“You have to read these”, my friend compelled me, giving me a couple
of yellowed, printed-long-ago sort of books. That gave me my first
glimpse into the fascinating life and inspiring works of Maryam
Jameelah.
Born as Margaret Marcus into an American Jewish family who cared
little for religion and were active believers in the American Way, it
was curious how that little girl refused to fit into that life and
culture and came to realize it wasn’t the glittering American Dream,
after all. She sought answers and found herself interested in the exotic
and oriental. Young Maggie Marcus’s fascination with oriental cultures
led her to meet many New York Arabs and Muslims, from where she was
introduced to Islam.
At a relatively young age, Maryam began to study and to read up on
Islam and Muslim culture. She found in Islam what the society around her
lacked and never could give her. She found herself heartily in
agreement. From then on, there was no going back. After her reversion to
Islam in 1961, it became clear to her that New York couldn’t be her
home any more. The odds were too many.
Soon after, Maryam began regularly corresponding with Muslim leaders
and scholars throughout the world including Maulana Maudoodi, in whose
ideas she found a close kinship. At his invitation, Maryam shortly moved
to Pakistan and settled in Lahore. Here, she lives with her husband,
four children and the extended family members, spending her days reading
and writing regularly for the Muslim World Book Review on a wide range
of issues and subjects related to Islam and the West, and the resurgence
of Islam.
Maulana Maudoodi had once called Maryam Jameelah ‘a tropical sapling
planted in the Arctic.’ Reading through the details in the biographies
my friend had lent me, there was so much that truly moved one. What
inspired me was how a young mind, with no Islamic influence around, grew
to develop such a seasoned vision of Islam, such courage to enable her
to resist all the tempting glamour of developed society. Her search was
honest and it rested only after having achieved that which alone
fulfilled. Masha Allah!
After her arrival in Pakistan, Maryam had to grapple with a totally
different lifestyle and cultural milieu. She reminisces of the
linguistic barrier, the climate she was totally unsuited to, the large
family structure and the hygiene conditions. It could hardly be called
‘home’ for a young New Yorker. However, this cultural ‘leap’ Maryam
Jameelah had undertaken was in fact also a ‘leap of faith’, making her
amazingly resilient.
Some of the most beautiful passages in Maryam Jameelah’s biography
which taught me much were about how the young New York girl seeks and
appreciates the beauty in the simple ways of Muslim culture. For her,
eating out of a common earthenware dish is beautiful for the warm
sharing it involes; walking barefoot on a dirt floor and making ablution
out of a clay pot are the simple, natural pleasures of life, the rare
delights of the unsophisticated simplicity_ uncorrupted by materialism
and artifice_ that is essential to Islam. She warms up to the largesse,
generosity, hospitality of values engendered by Islam.
The flies, the heat, the dirt, the discomfort and inconveniences fail
to bring low the indomitable spirit. Surely, the eyes beholding so much
beauty in something a ‘Westernised’ mind would sneer at must be
beautiful_
‘wearing in the eyes the dust of Madina’, as Iqbal would have said.
Getting a fuller view of Maryam Jameelah, I ended up reading several
of her works on Islam and the West, which were certainly deeply
insightful, incisively critical_ the product of an analytical mind and a
passionate heart. It was around then that my friend called up, and in
high pitched tones of excitement, told me of a rare discovery: she had
actually traced Maryam Jameelah to her home! She had simply followed the
publishers’ address given at the back of one of her books_ printed back
in the 70s, and praying ardently that they hadn’t shifted since then,
actually sought out the place!
Next Saturday evening we were both threading our way through the
streets of Sant Nagar_ not to forget stopping at the florist’s on the
way to get a bouquet of ‘Nargis’_ decidedly ‘Nargis’_ we had to be as
‘oriental’ as would suit the occasion.On the way, observing the narrow,
bumpy and dusty streets and the barefooted children playing around, I
thought I could feel that beauty Maryam had sought in there too. This
was so removed from the urbanized quarters_ an island within a
monstrosity of ‘development.’ The car halted before an old house much
like the ones around. We brightened up when a bright, cheerful and warm
face appeared_ Moon Apa’s, who had facilitated the visit. She made us
feel welcomed- rather, at home. I think I understood how Maryam Jameelah
had so effortlessly managed to say ‘I belong.’
To my left, I saw a huge courtyard which immediately aroused the
feeling of ‘dejavu’_ it clicked… I remembered a page from Maryam
Jameelah’s biography… suddenly, the room filled up with gaily dressed
women from the 70s laying out traditional sweetmeat dishes to welcome
their guest from New York who had chosen to live among her companions in
faith…
We said our Maghrib prayers in the drawing room where we were waiting
adjacent to Maryam Apa’s room. Folding up the prayer mat, my heart
thumping wildly, I couldn’t keep from looking at the dear old profile
etched across the open window, at the head of silvery-white hair draped
in a white dupatta’ (scarf), lowered on the prayer mat in sajdah. I felt
the unspeakable blessdness of the moment filling up my veins. Some
things just cannot be expressed…
Most of what we heard Maryam Apa say, we had already read in her
books. But to see it come alive in the full-throated voice which had in
it the energy and vitality of her rich heart; to see that ‘undying
flame’ of the unbeaten spirit in the fine old eyes, and the deep-seated
gratitude and thankfulness for the life she has lived was an experience
unsurpassable. She brightened up sharing memories of the past, shyly
smiling like a little girl, her beady eyes twinkling even though she was
frail and volatile with age, exhausted and not very mobile any more.
