Malahat Veliyeva is an alumna of the Dialogue Institute’s 2019 Study of the U.S. Institutes for Scholars program. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of English Lexicology and Stylistics at the Azerbaijan University of Languages where she teaches American studies and multiculturalism. Professor Veliyeva was interviewed by Ivanessa Arostegui, a Temple University student pursuing a PhD in religious studies.
Ivanessa Arostegui: Good evening Malahat. It's evening, where you're at, and we are so, so happy that you're going to be able to spend some time with us and talk about how Islam has impacted your life and how you see it within Azerbaijan, going to talk to us about a very specific holiday, and we really appreciate your time here with us this morning. So I want to begin by having you introduce yourself.
Malahat Veliyeva: Thank you very much. I'm also delighted to talk to you this evening, it is evening in Baku good morning to you in Philadelphia, I am Malahat Veliyeva I teach American studies and multiculturalism at Azerbaijan University of Languages, I am a SUSI scholar, 2019. And I had a wonderful experience at Temple University, specifically at the Dialogue Institute with our colleagues with Len Swidler, David Krueger, and Rebecca Mays. These are wonderful people who made our SUSI journey very interesting and useful for us and more informative, educative for us.
Ivanessa Arostegui: Great. Thank you so much for introducing yourself and explaining your connection to the Dialogue Institute. We're so happy that you had a great experience here. It's probably a very different city than where you live, and you know, I'm glad that you were able to make so many connections and, hopefully, you still feel connected to the Institute and we're so happy that you're able to be here with us today.
Malahat Veliyeva: Yes, I am yes, thank you very much for the question. And I'm still connected with our colleagues at the Dialogue Institute now via email. We contact with each other, we send articles to the Journal of Ecumenical Studies, and at the same time we exchange our views on different events happening in the world, we still keep in touch with each other and also, I would like to mention very valuable ideas very valuable experience that I bought about religious pluralism and studies of American society. When I was a SUSI scholar at Temple University, we visited different states, we visited Arizona, we visited the Grand Canyon. So it was an unforgettable experience actually.
Ivanessa Arostegui: Yeah it sounds amazing because you were able to meet all these people, but also see the United States and have these very unique experiences and all of these different sites, you know historical sites and sacred sites and I'm sure that that really kind of gave you a well-rounded understanding it's- it's one thing to meet people it's another thing to go physically and see places experience and walk and yeah so wonderful Okay, so you are Muslim correct.
Malahat Veliyeva: Yes, I am.
Ivanessa Arostegui: Okay, so now we're going to transition and talk about Islam and your experience with your religion, so my first question is just how does Islam affect the way that you see the universe, or the world or other people like your perspective and your lens like how does that focus things in for you in your life.
Malahat Veliyeva: Thank you very much. Islam actually has shaped my views on the universe our planet and other people, since I realized the essence of this religion. I understand that the whole universe, including all living beings, are created by God. Everyone has a mission in this world, some people understand it, some people don't that's why we have positive and negative people, so in my understanding. And this life is a trial for everyone, according to Islam it's an examination, whether we pass or do not pass this examination will be known in the other world when we change the way we exist. You know people work they do their best to achieve something to make fortune sometimes to get some financial benefits, but when we return to God, we will not be asked how much we have accumulated how much fortune we have made, we will be asked how much we give away, so this is the essence of life, this is my philosophy of life, according to Islam.
Ivanessa Arostegui: That's beautiful yeah so it affects everything your whole complete understanding of everything in the universe and you're like you said mission, while you're here while you're alive, which is it sounds like rooted in generosity and kindness and compassion and giving right because, for you everything in the physical material world is nothing really. When we return back to God.
Malahat Veliyeva: Yes, we will all return back to God and we should all realize it and whatever surrounds us our life, the planet, universe, people, all these things are you know given for us like examination. Like trial for us in this world. So that to give a kind of report in another world about our actions about our deeds like this.
Ivanessa Arostegui: Yeah perfect, so I guess, we can segway into actions and deeds behaviors, how do you feel Islam kind of shapes the way that you make decisions in your life or how you interact with others.
