Sample Student Research Project 2015: Journal
LITR
4328 American Renaissance / Model Assignments
Sample Student Research Project 2015:
Journal
Fariha Khalil
Islamic Influences on thoughts and ideas of Ralph Waldo Emerson
Introduction:
It was not until my junior year in high school that I first learned about
Ralph Waldo Emerson and Transcendentalism. I remember we had to read a few
selections from Emerson’s Nature for
homework and identify the romantic elements in the text.
At the time, I really did not understand the term Transcendentalism and
what it was about or how Emerson was associated with it. Therefore, when I read
Emerson’s Nature I did not read to
understand his message through the text, rather I just read to look for words,
and images that made the text romantic.
Now, this semester before we had to read Emerson’s
Nature, I made sure I understood what Transcendentalism was and how Emerson
played a role in it. I learned that
Transcendentalism was “a religious and philosophical movement [started in the
1830s] of preceding generations. Its elevated, all-embracing perspective
resolves the conflicting phenomena of the material world to a spiritual
direction or meaning”, and Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of the main figures of
this movement (Terms/Themes).
With that being understood, when I read the text this time around, I knew
not to just look for elements of Romanticism, but to also understand the meaning
behind those elements.
In
his essay, Emerson transcends the common
romanticism that popular culture has projected onto nature, the realm beyond
human influence, and introduces a more sobering experience one can have in
nature requiring an awareness that penetrates the sensual.
As reading through the essay, it occurred to me that it sounded very much
like the Islamic Holy book, the Qur’an. Being a Muslim and having read the
entire Qur’an more than twice, most of the ideas in the essay seemed very
similar to the message in the Qur’an.
To me, the Qur’an echoes in Emerson’s
Nature.
Very interested in learning more about Emerson’s history and how his
thoughts and ideas were formed, I started researching and learned that “among
American Romantic writers of [the 19th century], Ralph Waldo Emerson
(1803-1882) was much influenced by Islam and Muslim culture and values”
(Fakahani). He was fascinated with
readings he studied and “sprinkled his writings with abundant quotations and
references to Islamic sources and Muslim personalities and used them to express
his own thoughts” (Fakahani).
FAKAHANI, SUZAN JAMEEL. "Islamic Influences On Emerson's Thought: The
Fascination Of A Nineteenth Century American Writer." Journal Of Muslim Minority
Affairs 18.2 (1998): 291. Religion and Philosophy Collection. Web. 2 May 2015.
Islam and The Qur’an:
The word
Islam means the active submission to the one God.
It is strictly a monotheistic religion since it restricts worship to the one
supreme Lord who is the Originator and Creator of the universe. Peace (the root
from which the word Islam is derived) is attained through complete obedience to
the commandments of God, for God is the source of all peace.
Muslims are those who believe in one
God and in Muhammad (may be peace be upon him) as the final Prophet of God.
They devote their lives to the service of God, the Creator and Sustainer of the
universe. Islam teaches that human
beings are born pure and sinless. No one is responsible for, or can take
responsibility for the sins of others. The doors of forgiveness are always open
for those who repent sincerely. God continuously reminds us in the Qur’an
of His infinite mercy and compassion.
A foundational message in the Quran is its emphasis on righteous conduct built
on firm belief and love for God. The Quran acknowledges human desires while
reminding individuals to cultivate their souls. In addition, God calls on humans
to use their intellect and reflect on the world around them. The Quran
encourages humankind to recognize the signs of God’s existence in the precise
order of the universe and the careful placement of every object in the total
scheme of creation.
Muslims are enjoined to maintain inner spiritual purity through constant
remembrance and prayer to God. Islam balances the spiritual dimension by
emphasizing human responsibility. Human beings are created with a purpose.
Attainment of piety is but one dimension of such purpose; playing an active role
in the creation of a just society is another. Because
Muslims attach importance to what
happens in this world, they have made substantial contributions to the
development of science, medicine, mathematics, physics, astronomy, geography and
literature.
http://www.whyislam.org/submission/the-holy-quran/the-origin-of-the-quran/
http://www.whatisislamabout.com/islam/what-is-islam/
Ralph Waldo Emerson:
Emerson’s childhood was spent in a highly intellectual environment.
His parents were members of various libraries in Boston, and in their
house included readings such as “The
Boston Athenaeum which occasionally contained articles on Islamic values and
culture such as 'Mahomet's Prohibition of Wine’, 'The Superstitions of the
Persians',
After his emotional turmoil from breaking from the church, Emerson
traveled to Europe. On his trip to
Europe, Emerson came across “Thomas Carlyle the well known British writer and
critic,” the two became very good friends while traveling together.
