb to che
saint's shrine or che mosque.
Other fiery manifestado™ of power and 'signs of God' are chunderstonns,
lighming (Süra 30:24) and thunder. The Koran states ¡Süra 13:13) that ‘the
thunder praises Him', while for Ibn 'Arabl. lighming is a manifestation of the
Divine Essence. Henee, Divine ‘Flashes* are symbolized from early times as
iiglnnings' during which the wayfarer may proceed a lude bit. while in the
intcrvals the road is dark and it is not possible to walk - an idea derived from
Sara 2:20. Dangerous as the lighming is, it nevcrtheless releases the element of
fire inherent (according to ancienl physiology) in the straw as in other things -
thus, it is similar to the fire that immolates the moüt which it thereby hclps to
achieve reléase from the material world. These ideas, however, belong on the
whole to a later devclopmcnt in Islamic thought,1'
Much older is the role of the wind, which comes as a promise of His Mercy
(Süra 7:57; bccause it announces the arrival of rain. The gentío wind carried
Solomon's throne (cf, Süra 34:12), bul the icy wind, (arjar, dostroyed the
disobedient cities of 'Ad and Thamud (Süra 69:6 el al.). Thus, the lerm (arfar
becornes a dpher for any destructivo power. Many later poeta in the Persianate
world would boast that the scralching of their pen was like forjar 10 destroy their
patron's enemics, while others, less boastful, would seo the two aspeas of God’s
activity, the manifestado™ of His jamál, kindness and beauty, and His jalil,
majesty and wrath, in the two aspeets of the wind which dcstroys the infidels and
yet is a huntblc servant lo the prophel Solomon.

19 DECirHKRINO THE SIGNS OF GOD
One aspee! of ihe kinrlly wind is the southem or eastcm brceze, called nafas
ar ratonan. ‘the brcath of ihe Mcrciful’, which reached the Prophel from Yemen,
rarrying the fragrance ofUways al-Qaranl's piety, as formerly a breeze brought
the hcaling scent of Yüsufs shirt to his blind father Jacob (cf. Süra 12:94).
'God is the light of the heavens and of the earth’ (SOra 24:35). Thus statcs the
Koran in the I-ight Verse, and the Scripture emphasizes time and again that
God leads people from the darkncss to the light. min a; {ulumñl tlí' n-nta.
Light plays a central role in virtually all religious traditions, and the conccpt
of the light which in itself is too radiantly evident to be perceived by the weak
human cycs has clcar Koranic sancúon?8 In the early days of Koranic
intcrpretation, scholars believed that Muhammad was intended as the ‘niche' of
which the IJght Verse speaks, as the Divine light radiales through him, and
again, the Koran had called him toráj muñir, 'a shining lamp' (Süra 33:46). As
such, he is charged with leading people from the darkncss of infidclity and error
towards the light. One of the prayers transmitted from him is therefore, not
surprisingly, a prayer for light:
O God, set light in my hcart and light in my tomb and light Itefore me,
and light behind me; light on my right hand and light on my left; light
above me and light below me; light in my sight and light in my
perception; light in my countenance and light in my flesh; light in my
blood and light in my bones. Increasc to me light and give me light, and
appoint for me light and give me more light. Give me more light!
This prayer lias been repeated by lite pious for many centuries.
Al a rather early stage. Muhammad himsclf was surrounded with light or
even transformed into a luminous being: the light of prophcthood was inherited
through the previous prophets and shone on his father’s forehead when the
Prophel was begotten. In the Shia tradition. this light is continued through the
imams. Small wonder, then, that Muhammad's birth was marked by luminous
appearances, and later stories and poems have never biled lo desenlie the light
that radiated from Merca to the castles of Bostra in Syria - the luminous birth
and/or cpiphany of the founder of a religión is a well-known theme in religious
history (cf. the birth of Zoroaster. the Buddha, orJesús). For light is the Divine
sign that transforms the tenebrae of worldly life.
But not only the birth of the Prophel happencd with manifestations of light;
even more importantly, dic night when üie Koran was revealed first, the layla! al-
qadr (SOra 97). was regarried as filled with light. Pious Muslims still hope to be
blcsscd with the visión of this light, which indicated the apjiearance of die last,
all-encompassing revelation.
As for the Prophel, numerous myths grew around his luminous being: his
light was the first thing that God created, and mystics have embellished the

