Alhassanain(p) Network for Heritage and Islamic Thought

Part I:

ISLAM

The Word Islam

The Arabic wordislam means "to turn oneself over to, to resign oneself, to submit." In religious terminology, it means submission or surrender to God, or to God's will. The Koran uses the term and its derivatives in about seventy verses. In only a few of these verses can we claim that the word refers exclusively to "Islam," meaning thereby the religion established by the Koran and the Prophet Muhammad.

We have already seen that the Koran and the Hadith use the word din ("religion") in a range of meanings. This is typical for many important terms employed in the Koran and the Islamic tradition. Incomprehension often occurs because people think they are talking about the same thing, whereas in fact they are merely using the same words. For example, when non-Muslims speak about Islam, they usually have in view the specific religion established by Muhammad. Muslims mean that religion too, but they frequently have one or more of the other meanings of the term in mind as well, and this tends to make mutual understanding difficult.

In the broadest sense,islam means "submission to God" as an undeniable fact of existence. If God is understood as the only reality truly worthy of the name--or Reality with an uppercase R -- then nothing else is truly real. In other words, everything else is dependent upon God for its reality. Or, to use less philosophical and more theological language, all things in the universe, and the universe itself, are creations of God. Since God made them the way they are, they depend totally upon God. Hence they are "submitted" to God.

In the first verse quoted below, a verse that we have already cited, this broadest sense of the termislam is used to prove that true religion is established by God alone. The other verses illustrate the Koranic view that everything in the natural world praises and glorifies God. Simply by existing, all creatures demonstrate their Creator's glory and perform acts that acknowledge God's mastery over them:

What, do they desire another religion than God's, while to Him has submitted whoso is in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly? (3:83)

Have you not seen how whatsoever is in the heavens and the earth glorifies God, and the birds spreading their wings? (24:41)

Have you not seen how to God bow all who are in the heavens and all who are in the earth, the sun and the moon, the stars and the mountains, the trees and the beasts, and many of mankind? (22:18)

Notice that "many of mankind" bow to God. This means, conversely, that many do not. Although from one point of view human beings are included in "the heavens" and "the earth" and hence are creatures of God and submitted to him, from another point of view they are free not to submit to him. This is the great mystery. It is here that human problems begin. People are not like mountains and trees, which simply submit to God's will and give no thought to it. People are always faced with the fact of their freedom, the fact that they can choose to obey or disobey when someone tells them to do something, whether that someone be God, their parents, the government, or whoever. If there were no choices to be made, everything would be fine, because no one would be able to conceive of any other situation.

The Koran says in the verse just cited that "many of mankind" bow to God. It frequently refers to these many asmuslims , that is, "those who have submitted to God." Although "Muslim" normally means a follower of the religion established by the Koran, in the Koranic context it frequently means those who follow any of God's prophets. In translating the word in this sense we will employ the term muslim, rather than Muslim.

When [ Abraham's] Lord said to him, "Submit," he said, "I have submitted to the Lord of the worlds." (2:131)

Jacob said to his sons, "What will you worship after me?" They said, "We will worship your God and the God of your fathers, Abraham, Ishmael, and Isaac, one God, and we will be muslims toward Him." (2:133)

And when I revealed to the Apostles [of Jesus], "Have faith in Me and in My messenger," they said, "We have faith, and we bear witness that we are muslims." (5:111)

All prophets submitted themselves to God's will and hence were muslims. In the same way, all those who follow the religions brought by the prophets aremuslims . But clearly this does not mean that they follow the religion established by the Koran, which appeared in Arabia in the seventh century. Hence, in a still more specific sense, the wordislam refers to the historical phenomenon that is the subject of this book, the

religion that goes by the name "Islam." Surprisingly, none of the eight Koranic verses that mention the wordislam itself refers exclusively to this religion, since the wider Koranic context of the term is always in the background. It is probably true that most Muslims read these verses as referring to Islam rather than islam in a wider sense, but as soon as one understands the broad Koranic context, one can easily see that the verses have more than one meaning.

Religion in God's view is the submission. (3:19)

If someone desires other than the submission as a religion, it will not be accepted of him. (3:85)

In these two verses, both the word religion andal-islam ("the submission") can be understood in broader or narrower senses. Most Muslims read them to mean that the right way of doing things is that set down by the Koran and the Hadith. Others understand the verses to mean that every revealed religion is one of the forms ofislam , just as the message of all the prophets istawhid . If someone rejects God's religion -- that is, "the submission" revealed to all the prophets -and follows instead a human concoction, God will not accept that from him. Having one's religion rejected by God is the same as being sent to hell.

Some of the verses that speak ofislam might well be read as referring exclusively to the religion brought by Muhammad, because he is mentioned in the context:

They count it as a favor to you that they haw submitted Say: "Do not count your islam as a favor to me. No, rather God confers a favor upon you, in that He has guided you to faith. "(49:17)

Today I have perfected your religion for you, and I haw completed My blessing upon you, and I have approved islam for your religion. (5:3)

Several other Koranic verses that refer toislam or muslims can be read as referring to the historical religion of Islam. But at least one verse refers to islam in a still narrower sense. Apparently a group of bedouins -- that is, tribespeople who lived a nomadic existence in the desert -- had seen that the new religion was the rising power in their region and that they could gain advantages by joining up with it. Hence they came before the Prophet and swore allegiance to him, in the time-honored manner of the Arabs. But of course, Islam came with a set of conditions that were completely unfamiliar to the bedouins; that is, the five practices of the religion that are mentioned in the hadith of Gabriel. Part of swearing allegiance to the Prophet was

agreeing to observe these practices. At some point, after having sworn allegiance, the bedouins told the Prophet that they had faith in Islam. Now God enters the discussion by revealing the following verses to Muhammad:

The bedouins say, "We haw faith." Say. "You do not have faith, rather say, 'We have submitted,' for faith has not yet entered your hearts. If you obey God and His messenger, He will not diminish you anything of your works." (49:14)

In this verse, it is clear that submission is not the same as faith (iman ), since submission means obeying God and the Prophet, whereas faith is something deeper, having to do -- as we will see later -- with knowledge and commitment. Obeying God and the Prophet pertains to the domain of activity, to the realm of commands and prohibitions. The Prophet has come with specific instructions from God for the people. If they obey, the Prophet, they obey God's instructions. "Whosoever obeys the Messenger, thereby obeys God" (4:80). God, in turn, will pay them their wages.

It is this fourth meaning of the word that is the topic of the present chapter and is made most explicit in the hadith literature. Thus the hadith of Gabriel, in defining submission, simply lists a set of activities that must be performed in order for people to obey God:

Submission is that you witness that there is no god but God and Muhammad is His messenger, that you perform the prayers, you pay the alms tax, you fast during Ramadan, and you make the pilgrimage to the House if you are able to go there .

In short, we have four basic meanings for the wordislam , moving from the broadest to the narrowest: (1) the submission of the whole of creation to its Creator; (2) the submission of human beings to the guidance of God as revealed through the prophets; (3) the submission of human beings to the guidance of God as revealed through the prophet Muhammad; and (4) the submission of the followers of Muhammad to God's practical instructions. Only the third of these can properly be translated asIslam with an uppercase I. The other three will be referred to as "submission" orislam .

It should not be imagined that these four meanings are clearly distinct in the minds of Muslims, especially those who live in the ambiance of their religion. It is common for Muslims to think of Islam as their own practices, and to think of their practices as the same as the practices of all religions (since all religions areislam ). If other practices are different, it must be because they have become corrupted. In the same way, it is common for traditional Muslims to think that their own religious activities are the most normal and

natural activities in the universe, since they are simply doing what everything in creation does constantly, given that "to Him has submitted whoso is in the heavens and the earth." In other words, the various meanings of the term become conflated, and it is not always easy to separate them.1

Chapter 1.

