Friday, April 21, 2006
A sheikh I could take a shine to
I discovered this quote while doing some research for an essay I'm working on...
"The word As-shams (the sun, in Arabic) is feminine, and Qamar(the moon) is masculine.
The sun burns itself to give light and life to everything around, and the moon is Muneer, meaning it reflects the light; it radiates the brilliance of the sun.
So when we shine as men, the implication is that we are reflecting the glorious light of our women."
-Shaykh Abdullah Adhami
I know, if you wanted to, you could construe this in a "behind every great man is a great woman" kind of manner, but I don't think it was meant that way at all --but rather to acknowledge the beautiful nature of women. It's certainly a nice break from the active/radiant male with the passive/reflective woman mode we get in Western depictions of the sun and moon. ¶ 12:15 PM
"The word As-shams (the sun, in Arabic) is feminine, and Qamar(the moon) is masculine.
The sun burns itself to give light and life to everything around, and the moon is Muneer, meaning it reflects the light; it radiates the brilliance of the sun.
So when we shine as men, the implication is that we are reflecting the glorious light of our women."
-Shaykh Abdullah Adhami
I know, if you wanted to, you could construe this in a "behind every great man is a great woman" kind of manner, but I don't think it was meant that way at all --but rather to acknowledge the beautiful nature of women. It's certainly a nice break from the active/radiant male with the passive/reflective woman mode we get in Western depictions of the sun and moon. ¶ 12:15 PM
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bah the gender is all wrong, I've got the set notion of the moon being feminine, and NOT because of no reflectiveness. It's all bout the tides and cycles, man, and that's some good stuff.
I remmeber a discussion about this on Dr Godlas' sufism list about a year or so ago, too... hrmmm
I remmeber a discussion about this on Dr Godlas' sufism list about a year or so ago, too... hrmmm
No, no, no, Leila! ;)
I never did understand that whole the moon is feminine because pulls the tides and mirrors cycles argument. Think about it -- the moon pulls on our heartstrings and moves our internal tides, makes us fertile -- at least for me, it's men that move the juices as it were, not other women. And certainly, without a sperm, the ova can't be fertile. It seems natural, to me at least, to see the moon as completmentary to the feminine rather than the same as, just as men and women completment each other. :)
Thanks, Lara!
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I never did understand that whole the moon is feminine because pulls the tides and mirrors cycles argument. Think about it -- the moon pulls on our heartstrings and moves our internal tides, makes us fertile -- at least for me, it's men that move the juices as it were, not other women. And certainly, without a sperm, the ova can't be fertile. It seems natural, to me at least, to see the moon as completmentary to the feminine rather than the same as, just as men and women completment each other. :)
Thanks, Lara!
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