A Member’s Remembrance

(On the occasion of the 25^th anniversary celebration of South Bay Islamic Association (SBIA) of San Jose, California. From the Commemorative Journal “Reflections,”
published by SBIA on 6 February, 2005.)

By Hasan Zillur Rahim

In 1986 the Board of Directors of South Bay Islamic Association, led by its president Mohammed Rafiuddin, made a rash decision by appointing me the editor of Iqra. This Islamic magazine was brought into being and nurtured by Mertze Dahlin, a past president of SBIA and a trailblazer for many of the Muslim organizations of the San Francisco Bay Area since the ‘60s.

I agreed to take on the responsibility only after receiving assurance from the Board that I would have complete freedom in writing and publishing articles that reflected the state of Muslims in general and American Muslims in particular, warts and all.

While we were making progress as a hard working, law-abiding community, I felt that we also had many shortcomings we needed to address. I began writing some strong editorials on the lack of freedom and democracy in the Muslim world, our ignorance of American history and government, the verbosity and fatuousness of our Imams, the arrogance of immigrant Muslims toward African-American Muslims, and so on.

I was certain that the Board would give me the boot. Instead, I received overwhelming support from it and the community at large. Iqra was to become an integral part of my life for twelve years. Its readership grew steadily over the years, reaching Muslims in all fifty states.

The discipline of stringing together coherent sentences to express some interesting or important ideas for Iqra gave me the courage to submit articles for publication to the San Jose Mercury News and other newspapers and organizations such as the Pacific News Service. I wanted to enlarge the scope of my thinking and write on issues that I felt would be of interest to all Americans, not just to American Muslims. I was thrilled when some of my articles were published. Competition for space in the op-ed section of any newspaper in America is fierce but I found that editors generally welcomed fresh Muslim perspective when clearly and concisely expressed.

As I re-read what I wrote several years ago in Iqra, what strikes me most is how earnest I seem in them! I want to say to myself: “Bring your tone down a notch. You don’t have to yell to be heard!”

Here are excerpts from some of the editorials and articles I wrote during my tenure as editor of Iqra. If there is any value to them, it is in the insight they may offer into the thoughts and emotions of a growing community striving to define itself in America.

(Iqra, September 1990) American Muslims are finally waking up to their political responsibilities. Politicians are aggressively courting Muslim voters, something unthinkable only a few years ago. Muslims are contesting elections at the local, state and national levels. The signs are promising but unless we are guided by a sense of ethics, this initial success may prove fleeting. Americans are disillusioned with their leaders, as recent polls and voter apathy suggest. Compassion, fairness, accountability, honesty are values that seem to be missing from a politician’s life. It is all about power and profit … For Muslims aspiring to political offices, the choice must be clear: they must never sacrifice ethics for political expediency. Ethics is not only spiritual but also practical … We Muslims are only beginning to realize the positive contributions we can make to America. Our sense of family and community is strong. We are against drugs and violence. We respect the environment. We try to live within our means. We can help reintroduce these values to the social and political life of America, helping our country move toward the ideal on which she was founded.

(Iqra, January 1991) No matter how the Gulf crisis is resolved, Muslims will sooner or later have to confront the anachronism of monarchies and emirates, for it will bear directly on the role we play on the world’s stage in the years to come. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and other wealthy Gulf states have contributed a higher percentage of their GNP to underdeveloped countries and to the Palestinian cause than any other countries in the world. Yet there are legitimate grievances against them. However benevolent they may appear to be, they are undemocratic, where the full flowering of the human potential is impossible. In spite of earning over a trillion dollars in revenues from oil in the past decade, the Arab countries have not been able to translate their wealth into programs that would lead to self-reliance … Is there a way out of this morass? Yes, there is. Despotism must give way to democracy. Self-reliance must become a national goal. National wealth must be evenly distributed. Everyone, irrespective of gender, must be allowed to realize their potential by nurturing their unique talents. The right to govern must be based on the support of the population and not by the family one is born into. Participatory politics has been absent from Arab countries. The West has vested interest in perpetuating monarchies, emirates and sheikdoms because that is how it can best manipulate the oil-rich nations. In the aftermath of the Gulf crisis, Muslims hope that changes will be forced on the Arab nations from within, leading to democratic institutions and centers of learning that were once the envy of the world.