THE FIVE PILLARS

A pillar is a support, something that holds up a structure. The structure is the religion of Islam, with its three dimensions. If the five fundamental practices of Islam are called "pillars," the implication is that everything else depends upon them.

Practice: Embodied Submission

Practices pertain to the domain of the body. Our bodies determine our configuration within reality, so much so that there have always been people who claim that bodies make up the whole of existence, or at least everything significant. The Koran sometimes cites the criticisms that such people make of those who follow the prophets:

If you obey a mortal like yourselves, then you will be losers. What, does he promise you that when you are dead, and become dust and bones, you shall be brought forth? Away, away with what you

are promised! There is nothing but our life in this world. We die, and we live, and we will not be raised up. (23.34-37)

If bodies were not of such profound importance for human existence, people would not think in such terms. But bodies play a determining role in all the individual characteristics that give us our identity. Our meeting with our surroundings always begins on the bodily level, through the intermediary of the senses. If philosophers and theologians can speak of nonbodily realities, their words may have no meaning for children or unreflective people.

From the beginning, Islam set out to build a society. What Islam has always understood is that people are united by common practices at least as much as by common ideals. Islam has functioned socially by harmonizing people's activities.

The body is a lived reality for everyone, but nonbodily realities do not make much sense to many people. "Show me," they say. And the Koran simply replies that salvation will be achieved by those who "have faith in the unseen." At this first level, people are not asked to understand the unseen, simply to accept that it is there and to act accordingly, by performing the Five Pillars and the other activities set down in the revealed guidance.

For the most part, people are born into the religion they profess. Islam recognizes that correct practice makes people Muslims and that, for most people, correct belief follows upon correct practice. Muslim children are rarely taught a catechism. Rather, they are taught to pray and to perform other rituals. They grow up performing basic purification rites, because these determine the nature of toilet training. And like children everywhere, they enjoy doing what grown-ups do, so they frequently follow along in the movements of the ritual prayer when their parents or other family members perform it. No one cares if they lose interest in the middle and go off to play. The point is for the practices gradually to become a natural and organic part of the human configuration.

Behind all the stress on practice is the recognition that the Koran must become flesh and blood. It is not enough for people to read the Koran or learn what it says. They have to embody the Book. It must become the determining reality of what they do (islam ), what they think ( iman ), and what they intend ( ihsan ).

The First Pillar: The Shahadah

The pillars are practices, which is to say that they are described and defined in terms of activity. What do you do to be a Muslim? This question does not pertain to the level of faith, understanding, or intention. Questions on that level belong to Islam's second or third dimensions, not the first.

The first pillar is the fundamental act upon which all Islamic activity depends. It is to acknowledge verbally that one accepts the reality of God and the prophecy of Muhammad (and hence the truth of the Koran, the message with which Muhammad was sent). It is known as theShahadah (Arabicshahada , which means "to testify" or "to bear witness").

The Koranic usage of the termshahada throws interesting light on its significance. One of God's Koranic names is "Knower of the ghayb and the shahada ." Ghayb means "the absent, the unseen, the invisible, the hidden." Shahada in this context means "that which is visible or witnessed." By employing this divine name and in other ways as well, the Koran divides reality into two realms, that which is absent from our senses, and that which our senses are able to witness. We know only the witnessed realm, while God knows both the witnessed and the invisible realms. Included in the unseen realm are God and spiritual beings. Included in the witnessed domain are all bodily things. Another of God's names is al-shahid , the Witness, for God is witness to everything that happens, because, as the Koran puts it:

He is with you wherever you are. (57:4)

God is Witness of what they do. (10:46)

Suffices it not as to thy Lord, that He is Witness over everything? (41:53)

The Koran also frequently uses the termshahada in the sense of giving witness. For example, it tells people that when someone borrows money, two witnesses should be present and the whole transaction should be recorded. "That is more equitable in God's sight, and more reliable asshahada "(2:282).

The act of bearing witness to God's unity is the most basic act of Muslims. By performing it, they imitate God and the angels, who also perform it, and they enter into the ranks of those who have been given knowledge:

God bears witnessthat there is no god but He--and the angels, and the possessors of knowledge--upholding justice; there is no god but He, the Inaccessible, the Wise. (3:18)

In its briefest form, Islam's first pillar is simply to say the two sentences, "There is no god but God" (la ilaha illa'llah ) and "Muhammad is God's messenger" (Muhammadun rasul Allah ). Normally, the words "I bear witness that" (ashhadu an ) are added before each sentence.

Theoretically, it is only necessary for a Muslim to utter theShahadah once in his or her lifetime, but in practice, Muslims recite it frequently,

especially because it is incorporated into the daily required prayers. Traditionally, a child's father whispers theShahadah into its ear at birth. Thus the child is exposed to the first pillar at the very beginning of life. The formula is recited by Muslims on all sorts of occasions, and a child is taught to say it as early as possible. No one supposes that the child understands theShahadah . It is the act itself that is important.

TheShahadah 's primary importance comes out clearly in the fact that reciting theShahadah is the ritual whereby one submits oneself to God, that is, becomes a Muslim. In this ritual, the formula must be recited in Arabic, with the intention of submitting oneself to God, in the presence of two Muslim witnesses.

Most Muslims agree that pronouncing theShahadah is all that is absolutely necessary for one's Islam to be accepted by God. However, they add that Islam is not genuine and sincere if it remains simply verbal. By reciting the Shahadah , one makes the remaining four pillars incumbent upon oneself, and if one does not observe them, one's Islam is lacking, if not unacceptable.

The Second Pillar: Salat

Although uttering theShahadah is the fundamental act of Muslims, performing thesalat (ritual prayer) is, in a certain sense, even more basic. The Prophet calledsalat the "centerpole" of the religion, suggesting the image of a tent with a single pole holding it up in the middle and with other poles as secondary supports. The Koran commands performance of thesalat more than it commands any other activity, and prophetic sayings suggest that God loves thesalat more than every other human act. It is not accidental that performing the ritual prayer in communion has come to symbolize Islam on television. For TV producers, the reason is simply that thesalat makes good footage. But for Muslims, this act embodies what it means to be a Muslim more than any other, and Muslims have always recognized that this is the case.

Like many other Koranic terms, the wordsalat has several meanings. The basic sense of the word in Arabic is to pray or bless. Just as God and the angels utter theShahadah , so also they perform thesalat . And just as people bear witness to God's oneness in imitation of God, so also they perform the prayer in imitation of God.

In Koranic usage, there are at least four forms ofsalat . First, God and the angels perform a salat whereby they bless God's servants:

It is He who performs thesalatowr you, and His angels, that He may bring you forth from the darknesses into the light. (33:43) .

Second, all creatures in the heavens and the earth performsalat as the expression of universal islam :

Have you not seen that everyone in the heavens and the earth glorifies God, and the birds spreading their wings? Each one knows its salat and its glorification. (24.41).

Third, every voluntarymuslim performs the salat , which is to say that the term is applied to one of the specific forms of worship revealed to all the prophets:

And We delivered [ Abraham], and Lot. . And We gave him Isaac and Jacob as well, and every one We made wholesome. . And We revealed to them the doing of good deeds and the performance of the salat. (21:71-73)

Finally, in the most common usage of the term,salat refers to the specific form of ritual that is the second pillar of Islam.

Although the Koran repeatedly commands Muslims to perform thesalat , it says little about what the salat actually involves. How to perform the salat was taught by the Prophet, and thus Muslims today, wherever they live, pray in essentially the same way that Muhammad prayed and taught them to pray. In the following, we provide a general description of the salat , without noting various minor differences that exist among the schools of Islamic law.