SACRED ASFF.CTS OF SATURE AND CULTURE ■3
conccpt of thc prc-eternal Muhammad as a column of light with evcr more
fanciful and surprising dctails which are reflected in mystical songs even in
BengaL*9
The symbolism of light is widely used, yet in onc case even a wholc
philosophy of light was developed by a Muslim thinker. ‘litis is the so-callcd
tekmal al-uhrilq, the Philosophy of Illumination by Shihabuddln as-Suhrawardl,
who had to pay with his life for his daring (beoríes (he was killed in 1191).
According to him, ‘existence is light’, and this light is brought to human beings
through innumerable ranges of angclic beings. Nlan's duty is to rctum from thc
dark well in the ‘western exile’ where he is imprisoned by matter to the Orient
of Lights. and his future fatc will be determined by the dcgrec of illumination
dial he has aequired during his life.3"
But this scarch, the quest for more and more light, is central not only in
Suhrawardi s illuminist philosophy; rather. thc Koranic statement that man
should come from thc tcncbrac to light led ccrtain Sufi masters to elabórate a
thcory of thc dcvclopment of thc human soul so that an individual, during long
ascetic preparadons, may grow into a truc ‘man of light' whose heart is an
unstained mirror to rcflcct thc Divine light and reveal it to others. Henry Corbin
has describcd this proccss lucidly in his study on I.'hmmr di Iwwn dans li snufisnu
uariien {1971). The equation God = light, based on Süra 24:35, was natural for
Muslims, but it was a novel inteqiretation of this fací when lqbál applicd it not
to God’s ubiquity but to thc láct that thc velocity of light is thc absolute measure
in our world,3'
Thc central role of thc concept of 'light' can also be gauged from the
considerable number of religious works whose tilles alludc to light and luminos-
ity, beginning from collcctions of teutilh such as Saghant’s Mashiriq al-mwib,
‘Rising points of the lights" or Baghawl's Ma¡¡bih as-¡urina, 'The lamps of thc
sunna' to mystical works like Sarrij’s Kilib al-luma', *Book of üte Brilliant Sparks',
Irüqfs ¿ama'a/. ‘Glittcrings' and Jamt's ¿auá’di, 'Flashes' each of them, and
many more, intended to offer a small fraction of the Divine or the Prophctic
light to guide their readers in the darkness of this world,
Thc most evident maniíéstation of Üte all-embracing and permeating light is
üte sun; but thc sun, likc thc other hcavenly bodics, belongs to the ijiten (Süra
6:76}, ‘those that set', to whom Abraham tumed first until he understood that
one should worship not diese transient powcrs but rather their Creator, as Süra
41:37 wams peoplc *not to fall down beforc the sun and thc moon' but before
Him whose signs thcy are. Islam clearly broke with any previous solar religión,
and the onler of die ritual prever takes great carr to have the moming prever
performed hefore sunrise and thc evening prever after sunset lest any connection
with sun-worship be imagined (and yet their timing perfeedy fits into thc cosmic
rltythm). Thc break with thc solar year and its replacement by a lunar ycar

'4 OECIFHERING THE SIGNS OF GOD
undcriincs this new oricntation. Nevertheless, tile sun’s role as a symbol for the
radiance of the Divine or of the Prophct is evident. The haduh has Muhammad
say: 'I am the sun, and my companions are like stars' (a« no. 44) - guiding stare
for dioso who will live after the sun has set. /nd in another haitlth he is creditcd
with daitning. 'The hatred of the liáis is the proof that I am the sun’ the
contrast of the nightiy bats, cnemics of the sun and of the true faith, was often
claborated, for example in Suhrawardl Maqtül's delightful Pcrsian íables.1’
The Prophet's connection with the sun becomes particulariy clear in the later
interprctation of the beginning of Süra 93, 'Bv the moniing light!', which was
underslood as pointing to the Prophet. It was perhaps Sana! (d. 1131: who
invenled or at least populanzed this equalion in his long poetical qaiída about
this Koranic chapter.” The ‘moniing light' seemed to reícr to the Prophet's
radiant check, whilc the Divine Oath ‘By the Nightl’ (Süra 92) was taken to
mean the Prophet's black hair.
As a symbol of God. the sun manifests both majesty and beauty; it illuminates
the worid and maltes fruits maturo, bul were it to draw closer it would destroy
everything by its fire, as Rümi says, waming his disciple to avoid the 'naked sun'
(« I 141).
More important for Islamic life than the sun, however, is the moon, the
luminary dial indícales the lime. Did not lite Prophet's ftnger split the moon, as
Süra 54:1 was inlerpreied? And it was this mirado that induced dte Indian king
Shakravarti Fannad to embrace Islam, as the Indo-Muslim legend proudly
tells.»
The moon is the symbol of beauty, and to compare one's beloved to the
radiant moon is the highest praisc that one can bestow upon him or hcr. For
whether it is dre b<ub. the full moon, or the Altó/. the slim crescent - the moon
conveys joy. To this day, Muslims say a little prayer or pocm when they sce the
cresccnt for the first timo; on this occasion, they like to look at a bcautiful person
or something made of gold and to utter blessings in dio hope dial the whole
month tnay be beautiful. It is told dial die grcat ludían Suli Niyámuddln AwliyS
used to place his head on his mothcr's ícct when the cresccnt appcared in the
sky, out of revcrence for bodi the luminary and die pious molher. Poets llave
compnsed innumerable verses on die occasion of the new moon, in particular at
the end of the fasting month. and one could casily ftl! a lengdty anide with die
delightful (bul sometimes also tasteless, comparisons which they have invented.
Tlius, for Iqbil, the crescent serves as a model ofthe bdiever who ‘scratchcs his
food out of his own side' to grow slowly into a radiant full moon, that is. the
person who does not humíllate himself by liegging or asking otlicrs for help.
It was easy to find conncctions between the moon and the Arabic alphabet.
Tlic twenty-eight letters of the alphabet seemed to correspond lo die twenty-
eight days of die lunar month. And does not the Koran mention twenty-eight

