Northern Mockingbird

The song of sincerity

I heard a car alarm go off the other day as I was walking through a park. But the thing is, there were no cars to be found. Instead, the sound came from high up in a tree. It came from a Northern Mockingbird.

Over the course of their lifetime, Mockingbirds can learn as many as 200 different songs. They divide these songs into distinct seasonal repertoires for the spring and the fall. Some of their best songs may be heard all year long, like a musician’s favorite encore. They compose their songs from different sounds they have learned to mock. Famously, they are very skilled at impersonating other birds, confusing many a birder. The songs of Northern Cardinals, Tufted Titmice, Carolina Wrens, Eastern Bluebirds, and Blue Jays are just a few of the ones in their song selection. Beyond that, Mockingbirds even mimic the sounds of other animals, such as barking dogs, and many other types of noises. And that is how the car alarm ended up in the spring repertoire of the Northern Mockingbird I heard on my walk.

Like Mockingbirds, I, too, have done a lot of mimicking and mocking in my lifetime, as I pretended to be someone I was not. Like many other kids, at school, I quickly picked up on the things that were considered to be cool and shaped myself in their image. In those cases when I could not change myself to meet the standards of popularity, I shaped the story I told about myself. If I had not watched the cool movie everyone was talking about, I simply pretended I had. And if I enjoyed something that was not particularly cool, like playing the violin, I simply kept it hidden. The real me was kept safely tucked away behind an increasingly complex structure of lies, masks, and roles, as I sang the song of the majority - the song of social safety.

In adult life, the mockery is a bit more subtle. Like teenagers, many adults still feel a common pressure to lie about silly things like their age, weight, height, and income - particularly when these do not meet the standards of adult coolness, also known as ‘status’. But we lie about more than just numbers. We hide our crises of faith from our religious communities, our lack of motivation from our bosses, our gossip from our enemies, our frustration from our partners, and our sadness from our friends. We create an image of ourselves that we love to share, in which we are all that we think we should be, and we so wish it to be true that we forget that it is not. We so wish it to be true, that we sometimes even fool ourselves.

But no matter how convincing our lies may be, we don’t actually become a different person by singing a song that is not ours. Instead, we become masters of mimicry who look rather silly as they attempt to change the truth of their being through the illusion of their image. Like a dead lawn that is spray-painted green.

There are many theories as to why Mockingbirds mock. Some say it helps them claim and defend territory, as they imitate predators or distress calls of other species to scare off rival birds. Others say the display of mimicry is used to attract mates. There are even some who say they do it because they simply enjoy making all these different sounds. I’m sure all of these theories capture some aspect of the truth. And in addition to that, I think Mockingbirds also mock because God is merciful, and He sends us many, many reminders to get back to the straight path.

In Surah Ya Sin, the thirty-sixth chapter of the Qur’an, we read: “How regretful for My servants. Whenever a messenger comes to them they mock him.” (Qur’an 36:30). On the most literal level, this verse addresses the ridicule and mockery that prophets and truthtellers throughout human history have had to endure. Being a prophet, a true one at least, is not exactly an easy job. Even to this day, many of the prophets of our human history are regularly mocked by those who oppose their message of equality and unity, and the ugliest slander is spread about them. But I think this verse might refer to more than just the literal belittling of prophets. So many of us who do see ourselves as servants of God, as followers of a prophet, be it Muhammad, Jesus, Moses, or all of the above, peace be upon them all, are followers in word, but not in action. As such, we come to mock our prophets and their message. We mock our prophets when, as ‘Muslims,’ we allow our neighbors to go hungry, or as ‘Christians,’ we pollute the earth we’re supposed to be stewards of, or as ‘Jews,’ we glorify the idea of a nation-state over the divine morality of the Ten Commandments. That is how we mock our messengers, especially when we claim to follow them. We become their phony, insulting imitators. Through our failure to embody the truth of their message, we corrupt it.