Salat is divided into two basic kinds--required and recommended. The requiredsalat is the second Pillar, while othersalats are recommended on all sorts of occasions. The primary requiredsalat is performed five times a day, while there are other occasional forms, such as the congregational prayer on Fridays. After sunset (the beginning of the day in Islamic--as in Jewish--time reckoning) and before the disappearance of the last light from the horizon, the first of the five daily prayers, the eveningsalat , is said. The next prayer is the nightsalat , whose period extends from the end of the time of the evening prayer to the beginning of the time of the morning prayer. The morningsalat can be said any time between the first appearance of the dawn and sunrise.2 The fourthsalat is said between noon and midafternoon. Noon is the time when the sun reaches the meridian--not clock noon, which seldom coincides exactly with solar noon. Midafternoon is usually defined as the time when something's shadow is slightly longer than the thing itself. The period for saying the fifthsalat extends from midafternoon until sunset.

Each prayer consists of a certain number of cycles (raka ). The eveningsalat has three cycles, the night four, the morning two, the noon four, and the afternoon four. Each cycle involves a number of specific movements and the recitation of a certain amount of Koranic text and various traditional formulas, all in Arabic.

If we were to observe a group of people performing thesalat together, we would see the following (perhaps with slight differences from place to place): First, those performing the salat stand up straight. After a

minute or two, they bow at the waist with backs straight. After a few seconds, they stand up straight again, then almost immediately they place their knees, hands, and foreheads on the ground. They remain in this position of prostration for a few seconds, then come up for a second or two to a sitting position, then prostrate themselves for a second time. This is the end of the first cycle.

From the position of prostration, they go back to a standing position and begin a second cycle, exactly like the first. After the second cycle, instead of standing again, they come up to a seated position and recite formulae of blessing and peace directed to the Prophet and the faithful. Here they also recite theShahadah in an elongated form.

If this prayer that we have just observed is the morningsalat , it now comes to an end with greetings of peace to the right and the left. If it is any of the other prayers, it goes into a third cycle. The evening prayer ends after the third cycle, with the seatedShahadah , blessings, and greetings. The other threesalats have four cycles, so they correspond to the morning prayer performed twice.

During the two, three, or four standing parts of the prayer, Muslims recite the Fatihah, which is the first chapter of the Koran, consisting of seven short verses. In the first two cycles, they also recite another chapter or some verses from the Koran.

In order to perform thesalat , people must be in a state of ritual purity (tahara ). For practicing Muslims, maintaining ritual purity is a daily concern, since it involves preserving the body and clothing from contamination by excretions and blood. Muslim toilet training is determined by the rules of ritual purity. Although children are not expected to perform the prayers until puberty, even infants are taught to clean themselves in a way that keeps them ritually pure. What this cleaning involves is basically careful elimination of all traces of bodily wastes, preferably with water.

There are two main categories of impurity, and two basic kinds of ablution to remove impurity. The major ablution (ghusl ) is required after sexual intercourse or emission of semen, menstruation, childbirth, and touching a human corpse. A person in need of a major ablution cannot perform the ritual prayer and should not enter a mosque or touch the Koran. In order to perform thesalat , one has to be free from minor impurity as well. This kind of impurity occurs if one sleeps, goes to the toilet, breaks wind, and in certain other ways as well. It is removed by a minor ablution (wudu' ).

The major ablution involves washing the whole body from head to toe, making sure that every part of it gets wet. The minor ablution involves rinsing or wiping the following with water, in this order: the hands, the mouth, the nose, the right and left forearms, the face, the head, the ears, and the right and left feet.

If there is no access to water, or if a person should not touch water because of illness or some other reason, and if the time for

prayer arrives, a simpler form of ablution is made with clean sand or a stone. Called atayammum , it can replace both major and minor ablutions.

The five daily prayers are incumbent on all Muslims who have reached puberty. However, women who are impure because they are menstruating or have just given birth should not perform thesalat . People who are too ill to pray are excused; if they are well enough to recite the prayers seated or lying down, they should do that.

Just as people must have been purified through the ablutions before they can perform thesalat , so also their clothing and the place where they perform thesalat must be pure. Clothing is pure as long as it has not been tainted by human or animal excrement, urine, semen, or blood. Following the Sunna of the Prophet, Muslim men traditionally squat when they urinate, in order to avoid splashing their clothing with urine. If clothing becomes impure, it must be rinsed before it can be worn while one performs thesalat .

In the same way, the place of prayer must be kept pure. Practicing Muslims normally keep their homes pure, which explains why they (like Far Easterners) remove their shoes before entering the house. They will commonly pray in their homes wherever purity is preserved. In places inside or outside the house that are impure or of questionable purity, people put down a piece of cloth or a prayer carpet, which they then fold up and put away when they finish. This cloth or carpet is called asajjada , a "place of much prostration."

Nature is by definition pure, and it is common in Muslim countries to see people praying in the fields by the side of the road. The main way to purify clothing or carpeting that has become impure is to wash it, but if the impure substance itself has been removed, placing the article in the sun for two or three days will also purify it.

Saying prayers in congregation is highly recommended. According to the Prophet, asalat said in congregation is rewarded with seventy times the reward of asalat said alone. A congregation is defined as two or more people praying together. Hence a husband and wife or a mother and her child are a congregation when they pray together. But in general, it is felt that the larger the congregation, the better, and this fits in nicely with the social dimension of much of Islamic practice.

The places in a community where congregational prayers are held are called "mosques ." This English word is derived from the Arabicmasiid , which means "place of prostration." The social house of worship is called amasjid because prostration is understood as thesalat 's highpoint, as it were. It symbolizes the utter submission and surrender (islam ) of the human being to God.

Men must attend the mosque once a week for the Friday congregational prayer, which is held in place of the noon prayer. Women are not required to go. Shi'ite Muslims maintain that the Friday prayer, although recommended, is not incumbent.

The rhythm of life in a traditional Islamic society is largely determined by the five daily prayers. Even today, one is made aware of this rhythm in any Muslim city by the call to prayer--theadhan --that is made at every mosque to summon the faithful tosalat . Except for the first sentence, which is recited four times, and the last, which is recited once, each sentence is recited twice.

God is greater

I bear witness that there is no god but God

I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of God

Hurry to the salat.

Hurry to salvation.

God is greater

There is no god but God.

In the morningadhan , the sentence "Thesalat is better than sleep" is usually added after "Hurry to salvation."

The person who recites theadhan , the muezzin, is typically selected for his strong and beautiful voice. In a traditional city, where there are many mosques located not far from each other, one hears a symphony of beautiful voices, each reciting theadhan in a slightly different rhythm and tune. This is particularly striking and moving at the time of the morningadhan , when the city is otherwise silent.

Nowadays, most people in charge of mosques have lost their sense of beauty and harmony. Instead of hearing a variety of beautiful voices issuing from the minarets, people hear the sound of loudspeakers. Often every mosque broadcasts the recorded voice of the same muezzin. Although the voice may be beautiful, loudspeakers make even the most beautiful recording ugly. Theadhan becomes an electronic imposition that can be quite disturbing; not only to travelers, but also to the locals who have preserved their taste.

A great deal can be said about the significance of thesalat for Muslim life. Here we will only remark that observing it has a deep effect on both the individual and collective psyches. The whole color of a society in which most people perform five daily prayers is profoundly different from one in which there is no time for God, or in which religion is a private affair, or reserved only for one day a week. The following hadith puts the prayers effect into a nutshell:

God's messenger said, "Tell me, if one of you had a river at his door in which he washed five times a day, would any of his filthiness remain?"

The people replied, "Nothing of his filthiness would remain."

He said, "That is a likeness for the five salats. God obliterates sins with them."

