Dervish

I watched the first installment of The Abbey last night.  It’s a fly-on-the-wall following five lay women (some Catholic, none very learned in religion) who have been permitted to spend five weeks in an enclosed order of Benedictine nuns in New South Wales.

I remember when ABC were advertising for women to apply, and if I hadn’t been Muslim and doing a PhD I would be sorely tempted.  Partly because growing up I was fascinated with the concept of women devoting themselves totally to God - something I still find compelling. Despite Qur’anic censure against monasticism, Sufis did develop similar practices and orders, so it is quite possible to speak of Sufi mendicants (darwishs and faqirs) and monasteries (khanqahs and zawiyyas).  One of my most beloved inspirations, Rabi`a al-`Adawiyya (the first Sufi to explicitly teach on the theme of selfless love of God) chose not to marry and gathered around her many disciples (both men and women).

I was quite interested to see how close many of the postures of the nuns’ prayers are, to Islamic ritual prayer.  Not unusual as I have read somewhere that Muslim prayer is very similar to what ancient Jewish and Christian ritual prayer (Mk1:35; Mt26:39; Lk6:12;Heb5:7)was like. 

In the prayers shown in The Abbey, the nuns stand, bow and prostrate at various points. What I also found interesting, was the very Buddhist notion that their enclosed lives and prayers are not just to improve their own spiritual standing with God, but (according to their belief) directly affecting the affairs of the world, almost as if they are taking on the task of praying constantly because most of us cannot achieve such constant prayer.

From an Islamic perspective, God does not require our prayers to sustain and nourish the universe, nor to direct the course of events in people’s lives.  There is a community spirit in Islamic prayer, but each and every Muslim is required to observe the daily ritual prayers, and to increase that voluntary prayers, supplications, praises and with constant dhikr (remembrance of God), not just those who are professionally religious if you will.  I think that’s one of the things that drew me to Islam: I could be both nun and lay at the same time.

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