SACRED ASPECTS OF NATURE AND CULTURE '5
prophcts befare Muhammad by ñame, so that he is, as it were, the completion of
the lunar cyclc? Indccd, onc of his ñames, Tíhi (Süra 20:1), has the numerical
valué of fourteen, the number of the luí) moon.
While the moon is a symbol of human beauty, it can also be takcn as a
symbol of the unattainable Divine beauty which is rcflcctcd evcrywhcrc: the
traditional East Asían saying about the moon that is reílected in every kind of
water has also found its way into the Islamic tradirion. Thus, in onc of Rümi's
fincst poems:
You seek Him high in His hcavcn -
He shines like the moon in a lake,
But if you enler the water,
up to the sky He will fice ...
(o no. 900'1
Some mystically-inclincd Turks even found a connecúon between the words
AUah, hilül ‘crescent’ and lila 'tulip', all of which consist of the same lelters a-l-l-h
and seem therefore mysteriously intcrconncctcd.
The stars, although bclonging to the áfitin, ‘thosc that set’, can serve as signs
for mankind (Süra 6:97); they too prestíate befare die Lord 'and die star and
the tree prostrate both' (Süra 55:6}. I'he importance of the ‘star’ as a mystícal
sign can be understood from the beginning of Süra 53, ‘By the Star!’
The stars as guiding signs gained extreme practical importance in navigation,
and inspired madiernaücal and asuonomical works in die early centones of
Islam. The great number of aslronomical terms in Western languages which are
derived from the Arabic prove the lcading role of Muslim astronomers. Among
the stars diat were pardcularly important were the polar star and Suhayl,
Canopus. and the Pleiades, as well as Ursa Major, svhicli often appear in
literatura. The Koran speaks also of shooting stars, sliiháb, which serve to shy
away the devils when they try to enter the hcavcnly prccincts (Süra 72:8-9).
Astronomy went along with astrology, and the properties of the zodiacal signs
(as they were known from classical antiquity as well as from Oriental lora) were
takcn over and claboraled by Muslim scientists. Ni?ami’s (d. 1209) Persian epos
Hafl Paykar, 'The Sevcn Picturcs' or ‘Bcautics', is the best cxamplc of the feeling
that everything is bound in secret conncctions - stars and days, fragranccs and
colours. Thosc who liad eyes to see could read die script of the stars in the sky,
as Najmuddin Kubri id. 1220/1 informa his readers, and asirological predictions
were an integral part of culture. Thus aróse the use of astrologically suitalile
ñames for children, a custom still practiscd in parts of Muslim India, for
cxamplc. Indeed. it is often diflicult to understand the different layers of Islamic
poetry or mystical works without a certain knowledge of astrological traditions,
and complicated treatises such as Muhammad Ghawth Gwaliori’s d. 1562:

DECIFHERING THE SIGNE OF GOD
|6
Jmúto-i Huma, 'Ihc IgtJcwls, poinl lo astounding cross-rdations imohing
almost every ’sgn’ in the .universo The anciem tradition of inirrprrting the
planas Júpiter as the greal fortune, Satum as the ¡Hindú! doorkccpcr of the
sky, Venus as the delightful musirían, etc. «as used by artisls al many medieval
Mtnlim courts. Tbere is no dearth of astrological representations «i medieval
vtssds, cspecially on metal.
Asuology. as it was practised by (he greatcsl Mudim scienlists sueh as ah
BlriM (d. 1048, offered believen another proof that croything was parí of
cosmic harmony - providrd dial one could read ihe signs. Bul when it carne lo
the sky itself, the ancicnt idea that this was the dwrlling-place ofthe High God
could not be maintained. The sky is dearty a symbol pointing lo Divine
transcendence, because God is the creator ofthe sesen heavens and oftheearth;
and, as the Thronc Vene ¡SOra 2:255)al,nB' ’H»Thronr enrompassrs braveas
and earth’. The heaven is, likc eventhing etee, obedient to God’s orders,
bending down befare His Majesty. And yes, one finds complaints about the
tuming sphrres, and Muslims sccm lo join, al times, the rrmarks of their
predecessors in Irán and anciem Arabia for whom the tuming wheel of the sky
was connected with cruel Falr (see below, p. 32,.
Ijght and darknrss produce cofaun. Hrre, again, one enten a sast firid of
research. The combinaóon ofthe áfferem stais with coloun, as found in NizWs
poem, is not rarc as Satum is the last ofthe ihen known planeta and its colour is
blaik. ’therr is no tolour Iryond black'. The luminous appcaranres which the Sufi
may cncountcr on his spiritual palh are again diffcreni. and so are the sevrn colours
which are obtened in mysdcal sisions in differcnl sequenets.’6 One thing,
however. is clear: groen is ahrays connected with Parad» and poaatsve, spintual
things, and thosc who are dad in green, the uiiifiih nf Persian writings. are
angela or saints. This is why. in Egypt. Muslims would pul green material
around tombstones: it should foreshadow Paradise Green is also the colour of
(he Prophel, and lias dncendants would wear a green turban. Thus, green may
constituir, for cumple, in SimnM’s system, the etemal beantude which,
manifested in the cmerald mountain, lies behind the black.
Dark Uue is the ascetic colour, the colour of mouming. Red is connected
with lile, hcalth and blood; it is the colour of the brida) veil that seems to
guaramee fertility, and is used as an apotropaic colour. Red wine, as wcll as lite
in its porilive aspeen) and the red rose, all point to the Divine Glory. as it is said
that the ndi al Umi, ‘the doak of Divine Glory’, is radiant red.
Ydlow points to weakncss. as the weak yellow straw and the palé lovcr lack
firc and life-giving blood; in in honry-coloured hue. yellow was used for the
dioses oítheJcws during the Middlc Ages.
A full study ofthe coloursymbolism ofthe Sufi garments is still required Red
ivas prefmcd by the Badawiiya in Egypt, green by the Qadiriyya, and the

