Tree Sparrow

The traces of the prophets and the tree of 'Islam'

I sing because I’m happy

I sing because I’m free

His eye is on the sparrow

And I know he watches over me

Those are the final lines of one of my favorite gospel songs of all time, His Eye Is on the Sparrow. I first heard it sung by Lauryn Hill and Tanya Blount in Sister Act 2. Of course, their incredible voices are part of the reason the song resonated with me. But beyond that, the lyrics bring me a sense of peace I also often experience when reading the Qur’an. They are based on a Biblical passage from the Gospel of Matthew:

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” (Matthew 6:25-26)

These are the worlds of the Prophet Jesus, peace be upon him, as recorded by Matthew. There’s a very similar narration by the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. He said, “If you trust in God, He will provide for you as He provides for the birds. They leave hungry early in the morning and return full in the evening.” Both prophets looked up at the birds and saw a sign from God. A sign of peace in the midst of insecurity and fear. But even before them, there was another prophet who found peace in these very same words.

In Surah Hud, the eleventh chapter of the Qur’an, God says: “There is no living creature on earth whose provision is not given by God” (Qur’an 11:6). Surah Hud is named after the Prophet Hud, peace be upon him. Hud was a part of the people of Ad, a wealthy and powerful people who were particularly skilled craftsmen. They were known for building the most beautiful and highest buildings. Unfortunately, as so often is the case, the blessing of their prosperity turned out to be the fuel for the curse of their arrogance. They became an oppressive and unjust people who lost sight of God and morality and instead began to worship their man-made material idols. As an act of mercy, God inspired Hud to remind his people of the truth, and, as such, made him a prophet.

The Islamic tradition is often falsely assumed to be the domain of the Prophet Muhammad alone, but the Qur’an teaches us that there were many prophets who were all inspired to address injustice and false beliefs within their communities. Some of them are mentioned by name, such as Abraham, Noah, Joseph, Jonas, and Jesus, peace be upon them all. But God tells us there was a prophet for every community (Qur’an 10:47), and as such, Muslims believe that there were many other prophets next to the twenty-five that were mentioned in the Qur’an. Some narrations even put the number of prophets in the history of humankind as high as 124,000. Perhaps that’s why the Prophet Muhammad said that wisdom found anywhere is the lost property of the believer - because the traces of the prophets are all around us, in every culture amongst every people.

With Christmas just around the corner, we are surrounded by these traces every single day. But to find them, we need to be willing to look with patience and care, as if we are trying to find a little Tree Sparrow amidst the pattern of the branches of its home. At first, it may seem like there’s nothing there. But when you look more closely, you may see that the little bird was right in front of you all along.

I first met Santa Claus in the United States, since he is not usually a part of Christmas celebrations in the Netherlands. There is, however, another Dutch holiday in December that is inspired by the same historical figure, Sinterklaas. Both Santa Claus (Saint Nick) and Sinterklaas (Sint-Nicolaas) are inspired by Saint Nicholas, a fourth-century Christian bishop of Greek descent who lived in modern-day Turkey. Nicholas is told to have been the son of wealthy parents. After their death, he distributed his inherited wealth to the poor. In one famous narration, Nicholas saved three young girls from being forced into prostitution, because their father could not afford their dowries. Every night for three nights, Nicholas secretly dropped a bag of gold coins through their window, which the father used to pay his daughters’ dowries. On the last night, the father caught Nicholas and expressed his tremendous gratitude. But Nicholas urged him not to tell anyone about his gifts, because, as he said: “The left hand should not even be told what the right hand gives in charity.”

This is the origin story of gift-giving holidays remembering Saint Nicholas all throughout Europe, which, due to colonization and globalization, have now been spread across the world. It was amongst European settlers in the United States that the two December holidays of Saint Nicholas Day and Christmas first got intertwined, and that’s when Santa Claus first became the facilitator for anonymous gift-giving on Christmas Day. But what many Muslims don’t know is that the myth of Santa Claus ultimately ties back to the message of a prophet: “But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing” (Matthew 6:3). Those are the words of the Prophet Jesus as recorded by Matthew. Those are the words that inspired Saint Nicholas to save the girls from prostitution. Those are the words whose traces we still see, ever so faintly, in the sparkling eyes of children who have been given a gift by an adult who would rather give the credit to Santa Claus.

Next to the Qur’an, the Islamic tradition recognizes many other scriptures as true messages from God conveyed by prophets, including the Torah (the Prophet Moses), the Psalms (the Prophet David), and the Gospel (the Prophet Jesus). The written form of these messages we know today may have been corrupted and altered throughout the years, which is why we must treat them with care. But in all instances where these scriptures do not contradict the Qur’an, they ought to be as dear to Muslims as they are to any other believers who have a relationship with these texts.

