5 Pillars Of Islam In Arabic Writing

[Pelagio Bosch]

TheHamsa, or the Hand of Fatima, is a symbolic hand which represents protection in both Jewish and Islamic cultures. Relating to Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet Mohammed (the founder of Islam), and Miriam, the sister of Moses, this symbol directly correlates back to various religions and cultures. As a teen with a Muslim-Palestinian father and a Jewish-American mother, this symbol has always meant a lot to me and my family.

Hung throughout my house, my family has over one hundred Hamsas made and purchased from around the world. From Jerusalem, Jordan, the Dead Sea, art fairs around the world, Morocco, and even made by me, the Hamsa truly is a symbol appreciated and used by all of us on both sides of my family. Our personal collection has a wide range of hamsas including one constructed from olive wood made in Madaba, Jordan, some from our first trips to Morocco, and some from our first trips to various places throughout the Middle East. In one of the rooms of my house, the entire wall is completely covered from top to bottom. My mother started a small collection of Hamsas years before she met my father as a way to represent her interest in Jewish symbolism and curiosity about Jewish identity. After their marriage, she merged this collection with Hamsas my father has found and collected throughout the world as a way to represent this mix of cultures. A symbol of protection in various religions and cultures is also used as a symbol of unity for a positively messy mix of backgrounds in my family.

For me, the Hamsa means something slightly different to that of my parents as I am the merger of the two cultures. The Hamsa is a fusion of multiple cultures, similar to that of my family. Especially in a world where I constantly will be working to be connected with both sides, the Hamsa and I have that characteristic in common. In recent years, I have started making my own Hamsas for my family's wall out of clay, and sometimes embroidery. This is my way of taking a symbol used by my family, and reinterpreting it to fit my personal identity. On the embroidered Hamsa, I include traditional greetings in Hebrew and Arabic, Shalom and Salam, as well as an olive branch, to represent unity, peace, and the concoction of backgrounds we possess.

Hi - My mother was given a beautiful golden Hamsa charm on a gold chain . She is a practicing Catholic but has several friends who are like family that are Jewish. She wants to know if her wearing the Hamsa is in anyway offensive to either the Jewish or Muslim people of today. I did read that as long as you know the meanings and respect it that is ok, But that was a google reply to the question, We wanted to ask you as a Jewish woman. Thanks so much!!! Kim

An interesting write,and learned a couple of things, about Hamsas. I have a lot of time on my hands being Retired and enjoying it, but I'm starting to get bored. I always liked them as jewelry never thinking of collecting, so thank you for your family history,mine is of America First people today,I don't understand,they live here, but don't appreciate the USA, sorry to ramble on ,so thanks again, Lou

The Hamsa was not Jewish. It was from Mesopotamia. It was always an Islamic symbol, an amulet. Jews in the area ultimately adopted it, though it is essentially a graven image; an idol. Jews do this when surrounded by religions other than our own. We assimilate and essentially, "go astray." Hamsas are not something we should value, as they essentially represent the Hand of G-d (for Jews), Fatima for Islam. It's kept as an amulet against the evil eye, which of course, is superstition, another breach of our commandments. I think our problem is basic ignorance and a big case of FOMA. We want to be part of everything, but we don't enough about who WE are to make wise discernments.

This is truly an inspired essay, and a superbly written piece. I wish I had a way to make this "go viral" so millions of others could stop and reflect and commit to try to do more like I did when I read it. Well done! Thank you!!

I found this piece when searching for information to explain the beautiful hamsa my daughter bought me in Morocco to a friend. My daughter, whose heritage includes 7 great-grandparents of Jewish descent, and one great-grandmother a devout Christian who married a Jew, is married to a Moroccan man raised in but not nowpracticing the Muslim faith. They are expecting their first child next year. With the recent terrible events, I hold on to her story and yours as signs of hope. Thank you for this beautiful essay.

I enjoyed reading your story. Please write more stories about the mixture of cultures. I too hv mixed cultures jewish and cuban, and love the hamsa and collect them. I used to be religious jewish orthodox growing up but as an adult i am still a jew just not practicing judaism as much. after God showed me a miracle, which was too long to write about here, all of the atrocities that the jews were doing to Arabs had me rethinking judaism. And i was torn. Meanwhile i am still an avid follower of God and i am against the violence and land robbing of Palestinian people. Please continue writing telling your story. So people can see the two can come together and live in peace. All is possible w love possible.

