Islam Beliefs and Practices Flashcards
What is Fitrah?
- ‘Innate Disposition’ - The idea of God is embedded into human nature.
- Because God is the ultimate creator, belief in God must be innate to all humanity and created by God.
What are the five pillars of Islam?
Shahadah (Testimony/'Witnessing the faith') Salat (Daily Prayer) Zakat (Charity/Almsgiving) Sawm (Fasting) Hajj (Pilgrimage)
What is the shahadah?
- One of the Five Pillars
- The verbal acknowledgement of ‘there is no God but God’ and ‘that Muhammad is His messanger’.
- It is the ‘witnessing of Faith’
- This ties in Tawhid and Risalah
- It is the culminating practice of Islam
- It is often recited at certain points, but theoretically only needs to be said once.
- Sufis use it a lot - it is recited as a group or individually in dhikr (remembrance).
- As an oath, new Sufis may be told to recite it up to 50,000 times a day (and count it with prayer beads)
What is salat?
- Second of the Five Pillars
- Most regular and outwardly ritualistic element of Islamic practice
- Translates to ‘prayer’
- The whole creation has done salat since the time of Muhammad
- Some consider it to be the physical and ritual manifestation of the shahadah
- Can be done at home or at a mosque except on Jummah (Friday congregational prayer)
Describe the act of Salat
- The details are taken from the Sunna
- It is done in cycles called Rak’a, and it involves bowing, kneeling, touching one’s forehead against the ground etc.
- It is symbolic of physical submission to God
- In each prayer cycle, al fatihah (1st chapter of the Qur’an) is read
- The prayers are done in the direction of Mecca through a mihrab (ornate niche in the wall of a mosque)
What are the five daily prayers?
- Dawn, noon, mid-afternoon, dusk and evening.
- As well as these obligatory (fard) prayers, there are more voluntary prayers as well (which the prophet did)
- There used to be 50 daily prayers until Muhammad pleaded to God to reduce it on his Mir’aj (ascent to heaven)
- The call to prayer (adhan) is done by a muzz’ein
- Can be done at home or at mosque
What is wudu?
- ‘Ritual ablutions’
- Involves washing mouth, face, neck etc
- Purpose is to become physically clean before entering a mosque which is a sacred place and community centre
- Also it helps people become ‘pure in mind’ as one moves from the mundane world into a state that one would be happy in to visit or worship God
What happens on Jumu’ah?
- Friday congregational prayer
- Necessary to go to the mosque
- Two khutbahs (sermons) are given and then two prayer cycles are done
- This used to be a means for Muhammad to educate his community
- If you don’t listen then it is a waste of time.
- You need a prayer mat (Musallah) and prayer beads (subhah)
What is Zakat?
- ‘Charity’ or ‘almsgiving’
- It is not a voluntary act - it is a ‘debt one owes to those who deserves it’
- It is an act of purifying wealth - it ensures you aren’t squandering it on meaningless or transient things and helping the wider community
- Zakat is 2.5% of the surplus wealth, yet Muslims are encouraged to also pay ‘sadaqah’ which is voluntary.
What is Sawm?
- ‘Fasting’ from dawn to dusk for the entirety of the month of Ramadan (until new moon is sighted)
- The Qur’an was revealed to Muhammad in the cave of Mt Hira on the five odd nights of the last ten days of what would become called Ramadan.
- ‘Fasting’ is the abstaining of food and water as well as other acts that harm other people or distract them from God (lying, backbiting, slander, making ‘ungodly oaths’ and sex)
- Some people are exempt: ill people, menstruating or pregnant women, travellers, the infirm and the elderly
What is the purpose of Sawm?
- Act of worshipping/glorifying God and being thankful for a new revelation
- Helps one sympathise with those who have little or no food/water
- The five other forbidden things help people redirect their desires from worldly things and focus on the true purpose and goal: going back to God
- Therefore it teaches: self-discipline, self-control, empathy, generosity and spiritual strength - much like salat and zakat
What are the practices of Ramadan?
People have two meals - suhur and Iftar.
- Suhur: ‘pre dawn meal’
- Iftar: ‘breaking the fast’ - often eating a date and a glass of water before praying again, and then eating more.
Apart from this there aren’t many particular traditions - the Muslim world is so diverse that each place will have different traditions.
Some do tarawih after the night prayer - 23 prayer cycles, however this isn’t compulsory.
What issues arise for British Muslims in Ramadan?
- Times for sunrise and sunset change throughout the year in places like the UK
- Ramadan is 10-11 days earlier each year because the Muslim calendar (lunar calendar) is this much shorter than the Gregorian calendar
- Thus: Ramadan in Winter is easy but in the summer is hard
- In Muslim countries, Ramadan is a holiday, but in countries with Muslim minorities, it isn’t.
- Manual labour or sport is harder when you can’t have water, so some just instead do other less-demanding activities
- In the Olympics 2012, athletes were allowed to do Ramadan later as they were considered travellers - it can be flexible
What is different between Sawm and the other pillars?
