Chapter 4, Part 3: His Induction Speech at the Arabic Language Academy
10. The Induction Speech
The ceremony receiving Dr. Homad as a full member of the Arabic Language Academy in Damascus was held on the evening of 16 October 1991 in the hall of the Zahiriyya Library in Damascus, after Republican Decree No. 205 of 27 May 1991 confirmed his election as a full member by the Academy at the session it held on 24 November 1990.
Professor Shaker al-Fahham and Dr. Muhammad Ihsan al-Nass each gave a speech welcoming Dr. Homad into the Academy's family. The speech Dr. Homad himself gave on the occasion centered on the life of Dr. Shukri Faisal, his upbringing, his work and his writings, for Dr. Homad had taken his place in the Academy, and the Academy's established custom is that a newly elected member speaks at his reception about the late member whose seat he takes.
At the opening of his speech he notes that, as he examined Dr. Faisal's literary works, he was no stranger to the literary world he had once known, for he had lived in its embrace for a time before he was torn from its shady gardens and its tender melodies by the rigor of the law and the stern features of its intractable articles, which do not always spread warmth in the soul.
He then turns to Dr. Faisal's upbringing and to the loyalty that marked his character throughout his life, in his relations with his teachers above all and with his friends; to his studies, the posts he held and the conferences he attended; and to the cultural light he spread across much of the great Arab homeland when he lectured at the universities of Fez, Oujda, Marrakesh, Algiers, Tripoli, Yarmouk, Amman, Riyadh and Beirut and at the Islamic University in Medina.
He dwells on his membership in the Jordanian Arabic Language Academy, the Royal Academy for Islamic Civilization Research in Amman, the Iraqi Academy of Sciences, Bayt al-Hikma in Tunis, and the general secretariat of the Arabic Language Academy in Damascus.
He reviews Dr. Faisal's studies in Islamic history in his book "The Movement of the Islamic Conquests," and of his first historical book, "The Movement of the Islamic Conquests in the First Century," he says that it is a precious study which did not stop at telling the stories of battles and listing victories, but moved out from the Arab sphere to the horizon of the world, submitting the texts to the precise analysis and inquiry that modern scholars follow.
He holds that Dr. Faisal traced the astonishing spread of Islam through lands thirsting for the light of knowledge, a spread that drew a wide movement of Arabization in its wake, so that Arabization went hand in hand with the spread of Islam on a broad scale. Dr. Faisal explained why Arabization at first failed in Persia, although the following centuries saw Persians who became Arabized and reached a high level of learning and of authorship in the various sciences of the Arabic language.
He made clear that the movement of the Islamic conquests gave rise to a new literature, expressed above all in the glorification of heroism in battle, in raising the banner of jihad and martyrdom in the way of God, and in spreading the call to Islam, and expressed as well in a poetry of deep feeling that conveyed the emotions and the longing, in the quiet of the night, for father and mother, wife and child in the homeland.
He then analyzed the literary works Dr. Faisal had completed, namely "Methods of Study in Pre-Islamic Literature" and "The Development of Love Poetry from the Jahiliyya to Islam," alongside a number of literary studies and editions of some old books.
In "Methods of Literary Study" Dr. Faisal discusses the scholastic theory, which divides Arabic literature into five periods matching the political eras: "the Jahiliyya; early Islam and the Umayyad state; the Abbasid state, including Andalusian literature; the successive states; and the recent renaissance." Dr. Faisal faults this school for binding literature to politics, giving the political factor far too much weight, clinging to the factor of time while forgetting the influence of place, and stopping at the towering literary peaks of each age, while the rest receive little share of study and attention.
The second school Dr. Faisal presented is the theory of literary genres, such as heroic verse, love poetry, nature poetry, boasting, satire and Sufi poetry. He faulted this theory for attending to the art and neglecting the artist, that is, the poet or the prose writer, taking no interest in his personality or his life.
He then turns to the theory of race, noting that it never won a serious response, because it starts from a vague notion, the effect of racial heredity on literary production. Islam, too, made Muslims equal in rights and duties and placed no restriction on marriage by race. Muslims are equals, the least of them may pledge protection on behalf of them all, and an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab except in piety. Muslims mingled with one another so widely that it is no longer possible to speak of one poet of pure race and another of mixed race... Races interbred under the banner of Islam, and with the passing of time the saying of the greatest Messenger took on its fullest meaning: "O Banu Hashim, let not people come to me with their deeds while you come to me with your lineage."
He then discusses the cultural theory, which calls for studying Arabic literature in the light of Arab culture's blending with foreign cultures such as the Persian, the Indian and the Greek... Among its most striking examples are the blending of Arab and Persian culture in Abd Allah ibn al-Muqaffa' and of Arab, Persian and Greek culture in al-Jahiz.
