Muhammad and Iguaçu

More notes:

For all that it criticizes the unbelievers of Arabia, though, the Qur’an does not spare Muhammad either. He was never allowed to forget that he too was human. At one point, for example, despite all the Qur’an’s denunciations of the wealthy, Muhammad seems to have shown too much deference to a rich man. He had violated one of the cardinal tenets of true Islam, the equality of all men before God and before his Prophet:

He [Muhammad] frowned and turned his back when the blind man came towards him. How could you [Muhammad] tell? He might have sought to purify himself. He might have been fore­warned, and might have profited from Our warning. But to the wealthy man you were all attention: although the fault would not be yours if he remained uncleansed. Yet you gave no heed to him that came to you with zeal and awe.[1]

Muhammad was not to yield to such temptations, and he was not to give in to the unbelievers, no matter how much their mocking troubled him, no matter how much more comfortable he could have been if he had made just a few small concessions. No, his responsibil­ity was too great to allow him to make the small adjustments that seem to make life tolerable for most of the world’s less-than-saintly human beings: “If you succumb to their desires after all the knowl­edge you have been given, none shall save or protect you from God.”[2]

[1] 80:1-10. Abrupt and often puzzling shifts in person (as here, from he to you) are typical of Qur’anic style. Similar shifts appear in other Semitic writings, such as the biblical Psalms.

[2] 13:37.

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Here’s a rather surprising little item:

“Mexico’s vibrant Muslim community living in the Maya heartland: Mountainous southern state of Chiapas home to Tzotzil converts to Islam”

It reminds me a bit of a visit, many years ago, to the magnificent Iguaçu Falls:

We were in the general area for another reason, but I had long wanted to see Iguaçu, both because of its natural beauty and because of the moving story told in the great 1986 film The Mission.

My eldest son and I stayed in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, and I found the place astonishing for reasons that I hadn’t expected at all:  It felt very Arab.  There were mosques, oriental carpet shops, and so forth.  It turns out that a large Lebanese immigration began to the area back around 1940 — and, indeed, to the general “Triple Border” area (Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay) in which Foz do Iguaçu sits.  Eventually, although the Lebanese continue to represent about 90% of the Arabs in the area, they were followed by Egyptians, Kuwaitis, Iraqis, Syrians, Jordanians, and Palestinians.  The overwhelming majority of them are Muslims.