If we dare look with honesty at the little lies we tell all day, we cannot help but conclude that they are also a mockery of ourselves, our prophets, and their message. In Surah Al-Bayyinah, ‘The Clear Proof’, the ninety-eighth chapter of the Qur’an, we are reminded of the core of the prophetic message: “(…) they should worship God, sincere in their faith in Him alone, turning away from all that is false; and be constant in prayer, and spend in charity: for this is a moral law endowed with ever-true soundness and clarity” (Qur’an 98:5). We are reminded that the way of morality, the Right Faith, is the way of sincerity. And when faith is sincere, we learn, it expresses itself not only in words, but also in actions. With sincerity, the distinction between words and action ceases to exist, and they all just become rhyming expressions of a truthful being.

Lies slip into our lives so very easily, and we don’t usually pay them much mind. If you are any good at lying, whether or not you tell the truth in any given situation is something only you and God truly know. Have you truly heard of that movie, band, actor, scholar, or book? Are you really ‘doing okay’? Did you actually understand? Did you actually agree? And did you really cancel that dinner because you were ‘sick’? Or were these all little songs that were not really yours? Were these all little moments in which your reality did not really rhyme with the image you portrayed of yourself?

Our reality is created at every moment by the Creator of all. In fact, the Qur’an teaches us that creation is, in essence, the living Word of the Creator. We are told “All it takes, when He wills something (to be), is simply to say: “Be!” And it is!” (Qur’an 36:82). This leaves us with not only the Arabic Qur’an that was revealed to the prophet Muhammad, but also with the entire rest of the universe as the ‘Qur’an of creation’ - as the Word of God, full of verses and signs (ayat) pointing towards the Ultimate Truth (al-Haqq). When we lie about the reality created by the Creator, we twist and corrupt this Qur’an. By lying, we cover up the verses and signs of creation, and deny ourselves the opportunity to live up to our true beauty as the living, breathing Word of God.

The Arabic phrase “wa dhalika din ul-qayyima” from the fifth verse of Surah Al-Bayyinah mentioned above is an incredibly rich one. It was translated by Muhammad Asad as “this is a moral law endowed with ever-true soundness and clarity.” Dr. Mustafa Khattab translates it in The Clear Qur’an as “that is the Upright Way,” and Yusuf Ali translates it as “that is the Religion Right and Straight.” I like to think that all these translations capture some aspect of the rich truth conveyed in these words, just like all theories about why Mockingbirds mock revealed some aspect of their truth. The root of the Arabic word ‘qayyima’ connotes a meaning of being upright, standing up, rising, and being right and true. The Arabic ‘din’ is often translated as religion, but we should remind our modern minds that the term carries a broad meaning of an entire moral framework, not just rituals and beliefs. Therefore, in addition to the interpretations already mentioned above, the way the phrase “wa dhalika din ul-qayyima” speaks to me is the following: If we adhere to the challenge of sincerity as presented in the first half of the verse, our bodies embody our religion. As our actions come to rhyme with our words, we ourselves become religion standing upright, as the importance of our fleeting image slowly dies, and our true self finally rises. That is how we live up to our truth as the embodied Qur’an - the uncorrupted Word of creation as it was intended by the Writer of all. Then, we truly sing the song we are meant to sing, the song of Ya Sin, the song of true humanity, the song of sincerity.

We were never tasked with being perfect. But we are tasked with being honest about our shortcomings, seeking forgiveness for them, and striving to return to the truth. If we sin, let us not lie about our sins or pretend that they do not exist. Surely an honest sinner is much better than a delusional saint, even if he will likely be the less popular one of the two. That doesn’t mean we have to share every detail of our daily mistakes with everyone, but it does mean that we have to be honest with ourselves, with God, and with our loved ones. After all, like bell hooks said so beautifully in All About Love, “Choosing to be honest is the first step in the process of love. There is no practitioner of love who deceives.”

I do not think it is a coincidence that the name of the chapter of the Qur’an that spells out the concept of oneness (tawhid) is named Al-Ikhlas, ‘Sincerity’. In only four verses, this short chapter explains the core of monotheism: God is indivisibly One, the Sustainer of all, without cause and effect, and wholly unique (Qur’an 112:1-4). If we were to fully realize the truth of this chapter and embody it, sincerity would be like breathing. We would realize that the only One whose perception of us truly matters always sees the reality of who we are, not our image. Then, we would realize that Mockingbirds are a gift from the heavens that teach us an invaluable lesson, simply by being the way they were meant to be. Then, we would listen to their songs and laugh, as we remember that we were not created to be Mockingbirds. That is not our song to sing.