SACRED ASFECTS OF NATURE AND CULTURE ■7
Chishtis in India donned a frock whose hue varied between cinnamon and rosy-
yellowish. Whether some masters wore doaks in the colour that corresponded to
the colours that they had seen in their visionary experiences is an open question,
but it seems probable.’8 But in any case, all the diflcrrnt colours are only
reílections of the invisible Divine light which needs ccrtain meaos to become
visible - in the fibghal AllAh (SOra 2:138), ‘the colouring of God’, the multicol-
oured phenomena retum to their original ‘onc-colouredness’, a term used by
Sufis for the last stage of unification.
PLAÑ IS AND ANIMALS
The Tree of Life is a concepl known from ancient times, for tile tree is rooled in
the earth and maches the sky, thus bclonging to both spheres, as does the human
being. The feeling that life power manifests itself in the growth of a tree, that
lcaves miraculously sproul out of liare twigs and fruits mature year after year in
cydical renewal, has impressed and astounded humanity through the ages.
Henee, the tree could become a symbol of everything good and useful, and the
Koran states, for this reason, that ‘a good word is like a good tree' ¡Süra 14:24).
Trees are oñen found near saints’ tombs: the amazing number of trees
connected with the ñame of ’Abdul Qadir Gllknl in Sind was mentioned by
Richard Burton and others.*0 Visitors frequently use such trees to remind the
saint of their wishes and vows by hanging rags sometimes sliaped like minute
eradles on their branches or, as for example in Gazurgah near Herat, drising
a nail into the trcc’s trunk.
It is natural that Paradisc, as an eterna! garden, should boast its very special
trees, such as the Tuba, whose ñame is devclopcd from the grccting ‘Happincss’,
Ubi, to litóse pious people who believe (Süra 13:29); that is, the Tuba tree is the
personified promise of etemal bliss that one hopes for in Paradise. Likewise, the
boundaries of the crcatcd universc are marked by the Sidra tree, mentioned in
Süra 53:14 the ‘Lote tree of the farthest boundary1, which defines the limit of
anything imaginable; and it is at this very Sidra tree where, according to legend,
even the mighty Gabriel had to stay back during the Prophet’s heavenly joumey
while the Prophct himsclf was blcssed with reaehing the immediate Divine
Presence bevond Where and How.
Thinkers and mystics could imagine the wholc universc as a tree and spokc,
as did Ibn ’Arabl, of the sfugaral al-kawn. the ‘tree of existence’, a tree on which
man is the last, most prccious fruit. On the other hand, Bayezid Bistaml, in his
mystical llight, saw the 'tree of Unity’, and Abü’l-Husayn an-Nüri, at about the
same time, envisaged the ‘tree of gnosis’, ma'rifa.*'
A dclailed account ofthe ‘tree oftheJutumva. the ‘manly virtue' as embodied
in later futuima sodaliücs, is given in a fifteenth-century Turkish work:*w the
trunk of this tree, under which the exemplary young liero lives, is ‘doing good’;

>8 DECIFHER1NG THE SIGNS OF GOD
its branches are honesty; its leavcs proper etiqucttc and rcstraint; its roots the
words of the profession of faith; its fruits gnosis, ma'nja, and tile company of the
saints; and it is watered by God’s mercy.
This is reminiscenl of the Sufi ¡hajaia, the 'family tree1 tliat shows the disciples
their spiritual anccstry, Icading back to the Prophet: drawings often of
enormous size - symbolize the continuous (low of Divine guidance through the
past generations, branching out into various directions.
Sonic thinkcrs embellishcd the image of the ‘tree of the world" poetically.
Probabls nobody has used the image of the tree for different typcs of humans
more frequcntly and extensively than the Ismaili philosopher-poct Najir-i
Khusraw id aftcr 1072). for whom almost cvcrything created tumed into a ‘tree’:
You may think, clevcr man, this world’s a lovely tree
Whose tasty, fragrant fruits are the intelligent ...
or else:
The bodv is a tree. its fruit is rcason; lies and msc
are straw and thoms ... «
The cióse connection belween the tree and life, and especially spiritual life, is
bcautifullv cxprcsscd in the huti!h according to which the person who pcrforms
the tftiir, the recollection of God, is likc a groen tree amid dry trccs - a likeness
which inakes tile Muslini reader think imntediately of dry wood as fuel for Hell,
as it is alluded to in the Koranic curse on AbO Lahabs wiíé, ‘the carrier of fuel
wood' iSúra 111:5). Thus Ruml sings in one of his quatrains:
When the spring breeze of Lose begins to blow -
every twig that's not dry begins to move in dance!
For Love can move only the living branches, while the dried-up twigs remain
unmoved and are destined to become kindling for Hellfire.
Tile Tree of Life. whose branches are the Divine Ñames," is rooted in tile
Divine Prcscncc: or else, the profession of faith can be scen as a tree whose outer
rind, fonned by the negación la, is puré negativity, and whose sap flows üirough
the h. the last and essential letter of AUah sce Figure, p, 191 (A< IV 3,182ÍT.).
In addition, not only the created universo bul also God Himself can be
symbolizcd through a tree: poets, especially in the Indo Pakistani arcas, sang of
the tree 'God'. Qa<Ji Qádan in Sind d. 1551) sccs the Divine Bcioved as a
banyan tree whose innumerable air roots seem lo hide the fací that the tree in
reality is only one (as the phenomena hide the Divine l'nity), while Sultán Bahü
in the Panjab (d. 1692; sings of God as the jasminc tree that grows in his heatt,
watered by the constan! repetition of the profession of faith until His fragrance
pcmicates his entire being.*5

