Voice of British Muslim Women

Tooba Khokhar, Cambridge 

And Allah it is Who sends the winds which raise the clouds; then do We drive them to a lifeless tract of land, and quicken thereby the earth after its death. Likewise shall the Resurrection be. (The Holy Qur’an 35:10) 

The highest temperature I have ever experienced is 50 degrees Celsius, and I remember how intense the heat was in a way that standing outside for more than a few moments felt unbearable. It is difficult to appreciate quite how the religion of Islam emerged in the Arabian Peninsula. The early Muslims prayed and fasted, fought battles and endured persecution in the harsh desert clime.  

In the Holy Qur’an, God often describes Himself in pairs of attributes: He is Gracious and Mercifulⁱ, Mighty and Wiseⁱⁱ. However, occasionally man too is described in pairs of qualities of vice or virtue. We are enjoined against becoming proud and boastful [mukhtalin fakhoor]ⁱⁱⁱ and we are encouraged to be patient and grateful [sabbarin shakoor]^iv. The virtuous traits, of being sabbar and shakoor, are in the intensive form of the active participle which in Arabic grammar is known as sighat al-mubalaghah. In simple words, they mean someone who is or does something frequently or to a high degree. Therefore, we are told to not only be patient and grateful but to embody both traits deeply in our actions and lives.  

Then there is the particular pairing: patience and gratitude. In many ways, patience is what prepares our hearts to be grateful. If a person lives in temperate weather all his life, and never experiences thirst, how is he to know the sensation of a cool glass of water on a scorching day? For many, past hardship only increases present gratitude. And heat is a hardship for people and the natural environment. The Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) once said “severity of heat is a scorching blast from Hell” as he allowed his Companions to delay the noontime prayer to a cooler hour^v. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) would also read a prayer for rain [salat al-istisqa] in times of drought.^vi  

The noble Companions (may God be pleased with them) would liken the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) to a “rain-bearing breeze” [al-rih al-mursila]^vii, and among the most exquisitely beautiful prayers of the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was his invocation for Divine Love: 

Allah, I beg of Thee Thy love, and the love of those who love Thee, and such conduct as should lead me to Thy love. Allah, make Thy love dearer to me than my soul and my family and dearer than cold water (Tirmidhi).^viii  

This prayer speaks of a devotion to the Divine that exceeds all bounds, asking God to make His love dearer than the desire for cold water. Perhaps, our own summer of heatwaves can help us to appreciate in a small way the immensity of this prayer. Can any of us truly claim to have so little regard for worldly comfort, or a heart that seeks only the love of its Creator? To have reached a stage where neither cold nor heat, comfort nor hardship distracts from our devotion? 

Perhaps, the extremities in our clime are reflected in our own selves too. In a letter to his brother and sister, English Romantic poet John Keats stated his view that “the inhabitants of the world will correspond to itself”^ix. Elaborating this notion, he wrote: 

Look at the Poles and at the Sands of Africa, whirlpools and volcanoes—Let men exterminate them and I will say that they may arrive at earthly Happiness. The point at which Man may arrive is as far as the parallel state in inanimate nature, and no further.  

Keats poses the question whether man can be anything but restless in such a restless world. Indeed, man is in many respects a mirror of the natural world. However, the Islamic perspective does offer a bit more hope. It places upon man the duty of custodianship over the natural world, which in this day and age also means curbing the tide of climate change. And it teaches us that in meeting this restless world with patience and prayer, and by orienting ourselves towards our Creator, there is comfort to be found in every circumstance.  

References:

[i] The Holy Qur’an 1:1

[ii] The Holy Qur’an 64:19

[iii] The Holy Qur’an 4:37

[iv] The Holy Qur’an 14:6

[v] Sahih al-Bukhari 536

[vi] Sahih al-Bukhari, The Book of the Prayer for Rain

[vii] Sahih al-Bukhari 6

[viii] Gardens of the Righteous 1495

[ix] Letter to George and Georgiana Keats, February 14, 1819