Dr. Homad comments on this theory: "We believe this theory takes on its widest scope today in the variety of foreign springs from which our writers and thinkers drink during their studies at foreign universities. The Sorbonne group are sensitive to the delicacy of French literature, the Oxford group savor the sweetness of English letters, and those who studied at the universities of the Soviet Union relish the writings of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky... All of them carry back to their countries and their students the masterpieces of their foreign cultures... And from the interaction among many cultures there arises a literature open to every corner of the earth.
"The cultural theory is suited to studying the development of civilizations and examining their elements as they appear in the marriage of cultures, but it is not suited as a framework for studying literature in general, or Arabic literature in particular."
He then discusses the theory of artistic schools, which Dr. Homad considers an attractive theory: its subject is the study of Arabic literature according to the artistic approach that prevails in a given literary age. After that he moves on to the regional theory as Dr. Faisal presented it, on the basis of which poets were divided into seven groups according to their homelands: the poets of Egypt, al-Sham, Iraq, the Jazira, Persia, al-Andalus, the Maghreb and the Arabian Peninsula. The upshot of this theory is that literatures are studied not as a whole across the Arabic-speaking countries but according to regional divisions: there is Egyptian literature, Syrian literature, Maghrebi literature.
Dr. Homad comments on this theory by calling for a comprehensive national study, not one based on regions.
After presenting all these theories, Dr. Homad says: "These theories did not convince the late Dr. Faisal, nor have they convinced us after him. Must the study of literature, then, remain without an accepted method to follow? The answer: never. Dr. Faisal called for a new method, to which he devoted the last part of his book, and which he summed up in the words 'unity of aim and multiplicity of means.'"
Dr. Homad asks: "I do not know whether this is the right occasion to ask whether Dr. Shukri was calling for an eclectic approach among the literary schools (éclectisme), such as we adopt in the field of the criminal sciences and have taught at the university for nearly half a century, especially once the soul has settled and the revolt and unruliness of youth have calmed..."
The other work on which Dr. Homad dwells is "The Development of Love Poetry from the Jahiliyya to Islam." He holds that talk of love poetry always remains attractive, dear to the heart, close to the emotions... It is the stirring of passion in the depths of the soul, the anguish of longing flowing over the bitterness of deprivation, and love poetry is sweeter still when it is discussed by an author known for his strong religious feeling and his adherence to the rules of the sacred law...
Dr. Shukri studied this development with the method of an objective scholar, to chart its course and bring out the differences between an age in which nothing restrained the poet and an age in which the poet had to know that he moved between the lawful and the forbidden, between what is permitted and exposing himself to the legal penalty for slander.
As Dr. Homad says, Dr. Shukri devoted his brilliant and elegant book to the development of Arabic love poetry from Imru' al-Qays to Ibn Abi Rabi'a, with three parts on pre-Islamic love poetry, love poetry in early Islam and love poetry in the Umayyad age.
He showed a command of literary texts and a remarkable power to analyze them and draw out their deepest meanings... He takes a theme such as the scenes of departure and of loading the camels, or the description of the beloved's charms, follows these arts through the poetry of a number of pre-Islamic poets, and concludes that pre-Islamic love poetry is a poetry of simile, concerned with outward appearances. The Islamic age then brought a new idea of love poetry, for which Dr. Shukri chose as his example the words of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya in the opening praise of his book: "Praise be to God, who made love a path to winning the beloved, and by it stirred lofty aspirations and high resolves toward their noblest ends, singling them out and making them worthy." These words call for love to be a force that spurs and drives toward the aims of religion: building up society and raising generations of believers.
Dr. Homad holds that the love poets of the Islamic age did not keep to this understanding. They divided into poets who loved their beloveds with a chaste love and sang of them to quench a burning passion that was turned toward nothing but the ideal, artistic side, such as Jamil Buthayna, and poets who made love poetry a mount for proving the strength of their poetic gift. These did not confine their love to one Buthayna or one Akhyaliyya, but named many women they had courted in verse, abandoned the ruined encampments, and embodied the civilization of their age.
At the head of these innovators stands Umar ibn Abi Rabi'a, to whom Dr. Shukri devoted a deep study, especially of his famous ode rhyming in ra', a study that takes up more than a third of the book.
Dr. Homad concludes his review of this work by saying: "It is enough for me to say of this splendid work that it is a truly creative achievement, in which I do not believe any writer on literature preceded him." He then adds a reservation: "But it is not necessary to adopt the author's point of view without discussion in everything he said about love poetry."
Dr. Homad then presents a selection of the literary studies Dr. Faisal completed, among them:
1. Shafiq Jabri: The Poet and the Poetry.
2. "Prophetic Eloquence," a study published by the Algerian Ministry of Religious Affairs.
