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Shawq and Ishtiyaq (Joyful Zeal and Yearning) Literally meaning strong desire, excessive wishing, joy issuing from knowing, delight, and longing, shawq (joyful zeal) is used by Sufis to express the heart’s overwhelming desire to meet with the Beloved, Who cannot be comprehended and “vanishes” after being “observed” Some have described it as joyful desire, excitement, and a lover’s excessive heartfelt longing to see the Face of the Beloved. Others have regarded it as a fire that reduces to ashes all desires, wishes, yearnings, and inclinations other than those felt to meet with the Beloved. Joyful zeal originates in love. The remedy of a heart burning with such a longing to meet with the Beloved is meeting with Him, and shawq is a wing of light that carries the lover to this meeting. Zeal disappears when a lover finds the Beloved, while yearning for Him (ishtiyaq) continues to increase. One who yearns for Him never stops yearning and, whenever favored with a special manifestation of His Essence, wishes for more. This is why the prince of the Prophets and the greatest of humanity, upon him be peace and blessings, who, equipped at each moment with a new radiance of knowledge and love of God and spiritual delight, incessantly traveled between the summits of love, joyful zeal, and yearning, and used to pray: O God! I ask You for zeal to observe Your perfectly beautiful Face and to meet with You. [1]

Some interpreters of the Qur'an, when writing on: Those who believe are firmer in love of God (2:265), remark that joyful zeal is felt toward things that are partly perceivable and partly imperceivable, partly comprehensible and partly incomprehensible. One feels no zeal toward that which he or she has never seen or heard of, or about which he or she knows nothing. Nor does he or she feel interest in that which he or she completely comprehends or perceives.

Zeal and yearning can be divided into two categories. The first is the yearning produced by separation from the Beloved after meeting with and gazing upon Him in the past eternity. The sighs that the flute of Rumi uttered, and the creaking, painful sounds heard by Yunus Emre from the revolving water-wheel express such a separation. These sighs will continue until the final union or meeting with Him. The second is when a lover sees the Beloved from behind a veil, and thus cannot completely comprehend Him. The believer feels His presence but cannot see Him; dips a finger into the honey of love but is not allowed to take a new step further. Consumed with thirst, the believer cries: I am being consumed with thirst! Give me some water! but receives no answer.

The spirit of all men and women observed Him in an assembly of past eternity, where God asked them: Am I not your Lord? and they answered: Yes, assuredly. We testify! After this assembly, either because humanity’s very humanness required it or because humanity had to be tested, to believe in Him without seeing Him, humanity was thrown into the pangs of temporary separation. This is why people always dream of Him in conscious or unconscious longing for Him, and burn with a yearning to re-unite with Him. What is more significant than this is the yearning which the Most Sacred Being feels toward pure, innocent, and unadulterated souls, but only in a way that is appropriate for His essential independence of all being. This Divine eagerness may be the real source of the yearning that enters one’s heart.

Zeal means turning to the Beloved with all inner and outer feelings, and locking out all appetites other than those felt to meet with Him. In the context of yearning, it means one’s over-flowing with desires and wishes related to Him. Both zeal and yearning feed the spirit. Both are painful but exhilarating and wearisome, distressing but promising.

No individual experiences more anguish but is happier than the one who burns with love and groans with zeal. Such people become so angelic when enraptured with the thought and hope of meeting with God that they would not agree to enter Paradise at that moment, even if allowed to do so. They burn inwardly with the pangs of separation to such a degree that even the waters of Paradise could not extinguish the fire in their hearts. Only meeting with the Friend could extinguish such a fire. Paradoxically, they never think of escaping that fire, for even if the palaces of Paradise prevented them from burning with the fire of zeal to meet with the Friend, such people would utter cries resembling those of the inhabitants of Hell seeking to be rescued from Hellfire. Worldly people cannot know what that zeal means or the state of those who possess it. People of zeal are amazed at worldly people who are so engrossed in worldly affairs and plea-sure. Their amazement is quite natural, for God Almighty told the Prophet David, upon him be peace:

O David! If those who love and show inclination to the world knew how much I care about them, want them to resist against sins, and how I expect to meet with human beings, they would be dying with the zeal to meet with Me. [2]

When the zeal to meet with God invades a lover’s being, the result is an overflow of feelings of pain and delight, and cries of:

Zeal has bewildered me, zeal has burnt me. Zeal has intervened between sleep and my eyes. Zeal has invaded me, zeal has engrossed me. Zeal has overwhelmed me, zeal has stricken me with awe.

This degree of zeal sometimes incites the lover to stand up and dance or spin. The lover should be excused for such movements, as he or she cannot resist such a spiritual state:

Say to him who wants to prevent a man of ecstasies from going into ecstasies:

You have not tasted the wine of love together with us, so leave us. When souls overflow with the zeal to meet with the Beloved, Know, O you unaware of spirituality, that bodies begin to dance. O guide who incites lovers, stand up and move us With the name of the Beloved, and breathe life into us.

In our own day, some prefer to serve the Qur'an and faith by the way based on acknowledging one’s poverty and impotence before God’s Wealth and Power, and on thankfulness and zeal. In this context, zeal means constant hope and continuing to serve without being dispirited and losing one’s energy. It also means seeking an aspect of Divine mercy even in the most distressing conditions, and then relying upon Him alone for His help and victory.

Mousse de cassis sur lit de muesli

Un muesli de qualité est naturellement riche en fibres, vitamines et minéraux,  acides gras essentiels et protéines.

