Hoffman Invites Muslims

Hoffman : “Friday Prayer Speeches in the

Islamic World Address Emotions

Rather than the Mind”

The German Thinker : “I like to perform prayer alone so as to control the pace of its rhythm, and I have discovered that

it helps getting rid of the symptoms of modern stress”

The Islamic thinker Dr Murad Hoffman, former German ambassador, continues the discussion of his faith journey to Islam ; he describes in detail important stages of this journey, pointing out his love for performing prayer alone so as to control its rhythm, while emphasising the benefit of collective prayer and the need for preserving it.

He relates here his participation in a collective prayer, as Imam, in San Francisco in the USA, when he was attending the annual celebration organized by NATO in this city in October 1985. He recalls the excitement he experienced the first time he led the collective prayer of a small group of Black Americans.

Speaking from his long experience, Hoffman also points out that Friday prayer speeches in the Arab World, unfortunately, do not achieve what they may achieve because they address emotions more than the mind.

Let’s get more information about this faith journey which led Hoffman to Islam, the religion of Allah, Lord of the whole Worlds. Hoffman started his talk about his love for performing prayer alone as follows : “I very much like performing prayer alone so as to control the pace of its rhythm, which is usually quick to a certain extent when performing prayer in the mosque, where the condition of the sick and of those who are in a hurry are taken into account. However, collective prayer is far better than individual prayer.

When out of mosques, which have an official Imam who leads prayers there, it is necessary to chose an Imam before every collective prayer ; the host has the right to lead the collective prayer, but I very much like to entrust leading it to one of my guests (such as the Saudi ambassador, or the Moroccan Istiqlal Party leader, Mohamed Boussetta, when having the first meal after sunset during Ramadan at my residence in Rabat).

Once, strange conditions forced me to act as Imam myself. When I arrived in San Francisco on October 10, 1985 so as to participate in the NATO annual celebration, I started looking in the telephone directory and the churches’ list for a mosque. I was sure that I would find an Islamic society in the American capital of sects. I was much surprised when I read : ‘Islamic Centre, 850 Davis Adiro Street, prayer is performed at midday everyday and 1 p.m. on Sundays’, as it is usual in churches, where prayer times are not decided according to  the location of the sun, as it is the case among Muslims. When I arrived there, I found a group consisting of three Blacks. While waiting for the Adan (the announcement of prayer), an old man with grey hair wore wide glasses leaning downward and started reading from a copy of the Qur’an in Arabic, putting his finger on the lines. Another member of the group came ; it was Yussuf Simon, a young Black Shiite, who was a political science student, he reacted to my surprise with silence, for he was accustomed to suffering from discrimination as a Black among Whites, as a Muslim among Christians and a Shiite among Sunnites.

My surprise did not die out at all, for the muezzin had started prayer before ‘Adan’ (call to prayer). Since Bilal the first muezzin for Muslims in Madinah, was black, I felt very embarrassed to correct his successor in San Francisco. Yet I could not remain silent in the face of all these contradictory developments so I started telling them very cautiously that I had already been to Makkah where they start with the call to prayer before performing it.

I was not surprised by their reaction to what I said ; I rather considered it as a natural reaction. For the small group immediately invited me to act as Imam on account that I was the “most knowledgeable” among the Muslims present. Their decision was not influenced by the fact that I was a white German and that I came there for the first time. I unexpectedly found myself facing the Qibla, though I wished -at least- I were in the right direction of the Qibla. I asked my very small group to stand in a straight row and rose my hands, praising Allah: (praise and Glory to Allah). Knowledge alone is given great importance, and this is what is confirmed by another event. In December 1982 at the Sheraton Hotel in Madinah, a fifteen year old Arab boy acted as Imam for the collective prayer attended by a group of illiterate Pakistanis performing the `Umra. As to Friday prayer, which mainly consists of two short speeches and two Raka`at (prayer units) ; its performance requires going to the mosque, where the speaker usually ends his sermon with raising his hands and invocating Allah.”

Speaking from a long experience, I unfortunately see that, in the Arab world, these speeches do not achieve what they could achieve because they address emotions more than the mind, in that they reiterate what believers already know more than dealing with it in depth. This is reflected in the tone of the Friday Imams’ voice. Some of them yell as if they were trying to raise the enthusiasm of an army before a war. However, I should stress, on the other hand, that there is no need in the Islamic World for preaching in a modern manner on account that there seem to be no apostates. Thus, why should a person consolidate the bases of faith by complicated intellectual arguments and evidence, instead of pedagogically investing the faith prevalent in the Muslim World ? (Besides, there are some positive exceptions, for in the same way Christians in Munich bear the pain of going a long way to listen to a specific preacher, I used to go -while I was in Rabat- to the outskirts of the city so as to listen to the learned Friday speaker of Lalla Sukaina Mosque in Hay Riyad).

