THE CENTRALITY OF THE DIVINE
FEMININE IN SÛFÎSM*
LAURENCE GALIAN
Copyright 2003 Laurence Galian. All
Rights Reserved.
The
Eternal Feminine
Draws us heavenward.
—Goethe
The world famous Islamic Sûfî poet Mevlana Jalaluddin Rūmī (1207 - 1273) writes: “Woman
is the radiance of God; she is not your beloved. She is the Creator—you could say that she is not created.”This paper calls attention to an unexpected
and little explored fact of immense significance in Islam: at the center of Islam abides the Divine Feminine.
Before the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, brought the religion of Islam to Arabia, the Arabs were a polytheistic people. Hindu merchants frequently passed through Makkah,
a major trading hub. Ancient Indian Vedic texts refer to Makkah as a place where Alla the Mother Goddess was worshiped. In
Sanskrit, Alla means “mother.” This name was connected to the Hindu
Goddess Ila. She was the consort of the Hindu God Śiva in his form known
as Il, and this form of Śiva was known and worshiped in pre-Islamic Makkah. A great deal of cultural and spiritual interchange
took place between the merchants of Makkah and India.
According to some scholars however, the ancient Arabs believed that Allâh (the greatest God) had entrusted the discharge of the various functions of the universe to different (lesser) gods
and goddesses. People would therefore turn to these gods and goddesses to invoke their blessings in all sorts of undertakings. The ancient Arabs prayed
to these lesser gods and goddesses to intercede before Allâh and to pass their desires on to Allâh. As part of their religious practices,
they visited Makkah. In Makkah was a large cube-like building known as the Ka’ba. This temple contained three hundred
sixty idols. Those who were visiting the great city of Makkah as pilgrims would circumambulate the Ka’ba as part of their religious rites. The pre-Islamic Arabs had a custom of performing a sevenfold circumambulation
of the Ka’ba completely naked. Men performed this in the daytime and women at night.
The door of the Ka’ba is in the northeastern wall. On the outside, in
the corner east of the door and 1.5 meters above the ground, the famous “Black Stone” (Hajar Al-Aswad) is found. This Black Stone is now in pieces, three large parts, and smaller fragments, which are
tied together with a silver band. The eminently feminine yoni form of the Black Stone’s setting is remarkable. There are several
theories on the origin of the Black Stone: a meteor, lava, or basalt. Its color is reddish black, with some red and yellow
particles. Its original diameter is estimated to have been 30 cm. The identity of the Black Stone with the Great Goddess and with the moon is recognized by the Hulama - the rationalist school of Islam.
Inside the Ka’ba there were fresco paintings including those of Abraham
and the “Virgin Mary” with the baby Jesus. When Muhammad retook Makkah he began a program of removing the pagan influences from the
Ka’ba, the most holy of Muslim sites. He removed many frescoes and images that he considered inauspicious but he specifically
left on the walls a fresco of the “Virgin Mary” and her child. The Qur’ān obligates every believer to make a pilgrimage to Makkah at least once in his or her lifetime,
if finances permit. Since the time of Muhammad, during the Tawaf (circumambulation of the Ka’ba) pilgrims kiss or touch
the black stone as they make circuit around the Ka’ba.
Ben-Jochannan who has studied
the polytheistic religions of the Arabian peninsula points out that before Muhammad, Makkah was a holy site to the worshippers
of El’Ka’ba (a goddess). Her worshippers knelt at her symbol, a jet
black stone. This jet-black stone was probably a meteorite, and the Hajar Al-Aswad was once known as the ‘Old Woman’. Popular
tradition relates how Abraham, when he founded the Ka’ba, bought the land from an old woman to which it belonged. She
however consented to part with it only on the condition that she and her descendents should have the key of the place in their
keeping. Today the stone is served by men called Beni Shaybah (the Sons of the Old Woman).
The crescent moon goddess (and virgin warrior Goddess of the morning star), Al-Uzza, was known to the pre-Islamic Arabs
as “The Mighty”. Some scholars believe that in very ancient times, it was she who was considered enshrined in
the black stone of Makkah, where she was served by priestesses. Her sacred grove of acacia trees once stood just south of
Makkah, at Nakla. The Acacia tree was sacred to the Arabs who made the idol of Al-Uzza from its wood.
