Ramadan Heroes

The Fathers Moon

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My evening walk was lit by the new crescent moon of the month of Ramadan. All over the world Muslims are fasting from food, water and other sins like lying and thinking badly of others. I was thinking about everyone everywhere who is going without, either because they must or because it will make them better. Blessed Ramadan!

Like years past, I have been collecting and sharing stories about Muslim people and culture this Ramadan month. This year, in keeping with my theme of Claiming My Super Powers and Calling My Allies, I focused on Muslim heroes. I found some really interesting stories about people from all over the Muslim world and throughout time who embody the ideals of being a hero - being the best they can be in service of others. I hope you are as inspired as I have been.

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No list of Muslim heroes can start anywhere except with the prophet Muhammad. Muslims will all agree that Muhammad is a hero because he is the seal of the prophets, the last voice of god on earth. Islam, no matter what fundamentalists may do in it's name, is a religion of equality, justice and compassion. Muhammad was very clear that his followers should treat women fairly in matters of inheritance and daily life and that a percentage of all wealth should go to the poor. He was revered, even in his early life, for his trustworthiness in business and gentleness with children. Ramadan mubarak!

A Timeline of the Prophet Muhammad by PBS

An American Sufi take on the Prophet Muhammad as a Hero

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"What ever I know, I owe solely to my assiduous reading of books of the ancients, to my desire to understand them and to appropriate this science; then I have added the observation and experience of my whole life." Abu al-Quasim al-Zahrawi was a physician who lived and worked in Al-Andalus, the medieval Islamic civilization in Spain. His encyclopedia of medical knowledge was the first to describe many surgical techniques including delicate procedures to remove tonsils, extract bladder stones, using catgut for stitches and techniques to reduce mortality rate during childbirth. The Latin translations of his work, usually with the name Albucasis, were influential well into the modern age. He blended thorough study of ancient texts with scientific observation of patients and a deep respect for human life to change the face of medicine in the Western world forever. He is one heck of a Muslim hero.

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What do you call a 6'2" tall, 320lb Egyptian man competing at high levels in Japanese sumo? Osunaarashi, or “Great Sandstorm.” Abdel Rahman Ahmed Shaalan moved to Japan to be a world class sumo competitor two years ago and his dreams seem to be coming true. Following his authentic and quirky dreams makes him a hero in many ways, but his team mates and coaches are heroes too for adapting their ancient traditions to his Muslim faith. The traditional pork stew eaten by sumo wrestlers is made with chicken and fish for his team, and his coaches are helping him compete in a big tournament this month despite the fact that he is observing the Ramadan fast. Best of luck, Osunaarashi!


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"My aim is to show that those governments that violate the rights of people by invoking the name of Islam have been misusing Islam." In 1969 Shirin Ebadi became the first woman to become a judge in an Iranian court. She served as a judge in various courts in Tehran until the Islamic revolution in 1979 when she, along with all other women judges who had come after her, were made clerks in the courts they had previous presided over. She began writing about her opposition to these so called Islamic laws and when she regained her law license in 1992 she began representing disenfranchised women, children and other victims. Threats to her life sent her into exile but she continued working for human rights in Iran and in 2008 was awarded with a Nobel Peace Prize for her work. She has inspired growing human rights movements in Iran and continues to speak against the despotic government she says is using Islam against people. Ms. Ebadi's story shows me how even something we think of as monolithic like "Iran" has a past, a future and a diversity of ideas and values. She's a hero to me!

Dr Ebadi was once asked if she had a message for Muslim women. “Yes,” she replied. “Keep on fighting.” 


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In late 2009 Fatma Iktasari and Shabnam Kazimi dressed up as men and snuck into Tehran's Azadi stadium to cheer on their national team as they played a World Cup qualifying match. In Iran, women may watch women play in all women audiences, but are not allowed to watch men play. The movie Offsides showed a fictionalized account of just such an act of political dissidence but I couldn't find any news of what actually happened to Fatma and Shabnam. I hope they are safe and cheering on Iran as they head to the Brazil for the world cup next summer.

This is the best part: "The state—and especially many clerics—argue that soccer stadiums are no place for women because male soccer fans are crude and shout phrases that are offensive to the ears of gentle women. There are also concerns that women might be touched by men in the crowded mass of a stadium. " I whole heartedly agree... and that's the best part of being a soccer fan   

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Can you name a world queen fought and vanquished many foes to protect her homeland's economic and trade interests? Who never married but ruled under her own power for decades? Built earthen fortifications that protected her people and are still in use today? Earned the honorific "A woman as capable as a man"? Became the inspiration for Xena Warrior Princess? The correct answer is Queen Amina, a 16th century leader of the Islamic Hausa people of Northern Nigeria. Legends are still told of her today and multiple universities bear her name. She is a national hero in modern Nigeria and kinda kick-ass all around.