Carlyle taught him much about the Prophet Muhammad and later wrote to
Emerson “It seems, then, this Mahomet was not a quack? Not a bit of him! That he
is a better Christian..., than the most of us shovel-hatted? I guess than almost
any of you!” (Fakahani). In Boston
in 1869, Emerson gave a lecture on “Natural Religion” to a group of liberals
known as “Radicals” and while discussing the doctrines of Christianity, “Emerson
pointed out that in the 'character of Muhammed' there is 'a spiritual
elevation.., which appeared in his followers. And certainly in the Koran,...
there is abundance of noble sentences' all of which certainly struck him to
furthest extreme” (Fakahani). What
Emerson had been seeking for long in the American value system, he found in the
Islamic values. He was fascinated
by what he had found and used much of it in his writings including “references
to Islamic metaphysics and used them in a unique manner to express his own mood,
and spiritual experiences. He turned to them as a means of guidance and
inspiration” (Fakahani). Although
Emerson did not read the Holy Qur'an until 1855, an analysis of Emerson's use of
it and of Muslim literature indicates a concordance of thought between some of
Emerson's ideas and several Islamic concepts. The material he chose to use
generally reflects a concern for individual values, human fulfillment at its
best, and for earnestness towards life, without excluding a sense of humor. The
Islamic concepts that he retained were the notions of a meaningful world, the
concept of the virtue of temperance, and the idea of self-reliance. He also
found in Islamic history his ideal of a religion of the heart that did not deny
reason as opposed to a stem, exclusively intellectual religion.
Emerson found that the Holy Qur'an asserts the transcendentalist belief
that the world has order and purpose. His interest in Islam and the Muslim
literature can be seen through his journals, and essays by the references he
makes about the religion.
Fakahani, Suzan Jameel. "Islamic Influences On Emerson's Thought: The
Fascination Of A Nineteenth Century American Writer." Journal Of Muslim Minority
Affairs 18.2 (1998): 291. Religion and Philosophy Collection. Web. 2 May 2015.
Major
Tenets of Transcendentalism:
Nature = God:
We should live close to nature, for it is our greatest teacher. Nature is
emblematic, and understanding its "language" and “lessons” can bring us closer
to God. In fact, Nature = God. The words Nature, God, Universe, Over-Soul, etc.
all mean the same thing. This is what Hindus believe. They call it Brahma.
Brahma, or God, is everything, but nothing in particular.
God is omnipresent:
God
is everywhere and in everything, so there is no need for specific religions or
churches. The Transcendentalists did not believe in organized religion because
they wanted that direct relationship with God, not one through a pastor or a
priest. They thought organized religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam, etc.,)
were all just made up by people anyway.
Man is divine:
Since
Nature is divine, and we are literally creatures of Nature, we are also divine.
Therefore, we have a direct relationship with God. In a sense, we are God or
particles of God.
Intuition:
Since God is within us, every person "intuition," an essential understanding of
right and wrong (morality). We don’t need to learn morality from so-called holy
books, laws, or society.
Self-Reliance:
Our
intuition and natural instincts guide us to do the right things. In nature, we
are uncorrupted. It is only when we let society influence us that we start to
conform and hence, be corrupted.
Society is the source of corruption:
We are born pure, but society misguides us and corrupts us, as we grow old.
Society demands conformity, and conformity kills individuality. If we are all to
follow our own free will and listen to our intuition, we would be much better
off. We don’t need artificial laws, customs, fashions, or values.
Idealism:
Human
beings are naturally good at their core. Again, it is society that corrupts us.
Human beings left to their own devices are good.
Materialism is bad:
Striving for material goods, is worthless and an unhealthy pursuit. It is
totally superficial. Money is evil because it causes us to place artificial and
false value on objects and people.
Technology is bad:
Advances in technology only caused more problems for society. For example, we
built the railroad so we could go, go, go. First of all, we should stay home and
get in touch with ourselves. Secondly, now we need people to build the track and
make the cars and drive the train and maintain everything. Technology ends up
running us and not the other way around.
Emphasis on the here and now:
The past is unimportant. Knowledge comes from experience. It is not derived from
studying the past. We can’t learn anything truly valuable from the past or from
the people who lived before us. Their knowledge was based on their experience,
and ours should be too. We should not worship anybody or anything that has come
before us.
