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Muslims are followers of Islam.
One of the three major monotheistic
religions in the world, Islam calls
for complete acceptance of and submission
to the teachings and guidance of God.
Anyone may become a Muslim, regardless
of gender, race, or nationality, by
reciting a declaration of faith and
embracing a lifestyle in accord with
Islamic principles. Specific acts,
including fasting, daily prayer, and
the pilgrimage to Mecca, are considered
the pillars of Muslim spiritual life.
There are an estimated 1.3 billion Muslims
worldwide. They live in every world
region and belong to many different
cultures and ethnic groups. The 10
countries with the largest Muslim
populations, in descending order,
are Indonesia, Pakistan,
Bangladesh, India, Turkey, Iran, Egypt,
Nigeria, and China. Of these, only
Egypt is an Arab country, and despite
the stereotypes, only 193 million
of the world’s Muslims—15 to 18 percent
of the total—are Arabs.
Islam is a system of religious beliefs
and an all-encompassing way of life.
The word Islam comes from the word
salaam, which means submission or
peace. Muslims believe that God (Allah)
revealed to the Prophet Prophet Mohammad
the rules governing society and the
proper conduct of society's members.
It is incumbent on the individual
therefore to live in a manner prescribed
by the revealed law and on the community
to build the perfect human society
on earth according to holy injunctions.
Islam recognizes no distinctions between
church and state. The distinction
between religious and secular law
is a recent development that reflects
the more pronounced role of the state
in society, and Western economic and
cultural penetration. The impact of
religion on daily life in Muslim countries
is far greater than that found in
the West since the Middle Ages.
The duties of Muslims form the five pillars
of Islam, which set forth the acts
necessary to demonstrate and reinforce
the faith. These are the recitation
of the Shahada ("There is no
God but God and Prophet Mohammad is
his prophet"), daily prayer (Salat),
almsgiving (Zakat), fasting (Sawm),
and pilgrimage (Hajj).
The believer is to pray in a prescribed
manner after purification through
ritual ablutions each day at dawn,
midday, midafternoon, sunset, and
nightfall. Prescribed genuflections
and prostrations accompany the prayers,
which the worshiper recites facing
toward Mecca. Whenever possible men
pray in congregation at the mosque
with an imam, and on Fridays make
a special effort to do so. The Friday
noon prayers provide the occasion
for weekly sermons by religious leaders.
Women may also attend public worship
at the mosque, where they are segregated
from the men, although most frequently
women pray at home. A special functionary,
the muezzin, intones a call to prayer
to the entire community at the appropriate
hour. Those out of earshot determine
the time by the sun. The Aazan (Arabic
for announcement) is the call or summons
to public prayers proclaimed by the
Muezzmn (crier) from the mosque twice
daily in all Muslim countries. In
small mosques the Muezzin at Azan
stands at the door or at the side
of the building; in large ones he
takes up his position in the minaret.
The ninth month of the Muslim calendar
is Ramadan, a period of obligatory
fasting in commemoration of Prophet
Mohammad's receipt of God's revelation.
Throughout the month all but the sick
and weak, pregnant or lactating women,
soldiers on duty, travelers on necessary
journeys, and young children are enjoined
from eating, drinking, smoking, or
sexual intercourse during the daylight
hours. Those adults excused are obliged
to endure an equivalent fast at their
earliest opportunity. A festive meal
breaks the daily fast and inaugurates
a night of feasting and celebration.
The pious well-to-do usually do little
or no work during this period, and
some businesses close for all or part
of the day. Since the months of the
lunar year revolve through the solar
year, Ramadan falls at various seasons
in different years. A considerable
test of discipline at any time of
the year, a fast that falls in summer
time imposes severe hardship on those
who must do physical work.
All Muslims, at least once in their lifetime,
should make the hajj to Mecca to participate
in special rites held there during
the twelfth month of the lunar calendar.
Prophet Mohammad instituted this requirement,
modifying pre-Islamic custom, to emphasize
sites associated with God and Abraham
(Hadrat Ibrahim), founder of monotheism
and father of the Arabs through his
son Hadrat Ismail.
The lesser pillars of the faith, which
all Muslims share, are jihad, or the
crusade to protect Islamic lands,
beliefs, and institutions; and the
requirement to do good works and to
avoid all evil thoughts, words, and
deeds. In addition, Muslims agree
on certain basic principles of faith
based on the teachings of the Prophet
Prophet Mohammad: there is one God,
who is a unitary divine being in contrast
to the Trinitarian belief of Christians;
Prophet Mohammad, the last of a line
of prophets beginning with Abraham
and including Moses (Hadrat Musa)
and Jesus (Hadrat Isa), was chosen
by God to present His message to humanity;
and there is a general resurrection
on the last or judgment day.
The Muslim year has two religious festivals--Id
al Adha, a sacrificial festival on
the tenth of Dhu al Hijjah, the twelfth
month; and Id al Fitr, the festival
of breaking the fast, which celebrates
the end of Ramadan on the first of
Shawwal, the tenth month. To Sunnis
these are the most important festivals
of the year. Each lasts three or four
days, during which people put on their
best clothes, visit, congratulate,
and bestow gifts on each other. In
addition, cemeteries are visited.