The Third Pillar: Zakat

Zakat is commonly translated as "alms tax." It is defined as a certain percentage of one's acquired property or profit for the year that is paid to the needy. In keeping with the Koran (9:60), there are eight categories of people to whomzakat should be given: the needy, the poor, those who collect thezakat , those whose hearts are to be reconciled to Islam, captives, those in debt, those who are fighting in God's path, and travelers. The rules and regulations for calculatingzakat are quite complex. Depending on the nature of the property and the conditions under which it was acquired, it can range from 2.5 percent to 10 percent, of one's profit.

The root meaning of the wordzakat is "purity." The basic idea behind zakat is that people purify their wealth by giving a share of it to God. Just as ablutions purify the body and salat purifies the soul, so zakat purifies possessions and makes them pleasing to God.

Zakat has an obvious social relevance. Purification of an individual's possessions takes place through helping others. In order to pay it, one has to concern oneself with the situation of one's neighbors and discover who the needy are.Salat , likezakat , has a social significance, but what is required is that thesalat be recited, not that it be recited with others. In contrast,zakat depends totally upon social interaction. One cannot payzakat to oneself.

Payingzakat depends not only on the circumstances of those who receive, but also on the circumstances of those who pay. In other words, people payzakat only if they fulfill the required conditions. They must have had an income over the year and made a profit. Those who do not fulfill these conditions cannot payzakat . If they give charity in spite of their own need, this is praiseworthy, but it is not the requiredzakat because it does not fulfill the conditions.

This way of looking atzakat is a typical example of how Islam sets up priorities. Certain things are absolutely obligatory, like theShahadah and the ritual prayer. Others depend upon circumstances, like thezakat . Notice that what is absolutely essential pertains to the individual, because there is always a person who stands before God. What is secondary pertains to society, because one is not necessarily a part of any given social conditions. This means, in brief, that Islam asks Muslims to put their own houses in order first. Only then are they expected to look at other people's houses, according to the instructions given by God.

In short, the primary task is to set up a right relationship with God, and this begins with the individual. A healthy society can only exist when its members are healthy. The individuals who make up the society are the primary focus of attention. But their religious well-being demands that they accept some measure of social responsibility. If, as the Prophet said, "A person who marries achieves one-half of his religion," this is because the family is the fundamental building block of

society. If the family can be kept healthy--and this depends on the spiritual health of its members--then society can be kept healthy.

The Fourth Pillar: Fasting

The fourth pillar is "to fast during the month of Ramadan." Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. Since this is a lunar calendar of 355 days, each month lasts twenty-nine or thirty days. For a month to be considered as having twenty-nine and not thirty days, the new crescent moon must have beensighted . This helps explains why day begins at sundown: the new moon is seen at sunset on the western horizon, and then it sets. If it is cloudy and people have to depend upon calculation to decide if the new month has begun or not, the month is counted as lasting thirty days.

The month of Ramadan begins when the new crescent moon is sighted, or when the previous month reaches thirty days. Fasting begins at dawn the next morning. Dawn is defined as the time when the earliest light shows on the eastern horizon, or the time when one can see the difference between a black and a white piece of string by natural light. This is the time of the morningadhan , about an hour and a half before sunrise. The fast comes to an end when the sun sets; that is, when the eveningadhan is sounded.

Fasting consists of refraining from eating, drinking, smoking, and sexual activity. All Muslims who have reached the age of puberty are required to fast, although there are several valid excuses for not fasting, such as illness and travel, and, while pregnant or menstruating, women are forbidden from fasting. Missed fasting needs to be made up for at another time, at the discretion of the person.

Ramadan is a time of heightened attention to the rules of right conduct. For example, the Prophet said, "Five things break the fast of the faster--lying, backbiting, slander, ungodly oaths, and looking with passion." In other words, at a time when certain normally permitted acts are forbidden, acts that are always forbidden ruin a person's fast.

The fact that Ramadan is a lunar month has interesting consequences. Except for the spring and autumn equinoxes, every daytime period of the year is of a different length in different locations on the face of the earth. The daylight hours in June are long in the northern hemisphere and short in the southern hemisphere. A solar month when every Muslim in the world would fast the same amount of time cannot be found--especially when one remembers that the pre-Islamic Arab solar calendar was observed by adding an extra month every three years to the lunar calendar, similar to what is done with the Jewish calendar. But the use of the lunar calendar demands that all Muslims who fast for a period of thirty-three years will have fasted for the same amount of time, no matter where they live.

Because of the lunar calendar, Ramadan moves forward in the solar calendar about eleven days every year. Thus in the year 1998 C.E., the first day of Ramadan corresponds to December 20 (give or take a day); in 1999, to December 9; in 2000, to November 28; and so on. People living in northern latitudes who will be fasting for only eight or nine hours a day during December will be fasting for seventeen or eighteen hours a day after seventeen years when Ramadan comes in June. Thus most people's lives follow a cycle regulated by Ramadan, where fasting becomes easier and then more difficult.

Like the other pillars, fasting has a strong social component. When the pattern of individual life changes, the effects are multiplied in society. In a traditional Islamic community, all places of eating are closed during the daylight hours of Ramadan. People usually have a good-sized meal just before the beginning of the fast in the early morning. Depending on the time of the year and their own habits, they may then stay awake or go back to sleep after saying their morningsalat . For the rest of the day, they go about their activities more or less as usual.

Those who have not experienced the fast of Ramadan may think it is easy to skip breakfast and lunch, but what about that morning cup of coffee? Even a sip of water makes a difference after a heavy sleep, since it helps turn the metabolism around. In winter it is not difficult to go eight hours without food or drink, but what about June or July? One day may be easy, but what about one week, two weeks . .? Unless people are firm in their faith, they are not likely to make it through the whole month, summer or winter.

But to suggest that fasting during Ramadan is difficult does not mean that Muslims find it to be a hardship. By and large Ramadan tends to be the happiest time of the year, although this does not become obvious until the night. During the daytime, people are too subdued to show their happiness. Traditional Islamic cities are sights to behold during the month of fasting. Daylight hours and nighttime exhibit a total contrast. During the day there is relatively little activity, many shops are closed, and people tend to be quiet, if not morose. But as soon as the cannon sounds or theadhan is proclaimed, the whole atmosphere changes. Everyone has been anxiously waiting for the day's fast to end. If they follow the example of the Prophet, they immediately eat a date or two or have a drink of water, then say their eveningsalat . In public areas, right before sundown, the tea houses and restaurants are full of people sitting patiently, food and drink before them.

In many parts of the Islamic world it has become the custom to have a feast as soon as the fasting ends. In any case, the nights of Ramadan are festive occasions. The city streets come alive with the activity that is reserved for daylight hours at other times of the year.

According to Islamic law, not observing the fast is a serious sin. In order to make up for a single day missed intentionally, a person must fast for two months. However, as is often the case, there is no way to

enforce this rule. People have only themselves and God to answer to. In traditional Islamic society, everyone carefully observed the fast in public. In private, they could do whatever they wanted, and no one but God was the wiser.

Today, in some of the larger cities in the Islamic world, one may have the impression that few people fast. Restaurants are busy and life seems to be going on as usual. But even in the West, many Muslims who do not observe the pillars of Islam fast for at least a day or two. (In a similar way, residual Christians are likely to go to church once a year at Easter). Part of the reason for token shows of fasting is that the fast is the one ritual that is strictly between the individual and God. Though it has social dimensions, God alone sees whether or not a person observes it. Hence, Ramadan is usually considered to be the most personal and spiritual of the pillars. It is a test of people's sincerity in their religion. Thesalat can be seen by other people, and in a tight-knit society, everyone knows how well others observe it. But no one can check on your every movement during the day to see whether or not you have taken a sip of water or nibbled a snack. Many otherwise lapsed Muslims sense this, and so they fast for a day or two just to let themselves and God know that they have not left the fold.

