{"id":36,"date":"2014-05-07T21:35:40","date_gmt":"2014-05-07T21:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/kristenosborne\/?page_id=36"},"modified":"2014-05-08T02:27:22","modified_gmt":"2014-05-08T02:27:22","slug":"post-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/kristenosborne\/post-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Post Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Five Pillars in Cross-Cultural Poetry\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Week 4)<\/p>\n

Shahadah<\/strong><\/p>\n

My mouth speaks the truth<\/p>\n

This is beginning and end<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no God but God<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Salat<\/strong><\/p>\n

Morning to evening<\/p>\n

As my body is prostrate<\/p>\n

Allah hears my prayers<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Zakat<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pockets are lighter<\/p>\n

Heart outstretched in charity<\/p>\n

God, purify me<\/p>\n

Sawm<\/strong><\/p>\n

I drink no water<\/p>\n

My lips thirst only for You<\/p>\n

Your love sustains me<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Hajj<\/strong><\/p>\n

Travel to Mecca,<\/p>\n

Holy City, as both a<\/p>\n

Muslim and muslim<\/p>\n

\n

\n

\n

This series of haiku poems represent Islamic ideas on many levels. First, they each represent one of the Five Pillars of Islam: the testimony of faith (shadah), ritual prayer (salat), almsgiving (zakat), fasting during Ramadan (sawm), and pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj). The shahadah haiku references the practice of reciting the testimony of faith in a wide variety of situations and to begin and end ceremonies and acts of devotion. The salat haiku speaks to the practice of daily prayers and Muslims as both figurative and literal \u201csubmitters\u201d, prostrate in prayer. The zakat haiku speaks of the idea of almsgiving as a way to purifying oneself and one\u2019s wealth and as an act of charity to the poor, mandated by those who follow the Five Pillars. The Sawm haiku refers to fasting in order to show devotion and to focus on God during Ramadan, and the Hajj references the journey to Mecca as both a physical and spiritual journey. The Pillars are ideas central to and obligatory for Muslim devotion and instruction per a hadith widely accepted: In the effort to imitate the life of the Prophet, Muslims look to the\u00a0sunnah\u00a0<\/em>(customs) of Muhammad\u2019s life that were recorded in the form of\u00a0hadith\u00a0<\/em>for direction about spiritual and lifestyle obligations and recommendations.\u00a0<\/em>This is especially true for issues that the Qur\u2019an does not directly address. As Ali Asani explains in his\u00a0Infidel of Love: Exploring Muslim Understandings of Islam<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile all Muslims strive towards\u00a0imitaio Muhammadi<\/em>, they differ amongst themselves regarding those aspects of Muhammad\u2019s\u00a0sunnah<\/em>\u00a0that are obligatory and those that are voluntary. Generally speaking, all that stems from the Prophet concerning the faith, including its prescriptions and practices, is considered obligatory. This is particularly the case with issues about which the Qur\u2019an is silent or unclear. [\u2026] [S]ince the Qur\u2019an stresses the importance of\u00a0salat<\/em>, the ritual prayer, without describing how to perform it, the actions are determined by Muhammad\u2019s reported practice.\u201d (p. 117-118)<\/p>\n

They unify Muslims in acts of devotion and obligatory lifestyle elements to promote ideas central to Islam, such as charity and social justice, and love for One God. I chose poetry as a widely accepted form of Islamic art (accepted after the Prophet\u2019s Burda). I chose haiku more specifically both because haikus usually describe nature (a central theme in Islam in that manifestations of God and his Word are found all around us in nature) and because, as an originally Japanese art style, represent the unity and the universality of the Islamic faith by their influence in non-Arab cultures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Five Pillars in Cross-Cultural Poetry\u00a0\u00a0 (Week 4) Shahadah My mouth speaks the truth This is beginning and end There\u2019s no God but God \u00a0Salat Morning to evening As my body is prostrate Allah hears my prayers \u00a0Zakat Pockets are lighter Heart outstretched in charity God, purify me Sawm I drink no water My lips […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6305,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-36","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/kristenosborne\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/kristenosborne\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/kristenosborne\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/kristenosborne\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6305"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/kristenosborne\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/kristenosborne\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/kristenosborne\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36\/revisions\/74"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/kristenosborne\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}