https://libertyenglish11.wikispaces.com/file/view/Major+Tenets+of+Transcendentalism.pdf
Islamic principles in Emerson’s Nature:
As written in the Parentheses Literary Magazine,
In Nature, written in 1844, Emerson wants his readers to move past the
immediate beauty that nature provide for the human senses in order to experience
the origin of that which is natural in our universe. He characterizes man’s
common pitfall in nature through an example of “the child with sweet pranks, the
fool of his senses, commanded by every sight and sound, without any power to
compare and rank his sensations…individualizing everything, generalizing
nothing” (Emerson 86). First of all, “nature is loved by what’s best in us”:
our souls (Emerson 82). Through the development and faculty of our souls, we can
come to bear holistic witness of nature, under the auspice of the Over Soul. In
experiencing nature in its all-encompassing, all-connecting form, we must
acknowledge the grandeur of it all. Nature is more than bush and animals in an
environment. Nature “arms and equips an animal to find its place and living in
the earth, and at the same time, she arms and equips another animal to destroy
it” (Emerson 84). There is a grand scheme invisible to man’s senses that he can
notice only through a progressive self-conditioning aiming towards “[carrying]
the world in his head” (Emerson 85). With this attribute, man recognizes “laws
which bind the farthest regions of nature: moon, plant, gas, crystal, concrete
geometry and numbers.” This caliber of perception brings to light a more
comprehensive understanding of the
nature of nature. The conviction to experience the surrounding world in
this manner has Islamic undertones.
Connecting the seemingly isolated elements of our universe is a feature in the
Quran, ergo a profound characteristic of Islam. In the religious context, the
nature around us is a direct manifestation of God within the framework of how
Muslims believe the world is composed. Similarly in Emerson’s case, nature,
still related to God, has an independent status as “the most ancient religion”,
as an entity nearly pre-existing human spirituality and the acknowledgement of a
supernatural force. Emerson’s demonstration of nature runs, for the most part,
parallel to the explanations in the Quran of the nature of nature. In a
religious and anti-Romantic tone, Emerson preaches that nature is “medicinal,
[it] sobers and heals us” (Emerson 79). The Quran’s many verses work to sober or
sustain within the reader an understanding of the world around him or her. Surah
16, verse 68 explains how “thy Lord taught the Bee to build its cells in the
hills, on trees, and in men’s habitations.” The Islamic depiction of survivalist
adaptation in the natural world mirrors Emerson’s pre-Darwinian portrayal of the
environmental system, how it “arms and equips an animal to find its place and
living in the earth”. Allah/Nature is the puppeteers of the Natural
System according to the Quran and Emerson’s transcendentalist doctrine.
Allah/Nature arranges every single physical thing into a certain course and
set it in connection with other physical things. It is the spinner of the web
that is our universe where all entities share a plane of existence. In Surah 67
verse 3, readers are asked to do the impossible task to “look again [at God’s
world], can you see any disorder?” The intricate organization of things in
nature and their interconnectedness are due to the conviction that God “produced
therein all kinds of things in due balance” (Quran 15:19). The Natural System is
composed “without any pillars that ye can see” (Quran 13:2). Discourse as such
courses all throughout Emerson’s references to the natural world outside of the
city untainted by illusory social constructs.
http://inparenthesesmag.com/tag/literary-magazine/
Conclusion:
After doing much research I learned that during the nineteenth century, Muslim
literature and thought were subjects of fascination for a number of American
writers. Some of them even made the pilgrimage to the Holy Land in Palestine and
traveled up the Nile River in Egypt, Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of them from
that century. He was impressed by the Islamic concept of moderation in living,
which had been an important virtue and essential practice among early Muslim
leaders. Emerson, in addition, found in Islamic concepts of fate, heroism, and
courage a useful tool to strengthen his own concept of self-reliance. Most
significant was the impact on Emerson of Islamic social values such as
hospitality, personal nobility and regard for women. Emerson had concluded that
the spread of Islam was due to the impelling power of its beliefs. He relied
frequently on Islamic quotations in his writings as he recognized their
inspirational and cultural value as well as wisdom expressed such as in advice
against excess of humor, which is deemed incompatible with seriousness and
sincerity. Emerson did not advocate Islamic thought and religion as a substitute
for Western concepts, but as a complement to them.
Emerson was fascinated because he was a man who always strove to
universalize the great truths wherever he found them.
As Fakahani states in her journal “after examination of Emerson's use of
Islamic references, it becomes clear that they serve one purpose: to
universalize a point under discussion. As an idealist and transcendentalist,
Emerson believed that reality was spiritual and that this spirituality permeated
all people”. An example of that is
seen in his
Nature,
“as it explores the frontier of people’s ability to detach themselves from the
illusion that we call reality, the façade composed of social constructs. Our
disconnection from our immediate lives will bring us to the realization that
‘earth is a greater matter than the creation of man’ and that it is up to us to
unclothe Nature, to rid it of its most common misconception that it is only
beautiful sight with fragrant smells and melodic sounds” (Quran 40:57).
http://inparenthesesmag.com/tag/literary-magazine/
"Great Star" flag of pre-Civil War USA