The Business of the Muridiyya: To Build New Jerusalems Everywhere

AND did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?

And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark Satanic mills?

Bring me my bow of burning gold:
Bring me my arrows of desire:
Bring me my spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire.

I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.

So William Blake. And so the Muridiyya. In the 7th century of the Common Era, Muhammad's followers first prayed in the direction of the temple mount in Jerusalem. Later, the qibla (prayer direction) changed to the ancient Arabian shrine, the Kaaba.

The Prophet's ability to change the direction of prayer demonstrates the conventional nature of the axis mundi. The Qur'an contends that the entire world is a mosque. The portability of the prayer rug is an emblem of this promise.

These are but outward and visible symbols of an inward and aspirational truth--Blake's truth that we must not sleep from mental fight until we have built "new Jerusalems" to function as Second Isaiah envisioned his restored Jerusalem would function: as a Dar al-Murid (abode of desire) for the nations.

"Thy kingdom come Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." As above, so below.

Amadu Bamba understood the imminent eschatology these concepts and symbols represent, so he dedicated a portion of his life to planning his own beautiful city, Touba, in his native Senegal.

Sacred space is not so much discovered as it is invented.

"Oh what a beautiful city/Twelve gates to the City, hallelujah."