Stones, similar to the black stone of the Ka’ba, were worshipped by
Arabs in most parts and by the Semitic races generally. The Kabyles of Kabylia in Northern Algeria say their first Great Mother goddess
was turned to stone. Other names of the goddess are Kububa, Kuba, Kube and the Latin Cybele. Other scholars say that this meteorite was brought to Makkah by the Sabeans or the Ethiopians and state that the goddess
who dwelt in the sacred black stone was given the title Shayba (see Beni Shaybah - the Sons of the Old Woman, above) who represented the
Moon in its threefold existence - waxing, (maiden), full (pregnant mother) and waning (old wise woman). Although the word Ka’ba itself means ‘cube’, it is very close
to the word ku‘b meaning ‘woman’s breast’.
Sûfîsm cherishes the esoteric secret of woman, even though Sûfîsm is the esoteric
aspect of a seemingly patriarchal religion. Muslims pray five times a day facing the city of Makkah. Inside every Mosque is
a niche, or recess, called the Mihrab - a vertical rectangle curved at the top
that points toward the direction of Makkah. The Sûfîs know the Mihrab to be a visual
symbol of an abstract concept: the transcendent vagina of the female aspect of divinity. In Sûfîsm, woman is the ultimate
secret, for woman is the soul. Toshihiko Izutsu writes, “The wife of Adam was feminine, but the first soul from which
Adam was born was also feminine.”
The Divine Feminine has always been present in Islam. This may be surprising to many people who see Islam as a patriarchal
religion. Maybe the reason for this misconception is the very nature of the feminine in Islam. The Divine Feminine in Islam
manifests metaphysically and in the inner expression of the religion. The Divine Feminine is not so much a secret within
Islam as She is the compassionate Heart of Islam that enables us to know Divinity. Her centrality demonstrates her necessary
and life-giving role in Islam.
Sûfîsm, or as some would define it “mystical Islam” has always honored the Divine Feminine. Of course,
Allâh has both masculine
and feminine qualities, but to the Sûfî, Allâh has always been the Beloved and the Sûfî has always been the Lover. The Qur’ān, referring to the final Day, perhaps divulges a portion of this
teaching: “And there is manifest to them of God what they had not expected to see.”
Islam is aniconic. In other words, images, effigies, or idols of Allâh are not allowed, although verbal
depiction abounds. There was a question long debated in Islam: can we see Allâh? The Prophet said in a hadīth, “In
Paradise the faithful will see Allâh with the clarity with which you see the moon on the fourteenth night (the full moon).”
Theologians debated what this could mean, but the Sûfîs have held that you can see Allâh even in this world, through the “eye of the heart.”
The famous Sûfî martyr al-Hallaj said in a poem, “ra’aytu rabbi bi-‘ayni
qalbî” (I saw my Lord with the eye of my heart). Relevant to the focus of this paper is that Sûfîs have always described
this theophanic experience as the vision of a woman, the female figure as the object of ru’yah
(vision of Allâh).
There was a great Sûfî Saint who was born in 1165 C.E. Besides Shi’a
Muslims, numberless Sunni Ulemas called him “The Greatest Sheikh” (al-Shaykh al-Akbar). His name was Muyiddin ibn al-‘Arabî. He said, “To know
woman is to know oneself,” and “Whoso knoweth his self, knoweth his Lord.” Ibn al-’Arabî wrote a collection of poems entitled The Tarjumân
al-ashwâq. These are love poems that he composed after meeting the learned and beautiful Persian woman Nizam in Makkah.
The poems are filled with images pointing to the Divine Feminine. His book Fusûs al-hikam, in the last chapter, relates that man’s supreme witnessing
of Allâh is in the form
of the woman during the act of sexual union. He writes, “The contemplation of Allâh in woman is the highest form of contemplation possible: As the Divine Reality
is inaccessible in respect of the Essence, and there is contemplation only in a substance, the contemplation of God in women
is the most intense and the most perfect; and the union which is the most intense (in the sensible order, which serves as
support for this contemplation) is the conjugal act.” Allâh as the Beloved in Sûfî literature, the ma‘shûq, is always depicted with female iconography.
