Part 5 (1/2)
”You believed yourself to be stronger than G.o.d,” Moses replied to him. ”You have rejected the Eternal, and me, His Messenger. Now you are defeated and your riches are no more. The earth will swallow you up slowly; you shall be subjected to this punishment until the end of time.”
It was thus that Moses excluded the infidel from G.o.d's love. He caused him to perish after having p.r.o.nounced his judgment, and he expected the approval of the Almighty. But the ways of G.o.d are impenetrable and the Lord reproached him severely, saying, ”O Moses! Korah called upon you seventy times in repentance and you remained deaf to his plea. If he had called upon Me but one time, I would have saved him.”
Moses was confused. G.o.d added, ”Do you know why you did not have compa.s.sion for Korah? It is because to you he is neither your son, nor a being that you have created.”4 This intentional juxtaposition of ”son” with ”created being” clearly shows us that G.o.d, Who has not engendered and Who was not engendered,5 has for those He created the same love that a father has for his children. He was generous to the children of Adam, without differentiating amongst their states.
In this regard, Tierno told us about a major event in the life of Shaykh Ahmad al-Tijani when he was living in Morocco, where he benefited from the protection of the Sultan. During a public talk, a troublemaker who wanted to embarra.s.s him asked him a trick question. He asked, ”Does G.o.d love infidels?”
Basing his response on commentaries of the Koran, the Shaykh dared to answer, ”Yes, G.o.d loves infidels.” This was an unexpected answer at that time. There was a great outcry. Indignant, the audience left the room. Only eleven faithful disciples remained around the Shaykh, those very ones who later would see the birth of the Tijani order.
Marcel Cardaire, himself a fervent Catholic, had been touched by the att.i.tude of openness and love that radiated from the teachings of Tierno Bokar. Let us allow him to speak: The first lesson that the ”brothers in G.o.d” learnt was a lesson of religious tolerance.
In the small rooms of Tierno's disciples, the teaching that was described to us took on new dimensions according to the rhythm of the seasons. It became true nourishment. In this country of simple technologies, we heard simple sentences fall from simple lips. The words penetrated better than if they had been p.r.o.nounced in one of those temples or mosques that give homage more to the prowess or refinement of man than to the majesty of the Creator. And moreover, these words that we have collected in no way resemble what one hears in other places of wors.h.i.+p. These were words in their pure state, words spoken not to exalt man, neither speaker nor listener, but rather truly animating words, spoken with such sincere feeling for the other as to cause G.o.d to live in the heart of the unbeliever, to vivify his faith, and to give a meaning to the lives of everyone.
In these small rooms we heard maxims that we would have liked to see engraved in golden letters on the portals of all the places of wors.h.i.+p in the world. What religious university, what al-Azhar, could match the Sage of Bandiagara?6 Among those who came to listen to Tierno, not all were from the Tijani order. One day several Qadiri, members of the Qadiriyya brotherhood, one of the most ancient orders in Islam, came to listen to his cla.s.ses. When the time came to carry out the great dhikr (the common chanting of the Name of G.o.d) one student asked Tierno, ”Are those who are not Tijani going to take part in the dhikr?”
”Make the dhikr without worrying about them,” he replied. ”If some of them want to partic.i.p.ate, you have no right to forbid them. And if they prefer to leave, you have no right to restrain them.”
The dhikr took place, in the presence of numerous Qadiri. When it had finished, Tierno spoke: The Rainbow The rainbow owes its beauty to the variety of its shades and colors. In the same way, we consider the voices of various believers that rise up from all parts of the earth as a symphony of praises addressing G.o.d, Who alone can be Unique. We bitterly deplore the scorn that certain religious people heap on the form of divine things, a scorn that often leads them to reject their neighbor's hymn because it contrasts with theirs. To fight against this tendency, brother in G.o.d, whatever be the religion or the congregation to which you are affiliated, meditate at length on this verse: ”The creation of the heavens and the earth, and the diversity of your languages and of your colors are many wonders7 for those who reflect” (Koran 30:22).
There is something here for everyone to meditate upon.
During a certain period, American Protestant missionaries had come to the Soudan. They liked to preach in the areas where the Catholic Church had not been able to establish itself. Because Bandiagara was one of these places, the head of this Protestant mission arrived one day in the town, set himself up on the market square, and began to speak of G.o.d in the Bambara language.
Astonished, or at least amused to hear a foreign pastor express himself thus in their language, large numbers of curious people surrounded him. When he started to speak of G.o.d with warmth and strength, and above all when he translated the psalms of David into Bambara, people were moved. Muslims are always moved by Biblical language, especially when it is translated into their tongue. But there were a few bigots in the audience who took offense to the scene and who tried to turn the crowd away crying, ”It's a Christian! It's a Christian!”