The Fifth Pillar: Hajj

The fifth pillar is to "make the pilgrimage to the House of God if you are able." The hajj is a set of rituals that take place in and around Mecca every year, beginning on the eighth and ending on the thirteenth day of the last lunar month, Dhu'l-Hijja (The Month of the Hajj). Mecca was a sacred center long before Islam, and according to Muslim belief, Adam himself built a sanctuary at Mecca. Eventually it was rebuilt by Abraham, and by the time of the appearance of Islam, the Kaaba (cube) had long been a place of pilgrimage for the Arab tribes. The Koran and the Prophet modified and resanctified the rituals performed at the Kaaba, making them a pillar of the religion.

Muslims are required to make the hajj once in their lifetimes, but only if they have the means to do so. To understand some of the significance of the hajj, one needs to remember that steamships, airplanes, and buses are products of the past one hundred years. For thirteen hundred years, the vast majority of Muslims made the journey to Mecca on foot, or perhaps mounted on a horse or a camel. It was not a matter of taking a two-week vacation, and then back to the office on Monday morning. Rather, for most Muslims the hajj was a difficult journey of several months if not a year or two. And once the trip was made, who wanted to hurry? People stayed in Mecca or Medina for a few months to recuperate and to prepare for their return, to meet other Muslims from all over the Islamic world, and to study. Often they stayed on for years, and often they simply came there to die, however long that might take.

Today, one can go to Mecca in a few hours from anyplace in the world. Some people decide to do the hajj this year because they did Bermuda last year. In the past, most Muslims had to fulfill strict conditions in order to make the journey. In effect, they had to be prepared for death. They had to assume that they would never return, and make all the necessary preparations for that eventuality. One of the conditions for making the hajj is that people have to pay off all their debts. If a man wanted to make the hajj, but his wife did not want to accompany him, he had to make sure that she was provided for in the way in which she was accustomed. He had to see to the provision of his children as well, and anyone else for whom he was responsible.

Traditionally, the hajj was looked upon as a grand rite of passage, a move from involvement with this world to occupation with God. In order to make the hajj, people had to finish with everything that kept them occupied on a day-to-day basis. They had to answer God's call to come and visit him. The hajj was always looked upon as a kind of death, because the Koran repeatedly describes death as the meeting with God, and the Kaaba is the house of God. The hajj, in short, was a death and a meeting with God, and the return from the hajj was a rebirth. This helps explain why the title "hajji" ("one who has made the hajj") has always been highly respected throughout the Islamic world. Hajjis were looked upon as people who were no longer involved with the pettiness of everyday life. They were treated as models of piety and sanctity, and no doubt most of them assumed the responsibilities toward society that the title implies, even if some took advantage of the respect that was accorded to them.

A Sixth Pillar? Jihad and Mujahada

Some authorities have held that there is a sixth pillar of Islam: jihad. This word has become well-known in English because of the contemporary political situation and the focus of the media on violence. Hence, a bit more attention has to be paid to it than would be warranted if we were simply looking at the role that jihad plays in Islam.

The first thing one needs to understand about the term jihad is that "holy war" is a highly misleading and usually inaccurate translation. In Islamic history, the label has been applied to any war by "our side." Until very recently in the West, the situation was similar; every war was considered holy, because God was on our side. By employing the term, Muslims condemned the other side as anti-God. In short, the word has played the role of patriotic slogans everywhere. To undertake a jihad is, in contemporary terms, "to fight for the preservation of democracy and freedom." It is to do what the good people do.

The Koranic usage of the termjihad is far broader than the political use of the term might imply. The basic meaning of the term is "struggle." Most commonly, the Koran uses the verb along with the

expression "in the path of God." The "path of God" is of course the path for right conduct that God has set down in the Koran and the example of the Prophet.

From one point of view, jihad is simply the complement toislam . The wordislam , after all, means "submission" or "surrender." Westerners tend to think of this as a kind of passivity. But surrender takes place to God's will, and it is God's will that people struggle in His path. Hence submission demands struggle. Receptivity toward Gods command requires people to be active toward all the negative tendencies in society and themselves that pull them away from God. In this perspective, submission to God and struggle in his path go together harmoniously, and neither is complete without the other.

Within the Islamic context, the fact that submission to God demands struggle in his path is self-evident.Salat ,zakat , fasting, and hajj are all struggle. If you think they are easy, try performing thesalat according to the rules for a few days. In fact, the biggest obstacles people face in submitting themselves to God are their own laziness and lack of imagination. People let the currents of contemporary opinion and events carry them along without resisting. It takes an enormous struggle to submit to an authority that breaks not only with one's own likes and dislikes, but also with the pressure of society to conform to the crowd.

The place of jihad in the divine plan is typically illustrated by citing words that the Prophet uttered on one occasion when he had returned to Medina from a battle with the enemies of the new religion. He said, "We have returned from the lesser jihad to the greaterjihad ." The people said, "O Messenger of God, what jihad could be greater than struggling against the unbelievers with the sword?" He replied, "Struggling against the enemy in your own breast."

In later texts, this inward struggle is most often calledmujahada rather thanjihad . Grammatically, the wordmujahada --which is derived from the same root asjihad --means exactly the same thing. But the wordjihad came to be employed to refer to outward wars as well as the inward struggle against one's own negative tendencies, while the wordmujahada is used almost exclusively for the greater, inwardjihad .

Those Muslim scholars who have said that jihad is a sixth pillar of Islam have usually had in mind the fact that struggle in the path of God is a necessity for all Muslims. At the same time, they recognize that this struggle will sometimes take the outward form of war against the enemies of Islam.

But it needs to be stressed that in the common language of Islamic countries, the wordjihad is used. for any war. In a similar way, most Americans have considered any war engaged in by the United States as a just war. But from the point of view of the strict application of Islamic teachings, most so-called jihads have not deserved the name. Any king (or dictator, as we have witnessed more recently) can declare a jihad .

There were always a few of the religious authorities who would lend support to the king -- such as the scholar whom the king had appointed to be chief preacher at the royal mosque. But there have usually been a good body of the ulama who have not supported wars simply because kings declared them. Rather, they would only support those that followed the strict application of Islamic teachings. By these standards, it is probably safe to say that there have been few if any valid jihads in the past century, and perhaps not for the past several hundred years.

The Shariah

The Five Pillars are the basic practices of Islam. They are relevant to every Muslim, though it may happen that many people never have to payzakat or do not make the hajj because their personal circumstances make it impossible for them to do so. But all Muslims have uttered the Shahadah, because that is what makes them Muslims. Thesalat is incumbent upon all adults every day, although women are excused during certain times of the month. Fasting during Ramadan is also an annual practice for everyone, though there are several valid reasons for not observing it.

There are many other Koranic and prophetic injunctions that Muslims have to observe. Many of these pertain to moral prescriptions and have a universal applicability. Among forbidden activities are lying, stealing, murder, adultery, and fornication. Other injunctions relate to domains that in modern Western usage are usually considered to lie outside the pale of religion, such as inheritance, marriage, business transactions, and foods that may or may not be eaten.

The whole body of rules and regulations set down by the Koran and the Prophet gradually came to be codified as the Shariah, or "the broad path leading to water," the road of right activity that all Muslims have to follow. The water here is the heavenly water that purifies and saves, a water that is alluded to in many Koranic verses:

He sends down on you water from heaven, to purify you thereby, and to put away from you the defilement of Satan . (8.11 )

The term Shariah is often translated as "Islamic law" or "revealed law." The study of this domain of Islamic learning is calledfiqh ("jurisprudence"). The specialists in this kind of learning are the fuqaha ' ("jurists") to whom we have already referred. Practically all ulama -- all Muslims learned in Islam -- have a wide knowledge of jurisprudence, but some of them have specialized in other areas, such as theology, philosophy, or Sufism. As already indicated, the vast majority of those who are recognized as ulama in Islamic countries -- the mullahs as they are called in many places -- are in fact jurists, since they have little or no learning in other domains. This is to say that knowledge of Islam's first

dimension is required of all Muslims, but knowledge of the second and third dimensions, though in many ways as important, is much less widely disseminated.

