MAWLID

Some seventy years ago, in a house in Pljevlje, Boy suddenly sailed into a sea of joy and delight. All of a sudden, he got covered by a kind of shroud woven from hundreds of bright voices, hundreds of exhilarated faces of women, children and men, solemnly dressed and transformed into almost a single voice, into a bliss, into something that enchants, that elevates and echoes with something the Boy had never seen or heard before. And then, completely caressing voices radiated from this wave and the human wave itself got up on its feet and Boy heard, though he did not discern what he saw and heard but only felt beauty spreading all around him:

Dobro nan doš'o, najveći sine

Arapskog roda i domovine!

Dobro nam doš'o, stari plemiću,

Hašimoviću, Kurejševiću,

Koji će slabe dići na noge

I lišit ropstva narode mnoge.

Dobro nam doš'o, prosvjetitelju,

Zagovorniče i spasitelju.

Suri-israfil kada zapuše,

U te se naše uzdaće duše.

Ti nesretniku blažićeš muke,

Ti griješniku pružaćeš ruke.

(Welcome, the greatest son

Of Arabic kind and homeland!

Welcome, the old nobleman,

Hašimović, Kurejšević,

Who will raise the weak on their feet

And deprive many nations of slavery.

Welcome, enlightener,

Advocate and savior.

When Suri-israfil blows his trumpet,

Our souls will rely on you.

You will alleviate pains to the unfortunate,

You will offer your hand to the sinner.)

Many years later, in the Emperor's Mosque, the boy (of course, now a grown-up man), after launching the Preporod newspaper, joined forces with a group of young men and girls and tried to bring back part of the Mawlid dream from his childhood as well as his experiences from youth, by organizing the Mawlid (1971) of texts by our writers who had this kind of literary expression in their works. Somewhat later, when visiting many towns of our country, they used this mawlid to present something that had, unfortunately, been almost forgotten or completely unknown.

II

By celebrating the birthday of Muhammed, a. s., that is by honoring Allah, dž.š. who, among other things, through this unique personality revealed his immeasurable grace and tenderness, and by identifying themselves with millions of Muslims across the Earth and feeling the power of such unity at the same time, our people accepted Mawlid a long time ago as a kind of religious obligation, thus confirming their loyalty to Islam, and showing, with their actions, love for the crown executor of his ideas, Muhammed a.s. Thus, celebration of Mawlid in Gazi Husrev-beg's vakufnama is mentioned as early as in 1531, though many people believe that its roots date back even further to the past.

It is certain that in our regions Mawlid was prayed in Turkish for years, mostly in mosques, tekkes and musallas, and that it was only later that praying Mawlid was taken to homes as well. One could say that Mawlid has become a constituent part of religious teaching and life of our Muslims, regardless of where they live: in a small or big place, a city or a village, thus assuming distinctive dimensions and sublimity of a basic moral act at the level of the highest good. Therefore, the memory of the birth of Allah's last prophet has not remained localized only on 12 Rabi-al-Awwal, but has become universal, so that many believers have practically marked any important joyful and significant event by praying Mawlid, regardless of when it happened – birth of a child, aqiqah, moving into a new apartment or a house, and particularly ceremonies of opening mosques, then traditional Mawlids in central mosques, at the spring of the Buna and other similar sites.

The indisputable acceptance of Mawlid and its existential tone have left their characteristic traces in literature. Naturally, this brief review does not allow us to discuss Mawlid as a literary creation in detail, and we will thus provide only basic outlines.

Without any doubt, the most frequent verses (i.e. reasons) are those which hafiz Salih Gašević articulated as follows:

Od Allaha koji traži pomoći,

Neka Mevlud Pejgamberu prouči!

(Who seeks help from Allah,

Let him pray Mawlid to the Prophet!)

Further reasons pertain to understanding what Mawlid says. When listening to Mawlid in Turkish, and without a god knowledge of the language, our man wanted Mawlid to serve as a tool for gaining knowledge, and this is described by Arif Sarajlija:

Nije fajda samo slušat sam avaz

A šta Mevlud kaže neznat mu dokaz.