A popular new book, The
Da Vinci Code, a thriller by Dan Brown,
tells the story of a Harvard professor summoned to the Louvre Museum after a murder there to examine
cryptic symbols relating to da Vinci’s work. During the course of his investigation, he uncovers an ancient secret:
the claim that Mary Magdalene represents the Divine Feminine, and that she and Jesus had a sexual relationship. While the
book is a work of fiction, it does represent the force of the Divine Feminine to unveil Herself in the midst of religious
traditions that have become altered through cultural accretions into anti-sexual, anti-pleasure and anti-feminine belief structures.
There is also the worthy of note nonfiction work The Woman With the Alabaster Jar: Mary Magdalen and the Holy Grail which presents the idea that Mary Magdalen was actually
married to Jesus Christ and the Holy Grail is not a cup or chalice at all but Mary’s womb as she carried the “bloodline”
of Jesus to Egypt and then to Europe. The author, Margaret Starbird, advances her theory by analyzing art of the dark ages and the
“understood” meaning behind it. Starbird does an excellent job of researching European history, heraldry, the
rituals of Freemasonry, medieval art, symbolism, psychology, mythology, religion, and the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures
to discover that the meaning of the Holy Grail could be the lost bride of Jesus and the female
child she carried within her.
Starbird’s theological beliefs
were profoundly shaken when she read Holy Blood,
Holy Grail, a book that dared to suggest that Jesus Christ was married to Mary
Magdalen and that their descendants carried on his holy bloodline in Western Europe. Shocked by such heresy, this Roman Catholic scholar set
out to refute it, but instead found new and compelling evidence for the existence of the bride of Jesus. The roles
of Muhammad’s daughter Fātima and Mary are similar. The true line of the Prophet ‘Īsā (Jesus) and
his real teaching passing through Mary and into Europe mirrors the true line of the Imāms (who propagated the real teachings
of the Prophet Muhammad) who issued from the womb of Fātima. Fātima is regarded by some Sûfîs
and theologians as the first spiritual head (qutb) of the Sûfî fellowship.
Among the Ghulat there is much respect paid to the Divine Feminine. In the Ghulat group
the Ahl-i-Haqq (“the People of Truth”), the Divine Feminine appears as the Khātūn-i
Qiyāmat (Lady of Resurrection) who also is manifested as the mysterious angel Razbâr (also Ramzbâr or Remzebâr).
The writer, Frédéric Macler, claims that the name Razbâr is of Arabic origin and means “secret of the creator”. The term qiyāma literally
means, “rising” of the dead, and allegorically, it implies an idea denoting the rising to the next spiritual stage,
and qiyāmat-i qubra (great resurrection) means an attainment of the highest
degree when a man becomes free from the ties of external laws, whom he shackles and transfigures into spiritual substance,
which rejoins its divine sources. “The King of the World was sitting on the water with His four
associate angels (chahār malak-i muqarrab) when they suddenly saw the Pure
Substance of Hadrat-i Razbâr, the Khātūn-i Qiyāmat (Lady of the
Resurrection). She brought out from the sea a round loaf of bread (kulūcha),
and offered it to the King of the World. By His order they formed a devotional assembly (jam),
distributed the bread, offered prayers and exclaimed ‘Hū!’ Then the earth and the skies became fixed, the
skies being that kulūcha.”
Another rendition of the emergence of the Lady of the Resurrection is as follows: “After this the Holder of the
World and Creator of Man looked upon ‘Azra’īl with the eye of benefaction, and ‘Azra’īl
became split into two parts, one exactly like the other, and from between these parts a drop of light emerged in the form
of a loaf of kulūcha bread. The Creator then said, I appoint that person (sūrat) who became separated from ‘Azra’īl
to be the Lady of the Resurrection (Khātūn-i Qiyāmat), who will
on the Resurrection Day be the helper of human beings.”
