The door of Resurrection pried open

July 2nd, 2012 by Charles Cameron

There’s irony for you: the Ansar destroyed the ancient door to demonstrate that it wouldn’t bring on the Yawm al-Qiyamah, the Day of Judgment and Resurrection — they’re demythologizing the legend that has it that it will open only on the Day — in the stilted translation offered by Google:

The Abu Turab; who is a member of Ansar al-Din, he emphasized that what happened is the kind of “Aspects of the elimination of superstition and heresy, and the excuse they may reach a trap,” adding: “We have heard our ears that there is a door in the courtyard of the Mosque of Sidi Yahia old if open The Resurrection, and verified what we learned from it that he canceled the door in the courtyard of the mosque is the door has been canceled accumulation Vtm filled soil on it.

Indeed, the photo in the tweet at the head of this post — which is subtitled The process of opening the door of the Holy Sepulchre in Tinbactu — actually downloads under the title “bab alqyama” — door of the Day of Resurrection.

***

Belief in the Last Day, the Yawm al-Qiyamah, is mandatory of Muslims in accordance with the revelation of Qur’an 4.136:

O ye who believe! Believe in Allah and His Messenger, and the scripture which He hath sent to His Messenger and the scripture which He sent to those before (him). Any who denieth Allah, His angels, His Books, His Messengers, and the Day of Judgment, hath gone far, far astray.

***

Here’s an image of one of the beautiful doors from the same mosque:

photo credit: Jean-Luc Dighaye, EurAstro visit to Mali

I am not clear whether this is a photo of the same door which was destroyed, however, and would appreciate any further info.

***

You might like to drink a cool glass of water at this point, to cleanse your palate…

***

Here’s my preferred quote on opening doors into sacred space:

When you have grown still on purpose while everything around you is asking for chaos, you will find the doors between every room of the interior castle thrown open, the path home to your true love unobstructed after all.

St. Teresa of Avila

h/t kathe izzo, who tweeted this today for reasons unconnected with Timbuctu as far as i can tell…

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Posted in Apocalyptic, Charles Cameron, christianity, Islam, islamic world, islamist, myth, psychology, risk, threat, Uncategorized | 7 comments

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  1. Michael:

    July 2nd, 2012 at 10:08 pm

    Superb article. Have come to expect nothing less. First class post…

  2. Michael:

    July 2nd, 2012 at 10:21 pm

    Link to Kathe Izzo seems not to be working…

  3. Charles Cameron:

    July 2nd, 2012 at 10:30 pm

    Fixed. thanks!

  4. Curtis Gale Weeks:

    July 3rd, 2012 at 12:56 am

    Well this is very interesting, because by nature I have a very deep love of iconoclasm—in the abstract, at least.
    .
    As with any deep love, there should be room for moderation, however.  Or as Montaigne said, even a virtue can be ruined through excessive practice.  (Very crude paraphrase.)
    .
    But dear god what would happen if all religious icons were spontaneously destroyed, everywhere? 
    .
    But more to the point, perhaps, is the question of whether actions can be iconographic; and so, is the destruction of this door merely the replacement of one icon with another?  Keeping in mind (circuitously if necessary, as it might be) that both the door and its destruction were performances.

  5. J. Scott Shipman:

    July 3rd, 2012 at 1:52 am

    Hi Charles,
    .
    This is extraordinary, thanks for sharing—love the get away quote. 

  6. zen:

    July 3rd, 2012 at 2:49 am

    The Taliban of the Mahgreb
    .
     http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/1326063/After-1700-years-Buddhas-fall-to-Taliban-dynamite.html

  7. Charles Cameron:

    July 3rd, 2012 at 5:04 pm

    Thanks for the pointer, Zen.
    .
    As I said on Twitter yesterday, I was with Julian West in Bamiyan the first time she climbed atop the head of the great Buddha of Bamiyan, an occasion which she describes in one of the other Telegraph pieces linked to from the article you just pointed us to.
    .
    A ftiend of mine, Gregory McNamee, wrote Bamiyan up for the Britannica blog in March last year, and I responded with a poem which I’ll post here (as always, my excuse is the encouragement Madhu gives me):

    Trikaya at Bamiyan
    — for Gregory McNamee
    .
    .
    There’s something inherently evaporative
    about a Buddha’s body, it erodes –
    through neglect, the silk scarves of devotion,
    the weather, the Taliban –
    something inherently condensate
    about a Buddha’s mind, it
    accrues, it deepens, enriches as time
    echoes it back on itself — there
    is no mirror such as the Buddha’s mirror.
    .
    Left in that cleft in Bamiyan’s
    rock face, then, are our memories – for some,
    joy in purification, for some, grief at loss,
    and in the mirror, in time,
    Bamiyan, its people, farmland and sky.

    Julian’s response to my poem is worth reading. 
    .
    And here’s the photo Greg posted — Bamiyan without the Buddha:
    .

    .
    I should have a post on comparisons — Bamiyan / Timbuctu, for instance — coming up shortly.