First Islamic State

The Prophet devoted all his time entirely to explaining the Fundamentals of belief in Mecca era which lasted for thirteen years. A lot of people found their place in the blissful bosom of Islam, thanks to this service of belief. The number of believers increased and Muslims gained an evident power. However, despite this, it was forbidden to react to enemies of Islam in this era. Muslims had only one weapon: “patience”.

However, they were in a new environment after migration. The conditions had totally changed. Muslims could do anything that was necessitated by their faith freely.

As it was mentioned before, the most important thing the Messenger of Allah did as soon as he arrived in Medina was to appoint migrants and the Ansar as brothers to each other. By doing so, the Prophet established a strong alliance among Muslims. Islam’s foundation of brotherhood that knew no differences pertaining to race, language, class, and geography was put into practice for the first time in history.

Yet, this was not the end, of course. Muslims were not the only group living in Medina. There were also Jews, pagan Arabs, and some Christians too and therefore, the scene was not homogeneous. And if we take into consideration the never-ending conflicts and rivalries between Arabian tribes, we can easily understand what a great chaos this new environment was in!

Moreover, there was another side to the issue, which could not be overlooked. It was the fact that polytheists in Mecca could advance towards Medina any time. The cold war which was going on between them could turn into hot war any time.

So, the Prophet had such important issues to be solved in ahead of him.

It was necessary to have an agreement with non-Muslim peoples and to establish a spirit and atmosphere of unity in this new environment. It was crucial to determine some certain juridical, military and political principles.

The first year of migration (the hijrah) was not over yet.

The Honorable Messenger gathered the representatives of all Medina peoples in Hazrat Anas bin Malik’s house, in order to agree on some social principles. Certain principles were agreed upon at the end of the meeting and put into practice right away. Important principles were written down and signed by the parties.

These principles were the first constitution of the Islamic State which was being formed at the helm of the Messenger of Allah. Indeed, it was not only the first constitution of the first Islamic State but also the first written constitution in the whole world.

With this constitution agreed upon, people of Medina were distinguished from other people as a nation on their own.

The Constitution of the City-State

The first and second items of the first written constitution of Islamic State, which included fifty-two provisions, said:

“1. This book (inscription) is arranged by Muhammad the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) for the people of Quraish, believers, and Muslims of Yathrib, people who are and who will be later under their sovereignty and those who join jihads with them.

2. Those people constitute a different nation from others.” 

According to this constitution, people of Medina, regardless of faith, did form a different “nationality” from others and a separate community on its own.

Hazrat Messenger of Allah also established a friendship with tribes living around Medina, especially those living along Damascus trade road of Mecca right away and made contracts with them.

Moreover, Muslims had to be in contact with Jews and others who were city locals. For this reason, they were also given rights in this constitution of the state.

“Accordingly, they were also regarded as the citizens of the state together with Muslims: “Muhammad’s great sagacity and political attentiveness is seen in the rescript he provided for the Jews. It was written, apart from other issues, in this rescript that they were the citizens of the state just like Muslims, that the two tribes of Yathrib were regarded as one nation, that the crimes would be punished based on the judgments of their own religions, that both parties (Muslims and Jews) would be called to defend the new state and that the Messenger of Allah would decide on the issues to come out in the future, when necessary.” 

Moreover, the provision pertaining to the war in this constitution is quite interesting. In case of any possible wars, Jews would join the defense of Medina on condition that they covered war expenses themselves.

According to the sixteenth provision of the constitution, it was decided that they would benefit from Muslims’ charity and legal aid on condition that they paid homage to Muslims. In addition, they would defend the city-state together (Muslims and Jews) in case of an external attack and they would help each other, no matter who was in need of help, whether Muslims or Jews.

We see Muslims’ alliance with Jews, who are one of “the People of the Book”, under the light of these provisions. Jews and Christians, who are the People of the Book, were given utmost freedom of belief and religious liberty. This way, the People of the Book were united against the idolaters, who did not have a divine belief, in common grounds; by mentioning Jews and Muslims together as “one group” in the first constitution.

The Prophet, in addition to allying and making contracts with non-Muslim people of the book, who were the locals of the city, in order to defend the newly-founded state against the enemy, tried to establish an alliance based on belief. He wanted to unite them with the belief of “tawhid” (oneness), a mutual word among them and found “the pact of believers” against idolaters. As a matter of fact, he tried to follow this policy for other countries whose people were the People of the Book, in addition to that, he did the same for the People of the Book in Medina. In the letters he sent to the Byzantine emperor Heraclius and other Christian princes, he addressed them with the following Quranic verse:

“Say: "O People of the Book! come to common terms as between us and you: That we worship none but God; that we associate no partners with him; that we erect not, from among ourselves, Lords and patrons other than God." If then they turn back, say ye: "Bear witness that we (at least) are Muslims (bowing to God's Will).”

The People of the Book, who were provided with protection and assistance due to the constitution prepared by the Honorable Messenger himself, violated the conditions of the contract themselves, unfortunately, and therefore caused the conditions which were favorable for them to be abolished. They rebelled during a very critical period when Medina was subject to attack by idolaters and began to make games against a state which was newly founded and had not yet fallen into place although it was written in the constitution that “those who lived in the city-state would not work against each other” and “would not ally with enemies of each other.” Of course, this directly caused them to be deprived of Muslims’ protection.