© 2010 Leili Anvar
© 2010 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
The enlightened mystic
Heir to a spiritual teaching bringing together the ancient religions of Iran, mystical Islam and Kurdish culture, “Saint Janie” worked to renew tradition, combining contemplation and openness to the world.
Born in a remote village in Iranian Kurdistan in 1906, Malek Jân Ne’mati, nicknamed “Saint Janie”, spent the 20th century seemingly far from the world and its tumult, in study, prayer and spiritual teaching. And yet, the testimony of those who knew her and the written traces that remain of her almost exclusively oral teaching show to what extent she was, despite her taste for a contemplative life, a woman very aware of world news, also very involved in the defense of the rights of the weakest and of women in particular, as much as a thinker deeply concerned by the philosophical questions and ethical issues of her time.
The village of Djeyhounabad, where she was born and lived her entire life, is located in a region where the majority of the population belongs to the Ahl-e Haqq order. This order, founded in the 13th century, is based on a spiritual doctrine that brings together the ancient religions of Iran, mystical Islam and myths specific to Kurdish culture. Ahl-e Haqq spirituality is manifested as much by rites that maintain the cohesion of the community as by specific forms of prayer that bear witness on a daily basis to the permanent interaction between the material world and the spiritual world. Now, if Malek Jân lived in this specific context and if she was, in many ways, the heir to this secular tradition, she never ceased to go beyond dogmas and rites, to renew tradition, to undo the community spirit to open minds, to tirelessly denounce all forms of superstition and the rigidities of thought and practices. Although a woman in a context where spiritual authority is traditionally the prerogative of men, she succeeded, through her spiritual charisma, in leading major reforms, including the opening of ritual functions to women.
Overall, she worked all her life in favor of women’s rights in a country where women were legally and socially largely disadvantaged. In this very macho context, she succeeded in imposing on her disciples, in contradiction with the laws in force, to have girls inherit equally with boys for example, or to accept that, in the event of divorce, the right of custody of the children reverts to the mother. Furthermore, she strongly encouraged the schooling of girls in an agricultural environment hostile to this idea. By all the means at her disposal, she wanted to act on equality between men and women, equality of treatment from which she herself had benefited for having grown up in a quite exceptional family environment.
Malek Jan received an extraordinary education from a very young age. Her father, Haj Ne’mat, himself a mystical poet and venerated as a saint during his lifetime, insisted that his daughters receive the same education as his sons, which was far from being a common custom at the beginning of the 20th century in Iran, particularly in the countryside. This charismatic and attentive father initiated her from a very young age into a demanding spiritual discipline. She thus practiced various forms of asceticism and prayers very early on, and she lived her entire childhood in an atmosphere of pure spirituality.
She will maintain throughout her life a very simple and spiritual way of life, while remaining open to the world and the progress of science. Having a pronounced taste for study, she will indeed study until the end of her life, anatomy and biology as well as geography and poetry.
On the spiritual level, she was the most accomplished student of her brother, Ostad Elahi (1895-1974), a thinker who developed in the second part of his life an original teaching, both based on a long tradition and breaking with superfluous dogmas. For him, spirituality is a science that must be understood with the tools of reason and a way of being in the world that is based on fundamental ethical principles. Much more concerned with the spirit than with the letter, he endeavored to identify what he called the “quintessence of religions” and which can be summed up as faith in a single universal God, in the immortality of the soul, and in a principle of action based on respect for rights and duties for oneself and for others. According to him, the soul cannot travel the path of perfection if it is not confronted with the world and society. One must therefore not live withdrawn from the world but within society itself in order to be put to the test. For him, spiritual life is a constant attention: attention to the divine presence in all things and openness to others in the most everyday acts. It is within the framework of this constant vigilance that the fight against the negative impulses of the self becomes possible and, through this fight, that self-knowledge is forged. Malek Jân meditated, practiced, assimilated then taught and transmitted the thought of her brother of which she felt herself the depositary. She constantly returns to him, as much in her spiritual teaching as in her mystical poems where he appears as a benevolent and active presence. By her own admission, it is he who opened her eyes, who showed her the way; it is through him that she learned to know herself and to know God; It was he who gave her the mission of guiding in turn those who came to see her, sometimes from very far away, from Europe or the United States, to seek advice or receive a word of healing.
All her life, she made herself available to others, diligently practicing charity in all its forms. Her house was always open to those who came to receive advice or comfort, financial aid or psychological support. She took care of everyone with an even temper, despite her blindness and often fragile health. “Each spiritual path has its own weapons. Ours is to do good around us.” She died in France where she had come to be treated, in 1993. Her tomb, located in Perche, has now become a place of pilgrimage for those whom her example continues to inspire.
A dedicated site: www.saintejanie.org
Leili Anvar