Islamic Studies

Lord of the Rings: All That is Gold Does Not Glitter

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cdharrison/1709586726/Many of you are avid readers of works of J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of The Lord of the Rings series. Others may be huge fans of the movies. Tolkien’s work happens to be filled with some of the most beautiful prose and poetry found in 20th century fiction writing. Much of it takes from wisdom found in many parts of the world and reflects deep truths that are found within the Abrahamic, and thus the Islamic, tradition. This will be the beginning of a series in which we will explore selected passages from Tolkien’s work and explain how the lines reflect general wisdom that have specific relevance to the Muslim.

For those that may be uncomfortable with this approach, the idea here is not to take 20th century fiction as a source for religious guidance. The idea is to show that the wisdom of Islam and Divine Revelation is reflected in all of creation and drops of that wisdom inform cultures all over the world. As is narrated in at-Tirmidhi:

“The statement of wisdom is the lost property of the believer, so wherever he finds it then he has a right to it.”

BismilLah (In the Name of God)

“All that is gold does not glitter

Not all those who wander are lost”

(The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien)

Context in The Lord of the Rings

These are the first two lines of a poem written by Bilbo Baggins. They are in reference to the Dunedain, the descendants of the nobles and royals of Gondor, who sailed across the sea when their ancestral home, the Island of Numenor was destroyed by the One due to their breaking of his commandment to never try to reach the Undying Lands. The evil Sauron is able to convince some men to cross the sea and invade the Undying Lands so that they might be immortal. A group known as the Faithful refused to break the commandment and left Numenor to come to Middle Earth as the invaders were destroyed by the One himself. After founding the Kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor and the gradual descent of the kingdoms into decay and chaos, the descendants of the Faithful become wanderers. Their role was to secretly and discreetly allow their line to survive while fighting unknown to protect Middle Earth. Aragorn was their leader before the War of the Rings. These lines mirror a number of Islamic lessons and ideas.

Some Islamic Thoughts1. There are many human beings that God, subhanahu wa ta’ala (exalted is He), has placed on the Earth who are unknown, hidden, and go about doing the work of God without any recognition or fame. They come from a spiritual and educational, and sometimes even familial, line connecting them to the Final Messenger of God ﷺ (peace be upon him). As the Messenger ﷺ  said: “When the believers enter Paradise, there shall already be a number of people inside Paradise. The believers will ask, ‘How did you get here?’ The people shall respond, ‘We used to worship Allah secretly, so he placed us in Paradise secretly.'” For those seeking sincerity, this is a wonderful goal. Those who go out of their way to worship Allah (swt) and do good things secretly, Allah will reward them with some among His secrets in this world, and reward them secretly in the next, by His permission.

These people, the Friends of God (swt), are the gold of humanity, its most precious treasure, and one of the reasons that we are bestowed with divine Grace on the Earth. But just like the fictional Dunedain, they do not glitter, shine, flash, or have a ton of YouTube videos or social media entries. They put their head down and work to worship and serve others. We can pray that Allah (swt) allows us to meet them and learn from them—but even more critically—that by His unfailing mercy, He allows us to be like them.

This does not mean that utilizing social and mass mediums is a negative thing. Rather, as the statement says, simply that not everything that is gold necessarily HAS to glitter. That is, just because someone is not famous, well known, or all over the internet, does not mean they are not of amazing quality, close to God (swt) and useful to His servants.

Ibn Ata’illah, rahimahu Allah (May God have mercy on him), writes: “Bury yourself in the Earth of being hidden. For what grows without being buried, does not come to fruition.”

The idea that before one is able to engage people and provide fruit, one must first (and then continuously in intervals) spend some time buried in the earth the way a seed is buried is central to our understanding of tarbiyyah (spiritual growth) and tazkiyyah (purification of the soul). We find the proverbial “burying” of oneself in the cave of Hira with our Messenger ﷺ , the walk across the desert of Musa, the seemingly secret lessons of Khidr which we only found centuries later in the Revelation to the Prophet, as well the sabbatical of Imam al-Ghazali (ra) when he left his teaching and imam responsibilities to go and purify himself for years before returning to be Hujjat al Islam, culminating in some of the most critical legal and spiritual teachings of our Ummah (Muslim community).