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On July 20th, 1969 the crew of the Apollo 11 became the first humans to walk on the moon. When Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor was a 9 years old his father showed him a poster of Neil Armstrong to motivate the young Malaysian to literally reach for the stars. "He was a remarkable person who opened the pathway to space exploration" says the man who became the first Malaysian in space when he spent 11 days aboard the ISS in 2007. When people dismissed his dream of becoming an astronaut due to his nationality, he studied to become an orthopedic surgeon, knowing science was the key to space travel. While aboard the ISS he performed experiments on cancer cells, bacteria and lipid crystallization. Like so many astronauts, he saw the earth differently from space "Seeing how small and how tiny the Earth is from space made me realise that we are actually insignificant. There are millions and millions of galaxies out there, and it saddens me that people are killing each other and destroying the earth and killing the environment." He has spent the years since his spaceflight working to inspire young Asians to study science and space. "You must dream big, believe in yourself and be very vocal."

As a Muslim, Shukor's trip presented some challenges to the expectations that he pray towards Mecca five times a day, and that he fast during Ramadan (when the trip occurred). The Malaysian government convened a council to figure out what he should do and how he should do it. "During my time in space, I heard the azaan (Islamic call to prayer) and it was the most magical sound I've heard in my life." He added that "In space, you just feel closer to the Creator". 

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"I think Afghanistan is not a jungle, with lions everywhere to scare people. There are human beings living in this country. The people of Afghanistan are braver than the rest of the world." There are brave people everywhere but Sosan Firooz is one of the bravest I've heard of. The 23 year old Afghani woman raps about her beloved homeland and the tragedies her people have faced in recent years. It is very frowned upon in Afghani culture for women to sing, especially in western clothes and sans headscarf as Sosan does in her YouTube video and her uncle has cut ties with the family. Her father, however, acts as her secretary and bodyguard whenever she leaves the house. Her ultimate goal? To help her family out of poverty and see her country get back on its feet. I wish I were half so brave! Sosan is a hero of mine  

Watch the Upworthy video here!

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"It’s a good thing that we have people from all faiths and all cultures that come here. And we all support one Constitution, one Constitution that upholds our right to equal protection, one Constitution that guarantees us due process under the law, one Constitution which says that there is no religious test for elected office in America" said Keith Ellison when he became the first Muslim elected to the US Congress and made it clear that he would take his oath of office on a Koran rather than a Bible. In the years since he made that oath (on Jefferson's own Koran, no less) he has worked to protect the rights of Americans (staunchly pro-choice, active in credit reform legislation, support of American Muslims and environmental issues) and of people all over the world. He is one of the first congressmen to visit Gaza, has spoken openly against the war in Iraq and was arrested for publicly speaking out against the Sudanese government's actions in Darfur. Keith Ellison is an American Muslim hero who loves his country, works hard on progressive issues and believes in the values of tolerance and diversity.

Mr Ellison converted to Islam in college. "I can't claim that I was the most observant Catholic at the time [of my conversion]. I had begun to really look around and ask myself about the social circumstances of the country, issues of justice, issues of change. When I looked at my spiritual life, and I looked at what might inform social change, justice in society... I found Islam."

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"Anti-Semitism is only the lightning rod used to draw the people’s attention away from their real problems." wrote Dervis Korkut, the Muslim Bosniak curator of books at the Sarajevo library in 1941. He was writing a position paper to the Nazi puppet government set up after the invasion of Yugoslavia that year insisting that the native Muslim population had always embraced pluralism. During the ensuing occupation and fighting, Korkut lived this belief by risking his and his family's safety to protect Jewish treasures; the Sarajevo Haggadah and a woman named Mira Papo. Mira had escaped the round up of the Jews of Sarajevo spent months disguised as a Muslim servant in the Korkut household. The Haggadah, a book used in Passover services that originated in Spain in the 14th century, was demanded out of the museum by a Nazi officer and Korkut used wit and deception to smuggle it to safety in the mountains. Legend says it spent much of the rest of the war hidden under the floor boards of a small mosque. Korkuk spent six years in prison after the war on false charges of participating in a Muslim Fascist militia but testimony by his Jewish friends saved him from a death sentence. Standing up for the values of diversity and human dignity is one of the most heroic things I can think of a person doing.

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It might be said that almost all violence is caused by a lack of love. Ameena Matthews saw this when she made her own reputation as a young gang member in Chicago, driven there by poverty and violence in her own family, and she sees it now as a Violence Interrupter working with Ceasefire, a non profit in those same Chicago neighborhoods. Every day she steps into violent conflicts, “I get in and I stop the transmission of violence from one person to another. May it be through conversation, may it be through taking that person out of the conflict, maybe off the block, going to get them something to eat, and then talk about the conflict. And how to address it in a different manner so it won’t result in a homicide, so it won’t result into some jail time, so it won’t result into an innocent mother, baby sister being shot or killed." In other words, she loves them. Matthews' faith is a cornerstone of her life, giving her the strength to go out on the streets and love the young people so in need, to love her own children and family and to love herself enough to do this painful and difficult work. Her love isn't a gooey, saccharine kind, but a tough, demanding, expecting kind of love and she is a hero of mine. And she totally told off Stephen Colbert... how heroic!

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Some Hafiz for your Saturday: 
Out of a great need, 
we are holding hands and climbing. 
Not loving is letting go. 
Listen, 
the terrain around here 
is far too dangerous 
for that.

