Ramadan in medina - by kerim fenari

The approach to Makka lies through mountains,sharp, unforgiving angles of granite. The road toMadina passes through great plains of basalt: theharra wastelands which provide dramatic reminders ofthe region's volcanic past. Several eruptions arerecorded by the Muslim historians, the most fearsometaking place in 1257, when a volcano poured outfast-moving orange streams of lava, which were onlydeflected to pass to the east of the city by thefervent prayers of its inhabitants.
Desiccated by the merciless desert air, theseseas of fire have dried to form black basalt plains,which stretch beyond the horizon. They are God?Ôdefence of the city, whose glassy sharpness kept atbay the idolatrous invaders of Quraish, forcing themto confront the believers at their only point ofaccess, at the Battle of the Trench. The desolation ofthis landscape of flat blackness, interrupted by drysarha bushes, and, far away, the shapely profile ofextinct volcanoes, gives the impact of arrival anextraordinary dramatic power.
The proximity of the City, on the motorwayinevitably dubbed the Hijra Highway, is firstannounced by the slip-road to Abyar Ali, the Wells ofAli. These are sweetwater sources much frequented bypilgrims, eager to benefit from the medicinalproperties of these deep, cold wells once owned by theBlessed Prophet's son-in-law. Pilgrims from theSubcontinent, in particular, flock here to catch theprecious fluid in bottles, to be given to relatives ontheir return: a gift almost as welcome as the Water ofZamzam itself.
Ten minutes drive, and Quba is reached. Here,the black barrenness of the harrat suddenly gives wayto a verdant sea of green. Alfalfa, watermelons,cucumber and tomatoes grow here, between fruit treesand the ancient symbol of Madina, the date palmitself. In this prosperous suburb, now a place ofcoffee-shops and small parks, can still be found theZarqa wells from which the Blessed Prophet drank whenfirst he reached the City, and which are the secret ofthe land's fertility. Here, too, the Madinan Muslims,and the penniless but radiant refugees from Makkantyranny, patiently lined the walls and the highplaces, hoping for a glimpse of God's Messenger andthe faithful Abu Bakr, as they appeared as dots on theshimmering horizon.
The mosque at Quba, the first place of worshipfounded in Islam, is impressive but sober. The 1986reconstruction retains the familiar features ofMadinese architecture, which are ribbed white domes,and basalt facing over a modest exterior that recallsMadina's primordial simplicity. The courtyard,screened overhead by day from the scorching heat, isflagged with black, red and white marble. Calligraphyby great Turkish masters soars overhead, proclaimingthe uniqueness of this place. Arabesque latticeworkfilters the light of the palm groves outside. Dovescoo in the window-niches.
Despite the sense of peace, few linger here. Thepull of the Haram, the Sanctuary, is everywhere, andas the sun lowers in the west the pilgrims havethoughts only for the Prophet's Mosque. At this time,there is only one destination for visitors andcity-dwellers alike. In Ramadan, in this city, itwould be possible to switch off the traffic lights inthe late afternoon. Every road becomes a one-waystreet, pulling the visitor towards the cool, radiantheart of the city.
Visitors who have not set foot in Madina beforeare often in tears by now. The blessings of a still,loving Presence can be breathed everywhere, softeninghearts, and loosening tongues in dhikr. Shops andbuildings pass by, but here the city itself is no morethan a blur. Visitors come here for one place, and forone person alone.
The road skirts the Manakha district, and passesthe Mosque of Abu Bakr, its Ottoman minaret pointingto the clear, reddening sky. Then, the splendour ofthe Haram is suddenly revealed. A minaret, and thenseveral more, sparkle in welcome. And then the adhanrises, piercing the warm air with its magneticsummons.
A sea of quiet humanity pours into each ofseventy gates. Many have removed their sandals longbeforehand, out of respect for the ground, which holdsthe Messenger in its embrace. Within, there is clearlight, carpets, water-barrels, and an extraordinarydynamic which draws the visitor on, and in, until atlast the courtyard is reached, and the pilgrim standsin the presence of the Best of Creation.
Hundreds of thousands are being fed. Theseguests of the Prophet sit, while those honoured withthis service circulate, smilingly handing out dates,or small containers of yoghurt. In this palace of theProphet, no-one, however poor, goes hungry when thetime of the fast is ended. Children tumble on thecarpets, laughing with delight at the experience ofthe endless sanctuary. There is a murmur of gratefulconversation, and of prayer.