The primary importance of activity in the Islamic view of things appears completely natural to Muslims. After all, everyone must be involved with activity because of the human body, and hence everyone has need of guidelines for doing things. Of course it is also true that everyone has a mind and a heart, but it is in the nature of things -- at least in the historical eras of which we have knowledge -- that most people do not get involved with too much thinking, nor do many people devote themselves to purifying their hearts and their intentions in order to prepare themselves for the vision of God. These endeavors have always been the domain of a minority, and Islam is no exception.

One of the reasons that the wordlaw is not quite appropriate to refer to everything dealt with in the Shariah is the connotations of the English word. To begin with, we think of law as commands and prohibitions. For example, the law tells you that you have to pay taxes and that you are not allowed to commit murder. At the same time, there is a third category of human activities, the category of things that are not regulated by law.

Islamic jurisprudence deals with these same three categories, but it adds two more domains that it considers important. Not only does the Shariah tell people what they must do and what they must not do, it also tells them what they should do and what they should not do, and it tells them explicitly that many things are indifferent. Hence we are faced with five categories of actions: the required, the recommended, the indifferent, the reprehensible, and the forbidden.

As a result of this way of looking at things, the Shariah covers a great deal of ground that in modern terms seems to belong outside a legal system. As an example, let us take a look at the category of "recommended." As we have seen, the Five Pillars are all required. But in addition to the five requiredsalats , there are a large number of recommendedsalats . For example, it is recommended that, before saying the two cycles of the morning prayer, people should perform two other cycles. Each of the daily prayers has a certain number of recommended cycles that accompany it.

In the case of fasting, people are required to fast only during Ramadan. But it is recommended that they fast during certain other days of the year, certain days of each month, and even certain days of each week. Likewise, those who pay thezakat are not required to give more than a certain amount of their profit, but it is recommended that they give away much more. It is also recommended to make loans -- without interest, since interest (according to most opinions) is forbidden. Some authorities maintain that lending money is more meritorious than giving it away, because the person who borrows the money has a moral obligation to pay it back, and thus he or she is encouraged to find steady

employment. And when the money is paid back, it can be loaned to someone else, thus doing more good work.

The fifth pillar also has a recommended form, which is a pilgrimage to the House of God outside the season of the hajj, a ritual called the 'umra . People should make the 'umra if they have the opportunity. And since it is a recommended act, it needs to be described in all its details in the textbooks on the Shariah.

Many things are considered reprehensible, such as divorce, using more water than is necessary while making an ablution, scratching oneself while making thesalat , and eating until one is satiated.

The attention that the Shariah pays to food often appears strange to Christians (in contrast to Jews). Muslims are forbidden to consume intoxicating beverages and narcotics. They are also forbidden to eat pig, dog, domestic donkey, and carrion, which is defined as the meat of any animal that has not been ritually slaughtered. Animals are slaughtered ritually by cutting their throats while mentioning the name of God. This ritually slaughtered meat is then calledhalal (permitted). Many jurists maintain that meat prepared by Jews or Christians ishalal for Muslims, while others disagree. On this point the Koran gives a general ruling: "The food of the People of the Book [those who have been given scriptures, such as Jews and Christians] is permitted to you" (5:5), although it is understood that this food, if meat, must be slaughtered in the name of God. Kosher meats in particular seem to fit this category. In general, the Shariah declares that it is forbidden to eat any wild animal that has claws, nails, or tusks with which it overcomes its prey or its enemies, such as lion, tiger, wolf, bear, elephant, monkey, and cat. However, one school of law maintains that it is reprehensible to eat these animals, not forbidden. Minor differences of opinion among the jurists are quite common. Thus, most of them maintain that all animals that live in the sea are permitted, whereas one school makes an exception for sea animals that do not take the form of fish -- such as shellfish, crabs, alligators, or walruses.

Because of the existence of five categories instead of three, Islamic law goes into all sorts of details about everyday life that would not otherwise be discussed. It has many branches and subfields, expertise in which can require years of study. Many Muslims accord so much importance to the Shariah that it seems to become for them the whole of their religion, at least in practice. Nevertheless, many of the greatest Muslim authorities have warned against spending too much time studying the Shariah, since this can blind people to the other dimensions of the religion, which are also essential to Islam.

Al-Ghazali (d. 505/ 1111), one of the most famous of the great authorities, held that each Muslim must have enough knowledge of the Shariah to put it into practice in his or her own life. But if Muslims do not need a given injunction in their circumstances, they have no need to know about it. There will be, in any case, people who devote their lives to the

study of the Shariah, and they can be consulted when the need arises. This explains the basic function of the jurists in society: to explain the details of the Shariah to those who need to observe it in any given circumstances.

To take a simple example, when a youngster wants to learn how to say thesalat , the normal route is to ask a family member how to do it. There is no need to consult books, since most people are familiar with the basic rules, but it may happen that one person says you hold your hands this way, and another says you hold your hands that way. What do you do? Of course you ask someone else. Soon, by asking, you will reach the imam (prayer leader) of the local mosque, who is normally the most knowledgeable person about these things. But the imam may not be an expert in jurisprudence, and if the question is good enough, he may send you to a jurist, who will then explain the details. Not that this is necessarily the last word. There are other jurists, and jurists, like scholars everywhere, have differences of opinion. Basically, it is your duty to keep on asking until you are satisfied with the answer.

Sin

The Shariah sets down rules for right activity. These are God's rules as specified in the Koran and explained by the Prophet. The Koran and the Hadith are the two basic sources of the Shariah. If the ulama consult these sources and a question still remains, they can consult the opinions of the great Muslims, the recognized authorities in the Shariah. Hence consensus (ijma ) is recognized as a third source of Shariite rulings; Sunnis consider reasoning by analogy (qiyas ) a fourth source, while Shi'ites put reason ('aql ) in its place.

If people accept the instructions of God as set down in the Shariah and put them into practice, this is called "obedience" (ta'a ). A correct act is an obedient act. God or his Prophet say, "Do this" or "Don't do that," and a good Muslim obeys these instructions. The Koran frequently employs the word obey to refer to right activity:

Obey God and the Messenger, perhaps you will be shown mercy. (3.132)

Obey God and obey the Messenger, and beware. But if you turn your backs, then know it is only for Our Messenger to deliver the clear message. (5.92)

Whoso obeys God and His Messenger, He will admit him to gardens through which rivers flow, therein duelling forever (48:17)

Whosoever obeys God and the Messenger -- they are with those whom God has blessed. (4:69)

It is not for any man or woman of faith, when God and His Messenger have decreed something, to have a choice in the matter Whosoever disobeys God and His Messenger has been misguided with a clear misguidance. (33:36)

If obedience is right activity, then disobedience (ma'siya ) is wrong activity. Human disobedience began with Adam, who ate the forbidden fruit. "Adam disobeyed his Lord and went astray" (20:121). Disobedience is the attribute of anyone who fails to obey God and his messengers. The Shariah codifies the instructions of God and the Prophet, so disobedience to the Shariah is considered disobedience to God. This is one of the meanings understood from the following verse, where "the possessors of the command" can be interpreted to mean those who have the requisite learning to explain the Shariah to Muslims:

O you who haw faith! Obey God, and obey the Messenger and the possessors of the command among you. If you should quarrel on anything, refer it to God and the Messenger (4:59)

The Koran uses the verb to disobey in several verses, almost always in discussion of the reaction of the wrongdoers to past prophets. But the underlying message for Muslims is clear:

These are God's bounds. Whoso obeys God and His Messenger, him He will admit to gardens through which rivers flow, therein dwelling forever, that is the mighty triumph. But whoso disobeys God and His Messenger, him He will admit to a Fire, therein dwelling forever, and for him awaits a humbling chastisement. (4:13-14)

Scholars writing on Islam frequently translatema'siya as "sin," and of course this word does mean sin in a general sort of way. But disobedience is a special kind of sin, one that is defined in terms of Gods commands and prohibitions; and it always calls to mind its opposite, which is obedience. The Koran uses several other words that are commonly translated as sin, including, among others,dhanb, ithm , andkhati'a . Each of these terms has nuances that differentiate it from the others. All this is to say that the English wordsin is, from the Islamic point of view, extremely vague, since it encompasses several types of activity.

