Islam: Beliefs and Institutions

ISLAM

BELIEFS AND INSTITUTIONS

April 13, 2004

www.muhammadanism.org

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BY THE SAME AUTHOR

LE BERCEAU DE L'ISLAM. VOL. I. LE CLIMAT. LES BEDOUINS. Rome, 1914.

FATIMA ET LES FILLES DE MAHOMET: NOTES CRITIQUES POUR L'ETUDE DE LA SIRA. Rome, 1912.

LISLAM: CROYANCES ET INSTITUTIONS. Beyrouth, 1926.

LA SYRIE: PRECIS HISTORIQUE. Beyrouth, 1921.

ALSO ARTICLES IN

BULLETIN DE L'INSTITUT EGYPTIEN.

JOURNAL ASIATIQUE.

RECHERCHES DE SCIENCE RELIGIEUSE.

RIVISTA DEGLI STUDI ORIENTALI.

The following articles from the 'MELANGES DE I. A FACULTE ORIENTALE DE BEYROUTH' are also published separately:

ETUDES SUR LE RGNE DU CALIFE OMAYADE MOAWIA IER. 190608.

LE CALIFAT DE YAZID IER. 1909-21.

LA CITE ARABE DE TAIF A LA VEILLE DE L'HEGIRE. 1922.

LA MECQUE A LA VEILLE DE L'HEGIRE. 1924.

LA Badia ET LA Hira SOUS LES OMAIYADES: UN MOT A PROPOS Msatta. 1910.

LE TRIUMVIRAT ABOU BAKR, OMAR ET ABOU 'OBAIDA. 1910.

PETITE HISTOIRE DE SYRIE ET DU LIBAN. 1924.

LES SANCTUAIRES PREISLAMITES DANS L'ARABIE OCCIDENTALE. 1926.

ISLAM

BELIEFS AND INSTITUTIONS

BY

H. LAMMENS, S.J.

PROFESSOR OF ARABIC AT ST. JOSEPH'S UNIVERSITY, BEYROUT

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY

SIR E. DENISON ROSS

DIRECTOR OF THE SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL STUDIES, LONDON

METHUEN & CO. LTD.

36 ESSEX STREET W.C.

LONDON

First Published in 1929

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

CONTENTS

PAGE

FOREWORD

ix

I

THE CRADLE OF ISLAM: PRE-ISLAMITE ARABIA

I

1.

THE HEJAZ

I

The ClimateThe NefudThe Oases.

2.

POPULATION

5

The BeduinsTheir PortraitArabic Language and PoetryBeduin CharacterHospitalityCourageTenacityAnarchyThe Tribal ChiefMekkaGovernment at MekkaCommercial LifeCaravansSite of Mekka.

3.

RELIGION

17

The Ka'baNo IdolsThe JewsThe Christians.

II

MUHAMMAD: THE FOUNDER OF ISLAM

24

I.

MEKKAN PERIOD

24

Muhammad's YouthMarriage, VocationFirst PreachingFailure, The Hijra.

2.

MEDINESE PERIOD.

28

Muhammad at MedinaThe Battles, BadrOhodWar of the 'Trench'DiplomacyExpulsion of the JewsDefeat at MutaConquest of MekkaLast SuccessesDeath of MuhammadHis Succession.

v

vi ISLAM BELIEFS AND INSTITUTIONS

PAGE

III

THE QORAN: THE SACRED BOOK OF ISLAM

37

The QoranIts AuthenticityPresent FormExegesisChief CommentariesMekkan SurasMedinese SurasDogma in the SurasLegends of the ProphetsChristologyEschatologyInfluence of the Qoran.

THE FIVE PILLARS OF ISLAM

56

The 'Shahada'The Theodicy of IslamPrayerThe ZakatFastingThe Pilgrimage to MekkaThe JehadThe Personal StatuteOther Prescriptions.

IV

THE 'SUNNA', OR TRADITION OF ISLAM

65

The SunnaIts ImportanceComplement of the QoranThe Sunna of the 'Companions 'The HadithCriticismChief Collections of Hadith The 'Six Books'.

V

JURISPRUDENCE AND ISLAMIC LAW

82

OriginThe 'Roots' of FiqhEarly SchoolsOrthodox Schools Their MethodsDifferencesCasuistryModern Practice Ijma'The Living AuthorityIjtihadNo CouncilsThe 'UlemaThe QadiNo ClergyThe Caliphate.

VI

ASCETICISM AND MYSTICISM OF ISLAM

111

The Qoran and AsceticismSufismChristian InfluenceInfluence of GhazaliOther InfluencesDeviations and EsoterismThe Inquisition and the SufisSufi FraternitiesThe 'DhikrMusicInternal Organization of the FraternitiesThe Chief Fraternities Their Present Position.