Hafiz is a 14th century Persian poet out of the Sufi tradition. His poems continue to be well known, memorized and recited throughout the world. Go, read more here.

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"I have decided that I am free, independent, self-reliant, and that no one can have control over my life and what I do. I am not going to allow anyone to bring me down or simply tell me that "I can't", because I can and I will, Just watch me! " says 23 year old Alaa Al-Eryani, a Yemeni who studied film and television in Malaysia before coming back to her home country to work with Save the Children. She is a staunch feminist who writes and works tirelessly to free herself and other women from societal norms that "teach us to not get harassed instead of teaching men not to harass us." She shines light on the plight of child brides, of women oppressed by their own expectations and the societal tragedy of failing to educate half the population. What makes Alaa a hero of mine is her positive spin on feminism and radical self determination. She insists that she will do what she wants, not that others should stop doing what they are doing. "I'm going to walk down the street and no matter how many men throw awful words at me, I won't care. I'm going to make my own decisions and choices without the permission of a man.... I am free, and I will fight for women's freedom until we are equal to men."

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No collection of Muslim Heroes would be complete without a nod to The 99, a group of comic book super heroes that are rooted in Islamic culture the way Superman and Batman are rooted in Western culture. The 99 gather their powers from ancient knowledge encapsulated in special noor stones and mirror the ninety nine attributes of Allah, including generosity, faithfulness, wisdom, and strength. The young people who find the stones are from all over the world and each learn to use their powers for good - the protection of others and promoting diversity and tolerance. The creator of the series, Naif Al-Mutawa, explicitly draws parallels between traditional superheroes fights against fascism in 20th century Europe and how The 99 preset role models for a fight against extremism in the 21st century. Check out the website, check out the preview video and see The 99 in action. They're pretty awesome.



Ramadan mubarak! 

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Read more! Read all my Father's Moon posts from late summers past, and check out all my writings on Ramadan, too.

Living on the Lip of Insanity

Father's Moon

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We have fallen into the place
where everything is music.

The strumming and the flute notes

rise into the atmosphere,

and even if the whole world's harp

should burn up, there will still be

hidden instruments playing.

Poems reach up like spindrift and the edge

of driftwood along the beach, wanting!

They derive

from a slow and powerful root

that we can't see.

Stop the words now.

Open the window in the center of your chest,

and let the spirits fly in and out.

Rumi

The father's Moon has come and gone and I was busy. It was Ramadan, the holy month of fasting for the world's 1.6 billion Muslims. In past years I marked this holy month strongly in my own calendar, but this year it mostly slipped me by. It was a hot, fun, crazy, big, exhausting month and much slipped me by. I was busy grabbing that tiger by the tail for all I am worth. You shoulda seen the other guy!

I have lived on the lip of insanity,

wanting to know the reasons, knocking on a door.

It opens.

I have been knocking from the inside!

Rumi

For my thoughts on the energies of the Father's Moon see past posts with this label as well as posts about August Eve, which is the solar festival so closely aligned with this lunar month's energies. I have a lot to say about this time of the year and the energies manifest here, so do go back and check out what I've written in the past. The blazing days of August and the blazing time of All That Is Manly and Good In the World are manifest these days. How are you seeing them? What does the Father's Moon mean to you? What were you up to this month?

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Father's Moon 2011: Blessed Ramadan, Fathering, Missions and the Father's Moon, and Courage, Bullying and Ramadan

Father's Moon 2010: Fourth of July (one of my very favorite posts of all time) and Robin Hood

Father's Moon 2009: The New Father's Moon and The Aftermark of Almost Too Much Love (another of my all time favorite posts!)

Courage, Bullying and Ramadan

The Old Father's Moon

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Eid Mubarak! The holy month of Ramadan is closing and the Muslim world is celebrating Eid ul Fitr, a massive celebration of family and festivities. People all over the world have been buying new clothes and even new furniture, preparing huge meals and readying gifts for family and neighbors. They will spend anywhere from one to five days visiting family, hosting feasts and distributing gifts to celebrate the end of the holy month of fasting. I get the feeling it's kind of like Christmas as far as a party season is concerned.

Over this last month I have been collecting and sharing stories about the different kinds of people in the world who are Muslim. I have read about the Muslim people of Senegal, Indonesia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Syria, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, Detroit, Los Angeles and many many others. I have read about their food customs (and eaten a number of delicious date concoctions - check out My Halal Kitchen's Dates and Cream), their daily life during Ramadan and their special religious ceremonies during the month. As I read, I kept in mind the charge I set myself at the beginning of the month, to be mindful of God-in-People. A query I asked "Do I speak to and answer “that of God” in everyone?"

