Baraka
Dr. Warren Larson delivered a lecture on Baraka during a CIU course. Here, Larson presents what the meaning of the Arabic word Baraka (blessings) is in Islam, its mechanism, and forms of receiving blessings.
Here starts the auto-generated transcription of Dr. Warren Larson Lecture: Dr. Warren Larson Lecture: Baraka.
Unit 3 has to do with, forces. So we’re leaving the, the, you know, the animals and all of those spirits and stuff, that we were talking about in unit 2. Now we’re on to the forces. We’re gonna be talking about, several forces here, namely Baraka for 1, but that’s not the only one. So these are forces of, mechanistic forces.
We’ve already talked about predestination as a force. It’s a predeterminism. You know, there are verses in the Quran that are needless to say, they are pretty disturbing. One of them is 17 in verse 13 where it says every man’s fate we have fastened on his neck. In other words, god is speaking here.
We have fastened on his neck. On the day of judgment, we should bring out as for him a scroll, which we he will see and spread open. So, the the footnote here, 2187, Ali seems to be disagreeing. In other words, he’s really reading in his own orthodox views. He says, fate, you know, fire is literally a bird, hence an omen, an evil omen.
The Arabs like, the ancient Romans sought to read the mysteries of human fate from the flight of birds. Alright. He goes on and on and on. But then he ends up by saying our real fate does not depend on birds or omens. It depends on our deeds, good or evil, and they hang around our neck.
Now see what he’s doing. He’s reading in his own his own interpretation, what he he wants the Quran to say. Another verse is 10100 and that is no one, no soul can believe except by the will of Allah. So you have this, as we’ve talked about before, this strong fatalism, and yet and yet and yet people are trying constantly to change their destiny by pulling strings. What are the strings?
Well, there are various strings. We’ve noted them. You know? Spirits are I mean, yes, spirits, but, saints and so on. Now let’s talk about Baraka.
Good word, really. It’s an come named as Hebrew word. Barak, you know, president Obama’s name is Barack Obama. This is a Hebrew name, but it’s also Arabic. You know?
Arabic and Hebrew are cousins. Barak in Hebrew means to kneel, to bless, and there are many, many verses on that in the, in the Hebrew, bible. It may mean to curse or to, to to curse the God or the king. But certainly, oftentimes about mercies, you know, words have double meanings. Sometimes gift, grace, favor, happiness, prosperity, all of these goods the good things.
Now in Islam, there is, it is really a powerful word. It’s not just, you know, a weak, god bless, (Baraka) the missionaries sort of thing. There is pull and luck and influence and spiritual force here. This, is, some of the things that that it means. Now, I have noted that, Pakistani Christians, I mean, they really sort of live in a move oftentimes with a Muslim worldview.
They’ve imbibed it. They’ve taken it in. In other words, and unless they know the Lord, and and really are well trained in a and and and have good understanding biblically, they act like the Muslims in many ways. I can remember some Christians. They really didn’t seem to know the Lord.
They were illiterate, but they would come to the services that we had, and, they really didn’t make any attempt to get there on time. But, the only thing that they were interested in, as I it it it many times it seemed to me, was to get there for the benediction, long as they got there for that. Because you see, the benediction, which is, in some circles, in some churches is quite important. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious unto you.
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Now that’s one of the benedictions (Baraka), of course. But this is really what was always important. Now, it used to bother me a little bit. Others, of course, did get their own time and understood the importance of, you know, of of of understanding the word and prayer and all that kind of stuff.
But I I noticed another thing too is that in the Christian villages, and I wasn’t against this. It it was sort of good for the ego. And I wasn’t an old man at the time, but but I would go out to the Christian villages, you know, outside of in the area there. And, the young teenage girls would come, and they would bow their head for me in front of me. Not that they were worshiping me, but they wanted me to touch the top of their head because you see, I was a Baraka
I was a spiritual leader. I, if I would just give them the blessing, so that’s what you they would do. Never shake hands with, them. Never hug them. Of course, men and women don’t hug, at least not in public.