SACRED ASPECTS OF NATURE AND CULTURE •9
Thc ¡hatoda, centrcd on llic cnmtial lettcr h. with ihc la w¡ üic ‘outer rind'
Henee comes thc idea encountcred in popular traditions, for example, that to
plant a tree on someonr’s grave not only has a practical aspect to it but is also
thought to lessen the punishmcnt in thc grave and consolé thc dcad person. Thc
barato of a tree can be transferred by touching it or, in certain places, by
crccping under a low-bcnt tree or its strangely-shaped branches; a very typical
tree of this kind can be seen ncar a shrine in Ucch (southrm Panjab).
París of the tree carrv thc same barato as docs the wholc tree, be it its leas-es
or its twigs. 'fhc custom of beating pcoplc - in jest or eamest with fresh twigs
is basicallv an oíd fertility rite, which convcys somc ofthe tree's lifc powcr. It was
practiscd in medieval Egypt whcn the jester, ’ifrit ai-matinal, jokingly bcat thc
spectators whcn the matinal on which the cover of the Kaaba was carried to
Merca was paraded in grand stylc through the streets of Cairo; similar customs
can be observed during the Muharram processions in Hyderabad/Dcccan.
The tree's blessing power is also preserved in the wrcath. Thc custom of
garlanding pilgrims returnnig from Mecca or honoured gucsts is a faint
rcflcction of this fecling of thc tree's barato, as is the garlanding of saints* tombs;
every visitor to major shrines in thc subcontincnt knows of thc numerous littlc
shojjs that sell flowers and wreaths ncar the cntrancc to thc sacrcd places.
Not only docs thc tree in general bear thc flow ofvital powcr, but also specific
trees or their twigs play a role in folklore and lilerature. Sometimcs the barato of
such trees is ascribcd to thc fact that thcy had grown out of thc misuAk. thc
toothpick of a saint which he thrcw away and which took root to grow into a

to DECIFHEIUNG THE SIGNS OF GOU
powcrful tree. A good cxamplc is theJunaydi shrinc in Gulbarga/Deccan.
On a Koranic basis, it is the date paim which has a spccial rclation with life:
the Koranic account of Mary's labour (Süra 19:23!!) lells that the Virgin, during
her birth pangs, grasped the trunk of a dried-up palm trec, which showered
dates upen her as a Divine sign of the Prophet to be born. (The idea has inspirad
Paúl Valéry's bcauriful pocm /a palm/.' The Araba love date paltos, and dates
were and are used in severa! dishes prepared for religious purposes, such as the
twelvc dates in the preparad for feasts in the/nuoiv sodalities.*6 Another
important Iradition in the Talts oftlu Puphfíi points to the idea that lig traes ara
protected and should not be bumt, as the Gg trae ofTered its leaves to cover
Adam’s and Eve’s shamc after the Fall, And did not God swear in the Koran
(Süra 95:1) ‘By the the fig and the olive? The olive is even mora prominent in
the Koran, not only in the Divine Oaths but also as the mysterious trae, ‘neither
castem ñor western’ (Süra 24:35). whosc oil shines even without being touched
by firc. The cypress is called ‘frac’ and reminds Persian and Turkish poets of
their beloved’s tal! slender suture, while the plañe trae sccms to rcscmble a
human being do its Icaves not look like human hands which it lifts as ifit were
in prayer?
Such comparisons lead to the concept ofdie garden - the garden as a replica
of Paradisc, Paradisc an eterna! garden in which every plant and shntb sings the
praisc ofGod. The Koran had rcpcatcdly cmphasizcd the rcality ofrcsurrection
by rcminding the lisleners of the consunt renewal ofNatura in spring, when the
rains had quickened the seemingly dead earth. Thercfore Persian and Turkish
poetry abounds in such poems, for the fresh grecncry of bushes and traes looked
as if Paradisc had descended on earth.*’
Abü'l-Tfusayn an-Nürt in ninth-century Baghdad elalatraled die comparison
of the heart with a garden ftlled with fragrant plants, such as 'rccollection of
God’ or ‘glorification of the lx>rd’, while a somewhal later mystic speaks of the
'garden of hearing’ in which die leaves are ofGod pleasure and die blossoms of
praisc.’8 The garden ofthe heart, dien, is blessed by the rain ofgrace, or. in the
case ofsintiera. Ihc rain ofwrath destroys its poisonous plants. Likewise, one may
scc human beings similar to plants - some like fragrant Gowers, some like grass.
Certain plants are thought to be endowed with spccial powcrs: the wild rué,
n/Mad, is used against the Evil Eyc (usually in fumigación), and the so-called
l'nghiml*’ gul in Afghanistan. a small yellow plant with litde darte lines, sccms to
bear the marks of the Prophet’s Gngcrs. But in the Islamic iradition, as
clscwhcrc, the rose has pride ofplace. The Prophet kissed the rose and placed it
on his eyes, for 'the red rose is pan ofGod’s glory, kibnm'.'^ On the other hand,
legend rlaims that the rose grew out of the drops of perspiralion which fell from
the Prophet’s body during his nighdy joumey thercfore it carnes his swect
fragrance.