One of the things I came to realize as I read these stories is that we as a species can be quite awful to each other. We are very bad at realizing and respecting that of God in each other. I learned a lot of stories about people being oppressed, persecuted and outright killed because of their cultural affiliation. I read about the Uiygar people who's lands were invaded by the Han Chinese in the early 20th century and have been oppressed religious and ethnic minorities ever since. Recent years have seen resistance violence in their Central Asian capitol which has resulted in harsh bans on practicing their Muslim faith. I read about the Kurdish people who, after World War I, had their ancestral lands split between Turkey, Syria and Iraq. Their cultural identity has been actively suppressed by the Turkish government and the government of Saddam Hussain in Iraq. Their language has been outlawed, political organizing harshly crushed and even entire male populations of villages killed. I read about the Mughal invasion of northern India, where the new Muslim rulers felt justified in destroying Hindu religious sites because they were heathen, and modern laws and attitudes in Europe and America that make being a Muslim difficult and dangerous. Of course, stories of oppressors and oppressed are not limited to the Muslim world, but it was a theme that came up again and again.

The pastor at my Quaker meeting gave a sermon about bullpuckey, as he called it, the other week. He was specifically talking about bullpucky about Jesus and how Quakers stand in a unique place to see through, and speak up against bullpucky because of our belief in silent worship, personal connection with the divine and speaking truth to power. In worship, I thought a lot about a faith and values based anti-bullying program I heard about recently where the main focus is on helping bystanders to bullying find the courage to speak up. The thing that connects the bullpucky my pastor was talking about and the bullpucky of bullying is power, and writ large the bullpucky of those in power leads to the kind of oppression I see in my study of Muslim cultures. Whether oppressing or being oppressed, misuse of power, cultural bullying and disrespect of human life and dignity is a big pile of bullpucky.

What can we do about this cultural bullying, this disrespect for humanity? Paul Coughlin, the founder of the anti-bullying program The Protectors, says that the most powerful player in the theater of bullying is the bystander. Bullies do what they do because no one stands up to them, no one points out their disrespectful behavior, no one has the courage to say "stop!". A study quoted by Paul Coughlin's group says that 58% of bullying incidents end within just a few seconds of a bystander speaking up for the victim. Whether his numbers are true or not, and whether this study can be scaled up to culture wide bullying, I don't know. I do know, however, that we must do everything we can to shed light on oppression, bullying and bullpucky everywhere.

The Father's Moon energies ask us to think about how we can be mature adults as we interact with our community to make it a better place. How can we keep our community safe, how can we encourage community members to be better people? How can our own resources and gifts be used for the greater good? There are so many things going wrong with our communities that it is easy to get overwhelmed. It is easy to ignore the bullpucky, easy to let the bullies set the agenda. Courage is required to be a good father, and courage is required to use the Father's moon energies to speak up for those who need a champion. I'm not saying I'm any good at any of this, but I'm saying I feel a new call to be mindful of it.

The 10th Anniversary of 9/11 is coming up in the next week and I worry that with heightened emotions there will be extra bullpucky about Muslims, about war and about our cultural bullying. I wonder what I can do to be a courageous bystander.

What did you learn about Islam and Muslim people this Ramadan? I'd love to hear your stories or thoughts. Have you ever found the courage to stand up against bullying, oppression or other forms of bullpucky? What's your favorite recipe using dates? Eid Mubarak!

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This post is not for the Full Father's moon and it is not for the New Nesting Moon, it is for the old Father's Moon. Here are links to other Ramadan posts, which is the main theme of this post. Use the tag for "Father's Moon" to see other New and Full Father's Moon posts from years past.

Ramadan 2010: Ramadan and End of Ramadan

Ramadan 2011: Blessed Ramadan and Ramadan Postings 2011

Photos by Carmen Alonso Suarez, DMahendra, DVIDSHUB and zz77. Please check out their photos on Flickr.

Fathering, Missions and the Father's Moon

Full Father's Moon

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JUNIPERO'S mode of life in his mission never varied He rose with the dawn He seemed to require little sleep The greater portion of the night he passed in prayer.

At sunrise he said mass and afterwards distributed breakfast to his neophytes This task he always refused to delegate to others. His Indians were well-fed and well-cared for. He found time to cut out all the shirts and petticoats needed in the missions and all the little garments worn by the children. During stated hours in the mornings and afternoons he instructed the Indians in the doctrines and observances of the church. In the intervals he taught the women to sew and superintended the labors of the men, tucking up his shabby friar's frock to work himself, the better to show his pupils and to stimulate them to habits of industry by the force of his example. He was always kind to the neophytes although he did not hesitate to punish them whenever he deemed punishment necessary. He refused to overlook, even in the newest converts, the slightest lapse from the strict code of morals he insisted upon, nor would he pardon the least carelessness or neglect in church attendance or observances.

In spite of this severity the neophytes were devoted to him. They saw that he exacted from them no duty which he did not exact from himself with far greater rigor, that the punishments he inflicted upon his own delicate body surpassed severity anything to which they were subjected. An intuition which belongs alike to children and savages taught them that in Junipero they had not teacher only, but a friend, a brother, and champion.

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I'm late in posting my full Father's Moon post because I was on vacation for a week in Southern California, visiting family. My sister and I traveled together and had a great time. We went to the Santa Monica Pier, swam in the ocean at Corona del Mar, visited the Natural History Museum and ate as much ethnic food as we could pack into our five days (I believe the final count was 9 restaurants representing 6 cuisines).