Id al Fitr is celebrated more joyfully,
as it marks the end of the hardships
of Ramadan. Celebrations also take
place, though less extensively, on
the Prophet's birthday, which falls
on the twelfth of Rabi al Awwal, the
third month, and on the first of Muharram,
the beginning of the new year.
Sharia
During his lifetime, Prophet Mohammad
held both spiritual and temporal leadership
of the Muslim community. Religious
and secular law merged, and all Muslims
have traditionally been subject to
sharia, or religious law. A comprehensive
legal system, sharia developed gradually
through the first four centuries of
Islam, primarily through the accretion
of precedent and interpretation by
various judges and scholars. During
the tenth century, legal opinion began
to harden into authoritative rulings,
and the figurative bab al ijtihad
(gate of interpretation) closed. Thereafter,
rather than encouraging flexibility,
Islamic law emphasized maintenance
of the status quo.
The word “Islam” means “submission.”
A “Muslim,” therefore, is one who
submits to the will of God. Shariah,
frequently translated as “Islamic
law,” is neither a document nor a
code in the strict sense, but rather
an amalgamation of scriptural (Quranic)
injunctions, sayings of the Prophet
Mohammed, juridical rulings, and legal
commentaries dealing with all aspects
of social, economic and political
life, similar to Jewish Halakhic law.
Islam, like Judaism, is a religion of
laws – it is the legal code, not a
theology, which establishes the criteria
of right and wrong, proper and improper
behavior. Like Halakhah, Shari’a is
believed to be ordained by God and
its scope to be total, ranging from
the loftiest ideals to the minutiae
of daily life. Even the words Halakhah
and Shariah, have similar meanings
and may be translated as the “path”
or “road” to righteousness.
In its ideal form, Shariah ensures the
rights of all in an Islamic state.
Fiqh is Islamic jurisprudence; it
forms the basis of Shariah and is
a process of ongoing interpretation.
Thus it is neither static nor monolithic,
and may take different forms in different
countries or from one period of history
to another. A classic text on Shariah,
by the fourteenth-century scholar,
Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri, deals with
a wide range of subjects, including
purity of heart, fasting, divorce,
backbiting, crimes, and rules of warfare.
The hudud can be characterized as the
Islamic “penal code” prescribed by
Shariah. The rules of hudud identify
punishable crimes, the types of witnesses
needed to convict someone of a crime,
and the punishments for various crimes.
Islam has no basic concept of inalienable
rights and does not permit the individual
to enjoy the freedoms of action and
association characteristic of a democracy.
In Islamic states, where there is
no formally recognized separation
between religion and law, mosque and
state, Shari‘a is enshrined and presented
(if not always consistently implemented)
as the final and ultimate formulation
of the law of God, not to be revised
or reformulated by mere mortal and
fallible human beings. In Egypt, Algeria,
and Palestine, the Shari‘a is virtually
ignored as a guide to specific legislation
or government policy on many vital
issues. The remaining Muslim countries,
which adopted Western-style legal
and political systems under colonial
tutelage, enshrine Islamic law in
their codes and constitutions to various
degrees. These nations range from
Pakistan, with its intense political
agitation over the interpretation
and implementation of Shari‘a, to
Indonesia, a self-proclaimed secular
nation that is the home to more than
180 million Muslims.
Takfir -- the condemnation of a Muslim
by another Muslim as a kafir (i.e.,
disbelievers outside the pale of Islam)
-- is strictly prohibited in the Quran,
the Hadith, and the writings of many
eminent Muslim authorities. But fatwas
of apostasy and heresy as well as
kufr within the Muslim ummah are neither
few nor far in between.
After Prophet Mohammad's death the leaders
of the Muslim community consensually
chose Hadrat Abu Bakr, the Prophet's
father-in-law and one of his earliest
followers, to succeed him. At that
time some persons favored Hadrat Ali,
Prophet Mohammad's cousin and the
husband of his daughter Fatima, but
Ali and his supporters (the Shia
Ali, or Party of Ali) eventually recognized
the community's choice. The next two
caliphs (successors)--Hadrat Umar,
who succeeded in A.D.634, and Hadrat
Usman, who took power in A.D.644--enjoyed
the recognition of the entire community.
When Ali finally succeeded to the
caliphate in A.D.656, Muawiyah, governor
of Syria, rebelled in the name of
his murdered kinsman Uthman. After
the ensuing civil war, Ali moved his
capital to Iraq, where he was murdered
shortly there after.
Hadrat Ali's death ended the last of
the so-called four orthodox caliphates
and the period in which the entire
community of Islam recognized a single
caliph. Muawiyah proclaimed himself
caliph from Damascus. The Shia Ali
refused to recognize him or his line,
the Umayyad caliphs, and withdrew
in the first great schism to establish
the dissident sect, known as the Shias,
supporting the claims of Ali's line
to the caliphate based on descent
from the Prophet. The larger faction,
the Sunnis,
adhered to the position that the caliph
must be elected, and over the centuries
they have represented themselves as
the orthodox branch.
Sects
Page last updated:
Tuesday, January 03, 2006 10:14:33 -0500 |
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