Feast of the Ascension
Just because ego and greed and hatred are doing cosplay as religion, I don’t want us to give it that much credit. I want us to insist that no, there is real religion!
—Omid Safi
In an episode of CAC’s podcast Everything Belongs, CAC staff member and poet Drew Jackson dialogues with guest Omid Safi, a poet and Islamic scholar. Jackson asks: How might poetry support our efforts for peace, particularly in the conflicted space between religious identities? Safi shares his perspective that it is not religions that are in conflict, but the shadow selves of hate and other harmful beliefs disguised as religion:
I fundamentally do not believe that there is religious conflict and tension in this world. There’s conflict in this world! There is genocide in this world—we’ve been watching it for a year and a half. There is racism, there is starvation, and the intentional starvation of people. There’s occupation. There’s lots of hideous things happening.
I think that’s ego, and that’s greed, and that’s selfishness that’s putting the small self individually, communally, nationally, and racially on the throne of wrong and to put, as Brother Martin [Luther King Jr.] used to say, the right forever on the scaffold. [1] Greed and ego and hatred love to do cosplay [2].… Their favorite costumes are the things that are of light, including religion.
I want us to really sit with that question: Is there actually religious conflict in this world with what we find our religious traditions teaching us? At the heart of the Jewish faith, that beautiful noble tradition: Be kind to the stranger for you yourselves were once strangers in Egypt. (Deuteronomy 10:19). Our beloved Christ: Be kind to the poor, the orphan, the needy, the widow; that which you do to the least of these, you do unto me (Matthew 25:40). Our beloved Prophet Muhammad: That the cry of the orphan rises all the way up to the throne of God and shakes it to its mighty foundation. [3] These folks are drinking from the same fountain. They’re bathed in the same light.
I want us to be able to discern the meaning of that beautiful prayer of the Prophet Muhammad when he says, “My Lord, allow us to see things as they are in You. Allow us to see things as they are in truth.” Just because ego and greed and hatred are doing cosplay as religion, I don’t want us to give it that much credit. I want us to insist that no, there is real religion! There’s real faith, and it’s humble and it carries the scent of love and concern, not just for our own kind, but for all of us.
References:
[1] Safi refers to the line “Truth forever on the scaffold, / Wrong forever on the throne,” from James Russell Lowell’s poem “The Present Crisis,” often mentioned by Dr. King; see Lowell, The Complete Poetical Works (Houghton Mifflin, 1925), 67.
[2] Cosplay is a type of “costume play” or performance art where individuals wear fashion accessories or costumes to represent specific characters. The term has been adopted as slang, often in politics, to mean someone pretending to play a role or take on a personality disingenuously.
[3] Muhammad ibn ‘Ali ibn Bābawayh al-Qummī, Hadith 573. See Man lā yahduruhu al-faqīh, vol. 1 (United Kingdom: Bab Ul Qaim Publications, 2024), 247.
Adapted from Mike Petrow and Drew Jackson, hosts, Everything Belongs, podcast, season 2, ep. 11, “Entering the World of Another with Omid Safi,” Center for Action and Contemplation, October 3, 2024. Available as audio download and PDF transcript.
Image credit and inspiration: Flavie Martin, untitled (detail), 2022, photo, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. With cautious breath and glimmers of light, we step into the shadow—drawn by the gifts it holds—seeking the clarity and courage to name what hides.
Story from Our Community:
From childhood, I have lived … in the liminal space of illness, mapping the valley of shadow in a way that matches the recent description of the path of the prophet by Father Richard. I experienced illness from an early age and became the family scapegoat early in life, which led to a full descent in my teenage years. I cannot possibly emphasize enough what a lifesaver it is to read words from someone who can understand the landscape of the path I have walked and to be a part of a community that sees its beauty as well.
—Cindy W.