But but they wanted the blessing, the Baraka. So, it was quite an interesting thing. Now we keep talking about Baraka here. Some of these images you are well aware of, the black stone, which is a source of blessing. Well, it just we just can’t imagine really, how much, it is a source of blessing.
In other words, I’m talking like a Muslim now. This is really what they want, to to think of. That that that’s a place of blessing (Baraka) and a source of blessing (Baraka). This is what we’re trying to say. And the Kaaba itself is certainly a place of blessing (Baraka).
The the, another one, is one that we’ve talked about over and over again is Muhammad’s tomb. You know? People really when Muslims would go on Hajj to Mecca, yes, they will go on Hajj to Mecca, but their goal is also to go 280 miles north to Medina where the prophet was buried to his tomb. And I was just reading today that the mosque, I guess it was in New York Times, that the Saudi government is greatly expanding the mosque, Mohammed’s mosque in Medina. You know, the history has it.
Traditions have it that when Mohammed went to Medina from Mecca, he, there were people, you know, the tribe said, okay. This guy said, well, stay with us. Another said, stay with us. Stay with us. Stay with us.
He didn’t stay anywhere. He just, kept rolling. And where his where his camel stopped, that’s where he stayed. And, they made a little mosque there. Mohammed helped according to traditions to build that mosque.
So, tradition has it that on that very spot today is the mosque of Mohammed. It’s very, very possible. I don’t doubt that at all. But it’s, it’s grandeur. I mean, it’s opulent, really, the things that are going on there in in some of these places.
But his tomb, Muhammad’s tomb, and, of course, Muhammad, blessing (Baraka) him. You know, by blessing him, we can Muslims can be blessed (Baraka). So the shrines too are so they’re imbued with power. So you go to the shrine to soak up that blessing, just to soak it up soak it up. And, of course, you then, would hold out your hands and rub your face, and Muslims will will do this all the time.
Older folks really want to die, if possible, on the Hajj. You know, here we are. We’re on in the pilgrimage. So is if if if at all possible, if we could die on the pilgrimage here in Mecca, then we would go to heaven. The Quran is another source of great barakah as we’ve known.
Now places and of blessing, well, and avenues of blessing (Baraka), here are people too, not just places, but children are a source of blessing (Baraka). You know? This is not really a a very good picture of a of a Muslim child. We’re thinking really of smaller children. Some of the pictures that, my assistant was able to find and put in here are very western and not all that helpful, but think of this.
They are full of blessing, the children, and, and newlyweds as well. We’ve talked about, horses and sheep and doves and bees, and, the month of Ramadan is full of it. It’s full of blessing (Baraka) and, incidentally, the gates of hell are closed. Muslims have the idea that, you know, that Satan is bound during Ramadan. I sometimes would, would seem to me that Satan was more active.
There were more fights, during Ramadan because people were grouchy, and I don’t know. It just didn’t seem like Satan was bound at all. He was very, very active and, doing his will in that day. Now there is this idea too of remembrance of Allah. You do wonder sometimes, do they think this is a blessing, or is it a way to to control Allah?
To you know, if you say the right thing and do the right thing at the right time, then you can be, you can you can you can make it. Allah, of course, his this 99 names of God, with Allah in the center here, this is this is hung up in many, many houses. I even saw it in a Christian home. A fellow didn’t really know the Lord. I never thought, he was more into politics than he was into spirituality.
But, all kinds of amulets and, plaques where you have the names of God and that is a source of blessing (Baraka). Now here is something that came right out of Toronto. We have a lot of Muslims in Toronto. And, in the, the Islamic books, Here is when you’re supposed to remember Allah. When starting on a to, starting to do something, say Bismillah.
Anything. Anything. Even when you start to eat or start to have, physical relationship with your wife. Bismillah is what you’re supposed to say. Or when you intend to do something, you must say Insha’Allah.