The followers of Yârsânism, also known as the Yârisân, Aliullâhi, Ali-llâhi (i.e., “those who deify ‘Alī”),
Alihaq, Ahl-i Haqq (“the People of Truth”) or Ahl-i Haq (“the People of the Spirit” (Hâk or Haqj), are concentrated in southern Kurdistan in both Iran
and Iraq. In each epoch there is a female avatar of the Universal Spirit, a reflection of the higher status of women in the Kurdish culture and tradition.
What do those who study mystical Islam claim is the hidden meaning regarding the existence of the sexes in creation?
These researchers perceive that the biological and psychological differences between the sexes are only hints of a more momentous
significance hidden within the divinity Itself. Of course, Sûfîsm does not argue against the Oneness of Allâh. The quintessence of Allâh transcends duality, yet the Ultimate Reality manifests
qualities in creation that are dualistic.
In Kabbalah (a Jewish mystical tradition), just below the first Sphere
(sefirah) of divine emanation known as Keter (meaning “crown”,
“summit” or “pinnacle”), lie the two roots of masculine and feminine, known as Hokhmah and Binah.
Although they are not masculine and feminine, Hokhmah and Binah are the archetypes of the masculine and feminine. Binah is the Kabbalistic feminine symbol for ‘Understanding’, a prelude to wisdom. “Binah, the Great
Mother, sometimes also called Marah, the Great Sea, is, of course, the Mother of All Living. She is the archetypal womb through which life
comes into manifestation.” The “female” principle within God is personified and called by the name: Shekhinah (literally “dwelling”), a term familiar from classical Rabbinical literature. In the
Kabbalah, however, the Shekhinah is not only included as a distinctive principle within the inner divine life, but this distinctive
principle is explicitly, and quite graphically, described as female.”
The Divine Masculine and the Divine Feminine express two very distinct aspects of Allâh. First, that Allâh is Supreme is the principle of masculinity, and that Allâh is Infinite is the principle of femininity.
In the Qur’ān, Allâh reveals Itself by giving Itself ninety-nine names. These names are divided
up by Islamic Ulama into the names of Majesty (jalâl)
and the names of Beauty (jamâl). The names of Majesty call to mind images of the
stern and strict “father”, while the names of Beauty call to mind images of a gentle and loving “mother”.
Allâh did not exhaust Itself
in creating the world; hence Allâh
still exists along with creation. Allâh,
in creating the world, is indicative of masculine qualities, such as achievement, strength, dynamism, severity, and rulership.
Yet, Allâh is also infinite
compared to the finite world. This inconceivably extended aspect of Allâh is the aspect of Allâh that the Sûfî often refers to in ecstatic poetry in the feminine gender. That
is why Ibn al-‘Arabî says Allâh
can be referred to as both Huwa (He) and Hiya (She). One of the drawbacks of the English language is that we do not give gender
to nouns. Arabic, like the Romance languages, expresses words with gender. Many of the essential words regarding Allâh are in the feminine gender in Arabic.
In this paper, the author will analyze three of these words: the first is al-Hakîm, the Wise; Wisdom is hikmah. In Arabic to say, for example, “Wisdom is precious,” you could repeat the feminine pronoun:
al-hikmah hiya thamînah, literally “Wisdom, she is precious.” It is
stated by some Sûfî Sheikhs (Masters) that Sûfîsm originally was named Sophia,
which connects Sûfîsm with the Christian Gnostic tradition, in which Wisdom is personified as a woman, the divine Sophia.
The physical mother of Jesus was an external image of manifestation of the Virgin Sophia, the word “Sophia” stemming
from Sophos (wisdom). The Gnostics, whose language was Greek,
identified the Holy Spirit with Sophia, Wisdom; and Wisdom was considered female. The Virgin was closely associated by the
early church with Wisdom, of the cathedral church at Constantinople,
while the ascension of the Virgin Mary refers to the passing of Wisdom into Immortality. The litany of the Blessed Virgin
contains the prayer, “Seat of Wisdom, pray for us.”