What all these terms have in common is that talk of sin involves judgments about activity, and this is the domain of the Shariah. The Shariah cannot ignore the issue of intentions, but it deals with them almost exclusively in relation to acts. Those of the ulama who look at intentions from the perspective of Islam's third dimension have a far broader view of the deep moral and spiritual issues that are involved in sin.

It would be appropriate to round out this discussion of disobedience and sin with a discussion of the general Koranic view on the good works that people perform in order to be obedient. However, we will leave this discussion for Part III of the book. At that point, we will have enough background to relate good works to all three dimensions of Islam. For the time being, we will simply say that the most common term that the Koran employs for good works issalihat , which can be translated as "wholesome deeds." Those who perform these deeds are often calledalsalihun (the wholesome).

When the Koran and the Islamic tradition mention wholesome deeds, what is meant is activity that represents obedience to God's command. The primary wholesome deeds are the Five Pillars, but every sort of good deed is included in the category, that is, all those deeds that the Shariah recognizes as good. In addition, the authorities of the second and third dimensions of Islam often broaden the term to include a wider definition of good.

Chapter 2. THE HISTORICAL EMBODIMENT OF ISLAM

The ulama are those who have knowledge of the religion. By this definition, the most knowledgeable person is God Himself, and indeed, one of His names isal-'alim , the Knowing. Among human beings, the Prophet Muhammad is considered to have had more knowledge than anyone else, and he himself said, "I came to know everything in the heavens and the earth." Naturally, the primary teachers of the Shariah are God and the Prophet--as represented by the Koran and the Hadith.

The Koran and the Sunna

The role of the Prophet in codifying Muslim learning should not be underestimated. In principle, everything is in the Koran. But actually, an enormous number of details concerning Islamic practice can be found only in the Hadith. For example, the Koran repeatedly commands people to perform thesalat , and one can probably understand from various verses that this performance involves standing, bowing,

prostrating oneself, and sitting. Likewise, the Koran makes it clear that people need to be pure before they perform thesalat . But nowhere does the Koran provide precise instructions on how to perform the prayers or make the ablutions. Here the Sunna--the exemplary practice--of the Prophet becomes absolutely essential for the religion. The Sunna in turn is recorded in the Hadith. It is the Prophet who told people that they should stand, bow, and prostrate themselves in such and such a manner and while reciting such and such Koranic verses or words of praise and thanksgiving.

Many of those who were especially close to the Prophet played an extremely important role in the transmission and dissemination of Islamic learning. They heard what the Prophet said on various occasions, or they saw what he did, and later they reported his words or described his actions to others. Among the most important of these companions were his wife, A'isha, and his cousin and son-in-law, Ali. The reports of hundreds of the Prophet's companions are recorded in the books on Hadith.

Islam is fundamentally a practice, a way of life, a pattern for establishing harmony with God and his creation. Just as islam signifies, in its most universal meaning, the submission of all things to the divine wisdom and command, so also in its more specific, human senses, it signifies the proper functioning of the human being and human society through submission to the divine pattern. This pattern for right life is manifested first and foremost in doing. It is true that doing depends upon knowing and willing, on choices differentiated and courses of activity consciously followed, but that is another issue--which will be discussed in its own place. For now we want to stress the fact that the criterion for being a Muslim is fundamentally the outward activity that people perform.

Hence, to be a good Muslim means following the Sunna of the Prophet--doing things in the way that Muhammad did them. The most important thing that Muhammad did was to receive the Koran from God, thereby establishing the religion of Islam. His followers cannot receive the Koran directly from God, but they can receive it indirectly from him through the Prophet's intermediary. They receive it by learning it, memorizing it, and reciting it.

Memorization of the Koran is considered one of the most beneficial religious acts, and, as we have seen, it provides the basis for traditional Islamic education. All Muslims memorize at least some of the Koran, because without knowing the Fatihah and certain other verses, they cannot recite thesalat . Thesalat itself is the daily renewal of the Koran in the Muslim. It is the first and primary embodiment of the Koranic revelation in human existence.

Given the foundational nature of activity for human existence, it is not surprising that Muslims look first to activity in judging the extent to which Islam is observed. Historically, what is certain is that the

fundamental activities go back to the prophetic period, and that Muslims have always been extremely attentive to what exactly should be done in every circumstance. They observed the Prophet carefully, and they listened to him attentively, and they put what they had learned into practice in their own lives. The Shariah was later elaborated and codified on the basis of what pious and sincere Muslims were doing. And these people traced the pattern for their own activities back to the Prophet's Sunna.

We will not go into the historical details of how exactly Islamic practice was passed down among the early generations of Muslims. These things are not known for certain, and modern historians have expended a good deal of effort in trying to map this out, without too much success. But we can summarize the net result of the transmission of the Sunna--the birth of several recognized ways of observing the Shariah.

The Madhhabs

As the years and centuries passed, the living memory of Muhammad and his Sunna gradually weakened, and it became more and more necessary to record the details of his life and practice so that they would not be lost. At the same time, the areas within which Islam became established continued to go through the vicissitudes that mark human existence--the differences of opinion, the struggles for power, the loves and hates, the natural and man-made catastrophes. In other words, history went along as usual, but now the Koran and the Sunna of the Prophet became added factors in human relationships.

The picture of those times was the picture of all times. Ali summed up the reports of all the historians to come when he said,"Time is two days: A day for you, and a day against you." But he did not leave it at that. Following the example of the Koran, which deals with historical events only insofar as they teach something about the human relationship with God, he reminded people of two of the primary virtues that need to be cultivated:"When time is for you, give thanks to God, and when it is against you, have patience."

At the beginning of Islam, observing the Sunna of the Prophet was part and parcel of being a Muslim, and one learned it by following the example of those who were Muslims before. This explains the sense of such prophetic sayings as the following: "My companions are like stars. Whichever you follow, you will be guided." After the companions came the "followers," those who had met the companions. As long as Islam was a relatively small community in which faith and practice remained intense, it was perfectly feasible for people to be good Muslims by following the example of their companions and teachers. But gradually the community-as religious community, rooted in Islam's three dimensions--became dissipated, especially when the early con-

quests brought enormous wealth. Many Muslims lost sight of the original goals of the religion and became caught up with other activities. At this point religious learning became more and more the domain of a limited number of people, and they found it feasible to pass on their learning only to a relatively small number of students and perhaps to write a book or two to preserve some of the essentials of knowledge.

Knowledge of the Sunna, in short, gradually became a specialized field of learning. Moreover, as the community expanded, the vicissitudes of life and fortune meant that Muslims came face to face with all sorts of human experience that had to be sorted out. The idea thatislam is the attribute of right activity and embraces the whole of creation meant that nothing could be ignored by those who were trying to put the Sunna into practice.

But what did people do when they met a situation that had never arisen during the Prophet's lifetime? Or, from another direction altogether, what did they do when they met two or more contradictory reports about the Prophet's activity? How did they decide which report is correct? Issues such as these gradually led to the formation of a number of different "trodden paths, "each representing a slightly different understanding of what exactly the Sunna of the Prophet was and how it could be applied to human life. We say "slightly different" from a modern perspective. Within the context of the times, the differences often appeared major, and on occasion conflicting views could lead to pitched battles (although this is true only if various social and political factors were mixed into the brew). At first there were scores of these paths, each focused on the teachings of someone thoroughly knowledgeable in the Sunna. Gradually some of the ways disappeared or became consolidated with others. Eventually four paths became recognized among Sunnis as equally valid. Muslims could follow any path they chose, and it has not been uncommon for them to combine the paths, following one on one issue and another on some other issue.

