Book Review by Sadia Dehlvi
In a charming personal narrative, Nomani navigates through a crisis of faith brought upon by the murder of close friend Daniel pearl by Islamic militants and an affair with a Pakistani man in
Karachi that leads to a child out of wedlock. Wrecked with guilt and seeking to hold her son without shame, the young Indian born American Muslim back straps the infant and along with supportive parents embarks on a pilgrimage to
Mecca wrestling with contradictions of feminism and Islam.
The adventures of this tremendous unification in faith could interest non Muslim readers as the roads to
Mecca and Madina clearly read “Muslims only” but the detailing of the motions of ablutions, prayer and the pilgrimage can be skipped by those who have been there and done that.
The geographical journey to the holy cities provides glimpses of the repression and countless hypocrisies that describe Saudia Arabia ‘s social and political life but what is engaging is Nomanis spiritual search through Islamic history that questions and instructs about the rights of women in Islam. Nomani exposes the roots of the purantical Wahabbi Islam funded by the Saudis through their outreach programs which emerged to curb Sufism and pushed women to the second rank.
In the deserts of
Mecca, Nomani finds strength in the forgotten legacy of women in Islam including the prophets mother, wife and daughters. What is particularly endearing is Nomani’s tale of soul bonding with Hagar, Prophet Abrahams second wife whom he married to have a child since Sarah was infertile.(In the old testament Hagar is an Egyptian slave hired as a surrogate mother) Prophet Ishmael was born of this union and in a test of faith, Abraham went off with a jealous Sarah leaving Hagar alone near the Kaaba in the custody of God. Four thousand years ago, Hagar stood alone in
Mecca and in a desperate search for water to quench the crying baby’s thirst , ran seven times between the two hills of Safa and Marwah appealing to God for mercy. Hagar passed the trial of isolation and water sprang from where the baby kicked. The ritual of running between the hills in the tradition of Hagar is an important ritual in the pilgrimage and the water that sprang from the ground is the holy water of “zam zam” carried back home by pilgrims.
Nomani is surprised to find liberation in Islam and discovers prophet Mohammad as a social reformer who built a community on ideals of justice, equity and tolerance that honoured women. The inspired pilgrim comes home to challenge the norms of local mosques in
America urging them to allow women to pray alongside men as they did in early Islam and continue to do so at the Kaaba and the mosques at Madina. The writer makes a strong plea for “ijtehad” or judicial scholarly reasoning used to mediate question of Islamic law to resolve issues of the modern world.
The book affectively argues that Muslim societies that punish women for alleged crimes of the body contradict the fundamental principles of forgiveness, privacy and motherhood in Islam. Without being insulting, Nomani confronts her faith over sex, sin and female sexuality emerging as powerful leading voice for change, plurality of expression and egalitarianism in the Muslim world..
Standing Alone in
A Pilgrimage into the heart of Islam
Author Asra q.Nomani
Published by Harper Collins