The Cloak of Beauty - Q-News July 2006, Issue 367

With the miasma of gloom left by the Danish cartoon controversy and the fallout from the London bombings, this year’s national mawlid celebration was anticipated with great expectations. Fozia Bora reports on a day of joy and delight where the remembrance of the Prophet cast away the darkness and gave some much-needed hope.

On a gorgeous day at the end of May this year, Mahabba Unlimited hosted its second national mawlid at the Wembley Conference Centre, a venue that is fast becoming a fixture for British mawlid-lovers everywhere. The Centre is roomy and has a pleasing structure - the great hall can be accessed from several levels through many tunnel-like thresholds - and it absorbed many hundreds of attendees that day with a minimum of fuss. The smoothness of the operation - for which thanks go to the dozens of volunteers - was truly welcome, because on this occasion, boy did we need that mawlid! Nothing short of a full-blown and variegated celebration of the Prophet’s life and person, blessing and peace be upon him, could have cleared away the miasma of gloom left by the Danish cartoons controversy. And alhamdulillah the mawlid promised and it delivered. Some twenty speakers, singers and poets spent the afternoon and evening reminding us, as Sa’di of Shiraz did, that:

He reached the loftiest heights, by his perfection
He cleared away the darkness, by his beauty
All his traits were exquisite
So send blessings on him and his kinsfolk

First on the stage was Sidi Abdul Rehman Malik, who introduced the event, and who - along with Fareena Alam, Fuad Nahdi and others - is also in large part responsible for its organisation. Sidi Abdul Rehman has long worked to bring the values of traditional Muslim culture, civic values and spirituality into our midst - and under his ‘stage-management’, the mawlid flowed nicely from one element to the next.

We began with Quran recitation from Maulana Sharif, a qari from the Comoros Islands who currently teaches in France. He was followed by three munshidin from the Hejaz who sang traditional mawlid songs and from the Burda of al-Busiri, the 13th century Poem of the Cloak celebrating the Prophet’s life. Their voices were incredible - I could feel my heart rising with every note - and for me they represented the epiphany that is the mawlid. Completely at ease before a huge audience, their almost unworldly voices demonstrated why the mawlid is an occasion of pure happiness and gratitude, and why it is considered an ‘eid’ celebration across so much of the world.

Sidi Fuad Nahdi - a long-time advocate of the public mawlid - then came on to the stage to thank audience, organisers and the speakers and singers. After him we were addressed by Shaykh Ahmed Babikir, a man with a huge smile, a huge personality, and a deep devotion to the Messenger. Shaykh Babikir’s message was two-fold: “The greatest bounty we have received since the world was created was the Prophet”, and that “We must not be afraid to call ourselves Sufis.” Both points struck a chord with joyous crowd. Shaykh Babikir’s words and those of everyone who spoke or sung that day were interpreted into sign language by a team of three interpreters, who were most impressive, and tireless, in conveying some complex and profound thoughts to their audience of over two dozen deaf Muslims. It was heartening to know that the deaf and hard of hearing could come to this event and feel included and cared for.

Next on stage was the tiny figure of a thirteen year-old boy, Waseem Majid, whose voice is anything but small. A prize-winning singer of naats, or traditional spiritual songs from South Asia in praise of the Prophet, Waseem sang some lovely songs, including one set in Madinah: “May I be extinguished in the tracks of your footsteps, O Prophet of Allah”.

Maulana Pirzada from the Jamia al-Karam seminary in Retford then addressed us, and along with two of his learned students, reminded us that “No-one in the history of mankind has been loved as he is… Following in his footsteps is the greatest need of our times.”

Shaykh Jihad Hashim Brown, an American Muslim scholar now based in Abu Dhabi, reiterated this point, reminding us that much misunderstanding of the Prophet, upon whom be peace, especially in the last, tumultuous year, arises from our inadequate personification of his teachings. Shaykh Jihad also delineated the Prophet’s gentleness, forgiveness and compassion, which “provides us with hope that there is good in human nature, good that is achievable.” He quoted from Thomas Carlyle, Gandhi, George Bernard Shaw and Gibbon, who all praised the Prophet, with the latter remarking that the Prophet’s qualities brought about the “high vitality of Islam”, effected by his “sheer moral force.” Characteristically eloquent, Shaykh Jihad ended on a positive note, quoting the hadith that the ummah is like the rain: it is not known whether the first of it is the best or the last of it.

We heard from Yusuf Islam, a man who works tirelessly for the ummah through his various educational and charitable projects. His presentation included some never-before-screened video recording of his performance at the mawlid last year in Abu Dhabi which included a new rendition of the famous and well-loved Tala’al Badru Alayna - accompanied by his guitar. Clearly, he has not lost his touch at all, and it was lovely to hear from a man who is, both personally and through his work, at the heart of British Islam.

A group of six singers followed - Londoners all! - led by Dr Akram Hamdan, named Bashair - or ‘glad tidings’ - whose interpretation of traditional mawlid songs prepared us for the Islamic Relief’s ever ebullient UK Manager Waseem Yaqub who spoke about the plight of the orphans in the world and how we might help them, injecting a serious, necessary and ultimately rewarding note into the evening. Giving to orphans, he reminded us, would bring us next to the Messenger himself in the Hereafter.

Old favourites Shaam sang with uncanny delight and their star is undimmed - their songs, in Arabic, English and Urdu - representative of some of the strands of multicultural British Islam - were beautiful as ever, and they seemed to enjoy the occasion as much as we did. And it took the voice of a distinguished visitor from overseas, Governor Ahmed Sani of Nigeria’s Zamfara State, to bring to mind the point that our gathering together for worship in the heart of Europe shows that Islam is growing, whatever our fears and concerns may be.

The next speaker brought the house down. Shaykh Ahmad Tijani bin ‘Umar, a Ghanaian-American, had the whole hall shaking with laughter with his incendiary humour, iconoclasm - of the ‘halal’ kind, as his victims ranged from salafis who decry the mawlid to our own dear Fuad himself. There was affection embedded in the teasing - and his determination to shake us out of the stupor he no doubt thought we were in. He called himself the James Brown of Islam - the resemblance was hard to miss.

Next on the cards was poetry, firstly from one of the best English language Muslim poets we have, Daniel ‘Abdal-Hayy Moore, from the United States, whose poem, entitled ‘Sparrow on the Prophet’s Tomb,’ wove a rich and magical web of praise for the Prophet: “You preen your wing/ Where men cannot go…/ For deeper conversation” were my favourite lines.

He was followed by two gifted young women, Sakina and Munira, whose Poetic Pilgrimage, as they call their endeavour, was on this occasion a wonderful poem about their wayfaring, including a mystical trip to Madinah. They spoke from the heart, and their verses were pithy, powerful and based on direct experience. Popular Egyptian broadcaster Moez Masoud was also moved by their lines, and he in turn touched the audience by his account of how he was turned by Allah, Most High, from heedlessness to faith, and thence to a path of dawah - calling to the way of God.

The final two personalities to speak were the crown of the evening: Habib Ali al-Jifri, the spiritual mentor of the Mahabba project, and his own teacher, the venerable Habib Umar bin Hafiz of Tarim, Yemen, on his first trip to the UK. Habib Ali spoke first about the beauty of the Messenger, and he advised us not to internalise injustices and defeats endured by Muslims, for this would leave our hearts vacant when they needed to be filled with beauty. To see the beauty of Allah’s will was, in other words, the way of the Messenger, May Allah bless him and give him peace. Habib Ali then introduced Habib Umar with an anecdote in which the latter Shaykh’s teacher endured great pain unwittingly caused by a student of his, but did not mention it to the young man for fear of giving him the pain of knowing that he had hurt his beloved teacher. This was the selfless, dignified and spiritually realised conduct of a true lover of the Prophet.

Habib Umar then addressed us with a tribute to the event, and reminded us that sacred knowledge was the way forward. It was a great honour to addressed by a man of his calibre. Both these last talks, given in Arabic, were rendered into English by a pair of very accomplished translators, who were quick and fluent. This brought to a close the main events of the evening, but many in the audience - though alas not this one - remained in the hall to hear all the singers and speakers encircle on the stage to sing the great mawlid poem of Habib Habshi and join together, standing, hands raised, in remembrance of Allah and His beloved Prophet, Muhammad Mustafa, may the peace and blessing of Allah be upon him.

The hall, as one left it, certainly felt enveloped in the cloak of the Prophetic presence.