(Iqra, June 1992) In the minds of most Americans, Islam in America began with Elijah Muhammad’s Nation of Islam in the 1950s. A key figure in it was the charismatic Malik El-Shabazz, more widely known as Malcolm X. In the beginning, the Nation of Islam defined itself by its idea of separatism. This did not last long. Following a split with Elijah Muhammad in 1963 and a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964, El-Shabazz renounced separatism and embraced mainstream Islam. After Elijah Muhammad’s death in 1975, his son, Wairth Deen Muhammad, steered the Nation toward universal Islam. In 1985, he formally instructed his followers to integrate themselves into their local Muslim communities. The process of integration continues to this day and has been anything but easy. While Deen Muhammad’s bold actions undoubtedly brought indigenous and immigrant Muslims closer together, it has also revealed barriers between the two groups. African-American Muslims often find themselves at arms length from the generally more well-to-do and educated immigrant Muslims. The tendency of immigrant Muslims to cluster along ethnic lines is one reason; another is arrogance. The rights of Muslims in America are being won to a significant extent by African-American Muslims. In successfully combating drug and crime problems in their boroughs in cities like New York, Detroit, and Los Angeles, they have provided dramatic evidence of the positive contributions Muslims can make to America. Immigrant Muslims can learn much from them but unfortunately, barriers of ethnicity and false pride have kept them from acquiring the dynamism that characterize their indigenous brothers and sisters. I tell my fellow immigrant Muslims and myself: get off your pedestal! African-American Muslims have distinguished themselves by their services to their fellow-humans. It is time we shed our arrogance and took their lead.

(You can read an expanded version of this article here.)

(Iqra, September 1992) Concern for the earth’s environment has brought about a remarkable convergence of ideas from science and religion. In several meetings around the world, including the recent Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, scientists and religious leaders pledged to work hand-in-hand to protect the earth’s environment and its diminishing biodiversity. The desire by two groups of people, separated by ancient differences, to find a common ground from which to confront the ecological crisis underscores the growing realization in modern societies that religion and science can be complementary rather than contradictory … A study of some of the achievements of Muslim scientists from the eighth through the 14^th centuries, when Islamic civilization was at its peak, reveals the relationship between religion and science in Islam. In particular, it reveals how challenges posed by Islamic religious observances inspired scientific discoveries. One of the basic pillars of Islam is prayer. A Muslim is required to offer five daily prayers. Determining the precise prayer times posed a problem in astronomy at the time, a field in which Muslim scientists excelled. There was also the problem of determining the direction toward Mecca, the qibla, from anywhere on earth. It is the qibla that Muslims must face while praying … Muslim scientists realized early that the Greek mathematics they inherited was inadequate for solving these problems. Thus they invented spherical astronomy that reduced these problems to finding the unknown sides or angles of a spherical triangle from its known sides and angles. Abu al-Wafa (940-998) is the Muslim mathematician credited with discovering the sine and cosine laws. He built on the works of his predecessors, especially the great Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (750-850), the father of modern algebra. It was Khwarizmi’s algebra, in fact, that made possible compliance with Islam’s inheritance laws such as the precise division of estate among a deceased’s children. Many Muslim scientists such as Al-Biruni (973-1048) and Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201-1274), contributed to the flowering of astronomy and mathematics … Muslim scientists identified the search for truth not with mysticism but with reason, analysis and experiment. In tracking the movement of stars, they did not confuse cosmology with theology but recognized the two to be complementary in the best sense of the word. By their work they showed that Islam, far from impeding science, in fact demanded its adherents to pursue it with vigor and objectivity. It is this legacy that Muslims must continue as science and religion converges toward preserving our common home - the earth.

(Another article on ecology can be found here.)