One of Tierno's students had been present at the scene. When he arrived in cla.s.s, he reported these facts to us, exulting in a malicious way what had happened to the pastor. ”Today,” he said, ”a pastor wanted to talk to us about G.o.d. But we made so much fun of him that he was obliged to leave.”
Tierno was revolted by this behavior. Wanting to put his students on guard against disrespectful behavior towards men who spoke in the name of G.o.d, he launched an out-and-out call for tolerance on that day: Children of the Same Father Are children of the same father, although physically different from one another, any less brothers and legitimate sons of he who fathered them? In accordance with this law-truth, we pity those who deny believers from different confessions a spiritual ident.i.ty and brotherhood under one single G.o.d, the unique and immutable Creator.
Although it may not please those attached to the letter,8 for us one thing alone counts above all others: to profess the existence of G.o.d and His unity. So, brother in G.o.d who comes to the threshold of our zawiya, which is a center of love and charity, do not hara.s.s the follower of Moses. G.o.d Himself witnesses that He has said to His people, ”Implore G.o.d for a.s.sistance, and be patient. The earth belongs to G.o.d and He bequeaths it to whom He will among His servants. A blissful end will be for those who fear Him” (Koran 7:128).
Neither should you hara.s.s the follower of Jesus. G.o.d, in speaking of the miraculous child of Mary, the Virgin Mother, said, ”We granted to Jesus, son of Mary, the gift of miracles and We comforted him through the Holy Spirit” (Koran 2:253).9 And the other human beings? Let them enter, and even greet them in a brotherly way in honor of that which they have inherited from Adam, of whom G.o.d has said, addressing the angels, ”When I have perfected him and breathed into him of My Spirit, then fall down before him prostrate as a sign of your veneration” (Koran 38:72).
This verse implies that every descendant of Adam is the repository of a particle of the Spirit of G.o.d. How would we therefore dare to scorn a receptacle that contains a particle of G.o.d's Spirit?
Moreover, Tierno often said: You who come to us and whom we esteem, not as a student, but as a brother, reflect! Meditate on this verse from the Book of Guidance: ”There is no compulsion in religion. The Truth distinguishes itself from error. He who rejects false deities in order to believe in G.o.d has grasped a handhold that is firm, unbreakable. And G.o.d is All-hearing, All-knowing” (Koran 2:256).
Relations with Other Religions ”Tierno,” I asked him one day, ”is it good to converse with people of another faith to exchange ideas and better understand their G.o.d?” He answered: Why not? I will tell you: one must speak with foreigners if you can remain polite and courteous. You will gain enormously by knowing about the various forms of religion. Believe me, each one of these forms, however strange it may seem to you, contains that which can strengthen your own faith. Certainly, faith, like fire, must be maintained by means of an appropriate fuel in order for it to blaze up. Otherwise, it will dim and decrease in intensity and volume and turn into embers and then from embers to coals and from coals to ashes.
To believe that one's race or one's religion is the only possessor of the truth is an error. This could not be. Indeed, in its nature, faith is like air. Like air, it is indispensable for human life and one could not find one man who does not believe truly and sincerely in something. Human nature is such that it is incapable of not believing in something, whether that is G.o.d or Satan, power or wealth, or good or bad luck.
So, when a man believes in G.o.d, he is our brother. Treat him as such and do not be like those who have gone astray. Unless one has the cert.i.tude of possessing all knowledge in its entirety, it is necessary to guard oneself against opposing the truth. Certain truths only seem to be beyond our acceptance because, quite simply, our knowledge has not had access to them.”
He added: Avoid confrontations. When something in some religion or belief shocks you, instead seek to understand it. Perhaps G.o.d will come to your aid and will enlighten you about what seems strange to you. . .
Not only would Tierno Bokar not prohibit his students from interacting with believers of other faiths, but he also considered this practice an actual therapy for the soul. He asked people to make the necessary mental effort and to struggle against what is holding them back so as to better understand.
Along these same lines, one day he told us about a vision he had had: In my mind, I saw a gigantic man lying on his back. People of various religions and faiths were bustling about him. Some were speaking into his ear, others were opening his mouth, others were making him breathe in various perfumes, others were applying an eyewash, etc.
”What is this that I am seeing, who is this man?” I cried out to myself.
A voice answered me, ”This is the blessed man who reminds himself of the Unity of G.o.d and of the brotherhood that should unite His wors.h.i.+pers, wherever they may come from. He is receiving, as you see, all the teachings. The result is better for him. He is porous, like sand. G.o.d gave him the power to conserve and to a.s.similate.”
