The Forgotten Femininity in Islam: The Concept of “Divine Feminine” in Islamic Mysticism and Why Muslim Clergymen Don’t Reconcile With It!

By Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, New Age Islam 4 May 2024 I Carry A Torch In One Hand, And A Bucket Of Water In The Other. With These Things I Am Going To Set Heaven On Fire, So That People Can Stop Praying In Fear Of The Hell. And See The Real Goal: Unconditional Love. ~Rabiyya Al-Adawiyya Al-Basariyya What Is the Divine Feminine? It is a deeper mystical idea that there exists a feminine counterpart to the patriarchal and masculine formations of the Divinity. Most practitioners of both Semitic and non-Semitic faith traditions actually worship a Masculine God. It is very rare that they believe in or show an acceptance or tolerance for Divine Feminine which forces us to see God beyond the male-chauvinistic theological trajectories. However, the mystical traditions within these religions see to Divine Feminine as an essence and energy which is there to complement the masculine energy, rather than to create any contradiction or conflict with it. It is meant to harmonise and balance the two. Deeply connected to creativity and creative imagination, Divine Feminine involves expressing one’s devotion in his/her fullest potential in a creatively imaginative spiritual quest. For instance— “Shakti” in Hindu mythology, a divine attribute which refers to the “powerful divine feminine”, is believed to be the active dimension of the Divine Majesty. Now contrast it with the persona and spiritual qualities manifested by the life and teachings of Hazrat Rabia Basriyya, the greatest woman Sufi mystic in Islam, who very ‘powerfully’ and strongly declared her intense and unconditional love for Allah without any ‘fear’. She coined the concept of “Unconditional Love” and won over fear and hatred. So much so that once someone asked Rabia: “How much do you hate Satan because you love God so much”. She replied, “My heart is so filled with love for God that I find no space in my heart to hate Satan!”. Her existence in Islamic mysticism makes me believe that there is an ample space for Divine Feminine in Islam or Sufism, if not in the mainstream Sunni or Shia Islam’s conventional schools of thought. Not just the feminine descriptions but also clear Qur’anic references substantiate this interesting point. It is the very first verse in the Qur’an in the very first chapter called Surah Al-Fatiha which is also known as Ummul Kitab (Mother of the holy book) which introduces us to the Divine Feminine in Islamic terms. As Muslims, the wording in this verse is important to note: “In the Name of Allah—the Most Tenderly Compassionate (Ar-Rahman), and the Most Merciful (Ar-Raheem)” (1:1). Significantly, these two Arabic words which are part of the 99 Divine Names of Allah hold an even deeper feminine divinity as they come from the three root letters “r-h-m”. The word “Rahm” in Arabic means: an embryo or “womb of a mother” and thus it denotes deep compassion, caring and mercy in Allah’s Essence (Zaat) as well as in his attributes (Sifaat). The womb – a divine gift for women to nurture life – is a beautiful description of a feminine divine that loves, nurtures and cares for us. This lays the foundation for Divine Feminine in Islam and shapes how Muslims should imagine Allah as the Most Merciful and the Most Compassionate (Rahman and Raheem) whose mercy is like that of a ‘tenderly loving mother’. Thus, Rahman and Raheem are in essence feminine attributes of Allah, in contrast to His masculine attributes Qahhar (the Dominant and All-Prevailing) and Jabbar (the Most Mighty). Before I proceed ahead, let me first complete and relay the story of Rabia Basriyya: She strongly believed and preached that it is not the fear of Hell that should bring one to the devotion or surrender to Allah, but only an unconditional and infinite love. She expressed this in her beautiful Arabic verses as translated below: I Carry A Torch In One Hand, And A Bucket Of Water In The Other. With These Things I Am Going To Set Heaven On Fire, So That People Can Stop Praying In Fear Of The Hell. And See The Real Goal: Love. From time immemorial, there have been two different paths in the world—Love and Fear. While one tells us that the Divine path is all about love and forgiveness, the other overlooks the limitless divine mercy and hope for salvation (Rahma and Rija’a) and creates only fear (Khauf) in human hearts. Rabiʿa al-Basri (717–801 C.E.) Source: Wikimedia Commons ------ Divine Feminine in Sufism shows us that divine love should be seen as an infinite, all-inclusive and all-encompassing concept and not a retrogressive one as espoused by most ‘organised religions’. It exhorts us to follow the example and spiritual principles of Rabia Al-Adawiyya Al-Basriyya as a proponent of the basic tenet of Unconditional Love in the Islamic Divine Feminine. Although the Islamic clergy who claim God’s love for His creations, is restricted, will never reconcile with this idea, Divine Feminine shows a wider embrace of God for all. Not a single creature is exempted from God’s bountiful grace and divine mercy (Rahmah) just as motherly love knows no bounds or boundaries. The holy Prophet himself practiced this unconditional divine love and clearly said, “When God created His creatures, He wrote in His book: “Verily, My mercy (Rahmah) prevailed over My wrath” (Sahih al-Bukhari:3194). Once, the holy Prophet (pbuh) and his companions saw a mother bird with her babies in a nest. She was feeding worms to her babies. Her actions were so loving, tender and