Since she settled in Lahore, Maryam Jameelah has been a prolific
writer. Her work reflects a deep, incisive and analytical understanding
of Western culture and civilization. Being an ‘insider’, and not having
lived in a colonial or postcolonial set up, she digs deep into the very
foundations of American society and with a rare, refreshing vision and
raw honesty, exposes it down to its bare bones. She feels intensely its
spiritual bankruptcy and the toll materialism has taken on the life of
the average American, reducing life to a struggle for material
prosperity and comfort, no more.
However, the deeper questions remain unanswered, unresolved, and the inner self unsatiated:
It is this distressing evolutionary
process that has today made America a slave of machines. The supremacy
of the USA is accepted all over the world and its hand is seen in
everything that happens anywhere. No country, Muslim or non-Mulsim, is
altogether free from its control and domination. Today America has
enslaved the world with its way of life but it has itself become the
slave of machines. It is a prisoner of its lifestyle, of material
progress, factories, laboratories and of fancy goods and gadgets. Man
here has got so completely cast in the technological mould of life that
his ideas and emotions have also become mechanical. The properties of
rock and iron have entered into his soul. He has become narrow and
selfish, cold and unfeeling. There is no warmth in his heart; no
moisture in his eyes. This is the reality I have sadly observed during
my stay in America.(As quoted by Maryam Jameelah in ‘The Resurgence of
Islam and Liberation from our Colonial Yoke).
It is this dissatisfaction and disappointment with the deceptive
sheen of the Western humanistic tradition and all it could ever offer
that makes Maryam Jameelah embark on a search for meaningful life true
to the purpose we are sent with, in tune with the ebb and flow of
nature, imbued with simplicity and spirituality. She finds this
fulfilment in Islam and Muslim culture, and this is where the seeker in
her finds the anchor to hold on to. They say, ‘beauty lies in the eyes
of the beholder’. The vision that rejected the emptiness of the culture
of materialism and narcissism finds out the beauty of the ‘Muslim’ Way
of Life:
The remedy for the problems of the
modern world is the adoption of absolute transcendental values. The
fallacy that everything must change with changing times makes life
devoid of meaning and purpose since there is nothing of permanent worth.
It is responsible for our ‘throw-away’ culture which considers
everything disposable. The relativity of values is responsible for the
unprecedented epidemic of vulgarity and obscenity in the mass media, of
arts and entertainments, the generation gap, widespread alcohol and drug
addiction and suicide as a leading cause of death. If everything must
change with the changing times, human dignity and the nobility of
character are almost impossible to achieve since these are based upon
permanence and stability in the moral order.
Modern man desperately needs a Supreme
Authority for reference to distinguish between what is good and what is
evil, what is right and what is wrong, what is beautiful and what is
ugly. This does not mean totalitarian dictatorship but the Rule of Law
in the highest sense. Only the Divine Law of the Shariah is impartial
and just; where ruler and ruled, rich and poor, young and old,
celebrities and ordinary anonymous folk are equally subjected to its
jurisdiction… the authority of the Shariah proceeds from Almighty Allah.
Thus it is feared, esteemed, loved and obeyed simultaneously. It
combines the internal sanctions of fear of Allah and His retribution in
the Hereafter with severe but just punishments for violation of that law
on which the health of the individual and society depend.
Her belief in Islam as the panacea and the absolute Good is powerful and authentic:
The call of Islam to modern man is the
call to stability and inward peace. A society based on the precepts of
fear and reverence for the Divine Law will not be troubled with crime,
violence and lawlessness.…Individually, Islam would bring a direction,
meaning and purpose to life which materialistic cultures cannot provide;
an inward serenity and peace even in the midst of external frustrations
and adversity… the ugliness of our environment would be supplanted by
beauty…” (Islam and Modern Man)
Again, being originally an outsider, she does not take the ways of
Islam dully as a habit but delights in its refreshing distinction from
the materialism and artifice she has known and come to detest. Observing
the contrast directly, closely and first hand, Maryam Jameelah’s later
works show a seasoned understanding of the inner dynamics that make
post-Enlightenment secular-liberal Western society what it is and the
influences_ direct and indirect_ it exercises on what it calls the
‘developing’ predominantly Muslim world. She studies and presents an
analysis of Western philosophy and traces its evolution till the point
where a secular, capitalist-materialist social structure was realized.
She analyzes the motives and methods of Western imperialism, colonial
rule and the state of perpetual neo-colonialism the Muslim world labours
under. She is bitterly critical of modernist Muslims who believe that
in the Westernization and ‘modernization’ of Islam lies its hope for
survival and progress:
The earliest modernizers in the Muslim world were dismayed by the
contrast between the material backwardness of the Muslims and the
dazzling energy and concrete accomplishments of Europe. They thought
that if only the Muslims could imbibe modern knowledge through modern
education, their people would become just as strong, progressive and
prosperous.
