“Our women have it all”. This is what a post on social media said in these difficult days, when the great earthquake disaster has burned our hearts and set our agenda. How fortunate women are that Allah has blessed women with the virtue of being a mother and equipped them with the feelings of compassion and mercy of motherhood. But is every woman like that? Or is this privilege reserved only for women? Is it only the woman who gives birth who is lucky and experiences these feelings?
It is seen that the concept of femininity/femininity has always been interpreted in the context of creation and emergence since the beginning of Sufi history. Accordingly, femininity is the principle and locus of action that receives and accepts, gives birth and produces, whereas the male is the principle that acts. Hz. In many parts of the Masnavi, Mawlānā mentions the sky, which is at the male level, and the earth, which is at the female level, or the intellect, which is at the male level, and the nafs, which is at the female level and is the seat of the intellect’s influence. Men and women were created by Allah to complement each other, just like the polarity in the conceptual pairs of hereafter and world, soul and body, day and night, existence and non-existence. No two pairs of shoes are the same, but they can walk only when they are in harmony and accept each other pleasantly. Just as woman and man, soul and intellect can only evolve together, the realization of unity can only be realized through the existence of duality.
As a Sufi saying goes, “It is femininity, not masculinity, that is essential in being and becoming; that is why all great souls have loved women.” The Qur’ân al-kerîm shows how the soul can reach great heights by being purified with love in this world. He describes it through the person of Mary. Just as Maryam, who is mentioned in the verse as the greatest of all women, gave birth to Jesus, the Word and Spirit of Allah, so the souls are created with the ability to reach such a point of perfection that the epitome of purity is Hz. Like Mary, a spiritual child is born from them. While the nafs, according to the hadith, is the worst enemy of man, paradise, which means eternal peace and happiness, is also placed in the definition of the quality of motherhood by the Prophet: Paradise is under the feet of mothers. While the nafs is directed towards darkness and lowliness in one aspect, it becomes worthy of the title of a virtuous person, whether it is a man or a woman, only by bearing the divine trust accepted by the human being and giving birth to that meaning in this world. As the great Sufi mystic Ferid al-Dīn Attar says, on the Day of Judgment, when the call will be given, “O men! Mary will be in the front row. Because Allah does not look at the forms, but at the sîrah, the heart.
Whoever has found his Adam is Adam,
Otherwise the visible form is but a shadow.
It seems that true motherhood requires the birth of the child of meaning, the human being’s relationship with the breath that God breathed into him or her and that is hidden in him or her; that essence must be dominant and alive. Allah has given man the trust that distinguishes him from other creatures and animals. Without finding your humanity, whether you are a man or a woman, you are just a shadow with no meaning and no existence. For a woman of this rank, the Prophet Mevlana says: Love and refinement of soul are attributes peculiar to human beings. Hardness and lust are the attributes of animals. The woman is the light of God’s beauty on earth, she is not only the beloved, she is almost as if she is not the created but the Creator. It is as if the Truth has manifested through a thin veil.
Hz. According to a sahih hadith of the Prophet, Allah created mercy in a hundred parts, kept ninety-nine of them with Himself, and sent down only one part to the earth. It is because of this one part that all creatures have mercy on each other. The compassion and mercy of each mother is reflected on the earth from this one piece. Allah’s mercy is greater than we can imagine. Hz. The Prophet is the greatest in the manifestation of compassion and mercy, as in every praised morality. The Holy Qur’an expresses the Prophet’s ummah, which is also a maternal quality, that is, his love and affection for his ummah, in the following words: ” There has come to you a Messenger from among you such that your affliction is too heavy for him, he is very fond of you, and he is full of compassion and mercy towards the believers.
The person who finds his humanity and establishes a relationship with the meaning in himself through the evolution of his soul becomes able to feel this meaning everywhere, and for him, every creature that carries this divine essence becomes equally precious and beloved. For this reason, the leading motto of Sufism has been “Service to the people is service to Hakk”. In this difficult period, we need the qualities of motherhood to heal wounds, to heal hearts, perhaps most of all. True motherhood, like the flow of the four rivers of paradise, is the source of generosity, mercy, love and compassion for all creation. The mother protects her children; she does not neglect, forget or give up. He forgives, loves, embraces and shows compassion. He always gives materially and spiritually. He is selfless, he is in the background, his son comes first. He does not discriminate between his children. He also loves and tolerates their differences. When he sees his mistakes, he doesn’t give up on them. He does not want his children to fight and divide; he tries to unite them with love and understanding.
Just as the meaning of creation is not just to come and go in this world, one cannot speak of a true woman or a true mother unless womanhood is lived in its true meaning. If we wish, let us wish to be full of these feelings towards all creation, let us wish to be a woman/human in the true sense. Happy Women’s Day.
Image: Emir Rıfat Işık “It is He who created the night, the day, the sun and the moon; each of them moves in an orbit.” (Anbiya, 33)