Našeg pejgambera mi hajemo znat

Ne žalimo mal i dušu za to dat.

(It's no use only listening to speech

Without knowing what Mawlid says.

We want to understand our Porphet

And we don't mind giving our property and our soul for it.)

Safvet-beg Bašagić simplified it and brought it closer to homeland:

U jeziku koji naš Mujo razumi,

Jer mu kao Bosna u ušima šumi.

(In the language which our Mujo understands,

Since it hums in his ears like the river Bosnia.)

Language is one of the essential conditions which both contributes to understanding the content and, more importantly, speaks of raising awareness among the people and their constitution, of inexhaustible thirst for the root of their being, their true expression and identification with the language and in the language. There is also a component of teaching and educating, i.e. forming religious worldviews which should be implanted in children since their earliest age.

The first text of Mawlid in our language is one by hafiz Salih Gašević, which some authors named Srpska pesma o Muhamedovu rođenju (Serbian poem on Muhammed's birth), even “Serbian” (!) Mawlid (Fehim Bajraktarević, PhD). It is actually a translation of the well-known work Vasilet-un-nedžat by the famous Turkish poet Sulejman Čelebi lithographed in 1296 Hijri year. In 1909, Mehmed Džemaludin Čaušević edited it and published it in Arebica script and somewhat later Mehmed Handžić made some language corrections and had it published by Waqf Directorate in Sarajevo, adding an extensive dova (prayer) at the end. This Mawlid has been printed so many times and has been so popular among people that no later Mawlid has ever come even close to this one.

A similar procedure was used by Muharem Dizdarević (Muharem Ruždi), though not in the manner of transcriber but as an independent poetic personality, with progressive views of the world. Thus, Ruždi's Mawlid, actually Mawlids (since he wrote two) includes a large number of verses which cannot be found in either Čelebi's or Gašević's works, which makes him an exceptional poetic figure, who is described by some authors as the last great poet of our alhamiado literature.

In 1904, one of our most significant poets Musa Ćazim Ćatić published a poem “Lejlei-mevlud”, which has only 92 lines; it poetically depicts the very birth of our Prophet a.s. without Mi'raj or some other important events of his life. Since it was written in 16-syllable verse it did not become very popular, although some stanzas can be compared to the most successful creations of this author.

Mevlud (Mawlid) by Safvet-beg Bašagić appeared in 1924 and was a complete novelty both in terms of the content and the form. In the first edition it did not have Mi'raj; however, upon the advice by raisu-l-ulama Mehmed Džemaludin Čauševič he added Mi'raj and had it published in the same year, when it was also performed. Although it does not belong to the very top of Bašagić's poetic production, it certainly shows quality of building verses, softness of expression, outstanding rhythm and particular musicality, and it therefore immediately found its listeners and readers. Here are some verses as an illustration of the above said:

Tude je Muhamed izvan sebe stao –

I Bogu na sedždu u zanosu pao

I dušom slušao riječi bez glasa

I dušom gledao u ideal spasa.

(There, Muhammed stopped, beside himself –

And prostrated himself before God, enchanted

And listened to words without a voice with his soul

And looked at the ideal of salvation with his soul.)

Chronologically, this work was followed by Mevlud (Mawlid) of hafiz Seid Zenunović, who sang about the birth of the last God's Prophet itself, then by Mevlud of Mahmud Džaferović (almost literally copied Gašić's Mevlud), Mevluds of Muhamed Spužić, Šemsudin Sarajlić, Vehbija Hodžić and, finally, Mevluds of Rešad Kadić, Ešref Kovačević and Džemaludin Latić. And while no critical discourse has yet been established about Mevlud by Džemaludin Latić, Mevluds by Kadić and Kovačević are the best works written over several decades. They are a fortunate juncture of simple poetic formulations and hymnic speech which produces impressive effects, particularly on the stage. They certainly deserve far more thorough reviews; however, since they are “among us” at the moment, alive and real, they speak both for themselves and by themselves.