During my office and following protocol, I had to perform the Prayers of the two feasts (i.e. the end of Ramadan and the sheep sacrifice celebrations) behind state leaders, such as the Algerian President, Chadli ben Jdid and the late Moroccan King, Hassan II. This took place before TV cameras ; every time I felt the democratic spirit that Islamic prayer bestowed on these situations, for the prostration of a king on the ground, wearing his socks, is completely different from the French President’s march towards his distinguished seat in Reims Cathedral.

Learning by heart, the Arabic texts that are read during prayer, among which are small or long passages from Qur’anic Surats, is more difficult than learning prayer movements. I was upset by not being able to learn Arabic texts very well, which made me resemble an assistant priest who had no knowledge of Latin. Therefore, I decided, like all Muslims all the time, to learn at least the amount of Arabic that would be enough to understand the grammatical forms and the source texts (I greatly benefited from this basic knowledge when I later worked as ambassador in Algeria). The first text I learnt, of course, was Surat Al-Fatiha, the opening Surat of the Holy Qur’an ; it is the main component of each Rak`a, thus it is read daily at least seventeen times. After Al-Fatiha, I learnt Surat 112 (i.e. Surat Al-Ikhlas), which equates, in term of content, according to the Saying of the Messenger (PBUH), with the third of the Qur’an, in spite of the brevity of its four Verses : “He is Allah, the One ; Allah, the Eternal, Absolute ; He begetteth not, Nor is He Begotten ; And there is none like unto Him”.

After that, I learnt by heart Surat Al-Falaq (n°113), Surat An_Nas (n° 114) and other Meccan short Surats such as Surat Al-Fil (n° 105), Surat Quraish (n° 106), Surat Al-Kafirun (n° 109) and Surat An-Nass (n° 110), as well as the first five Verses of the first revealed Surat, namely Surat Al-`Alaq (n° 96) : “Proclaim ! (or Read) in the name of thy Lord and Cherisher, Who created man, out of a leech-like clot ; proclaim ! And thy Lord is Most Bountiful, He Who taught (the use of) the pen, -Taught man that which he Knew not”. I did not venture to learn by heart longer passages from the Holy Qur’an, such as the Verse Al-Kursi (Surat Al-Baqara, Verse 255) and the Verse An-Nure (Surat An-Nure, Verse 35), as well as the passage containing Allah’s Glorious Names, Namely Allah’s Attributes : (Surat Al-Hashr, Verses 22-24), till I got a better knowledge of Arabic.

Any one who analyses the prayer texts will be convinced that the essence of prayer is to worship Allah and invocate him. This goes hand in hand with the Qur’anic guidance which states that the noblest duty of a human being is to be guided through one’s intellectual capacities to knowing Allah and praising Him, and this is the essence of Muslims’ conduct. When you ask any Muslim how he is doing, he will not answer : “I’m fine” or “it’s bad”, but “Praise be to Allah” (Al-Hamdu Lillah).

After prayer, the worshipper passionately starts praising Allah, using beads consisting of thirty three or ninety nine pieces, or his hand’s fingers and repeating in a soft voice : “Subhan Allah wa bihamdihi” (Praise and Glory be to Allah), “Subhan Allah” (Glory to Allah), “Al-Hamdu Lillah” (Praise be to Allah) or “Allahu Akbar” (Allah is the Greatest). We may notice here that -unlike in Christianity- there are various forms of “Glorifying” and “Invocating” Allah in Islam.

If “Du`aa” (Invocating Allah) has a prominent place, failure to do it is an aspect of lack of faith, because Allah states : “I am indeed close (to them) : I respond to the prayer of every suppliant when he called on me”. (Surat Al-Baqara, Verse 186).

Similarly, “Du`aa” has no specific form or frame, nor does it have a defined place or time ; it is not required to be in Arabic, either ; it is, in its ideal form, a continuous invocation of Allah ; it is in this continuous invocation of Allah that Muslim Sufis strive for perfection. Anne Marie Shimmel collected a large number of these beautiful Islamic invocations and prayers.

Islamic Sufism deserves all the credit for keeping the coherence of Islamic invocations and prayers and preserving them from disintegration both in terms of form and content, starting with the Andalusian Sufi Ibn `Arabi in the 12th and 13th centuries to Frith Jove Shouan in contemporary times. Genuine Muslim Sufis did not get rid of the necessary formalities but rationalized them. Shouan says in another place, “A Muslim, particularly the one who follows the Sunnah in its smallest ramifications, lives in a network of symbols…” Anyone who has this in his heart does not let his prayer turn into a routine. Whether you perform your prayer in a Shiite mosque in Hamburg or in a mosque built with sun-dried bricks and palm branches in the oasis of Figuig in the east of Morocco, or in the Ommiad Mosque in Damascus, with its marvellous mosaic work, prayer is one. The worshippers have learnt it from one teacher (and this is what really happened). This formal unity provides the peace and security necessary for complete concentration.

