Mawlid al-Nabi

Mawlid is Arabic for “birth” and our title translates as the birth of a person named Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ibn Hāshim, translated for those of us with short attention spans as simply “Muhammad the Prophet.”

One of the obvious virtues of the Muslim faith is its aversion toward anything iconic, considering that to be idolatrous. Thus, one hardly sees any representation of Mohammed (the spelling of the Prophet’s name in my upbringing). Some named after him prefer to be called Mahmud pronounced with an aspirated accent on the first syllable.

Islamic practice in Saudi Arabia discourages any birthday celebrations of the Prophet, religious or otherwise. A meaning of the word “Allah” is translated as “that which is the No-thing.” Iconic representations are a big no-no, and worldwide imams assailed a commercial film that personified Allah’s last seer.

Not so in the Christian tradition. Heinrich Hofmann’s Agony in Gethsemane painting is empathetically full of affectations that imprinted in my imagination the common iconic image of Jesus, along Walter Sallman’s blond and blue-eyed The Head of Jesus. In both, the Jesus portrayed is the preferred brunkoff (brownhead) of the Ruhr valley with a flowing reddish mane and distinctively Teutonic crystal blue eyes. Even after Nazi Germany was criticized and defeated for its promotion of racial supremacy, the common image of the Jesus in our time is more Aryan than Semitic.

Even Mel Gibson’s gory portrayal of Jesus’ twelve stations of the cross in the movie Passion of the Christ literally straight out of the four Gospel narratives, albeit through the eyes of the visionary stigmata mystic Anna Katharina Emmerick, passion did not come through as much as judgmental gore.

Islam’s stringent and transcendent monotheism emanated from the market of Mecca where every iconic representation was promoted in every trade route coming from all four corners of the desert. Monotheism had adequate basis from the traditions of Yahweh of the children of Abraham, and Christos among the followers of Jesus. With the Graeco-Roman elevation of the resurrected Jesus as the Christo Rei, Christ the King, it did not take long before the laidback prophet of Mecca became the desert’s flaming avatar, up to the Ottoman Empire. Some militant faithful still regard the image as the role model for ridding unfaithful infidels!

But as the Christmas tradition of the baby Jesus engulfed the liturgy of Christendom, Mawlid al-Nabi is now observed in most predominantly Islamic countries, and in nations with significant Muslim population such as England, Canada, India, and Russia. Of course, this is without the sentimentalism of the child in swaddling clothes, though it’s the division between Shia and Sunni adherents, the religion is hardly homogenous.

However, an Islamic revival is happening in our time, though mostly noticed by news media as the actions of extremists who promote violent cleansing of the infidel, in this instance painfully personified by Uncle Sam’s actuations in its imperialistic history of oil exploration and corporate greed in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. But the Mawlid is clearly part of the revival with practices involving both sacred and profane elements.

Often organized by Sufis, the mystical adherents to the inner essence of Islam before its external manifestations like Sharia law, the Mawlid has a carnival flavor with large street processions, brightly lit mosques, and gaily decorated homes, the latter two becoming centers for food distribution and other works of charity. Children recite poetry about the life of Muhammad, and scholars as well as poets recite literary materials made famous by previous poets and scholars.

From Palestine to Peshawar, Morocco to Mumbai, there is a chaotic and incoherent taste to the spectacle of numerous events held simultaneously in a fireworks and festive atmosphere, embracing a comprehensive affirmation of the contemporary and the ordinary as an expression of the Sufi’s concept of the universality of Islamic precepts and the pre-existence of Muhammad’s prophetic style.

There were two mosques and two gathering places for Muslims on Saipan in 2000, with perhaps about 4,000 adherents who faithfully did their ablutions before the call to prayers, but the RC Christians were too defensive in their demeanor and the evangelical Protestant congregations too assertive of their zeal to convert “the heathens” that, as the local pastor of the tiny Methodist congregation desperately trying to survive, I hardly had any occasion to show my ecumenical bent.

I had an ethnic Muslim Hui in my class two semesters ago, and it is ironic that I would have to come to China before I could listen to the poetry of the call to salat:

Allaahu Akbar (4x), Ashhadu Allah ilaaha illa-Lah (2x),

Ash Hadu anna Muhamadan rasuulullah (2x).

Hayya’ alas Salaah (2x); Hayya’ alal Falaah (2x).

Aliaahu Akbar. Laa ilaaha illa-Lah!

You want the translation, too? Pay your local imam a visit!

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