As a mid-life mature age student in law, the experience provokes a combination of feelings. I imagine myself standing in a great library surrounded by knowledge, yet I am also standing at the base of many mountains with unfamiliar and narrow pathways, sometimes in flip flops.
I am also constantly thirsty for inspiration when it comes to the evidence of ethics. From tort to equity my expectation that ethics is naturally interwoven into the very fabric of law leaves me parched.
My expectations are for the most part, unmet. This is where life experience – which, as my mother said when I converted – is, “as diverse as our thumb prints,” comes in to quench my thirst.
Temet nosce – “Know Thyself”
Since embracing Islam in 2004, my daily routine is to observe the pre-dawn spiritual practice, then I read.
At present, I am reading Women of Sufism: A Hidden Treasure by Camille Adams Helminski. When I first picked up the book there were plenty of connections to my Islam journey, but seemingly no link to law. I was wrong.
The book introduced me to a female Muslim legal scholar who lived over 1000 years ago. Like all women in the book, she was a Sufi mystic. She was also a scholar in Islamic Law and men and women sought her counsel.
Lubaba was from Syria and Jerusalem and known for her spiritual wisdom, altruism, community service and sound advice on faith, law and order.
This morning at dawn I sat to read.
I learned of a man who sought Lubaba’s counsel. Upon his request for guidance, she gave him the following advice which I reinterpreted to serve my ethics quest.
“Knowledge of ethics bequeaths an appreciation for ethics, an appreciation of ethics bequeaths a desire for ethics, a desire for ethics bequeaths an intimacy with ethics and an intimacy with ethics bequeaths constancy in serving with ethics as the centre and foundation of teaching, practicing and upholding law.”*
Imagine Lubaba, a tenth century female Muslim legal scholar contributing to an Australian muslim woman’s legal study more than 1000 years later. There’s a profound level of spiritual and intellectual depth offered in her wise counsel and it struck me as uncommon yet timeless.
Having made a mid-life decision to study law, I never anticipated that my quest to know God would so directly enrich my study of law. Alhumdulillah.
The wisdom we recognise over our years provides meaning far beyond the learning imparted in the ‘classroom,’ awakening and integrating timeless knowledge into the present, all the while moving us forward to new horizons.
* The original quote which Lubaba is said to have advised the man was:
“Knowledge of God bequeaths love for Him; love for Him bequeaths longing for Him; longing for Him bequeaths intimacy with Him; and intimacy with Him bequeaths constancy in serving Him and conforming to His laws.”
Sourced from Camille Adams Helminski, ‘Women of Sufism: A Hidden Treasure, Writings and Stories of Mystic Poets, Scholars and Saints’, (Shambhala Publications Inc, Boston, 2003) 37.
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