Malahat Veliyeva: It has enormous impact on my life my actions, my behaviors are determined by my religious views. Also, my personality. I am a woman and a woman in Islam, should be educated in order to educate her children the future generation to educate others. A woman is not only in miserable creature deprived of her human rights under hijab as in some Muslim countries, women are very active citizens in Azerbaijani society, of course, we also have some gender problems. So in faraway regions of Azerbaijan, there are some gender problems.
Infringement of women's rights, etc, but overall in our society, women are very independent. They're everywhere they're in politics, they're in education and spheres of education, they are in business. Everywhere, and so women in our society, women should be educated everyone - everyone tries to educate, especially girls in the families, because. In the future, they might face a lot of problems, a lot of difficulties like social problems, divorce or any other problems, so that if they have a good education they might somehow support themselves support their family so.
Ivanessa Arostegui: That's wonderful yeah, I mean I think that's sometimes people have a lot of negative associations or stereotypes or ideas of other religions or other places that they're ignorant of, and unfortunately they just fill in you know the gaps or the ignorance and their knowledge by something they saw one time or an idea that they might have by somebody else that doesn't know anything about this country or this religion. But I am glad that you mentioned that it's a complicated spectrum in terms of the situation for women, but from your experience and in the cities that you grew up in and that you lived in you saw a type of Islam, where women are you know, prized within their society, as you know, very important to the family and Islam in general I think also encourages so much the search for knowledge, and so, women are also a part of that and becoming educated. And it wouldn't be fair to have that negative stereotype that sometimes comes in.
Malahat Veliyeva: Education, women's education is great priority in our society, and everyone strives for that everyone tries to give education to their daughters, especially in families with daughters, you know because I think education, Dostoevsky said that beauty will save the world, but I think education will save the world, you know, because even Islam, even to the studies of Islam, we should approach it from the point of view of you know, education. If we study Islam as it is, if we study real Islam if we investigate Qur’an we will see that it is, it is quite you know- more than religion, and there are a lot of answers to our questions there, we can find, although it was written many, many centuries ago, yeah.
Ivanessa Arostegui: Yeah, great so then my other question in relation to Islam is about religious practices that you feel might bring the community together or might build bridges of connection or communication. I don't know if you want to share some of those practices with us today.
Malahat Veliyeva: So religious practice, for example in Azerbaijan, there are two contrasting Muslim directions like Shi’ism and Sunnism and they successfully coexist in Azerbaijan and even they complete each other, like there is a tradition every Friday both Shi’is and Sunnis, they come to the mosque, and they pray together and after praying they just shake their hands greet each other, and they are very friendly with each other, you know. But what can we see in in Middle Eastern countries in other countries, so where Shi’ism and Sunnism are confronting with each other, and they are competing for leadership in Islam and so these things are. I think beyond our understanding. So these are two directions in Islam, and they should coexist together and we are all people we are all equal in front of God we are the same for God, you know, yeah and people should understand it, these religious practices. Then we have Ramadan and during the month of Ramadan. So it is fasting you know Muslims all over the world, they do fasting, and they eat at the same time, they just do the same rituals and it's somehow you know unites people all over the world, especially the Muslims all over the world. They understand what do the poor people experience what do hungry people experience and they try to be more merciful. Ramadan teaches people to understand each other to be more you know sympathetic to each other yeah and I think this this tradition, this religious practice should continue and the people, especially the Muslims all over the world, they should preserve these traditions and practices.
Ivanessa Arostegui: Yeah yeah it sounds like you believe that these practices connect - like you said, not just local Muslims or Muslims within one country but it's a whole global community of Muslims of brothers and sisters in the whole world that can come together with these practices. And that can help them connect to everyone, like you said, even people that might not be in that similar situation if they were blessed monetarily or with certain blessings within their family, they also have time to contemplate and to think of those that have less than they do. So that you really think that this is something that connects Islam, not just to the Islamic community, the global Islamic community, but to humanity to all humans and the suffering of everyone. Alright perfect so now we're going to get to a particular holiday that you're going to talk to us about so which holiday, are you going to talk to us about.