The space is articulated with supreme genius. Toone side is the Gate of Gabriel, leading on, and in,to the Rawda, and to the mihrab in which the Messengerhimself laid his forehead on the earth in adoration ofGod. On one side is the dakka, the carved marbleplatform on which the muezzin and his assistants awaitthe appointed time. On the other rises the gold grillebeyond which lies the cool and shaded silence beneaththe great dome. The air here is perfumed by the rarestof incense and musk, announcing the presence, beneaththe flagstones, of the Best of Creation, and Abu Bakrand Umar, his closest companions.
The modern Egyptian poet al-Fayturi expressesthe emotions of millions:
Over the Prophet's form every speck of dust
is a pillar of light
ascending from the dome of his tomb
to the dome of the skies.
And the awe that makes our foreheads bow
draws its own horizon, and higher horizons,
from hands and from lips -
the road of "In the name of God."
The proximity is overwhelming for some pilgrims,whose humility and awe forces them to sit at arespectfuldistance, perhaps some way down the mosque.Others cannot sit too close. Everywhere, there isworship, bowing and prostration, the mellifluousmurmuring of the Qur?Ân, and wordless contemplation.
A hadith tells us that Á?rayer in my mosque is athousand times better than prayer in any other mosque,saving only the Sacred Mosque itself.????s the iqamasounds, and half a million men and women rise withlonging for the prayer, the calculation does not feellike an overstatement.
Prayer in the Rawda is especially sought after.A hadith affirms that "the space between my grave andmy pulpit is one of the Meadows of Paradise." Here,listening to the awesome gravity of God's word, thecontinuity with the blessed past is felt intensely.The greatest saints and scholars of Islam have stoodhere: after the Companions came countless thousands:the Four Imams worshipped here, as did al-Shaybani,IbnJurayj, al-Zuhri, Sibawayh, Ibn Qutaybah,al-Ghazali, al-Nawawi, A??sha al-BaÁÖniyya, IbnKhaldun: all the great souls of Islam have prayedhere, humbled by the Prophetic presence.
After the silent prayers of the day, theworshippers drink the words of the Qur?Ân thirstily.The greetings of peace are given, and the lines breakup as they worship individually. Circles ofremembrance form in the Rawda, as turbanned Turksrepeat a litany, guided by their teacher, prayer-beadsin hand. Nigerians, Uzbeks, Bangladeshis and a wholesea of Indonesians do likewise.
A Baluchi folk-melody, 'May I see the towers ofMadina' sings,
On the tongues of this Rawda's nightingalesare words of wisdom,
More beautifully coloured than all theflowers of Madina!
Among the many Prophetic litanies which thecareful ear may hear in this place, the mostwidely-used is the Dala'il al-Khayrat, the Indicationsof Blessings, by Imam al-Jazuli, whose tomb in far-offMarrakesh breathes something of the spirit of Madina.This great prayer begins with over two hundred Namesof the Prophet, culled from the scriptures, and whichmay also be read in exquisite Naskh calligraphy abovethe green tiles on the qibla wall. Hundreds of namesrecall him: the Messenger of Mercy, the Emissary ofVirtue, Reliant, the Beloved of God, Seal of theProphets ...
These pilgrims know that they are in thepresence of the most influential man in history. Hehad found a people divided by the crudest paganignorance, and left them united in the purest and mostexalted monotheism.Formerly they had denied life after death;twenty-three short years on, they lived with itconstantly before their eyes. He had found them unableto rule themselves, torn by age-long vendettas,knowing no law other than the selfish interest of thetribe and the individual's honour; and he left theirhearts so united that they withstood the shock of hisdeath, and went out to liberate the world.
In this place, the Messenger guided hisdisciples. Here they learnt how to be still beforetheir Lord, how to restrain their anger, to live forothers, to show compassion to young and old. This wasthe crucible of a New World Order: the most effectiveschool ever known.
And presiding over it all, still, is thepresence of the Prophet. His mission for the Muslimcommonwealth awaits its final consummation, when, atthe Resurrection, he shall appear with his name ofIntercessor. There is no Muslim alive who does nothope for the honour of resurrection under his greenBanner of Praise, and for the rapture of salvationthrough his pleading before his Lord. Adab, goodmanners in his presence, is hence passionatelycultivated and prayed for. Those who respectfully moveforwards, to stand before the gold of the Wajiha togreet him, are moved not only by love and gratitudefor what he did, but by fervent hope for his prayers,help and pleading amid the terrors of the Apocalypse.
