Archery
Rimāya. Breath, aim, stillness before the gesture. A discipline of measure as much as of strength.
وَالأُسْدُ لَولا فِراقُ الأَرضِ ما افتَرَسَت وَالسَّهمُ لَولا فِراقُ القَوسِ لَم يُصِبِ
“The lion, did it not leave its land, would take no prey;
the arrow, did it not part from the bow, would strike no mark.”
al-Shāfiʿī, Dīwān
Archery forms the mind more than the arm: inner stillness before any outer movement, total attention given to a single instant. A discipline of concentration and restraint.
Rimāya was one of the oldest arts of furūsiyya, practised from the dawn of Islam and systematised by generations of masters, especially under the Mamluks. One taught there less how to hit the target than how to master body and breath in the instant before the shot: the same inner discipline Dar al-Hiraf seeks today.
The Prophet, from the pulpit, commented on the verse “Prepare against them what you can of strength” (al-Anfāl 8:60) with a sentence repeated three times:
أَلَا إِنَّ الْقُوَّةَ الرَّمْيُ، أَلَا إِنَّ الْقُوَّةَ الرَّمْيُ، أَلَا إِنَّ الْقُوَّةَ الرَّمْيُ
“Strength is shooting, strength is shooting, strength is shooting.”
Prophetic tradition, reported by ʿUqba ibn ʿĀmir (Muslim, no. 1917)
Shooting is done outside the walls, at the same place where one rides. In the house only the draw and the breath are trained, with the bow unloaded.
See also The furusiyya→.
The words of this page are in the common glossary; the works cited in the sources; the sister house is Al-Funduq aṣ-Ṣiqillī.