- It doesn’t have a particular social focus - it’s solely focused on one’s relationship with God.
- Often even Muslims that aren’t very religious will do a few days of the fast as part of their cultural practice and upbringing.
- You only have to fast as an adult yet often families train children to fast doing half days and building up discipline to fast all day.
- Thus, the notion of fasting is embedded into one’s upbringing.
What is Hajj?
- The fifth pillar, meaning the pilgrimage to Makkah.
- It only has to be done once in one’s lifetime (if they can do it)
- 1.5 million people undertake the hajj each year.
- The beginnings of the practice are associated with Abraham, Ishmael and his mother Hagar as Abraham left these two in the wilderness.
- Hagar left Ishmael and ran between two mountains to search for water, before Gabriel struck the ground and opened a well in the middle of the desert.
- Abraham also told them to walk around the Ka’bah (The Cube), and these two events are now rites in the hajj
How do you prepare for the Hajj?
You need to enter a state of purity called ‘ihram’
To do this you must:
- Intend to do the pilgrimage in full
- Bathe properly
- Not doing several things (like having sex, uprooting plants, wearing perfume etc)
- Men: wear two seamless, unsewn pieces of white cloth
- Women: wear simple and modest clothing (not black clothes!)
This makes all people:
- Seem equal regardless of money/race
- Remember their position in relation to God (humility)
- Remember their time of death when they will be wrapped in white sheets
What are some rites of the Hajj in the first three days?
Enter Makkah from one of the six ‘stations’ (miqat)
Rites begin on the 7th day of Dhu’l-Hijjah:
-Tawaf (circumambulation) - 7 times anticlockwise around the Ka’bah
-Sa’y - running between the mountains of Safa and Marwah - like Hagar did when searching for water for Ishmael
8th of Dhu’l-Hijjah:
-Pitch a tent and pray all day in Mina
9th of Dhu’l-Hijjah:
-Gather in the Plain of ‘Arafah, where Muhammad delivered his last sermon. They pray all day there (symbolises the gathering of all humanity on the Day of Judgement)
What are some rites of the Hajj in the last four days?
10th of Dhu’l-Hijjah:
- ‘Stoning of the Devil’ - throw seven stones at the largest of three pillars at Mina. (Symbolises when Abraham was told to throw stones at the Devil by Gabriel)
- Pilgrims pay for an animal to be slaughtered and distributed amongst the poor (Near Sacrifice)
- People shave their heads and do another tawaf
11 and 12th of Dhu’l-Hijjah:
-‘Stoning of the Devil’ happens again at the other two remaining pillars
13th of Dhu’l-Hijjah:
-Final tawaf is done (known as the Tawaf al-Wada - Farewell Circumambulation)
How is the Hajj done from Britain?
- It is a lot less difficult nowadays, as many book Hajj packages which arrange pretty much everything
- However, there are many people and accidents are not uncommon
- In 2015, approx 2,500 people were killed in a crowd crush in Mina when there was confusion about the pilgrim route
What is the ‘Umrah?
- The ‘lesser pilgrimage’. Some take this many times in their lives
- They still must enter ‘Ihram’ and then perform the tawaf, sa’y and cutting one’s hair.
What is the purpose of the Hajj?
-It is a duty to God
-It is a defining journey of sacrifice, patience and self-transformation.
The preparation and rites manifest the four prior pillars:
-One bears witness by following God’s command
-In the hajj, one performs lots of Salat
-The sacrificed animal is distributed amongst the poor - zakat
-By restricting oneself from wearing normal clothes, abstaining from sex etc one is doing sawm
Therefore it can be considered the culminating Islamic practice.
Malcom X said it shows unity, universal brotherhood and equality. Everyone is on the same level.
What does Jihad mean?
Literally, ‘struggle’ or ‘striving’. It has two understandings - summed up by Muhammad when he returned from battle saying ‘we have returned from the lesser struggle to the greater struggle’.
What is the ‘lesser Jihad’?
-It refers to military action
-The Qur’an states that war can be done ‘in the cause of God’, yet warns not to ‘overstep the limits’
-It states that was should be done in defence if somethings unjust has happened (like being driven out of homes).
-It is also inclusive to those who say ‘our Lord is God’ - so can refer to Christians and Jews too
Later, more conditions were added such as:
-Only combatants should be killed
-Property shouldn’t be damaged
-It should be a last resort
-Territory shouldn’t be gained
It founds the ‘Just War Theory’ in Islam.
What is the ‘greater Jihad’?
- It refers to the daily struggle to practice faith
- For example, to pray five times a day and stick to the rules laid out.
- More often in the Qur’an, this is what is meant by Jihad
- It means that in countries with a minority of Muslims, it can be hard to practice - there is no call to prayer five times a day, halal meat may be harder to access, it may be hard to find a place to pray etc.