In addition to its spiritual aspect, prayer in Islam has a concrete material dimension, as well as a possible political one. A person needs a long time to learn how to sit on one’s feet, in a relaxed manner, on a hard soil without being exposed to convulsive contractions, knowing that putting one’s bare feet in the right position is easier than when wearing stocks. But sitting on the ground for hours without movement, like our brothers in the East do, is something that one cannot learn at an advanced age.

Undoubtedly, prayer in Islam helps to cure modern stress, which does not require a long time for analysing and knowing its causes.  Modern man doses not work in terms of quantity with regard to physical work in particular, more than he used to do in the past, nay, the opposite is correct. What is new is the speed with which all events and activities take place, by means of Telex, fax, e-mail, the Internet and Express mail, which overburden modern man. People are anxious about the possibility of losing control over events, of being overtaken by deadlines and about the fear of failure. Drinking, smoking, taking drugs and stimulants make matters worse. The costs of curing embolism among those who hold high offices have risen to the extent that the latter are forced to take compulsory holidays. Furthermore, the training programs of human resources managers include biological foods, prospective contemplation and the need for a person to discover, by himself, the Japanese tea rituals as a means of getting rid of anxiety and stress.

As to my opinion in this respect, Islamic prayer achieves all this and more, for it helps the believer not only to stop thinking and relax instead, but also to achieve internal liberation from lust for money, power and office. While the American who lives under various pressures finds himself before two alternatives only : either waging a war or committing suicide, the Muslim chooses a third alternative which lies in navigating with the situations, namely, the Muslim relies on Allah. For with the help of Islamic prayer a true Muslim cannot suffer from anxiety and insomnia, or be the source of anxiety and insomnia.

I really know what I am talking about, I was able to get an ideas about the factors which cause stress, depression and insomnia through my job as a director of the Department of NATO and Defence in the German Foreign Affairs Ministry from 1979 to 1983, and through my job as a Director of the Information Office dealing with hostile threats in NATO in Brussels from 1983 to 1987.

Starting from 1980, I no longer take with me during my job trips except a prayer carpet and a compass (made in Taiwan) so as to determine the direction of Qibla, though I am convinced that a clean towel serves the purpose and that Allah is neither Western nor Eastern, for “to Allah belong the East and the West: Withethersoever ye turn, there is Allah’s Face”. (Surat Al-Baqara, Verse 115). My days started to be organized more and more in accordance with prayer times and not in accordance with hours which cause anxiety and stress. When a person makes appointments with Muslims, he does not arrange to meet them at 3:15 p.m., for instance, but at an undefined time after Ad-Duhr prayer or Al Maghrib Prayer.

In brief, I have found in prayer that internal peace and liberation which frees the Muslim from all pressures, because it frees him from a world where time is measured in terms of money, and where money is everything.

In 1992, when I was a victim of a dirty libel campaign of the media because of my faith, some of my colleagues could not understand my complete indifference to this campaign (or they might have considered it as some kind of pride and insolence), yet a possible explanation could have been found for this behaviour on my part in the fifth Verse of Surat Al-Fatiha “You (Alone) we worship and You (Alone) we ask for help”.

At that time, prayer became an important organizing factor of my life till I no longer liked living in a city where I could not hear the beautiful call to prayer of the muezzin, as it is the case in Fez and in Istanbul.

I often noticed that prayer, which is above all interests, could -as a result of its nature- become a political factor. Before the Algerian Islamic Front started to work overtly in 1988, its followers had already begun to avoid the mosques run by the government (as many Turks working in Germany avoid the institutions run by the Turkish Ministry of Religions). Their parallel Islam is reflected in their parallel prayer, too. In Blida, for instance, we performed prayer in 1987 in a private house next to the mosque, instead of praying in the mosque. Similarly, one of the characteristic aspects, then, was that groups of youth entered the mosque a short time before or after Salat Ad-Duhr in order to perform prayer in a corner -as a closed group- and behind a special Imam. This is the same phenomenon I noticed in September 1994 in Sanan Pacha Mosque in Barbarous District in Istanbul.

Political consequences were overwhelming when the Algerian National Liberation Front Government wanted to prove, in one the mosques near the Algiers harbour on the day of the sheep sacrifice of 1988, the extent of the religious devotion it had achieved. The whole population was either angry or sarcastic when it noticed on TV screens that members of the Socialist Union Party leadership clearly did not know how to perform prayer. A few months later, the National Liberation Front was badly defeated in 1988, in a popular uprising, while the Islamic Front for Salvation acquired the status of a legal Party.”