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AKC 7 General – Spring Term 2007 – Religion in the contemporary world: social scientific perspectives
26/02/07
AKC 7 – 26 FEBRUARY 2007
ARE ALL MUSLIMS THE SAME?
PROFESSOR MADAWI AL-RASHEED, DEPARTMENT OF THEOLOGY AND
RELIGIOUS STUDIES
This lecture covers substantial foundations that unite Muslims and the cultural diversity of
contexts in which Islam is a living experience.
Part I: Unity among Muslims
1. As a world religion, Islam is found in many social contexts that may or may not have any
cultural, linguistic, or ethnic common grounds. However, Muslims all over the world are
united by a set of beliefs and ritual practices. Unity among Muslims derives from the basic
five pillars of Islam: declaration of faith (shahada), five daily prayers (salat), fasting (sawm),
almsgiving (zakat) and pilgrimage (hajj). The majority of Muslims are Sunnis with a small
minority of Shia. The main difference pertains to early disputes over the leadership of the
Muslim community (known as the Caliphate) after the death of the Prophet, Muhammad
(571-632 AD). The majority of Muslims accepted the leadership of the four Caliphs (Abu
Bakr, Omar, Uthman and Ali) but a small minority wanted the Caliphate to remain in the
family of the Prophet and his descendents (known as Ahl al-Bayt). Those were later known
as the Shia.
2.
Islam grew in urban centres and flourished as a result of the work of the guardians and
interpreters of the Islamic tradition, mainly religious scholars who developed opinions to
deal with urgent practical issues relating to the rule of law, management of family life,
economic transactions, relations with non-Muslims, and other matters that accompanied the
development of Muslim civilisation and expansion.
3.
Observers of Muslim societies around the world cannot fail to notice the diversity of
practices, rituals and experiences among living Muslims. These practices are often the result
of the assimilation of local cultural traditions and the survival of these traditions against the
background of homogenising scriptures. This led some academics to argue that there are
many Islams that we can empirically observe in the specific social contexts of the Muslim
world.
Part II: Explaining Muslim Societies
1. Many Western scholars devoted time and energy to explaining the observed reality of
Muslim societies. Anthropologist Ernest Gellner developed a theory of Muslim society. He
argued that there are two types of Islam. The first is a tradition associated with scholars of
religion. This is called high Islam. It is based on literacy, minimal rituals and festivals,
sobriety, seeking a direct relation with the divine God, through the scriptures (the revealed
Quran and the tradition of the Prophet, known as Sunnah). A second different type of Islam
flourishes among people who seek a mediated relation with God through holy saints,
festivities, and excessive rituals. This is called folk Islam. The history of Muslim societies
involves a certain tension between the literate tradition and the folk practices. Islam,
however, generates itself through constant attempts made by the guardians of the tradition,
the literate classes, to bring the folk Islam of the masses to the standards of those literate
scholars. In contemporary society, mass education, literacy, and rural-urban migration
allowed the urban literate tradition to assume greater presence among Muslims all over the
world, without being able to successfully eradicate the folk practices and traditions that
continue to survive.
2. In his book, Saints of the Atlas, Ernest Gellner explains the dominance of folk Islam among
the Berbers of the High Atlas mountains (Morocco). He proposes a sociological explanation
that interprets the dominance of the tradition of holy men in terms of its relevance to the
rural and tribal Moroccan context. He argues that holy men play an important mediating role
not only between God and the believers but also between different sections of this rural
Muslim society. Holy men and their shrines are neutral territories where tribal groups often
met to trade and communicate. Such men played an important social role as they provided
an independent sphere where people sought blessing (baraka).
3. Studies of Islam in urban contexts also document the prevalence of folk practices and
charismatic leadership. Michael Gilsenan studied Muslims practices among the urban
population of Cairo (Egypt). He found that rural urban migration brought thousands of
people to the capital of Egypt to seek employment and education. Such groups lost the rural
networks of support they had enjoyed in their villages. However, it only took a short time for
those immigrants to congregate in neighbourhoods where they looked for a mediated kind of
Islam through membership in religious orders. One order was called the Hamidiya
Shadhiliyya Sufi circle. This movement started with a charismatic civil servant, Salama ibn
Hassan (1867-1939), who was known to be pious and capable of performing miracles, both
granted him respect and admiration. His movement grew and began to attract an increasing
number of new migrants to the city. Gilsenan explains the flourishing of this tradition in
sociological terms, which draw our attention to the needs of Muslims in different
environments and how religion can be one of the areas providing a matrix for mobilisation,
social organisation and networks. These networks are often mobilised for very practical
purposes, for example communication, finding employment and simply knowing about
opportunities in the city. Adherence to this religious order allowed Muslims to resolve
frustrations and contradictions they encountered in their daily lives.
Further reading
Gellner, E. (1983) Muslim Society Cambridge University Press
Gellner, E. (1969) Saints of the Atlas London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, University of Chicago
Press
Gilsenan, M. (1973) Saints and Sufis in Modern Egypt
Marsden, M. (2005) Living Islam Muslim religious Experience in Pakistan’s North-West
Frontier Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Ahmed, A. and Donnan, H. (eds.) (1994) Islam, Globalization and Postmodernity London:
Roputledge
Fisher, M. and Abedi, M. (1990) Debating Muslims Cultural Dialogues in Postmodernity and
Tradition Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press.
Eickelman, D. (1998) The Middle East and Central Asia: an Anthropological Approach Third
edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall
Full details about the AKC course, including copies of the handouts, can be found on the AKC
website at: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/akc. Please join in the Discussion Board and leave your
comments. If you have any queries please contact the AKC Course Administrator on ext 2333 or
via email at [email protected]. Please note the AKC Exam is on Friday 23 March 2007 between
14.30 and 16.30.
EXAM REGISTRATION is now open. To register please reply to the email from the Dean’s
Office giving your full name and student ID number. The deadline of registration is 9 March
2007.