Howard Thurman describes the spiritual “Deep River” as “a happy blending of majestic rhythm and poignant yearning”. In analyzing this spiritual he writes,
All of the waters of all of the earth come from the sea. Paradox of paradoxes: that out of which the river comes is that into which the river goes. The goal and the source of the river are the same!… Life is like that! The goal of life is God! The source of life is God!… To deal with men on any other basis, to treat them as if there were not vibrant and vital in each one [—] the very life of the very God, is the great blasphemy; it is the judgement that is leveled with such relentless severity on modern man.
Rev. Dr. Dorsey Odell Blake died on the on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday. On Ash Wednesday, a priest places ashes on the supplicants’ heads while reciting “‘ashes to ashes and dust to dust.” This is certainly appropriate for a death and burial ritual. Dorsey also died on the second day of Ramadan fasting and was buried on the day after the full moon in the middle of the month of Ramadan. His memorial service was held in the last 10 days of Ramadan, which are considered the holiest days of the month.
For those who are unfamiliar, I have explained that Ramadan is similar to Christmas because it celebrates the birth of the Word in the initial revelations of Islamic scripture. This is what made Muhammad a prophet, just as Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus, whom the Gospels describe as “Word made flesh.” In the King James Version of the Bible, John 1:14 states, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
According to Islamic tradition, the actual first words of the Qur’an were revealed on a peaceful and quiet Night of Power during the last ten days of the month of Ramadan — kind of like the night of Christmas Eve at the end of the solar year, right after the winter solstice. The increasing darkness as one approaches the winter solstice might be imagined as similar to an increase in hunger throughout a month of fasting from dawn to sunset every day. And just as Christmas signals a soon-to-come return of daylight, the Night of Power signals a soon to come resumption of satiating normal daytime appetites.
Since the Lenten fasting that leads up to Easter and Ramadan overlap this year, it may seem natural to equate Ramadan to Easter instead of Christmas. For me, however, the Easter season is about rising above mortality. It is about the vertical arm of the cross bringing a sacred elevation above the mortal concerns of the horizontal world on the surface of the earth.
Such a perspective makes the Lenten fasting clearly similar to the Islamic Hajj or pilgrimage, in which the pilgrim travels horizontally over the earth to a central point of sacred elevation. It perhaps says something about Dorsey’s living expression of Thurman’s deep interfaith commitment that his burial ceremonies should commemorate both observances.
Dates on the lunar Islamic calendar recess a couple of weeks every year compared to the Christian solar calendar. So Islamic holiday observances travel throughout the solar year and only coincide with a specific solar holiday every few decades or so. As it turns out, Ramadan will occur around Christmas time during the next several years.
All of this date stuff and religious comparisons are an interest of mine because of a literally lifelong exposure to multiple religious traditions, as I mentioned a couple of months ago. So, you and probably most people are not really interested in explanations and rationales of how different religious metaphors point to the same truth.
People tend to be interested in what that truth is though. And we seem to get a glimpse of it in a few verses of Islamic scripture that are often quoted, at least in part, when people die.
O you who have attained to faith! Seek aid in steadfast patience and prayer: for, behold, God is with those who are patient in adversity. And say not of those who are slain in God’s cause, “They are dead”: nay they are alive, but you perceive it not. And most certainly shall we try you by means of danger, and hunger, and loss of worldly goods, of lives and of [labour’s] fruits. But give glad tidings unto those who are patient in adversity — who, when calamity befalls them, say, “Verily, unto God do we belong and, verily, unto [God] we shall return.” It is they upon whom their Sustainer’s blessings and grace are bestowed, and it is they, they who are on the right path!
Thurman writes concerning the spiritual “Wade in the Water”,
[T]his man with the incurable disease… believed the legend, for he had seen it work…. If somehow he could manage to let down into the waters while they were being troubled then he would be healed…. This is in essence the story of the man beside the pool in the fifth chapter of the Gospel according to St. John. What would these early singers do with this story? They sang,
Wade in the water
Wade in the water, children
God’s gonna trouble the waters.
