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Makkah at Dawn: A Contemplation of Human Issues
Professor. Thomas McElwain (Ali Haydar)

It must be obvious to anyone that travel in the Middle East brings the traveller into contact with the faith of the prophet of Islam, Muhammad (peace be upon him). I was therefore unprepared, in my visit to Egypt for the first time in 1977, to be confronted with another figure as well. In a mosque from the Fatimid period I found the statement written on the wall: … Aliyan waliyullaah. I little knew that this personality was to follow me, not only in my coming travels in the Middle East and surrounding areas, but in my personal life as well. A few years later I sat in a tea garden in southeastern Turkey and listened as young Alevi students discussed Marxist theory. I drew uproarious and condescending laughter when I suggested that Ali, peace be upon him, was an anarchist. Possibly I was naïve, but I think not altogether wrong. The personality of Ali, peace be upon him, undercuts both the hypocritical legal scholasticism that supports institutional exploitation of both human populations and the natural environment on one hand, and the strange fascination that the masses show towards the charismatic leaders of the day, be they political dictators or popular cult idols. My recent pilgrimage to the house of God in Makkah was but the continuation of my contemplation of these heaven-sent personalities of Muhammad and Ali, but under conditions that made me especially receptive to the lessons of their lives and ministries. Greek philosophy and science were probably an important strand in Islamic civilization even before the Abbasid period when so much was translated into Arabic. It is therefore appropriate that a passage from The Laws of Plato comes to mind as I contemplate human issues from the point of view of a Meccan pilgrim. In the third book of Laws Megillus and Cleinias agree with the Athenian that good government resides in a balance of force and freedom, rather than in a specific form of rule as such. That balance clearly depends, in their thought, on virtue and justice. What is of especial interest in the discussion is their insistence that virtue and justice be not merely a guiding ideal, as the superficial reader of Plato might expect, but actually embodied in the personality of the ruler and legislator. It is the difference between virtue and justice as a guiding ideal and virtue and justice as embodied in the ideal man that captivates my attention. It is evident that not only ancient empires but modern states as well as the forces of globalization have all relied on ideals of virtue and justice as vehicles as well as justifications for establishing and maintaining institutions of power. When ideals rather that virtuous men lead policy, virtue and justice are themselves susceptible to manipulation and eventually oppression. Virtue and justice are not abstractions, no matter what epistemological approach we take, but rather the characterizations of real people living and acting in the real world. The personalities of Muhammad and Ali, peace be upon them, as embodiments of virtue and justice, continue to provide viable models for human society. These models avoid the failures that are so rampant in history and contemporary society. They remain relevant, significant and operative as long as they are not raised out of the human experience into divine figures on the one hand, nor turned into legal abstractions on the other. The former pitfall is typical of the Christian civilization, while the latter has unfortunately marked much of Islam. Fortunately neither tradition is hopelessly lost, and both are blessed with the continuing opportunity offered by the personalities of prophets and divine guides, such as Muhammad, Ali and Jesus, peace be upon them, to turn away from oppression and live in the virtue and justice which these fragrant personalities embody in their lives and actions. Participation in the pilgrimage provides opportunities for experiencing the holy personalities in such a way that they not only inspire, but in some sense impregnate the soul with their own virtuous character. I was once challenged by a Christian, who bore witness to the change in life that he considered to take place in the individual who comes to Christ in faith. He made the claim that the pilgrimage to Makkah is not a life-changing experience as is that of conversion to Christ. I disagreed at the time, and having been on the pilgrimage I disagree even more sharply than before. While the realization of the oneness of God is the foundation of all true faith and spirituality as well as the virtue and consequence justice that should arise from them, the direct contact on pilgrimage with places imbued with the continuing memory of the blessed personalities is a powerful, changing influence on the individual. The human mind is strangely capable of bastardizing the principles of Christianity and Islam to foster the selfish interests of the individual, the nationalist state, or globalised business opportunity. But the confrontation with the personalities of Muhammad and Ali, peace be upon them, as the memory of their virtuous lives and acts lingers on in the places where they lived, works to counteract such misappropriation of faith principles. The experience is like a compass to correct the course of deviation from virtue. I was first impressed of this fact as I participated in and observed the gathering on the night between Thursday and Friday in the marble-paved court between the haraam containing the tomb of Muhammad, peace be upon him, and the cemetery containing the graves of many holy people. The occasion was the weekly recitation of the Prayer of Komail. I describe it thus: …Soon there Were thousands of Shi'ites to share The darkness and the softened air. The peace was tangible to feel So that I wondered at what heel Could think that violence must mate With Islam in sectaries' state. No crowd on Western frontier could Match the quiet peace that now stood Beside Muhammad's tomb and near The blessed remains of near and dear. Television technology spread the message of peace throughout the world as Iranian television recorded the events. The issues remain the same, no matter what the technology. The event can be turned into a vehicle of narrow political policy or one of recognizing and following the faith and virtues of those sent by God. These should not be mutually exclusive propositions, but in practice unfortunately tend to be so. It is not my intention to criticize either the Iranian or the Saudi state by saying this. Rather, I would point out the opportunities reflected in the holy personalities for both states to endeavour to put Islamic virtue and justice always above political expedience. I cannot know to what extent such pure motivations were operative when I was there, but I am thankful that political