The Qur’an refers to the Prophet Muhammad as “the seal of the prophets” (Qur’an 33:40). This is commonly interpreted to mean that Muhammad was the last prophet to share God’s message with humanity. I think the word “seal” (khatim) has a richer meaning than just being the thing to close something off. Yes, when you seal a letter, you close it off, but you do much more than that. You ensure that its contents are not corrupted. If the recipient of the letter sees that the seal is broken, they know that someone might have altered the contents of the letter or replaced it altogether. But if the letter is sealed, the recipient knows that its contents are authentic. Similarly, the Qur’an, the last revelation as received by Muhammad, serves as a means to authenticate the message of God to humanity. It is described as the Furqan, ‘the criterion’ by which we can tell truth from falsehood, also with regard to earlier messages that may have been corrupted over time (Qur’an 25:1). Throughout much of history, kings had their own personal seals so the recipients of their letters could verify that the letter truly came from them. Similarly, the Qur’an helps us to verify which parts of earlier scriptures carry the seal of Truth. It helps us to verify which letters were sent to us with God’s seal.

In that way, we clearly see that the glorification and worship of a human being, such as that of Saint Nicholas, or ultimately, Jesus, is not in line with God’s sealed message. We also see that the materialist idolatry, indulgence, and overconsumption we have come to associate with Christmas are not in line with God’s sealed message. Just like the traces of the prophets are all around us, so are the traces of the things they were inspired to warn against: idolatry, injustice, and ingratitude.

In Surah Ash-Shurah, ‘The Consultation’, the forty-second chapter of the Qur’an, Muslims receive clear instructions from God: “He has ordained for you the Way which He decreed for Noah, and what We have revealed to you (Muhammad) and what We decreed for Abraham, Moses, and Jesus: Uphold the faith, and make no divisions in it” (Qur’an 42:13). God makes clear that ‘the Way’ (ad-Din, ‘the religion’) of all the prophets is the same, and we should not make divisions in it, because they all came with the same message and morality, albeit differently formulated amongst different peoples in different times. Therefore the Prophet Muhammad was instructed to say: “I believe in every Scripture God has revealed. And I am commanded to judge fairly among you. God (Allah) is our Lord and your Lord. We will be accountable for our deeds and you for yours. There is no need for contention between us. God will gather us all together and to Him is the final return” (Qur’an 42:15).

I often feel awkward at interreligious gatherings. Not because I don’t like meeting people of other religions - I love to. I feel awkward because the whole idea that they somehow follow ‘other religions’ goes against my worldview. In my worldview, there is only one religion: ‘Islam’. The Arabic term ‘Islam’ literally means ‘to submit’. A ‘Muslim’ literally means someone who submits themselves. Both the words ‘Islam’ and ‘Muslim’ are etymologically related to the word ‘salam’, meaning peace, because as a Muslim, you submit to Peace (As-Salam, one of the Names of God), so Peace may be upon you; so you may live a life in service of Peace, radiate Peace, and bring Peace to wherever you go and to whomsoever you meet. That is why Muslims greet one another by wishing Peace upon each other, ‘As-Salamu ‘Alaykum’ (‘Peace be upon you’), because Peace coming upon you is the ultimate goal of this life on earth. That is why we wish Peace on our prophets when we mention their names, acknowledging their presence in our midst through their traces all around us and within ourselves.

It feels silly when at an interreligious gathering, I am asked to wear a green sticker to symbolize the fact that I’m a Muslim, whereas my Christian sister may be asked to wear an orange sticker, and my Jewish brother may be given a blue sticker. We all follow prophets who came with the same message of Peace. And whoever of us submits to that message the best is the best ‘Muslim’ amongst us, whether they identify as a Christian, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, or Muslim. The Qur’an tells us that Abraham was not a ‘Christian’ or a ‘Jew’ but a ‘Muslim’, not because he was a follower of Muhammad, but because he ‘submitted’ to God (Qur’an 3:67). That was his defining feature, not his ethnicity. ‘Muslims’ existed long before the Prophet Muhammad and the revelation of the Qur’an. Still, even today, I cannot tell you how often people talk about Islam as the ‘youngest’ of the Abrahamic faiths, as though somehow Islam only started with the Prophet Muhammad. That view of Islam is entirely at odds with the Qur’an and the most basic elements of Islamic theology.

If we were to take the stickers off and talk about what really matters, I think we’d be surprised. Tracing back the branches of our different ‘religions’, I think we could not but conclude that the truthful cores of the letters of our prophets trace back to the same tree. A tree that I would call the tree of ‘Islam’, the tree of submission. A tree ultimately rooted in Peace.

That is why I love to sing His Eye Is on the Sparrow, and I couldn’t care less if it was written by someone of a ‘different religion’. Because I believe that my God and their God is One and the same (Qur’an 42:15). But when I sing it, I prefer to change the lyric “Jesus is my portion” to the more ambiguous “He is my portion”, where ‘He’, for me, refers to God alone. Because in that way, I believe the seal is restored. In that way, when I sing that song, I believe I am singing the exact same song as the Sparrow I’m singing about, who, as the Qur’an tells me, is also a ‘Muslim’ (Qur’an 22:18) sitting somewhere in that same old tree.