I’ll do it Insha’Allah. And if I don’t do it, then it’s God’s fault. If something is to be praised, Subhan Allah, in pain or distress, You Allah. You see, this is, Muslims when the, you know, in the the the, 10th of Muharram, there is a lot of pain. They say You Allah or You Ali.
They also say that too expressing appreciation. Oh, you’ve got a beautiful son. Or thanking someone. Awakening from sleep. There is no other god but Allah.
Taking an oath. And sneezing. You see? Someone else sneezes. Repenting of sin.
If you are reciting the Quran and make a mistake in your recitation, you have to say this. You’re repenting of a sin, giving to charity, fisabi’ulillah, having love for 1, lahu billah, greeting getting married, see, on and on and on. So, you have to say and participating in prayer, you have to say ameen, a death message. If you hear that someone has died, there’s something to say. And if you hear of someone’s death, may god have mercy, you see, on this.
So those are the things that you must say, specific things that you must learn. It’s very regimented. It’s very, mechanical, you see. Mechanical to do the right thing, to say the right thing. It’s almost, a, a great burden.
In other words, how can you remember all of this stuff? Givers of blessing. Well, it’s very important to say Salaam Alaikum. Now I see nothing wrong with saying Salaam Alaikum. You know, it’s it’s pretty close to what Jesus must have said, shalom alaikum, which is Hebrew.
In Arabic, it’s salaam alaikum. The response is be returned to you. And in some areas, they seem to drag it out a long ways. I sort of like it myself, but some Christians where I was wouldn’t even, use those terms. They said, you know, those are Islamic terms, they’re not our terms, and, so they wouldn’t use them.
I see nothing wrong in those terms. Another thing that’s important to do is to handshake after prayer. You know, Muslims are pretty heavy on handshake, and by the way, hugs too. Giving someone a hug, men with men, always gender related, this is, gender specific is an important thing to do and so there’s a lot of hugs going on. Tea, coffee, you know, giving chai.
You can drink more chai in the Middle East than you can shake a stick at. But it is a it is a pretty important thing. It’s, it’s it’s really giving a blessing. Now, on this same topic of blessing, I’m thinking of a book by, Lessing, I guess his name is. He, says that the evangelist bringing the gospel to Muslims must be true, honest, faithful messenger of God.
He must be recognized as a man of blessing who walks close to god, trustworthy. He must be filled with empathy and love through words, and his message must reveal that he is a man or I could say a person blessed by God. Lenning wrote this book, Blessing in God in mosque and mission. Now the the verses there, let’s see, is second Timothy 222 about, you know, the what you’ve received from me, he says, pass on to men who will, you know, to take it to pass it on to others. Now Muslims may see us as ungodly, beer drinkers, pig eaters, emotus, immodest, and immoral.
Why? Well, for various reasons. They don’t necessarily see us the way that we want to be seen. So it’s a we have a challenge on our hands, don’t we? In other words, how do we come across, given the western movies and the way that our country has spread pornography and immorality through the movies and the impression.
The other day, I heard president Morsi from Morsi from Egypt. He was over here. I guess he was attending the UN. This is 2,012, September. And they said to him, well, what do you think of the United States?
Well, I I, you know, I I’m pretty impressed with it. I like your roads and stuff, but there are other things that I don’t like. And he want to mention, the immodesty that he sees in the television and and so on and so on. So, we have that challenge because, Muslims look at it and they think of us as, you know, they’re all we’re all Christians. So we want to, we want to make sure that we, they don’t, you know, we don’t get the they don’t give the impression that we are, you know, we go along with that.
I mean, our culture is so full, you know, of pictures of of beautiful women, scantily dressed. And this is our this is our culture. This is our society. And as if this was the only thing that would rich, rich, you know, as if this was the only thing that matters. Nothing to do with character.
Nothing to do with, godliness. But women are chosen oftentimes, you know, in the Miss America and, the Emmy Awards and all that kind of stuff. How can we show Muslims that we’re praying people and that we are full of blessing. That’s really the task, isn’t it? That’s really the task that, Blessing was talking about.
And may god help us to be to give a good witness.