gentle that the companions were pleasantly surprised at the display of her natural love. This beautiful and fascinating scene reminded the Prophet of God’s infinite love for man and, therefore, he smiled and asked his companions, “Are you surprised at the love this mother bird shows to her babies? Let me tell you that God loves man 70 times more than this mother!” This Hadith evidently shows how the Prophet (pbuh) has likened the love of Allah for His creations to the love of over 70 mothers for their children and thus he has actually approved of the divine feminine as an Islamic tradition. According to another Hadith-e-Qudsi, Allah has divided His mercy into 100 parts, and kept with Him 99 parts, and then sent only one part down from heaven to earth. So, if Allah has unveiled only one per cent of His infinite mercy, imagine what would be His entire Mercy. Through this one percent only, all human beings, animals and other creatures treat one another with compassion, so much so that an animal lifts its hoof over its child lest it should hurt it. From women to female animals who love, hug, care and breastfeed their babies with loving tenderness, there are innumerable instances of pure, selfless, inherent and innate love reflecting the divine love and infinite mercy of God. Thus, the Divine Feminine is there in Islamic terms too. It’s just not expressed as it should be. I was first introduced to it when I was only a 14-year-old madrasa student. In those early days in my madrasa, I used to wonder as to why we call Allah only “He” and not “She”. This question intrigued me more when I first encountered with an Arabic adage about Allah: “Al-ilahu La Yuzakkar Wa La Yua’annas” meaning, the Arabic word Ilaah (deity) is neither masculine nor feminine. This challenged my mind and posed a straightforward question as to why do we Muslims make Allah masculine by using the male attributes and pronouns exclusively. It was only when I deepened my understanding of Islamic divinity through the rich and imaginative Sufi tradition that I saw the divine feminine in Islam too. In essence, it has always been there as a matter of fact, but is hardly recognised by the clergy in Islam. Today, the majority of Muslims the world over refer to Allah as the masculine “Huwa” in Arabic and “He” in English. Barring the feminist Muslim woman scholars such as Professor Sa’diyya Shaikh, Amina Wadud and Asra Nomani who exerted concerted efforts and ran campaigns for the change of Muslim mindset towards a genderless God, you will hardly find an established Islamic authority speaking for this these days. However, some Sufi philosophers including the proponent of the Unity of Existence in Islam, Sheikhe-e-Akbar Muhyiuddin Ibn-ul-Arabi have incorporated the Divine Feminine in their mystical discourses. Ibn ul Arabi writes: “… one finds a distinctive and powerful poetics of creation, nurture, power, and spirituality that weaves together the earth, maternity, femininity, women, and the Divine Feminine”. He links the earth to the divine, explicitly and unequivocally, as the creative, benevolent, maternal source of the good…. He also brings into focus women’s procreative capacities and the Divine Feminine, and further states: “[The earth] gives all of the benefits from her essence [dhāt] and is the location [maḥall] of all good. Thus she is the most powerful [aʾazz] of the bodies… she is the patient [ṣabūr], the receptive one [qābila], the immutable one, the firm one…Whenever she moves from fearful awe of God, God secures her by means of (mountains as) anchors.… it is the mother from whom we come and to whom we return. And from her we will come forth once again. To her we are submitted and entrusted. She is the most subtle of foundations [arkān] in meaning. She accepts density, darkness, and hardness only inorder to conceal the treasures that God has entrusted to it”…by interweaving maternal, earthy, and generative qualities with the majestic attributes of strength, power, and immutability, Ibn Arabi urges… an integration and balance of what might be traditionally categorized as “masculine” and “feminine” attributes within the divine.” (Source: Between the divine and sacred: Islam’s forgotten femininity, Dr Liz Arif) Regrettably, those who would ostensibly reject the idea of Divine Feminine in Islam are the self-imposed preachers and so-called believers, but not the lovers of God, who are only obsessed with the “fear of God”. They are entirely engaged in spreading this fear so much so that Allah’s Wrath (Ghazab) is highlighted and given primacy in their discourses and His Mercy (Rahmat) is missed out. This fearful and patriarchal notion of God helps those who commit ‘ungodly acts’ in the name of God, and those who appoint themselves as false ‘gods’ on the earth. Therefore, they forcibly impose their fear, ideology and religio-political power in the name of establishing “God’s will” on our lands. In a crazy bid to maintain and perpetuate their power, they merely showcase their religiosity, and often usurp one’s divinely-gifted basic human rights and spiritual freedoms; freedom of conscience, freedom of faith, freedom of expression. All this is going on in Islam and other religions today at the hands of political and religious establishments to pursue the ulterior political power ambitions. ----- A Regular Columnist with Newageislam.com, Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi is an Indo-Islamic scholar, Sufi poet and English-Arabic-Urdu-Hindi writer with a background in a leading Sufi Islamic seminary in India. 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