3. An article on Muhammad Kurd Ali.
4. An article on Muhammad Jamil Bayhum.
5. An article on Dr. Michel Hanna al-Khouri.
6. An article on Sheikh Muhammad al-Bashir al-Ibrahimi.
7. An article on the Academy member Izz al-Din al-Tanukhi.
8. An article on the late Mrs. Adila Bayhum al-Jazairi.
He comments on this last article: "This is the virtuous, pioneering life of a woman who worked with dignity and perseverance to spread the education of women and their liberation within the framework of lofty spiritual ideals." He then quotes Dr. Faisal: "The Arab woman must take her place... She must come out of the captivity of ignorance into the light of knowledge, out of the bonds of backwardness into the horizon of openness, and she must come out with great care, so that she does not lose her way or slip on the slippery places." And he comments on these words: "This is a view worthy of support. The liberation of women is a religious, national and social necessity. It means enabling her to exercise her human and legal rights, and it never means dissolution and corruption..."
9. An article on Khayr al-Din al-Zirikli.
10. An article on the poet al-Qarawi. Dr. Homad says of this: "Al-Qarawi has a special place in my heart, but this is not the place to sing his praises."
11. A long study of Ibn Arabi's book "Ruh al-Quds fi Muhasabat al-Nafs."
12. Literary Journalism
13. The Reformers, an article titled "Between the October That Was and the October to Come," in which he studied the reform movements led by Muhammad Abduh, Rashid Rida and Sati' al-Husri, and which contains a sharp attack on regional chauvinism.
14. Three radio talks on al-Tha'alibi's book.
He then reviews the old books Dr. Faisal edited:
1. Al-Marzuqi's introduction to his commentary on Abu Tammam's "Hamasa."
2. "Kharidat al-Qasr wa-Jaridat al-Asr" by al-Tha'alibi, in four volumes.
3. The collected poems of the ascetic poet Abu al-Atahiya, with the reports about him.
4. Three volumes of Ibn Asakir's "History of the City of Damascus."
5. Al-Safadi's "Al-Wafi" (volume fifteen).
6. The collected poems of al-Nabigha al-Dhubyani (in the recension of Ibn al-Sikkit).
Dr. Homad dwells on the fine service Dr. Faisal rendered in collecting the most important works of Dr. Taha Hussein in three large volumes, which he selected and whose printing he supervised, a work he undertook out of loyalty to his teacher. He then speaks of the Arab and Islamic side of Dr. Faisal's character: his firm belief in the unity of the Arabs, his love of the Arabic language and his defense of it, his struggle during the French Mandate over Syria, his selection as a member of the unified People's Assembly during the union between Syria and Egypt, and his secret struggle during the secession to restore the state of the union.
Dr. Homad discusses Dr. Faisal's writings in defense of the Arabic language and his contributions to the battle for Arabization that the nation is waging.
He holds that Dr. Faisal was, in general, a guardian of heritage, and that he looked on most Orientalists with caution, finding their studies far from objective in their research and far from pure in their aims. Dr. Homad, however, departs from this view and holds that generalization is not permissible here: we have no right to accuse them of bad intent, and a number of Orientalists have produced splendid works.
Dr. Homad sets out in detail the views contained in Dr. Faisal's study "The Islamic Awakening between Reality and Aspiration." He shows that Dr. Faisal does not hold that there is an Islamic awakening while blood flows in rivers on the borders of the Islamic lands and illiteracy reaches three quarters of Muslims. If there is to be a turn toward an effective Islamic awakening, then in his view the theoretical foundation that came to us from God must be deepened, by deepening our understanding of it and our jurisprudence, without any departure from the texts of the noble Quran, the noble Sunna of the Prophet, or what the consensus of Muslims has agreed upon.
Dr. Homad comments on this view: "This, in my view, is the fruitful work of reconciling our heritage with the need to understand it, in its letter and its spirit, in the light of the demands of the age, so that we may rightly say that Islamic law is fit for every time and place."
When Dr. Faisal treated the subject of the Arab renaissance in his article "Toward a New Arab Civilization,"[1] he wrote: "When we look at our Arab countries, I am appalled by the distance of this gap between us and contemporary civilization, and what appalls us most is that we do not make civilization; we only consume the civilization that others make. We must therefore achieve two complementary aims: to catch up with the caravan of civilization and to take part in leading it. We once had a distinguished civilizational past, so why does the Arab homeland remain outside the circle of contribution to civilization?"
Dr. Homad holds that Dr. Faisal soared high in his treatment of this subject.
Endnotes:
[1] Dr. Shukri Faisal, "Toward a New Arab Civilization," "Al-Ma'rifa" (Syria), February 1975.