Some, like Jamaluddin Afghani and Shaikh Muhammad Abduh
sincerely believed that this was the proper road to Islamic revival in
its call to modern man. The leaders of the Muslim countries accepted
this advice without question. More than a century has passed since then
but although all Muslim countries have adopted the Western s7stem as
their own, they remain poor, weak, backward…
Yet the Orientalists and the modernizers insist that the Muslims
are weak because they are not Westernized thoroughly enough and
prescribe another dose of the same harmful diet. Those who merely
imitate and not create, those who are always passive receptors instead
of active givers are defeated in the inevitable course of events because
their initial position is one of failure. The call of Islam to modern
man can succeed only if it proceeds from a position of strength,
independence and self-confidence.
Why is Westernization so attractive to the Muslims as it is for
everyone else? It is irresistible because it is easy. Contemporary
civilization is based upon self-indulgence while that of Islam requires
sacrifice, altruism, discipline, self-control and endurance which are
difficult. But self-indulgence leads to decadence and decline while the
opposite qualities, which Islam demands, lead to superior strength,
unity and virtue. If practiced in its right spirit, Islam leads to
social integration. Self-indulgent materialism leads to social
disintegration an ultimately collective suicide…
The times in which Maryam Jameelah’s writing is placed, the 1960s to
80s were when the groundwork for contemporary politics was being laid
taking shape. Her analysis and observations therefore, help one
understand the roots and implications of contemporary socio-political
issues. Her work bears striking relevance to current-day dilemmas and
issues_ certainly the vision of an eye gifted with foresight.
Although placed in times when the Muslim world was ravaged by
modernist post-Kemalist reform movements like President Nasser’s in
Egypt, Maryam Jameelah’s work is set apart, shunning all such
influences, safely cocooned in her firm fidelity to the fundamental
sources of Islam and her sensitive appreciation of Islamic tradition.
She passionately defends this ignored treasure, showing it to the world
in its unclouded, natural splendour. She believes in the eternal
dynamism of Islamic tradition, its eternal relevance as a means to
establish a viable egalitarian, peaceful, just and welfare-oriented
society in the present day, modelled on the insights provided by the
first Muslim community in Madina. She pleads her case convincingly and
passionately:
“It is often asserted by orientalists that the values and ideals
of traditional Islamic civilization have no relevance, even for Muslims
today because, like all non-European cultures, it was the product of an
antiquated tradition of the pre-scientific age. They assert that only
secularity is relevant to modernity, to change, to continual
technological innovations, and their social consequences. Since the
genuine Muslim is a traditional man, he can therefore have nothing of
relevance to contribute to the daily life of the modern man. But despite
the drastic environmental transformation brought about by modern
technology, the basic human drives and needs remain unchanged. Therefore
modern man is just as thirsty for the spiritual sustenance which alone
gives life its meaning, direction and purpose as was his ancestors, even
if he is not consciously aware of it.
It is the purpose of those who call modern man to Islam to awaken
him to the urgent intensity of these needs, not only for the individual
but for the whole of human society. Unfortunately, there remains
another great obstacle in the path of a modern appreciation of Islam.
Islamic civilization was not only remote from modernity in the
technological sense; it seems even more remote from the modern mind in
its moral ideals, which cannot be appreciated by the secular man or even
regarded by him as desirable. The spiritual ideals of Islam can be
understood only by truly God-fearing people, who yearn for God’s mercy
and salvation in the Hereafter.
Those who wish to call modern man to Islam must make him
understand and appreciate such virtue which is utterly foreign and
incomprehensible to the materialist. By an effective presentation of the
profound richness of Islamic culture as an historical acuality in the
life of the Muslims until the recent past, he must make the modern man
appalled by the spiritual poverty in which he must live and long for a
better life not limited to this world.” (Islam and Modern Man)
In the context of the contemporary dilemmas of achieving
‘liberation’, ‘pluralism’, ‘enlightened moderation’ outside of Islam and
remoulding Muslim societies to toe the Western line and achieve the
Western ideal of Secular-liberalism, Maryam Jameelah’s works have
perhaps a relevance more than ever before.
While Muslims debate which ‘brand’ of Islam be adopted to appease the
imperious demands of Western imperialism; while we concoct the
smothering labels of ‘extremist’, ‘secular’, ‘modernist’, ,moderate’,
‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’ and seek an identity alien to our real,
true essence, we need to rediscover the beauty and quiet superiority of
the pristine ‘Muslim’ way as lived by the Prophet (S) of Islam and the
earliest generation; we need to make that legacy speak to us again of
our problems and dilemmas and provide a way forward.
Maryam Jameelah, in throwing overboard the naive presumptions she was
socialized into, prejudices she inherited and wholeheartedly choosing
to live by the way of Islam with pride and passion, has a lot to teach
us as we still grope in the darkness for an identity.
Maryam Sakeenah in Defiance Here and Here