Julian of Norwich (1343-1420?), English religious writer, an anchoress, or hermit, called Jesus Christ, the second
Person of the Roman Catholic “Holy Trinity”, our Mother in Wisdom, and our Mother of Mercy or Compassion. The latter title with the words “mercy” and “compassion”
returns us to a subtle interpretation of the phrase Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim, often
translated as “In the name of Allâh the most Beneficent the most Merciful”, but with the added gnosis that God can appear to a human
being as the Divine Feminine and that the Divine Feminine is not confined to Christian or Islamic mystical intuitive apprehension
of spiritual truths. St. Peter Chrysologos presented the Virgin as the seven-pillared temple which Wisdom had built for herself.” The aforementioned philosopher and Sûfî, ibn al-Arabî, saw a young
girl in Makkah surround by light and realized that, for him, she was an incarnation of the divine Sophia.
Mary was born of an angelic annunciation; Fātima (the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad) was considered to come
from the level of angels. She is considered by many Muslims as divine in origin
and several variations of a major hadīth describe how she was conceived on
the night of Mi’râj (ascension). On this night Gabriel took Muhammad to Jerusalem and
then to Heaven. While up in Heaven, he was offered some heavenly fruit, the seed of which was responsible for her conception,
after the Prophet’s return on the same night and making love to his beloved wife Khadija.
Fātima tul Zehra (Fātima the Radiant, Fātima the Brightest Star, Fātima-Star of Venus, Fātima-The Evening Star), the daughter of the Prophet, is the secret in Sûfîsm. She is the Hujjat of ‘Alī. In other words, she establishes the esoteric sense of his
knowledge and guides those who attain to it. Through her perfume, we breathe paradise. Though she was his daughter, the Prophet
Muhammad called her Um Abi’ha (mother of her father). What mystery was the
Prophet hinting at by this statement? While Fātima Zehra was Muhammad’s daughter, the Rasulallah (Prophet of God – Muhammad) understood that his gnosis was bestowed upon him from the Divine
Feminine.
Fātima Fatir as representative of Allâh’s Jamal, saves
humankind from Allâh’s
Jalal. Esoterically, if it were not for Fātima (Mercy), Allâh would never have sent Muhammad (Peace be upon him) and the
Qur’ān to humanity. The night is the exemplification of our sovereign
Fātima, especially the “Night of Destiny” (laylat al-Qadr). Lady
Fātima was chosen from all women to be the Mother source of Muhammad’s lineage, the core of the generation of Muhammad.
Through her, the progeny of the Prophet multiplies – through a woman. The process of giving birth to the spirit is the feminine principle. That to which has been given birth is the masculine.
“This is why, in spiritual transformation and rebirth, only the masculine principle can be born, for the feminine principle
is the process itself. Once birth is given to the spirit, this principle remains as Fātima, the Creative Feminine, the
Daughter of the Prophet, in a state of potentiality within the spirit reborn.” Shī’as revere the person of Fātima, for she is the mother of the line of inspired
Imāms who embodied the
divine truth for their generation. As such, Fātima is directly associated with Sophia, the divine wisdom, which gives birth to all knowledge
of God. She has thus become another symbolic equivalent of the Great Mother. Lady
Fātima (as) has various names near Allâh (Exalted Be His Name), they are:
Fātima (Aleiha Assalam)
Siddiqah (the honest)
Al-Mubarakah (the blessed one)
Al-Tahirah (the pure)
Az-Zakiyah (the chaste)
Ar-Radhiatul Mardhiah (she who is gratified and who shall be satisfied)
Al-Mardiyyah (the one pleasing to Allâh )
Al-Muhaddathah (a person other than a Prophet, which the angels speak to)
Az-Zahraa (the splendid)
Fātima was given the title of “az-Zahraa” which means “the Resplendent One.” That was because of
her beaming face, which seemed to radiate light. However, others, who must keep their beliefs prudently concealed, know the
Prophet Muhammad’s daughter as “Fātima Fatir”. In Her own sacred words She utters the truth, “There
is no God beside me, neither in divinity nor humanity, neither in the Heavens nor on earth, outside of me, who am Fātima
- Creator.”