Malahat Veliyeva: I would like to talk about Eid Al Adha, it is called Gurban holiday, feast of sacrifice, yes, it is one of the grandiose holidays in the Islamic world and, as most of the important surmises of Islam Gurban, Eid Al Adha is demanded by Qur’an.This holiday is a part of Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca and the holiday of sacrifice is usually celebrated on the 10th day of the 12th month of the Muslim calendar Dhū al-Ḥijjah and this holiday, it is also a good practice for uniting Muslims all over the world, it is peculiar only to Islam. So I would like to talk a little bit about the history of this holiday it's related to the Prophet Abraham who brought his son as a sacrifice to God he wanted to kill his son as a sacrifice to God and at this moment he saw he got a message from God to cut the sheep. To cut the ship, and here we can see Islam how Islam prohibits any kind of human sacrifice how human life is valuable is important in this world, especially for God and God here recommends him to sacrifice the animal, instead of human, instead of his son. To give the holiday more respect it was determined to celebrate it once on the 10th day of Dhū al-Ḥijjah, as I said, and I would like to say some quotation from Qur’an from the Surah 5 Ayat 97: “Allah determined Bayt al-Haram, sacred house, Kabb’ah, the sacred month, tied and untied neck with and without signs on their necks, sacrifices brought to Kabb’ah to be a way to put into order the lives, religious and world affairs of the people.” It is the quotation from Qur’an about Eid Al Adha, and it is possible to bring the sacrifice for the realization of some wish and so we have different kinds of religious ceremonies. But the most important ceremony, the most essential one is cutting sheep and giving away to the poor to the needy families to hungry people and see the most interesting thing about this holiday the unique fact about this holiday is that prophet Abraham brought his son to kill as a sacrifice to Allah but Allah offered him to cut the sheep and it is, it is you know very, how to say, important message from Allah to people - so don't kill yourselves don't kill each other, because human life is very important. You know, and when people cut the sheep and give out meat and give it like gifts like mutton, it teaches people to understand that they should be helpful to each other, they should help each other in difficult situations and also if the Muslim knows that his neighbor or his relative or someone else's hungry and he shouldn't be indifferent to this, he should support them, he should help, and so this holiday this day, Eid Al Adha is like you know attribute of Muslim unity not only Muslims, so we cut sheep and we give away even to people who are not Muslims who were just people from other religions, like Christianity Jewish etc yeah. And I think it is - being merciful, being generous is very important.
Ivanessa Arostegui: Yes, great, so that is very beautiful, I grew up practicing Christianity and there's no form of animal sacrifice there's sometimes in Christianity forms of like self-sacrifice where you sacrifice maybe something that might be very dear to you let's say maybe during a particular time period, and we do something that for yourself is kind of painful like maybe you don't use your computer or your technology and that's going to hurt you a little bit because you're so used to going on your computer using your phone and so forms of self-sacrifice there isn't forms of animal sacrifice really in Christianity, but this is, this is a very unique practice in Islam and like you said ties very specifically back to Abraham who is so important within Islam and within all of the Abrahamic traditions. Is this holiday, or is this practice, do you feel that in any way it brings together a larger history for Muslims, for them to like connect with the larger history of who they are in some way, do you feel it plays that role or?
Malahat Veliyeva: You know, yes it comes from history and at the same time, Muslims all over the world, they try to. To preserve this history and to connect it with modern life to connect it with modernity, because many years have passed, many centuries have passed since Islam has been established on this planet, on our planet. So it makes you know people, especially Muslims, how to say, merciful and grateful to God.
Ivanessa Arostegui: Beautiful. Okay, and our last question about this holiday. How do you feel about practicing this particular holiday, or being a part of the Feast of the sacrifice for you or from some around the world, how do you feel that that connects Muslims to God.
Malahat Veliyeva: This story passes from generation to generation, and it is told in mosques, it is spreading on social networking sites as well. For the young generation to be well informed about it, and every year we celebrate the holiday as remembrance, to the prophet of Abraham and his son Ishmael who was saved by God let's say who was you know given us a gift to his father again like this yeah and I think it's our duty to preserve this holiday and to celebrate it every year and to pass this information from generation to generation- so our holy book Qur’an exists, and I hope it will exist forever. For future generations for humanity to learn how to live to understand the philosophy of life to understand how to become a good human, a real human being.
Ivanessa Arostegui: Yes, so important right to have these holidays, these rituals that connect to a really long line of people and ancestors that have experienced the power of God and to continue to walk in faith and to continue to preserve that history, that has been there for so long and to allow it to effect now, right the present, how you said how we decide to live with others, and what we decide to highlight and prioritize and so very beautiful, thank you so much, we really, really appreciate your time with us this morning.