One of the highlights of the trip for me was our visit to Mission San Gabriel, the fourth of 21 Spanish Missions built in the 18th century in south and Central California. The missions in Alta California, as the area was called in late 1700s, were begun by Father Junipero Serra. Serra was born in Majorca in 1713 and studied theology and philosophy as a priest and lecturer at the University in Majorca. When he was 36 years old he left his home to work as a missionary in Mexico where he worked both among the Indians and in Mexico City for almost 20 years. In 1768 he was appointed the Father Presidente of the Missions in Baja California and in 1770 founded the Mission San Diego in what is today a city that bears that same name. He founded missions all along the California coast for the rest of his life, working to convert Indians and turn the land around the missions into productive farms.

Mission San Gabriel, 9 miles east of downtown Los Angeles (the original Mexican settlement of Los Angeles was an secular outgrowth of the mission), is as stunningly beautiful as any of the other missions. It's exterior walls are a warm and lovely golden sand color and its interior a series of shady gardens and cool, dark buildings. It is reknown for its campanario, a wall with six bells in it and its elegant capped buttresses and tall narrow windows showing the influence Spanish Moors had even half a world away. Inside the church are 18th century paintings by a Native American artist of the stations of the cross, wooden statues carved in Mexico and a copper babtismal that has seen more than 25,000 baptisms. Mission San Gabriel is also the final resting place of over 6,000 Native Americans, and is the eipicenter of the cultural destruction of the Tongva/Gabrielino Indians. Even today the Tongva people are fighting for federal recognition, for respectful treatment of their cultural artifacts and preservation of their traditional lands.

Father Junipero Serra was a perfect incarnation of the energies of the Father's Moon and so my mixed emotions about him are quite fitting. He was a loving but stern figure, very conscious of the need to train his followers, both Spanish and Native. He was very much a man of his era and had no notion of the multiculturalism and relativism that are hallmarks of our own time. He believe in right and wrong, good and evil, heaven and hell, and he knew the correct path to take to become the right kind of person. Annette Hinshaw notes that humans tend to resent fathering, even as we realize that it is important to our own growth. She also reminds us that the role of the father requires commanding respect, not necessarily love or even affection.

As I've traveled this summer I've gotten to see a number of my friends and family members as they act as fathers. One of my friends is the gentlest, most loving father I've ever met and genuinely dotes on his daughters. He has a hard time being a disciplinarian and his 6 year old knows it. Another friend seems overwhelmed by economic hardships and, though I know he loves his kids, seems less able to love and laugh with them. My cousins I was staying with in L.A. are Mormon and the father of that family seems so balanced and comfortable in his role as a father. I wonder how much his religion's traditional views on fatherhood actually give him clear role models and standards to live up to in his fathering. He works full time but comes home to his family full of laughter, encouragement and the ability to be the disciplinary backbone of the household. I love getting to watch my friends grow into this so very difficult role. They are good men and they are growing good kids through their fathering.


I think that Father Junipero Serra thought he was doing the right thing and that he can serve as both a model and warning to us as we navigate the treacherous pathways of manifesting the Father's Moon energies. He worked alongside his flock but was confident in his role as a leader. He delighted in giving them gifts but knew they had to do their own work as well. As my sister and I were leaving the Mission we passed the large bronze statue of Fra Serra and stopped for a moment. "He thought he was doing the right thing," my sister said. "I hope history judges me for my intentions," I said. From his own point of view, Father Serra really was just trying to be a good father.

What do you think makes a good father? When have you experienced excellent fathering, whether from your biological parent or someone else? Have you ever been to a California Mission? What historical figures do you think are excellent father figures? How is your summer going?

The quoted story is from Junipero Serra; A Man and His Work by A.H. Fitch. Click on the link there to access the google books version, or check out another online version here. Old Father's Journey by Beulah Karney is another story about Junipero Serra, told from a more modern, but still favoriable, point of view. Steven W. Hackel's article at Common-Place.org is much more critical, and a very interesting read.

For more pictures from my trip to Mission San Gabriel, check my flickr page.

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Full Father's Moon 2009: The Aftermark of Almost Too Much Love
This is one of my favorite posts... check it out and read an awesome Robert Frost poem.

Full Father's Moon 2010: Robin Hood

Blessed Ramadan

The New Father's Moon
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Once again, the holy month of Ramadan is upon us. Ramadan Mubarak!
Last year I posted about my growing concern about how Islam and Muslims are viewed in America and the West in general. I spent a thoughtful and fruitful month collecting information about Islam and Ramadan and sharing it with my close and distant circle of friends in person and electronically. It is Ramadan again, and again I feel the call to spend the month learning and sharing what I find.

Fire

O Marvel! a garden amidst the flames.
My heart has become capable of every form:
it is a pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks,
and a temple for idols and a pilgrim's Ka'bah,
and the tables of the Torah and the book of the Qur'an.
I follow the relition of Love: whatever way Love's camels take,
that is my religion and my faith.

