In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

3 B O D Y R E F I N E D The Eyes of Muhammad Ghawth The heart did not lie in what it saw Will you then dispute with him his vision?... His gaze did not turn aside nor go too far He had seen the signs of his lord, great signs. —Qur'an 53:11-18 It is often argued that vision is the strongest sense that connects us with the world beyond our bodies. Certainly in every human culture, metaphors centered upon the eyes are central to defining the essence of human beings, such as our saying in English,"The eyes are the window on the soul." This reflects the extraordinary power of the physical organ of the eyeto express emotional and spiritual states of a person, states that are often hidden or invisible in other bodily media. Just as eyes can reveal what is in the invisible essence of a person, the power of eyes to see can lead the human observer to go beyond the limited physical boundaries of the body.Vision can apprehend what is beyond the body's other senses, like taste (which requires the intimacy of taking an object into the body), touch (which necessitates proximity of contact with the body), or smell (which depends upon an object sharing a confined environment with the body). Like vision, hearing can also lead people to transcend their immediate surroundings and apprehend the existence of beings or forces at a great distance. However vision, when aided by views from a great height and unobstructed vantage point, has clarity and detail that outstrip even hearing in power. Western culture shares with Islamic culture an ocularcentrism. As Anthony Synnott observes, "Sight is equated with understanding and knowledge in much of our vocabulary: insight, idea, illuminate, light, enlighten , visible, reflect, clarity, survey, perspective, point of view, vision, observation , show, overview, farsighted ... you see?"1 So central are the eyes to investing the body with its human personality that the first gesture by which others declare a formerly living body a corpse is the gentle closing of the eyes.The eyes often stand in, metaphorically,for the body in its entirety. Farid al-Zahi has described the phenomenon well in regard to Islamic culture : "In many instances, the face or evenjust the eyes are used to convey the entire body.At the furthest extent, the body itself is abandoned, concentrated into the face.... And beautifying the face creates a new appearance (sura) with regard to the body, an appearance that extends through and even beyond many of the functions performed by clothing in all its forms. ... In this way,the face becomes a second body,giving the biological body its cultural and social existence."2 By"beautifying the face" al-Zahi refers especially to darkening the rim of the eyes with kohl as the prime way of heightening the features of the face (though his observation applies to other forms of cosmetics or expression). The eyes, not the ears, define the face. Beyond their receptive sensitivity to light, the eyes' movement provides an expressive subtlety in contrast to the ears. Although hearing also connects the body to events at a great distance, vision alone among the senses seems to grow more powerful from great heights. It is little wonder that visionaryexperiences are so central to religious experience, for vision is central to verifying the truth of external events. Seeing is believing. In fact, the sense of vision is integral to the founding experiences of the Prophet Muhammad as he received the revelations upon which Islam is based. It must be admitted that the Qur'an is first and foremost an aural event, a revelation that was heard, then spoken, then recited. It is an inspired speaking, embedded in the sound of Arabic language and performed by a special meditative breath that carries the sound, as illustrated by Michael Sells's inspired essay"Sound, Spirit and Gender in the Qur'an."3 Metaphors of hearing are central to the Qur'aris revelation: the Prophet is reported to have sensed the oncoming of revelation as an intense buzzing or a penetrating resonance like a bell's reverberation and comprehended the precise words as the speech of an angel, Gabriel, who brought messages from God through his ears into his conscience. However, vision was also integral to these experiences. Muhammad sawthe angel before hearing the angel's message and reciting it to others: Recite in the name of your Lord who...

Share