One may call such people “wanderers” but such people are not lost. Some may not recognize the gold that such people are and consider them to be nothing. Rather, God (swt) has already put them on a path towards Him. Though they may seem like they are “wandering”, they are in fact racing towards their Lord (swt).

Once, Shaykh Muhammad Ash-Sha’raawi (ra), the Azhari scholar (Al-Azhar is an Islamic university in Egypt) and teacher of tafsir (Qu’ranic exegesis) was expected to give his nightly tafsir in the mosque, which was also broadcast. When the organizers could not find him, they searched the complex and finally found him in the bathroom dressed in the robes normally worn by religious scholars, cleaning the bathroom of the mosque. When they asked him what he was doing, he replied (paraphrased): “I had a moment in which I thought too much of myself as I was preparing to teach tafsir to so many, so I came here to remind myself who I am.”

Lessons:

  • Flashiness is not Faith, nor it is it the path to Faith. As Ali Hujwiri (ra) said, if someone has attained ma’rifah (gnosis of God), he should keep quiet about it. So of course this would apply to the thousands of darajaat (levels) underneath ma’rifah of Allah (swt).
  • We should strive to be of those who can do little things for God’s sake secretly (swt). God (swt) will make known what benefits others, we do not need to be our own spokesmen.
  • Sometimes, I may feel that Allah (swt) is making me wander in my life as I try to reach Him. Career concerns, trials, and tribulations may make us feel that we are lost, but our religion teaches us that such occurrences are exactly the path that Allah (swt) is using to purify us so that when we present ourselves to Him, He will do nothing except enter us into Paradise. Our reaction to this “wandering road” is what will determine whether we indeed make ourselves lost, or reach God (swt) at the end.
  • There are some spiritual people out there who have no websites, but their connection with Allah (swt) is beyond fiber optic. Pretty book covers and websites are not necessarily indicative of scholarship. As a community, we should realize that all the gold of our communities does not glitter. Benefit can be found in unlikely places. Whether a small house that serves as the seed for a hifdh (Qu’ranic memorization) school that turns into its own community, or a Ph.D. of shari’ah (Islamic law) with a white beard who serves in a quiet corner of a major city who happened to be involved in the curriculum design of Al-Azhar.
  • As much as we strive to be God-centered in our religious practice, not nafs-centered (self)—we should not allow Shaytaan (the Devil) to fool us such that we leave any responsibilities that may be thrown our way. If you know something reliably that someone else does not, and you are asked about it, sincerity does not entail leaving them to themselves. This is laziness. Sincerity entails helping them find the answer, and even directing them towards one more qualified.

To completely ignore responsibilities under the guise of “sincerity” is also something that Ibn Ata’illah (ra) warns about. It is easy to turn the quest for sincerity into its own arrogance, assuring oneself that the reason one ignores the needs of people is that one is sincere. With this attitude, we lose both spiritually and practically. We have fooled ourselves and have not helped others. This is why Imam An-Nawawi (ra) provides us a simple formula to ward off Shaytaan’s whispers instead of having to re-affirm our intentions at every Planck Time:

Check our intentions at the beginning, the middle, and the end of the act. If we can re-affirm at these three checkpoints that what we are doing is for God (swt), then God-willing our action will be accepted.

About the author

Abdul Sattar Ahmed

Abdul Sattar Ahmed

Abdul Sattar Ahmed is a young IT professional from Chicago, IL. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2006 with a Bachelors in Finance with a second Major of Management Information Systems. He was a member of Young Muslims of North America for over ten years, serving in roles at the local, regional, and national levels with a focus on the organization’s educational program.

