Basic Question

roosh

Hey guys, just wanted to ask a qucik question about the prophet Muhammed (pbuh). I understand that the life of the prophet is a source of "direction" for muslims, that how he lived his life is an important example, which should be followed where possible (am I right in this?).

On this basis, I was just wondering what spiritual/religious practices Muhammed (pbuh) is generally understood to have undertaken? Was it strictly prayer that he engaged in, or were there other religious practices, such as meditation?

I ask this, because I am trying to get a general understanding of the role meditation plays in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

cheers.

hivizman

mangaroosh wrote: »

Hey guys, just wanted to ask a qucik question about the prophet Muhammed (pbuh). I understand that the life of the prophet is a source of "direction" for muslims, that how he lived his life is an important example, which should be followed where possible (am I right in this?).

On this basis, I was just wondering what spiritual/religious practices Muhammed (pbuh) is generally understood to have undertaken? Was it strictly prayer that he engaged in, or were there other religious practices, such as meditation?

I ask this, because I am trying to get a general understanding of the role meditation plays in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

cheers.

This is a very quick and not very authoritative response. First of all, Muslims certainly regard the "way" of Muhammad, the Sunnah, as worthy of emulation. As regards worship, the Qur'an sets out the broad framework, but the detailed practices are derived from hadiths that transmit Muhammad's words and actions. Because of differences among the different schools of jurisprudence as to which hadiths are considered authentic, there are subtle differences in the ways in which the schools define the details of the prayer (salah).

In addition to the regular prayer (salah), there is also du'a (supplication). Muhammad is reported to have said that du'a is the very essence of worship. The third main mode of worship is dhikr, or remembrance of Allah. This often involves the repetitive recitation of the "beautiful names" of Allah, or of key phrases such as "la ilaha ilallah" (there is nothing worthy of worship except Allah) or "subhan'Allah" (glory be to Allah). Sufis go in for collective dhikr, but many Muslims regard dhikr as a private matter.

Does any of this amount to meditation? Well, Muhammad is reported to have said "one hour's meditation on the works of the Creator is better than seventy years of prayer" (I haven't found the original source of this statement, which comes from the Internet). Certainly, Muhammad is reported (for example, Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah, translated by A. Guillaume as The Life of Muhammad, OUP, 1955, p. 105) to have regularly spent the month of Ramadan in prayer and meditation in a cave on Mount Hira, outside Makkah, and it was during such a time of meditation that the first verses of the Qur'an were revealed. What form that meditation took is not very clear.

Here's an interesting passage from Tariq Ramadan's The Messenger: The Meanings of the Life of Muhammad (Penguin: 2008, pp. 26-27):

Away from other people, facing nature, Muhammad was searching for peace and meaning. . . . It was indeed a quest for truth: dissatisfied with the answers offered by those around him, driven by the intimate conviction that he must search further, he decided to isolate himself in contemplation. He was nearing forty and had reached a point in his spiritual development that made deep introspection the necessary next step. Alone with himself, in the cave of Hira, he meditated on the meaning of his life, his presence on earth, and the signs that had accompanied him throughout his life. . . . He was searching, and this spiritual quest was naturally leading him toward the calling that signs had tacitly and inevitably pointed to throughout his life.

It's important to note, I think, that this withdrawal from society in order to meditate was a stage that effectively came to an end once Muhammad began to receive the revelation of the Qur'an. Subsequently, however, and certainly once he had made the hijra to Medina, Muhammad presented Islam as a religion of action rather than purely contemplation. The Qur'an is full of calls for us to reflect on the signs that, Muslims believe, reveal Allah through His creation. But whether this counts as meditation depends on how you define that term.

Apologies, this is rather a late-night ramble. I hope that regular Muslim posters will correct and expand this response.

hivizman

In many places, the Qur'an calls upon Muslims to "remember Allah". For example, Surat al-Muzzammil (73:8): "So remember the name of thy Lord and devote thyself with a complete devotion", and Surat al-Insan (76:25): "Remember the name of thy Lord at morn and evening" (Pickthall trans.). The Arabic word dhikr (remembrance) is a noun form of the verb dhakara, meaning "to remember".

Dhikr may be performed in ways quite similar to hindu or buddhist meditation. It may involve repetition of various words or phrases, a bit like mantras, with deep concentration on the words, steady breathing, careful posture, use of prayer beads (tasbih). The key is to concentrate on the meaning of the words, so for example, if the ninety-nine "beautiful names of Allah" are being recited, it would be appropriate to reflect on what each name signifies. Complete concentration is believed to lead to humility and a sense of obedience to the will of Allah (a word often used in this context is khushoo', which is considered to be an important goal in perfecting one's prayer - see for example Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid's 33 ways of developing khushoo' in salaah).

On the other hand, dhikr can be performed while one goes about one's daily business, and so it may not be perceived as meditation on an "eastern" model. The words "reflect" and "contemplate" are often synonyms for "meditate". For example, the practice of muhasaba involves a daily reflection on one's words and deeds, a form of "examination of conscience". This could be regarded as a type of meditation.

roosh

thanks a mill, some great info there. How do you know so much for a non-muslim?

It strikes me that there appear to be a number of parallels with "eastern models" of meditation. Even the idea of Dhikr while going about ones daily business is similar to the idea of integration of sitting practice into ones daily life in eastern practices.

Just with regard to the 99 beautiful names of Allah, is there any reference in the Qur'an to Allah as being beyond name? That even the term Allah does not capture what Allah is?

hivizman

mangaroosh wrote: »

Just with regard to the 99 beautiful names of Allah, is there any reference in the Qur'an to Allah as being beyond name? That even the term Allah does not capture what Allah is?

There are several verses in the Qur'an that state that Allah is beyond comparison, for example Surat al-Ikhlas (112:4) "And there is none comparable unto him", and Surat ash-Shura (42:11) "Naught is as His likeness" (Pickthall trans.). Allah makes himself known through his ayat, or signs - this Arabic word is also used for the verses of the Qur'an. So knowledge of Allah comes through revelation and through nature. The Qur'an refers to Allah's "names" or "attributes", and the 99 beautiful names provide a compilation of these attributes.

Surat al-A'la (87:1) begins with the injunction to "Praise [probably "glorify" or "exalt" would be a closer translation of the Arabic sabbiḥi (سَبِّحِ)] the name of thy Lord the Most High", and Muslims perform this by saying "Subhana Rabbiya'l-A'la" when prostrating as part of the prayer, as well as repeating "Subhan'Allah" as part of dhikr.

I have a book called The Name & the Named, by Shaykh Tosun Bayrak, a Turkish Sufi living in the USA, which discusses the 99 beautiful names at length. In the foreword, Bayrak writes:

Those who have heard the ninety-nine Names of God, read them, memorized them, learned their meaning, and believed in them have certainly not done so in vain. They are better than the ones who do not know. Yet they are people who know only what they have heard from others. They know the Name but not the Named.

One of the problems that Muslim philosophers had to deal with was the risk that referring to Allah in terms of his names and attributes would in some way reduce the status of Allah, by describing Allah, who is clearly identified in the Qur'an as unique and beyond comparison, using human-like terms. In particular, some of the names seem to limit Allah while others seem at first sight to be inconsistent (for example, Allah is both the Giver of Life (al-Muhyi) and the Taker of Life (al-Mumit), both the First (al-Awwal) and the Last (al-Akhir). The 11th century philosopher and pioneer of medical scholarship Ibn Sina (also known as Avicenna) suggested that this was only an apparent problem, attributable to the limits of human ability to know God. Created beings simply cannot know their Creator in his fully unique and radically "other" reality.