It is said by some Sûfîs that there is another great secret regarding Fātima. These Sûfîs
say that she was a Prophet from the time of her father’s death until the time of her death. After the Prophet’s
death, Fātima lived seventy-five days. During this time the Archangel Gabriel came to her and
consoled her by telling her what her father was doing in the spiritual worlds, what his status was, and what would come about
in the Islamic community after her death. Imām ‘Alī wrote down what Fātima dictated
to him. Her words were collected into what is known as the Mushaf. Mushaf refers to a collection of sahifa, which is singular for “page.”
The literal meaning of Mushaf is “The manuscript bound between two boards.”
In the early days of Islam, people used to write on leather and other materials. They either rolled the writings, what we
know as a “scroll” in English, or kept the separable sheets and bound them together, in what could be called a
Mushaf, a book in today’s terms. Of course, the above narration requires
more research and exegesis. “. . . Fātima’s book, I don’t claim that it is Qur’ān, rather it contains what makes people need us and makes us in need of no one,” stated
Imām Sadiq. According to the traditions of the Ahlul Bayt, Fātima’s
Mushaf is not a Qur’ān, but
most definitely a revelation by Allâh,
to the Mistress of Women and Daughter of the Master of Prophets, just as He chose to make revelations to Moses’ mother.
Sûfîs are taught to be aware of coincidences. They say that coincidences
are merely “Allâh’s orders”, or “no coincidence, only Providence”. Hagia Sophia
(Greek, “Holy Wisdom”) was the cathedral of Constantinople (today’s Istanbul, Turkey).
The second word the author will consider, in this paper, is accounted the
second most important name of Allâh, and that is al-Rahmân, the All-Merciful. The first
ayât (verse) of Al-Fatiha (the most important chapter in the Qur’ān) firmly establishes that the two names Al-Rahmân and Al-Rahîm refer to Allâh, the Supreme Power, and to Allâh exclusively. The two names’ etymology stems from
the same root: RAHM, which can mean “womb” or “place of origin”. There is a hadîth qudsî that specifically addresses that: Allâh says, “I am al-Rahmân. I created the womb and I derived
its name from My name. I will be connected to whoever stays connected to it, and I will be cut off from whoever stays cut
off from it.”
Sister W.H. believes that most translators, in translating these words, do
not take into consideration the context in which Allâh refers to Itself as Rahmân or Rahim. Surah Maryam (19) is the
Sura in which the name Al-Rahmân is mentioned most frequently (sixteen times). In ayât
18 of this Sura, Maryam asks for protection from Al-Rahmân against one whom she perceives as a man entering her private chambers,
but who in fact is the Archangel Jibreel (Gabriel). Sister W.H. holds that Maryam is asking for protection from the Most Powerful,
the Almighty, not mercy from “the Beneficent” as Rahmân is often translated. Sister W.H. continues by stating
that Maryam declares this asking for protection from Al-Rahmân to the “intruder” in order also to frighten the
“intruder,” for which situation the appellation “the Merciful” or “The Most Gracious”
would hardly instill fear, and hence also be unsuitable. In every instance of the usage of the name Al-Rahmân in the Qur’ān, in the opinion of sister W.H., the only appropriate interpretation is expressed in the name
The Almighty. Yet, as Cecilia Twinch perceives in her article The Beauty of Oneness
witnessed in the emptiness of the heart, “in this state of not knowing what the reality of
the situation was, she turned to God with all her being, saying, ‘I take refuge in the Merciful (Rahmân) from you.’
‘Consequently,’ Ibn ‘Arabi says, ‘she was overwhelmed with a perfect state of the Divine Presence.’
”
Nevertheless, Sister W.H. recounts another example of the Almighty power of Al-Rahmân, we have the description in Sura
Taha, verse 5, that culminates when “Al-Rahmân “is established on the
throne.” Thus the Holy Qur’ān
says, Inna Rabba-kumulla-hullazi khalaqas-samawati wal-'arza fi sitati 'ayamin sumas-tawa
'alal 'Arsh: “Your Guardian-Lord is Allâh, Who created the heavens and the earth in six days, and is firmly established on the Throne.” This is the
perfect image of power and authority, the assumption of full authority over everything.
