This article was the very last article I wrote for MWU, it was never published. The site was taken down around this time.
Reflections on Muslim Wake Up byline
Remove “prayer is
better than sleep”
I love Muslim Wake Up, right from the time it started I felt
that there is finally a place for me. To me Muslim Wake Up is a place for those
who identify with their Muslim identity and heritage, want to celebrate their
faith. I find joy in reading and observing the writings and comments of secular
Muslims, progressive Muslims, spiritual or Sufi Muslims, agnostic Muslims,
confused Muslims along with those of more traditional orthodox Muslim. For me,
Islam is a journey of searching and learning and much of the contemporary main
stream Islamic discourse is full of certainty; no search needed.
The “prayer is better
than sleep” slogan or byline of MWU has always troubled me. I love the notion
of waking up; the Islamic World has been asleep for centuries. After centuries
of great contribution by Islamdom in science, philosophy, thought and much
achievement towards human advancement, stagnations, reversals, and eventually
rot have taken over. Islamic jurisprudence moved from being an example of
sophisticated legal code with real examples of beauty and turned into cheap
fetwa pronouncements dispensed left and right out of ignorance, for political
gains or popular appeasement. Waking up
indeed is needed ..but what do we need to do when we wake up ..think, search,
debate, build or pray?
I reflect further on the byline “Al Salat Khier min Al Noom”
or “Prayer is better than sleep” and particularly on two words; “better” and
“prayer”. In Arabic the word “Khier” encompasses an incredibly huge range of
meanings like “good” or “goodness” do but not only. “Khier” has connotations of
plenty, of purity, justice, compassion, and much more. Its use in the Quran and
in everyday language in my native Egypt is truly beautiful. While I personally
lack sufficient linguistic knowledge to make an exact pronouncement I would
tend to say that “Khier” definitely encompasses more than good and better which
would normally be translated into Arabic as “Gayeed” or “Agwad” (Jaeed or
Ajwad”).
As to “Salat” the issue becomes much more complex. Is
“Salat” used to mean the specific supplication and rituals required five times
daily? Is Salat a more encompassing word including meditation, spiritual
connection to God? Are they one and the same? Still the linguistic uncertainly
over prayer vs. salat remains, this is mostly because of the common use of
prayer in English of requesting or asking for something from God, a concept
that is mostly excluded in “Salat” but covered in another Arabic word “Doaa’a”.
So, I continue to reflect on the byline “prayer is better
than sleep”. Narrowly interpreted I fear it does not do MWU justice. MUW is
about waking up, searching, expressing, it is about shedding centuries of mere unthinking
conformance. MWU is certainly not about the passively asking God to make things
better. I fully accept that deeper a look into the byline would find alternate
meanings that are less inappropriate. Still I would argue that even those are
not immediately accessible. Perhaps a byline that illustrate Islamic notions of
forgiveness, compassion, universality or equality would be more appropriate.
The Quranic commandment of searching for knowledge may fit in more with the
sentiment of MWU.
Ayman S. Ashour
June 9, 2007