Ibn Arabi
It has been an exciting year for the Islamic world and a hard one. Revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia are changing the way people in North Africa and the Middle East view their governments and their societies. People continue to struggle for political reform in Yemen, Syria, Palestine and many other places. The struggle has turned to outright war in Libya, and Sudan is probably just in a lull in its long standing civil war. Famine grips Somalia and Ethiopia and the ancient battles in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and northern India continue on in their modern forms. Muslims in Europe and North America continue their struggle for economic freedom and acceptance in antagonistic cultures. I can only imagine it must be a difficult time for many Muslims around the world. I know that I can make a difference by helping other people learn about the religion of Islam, get some perspective on the current events in the Muslim world and understand more of Muslim world history.

This year my Ramadan call feels strongly about the people and cultures of the Muslim world. About 1.5 billion people, 20% of the world's population are Muslim. The Muslim world stretches from Morocco to Pakistan to China, Indonesia, the US and northern Europe. Muslims have black skin, blond hair, brown skin, Asian faces and every other kind of face imaginable. People are Muslim in sandy deserts, lush tropical rain forests, temperate mountains and high, windy plateaus. Like with all religions, people continue to practice their local traditions in addition to Islam leading to various versions even of the same basic activities. So many different cultures, so many different kinds of people.

Allah

I tried to find Him on the Christian cross, but He
was not there; I went to the Temple of the
Hindus and to the old pagodas, but I could not
find a trace of Him anywhere.

I searched on the mountains and in the valleys
but neither in the heights nor in the depths was I
able to find Him. I went to the Ka'bah in Mecca,
but He was not there either.

I questioned the scholars and philosophers but
He was beyond their understanding.

I then looked into my heart and it was there
where He dwelled that I saw Him; He was
nowhere else to be found.

Jalaluddin Rumi

As a billion and a half Muslims around the world spend this month of Ramadan fasting and praying in order to be closer to God, I will spend it getting closer to God-In-People. I will spend time studying the cultures of the world and and also the cultures in my own neighborhood. I will cherish and cultivate my relationships with people I already know and love, and cultivate and open heart towards the people I do not already know. Again this year I will sit with queries from the North Pacific Yearly Meeting's Faith and Practices: Do I speak to and answer “that of God” in everyone? Am I charitable with others? Do I practice the art of listening to others, even beyond words? What will you be thinking about during this bright yellow August month when so many others are fasting, praying, feasting and playing?

Blessed Ramadan!

Images by Zolashine, JakeBrewer, Mizrak and NewMediaNormaRae. Click on their names or the photos for more of their amazing work. Thank you!

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New Father's Moon 2009: New Father's Moon
New Father's Moon 2010: Fourth of July

This post is about Ramadan, as are my posts from last August, Ramadan and The End of Ramadan.

The Positive Feedback Loop of Love

Full Milk Moon
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The Moon that is full this week is the one Annette Hinshaw calls the Milk Moon. After the hard work of giving birth, the Mother is laying quietly, protecting her child as he begins to grow. Milk flows from her breast fitfully at first, but as he nurses he stimulates her to produce more and as he grows he nurses more. It is the beautiful positive feedback loop of love - the more we give, the more we get so we can give more.
In order to grow into a fully functioning, well balanced human being we each need both the support of a community and chances to grow independently. Not only do we need to balance the nourishment we get from our community and from independent growth, we also sometimes need the withholding of support from our community to grow. These are the themes of Annette Hinshaw's Milk Moon and Fasting Moon, the third and fourth months of her calendar. The moons opposite these two in the waning half of the year, the Father's Moon and the Nesting Moon show us symbols of how mature adults interact with their communities. The Father's Moon asks us when we can use our resources to support the larger community while the Nesting Moon asks us when it is in our best interest to withhold our support. These four moon symbols, taken together, ask some very deep questions about how each person interacts with their larger support network.
This weekend I had the privilege of attending a Quaker Wedding at my church. Quaker Weddings, and Quaker Meetings in general, are a beautiful example of the Milk Moon's energies in action. Quakers believe that every person has that of God within them, and the capacity to hear the Light speak directly to them. We believe that a community is required, however, to clearly discern whether a leading is truly from God or not. We see God's truth as something like the old Indian parable about the blind men and the elephant. Each person sees only one small part and can not grasp the whole. A community of people have more data points and so a more accurate view of God's enormous true shape and plan. The community is required to support the individual in their search and ensure that their perceptions are within the realm of true leadings from God.
When two Friends decide to marry they do not need a minister to perform a ceremony because we do not need an intermediary between ourselves and either God or our community. A traditional Quaker wedding takes place within the Meeting for Worship and the couple simply stands, gives their vows of love and commitment and then sits back down. Out of the silence other Friends may speak words to or about the couple, or anything else they are led to say out loud. After the ceremony everyone present signs a certificate making the wedding legal. Like a mother caring for her baby or a community caring for its children, a Quaker meeting cares for it's members and gives them the support they need to do their best work. A traditional Quaker wedding is a time when that best work of the two individuals, their commitment to each other, seems to physically grow out of the work of the community, it's communal worship.

