By Zaiti Athirah
Edited by Nadya R.
This summer, I bought my very own espresso machine to undertake the home barista training. And as it happened, I learnt a hard lesson that a good cup of coffee isn’t as easy as pushing buttons on the thousand-ringgit machine, rather, it involves an engineering level of science to perfect the artisanal espresso I cannot live without. Thus, began my chronicles of experimenting off YouTube tutorials, taking up terminologies like “extraction yield,” “ground calibration,” “blooming,” and many more. Not to mention the intricate fascination in the coffee notes, roasts, and origins. All those investments in efforts and budgets all the more had me wondering, “Why does any of this matter?” for a daily cup of joe moreso—how did it get this addictive? Was it the ostentatiousness of sciencing out of the beans and the water, or was it the flavour—the bitter, the sweet, and the sour? Was it the high of the caffeine that drives us into a frenzy of a ritual of precision and empirics? Though in our own contemporary tenor of dancing the art of coffee making, each sip carries with it the weight of empires, colonial ventures, and the evolution of daily rituals across civilisations.
Coffee Addiction Poster, Artist unknown
In the name of justifying my maniacal attitude of my devotion in becoming a barista, the addictiveness of coffee has been long recognised in history, even in the classic Islamic culture where it was regarded as the “wine of the believers.” Thus, in the very intention as aforementioned, I am here to tell you a story of how coffee gained its significance in Islamic history with the Fiqh disputes involved, through examining the origins of the most popularly consumed drink today.
Turkish Coffee, Pinterest
Well, those who have acquired the basic level of Arabic might as well already know the name of coffee in the language is now known as “qahwa”, or “ قَهْوَة”. So etymologically, the name came from the drink made with steeped Al-Qat leaves, a stimulating plant popular in Arabia, and was much more similar to tea. And as there was a sudden shortage of Al-Qat leaves, the people substituted it with Bunn, a fruit from Ethiopia. And according to the texts, the Shadhiliyya Sufis learnt that the drink stimulated them into wakefulness and facilitated their night prayers. A qasida was even composed in honour of the Shadili’s fascination with the qahwa, and coined its own term for euphoria—marqaha. For the drink was often in use to sprite up energy for prayerful intent, the drink was grandly lauded in Rumi’s Mathnawi as qahwa ma’nawiyya (the ideal qahwa) and qahwat al-Sufiyya (the enjoyment which the people of God feel in beholding the hidden mysteries and attaining the wonderful disclosures and the great revelations).
Arab Sufis photographed brewing coffee in the desert, Pinterest
Soon the Sufi poems of marqaha and their eminent trade pervaded to Makkah, the centre of Muslims, circa 15th century, and historic texts indicating this event emerged in Jaziri’s description in Ummadat al-Safwa, exemplifying coffee’s position in the Islamic tradition as “it was drunk in the Sacred Mosque itself, so that there was scarcely a dhikr or mawlid where qahwa was not present.” In Ibn Abdul Ghaffar’s history, it was claimed, “They drank coffee every Monday and Friday eve, putting it in a large vessel made of red clay. Their leader ladled it out with a small dipper and gave it to them to drink, passing it to the right, while they recited one of their usual formulas, mostly "La illaha il'Allah...".
The benefits of coffee in supplying energy and strength were soon even elaborated by the revered Father of Early Modern Medicine, Avicenna, as recorded in his al-Qanun fi al-Tibb, that coffee excellently “revives the body, cleans the skin, and gives a good scent to the body.” The Islamic height of trade in coffee permeated all over Yemen, Turkey, Cairo, Egypt, and all. However, due to religious politics, much of the writing of the West condemned the use of coffee in the Land of Islam by giving it a bad rap likened to the hypocrisy of Muslims condemning alcohol beverages, as coffee was regarded as similarly addictive and euphoric.
The disputes went on between the Muslims and the Christians, and among the Muslims themselves in determining the extent of permissibility of consuming coffee. Truly, the Fuqaha persisted that anything that is permissible is good in moderation, like any other permissible or halal food, clothing, and drink. Surely, if it was drunk to the point of harm to one’s health, it would be haraam, though its existing benefits are too numerous to be made as haraam as khamr! Eventually the friction between the Christians and the Muslims in the issue of coffee fortunately settled as someone gave Pope Clement VIII a taste, and he loved it so much that he lifted the ban.
And the Catholic Italians cheered “Evviva!” and invented the names of coffee we have twisted our tongues for in coffeehouses, such as espresso, ristretto, caffe latte, cappuccino, macchiato, mochaccino, affogato, and many more. Coffee was sweeping through Europe into the Great Caffeine Addiction for students, scholars, and artists, as all the best ones indeed found their best of muses in their sleepless nights, in the jitters of the sweet caffeine—Kafka, Poe, Picasso, and Camus who famously contemplated, “Should I kill myself or have a cup of coffee?” Hah! Would you even believe me now that this article itself was written out of a Red Eye espresso?
Coming back to the present day, we have multi-billion corporations profiting off of the mass addiction of coffee, inventing instants and premixes for those on-the-go, fustian coffee bean variants for the sophisticated, and omakases for the ultimate exaltation of the modern marqaha. For Muslims, this might be the one halal substance that grants us the appreciation of the ephemeral bliss of the world. Have it black, white with milk, or even so sweet that it would rot your teeth—ultimately, on this International Coffee Day, I enjoin you to savour in the “Wine of the Believers”.
Coffee poster, Artist unknown
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