He said: "No Muslim greets me but that Allahrestores my spirit to me so that I am able to respondto him." Five times a day, worshippers end theirprayers by invoking blessings and peace upon hisspirit. No human being, since the beginning of time,has been more blessed. And this reciprocal rite oftaslim is the culmination of a lifetime of callingdown God's blessings upon him, a cosmic process inwhich God and the Angels themselves join. In thepresence of his spirit, salat and salam comecontinuously. The entire mosque is filled with prayersfor him; and this is the largest building in theworld. Here, the existence of humanity finds itsjustification.
"Not one of you believes," says a hadith, "untilI am dearer to him than his father, his son, and allmankind." The power of this love detains many in themosque. But the body has its rights, and others slowlyleave, to find a place to eat in this crowded city.Restaurants of all kinds abound, and the air aroundthe mosque loses its hint of musk and sandalwood, tobecome fragrant with the aroma of Turkish kebabs,Lebanese meze, Malaysian satay, Sudanese chicken andbeans. In the darkness, street vendors offer thegarments of fifty countries:Indonesian batik, Damascusmuslin, Egyptian cotton, Moroccan chiffre. Prayerbeads of olive pits, amber or ebony dangle fromshelves. Women browse through jewellery, heaped highwith no fear of thieves.
The cheerful fellowship of the eating-houses isnot the profane self-exaltation of the smart Westernrestaurant. Here, companionship is the main item onthe menu. Struggling for words, Muslims of two hundrednationalities speak about their homes, about thetroubles of the world, about their hopes for an end tothe unbearable shallowness of the modern world, and areturn to God.
The air outside is now much cooler. Those whoknow the city may briefly visit some of its nearershrines, such as the Mosque of the Two Qiblas, withits resonances of the lost Muslim city of Jerusalem,the Third Holy City. Unlike Madina, Jerusalem has beentragically desacralised in recent decades, with theintroduction of night clubs, pornography, and everyform of degradation. But Islam's grasp on Madina isstill strong. Such is God's power in defence of HisMessenger that no enemy army has succeeded incapturing it, since the dawn of Islam.
The adhan sounds for isha, and the veins of thecity pump back towards the mosque which is its heart.Grateful for God's gift of food and drink, thepilgrims are eager for the prayer, followed by theTarawih rite extending almost two hours into thenight.
Tarawih in Madina is one of the great spectaclesof the world. Perhaps a million men, women andchildren, stand in neat lines in the mosque, on itsroof, and in the marbled spaces nearby. Tarawih inMecca is an experience of austere majesty; in Madina,it is characterised by delight and by love. To pray inthe company of God's Messenger, who rose through theseven heavens to bring to us the gift of prayer, andwho will intercede for tides of humanity, is an almostinexpressible joy. Villagers from Pakistan,shopkeepers from Turkey, Nigerian businessmen, andBosnian farmers, all stand together, their differencesannihilated by the presence of the man whose missionwas truly universal.
In the Qur'an, there is nothing of Arab pride.Its original context in history was the Arab people,but it pays little attention to them. It isfarsighted, affirming that each previous prophet hadbeen sent only to his own people; but that now, aProphet had come who was for all mankind. And here isthe proof of that mission's truth and of its successunder God: a million human beings, outwardly diversebut of a single heart, basking in the glow of Madina.
After Tarawih, it is tea-time. Midnight, underthe arc-lamps of this warm city, is no time for sleep.Sufi fraternities meet in homes, and recall theglories of the Beloved of Madina. Hadith are read, inthe sing-song style traditional in the city.Commentaries are given in the delightful Madinadialect, so rich in Syrian and Turkish words.
Tahajjud prayers attract perhaps a quarter of amillion, deep in the small hours. Others are sleepingin the streets, or in the hotels, which range fromsmall Egyptian resthouses with doubtful stairs, to thefive-star plushness of the Sheraton and the GreenPalace. On the roofs of many hotels are small gardens,and here, even at this hour, the Sufi orders are againenjoying their fellowship in the spirit.
The sunna recommends that at least some of thenight be spent in sleep. Two hours before dawn, mostof the city is silent. And then, the first adhan, morethan an hour before the adhan for the prayer, risesinto the black sky. The hotels serve a pre-dawn meal,but few linger until the last moment. An hour beforethe dawn prayer begins, the mosque is already full,the worshippers knowing by experience the value ofthis time. The Suffa, the small veranda attached tothe Prophetic tomb, is crowded with turbaned men,prayer-beads in hand. Here lived the poorest of theCompanions, those who were under the most intensespiritual guidance, who hungered, and lived in rags,and prayed.
The final adhan sounds, and then the iqama. Theprayer is said, followed by the atmosphere of peaceand consummation which ends each prayer. Many remainuntil ishraq, the individual prayer said aftersunrise. Others hail taxis, and visit the outlyingshrines.