The word that came to be employed for the different versions of the Prophet's Sunna wasmadhhab , which derives from a root meaning "to go." Amadhhab is a way of going, a route, a road that is walked, a trodden path. It is sometimes translated as "school of law" or "school of jurisprudence." Each correct way of practicing Islam is a way of walking in the Sunna. Each represents one way of interpreting and applying the Shariah.

The fourmadhhabs of Sunni Islam are named after those who are looked back upon as their founders, the ones who took the most important steps in codifying the rules and regulations of the madhhab and differentiating it from other ways of interpreting the Sunna. The four founders are Abu Hanifa ( d. 150/767), Malik ibn Anas ( d. 179/795), alShafi'i ( d. 204/820), and Ibn Hanbal ( d. 241/855). Most Shi'ites follow a fifth madhhab named after the sixth Imam, Ja'far al-Sadiq ( d. 148/765), who was, incidentally, one of the teachers of Abu Hanifa.

There are no major differences separating themadhhabs , at least not from the external perspective that we naturally have to take. A nonMuslim unfamiliar with the Shariah would find it extremely difficult to see any difference, for example, between the way two Muslims who follow two differentmadhhabs perform thesalat . But specialists in jurisprudence can point out tiny differences in practically every stage of the ritual. The different schools very often agree on certain points, while differing on others. Ja'fari or Shi'ite law is no different here, and it tends to be especially close to the Hanafi position. However, there are two specific instances where Ja'fari law establishes minor practices that set it apart from the four Sunni schools. The first is the permissibility of a form of temporary marriage (mut'a ), and the second is in the establishment of a specific form of alms-tax (thekhums ), which is the share of the Imam.

Although there were manymadhhabs in early times, eventually all Sunni Muslims came to observe one of the four just mentioned. Once these became established as the right ways, no major changes in the Shariah took place. So much is this true that it has often been said that the "gate of effort" in determining the rulings of the Shariah was closed. Many of the great ulama, however, took no notice of this opinion and continued to exert effort as they saw fit. As for the Shi'ites, they reject this opinion absolutely, saying that the "gate of effort" is always open and that it is forbidden to follow the juridical rulings of someone who is dead.

Early Western scholarship on Islam tended to make a big point of this closing of the gate of effort, often with the intention of criticizing Islam for an alleged stultification of legal thinking. Scholars often like to suggest that modern people like themselves are very smart and dynamic, while people in olden times were rather dull and unimaginative. More recent scholarship has become aware of the selfcongratulation implicit in many earlier judgments of non-Western cultures and has begun to reevaluate the sources. As a result, it has been shown that in the case of Islamic juridical thinking, a great deal has been going on in many areas, especially when it has been a question of new situations--situations that naturally occur because of historical change. Where the judgment about closure is more or less valid, however, is in the area of the Five Pillars, the fundamental acts established by the Sunna.

Jurisprudence and Politics

The jurists are those ulama who specialize in the Shariah. Each jurist is typically a specialist in onemadhhab , although some may be familiar with othermadhabs as well. In a certain Christian and post-Christian way of looking at things, jurisprudence appears to have no relevance to what today is often called "spirituality." There is a certain truth in this

judgment, and many Muslim authorities over the centuries have made the same point. After all, the jurists are very careful about looking at all the details of activity, and typically they drone on and on in the manner of lawyers. Jurisprudence is a science that revels in nit-picking. Although it is a necessary science in Islam, if too much stress is placed upon it, it can discourage the attention that should be paid to Islam's second and third dimensions.

Like modern lawyers, many of Islam's legal authorities were intensely interested in and involved with political affairs. The Shariah, after all, sets down many rules and regulations that have a general social relevance, especially the teachings on transactions and contracts. In addition, the Koran says a great deal about the importance of justice and honesty in human relationships. It establishes concrete rules for redistribution of wealth throughzakat and encourages other forms of charity.

There is no doubt that the Koran and the Prophet provided guidelines for society and that these have been put into effect with some success throughout Islamic history. But neither the Koran nor the Hadith is explicit on methods of government. Some of the early Muslim philosophers proposed political theories, but these were never influential in practice. What occurred in Islamic history is that the institutions of the time, which were basically monarchical, continued to function as before. The Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates ruled ostensibly as Islamic governments, but they were hereditary monarchies nonetheless. Since the caliphs appealed to Islam for their legitimacy, they were forced to acknowledge the Shariah as the law of the community. Some of them also observed the Shariah carefully in their own lives, and, by most accounts, many of them did not. For the majority of Muslims, however, kings and caliphs retained their legitimacy so long as they did not reject the Shariah in public.

It is commonly said that Islam does not exclude government from the realm of the sacred. This is true. Islam does not exclude anything under the sun from the realm of the sacred, but this does not mean that every government in Islamic history has been a government run by sincere Muslims intent upon observing the Shariah. Kings tend to be worldly people, as do those who become involved with government in general. Muslims have always recognized that governmentshould put the Shariah into practice and be run by good Muslims, but they have also recognized that this has been the exception rather than the rule. Some Muslims would claim that the last example of a good Muslim ruling the community is provided by the fourth caliph, Ali, and from the time of the Umayyads to the present, the extent to which government has heeded Islamic teachings has steadily decreased. Today's Islamic republics are no exception to this general rule. By and large, religion has simply become the latest tool of those who crave power.

Many Islamic authorities have criticized the jurists for their tendency to congregate in centers of power. The jurists always have something to say about government policies. In many cases, they are simply doing their duty, which is to try to provide guidance as to how the Shariah can be properly observed, but like lawyers everywhere, the jurists know how to manipulate the law for their own ends, and there have always been jurists who would sell their skills to the powers that be. Every king has had an official mullah or two who was willing to issue whatever "Islamic" edicts were necessary for the government to function in the way that the king desired.

In the modem world, Muslim scholars have devoted an extraordinary amount of attention to theories of government and political science, often in the attempt to make Islam fit the mold of "democracy" dictated by Western models (and remember that Marxism has always presented itself as the best form of democracy). There is no lack of books on politics in the Islamic context, and readers who are interested can consult any decent library.

In our view of things, politics was never a very important issue for the vast majority of Muslims throughout history. Many Muslim thinkers were intensely interested in establishing social harmony and equilibrium on the basis of the Shariah, but they did not see this as something that should be or could be instituted from above. People had to conform themselves to the Shariah and the other dimensions of the religion. If they did so, society would function harmoniously.

The Koran repeatedly commands "bidding to honor and forbidding dishonor," and this has always been taken as a command to take a certain responsibility for one's social surroundings. But this is one of many commands, and other commands take precedence. It is difficult to read this as meaning that God has now empowered a few politicians to take control and put into effect policies that "society needs."

The ideal of Islamic life has always been organic rather than mechanical. The best way to gain a feeling for this is simply to look at the physical structure of traditional Islamic cities, which are reminiscent of luxuriant jungle growth. The modern ideal is rather the grid, a rational" order imposed from outside. In many parts of the Islamic world, the secularizing governments have imposed the grid on the old city. One of the aims has been, of course, to destroy the traditional social structure so that it can be remade in the image of the industrialized West. So also, modern Muslim political thinkers have been attempting to rationalize the traditional teachings on government and society with specific social goals in view. We will suggest, when we discuss the last part of the hadith of Gabriel, why this excessive stress upon a specific kind of modern rationality is simply aiding in the dissolution of Islamic values and the Islamic world view.