Month: May 2022

“My Sisters Prayer” is a poem of strength and power. To be a committed religious woman is to surrender to the divine. There is both a patience and eagerness to meet and please the higher power.

In the first stanza a line reads, “bears witness five times a day” which speaks to the level of commitment and passion the woman has for Islam. Further, another line reads “She faces East.” At the beginning of this semester, I found myself questioning this line. What is the significance of direction here? According to further research, east is the direction the sun rises. It is a source of inspiration, of enlightenment. To face east, then, is to look towards the light. In later lines the author writes, “…and washes her body covers her human form-in preparation to meet the Most High.” In other words, by allowing the sunrise to enlighten the woman (in the poem), she is cleansing herself of darkness.

The third stanza is also incredibly important to this poem. There is acknowledgment of the “engaged surrender” that Islamic practicers engage with. Specifically, in the line “Humble and knowing she needs no defense…knowing angels will raise her back up.” The undoubted belief and confidence in that belief in conjunction with the significance of direction in stanza one constructs a narrative that represents a cleansing of the soul and the mind. There is embrace of light to the body and embrace of god to “raise her up.”

The fifth stanza also holds great significance in this poem. The lines, “Head to the ground-Even the floor she walks upon becomes sacred” speaks to the vastness of the woman’s prayers. Because of the steps (literally and metaphorically) the woman is taking in Islam, the ground she walks on is sacred. She herself is sacred for her acts of dedication.

This poem at the beginning of the semester was incredibly engaging. However, now, with the context of other readings and more general understandings of Islam is even more impactful. The value and sacredness of submitting to the divine, the cleansing of a being for embracing the light are all processes that make Islam what it is.

Coming in to this class I had minimal to no background in any religion. I had a passion for women and gender studies already, so my notions of Islam were very much shaped by the media I had consumed up to this point.

I suppose, after this class I want to strive to better understand different gender relations through the lens of Islam. From the book club I gained insight into this topic but I do hope to dive deeper.

I find myself most motivated by trans and intersex studies so I would hope to learn more about that. In the future I want to be an advocate for those people. And I hope I can use the studies we did in this class to help me do that.

At the beginning of this semester I came into this class with a very small amount of information on both Islam as a religion and Muslim people who practice it. Because I have been taking a feminism class alongside this one, I have been made so much more aware of the issue of the “white savior” and misunderstandings of practices in veiling. However, despite how intrigued I have been about veiling and polygamy, I have found myself incredibly interested in sabr and what that means for personal empowerment.

Over the course of the semester, I have made it a habit to write about all if not most of the readings assigned in class. I wanted to perfect my thoughts before sharing them. While I remain a perfectionist, I allow myself to misunderstand things and give myself the space to grow and reflect on those things. Very recently we were assigned the Mosque in Morgantown. After engaging in discussion with Professor Albert, I realized I did not pick up on the problematic aspects of the film. Something I could improve on is taking everything one step at a time. If I had watched this film and took all of it in without being so preoccupied with the response I was going to write, I may have picked up on the nuances of discussions going on in the film and the issues there were with it. I would like to rewrite that piece and may end up doing that for my expanded writing assignment. However, with my shortcomings in mind, I am very proud of the work and readings I have completed this semester and look forward to further engaging with the topics we covered in this class.