Allah o Akbar

i recommend hitting play and then reading the accompanying letter. it reads movingly, and reminds me of Brueggemann’s description of Psalmic prayer: the speech of extremity.

I cannot in any way claim to know what people are thinking or meaning on the ground, but for centuries, ‘Allahu Akbar’ has been in the Muslim world a battlefield of meaning and ultimately of political legitimacy. They are five syllables pregnant in meaning, mutability and richness, not simply a ritualistic or fundamentalist dogmatic trope. Nor is ‘Allahu Akbar’ simply a prayer. In fact, despite all its negative, violent connotations in the West, ‘Allahu Akbar’ has been uttered by Muslims throughout history as a cry against oppression, against kings and monarchs, against tyrannical and despotic rule, reminding people that in the end, the disposer of affairs and ultimate holder of legitimacy is not any man, not any king or queen, not even any supreme leader, but ultimately a divine force out and above directing, caring and fighting for a more peaceful, rule-based, just and free world for people to live in. God is the one who is greatest, above each and every mortal human being whose station it is to pass away.

The fact that ‘Allahu Akbar’ is echoing through the Iranian night is not only an indication of the longing of people there to find a peaceful and just solution to this crisis. It also points to how deep the erosion of legitimacy is in whosoever acts against the will of the people, in whosoever claims to act on God’s behalf to oppress his fellow human, including in this case some of the ‘supreme’ Islamic jurists themselves. This all goes to show that Islam, far from being merely an abode of repression and retrogression, has the capacity of being a fundamentally restorative and democratic force in human affairs. In the end, so it seems, at least in the Iranian context, ‘Allahu Akbar’, God is greatest, is a most profoundly democratic of political slogans. So deep is this call, that what is determined out of this liminal moment may very well set the terms for (or against) a lived, democratic Islamic reality for decades to come.

from Nicholas – a reader at Nico Pitney “live-blogging the uprising” at HuffPo. (post: 3.40PM ET, 6/18/09, titled Allah 0 Akbar!)

LB

we are limbs to each other

Human beings are members of a whole,
In creation of one essence and soul.
If one member is afflicted with pain,
Other members uneasy will remain.
If you have no sympathy for human pain,
The name of human you cannot retain.

– Saʿdī, medieval mystical poet, native of Shiraz, Iran translating the Prophet Mohammad

no excuse for apathy

the events that are unfolding are significant on a number of levels – first and foremost for the people of Iran and their self-determination. but i suspect, like many others online tonight suspect, that we may yet see an even wider change…

i feel something like sadness underneath the amazement and horror at what is being broadcast via the new media today. there is a degree to which i am ashamed. that we who have so much freedom squander the right to publicly rally and raise our voices.

“Life has come to a halt. There were at least 2-3M in the streets today. I’ve never seen such anger. We are not going let this go. They’ve closed all the universities (during final exams) and have started a purge. Many of our professors are missing and student organizers are moving constantly to avoid detainment. The police is just watching and the army has declared neutrality. The violence is 100% caused by the BASIJ and thugs who are roaming the streets. They seem to be targeting girls, swinging with clubs and chains. Its disgusting but we are protected by numbers. Get the word out– the more of us stand together, the safer each individual will be. The reports of the university attacks yesterday are true. We don’t know how many were hurt or killed.”
from a dish reader, here. italics and highlight my own.

i hope we learn from the people of Iran. for not only do we not stand up and use our freedom to speak loudly in solidarity with those who are voiceless in other parts of the world, we rarely stand up for the voiceless in our own neighbourhoods…

for those who have lost their lives and suffered brutality, may we feel deep sorrow…

as the bumper sticker say,

if you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention

and most of the time, i’m not…
they are outraged. and i am humbled to be alive to witness their courage and tenacity.

for in all of this, i can only speak for myself. when i say, “we“, i really mean “i“. but if they seek others to add their voice, count me in the collective…

LB