We are only barely a month past the solstice and the beginning of this new year. Is anything growing in your life along with the sun as winter grows into spring? What can you do to be a part of the community that protects and nurtures tiny sweet things? What community can help you grow if you are the tiny sweet thing? Do you have a lovely story of a community that grew a tiny sweet thing into a big, strong, very good thing? How have you seen the positive feedback loop of love work in your life? I'd love to hear that story.
Happy Full Milk Moon!
The photos are by sponng, molajen and christysherrer. Please click on the photos to go to their flickr pages and see more of their amazing work. Thank you!
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Full Milk Moon 2009: Nourishing Self As Well As Others 
Full Milk Moon 2010: The Full Wolf Moon

Robin Hood

ROBIN HOOD AND THE RANGER from CHILD'S BALLADS

When Phoebus had melted the sickles of ice,
With a hey down, diddle down dee,
And likewise the mountains of snow,
Bold Robin Hood he would ramble to see,
To frolick abroad with his bow.

He left all his merry men waiting behind,
Whilst through the green vallies he passd;
There did he behold a forester bold,
Who cry'd out, "Friend, whither so fast?"

"I'm going," quoth Robin Hood, "to kill a fat buck,
For me and my merry men all;
Besides, eer I go, I'll have a fat doe,
Or else it shall cost me a fall."

"You'd best have a care," said the forester then,
"For these are his majesty's deer;
Before you shall shoot, the thing I'll dispute,
For I am head-forester here."

"These thirteen long summers," quoth Robin,
"I'm sure, My arrows I here have let fly,
Where freely I range; methinks it is strange,
You should have more power than I.

"This forest," quoth Robin, "I think is my own,
And so are the nimble deer too;
Therefore I declare, and solemnly swear,
I wont be affronted by you."

The forester he had a long quater-staff,
Likewise a broad sword by his side;
Without more ado, he presently drew,
Declaring the truth should be try'd .

Bold Robin Hood had a sword of the best,
Thus, eer he would take any wrong,
His courage was flush, he'd venture a brush,
And thus they fell to it ding dong.

The very first blow that the forester gave,
He made his broad weapon cry twang;
'Twas over the head, he fell down for dead,
O that was a damnable bang!

But Robin he soon did recover himself,
And bravely fell to it again;
The very next stroke their weapons were broke,
Yet never a man there was slain.

At quarter-staff then they resolved to play,
Because they would have t'other bout;
And brave Robin Hood right valiantly stood,
Unwilling he was to give out.

Bold Robin he gave him very hard blows,
The other returnd them as fast;
At every stroke their jackets did smoke,
Three hours the combat did last.

At length in a rage the bold forester grew,
And cudgeld bold Robin so sore
That he could not stand, so shaking his hand,
He said, "Let us freely give oer."

Thou art a brave fellow, I need must confess
I never knew any so good;
Thou 'rt fitting to be a yeomen for me,
And range in the merry green wood."

I'll give thee this ring as a token of love,
For bravely thou'st acted thy part;
That man that can fight, in him I delight,
And love him with all my whole heart.

Then Robin Hood setting his horn to his mouth,
A blast he merrily blows;
His yeomen did hear, and strait did appear,
A hundred, with trusty long bows.

Now Little John came at the head of them all,
Cloathd in a rich mantle of green;
And likewise the rest were gloriously drest,
A delicate sight to be seen."

Lo, these are my yeomen," said Robin Hood,
"And thou shalt be one of the train;
A mantle and bow, a quiver also,
I give them whom I entertain."

The forester willingly enterd the list,
They were such a beautiful sight;
Then with a long bow they shot a fat doe,
And made a rich supper that night.

What singing and dancing was in the green wood,
For joy of another new mate!
With mirth and delight they spent the long night,
And liv'd at a plentiful rate.

The forester neer was so merry before
As then he was with these brave souls,
Who never would fail, in wine, beer or ale,
To take off their cherishing bowls.

Then Robin Hood gave him a mantle of green,
Broad arrows, and a curious long bow;
This done, the next day, so gallant and gay,
He marched them all on a row.

Quoth he, "My brave yeomen, be true to your trust,
And then we may range the woods wide:
"They all did declare, and solemnly swear,
They'd conquer, or die by his side.

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Robin Hood is an perfect archetype for the God we celebrate at this time of year. Our modern understanding of Robin Hood, based on mideval ballads and honed by 19th and 20th century retellings of the story, show him to be a clever and cheerful fellow who works hard to protect those who need protecting and deflate those who need deflating. He is never afraid of a fight or a feast, and does not live in a palace filled with rich trappings but in a cave or a tent in the greenwood. He is a perfect symbol of All That is Manly and Good in the world.

It was actually hard for me to choose a poem to put in this post because there are so many. I was looking for one in which Robin does a noble deed and so thought about Robin Hood and the Three Squires. This is a classic story in which Robin trades clothes with a beggar (sometimes he fights the scurrilous beggar) in order to trick the dirty Sherrif of Nottingham into letting him play hangman to three innocent fellows. Of course Robin is able to blow his horn, summon the Merry Men and ends up hanging the Sherrif instead!. There are others that are hilarous and gentle and bawdy. Some just tickle me pink like Robin Hood and Maid Marian in which Marian dresses up like a page to go find her lost love, Robin and ends up dueling him in the woods before revealing herself and having a lovely feast in Sherwood Forest.