He added: The religious teaching given by a Prophet or by an authentic spiritual master is like pure water. One can absorb it without danger to one's spiritual or moral health. Such a teaching will be intelligible and of a superior order. Like clear water, it will contain nothing that can change it by modifying its flavor, its odor, or its color. It will mature the mind and purify the heart because it does not contain any external pollutant that could have the effect of obfuscating the soul or hardening the heart. We cannot overemphasize the benefits of studying the teachings of revealed religions. They are, for everyone, like potable water. We advise, however, that they be a.s.similated slowly, and to avoid murky theology that is likely to contain a spiritual Guinea worm.10 The saying goes, ”When you are sweating, do not take in cold water.” We recommend that ”When your soul is in mystical fervor, do not read anything.”
He constantly tried to inculcate into us the spirit of tolerance and make us understand that it was only the intrinsic spiritual quality of a man that mattered: Our planet is neither the largest nor the smallest of all those that our Lord has created. Those who inhabit it can therefore not escape this law: we should not believe ourselves to be superior, nor inferior, to other beings in the universe, whatever they be.
The best of created beings amongst us will be those who live in Love and Charity and in respect for their neighbor. Upright and radiant, they will be like a sun that rises and that goes straight up towards the sky.
Religion is One in Its Essence One can see that for Tierno Bokar there existed but one eternal Religion, unalterable in its fundamental principles but varying in its forms of expression and corresponding to the conditions of time and place of each Revelation. This primordial Religion was, for him, comparable to a trunk from which the known historical religions branch off like the branches of a tree.
It was this eternal Religion which was taught by all the great Messengers of G.o.d and which was molded to serve the necessities of each epoch. Too often, however, most people had only understood or retained the outward forms, in the name of which they entered into conflict with each other.
This concept is in conformity with the teachings of the Koran itself, which emphasizes the unity of the divine Revelation throughout time: Say ye: We believe in G.o.d and that which has been revealed unto us and that which was revealed unto Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and unto the tribes; and that which was given unto Moses and Jesus; and unto that which was given unto the Prophets from their Lord. We show no preference between any of them, and unto G.o.d we submit ourselves (Koran 2:136).11 Lo! Those who believe, those who practice Judaism, those who are Christians or Sabaeans, those who believe in G.o.d and the Last Day, those who do right-these are the ones who will find their reward beside their Lord. They will know no fear, nor will they grieve (Koran 2:62).
Set your face to the pure Religion, the religion of the fitra (original primordial nature) through/for which G.o.d created mankind. There is no changing G.o.d's creation. That is the immutable religion, but most men know not (Koran 30:30). O Messengers of G.o.d. . . . This your religion (din) is One. I am your Lord, fear Me (Koran 23:51-52).12 Tierno elaborated on this: That which varies in the diverse forms of Religion-for there can only be one Religion-are the individual contributions of human beings interpreting the letter with the laudable aim of placing religion within the reach of the men of their time.
As for the source of religion itself, it is a pure and purifying spark that never varies in time or s.p.a.ce, a spark which G.o.d breathes into the spirit of man at the same time as He bestows speech upon him.
Contrary to what usually happens, one should therefore not be surprised to find spiritual riches in someone from a people considered as backward, but one should instead be troubled at not finding them in civilized individuals who have long worked on developing their material lives. . . .
In its Essence, Faith is one, whatever the religion that conveys it might be. But in its manifestations, it presents, as we have seen, three fundamental states: solid, liquid, and gaseous. Faith is the essence of religion, which can then be seen as an atmosphere surrounding a universe populated with three categories of men: the believing ma.s.ses, preachers blinded by parochialism, and finally initiates who have found G.o.d and wors.h.i.+p Him in truth and in silence.
Translated by Fatima Jane Casewit
Footnotes
1 Editor's Note: The following selections are from Amadou Hampate Ba, A Spirit of Tolerance: The Inspiring Life of Tierno Bokar, edited by Roger Gaetani (Bloomington, IN: World Wisdom, 2008), pp. 122-134. Ba was a student and disciple of the Malian Sufi master, Tierno Bokar, who become known as ”the sage of Bandiagara,” the town in Mali where he lived for most of his life. The editor's notes below are all by Roger Gaetani.
2 Tierno compared this living Void, pure potentiality, to the mathematical notion of zero, the starting point containing the seed of all numbers that emerge from it. He does not mean here ”nothingness,” but rather ”nonmanifested.”
3 Editor's Note: This story of Korah (called Qarun in the Koran) is constructed of elements from the Koran, which mentions him very briefly, the Old Testament, and other legends whose source we do not know.
4 Editor's Note: Whereas, for G.o.d, even one as wicked as Korah is still considered as a ”son” and one of His created beings.