SACRED ASPECTS OF NATURE AND CULTURE 21
To the poeis, die violct could appcar as an oíd ascetic who, sitting in his dark
blue cloak on the green prayer rug, namely the lawn, medítales modesdy, his
head bent on his linee, while the lily can be interpreted - owing to the shape of
its petáis - as Dhü ’l-fiqta, '.'Ml's miraculous sword, or else it praises God with ten
tongues. The tulip may appcar as a coqucttish beau with a black heart, but in
the religious tradition it reminds the spcctator of bloodstained shrouds, cspecially
those of the martyrs of Kerbela, with the black spot resctnbling a heart bumt by
sorrows.5' ln lqbál's poctry, on the other hand, it symbolizes the fiante of Sinai,
the glorious manifcsiation of God's .Majesty, and at the same time it can stand
for the truc believer who braves all the obstaclcs that try to hinder his unfolding
into full glorv,
All the flowers and leaves, however, are engaged in silent praise of God, for
‘there is nothing on Earth that does not praise its Creator’ {Süra 59:24 et al.), and
cvery Icaf is a tonguc to laúd God, as Sa'di (d. 129a) sings in an oft-imitated verse
which, if wc believe the historian Dawlatsliah, the angelí sang for a whole ycar
in the Divine presente.5’
'litis feeling of the never-ending praise of the crearures is expressed most
tenderly in die story of the Turkish Sufi, Sünbül Efendi 'sixteenth century), who
sent out his disciples to bring (lowers to the convent. While all of them retumed
with fine bouquets, one of them, Meritez Efendi, ofl'crcd üte master only a little
withcred flower. for, he said, ‘all the others wcrc engaged in the praise of God
and I did not want 10 disturb them; this one, however, had just finished its ¡lióla,
and so 1 brought it’. It was he who was to become the mastcr’s successor.
Not only the plañís but the animáis too praise God, each in its own way.
There are mythological animáis such as the ftsh in the depth of the fathomless
otean on which is standing the bull who carries the earth; and the Pcrsian saying
az la rnáhi, ‘From the moon to the fish’, means ‘all through the universe’.
However, it is difficult to cxplain the use of fish-shaped amuiets against the Evil
Eye in Egypt and the frequent occurrence of fish cmblcms and escutchcons in
the house of the Nawwabs of Oudh. A pre-Islamic heirloom is likely in these
cases. While in the Koran animáis are comparatively rarely mentioned, the Tala
ofUu ProphOs tcll how animáis consoled Adam after the Fall.
There seems lo be no trace of ancient totemism among the Acal» Muslims,
while in the Turkic tradition ñames like bughta, bugha ‘steer’ or bOru ‘wolf could
be understood as pointing to former tótem animáis of a clan. Yct, in somc
dervish orders. mainly in the oíf-centre regions of the Islamic worid, one
encounters what appcar to be ‘totcmistic’ relies: for example, die ’lsawiyya in
North /Vírica take a tótem animal and behave like it during a certain festival,
when a steer is ritually (bul not according to Islamic ritual!) slaughtcrcd.53 The
identification ofcats and dervishes among the Heddawa beggar-dervishcs seems
to go back to the same roots.5* Although these are exceptional cases, some

DF.CIPIir.RlNG THE SIGNS OF GOD
22
remnants of the belief in the sacred power ofcertain animáis slill survive in Sufi
traditions in general. Onc oí thcm is thc use of the fist or fisl, the animal skin
which constituies the spiritual master’s seat in a number of Sufi brothcrhoods.
Whcn medieval dervishes such as Haydaris and JawSliqis ciad diemselves in
animal skins, they must have fclt a sort of identificarán with the animal.
Onc problem whcn dealing with the role of animáis in religión is the
transformarán of a previously sacred animal into an uncirán one, as happened
for example in ancienl Israel with the prohibirán ofpork, the boar being sacred
to thc Canaanitcs. Thc prohibirán of pork is one of the rare food taboos that
lives on in Islam. Therc, howcvcr, the true rcason for its prohibirán is unknown,
and it is generally and partly correedy) attributed to hygicnic reasons. Yet, it
scems that thc uglincss ofboars shocks thc spcctator perhaps even more litan the
valid hygicnic reasons, and I disdnedy remember thc oíd Anatohan villagcr who.
al Ankara Zoo, exclaimed at the siglit of the only animal of this kind a
particularly ugly specimen, to be surc): 'Praiscd be thc Lord, who has forbidden
us to cal this horrible creaturc!' Bcsidcs, pigs are in general thought to be related
in some way or another lo Christians: in 'Attar's Mantiq ul-ty'r, the pious Shaykh
San'án is so lieside himselfwith lose for a Christian maiden that he even lends
her swine, and in Rúmt's poetry thc 'Franks' who brought pigs to the sacred city
of Jerusalem occur more than once.» With the deeply-rooted aversión of
Muslims to pork and to pigs, it comes as a true cultural shock for parents when
their childrcn, in British or Ameritan schools, have to leam nurserv rhymes
about ‘dtrec litde piggies", illustratcd by pretty drawings, or are sometimes
olfered innocetll maraipan pigs.
The Muslims liase devoted a good number of scholarly and entertaining
works to zoology, for cxamplc al-Jabi?’s and Damlrt’s works; but on the whole
the characteristics of animáis were provided eilher by the rare allusions in the
Koran or, after the eighth century, by Bidpai’s fablcs known as Katila ua Dimu,
which became widely rcad in thc Islamic world after Ibn al-Muqalfa- (d. 7561
had first rendered them into Arabic.
The Koran (Süra 2:26 mentions the tiny gnat as an cxamplc of God’s
instructing mankind by means oflikcncsscs. In the Tales ofthe Propkets, we leam
that it was a gnat that enterad Pharaoh's brains, thus causing his slow and
painful dcath - thc smallcst inscct is ablc to overeóme the mightiest tyrant. Thc
bcc (Süra 16:68) is an 'inspired' animal whose sktll in building its house points to
God’s wisdom. In later legend, 'Ah ibn Abi Talib appcars as the amlr an-naN, ‘the
Princc ofthe bees’ bccause thcy helped him in a battlc, and popular tradirán in
both medieval Turkcy and Indo Pakistan claims that honey becomes swcct only
when the bees constandy hum the |aimñl-i ¡hanfa, die blcssings over thc Prophct.
while gathering thc othctwisc tasteless sap/
Thc ant appears in Süra 27:t8ff, a weak creature which was nevertheless