In the end I chose this particular ballad because I love the rhythm of the poem and the story itself is both a classic Robin tale and it makes me chuckle. I highly recommend spending some time checking out the University of Rochester Robin Hood Project for background and annotated text of many ballads. Howard Pyle's classic The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood is avaliable to view online in a number of places, as well as for sale through your favorite bookseller (mine is Powells City of Books). The top illustration here is from Pyle's version, the other two are by N.C. Wyeth.


What stories speak to you about All That is Manly and Good? What is your favorite version of the tale of the bold outlaw and his Merry Men? Do you find yourself humming Oodelallie Oodelallie Golly What a Day, or We're Men, We're Men in Tights (tight tights!) when you think about Robin Hood? What are you doing this summer to celebrate the Manliness in your life, whatever kind of body and gender you may have?

Fourth of July

The Fourth of July is a Father's Moon holiday if there ever was one. I've recently found myself describing the energies of this time of year as the hot, dry, aggressive, shooting, yang energies of All That is Manly and Good in the World. If that doesn't describe this quintessential American holiday then I just don't know what does.

• Reasons I'm proud to be an American: The Empire State Building, the Golden Gate Bridge, the transcontinental railroad and the Eisenhower interstate system, jumbo jets and the Gemini Moon missions. We are a people who rise to a challenge and are proud of our successes.

These masculine energies (I almost prefer "yang" to "masculine" because it allows the concept to be separate from maleness. Humans of any sex or gender encompass both yin and yang energies in their beings) have gotten a bad rap in the recent years, but they are essential to meeting our true potential as an individual or a society. These are the energies that instigate building, planting, and harvesting. These energies incite young adults to strike out on their own and communities to revolt against unjust rulers. They are the impetus for contests and challenges of all kinds as well as the acts of culling and decision making. In fact, most of the things we Americans have to be most proud of are born out of masculine, yang, Father Moon energies.

• Reasons I'm proud to be an American: Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks and all the black, white, young and old people who used non violent resistence to break the back of opressive segregation in our country.

The American Fourth of July holiday celebrates all these energies as we Americans express them so essentially. Our country was born out of a belief that we can live life on our own terms as individuals and as communities. Our Founding Fathers were wise men who worked hard to craft governing documents by culling and winnowing words and ideas until only the most important were left in. Despite the repercussions that we can see so clearly from this side of history, the expansion of our territory across the continent was driven by people who were willing to take chances to be free from oppression and the constriction of "society." The great American fortunes were built by men who took chances and built companies, factories and industries to harness the great natural resources of our land. As the pioneers saw it grass is just grass, but a cattle ranch or a farm is money in the bank and a chance to live in freedom.

• Reasons I'm proud to be an American: The native people of this land who, despite centuries of explicit attempts to annhilate them, are still here, still living and still succeeding in adding their voice to our American story.

Last summer I wrote that the Father Moon energies might just be the root of all the evil our culture has wrecked upon this earth. Expanding, conquering and controlling energies are behind environmental degradation, oppression of minority groups and massive scale war that have marked this era in our history. Our American history is so full of tales of Father Moon energies that they are, of course, equally full of the tragic consequences of these energies unchecked. The anti-war, minority rights and environmental awareness movements of the last 30 years have all been directly and explicitly working against these tendencies in our culture.

• Reasons I'm proud to be an American: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Susan B Anthony, the people of Wyoming, and all the women and men who worked tirelessly and peacefully to assert the right of women to vote in this country's elections.

We should be sure though, in our work at bringing balance to our lives and to the world that we don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. We need the penetrating and constricting action of the Father’s Moon energy to form the formless potential of the Mother’s Moon energy into something useful. You can argue the environmental impact of dams and irrigation projects but those projects have allowed vast areas of this country to support much larger populations than the virgin land could support. The same is true of the industrialization of the Northeastern United States and the diking of rivers in the Midwest. A field, even a beautiful one full of grasses and flowers can not support the same amount of people or cattle as one plowed and planted with grain. These are the Father’s Moon energies at work.

• Reasons I'm proud to be an American: Irving Berlin, I.M. Pei, Carlos Santana, Bob Hope, John Audubon and all of the other immigrants who have crossed oceans or deserts to come to this country and lend their talents to our ever changing society.

So let us celebrate these fiery and explosive, constricting and controlling, penetrating and culling forces of All That Is Manly and Good In the World. Let’s do it now, at the height of the sun’s power in the heat of the summer. Let’s celebrate our ability to create fireworks and sky scrapers, to plow fields and teach children. Let’s make some noise and be a little dangerous. Sometimes it is just necessary.

• Reasons I'm proud to be an American: levels of wealth, health and freedom of conscience unprecedented in history which allow us to pursue even greater levels of just wealth, universal health and freedoms of all kinds for all people. Happy 4th of July!

Photos by one of my best good Flickr friends graygoosie. Thanks to her for letting me use them. Go see what she's up to this summer by clicking on the photos!