… They took the imagery of the simple New Testament story and applied it to their own situation. For them the “troubled waters” meant the ups and downs, the vicissitudes of life. Within the context of the “troubled” waters of life there are healing waters, because God is in the midst of the turmoil….
This leads to another very searching insight. Here we are face to face with perhaps the most daring and revolutionary concept known to man: namely that God is not only the creative mind and spirit at the core of the universe but that He—and mark you I say He—is love. There are no completely satisfying ways by which this conclusion may be arrived at by mere or sheer rational reflective processes. This is the great disclosure: that there is at the heart of life a Heart. When such an insight is possessed by the human spirit and possesses the human spirit, a vast and awe-inspiring tranquility irradiates the life. This is the message of the spiritual. Do not shrink from moving confidently out into choppy waters. Wade in the water, because God is troubling the water.
For anyone who attended Dorsey’s “green” burial, the idea of belonging to God and returning to God seemed like stating a visibly obvious fact. Unembalmed, in a biodegradable casket, he was buried under the shade of a massive tree in a small grove, at the foot of a hill with a view of the ocean. Returning to the spirit of the Creator in creation seemed to be an obvious theme: the “Alive yet you perceive it not” in the Islamic scripture quoted above.
He is also alive in the memories of countless people and whole communities who continue to draw inspiration from his life qualities: committed to social change… a cherished listener… a capacity for fiery preaching underneath a calm and mellow exterior… a friend… a bulwark… never complaining… a sensitive and effective teacher… and so on — including comments from his surviving younger brother about the good fortune to have had such a brother.
At Howard Thurman’s Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples, over which Dorsey presided for more than three decades, the community life might be well described using the following words from an article on the secular Buddhist network website:
1). Secular Dharma is not a dogma, it is a dialogue. Secular Dharma has no interest in developing a new school … with an orthodoxy, dogmas, and beliefs. The aim is to gather in a constructive conversation that supports human flourishing and explores how to create meaningful change in ourselves, and in this world.
2). Secular Dharma seeks to help us discover a middle way between secularity and religion. Secularity is NOT anti-religious. This is a huge misconception in our culture. Secularity acknowledges the value of a religious life and also respects and acknowledges scientific thought and inquiry. A secular dharma approach would consider that neither science nor religion are sufficient for authentic happiness and human flourishing. This project is deeply personal and individuals are encouraged to find out for themselves what is relevant and meaningful for them.
Dorsey lived that, all of the way through a green burial. Now it is on us as individuals and as a community to learn from his example and do it too. As the Islamic scripture states: “And most certainly shall we try you by means of danger, and hunger, and loss of worldly goods, of lives and of [labour’s] fruits.”
That most certainly is the time that we are entering. Many find themselves suddenly at risk of, or actually being out of work. Many find themselves suddenly at risk of or actually being deported to foreign lands. Climate crises are worsening and going global. Global politics are threatening a third World War. But the scripture seems to say that these are just temporary trials.
We all must return to our original pure state: before the current “new Jim Crow” of massive incarceration; before the century of original Jim Crow; before the centuries of slavery; before the colonialism that trashed whole regions of the world so that a relative few could live in comfort, while restricting travel to relatively comfortable areas—to make the most for just a few, off of ill-gotten gains.
In the meantime, we all remind ourselves in our own ways that we all belong to the creator, that we all—like Dorsey—must go through trials and must ultimately return to our natural green environment, like in the spiritual “Heaven” which Howard Thurman described as “one of the authentic songs of protest.”
It was sung in anticipation of a time that even yet has not fully come—a time when there shall be no slave row in the church, no gallery set aside for the slave, no special place, no segregation, no badge of racial and social stigma, but complete freedom of movement. Even at that far off moment in the past, these early singers put their fingers on the most vulnerable spot in Christianity and democracy. The wide free range of his spirit sent him beyond all barriers. In God’s presence at least there would be freedom; slavery is in no part of the purpose or the plan of God. Man, therefore, is the great enemy of man. This is the mood of that song.
May all of us lead our lives with such unconditional love that we ultimately join Dorsey, Howard and Sue Bailey Thurman, Jesus, Mary, Muhammad, Khadijah, the Buddha, and the rest of the heavenly host in heaven.
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