islam

This slender book contains profound insights into the nature and essence of prayer. Based largely on the teachings of Shaikh Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (? -1986), a Sufi Shaikh from Sri Lanka who lived and taught from Philadelphia for the last 15 years of his life....

While written in the context of Muslim prayers, it's relevant to prayer in all religions. It is also an excellent guide to salat - ritual prayer in Islam.

The book explains in detail (with pictures) the various steps in salat. But more than that it relates the times of prayer and steps within prayer to spiritual development and awareness. And it is here that the real value of the book comes forth.

Using this as a base, the authors then describe a meditative prayer exercise - similar to Vedic "follow the breath" meditations.

In short this is not an academic description of prayer or theory but an invitation to readers to embark on the path.

The only negative - and this is a very very minor quibble - is with some of the transliterations of Arabic and grammatical comments.

I am generally a fan of Coleman Barks work; this book, however, was a disappointment. The jacket cover says of Michael Green "is working to create a new kind of sacred art for our time." This is an accurate description - he is still "working" with some successes and some failures. The net result is that pursuing the volume's art, one is encouraged to explore further.

Coleman Barks' text interweaves Jellaludin Rumi, who is translated well, with Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, a contemporary Sufi teacher. Unfortunately, Bawa Muhaiyaddeen does not fare well in the comparison. Bark's descriptions of personal experience and renderings of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen evoke thoughts of many of the South Asian "mystics" who arrived in the US in the late 60's and early 70's. While there are teachers who impress me in under 16 pages, this teacher leaves me unimpressed in 140.

This book does have value in its explanation of the ritual prayer of the Muslim Sufi. It deals well with the relationship between the physical and mental aspects of prayer. It raises some interesting questions regarding the relationship of revealed scripture (the Koran) and the interpretation of the scripture, especially mystical meaning.

The net result is a book that is interesting reading for the insights into the followers of a particular teacher, one easily representative of a class of teachers. It shows both the spiritual needs and the "leaps of faith" taken to fill those needs. In that, Coleman Barks has performed a service for us.

In "Conference of the Books, A Search for Beauty in Islam" Author and Scholar Khaled Abou El Fadl vexes over the lack of beauty in contemporary Islamic expression. He has some very interesting points. Points that I recalled upon my exposure to Michael Green's beautiful and meaningful paintings. While the Shia community produces an enormous treasury of artwork, highly expressive with spiritual tones to it, the Sunni community remains stagnant and stoic. There is a suffocation of creative activity in Islam for a number of reasons. Most of all is that there is an extreme conservatism amongst the practicing Muslims in the Sunni tradition which makes anything beyond intricate calligraphy a sinful act. They cite some odd reports, attributed to the Prophet, which seem to restrict personal expression and the making of images. This position is bizarre because, using the basic logic of Islamic jurisprudence, if there is not a harm in people worshiping those images, then its nature is purity and permissibility. I don't know... It sounds goofy, but Im certain the conservatives would claim that images have an inherent "evil" in them that forces people to recognize them as deities... Anyway, as you may have guessed, this title explores some of the meanings of the salah prayers as understood by Coleman Barks. Barks, a student of Bawa Muhaiyadden, and a devotee of Rumi has translated Rumi's poetry into an interesting manual of spirituality. I enjoyed the insights and the artwork in this. Michael Green certainly has a gift. I hope to see more like this.