The most important of these is Mount Uhud. TheBlessed Prophet proclaimed it as ÁÂ mountain whichloves us, and which we love????Its mysterious qualityhas been reinforced by aerial photographs, which showthat the mountain spells the Arabic name of Allah. Towalk in its dry valleys is to encounter solitarypilgrims, meditating on the evanescence of life.Occasionally a qalandar is seen, with untidy hair,fingers heavy with brass rings, his eyes disquietinglybright. Some live in this hill throughout their visit,descending to the valley to pray.
Ramadan is a time of renunciation. Although themorning air is still cool, the sense of detachmentgranted by the fast has sobered the crowds, andfocussed their minds. The pilgrims clustered aroundthe iron grille which allows them to view the gravesof the Martyrs of Uhud read from prayerbooks, orrepeat the words of the muzawwir, the official guide."Peace be upon you, Hamza, the Lion of God, the uncleof God's Messenger!Peace be upon you, Mus'ab, hero of theCompanions!" Beside the cemetery, the authorities haveconstructed a mosque for those who wish to pray inthis place.
The great cemetery of Madina, however, isal-Baqi'. This lies near the Prophet's tomb, fromwhich it was until recently separated by one of thegates of the walled city, the Bab al-Baqi'. Thecemetery has many names, including Jannat al-Baqi',The Garden of Baqi', and Baqi' Âl-Gharqad, a referenceto the brambles (gharqad) which covered it when Islamfirst arrived. In the fifth year of the Hijra, theCompanion Uthman ibn Maz'un died, and was buriedhere, and on the Blessed Prophet's instructions thearea was cleared of brambles and became the lastresting place of the Companions.
Today, Baqi' is the most visited graveyard inthe world. Until recently rough cement wallssurrounded it, but in 1996 the authorities replacedthese with fine granite, pierced with large iron andbrass grilles, to commemorate and honour this place.Some pilgrims stand by the grilles, but others,particularly in the cool hour after dawn, venture inby the splendid new gates.
To facilitate circulation, the authorities haveestablished cement pathways throughout the cemetery.Guidebooks provide detailed maps of the plots, naminghundreds of the individuals who are buried here.Hencethe pilgrims, guided by their muzawwirs, stand, orcrouch, before the tombs of the Mothers of theBelievers: A'isha, Hafsa, Umm Habiba and the others.Nearby is the Blessed Prophet's infant son, the twoyear old Ibrahim, whose death caused the Prophet suchpain. The pilgrims move on to salute Uthman, the thirdCaliph, and then Imam Malik and his teacherNafi'. Al-Abbas, the Prophet's uncle, is here. So toois Halima al-Sa'diyya, the nurse whose dry breastsmiraculously flowed with milk when the infant Muhammadwas set to them. To one side is the grave of ImamShamyl, the nineteenth-century hero of the Caucasus,visited by Chechen and Daghistani pilgrims to thisday.
Al-Baqi' is a powerful place. Other citiesconsider it their pride to host a single saint; buthere there are hundreds. All around lie at rest themen and women who heard the Prophet's summons, andbroke the idols of their forefathers, and gave theirlives to his cause. To this blessed ambience is addedthe baraka of Ramadan, and as the days pass, this toogains in power.
The fasting city of Madina has other wonders,although not all are as spectacular as the Haram andal-Baqi'. There is one mosque no bigger than aprayer-mat, surrounded by two layers of bricks, whichmarks the spot where the Blessed Prophet once prayed.An elderly man lives nearby, and sweeps the tinymosque daily, dispensing prayers and teaching-storiesto the visitors.
The tribes of Aws and Khazraj, who welcomed theProphet and his teaching, still live in Madina,retaining their traditions of courtesy andhospitality. The basalt homes in which they oncelived: the traditionalMadinese bayt al-bi'r, built around a courtyardwhich was often covered with a net and filled withtropical birds, are now mostly gone. Yet otherwise,not much has changed in fourteen hundred years.Pernicious and cheapening influences from the worldoutside are successfully excluded.
Madina shows the truth of the hadith that"Madina expels impurities as a furnace expelsimpurities from iron." The form of the city haschanged, but the heart is immutable. In Ramadan, morethan at any other time, the continued strength ofIslam is manifest here. The city is well-defended; asa hadith recorded by Imam Muslim states, theAntichrist cannot enter it, but will be driven away onthe lava-plains by al-Khidr himself. In this city,and in this month, the Muslims are at home.