SACRED ASFECTS OI SATURE ASO CULTURE
honoured by Solomon, and the legend that it brought a locust’s leg to the mighty
king is often alluded to - 'a locust’s leg' is an insignificant but well-intended gift
from a poor pcrson. The spider, on the one hand, is a creature that builds 'the
wcakcst house' (Süra 29:41), and yet it was a spider that helped the Prophet
during his hegira: whcn he spent the night with Abo Baki in a cave, the spider
trove its web so deftly over the cave’s entrance that the Mcccans who pursued
the Prophet failed to rccognize his hiding-place. So legend tells.
Although not mentioned in the Koran, the moth or buttcrfly that immolates
itself in the candle’s fire was transfbrmcd into a widesprcad symbol of the soul
that erases annihilation in the Divine fire. It reached Western literature through
Goethe's adaptation of the morif in his pocm Siligt Sthnauht?1
As for the quadnipeds. the titlc ofSura 2, AI-Bai/ara 'The Cow’, is taken from
the sacrifice of a yellow cow (Süra 2:671!’.; by Moscs; but during a religious
discussion at Emperor Akbar’s court in 1578, a pious Hindú happily remarked
that God rnust have rcally loved cows to cali the largest chapter of the Koran
after this animal - an innocent misunderstanding dial highly amused the Muslim
courtiers.18
The lion, everywhcre the symbol of power and glory, appcars in the same
role in Muslim tradition, and 'All ibn Abl Talib, whose proper ñame was first
Haydara or Haydar). ‘Lion', was praised from early days as die ‘lion of God’
and therefore surrounded by numerous ñames that [Hiint to his leonine qualities,
such as Ghadanfar, 'lion', or Asadulláh, 'God’s lion’, or in Persian arcas 'Aíshli, and
undcrTurkish influence Asían 'Ali and 'Ali Aíslan (both shlr and aíslan mean ‘lion’).
The truc Saint, it is said, is like the golden lion in the dark forest of diis world,
and fierre lions bow fiefore him or serve him as obedient moutlts. Bul perhaps
the most moving role of the lion is found in Rümi’s Hhi müfthi. People travellcd
from near and far to scc a famous strong lion, but nobody dared to come elose
10 him from fear; however, if anyone had stroked him, he would have been the
kindest creature imaginable. What is required is absolute faith, then diere is no
danger any more,
In popular belief, the cat is the lion’s aunt. or clsc shc is bom from his
sneezing.® The Prophet’s fondness for cats is often referred to, and whether or
not the hnhth that ’Love of cats is part of faith’ is genuine, it reflecLs the general
feeling for the littlc fclinc. For the cat is a clcan animal; her prescnce docs not
annul ritual prayer, and the water from which shc has drunk can still be used for
abludon. 'Hiere are variants of the story of how Abü Hurayra’s cat, which he
always carried in his bag, saved the Prophet from an obnoxious snake,
whereupon the Prophet petted her so that the mark ofhis fingen is still visible in
the four dark lines on most cats’ forchcads, and, becausc the Prophet’s hand had
stroked her back, cats never fall on their backs. Whether the custom that a
‘Mothcr ofcats’ and later die ’Father of cats’ accompanied the Egyptian ma^nal

