Your Vibe Attracts Your Tribe

Chapter al-Ahzab

59. O you Ascended Master! Tell your peers, and your newly formed ones, and the less advanced of the ones who are secure, they draw near to themselves of what they attract. That is closer, so they are known and not harmed. And Allah was Forgiving and Merciful.

We are more than just ourselves. As individuals, through our actions we represent entire categories or groups of people. Consider the police: if one officer makes a grievous error in judgment in the line of duty, is this not often said to reflect poorly on the force as a whole? On the flip side, do we not have resource officers stationed in public schools in part to encourage children to view the police as accessible and kindly community helpers? How we behave, whether on or off the job, gives observers an impression of the profession or community we represent. As such, we must be determined to not only behave in accordance with the utmost standards of professionalism and high moral character, but we must also take care to surround ourselves with others dedicated to a similar goal. Otherwise, we risk tainting outsiders’ impressions of the groups we represent (be them professional, religious, social, or otherwise), and we also risk absorbing negative influence that detracts us from making progress in our development towards higher states of being.

Have you ever been a teenager, or raised a teenager? Consider the parental advice to mind the company you keep. My mother used to tell me, “tell me who your friends are, and I’ll tell you who you are.” What social environment would you prefer for yourself or your children: one defined by laziness, disrespect, dishonesty, and self-absorption, or one that fosters industrious responsibility, compassion and loyalty, generosity and integrity? Surrounding ourselves with high-quality people helps ensure that we remain on-track to be and become high-quality people ourselves.

This verse from Chapter al-Ahzab calls to Muhammad as an ascended master, a high-character individual, now leading the nascent Muslim community. It asks him to reach out to other people, beginning with his closest peers supporting his mission and expanding to include newcomers to Islam and all those who are less advanced in secure understanding and faith in the message he was bringing to humanity, to remind them to “draw near to themselves of what they attract.” In other words, people should be mindful of what energy they want to bring into their lives, and keep company accordingly. Then, their social environment will enhance the resonance of their intentions.

Regardless of your milieu, of course, the most important work you can do to ensure your spiritual success is to work on your own self, on your own being level. Once you dedicate your heart to purifying yourself of ego’s natural pull towards fear, selfishness, greed, anger, and so on, and set the feet of your spirit on a straight path towards harmony with the universe, you will be able to “do the right thing” automatically. Nothing will be able to distract you from your mission to live in a pure state of the highest order, and “submit in peaceful submission” to this ordered flow of the universe (see Chapter al-Ahzab, verse 56). As physicist and consciousness researcher Tom Campbell puts it, we must “lower our entropy.” Reducing the chaos within ourselves purifies our being and our actions, which then leads our existence to have a purifying effect in our community.

When we are well, we act well. When we act well, our example (perhaps in addition to our direct guidance) encourages those around us to behave in a similar way. Others observe our collective beautiful presence, and cultivate a positive impression of the communities we represent. So whether you are a soccer player, an engineer, a dentist, a housewife, a student, a musician, a person of faith, an employee in any field–no matter your individual identities, strive to be a high-order individual, and surround yourself with a high-quality community to amplify your efforts. We will all be better for it.

Qur'an for Dessert

When I used to run a banquet and event hall, many customers took advantage of our in-house catering. Over the years, I baked thousands of biscotti, baklava, butter cookies, and more. After so much practice, I still know these recipes by heart. If one day I should meet a customer with a dairy allergy, I would need to replace the butter with something more suitable. But swapping butter for a plant-based spread would change the percentage of liquid and fat in the recipe, so I may have to compensate by adjusting other ingredients. In the end, I’m sure we could come up with a scrumptious treat, but it would be different than the original.

So it goes with reworking the translation of the Qur’an. Once a change is made, I must ask myself, what does this imply for the remainder of the verse? for the remainder of the chapter? for how this theme presents itself throughout the text? It is a delicate process executed with the help of many reference materials. But, it is so exciting. Some of the changes I am seeing have major domino effects on how we can understand the Qur’an’s messages and directives.

Perhaps it is because I am currently focusing on this topic, but I feel that one of the most significant points of transition between the conventional and the new is the area of relationships in society, specifically gender roles. As we saw in last week’s post, the Qur’an does not specifically discuss men and women. Instead, we are talking about different categories of people in society or in a community. Eliminating the idea of gender and replacing it with this fresh concept of “more advanced” versus “less developed” (be it in areas of knowledge, skill, faith, etc.) demands that we rexamine critically controversial verses such as Chapter al-Nisa’ verse 34, commonly referred to as “the wife-beating verse,” as well as others conventionally understood to treat issues of inheritance, modest dress, domestic responsibilities, and more. Now that we’ve swapped out the butter—what other ingredients need modification to uphold the recipe’s integrity?

As a matter of course, I propose we stop at nothing and no word to reveal the most beautiful message we can. Every word and grammatical construct must be carefully considered, so that the final product is as true to its nature as it can be. After all, “even if” it’s vegan and gluten-free, a cookie remains a delicious dessert. In some ways, it may even be healthier than its conventional counterpart.

I look forward to sharing more freshly-baked translations of the Qur’an with you soon.

Women Are Not Nisa’ !

Studying the Qur’an is my life-long hobby. From a young age I attended study circles and memorized the Qur’an, and have always been passionate about exploring and learning from it. So I wonder, why has it taken me fifty years to realize something so critical for understanding this globally known text?

It all started with my Exploring the Qur’an class. We were going to discuss family and relationships in society, so naturally I turned to Surat al-Nisa’, which I had always been taught focused on women (al-nisa’ in modern Arabic). To my surprise, careful examination of only the first six verses opened my eyes to a new possibility: nisa’ does not mean women!

This should not have been such a big surprise–a lot of common understanding of the Quf’an is based on misinterpretation of key words, such as “Shaytan, nafs, ‘adhab” (شيطان، نفس، عذاب). But seeing that such a “basic” word like “women” had been inaccurately translated was a significant discovery–it “hit different,” as my students say.

As it turns out, nisa’ is not “women,” but refers to those who are behind in society. Verses 1-6 of Surat al-Nisa’, then, discuss how to promote balance and social justice:

• Verse 1 announces that this call is to all people, and explains that while Allah created everyone, some are more advanced than others, whether in terms of age and experience, or degree of wealth or social standing.

• Verse 2 continues addressing all people, and gives special instructions on how to handle the wealth or property of orphans given into another person’s trust.

• Verse 3 proposes different degrees for caring for orphans, from effectively adopting them, to supporting just one, to not taking responsibility for any and instead focusing on one’s own domestic obligations, in the case that someone does not feel they could do justice to one orphan.

• Verse 4 instructs people to give charity to support the less fortunate.

• Verses 5 and 6 are directed at anyone in charge of managing an orphan’s affairs; they specify that underage orphans must be cared for prudently without wasting their own wealth, and that once they reach the age of being able to make contracts, that the orphans under care should receive their own independent wealth.

Notably, verse 3 is typically used as a justification for polygamy in Islam. As we can see here, with a fresh understanding of the topic, this is no longer the case! What an outstanding repositioning of the message of the Qur’an. It is an honor to be among the elite researchers of today releasing the Qur’an from centuries of politically- and culturally-dominated interpretation. May we all maintain open minds and hearts ready to receive new guidance, consider new possibilities, and accept new directions in life that bring us closer to harmony with the universe and with each other.