TayoBlog

The diversity of people who live in this city rubbing shoulders with each other on a daily basis is often forgotten, but truly astounding. They depend on each for labour, work, acts of kindness, and sometimes also some misunderstandings. Every now and then something comes up that puts this moving symphony in question. 


The recent debate among Muslims on the music from "The Awakening" was one such event. It is an internal debate among a few Muslims and their leadership, and may be easily be forgotten by most people in Cape Town. And these include most Muslims in this city as well. 

But the issue broke into the public media, and raised issues on important and pertinent issues on the relationship between cultures in the city and how they related to each other.



The offending rupture was a musical CD and performance, one particular track of which has a recitation of the first chapter of the Qur’an and the Lord’s Prayer. In a juridical opinion (fatwa), the Muslim Judicial Council objected to the accompaniment of music as well as bringing together the Truth (the Qur’an) on the same level with a Mixed Truth (Gospel).



In my view, there are two major issues raised by the Muslim Judicial Council and by the creators of "The Awakening". The first concerns the public in Cape Town, and in South Africa. The second concerns Muslims who live in the city and in the country as a whole, and who may object or at least be ambivalent towards the MJC’s decision.



As far as the first issue is concerned, the MJC’s fatwa is merely a messenger of what has happened in the city as far as inter-faith cooperation is concerned. In the last two decades of apartheid, South Africa was witness to a profound inter-faith engagement. People of different faiths marched with each other and held hands together against apartheid.



Some prayed with each other, but the gatekeepers of orthodoxy preferred to look the other way. There were concerns, from the MJC as well, that this close cooperation was getting too close for comfort. Walking against apartheid was fine, but this should not disturb the Truth of orthodoxy. Those standing side by side had to politely conceal the contraditions of togetherness in the stand against apartheid.

Much has changed since those days. Those who sung a symphony of togetherness and solidarity were overtaken by another discourse of religion.  Religion became a mark of identity, setting one group against another. Muslims have become extremely concerned about marking borders and boundaries through what they wear, consume and who they associate with. And also, what they hear.



This is not unique to Islam. It can be seen with the revival of African traditional customs in KZN and elsewhere, the success of neo-charismatic Churches, and conservative Jews feeling embattled in the criticism of Israel. The widespread but clearly felt fear of witches and magic in the township, cutting ironically across religions, was a testimony to this changing face of public religion. 



In reality, the symphony of the ethical voice against anti-apartheid has been overwhelmed by the reality of life, and the reality of religion. United by a constitution, South Africans  were now divided against each other. Moreover, religion was no longer a song of hope; it was also a Babel of fear and uncertainties. It was an expression of the sublime, but also of the hard realities in the country.

Voices suppressed during the anti-apartheid symphony were given full public space. Ironically, the freedom of the 1996 Constitution made this more possible than ever in South African history.



"The Awakening" was an affront to this widespread experience of religion. Where there were borders, it cut across them. Where there was suspicion, it reached across. Where there was ignorance, it point to awareness. 



Let me move then to the second significance; for Muslims in this city and in this country. Usually, in the classical secular society debate, there was no need and no means to discuss this matter in the public sphere. If religion remained private, the discordant voices within could be left to sort themselves out. And when they presented themselves in public in a hostile form, they could be controlled by a powerful state.



With some care and a profound respect for what religion means on a deeply human level, one can discuss this dimension in public. Let me offer some thoughts on the present debate. 



The MJC argues in its fatwa that its view was not open to conflicting opinions. It issued a fatwa which in theory means an opinion which is not binding. The fatwa, however, tried to preempt any attempt to render it superfluous.



Perhaps this is all that needs to be said of the fatwa. It will be sufficient for most Muslims to know that theoretically speaking, there was another view. 



But I think that this will mute the significance of "The Awakening". Silence is golden, but not when a beautiful symphony is gathering on the horizon.

Let take us, therefore, go beyond the idea that there are many different perspectives (fatwas). The MJC might actually be correct that there is no diversity within Islam on the present matter. But its correctness may be also confirm the limitation of religious discourse.

There might be more in human experience than that determined by religious discourse. And interestingly, it could come also from a religious source. The present debate brings out this possibility very clearly.

The Qur’an was both a reading and a recitation. If one began with the primacy of reading, one is more likely to come across borders and boundaries. But if one began with a sound experience, new doors are opened. New sounds are allowed to merge with older established sounds.

The prority of sound makes the individual the centre of the religious experience of the Quran. Reading is more mediated, while sound evokes the associations that an individual choses. Sound rooted in the mind of the listener opened possibilities. It ignored the boundaries made both by the self and others.



The sound of the Qur’anic recitation opened a window to the associations between the Words of God in their many forms and occasions. There was One Book, but also many Books. Most of all, there was also the Preserved Tablet. There is also the Word of God, indistinguishable from the Divine Essence. The Qur’an heard as a Word of God was touching something that was already there in the reading. Acts of reading, particularly from though police, wanted to shut down these possibilities. 



The MJC seems to me fully entitled to police the boundaries it has set for itself. This is its self-appointed mandate since 1945, and it has struggled in its mandate against more conservative voices in the country.  

It would really be a pity though if Muslims would limit themselves to one dimension of religion, the reading dimension. There seems good reason to listen to the sound. 



The MJCS’s fatwa was a discordant note that would be drowned if the people of Cape Town chose to listen to "The Awakening"? They certainly have the democratic right to do so. Will they chose, and chose wisely? I have confidence that they will.