(Iqra, May/June 1994) The warblers arrived early this spring, as did the robins and the hummingbirds. Brown hills turned green after a stretch of rain and the creek that only day ago lat listless now flowed urgently through the woods. Poppies, lupines and wild mustard flowers began to brighten land … the mustards are a haven for the redwing blackbirds. The red of their wings is vivid against the yellow flowers in a field of green In their trill is the song of the earth itself … Spring light gives each blade of grass and each sapling an identity … Brittle barks peel from the madrones, revealing faint-green, velvet skins. I press my ear against one, hoping to hear sap rising and the sigh of the forest. By the winding road is a pond that fills up in spring. My seasonal wanderlust inevitably leads me to it. A covey of quails forage for food near its bank and flee into the coyote brushes at the first hint of footsteps. An occasional swallow dips in the water and preens in the sun. An old oak on the far side spreads its limbs over the pond. Everyday I observe the tree’s reflection rising slowly to meet it as rain continues to bless the land. Then one day they touch and land and water becomes one … Sight leads to insight. The thought comes imperceptibly at first, growing gradually into conviction, that the Quran is a book to be read not only indoors but outdoors as well. Especially where the Creator speaks of trees and gardens and wind and rain and stars, reading the verses in the outdoors creates the wondrous feeling that the Quran is being revealed to us personally, that what we are reciting is what is being enacted for us now, to enable us to see and feel and intuit ancient truths … The refrain of life-giving rain, for example, appears throughout the Quran. He sends down water from the skies and the channels flow … (13:7) or Allah sends down rain from the sky and gives life to earth after its death … ((16:65) and so on … The verses are expressive and compelling when read anywhere but become revelatory when read outdoors. One need go no further than one’s doorsteps after it had rained for a few days to witness the renewal, to feel the miracle and sense the presence of the Divine … So come, let us shed the pride and the pretension and sit in the dappled shadow of the oak by the stream, or perhaps at the edge of the meadow and feel peace enter our hearts. The land lies in repose. The wind whispers in the leaves. Honeybees flit from clover to clover. A dove coos in the distance. We open the Book and read: In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. Alif. Lam. Mim. This is a Book: in it is guidance sure, without doubt …

(San Jose Mercury News, September 4, 1994) Environment will be a major theme at the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development convening in Cairo. “Sustainable development,” a concept with radically different meaning to representatives from North and South, is likely to polarize delegates as it did at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. How one longs for the tough-minded ideas and insights of Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), the feisty non-conformist who declared, “Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.” He could tell us a thing or two about the Earth’s dwindling resources and decaying environment. Here is Thoreau, circa summer 1994: I once said my greatest skill was to want but little. It was a strange notion for my countrymen a century ago; it is stranger now. Even the poorest American seems to live like a maharaja. How else to explain that we are only 5 percent of the world’s population but end up using a full quarter of its resources, that one American child is worth 40 children from undeveloped countries when it comes to consumption and waste! We must do with less … Most Americans ache for the environment only on Earth Day. Then, it’s business as usual. A man, I said, was rich in proportion to the things he could afford to let alone. Superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only. Discover the dignity of the simple, self-reliant life. I remind you again: “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!” … There is the pollution of affluence and the pollution of poverty. The pollution of affluence corrupts not only the environment but also the spirit … Manifest destiny seems to have run its course. California, I suggested a century ago, was only 3,000 miles nearer to hell. It’s probably not that bad yet, but it’s certainly getting there. Americans will perhaps finally settle down and grow roots. Rugged individualism is a prescription for doom. Only good communities are sustainable. Simplicity. Wanting less. Pragmatism. Integrity. Community. These are the old-fashioned virtues I ask you to reconsider. I am hopeful. I have hopes for a sustainable future for you all.

(Iqra, May 1995) We Muslims are fond of saying that Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the United States, that there are over 6 million of us here, and that of the world’s population, one in every five is a Muslim. However, our influence in shaping domestic and international events is insignificant compared to our numbers. If the status of Muslims around the world were to improve, the first steps must be taken here. Why? Because it is in the United States, more than anywhere else, that Muslims have a chance to understand and practice Islam that is free from cultural accretions. But there is a problem. There isn’t a single coherent source of Islamic information available in the United States. None of the current Islamic publications fit the bill. Some are useful as limited research tools, some provide glimpses into national and international events from a Muslim perspective and some may occasionally carry an article or two of general interest. Most, however, are parochial, lost in the labyrinth of irrelevant arguments and counter-arguments … We need a national Islamic magazine that can compare with any other high-quality magazine in the country. The magazine must be a pleasure to read for its content, style and language. It should be serious without being solemn and persuasive without being patronizing. Its writers must infuse their writing with ideas that Americans can relate to, which requires an understanding of American history and literature, the underlying foundation of its institutions, and the universal values of freedom and human dignity … The printed word carries enormous weight in shaping thoughts and opinions. A national Islamic magazine that will appeal to a large number of Americans is an idea whose time has come.