policy and Islamic virtue converged at that point to permit a gathering in Madina in which thousands joined in the peaceful recitation of the Prayer of Komail. The personality of Ali ibn abu Talib, peace be upon him, is most evident in this supplication once given to Komail who had requested a prayer that should give his heart tranquillity. The holy Imam imbued this supplication with the very tranquillity of his own heart, and through its recitation, that holy personality enters the soul of the individual. To recite the prayer in Madina, surrounded by the evidences of the holy life of Ali, peace be upon him, is doubly or triply effective. There is hardly a more eloquent expression of the attributes of God than in this prayer, and hardly a more profound expression of faith and trust in the divine mercy than in this supplication. Nothing is more clearly representative of Ali's (as) personality than the recognition of the divine oneness and the abject cry of perfect trust. That cry in the Supplication of Komail is so penetrating and so unmaking of the lower self that many are simply unable to recite the prayer. The sincere recitation of this supplication so impregnates the individual with the personality of Ali (as), peace be upon him, that if a great number of people in the world would do so, I am convinced that Islamic justice and virtue would so fill the earth as to change society, government, politics and economics beyond recognition. The Supplication is potentially a vehicle for moving out of mere ideals and abstractions into the reality of life and action, the reality of Ali's (as) personality. The three alternatives began to crystallize in my mind in Madina as I visited one spot after another associated with Muhammad (as), Ali (as) and Fatimah. One can follow abstract ideals and abuse and manipulate them for political purposes. One can raise a human figure to the divine in idol worship, ah so prevalent in a world that inherits the twentieth century with it pop stars and dictators. Or one can renew mind and soul under the influence of the rare and virtuous human being. While in Qum on the way to Makkah I met Grand Ayatullah Sadiq Shirazi who related to me the famous story of Muhammad, peace be upon him, proclaiming the oneness of God on the hills of Safa and Marwa. The experience of being in the place where this event happened reinforced on my spirit the fact that it is a paradigm for all time. Every believer, if his life is a life of faith, is making the proclamation on the two hills daily. The response is to stone him, or to bring him bread and water. The hypocrisy of manipulating ideals or blindly following the idol of the day are both strategic means of stoning the prophet again and again. Yet the prophet himself, peace be upon him, can be seen, istaghfirullah, as the symbol of legal abstraction. Without the principle and reality of divine guidance, the words and actions of the prophet become a sunna that is a summary of virtue and justice particularly susceptible to political machinations and eventual human oppression. This glaring fact is the basis for all criticism that is levelled against Islam and Muslims today. In the same sense, Jesus, the great prophet of Christianity can be and has been divorced from life and existence and finally quarantined from reality by setting him up as an idol, a God as well as a man. The third figure remains, and we are faced with the choice of renewing our own hearts as well as society and civilisation thereby in our response to the personality of Ali ibn abu Talib, peace be upon him. Jesus, peace be upon him, was born a refugee under the date palm. Muhammad, peace be upon him, was born to be an orphan. In both of these the Sovereign of the universe provided humankind with opportunities to live in peace, virtue and justice, and those opportunities have been largely squandered precisely through the two opposing processes of abstraction for manipulation and idolisation. Muhammad stood, as it were, on the shoulders of Jesus and proclaimed to Jews, Christians and pagans alike the gospel of the oneness of Allah. For this he was stoned, and Ali and Khadijah brought bread and water to his bruised body and soul. A mere few feet away from the hills of Safa and Marwa Ali, peace be upon him, stood on the shoulders of the blessed prophet to pull down the idols of Makkah. That spot is unmarked today. This is the reason for political, economic and spiritual crisis. If that spot were marked, not merely in Makkah but in every human heart, the world would see a marked renewal of virtue and justice. Oppression would disappear. I stand beneath the unchanging mountains surrounding the Kaaba and look toward that place for the first time. I realize with what emotionless steadfastness those mountains have looked down upon the waxing and waning of human history, bloodshed, kindness, intrigue, charity, faith and doubt. Their sightless eyes have gazed upon the answer to human crisis, not only in the Middle East, where crucifying another man, woman or child will never resolve anything, but a simple and universal answer to human ills. That answer is the birth of Ali, peace be upon him, in the Kaaba. That great source on the life and thought of Ali (as), the Kitab al-Irshad by Sheikh Mufid, begins by describing the birth of Ali in the Kaaba. It is prophetic, perhaps, that the births of Jesus and Muhammad, peace be upon them, were not auspicious. No human being other than Ali, peace be upon him, was born in the Kaaba. His miraculous exit from the house of God is the paradigm for us today. I suddenly realized that the Kaaba is that stony sanctuary to which every soul flees in distress and trouble as well as faith and praise. It is that secret inner chamber of the human heart that every individual knows intimately from early childhood until the deathbed. That secret chamber must be emptied of both idols and the desire to manipulate justice in favour of one's own desires and interests. That secret chamber must be the place in which the personality of Ali, peace be upon him, is born. Finally, there must be a miraculous exit of Ali from the human heart to live, bear witness, and strive and act in virtue and for universal justice, and not for the petty and contrived interests of the selfish individual, the national state, or the globalised competitive economy. The world does not need new laws. They already exist in the foundations of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The world does not need new idols to praise and rave. They have all been shown to be oppressive dictators and empty entertainers. The world needs the personality of Ali, peace be upon him, born in the Kaaba, born in the human heart, a living model of a new and better human being and a new and better society. The world needs a return to the Kaaba, a pilgrimage of faith. by Professor. Thomas McElwain (Ali Haydar) « return to articles list