Eulogising Nature: A Sufi Perspective

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 26 July 2022 Unlike Qur'anic Ambiguity and Its Blatantly Violent, Anti-Humanity Verses, Mysticism Is All About Love and Positivity ------ While reading Islamic theology, mysticism and Persian poetry, I often wondered why on earth did the conditioned Muslims only read Qur'an and Hadees when everything was available to them in the form of mysticism. There's not a single aspect of human life that hasn't been mentioned by the Islamic mystics. Moreover, unlike Qur'anic ambiguity and its blatantly violent, anti-humanity verses, mysticism is all about love and positivity. No doubt, Qur'an talks about greenery. The earth was parched but when the waters of mercy graced the land, the earth became ' clothed in green' (Qur'an 22:63). Trees (Shajar in Arabic) are mentioned minimum 26 times in Al-Furqan. But the way, mystics mentioned trees as metaphors for life, growth, evolution, richness, enrichment, magnanimity, munificence, love, care and protection that holy books haven't been able to delineate so beautifully. Whenever I read Mignon McLaughlin's famous lines, "Here's god from every tree/His leafy fingers beckon me," I remember Rumi's original quote, "God resides in nature/ With his leafy fingers he does nurture " (translated from Persian by Lyon Shipman, 1888) or the famous poem written by George Pope Morris: "Woodman, spare that tree/ Touch not a single bough/ In youth, it protected me/ And I'll protect it now." This reminds me of Hafiz Shirazi's "The tree protected me like a mother/ Now when it's old, I don't let the woodman come hither ".....translated by Nicholson. Here, I've absolutely no intention to accuse the distinguished English poets of plagiarism. My point is to emphasise the vision and great insights of the Persian mystics who said the same things (about nature and tree/s) nearly a millennium ago. This shows their stupendous greatness. It was Ghazni-born Hakim Sanai who eulogised the nature's natural green colour in his book, Hadiqat al Haqiqa and called it salubrious (Haraaiz in Dari, Afghan variant of Persian, it became Hara in Hindustani). The mystics established Islam's metaphorical association with the colour green as the geographically rough terrains of Arabia lacked greenery and green colour is soothing to eyes. So, the green colour was extolled as Faam-e-Sukoot-O-Qaraar (colour of satisfaction and happiness). Now every time a fanatic Muslim upholds a Hara Parcham (a green flag as an upholder or 'saviour' of Islam), ask him whether he knows the significance of green in Islam? I remember, when I was quite young and in love with a gorgeous and highly refined Persian-speaking damsel in Iran, she once told me that trees were nature's green tresses, quoting the great mystic Bayazid Bastami. Trees are indeed 'Qudrat Ke Hare Kaakul'(to borrow Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi's phrase). To all Sufis, the tree is an excellent metaphor for unity in diversity. The world is like a tree and we humans are the half-ripe fruit upon it. Such loving and innovative treatment of nature can only come from the quills of highly evolved mystics, esp. from Jalaluddin Rumi's magical pen when he wrote, "Grass agrees to die and rise up again, so that it can receive a little of the animal's enthusiasm." Marhaba! I'm on a higher plane. ---- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/nature-sufi-perspective/d/127570 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism