What Muslims Can Learn From Easter
http://www.altmuslim.com/perm.php?id=1694_0_25_0_C
Easter is about Christ, a great man who saw the inherent worth of all
human beings - even tax collectors and sex workers and lepers, those
whom the rest of society wrote off.
By Irfan Yusuf, April 14, 2006
This Easter, I discovered the real meaning of divine mercy. I also
discovered that the best way to feel God's mercy is to serve the
saints with humility. And I am not alone in this discovery.
The exact theological formula of Easter isn't what matters. Rather,
for the Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and people of other faiths and no
faith in particular, Easter is a time to serve society's true saints.
Coming from a Muslim background, my Easter was a time to wash feet. On
the Thursday before Easter, I had the good fortune to wash the feet of
2 Buddhist nuns and a Uniting Church Minister named Bill.
In a room crowded with saints lining up for their lunch, the four of
us took turns in placing our feet in the water and having them washed.
Bill provided the water and bucket while I provided the ceremonial
Jasmine oil which all washers rubbed on their hands and faces.
One or two saints also volunteered their feet for us to wash. I
personally could feel the faiz (an Arabic word connoting a kind of
blessing associated with the presence of saints) radiating from the
water.
It was all made possible thanks to Bill, an enterprising Uniting
Church Minister from Ashfield. Bill runs the Ashfield Parish Mission,
part of the Uniting Church in Australia.
But Rev. Bill Cruise is no ordinary priest. He is also part of a
growing ecumenical movement of people from across Sydney working under
the auspices of The Exodus Foundation.
The Easter 2006 Newsletter of the Foundation reflects the involvement
of people from a range of faiths all working to serve the saints of
society. Amongst the volunteers are members of the Temple Emanuel
congregation led by Rabbi Jacki Ninio. Jewish volunteers are
especially active, and the Temple Emanuel congregation have been
serving meals to the saints on Christmas and Easter at the Ashfield
church hall (known as "the Restaurant") for over a decade.
Since November 1995, a Buddhist congregation led by Jim Teoh have been
providing and serving meals at the Restaurant. Food prepared by
individual members of the Buddhist congregation includes noodles and
fried rice, freshly cooked on site within 2 hours of being served. The
saints just can't get enough of it.
This Easter Saturday, the Foundation is unveiling a plaque in their
Ashfield restaurant to commemorate and thank the Buddhist congregation
for their 10 years of support to the community of saints.
My own involvement with saints is not a recent development. Family
members, relatives and friends of mine have experienced sainthood to
varying degrees.
Late last year, a close friend told me about her brother who had gone
missing some weeks back. He's admitted himself to hospital after
experiencing severe weakness. His liver almost collapsed and suffered
irreparable damage.
My friend took her brother up north to get some country air and keep
him away from dealers and other low-life. Thanks to their
intervention, her brother developed some kind of psychotic illness and
lived on the streets of Sydney managing a group of other saints wiping
windscreens.
Some weeks later, my friend and I had one of those major arguments
male and female friends have every so often (usually when the male
begins acting like a female!). A week later, still feeling rather
guilty after the argument, I was at Surry Hills meeting a colleague
for lunch. I parked my car, and was approached by a saint pushing a
shopping trolley with bottles of water and detergents.
"Mind if I wash your windscreen?" he asked. Before I could say no, he
was already onto the side windows. Within 5 minutes, the windows of my
humble Daihatsu Mira were spotless.
He was fashionably dressed for a saint. I noticed feeling a strange
calmness as I stood in his presence. I then realised he was babbling a
name which sounded like that of my friend. He also shared her dark
eyes and tall forehead. I asked him his name. He told me. Yep, this
was her brother.
I gave him $20 for a phone card and told him to call his sister. I
then tried contacting my friend to tell her I had found him. When she
returned my message, it seemed she had lost it completely. Perhaps she
had joined the ranks of the saints.
Then a few days ago, a prominent Sydney Muslim identity asked me if I
could fill in for him at an Easter ceremony with Rev Bill Cruise. Each
year, Bill holds a ceremony where he emulated Christ who washed the
feet of his disciples during the last hours leading upto his arrest.
Muslims have a horrible habit of turning up late. One Muslim stand-up
comic from the United States even suggested governments should start
naming hurricanes and cyclones with Muslim names to allow more time to
de-populate affected areas. I kept the lateness tradition going.
In the distance, I could see Bill standing with the saints. They were
dressed in their finest - non-matching clothes, ripped shoes,
dishevelled hair. Dressed like true saints.
We entered the Restaurant and sat down for the feet washing. The
cameras were there, but they may not have been. We were having too
much fun reviving an ancient New Testament practise of Christ to worry
about media.
Nearby, the Exodus Choir were singing their lungs out. Amongst them
were a variety of saints, including one man who had suffered a number
of strokes and could only smile and wave his hands. And how
appropriate was their song, being heard and enjoyed by the line of
saints collecting their lunch - "When the saints go marching in."
The Prophet Muhammad's mosque had a special platform where his
homeless followers, known as As-hab as-Suffah (literally "People of
the Bench"), lived. From Suffah, we get the word "Sufi", literally
meaning "saint". The Prophet's followers often were too poor to afford
shelter, were severely depressed or had other ailments.
The Prophet also taught that people who had lost their sense of sanity
were not fully responsible for their actions in the sight of God. So
the homeless, many of whom are mentally ill, are true saints.
Easter is about Christ, a great man who saw the inherent worth of all
human beings. Even tax collectors and sex workers and lepers, those
whom the rest of society wrote off. Christ always made time for the
saints of his time. If we want to be Christ-like, we should make time
for the saints of our era.
Irfan Yusuf is a lawyer and writer based in Sydney, Australia. He is
also an occasional lecturer at the School of Politics at Sydney's
Macquarie University. He can be contacted at
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