Unit 8

English 203: Literature of the NonWestern World

Introduction:

Five Pillars of Islam:

1.  Shahada: the creed: La ilaha illa Allah; Muhammad rasul Allah: “There is no God but Allah and Muhammad
     is the prophet of Allah.”  Islam is non-creedal.  The religion is not theologically, but orthopraxically elaborated.
     Orthopraxy means that to be one of us, you must act the way we do.  Compare that to orthodoxy, which means
     that to be one of us, you must believe the same things we do.  Islamic belief is capsulated in this first "pillar" that
     professes in a strict monotheism (tawid) & in the authority of Muhammad to convey God's message.  The
     remaining 4 pillars are all about what Muslims do, not about what they believe.
2.  Salat: orthopraxical prayer 5 times a day.
3.  Zakat: charity, almsgiving, tax.
4.  Ramadan: fast to commemorate the 1st recitation of the Koran by the angel Gabriel to Muhammad.
5.  Haj: pilgrimage to Mecca (all debts must be paid before going).

6.  Jihad: 1. struggle to actualize religious principles; 2. missionary zeal; 3. armed conflict.

Divisions: (cf. Christian denominations):

Sunni: (90% of all Muslims): for Sunnis, Muhammad is "the seal of the prophets," meaning that he is the last prophet before the end of the world.

Shia: (10%): they believe that an Imam Mahdi has more authority than Muhammad.  The Mahdi is a divinely guided messianic figure who lived a long time ago & is now held in some kind of suspended animation state until he comes back to us in preparation for the immediate end of the world.  Various Shia groups nominate various charismatic figures as likely to be the Mahdi.  Most recently many  Iranians believed that the Ayatollah Khomeini was the Mahdi & were consequently unconditionally devoted to him.  Iranians constitute most of the group of Shia Muslims.

Sufi: Muslim mystics who may be either Sunni or Shia, but in practice they become a  sect of their own.  This is somewhat a historical designation (like Christian  monasticism) & partly a peasant phenomena (like New Mexican Penitentes).  Most Sufis were not native Arabic speakers & consequently knew little if anything about what The Koran specified for Islamic life.  In places like Indonesia, India & Turkey, the devout but illiterate Sufi "made up" a devotional program.

 1st caliphs (they succeeded Muhammad as leaders of the Islamic faith):

•    Abu Bakar
•    Umar
•    Uthman (assembled the written Koran)
•    Ali (son-in-law of M.).  Ali & his 2 sons (Hasan & Husayn) were murdered.  
     The Sunnis say this was because Ali  was indecisive & weak; the Shias say it was 
     because he was too saintly.  In any case, the 2 boys were blood descendants of the
     Prophet.  With their deaths there could be no biological succession from Muhammad.

• Koran: (The Recitation [by the angel Gabriel of “The Mother of the Book”])
• Hadith: (Sunna in the strict sense):  Sunna is “Islamic tradition,” which, in the strict sense, is defined by the life of the Prophet & his responses to specific questions.  The Hadith collects “the sayings of the Prophet.”
• Shari’a: (law): there are several versions of this.
• Ijma: (consensus of the Muslim community; “what we Muslims do”).
• Imam: for Shi’ites only, the Imam Mahdi is a sinless & infallible guide.

For Christians, God is revealed in the person of Jesus.  The Muslim analogue is not Muhammad, but the Koran, which is believed to be entirely and perfectly a revelation from God.  As such it owes nothing to personal or cultural influences.  The angel Gabriel recited it to Muhammad.  Muhammad himself did not invent or contribute anything to it.  Muhammad’s authority is supreme for Sunnis, but he is a prophet, a human being, not divine.

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Explication