Whatever sister W.H.’s interpretation, the concept of mercy is still relevant in this context. Note translations
of the Towrah (Torah) of Moosa (Moses) use the word “Mercy-seat”; could
this not be a translation of the name Al-Rahmân as “Mercy” and Al-aarsh
(throne) as “seat”? Bear in mind that these two names, Al-Rahmân, Al-Rahîm are part of the most ancient, profound
and universal revelation of the Divine in the opinion of the Jewish people and the Muslims. Yet, is this concept of the “Mercy-seat”
limited to the Jewish people and the Muslims? No. The Egyptian Goddess Isis
is one of the goddesses that has stood the test of time. Isis is the Greek form of more ancient names
(Aset or Eset), and the name Isis is represented in hieroglyphics with a picture of a “throne”.
The throne represented the Feminine power of the Goddess, and the King when he ascends the throne, is actually drawing power
from the throne upon which he sits. Halmasuit is the Hittite throne goddess that represents divine legitimization of earthy
rulership.
An Doctuir, An t-Athair Sean O Duinn, Department of Irish Mythology University of Limerick, gave a most interesting
presentation on the personification of the Land as the Goddess as well as the place of the sacred well in Irish Mythology
and early Irish Christianity. He explained that to the pre-Christian Irish, water was the source of all life. Eire, after whom the country was named, was the superior Goddess of water
and fertility, the island of Ireland
being the body of the goddess. The Irish language has no word for the coronation of a king. This is because Irish kings were
not crowned; they were married to the goddess in a ceremony called An Bainais -
the wedding. In the Bainais, the king received the land as his wife and the fruits of the land and all the wealth of an agricultural
society came under his paternity as issued from the marriage.
Surah 109 in the Qur’ân, al-Kawthar, gives an especially revealing look
into the Prophet’s feminine soul. It was revealed because his enemies had been taunting him that he had no sons, only
daughters, while they had been given sons to perpetuate their patriarchal ways. Allâh revealed this message of consolation to the Prophet: “We
have given thee al-Kawthar ... surely the one who hates thee will be cut off (from progeny).” What is al-Kawthar? Al-Kawthar
is a sacred pool of life-giving water in Paradise-a profoundly feminine symbol. The name
of Kawthar is derived from the same root as kathîr ‘abundance’, a quality
of the supernal Infinite, the Divine Feminine. Allâh established that Allâh’s feminine nature has primacy over Allâh’s masculine nature when Allâh says in the hadīth qudsi “My mercy precedes My wrath” (rahmatî sabaqat ghadabî). The Prophet
also said, “Your body has its rights over you.”
Eric Ackroyd, author of A Dictionary
of Dream Symbols: With an Introduction to Dream Psychology writes about water, “It
is a feminine symbol, representing either your own femininity (whether you are a male or female), or your mother.” In addition, the Ka’ba stood by a sacred spring, the Zemzem, whose sacred
waters are drunk by all good Muslims. The Hajira or “sudden
departure” although applied to the events following 622 C.E. bears the same name as Hajira (Hagar), who discovered the
spring of Zemzem flowing by Ishmael’s foot when searching for water for him after the “sudden departure”
of Ibrahim.
Therefore, we see the Divine Feminine, as the Source of Life, being expressed first by the means that humans may understand
the Divine Feminine, in other words, Wisdom, being a feminine word, second, by the two most holy names of Allâh: al-Rahmân and al-Rahim which express in a universal
way (spanning cultures as varied as Egyptian, Hittitie and Celtic) that the Source of Life is the Divine Feminine.
However, the Divine Feminine does not always manifest in ways that most people think of as traditional, in other words:
nurturing, embracing, caring, and so forth. She has a martial aspect too, and so it is not surprising that Al-Rahmân wields
power and can appropriately be called The Almighty. Pakistani-American artist Shahzia
Sikander has explored the spiritual meaning of the Feminine in South
Asia through her female images that blend veiled Muslim women
and goddesses like Kali or Durga in the same figure. By depicting the Divine Feminine in her art, she says, “I am interested in the multidimensions
of the female identity. The goddess could be a figure of power. It refers to empowerment definitely. And yet there is a certain
sort of dark side to it too....”
Now the author will consider the third name, and perhaps the most outstanding of