(Iqra, March 1997) American Muslims need to address certain urgent issues if we are to have an impact on the national scene. First, the quality of speeches at mosques and Islamic centers must improve. It is the responsibility of every community to select speakers who understand the values of relevance and brevity. Second, the quality of leadership in the major Islamic organizations of North America must also improve. Leaders of these organizations have alienated many Muslims with their reactive and repetitive agenda. They should gracefully pass the torch to a younger generation of American Muslims capable of infusing these ponderous organizations with vision and vitality. Third, we must develop enough self-assurance to intelligently debate theological and related issues in a tolerant and stimulating environment. We need not fear ideas or surrender our right of independent thinking to a handful of Muslim religious leaders whose opinions many of us tend to accept blindly. This must change.

(Iqra, April 1998) There are Muslims who regularly visit mosques and diligently perform the ritualistic aspects of their faith but who are, nevertheless, curiously insensitive to the pressing human needs around them, especially the needs of their own families. In contrast, there are Muslims who rarely visit mosques or not all, who are lax in performing their religious duties, but whose attitudes and behavior reflect a more genuine understanding of the Islamic ethic of humility, kindness and fellow-feeling. Islam does not require its adherents to wear their religiosity up their sleeves. Genuine Muslims are known not by their public image but by the basic goodness they radiate. This can range from the humble way they address others to the balance they achieve between earthly and spiritual matters. But when image becomes paramount, when craving for public recognition overrides private responsibility, one ends up practicing not Islam but hypocrisy. In such situations, it is often the spouse and the children who pay the price, trapped between silence and suffering, fear and vulnerability. Islam is the middle path: anyone who veers toward one extreme or another veers away from Islam. It is that simple.

(Iqra, December 1998) It is a heartbreaking experience for many Muslim parents to watch their children drift away from them as they grow older … Two factors, more than any other, seem to contribute to the alienation between growing children and their parents, particularly with the father. The first is absence. A father often feels that his foremost duty is to provide his children with as much material comfort as he can. So he works long hours and begins to lose any meaningful contact with his children. As his earnings increase, money becomes an end in itself, and the children gradually recede in importance from his mind. The second is the inability of many Muslim parents to express love for their maturing children. It should be as easy for a parent to hug his grown-up children as it was for him to cuddle them when they were newborns. In this month of Ramadan, we pray that parents whose relationship with their children have frayed will reach out to them with humility and love, knowing that no child will remain unmoved if a parent calls from the heart.

*

A task that I gave myself after becoming the editor of Iqra was to “discover” contemporary Muslim scholars who were not intellectual prisoners of the past but who practiced ijtihad: to understand and interpret sacred text in the context of the times and the growth of man’s experiences, while remaining true to the spirit of Divine guidance.

Soon afterwards, I came across a book called The Road to Mecca by Muhammad Asad, an unfamiliar name to me at the time. It turned out be one of the most remarkable spiritual autobiographies I had ever read.

I found the narrative in The Road to Mecca so compelling that I resolved to make contact with the author. With help from a magazine editor in England, I learned that Muhammad Asad was living in retirement in Spain with his wife, a Bostonian named Pola Hamida.

For over a year, beginning in 1986, I corresponded with him until his wife informed me that her husband was too weak to continue his contacts with friends. Muhammad Asad passed away in Spain in 1992.

To the end of his life, this unique scholar insisted that Muslims must learn to think for themselves for answers to theological inquiries. “The door of ijtihad will always remain open,” Asad used to say, “because no one has the authority to close it.” He dedicated The Message of the Quran, a translation of the Muslim holy book that took him 17 years to complete, to “people who think.”

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The 9/11 attacks on America by a few homicidal maniacs claiming Islam as guidance has transformed our nation’s attitude toward Muslims. We cannot deny the distrust and anger some of our fellow Americans feel toward us. Many of them doubt the peaceful nature of Islam and believe that the motivation for terror is written into our sacred text.

But a far greater number of Americans believe otherwise: they believe that in spite of some differences, Judaism, Christianity and Islam are members of a monotheistic faith with the same fundamental values at their cores. We have forged ties with Americans of all creeds who refuse to demonize us, who believe in our moderation and in our efforts to marginalize and defeat the extremists of all persuasions among us. We must continue to build on their trust and nurture the values that bind us.

At the same time, we must also recognize that religious chauvinism breeds hubris, that self-righteousness leads to self-betrayal, that spiritual renewal comes from reason and reflection, that divine revelation not only approves of freedom and pluralism but, in fact, demands them, and that we fulfill our destiny by putting our passion, spirituality and intellect not at the service of our grievances but at the service of our fellow beings. It is my hope and prayer that we will act on these convictions as we celebrate the 25^th anniversary of the South Bay Islamic Association.