VII

THE SECTS OF ISLAM

140

Their NumberThe KharijitesThe Shi'as'Kitman' or 'TaqiyyaThe Invisible ImamThe Imamites or 'Twelvers' The MahdiDivergences between Sunnis and Shi'asShi'a ExegesisThe MetoualisThe ZaiditesThe Isma'ilis The DrusesThe NosairisThe 'Ali-ilahis.'

.

CONTENTS vii

PAGE

VIII

REFORMISTS AND MODERNISTS

179

Reaction and ReformIbn TaimiyyaThe WahhabisIbn SaudThe AhmadiyyaBabismBehai'sm'Abbas-EffendiThe Present-day Problem of the CaliphateNationalismPan-Islamic Congress ModernismIn IndiaIn EgyptIn TurkeySome Statistical DataFuture Prospects.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

227

THE QORAN, PRINCIPAL VERSES EXPOUNDED OR QUOTED

241

INDEX

243

BLANK PAGE

FOREWORD

A BOOK written in good faith! This work seeks to be no more, no less. Neither controversial, nor polemical; sine ira nec studio. An entirely objective account, as its sub-title announces, of the beliefs and institutions of Islam. Otherwise, a manualthat is to say, a popular work. But I venture to hope that Islamists and Orientalists will recognize that it is a popular work which has drawn its information from the fountain-heads of the Qoran, of Islamic tradition, of the Sira, etc. To these sources let me add a prolonged contact with Muslim circles. In the matter of references I have been content to limit myself to the Qoran.

It is first and foremost contemporary Islam which is here considered, Islam as formed by the evolution of thirteen centuries. But the details supplied enable the reader to follow its historical development. I take for granted a knowledge of the outline of its political history from the death of the Prophet onwards. I have omitted vanished sects, also the description of the quarrels of Muslim scholasticism, those which gave birth to the schools of the Mutazilites, the Ash-arites, the Murjites, etc., contenting myself with such brief allusion to them as the account of the beliefs requires. As regards private institutions, marriage, slavery, etc., the author has confined himself to essential elements, sacrificing picturesque detail.

Beyrout, 1926

ix

BLANK PAGE

ISLAM

BELIEFS AND INSTITUTIONS

I

THE CRADLE OF ISLAM: PRE-ISLAMITE

ARABIA

ARABIA presents the picture of a rectangle terminating in the south of Nearer Asia. This gigantic screen of inhospitable territory intervenes between the fabled lands of India and the classical East, the cradle of our civilization. Western Arabia alone in its mountainous complexity will claim our attention in this survey. There, to the east of the Red Sea, about half-way between Syria and the Indian Ocean in the province called Hejaz, Islam was born. From this region, bounded on the north by Syria, the east by Nejd, the south by Yemen and the west by the Eritrean Sea, sprang the impulse which resulted in the Muslim conquests and expansion. It is, then, to the Hejaz that we shall devote our first pages: to the Hejaz, the cradle of Islam.

I. THE HEJAZ

CLIMATE. The climate of this province is tropical and the heat oppressive, except in certain mountainous

1

2 ISLAM BELIEFS AND INSTITUTIONS

regions situated on the borders of Nejd and of Yemen. In this region the picturesque district where the town of Taif stands about 1,500 metres high, and especially its southern extension, the mountain chain of Sarat reaching a height of 10,000 feet, might pass for an Alpine resort. The climate of the Hejaz, intemperate during the summer, is rigorous, even in winter, especially on the exposed steppes of the interior, where at night the thermometer then falls below zero. Everything in Arabia is harsh and decisive: the weather, the colours of the landscape, the character of the inhabitants, their constitution all nerves, muscle and bonetheir language possessing so poor a gamut of vowel sounds, side by side with a veritable debauch of consonants and gutturalsand finally their alphabet in which more than half their characters are only distinguished from one another by diacritical signs.

Rain falls at very long and irregular intervals during the winter and at the beginning of spring only. Periods of complete drought, possibly extending over a period of three years or more, are also known. On the other hand, there are sometimes exceptionally rainy years. Rainstorms of short durationbut of extraordinary violenceoccur, veritable water-spouts and cloud-bursts, which in a few hours send flowing down the hollow valleys temporary rivers as wide as the Nile and the Euphrates, sweeping away whole encampments with their flocks and herds. At Mekka the rains penetrate into the Ka'ba and overthrow it. These cataracts put new life into the steppes: reduce the excessive salinity of the soil, and develop in a few days the hardy pastoral flora of the desert.

It is the rabi or the festival of nature for the flocks and their watchers. Milk and butter, as an Arab author says, flow in streams. The emaciated little Beduin children grow fat-bellied and fill out in all

THE CRADLE OF ISLAM 3

directions. Their shape, tubby and full to bursting, makes them look like puppies gorged with mother's milk.' In ordinary times the camels do without water for four or even five days at a time: but now, full-fed on grass and succulent plants lush with sap, they no longer need be led to the distant watering-place, and can endure thirst for nearly a month at a time.

The Arab too can supplement the usual meagre fare with an abundant crop of truffles, wild artichokes and other uncultiva