He currently works in the Software Engineering field in Chicago, and is receiving training in the Islamic sciences part-time at Dar ul Qasim Institute and the Islamic Learning Foundation’s Chicago Campus, and studies Islamic subjects independently with other scholars. He is a board member of the Islamic Learning Foundation and teaches Arabic and Islamic studies there under the lead of his teachers. His interests include software development, the study of the Qur’an, Islamic education, law, and history.

18 Comments

  • You have no idea how ecstatic I am about this series!! Jazak Allahu khairan brother. May Allah reward you for bringing together 2 of my favorite things in this world. I look forward to many more amazing reflections.

  • Interesting angle. I’ve always regarded Tolkien’s work as a mythology (which he did as well, according to his letters), and in essence, it’s a story which celebrates traditionalism. So in that sense I’ve seen the link with most major religions.

    However, this view on it is something which I have not seen before. Lots to think about here, I only wish it could have been longer! 🙂

    For instance, you could have possibly discussed the hadith regarding the qualities of people before Islam and after (http://sunnah.com/muslim/45/205). Maybe I am seeing relevance where there is none, but it would touch on the aspect of inborn traits, and good characters and morals being passed down from one generation to another – a.k.a. nobility. This then links up with the nobility of the Dunedain and how they are the greatest of men in Middle-Earth.

    Perhaps in the next installment? 🙂

    • That sounds like a great angle! InshAllah! I’m hoping to make it a series to hopefully I’ll be able to steal that tidbit from you sometime soon 🙂

  • Tabarak Allaah some really good points made. I am sure everyone knows this already and it is a given but we also have to acknowledge the evil aspects of the movie and book which have aspects of kufr. By the way this is a view of a scholar and not mine and I am sure most people with the basics of the deen would be aware of it. Obviously that was not the motive of the author who had a sound aim/objective of showing the points of wisdom from Tolkiens work which are in line with the teachings of Islam. He did acknowledge that the idea is not to take Tolkiens work as a religious guidance which is a good point. I feel acknowledging the evil aspect of Tolkiens work is important so that some people do not deem it to be acceptable and without issues that contradict the deen severely. I am sure many people may disagree but Islam allows us discussion and this website allows different views to be published

    http://islamqa.info/en/ref/1107

  • LOTR is certainly a piece of literature that was ment to condition the minds of the twentieth century towards a fictionalization of magic. Now whenever we try to warn someone about lets say the magic that may be present in contemporary music in order to warn people of its nature. They automatically think that magic are tells of the old, and fantasy because of this piece of writing in particular. I am a revert to Islam of three years I can vouch for this because I have read most of his books, in fact I was infatuated in my adolescence. I promise you these books fictionalized my perception of magic, all these books were meant to do do was essentially draw people away from realism of magic and make it look heroic.

  • Salam, can I get the source for the Hadith, “We used to worship Allah secretly, so he placed us in Paradise secretly.”

    Looking forward to this series inshaAllah

  • Truly a wonderful juxtaposition. Who greater than Tolkien to discuss traditionalism and now to be connected with Islam. Really a wonderful article…and yes not all gold is glitter.

  • This article contains great lessons to me! Maa syaa Allah, many thanks, ustaz Abdul Sattar Ahmed, and jazakumullahu khiran kathiran. Alhamdu lillahi rabbil ‘alamiin.

  • Jazaak Allah khair for this. I’ve been an avid reader of all of Tolkien’s works for 40 years, and have often thought about writing about this. There are indeed many many parallels between what he teaches in his stories and the teachings of Islam. Glad you went ahead and did it.

    The human condition is exactly that. Human. We all are fundamentally the same, and so it is no surprise the the most enduring literature and movies are those that tap into ultimate truths.

    I have often thought about writing articles like this in relation to Star Trek and Star Wars as well as LOTR, because there are some elements (but not all) of those stories that also mirror Islamic teachings and concepts.

    Looking forward to your next installment.

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