Traveling

As part of my duties as a homeschooling mother, I am writing a curriculum teaching history through reading literature. No, that won't replace a solid history class, but it will immeasurably enrich it. As a hybrid history/literature some of my choices aren't obvious. The latest example is The Travels of Ibn Jubayr. I chose it to round out our understanding of the cultures of the Middle Ages. Ibn Jubayr is a Muslim, and his travels are to Mecca to perform Hajj. I was excited to learn about medieval modes of travel, ancient Muslim culture, and interactions between Christians and Muslims of that time. What I didn't expect was to be so impressed with Ibn Jubayr himself. His soft voice, so reverent and deferent to God, his praise for those who did good, his thoughtful appraisal of those who did bad, these all won my heart as well as my ears.

Some quotes.

"This world destroys all those who love it most, and it's sons it devours. The reward of God is the best treasure, and obedience to him is the most noble booty. There is no God but He."

"May God protect us from the abuse of His decrees."

"Enlightened men left weeping for religion, despairing of the happiness of the world, and assured of the portents of the Day of Judgement. To God belongs the future and the past."

"Yet on the whole, in comparison with the men, they are wretched and cheated. They see the venerated House and may not enter it, they gaze upon the blessed Stone but cannot touch it, and their lot s wholly one of staring and feeling the sadness that moves and holds them. They have nothing but tawaf at a distance."

At times I forget that just because someone's faith is different than mine doesn't mean they are hypocrites, and that faithful adherence to one's religion doesn't automatically make someone a bad person. Sometimes it makes them exemplary.