- This is what some mean is meant.
- Sufis believe that the Jihad is the daily struggle against selfish desires and worldly temptations that draw one away from God.
Why was there a division between Sunnis and Shi’ites originally?
- There was disagreement about who should become the authority of the umma - the caliph.
- Abu Bakr was elected by the community to be the next caliph (Muhammad wanted to break from the tribal ways and vote for the leader)
- Others believed that Ali should have been caliph as Muhammad had chosen him before his death. He eventually was caliph, but followers of him believed that a great injustice was done.
- They believed that the authority should remain in the bloodline of the prophet or Ahl al-Bayt. Ali’s followers called themselves ‘Shi’ah ‘Ali’ Or ‘Partisans of Ali’ which was shortened to ‘Shi’ites).
- This defined the minds of Shi’ites
Why is Ali important to Shi’ites?
He is:
- An exemplar of Islamic piety after Muhammad
- A political leader
- The father of the ‘true faith’
- The true Imam or leader
What is the Shi’ite version of the ‘Six articles of Faith’?
The 'Roots of Religion' or 'usul ad-din': Tawhid - God's absolute oneness 'Adalah - Divine Justice (Different) Nubuwwah - Prophethood Imamah - Leadership (Different) Yawm - 'The Day'
1,3 and 5 are the same yet the meanings are different.
How is Nubuwwah in Shi’ism to Sunnism?
It is more all-encompassing and includes any means by which God communicates with humanity e.g. angels, prophets, books etc
What does Adalah mean?
-It means that God is just, is Justice in and of itself, and that from God, Justice flows and aids humanity.
-Thus, anything God does is just and cannot be unjust - he cannot act in an unjust manner because it is his nature to be just
-This raises questions about God’s omnipotence…
-In addition, Shi’ism also states that evil must come from somewhere other than God - humanity and its free will.
-Therefore, Humans are absolutely accountable for their own actions, good or bad.
This is a major difference between Sunni and Shi’ite theology.
What is Imamah?
-It states that imams are those who are part of Ahl al-Bayt (prophetic bloodline)
-These people possess divine authority over the community and have divine qualities
These include:
-Is infallible and incapable of sin
-Posesses secret (esoteric) knowledge about God and Islam
-Is the only one who has the absolute ability to interpret the divine sources and the Qur’an
- The immam is the most important source of authority, and some even suggest that it is more important than the prophet as they are continually protecting and guiding humanity (they have continued relevance in people’s daily lives), unlike prophets who serve a one-time purpose, receiving revelations.
- It also follows from ‘adalah that God wouldn’t leave humanity without an ongoing guide.
Does Shi’ism have a clergy system?
It does have a formal one. These clergy who engage in ijtihad interpret the forms of Islamic knowledge to the common believer.
They serve as the mediums and examples of Islamic practice, thought and belief.
Why did the Battle of Karbala inspire these two different Shi’ite ideas?
Adalah: humanity are accountable for their own actions -God cannot be accountable for Yazid ordering the death of the Ahl al-Bayt
Imamah: the need for a religious authority linked to the prophet - Ali and the Ahl al-Bayt were originally believed to be the leaders *
How does the Shahadah change in Shi’ism?
It becomes ‘there is no god but God, Muhammad is God’s messenger, and Ali is the friend of God
What effect do Ali and the Ahl al-Bayt have on Shi’ites?
The intense love and dedication to these two play into daily piety, remembrance of God and practice
What is the Shi’ite version of the Five Pillars of the Sunnis?
The Ten Obligatory Acts:
Salat Zakat Khums Sawm Hajj Jihad Amr bi'l-Maroof Nahi an'il-Munkar Tawalla Tabarra
How do Shi’ites differ from Sunnis about Salat?
Some believe that noon and mid-afternoon prayers can be combined, as well as dusk and evening prayers. Therefore there are three specific times of prayer.
They also use a small piece of hardened soil or clay (often from a holy place, commonly Karbala) called ‘turbah’. It symbolises earth. Even in Salat, Shi’ites recall the tragedy at Karbala and the Ahl al-Bayt.
What is khums?
- Literally means ‘one fifth’, and is effectively an annual tax of one fifth of one’s net income.
- The money is given to Muhammad, his family, orphans, the needy and travellers, and also provides a source of income for the imam.
- It serves as the means of funding the clergy, particularly in Iran
How do Shi’ites’ views on pilgrimage compare to Sunnis’?
- They do accept the hajj rituals as the Sunnis do, but they also have ‘ziyarah’ - ‘a visit’
- These are sometimes done by Sunnis (mostly Sufi Sunnis), but in a Shi’ite context it means visiting sacred places to Shi’ites, Imams and the Ahl al-Bayt
Examples are:
- Karbala
- Najaf (tomb of Ali)
- Samarra in Iraq (mausoleums of 10th and 11th imams and place where 12th went into occultation)
- Mashhad in Iran (tomb of 8th Imam)