■H DEC1FHER1NC THE SIGNS OF GOD
on the pilgrimage lo Mecca is a dim survival of the ancient Egyplian cal culi is
not olear.6” Love of cats is parücularlv evident in Maghribi tradition, whcre,
among thc Heddawa for example, thc noviccs are called juWt, ‘litde tom-cau'.
Ibn Mashish is credited widi love ofcats, and thcrc is also an oíd Suft shrinc in
Fez called ¿Sui» fíi Qfitñt, ‘that of the father ofcats’, just like Pisih SulUn. Lady
with kitten’, in Anatolia. Yct, despite the cat’s positivo evaluation in eariy
lilerature, there is no dcarth ofsumes (especially in Pcrsian; about hypocritical
cats which, while pcacefullv murmuring their prayers or Ote dhih, never forget to
kill tlte inice which they have cheated by their allcged repentance from
bloodshcd.
While thc cat is a clcan animal, the dog is regarded as unclean, and his
presence spoils the ritual prayer. He appears as fiercc and greedy (anyone who
has encountered the street dogs in Anatolia will appreciate this remark), and thus
thc dog could represent thc naf¡, tile lowcr soul ‘which im ites lo evil' (Sara
12:53). $u*is were scen a hlack dog besides thcm, which was explained to thc
onlooker as the hungry «i/¡; bul, as the dog can be trained and become a kalb
mu'allm, an 'instructcd dog', thus thc lowcr faculúes too can be lumed into
somediing useful. On thc other hand, the Koran mcnñons thc dog that laithfully
kept company with the Seven Sleepers (Süra 18:18-22), and this legendary
creature, called (¿finir in legends, bccamc a symbol of fidelity and trustwordii-
ness, The poets would love to be ‘thc dog of fidelity' at their bcloved's door or,
in Shia Islam, at the slirine of an imam. By unswervingly watching there, they
hoped to be purified as was the dog of thc Seven Sleqxrs, who was honoured by
being mentioned in thc sacrcd Book, Thc proper ñame Kalb U4, "All’s dog‘, in
some Shia familics expresses this wish. And when poets tcll how thc demented
lover Majnün used lo kiss the paws of thc cur that bad passed through the
quarter of his belovcd laylá, they mean to point out that eren thc lowliest
creature can become a carricr of blcssings by his associauon with thc belovcd.6’
Tile remarkable ainouni of positivo allusions to dogs in Persian poetry (conlrary
to the rather negativo picturc of cats in thc same literature) may stem from thc
Zoroastrian lave for dogs which, in thc dualistic Zoroastrian system. belonged to
the good side of creation.
Thc camcl, mentioned as sign of God's crcañvc powcr in Süra 88:17 CDon’t
they look at the camcl how it was created?') became in later tradition a fine
symbol of the nafs which, restire and selfish in the beginning, could be cducatcd
(similar to the dog) to carey the sccker to his goal, thc Divine Presence, dancing
on the thomy roads despite its heavy burden when listening 10 the drivcr’s song.
Among the negativo animáis represented in thc Koran is thc donkey, whose
braying 'is thc uglicst possiblc voicc' (Süra 31:19) and whose stupidity is
understood from the remark dial dio ignorant who are unable to understand and
appreciate thc contenta of thc sacrcd seriptures are like 'thc donkey that carrics

SACRE» ASPECTS Of NATURE AND CULTURE a5
books' (Süra 62:5). In legcnd, the donkey is said to be accursed because Iblls
managcd to entcr Noah's Ark by dinging to its tail. Traditionally, the donkey is
connected in lslamic literature (as in dassical antiquity) with dirt and sensuality
and becamc, in mysdcal parlance, the representaúve of the material world which
has to be left behind, just as Jesus’s donkey remained on carth while he was
uplifted to heaven.1"
Thcrc is, however, the while mulé Duldul (the ñame mcans 'large hedgehog’)
which the Prophet gave to 'All and on which he performed many of his hcroic
deeds. Nowadays, Duldul's pictures can be found on the walls of shrines and 011
cheap prints in India and Pakistán to bring blcssing to the building and to its
owner.
The horsc is üte typical Arabic animal, created, according to a myth, from
the swift southem wind, and Arabic literature abounds with praises of the
beautiful creature. The beginning of Süra loo speaks of the ‘running horses’
which appear as galloping through the world towards the Gnal goal the Day of
Judgment. But it rarelv appears in truly religious contexts, although it may serve
in the Sufi tradition again as a mi/i-animal, which has to be starved and broken
in order to becomc uscful for its owner; the numerous allusions to the ‘restive
horse' and the miniature drawings of starved horses seem to be related lo this
Concept.61 In Shia áreles, it is bclieved that a while horsc will carry the Mahdi
when he dcsccnds to earth at the end oftime; therefore a fine stecd with henna-
colourcd feet is led every year in the Mubarram proccssion (the so-callcd dhü ’l-
to make sure that his horse is saddled in case he should suddenly appear.
It is touched by the pious for the sakc of blessing.
A strange mount, smallcr than a horsc and larger than a mulé, was Burüq
(connected with ban¡, 'lightning'), that carricd the Prophet during his mi'rij
through dre heavens into the Divine Prescnce. It is described as having a
wonran's face and a peacock’s tail, and was the embodimem of swiftness and
beauty. Pocts and painters have never dred of dcscribing it with new colourful
details. Buriq nowadays appears frequendy on pictures; and, in the eastern lands
of the Muslim world, especially in Pakistán, trucks and buses are dccoratcd with
its ‘likeness’, perhaps in the hope that its barata will bring the vehicle as swiftly to
its goal as the real Bur.lq carricd the Prophet through the universe.6*
Serpents, so imporlant in the Christian tradition, do not play a central role in
Islam. The Koran (Süra 7:117, 2o:66(T.) alludes to Moses' rod that tumed into a
serpent to devour the rods of Pharaoh’s sorcerers. For they can appear as mfs-
animáis which are blinded by the spiritual master, who resembles an emerald.6*
?lso, it was Iblls in the shapc of a small snakc which, carricd into Paradisc owing
to the peacock’s ncgligence. induced Adam and Eve to eat from the forbidden
fruit. However, the role of the snakc and its greater relative, the dragón, is not as
central as one would cxpect. Yet, both snakes and dragona (the latter appearing

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