Correction, Muhammad (pbuh) was not the founder of Islam, he was messenger of God just like moses, jesus and Abraham. The "Hamsa" has no significance in islam and is not even mentioned in Islamic sources like the Quran or Hadith books.

Thank you for sharing this post Leila and thank you for this correction Jessica; you are right. Furthermore, to believe that symbols and amulets such as these will protect you from anything is outright shirk and should be totally avoided. The truth is that these objects/signs have zero power and cannot benefit or harm; all power is with Allah. Its also worth to note that I am not judging or hating anyone, just simply sharing correct information according to the Islamic teachings regarding this matter.

From a mystical perspective, all later developments and interactionsbetween Islamic philosophy and other intellectual traditions shouldtherefore be seen as rational expressions of the mystical elementswithin an Islamic milieu. Mystical elements exist in Islam in twodifferent and independent ways. Practically, Sufism represents theesoteric dimension of Islam in its purest form, while theoreticallysalient features of Islamic mysticism were gradually incorporated intothe Islamic philosophical tradition. Islamic mysticism, therefore,stands on two pillars: first practical, then philosophical. That is,esoteric wisdom can either be attained through practical wisdom, whichincludes inner purification and asceticism, or through a type ofphilosophy which includes, but is not limited to discursivereasoning.

Neoplatonism, which has remained one of the salient features ofIslamic philosophy, has performed two functions: the intellectual andthe practical, both of which have become an integral part of living aphilosophical life. Philosophically, Neoplatonism provides answers tomost major questions within the context of Islam, such as howmultiplicity came from unity and how corporality emanated from anincorporeal God, as well as explaining the ascending and descendingorder of beings.

As to the master of the Peripatetics, Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā)himself, the consensus of scholars is that Avicenna was a rationalistwho embraced certain concepts from Plato, Aristotle and Neoplatonismand that the salient feature of his philosophical writings arediscursive in nature. From here on, there are generally two distinctinterpretations of Avicennan philosophy: Those who see him only as arationalist who had nothing to do with mysticism and those who arguethat later Avicenna had embraced mysticism as is reflected in some ofhis later works.

Most Western scholars of Avicenna who see him only as a rationalist,similar to al-Fārābī and Averroes, (Gutas 2006, Adamson2013) primarily rely on his discursive and rationalistic writings.Many Muslim philosophers in particular Iranian scholars of Avicennahave a more inclusive reading of his writings and tend to agree thatin the later period of his life, Avicenna developed an interest inmysticism. (Nasr & Leaman 1996, Inati 1996).

Nāṣir-i Khusraw offers specific instructions how a noviceshould follow the spiritual path, relying on specific asceticpractices. Similar to the figures of St. Augustine and St. Francis ofAssisi, Nāṣir-i Khusraw pursued a hedonistic lifestyle inthe early part of his life but underwent a spiritual metamorphosis anddedicated himself to the Sufi path. Echoes from both phases of hislife can be seen through out his works (Hunsburger 2000).

The above works, all of which are continuations of Ṣadrianphilosophy, further elaborate the fine points of transcendentalisttheo-sophy, which was firmly based on the principality of existenceover essence, gradation, and the oneness that appears as multiplicity.The question is how to transcend the world of objects which appears asmany, to see the Oneness which lies at the heart of multiplicity. Thepost Suhrawardīan and Sadrian answer is that a combination ofpractical wisdom and intellectual intuition which transcendsdiscursive reasoning, provides one with the vision to see the Onenesslying at the heart of multiplicity.

Having criticized theories of truth by correspondence, authority, andreasoning, Rūmī advocates a more existential understandingof truth which he, along with many Islamic Philosophers, refer to asthe universal intellect. He tells us:

The number of Muslim philosophers who became proponents of mysticalphilosophy in the Islamic world are too numerous to mention here, butclearly mysticism is a living tradition that continues to occupycenter stage in the philosophy in the Muslim world. It is virtuallyimpossible to fully account for all the traditions of mysticism in theIslamic philosophical tradition, however such traditions do exist inalmost every Muslim country today (see Kili 1996).

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