Terms of Islam from A to Z
Abraham: Abraham (Hebr. Avraham, Arab. Ibrahim) is regarded by the three religions Judaism, Christianity and Islam as their patriarch. As in the Bible, he also plays an important role in the Koran. There he appears with his son Ismail as the builder of the Kaaba and as the founder of the pilgrimage connected with it. The near-sacrifice of Abraham's son is described by the Koran in Sura 37, verses 83 – 111. The son bears no name here – in contrast to the Bible, which calls him Isaac (Hebr. Yitzchak). Many Muslims are of the opinion that the son to be sacrificed was not Isaac, but Abraham's elder son Ismail, whose mother was the Egyptian Hagar.
Ayatollah: In the 19th century the hierarchy of the Shiite clergy that still applies today took shape. At the bottom is the simple cleric, colloquially called a mullah. (from Arabic Maula, "master") He has little or no theological knowledge. Anyone who has successfully completed theological seminaries advances to Hojatoleslam (proof of Islam); in Iran about 28,000 men bear this title. Anyone who wants to rise further and become an Ayatollah (sign of God) has to study for many more years; the title, however, is acquired informally. With the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979 the number of ayatollahs grew sharply; today there are about 5,000 in Iran. An ayatollah whose conduct of life is exemplary and who writes important theological works can receive the title of Grand Ayatollah; around 20 scholars worldwide bear it.
Grand ayatollahs, as well as ayatollahs, can be recognised as Marja-e Taqlid (source of emulation). This highest distinction, too, is conferred by informal consensus. In principle all decisions (fatwas) are regarded as provisional and revocable – by the fatwa of another legal scholar.
Alevis: The Alevis are an independent religious community that developed in Anatolia from a Shiite Sufi brotherhood of the 14th/15th century and to which about 20 percent of the Turkish population belongs today.
At the centre of their teaching is the veneration of Ali (Caliph). They interpret the Koran and the Islamic laws spiritually and reject the 5 pillars of Islam.
This makes them suspect as heretics in the eyes of the Sunni majority; under Ottoman rule they were repeatedly and bloodily persecuted. One is an Alevi by descent, and a member of the cult community through a kind of initiation. Instead of mosques, the Alevis, who are regarded as socially liberal, have so-called assembly houses for their rituals, in which men and women take part as equals.
Alcohol: According to the general legal view, Muslims are forbidden to consume alcohol. The Koran admonishes the faithful not to come to prayer drunk; in other verses the enjoyment of wine is condemned as sin, abomination and the work of Satan. However, the holy book also counts wine – alongside milk and honey – among the delights that await the faithful in paradise.
Allah: The Arabic word for God. Arab Christians also call their triune God Allah.
Al-Azhar University: Founded in Cairo in the 10th century, this university is today one of the most important teaching institutions of the Sunni Islamic world. Besides Islamic theology and Islamic law, medicine, natural sciences and history have also been taught since 1961; women are now also allowed to study at the "Radiant" (as the name translates). Its head, the Grand Sheikh, is regarded by many Sunnis as the highest authority in matters of faith; since 1961 he has been appointed by the Egyptian president. The office is currently held by Ahmed al-Tayeb, who is regarded as liberal and open-minded. To this day al-Azhar issues fatwas on current topics.
Circumcision: In Islam, as in Judaism, the circumcision of boys is traced back to Abraham. It is not based on the Koran, but is regarded as tradition. It usually takes place between the seventh day after birth and the age of 15. Circumcision is celebrated festively and regarded as admission into the community.
Clitoral amputations on girls, as carried out in some Islamic countries, are not comparable with the religiously performed circumcision of boys. In November 2006, legal scholars gathered at al-Azhar University in Cairo issued a fatwa condemning female genital mutilation as un-Islamic and as a "punishable aggression against the human race".
Burqa: The burqa is a full-body veil common in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan, through which the wearer can only see a little through a kind of grille in the fabric. Under the Taliban regime it was compulsory for women in Afghanistan until 2001.
Jihad: Individually, "striving or exerting oneself" for the cause of God at the cost of property and life. Jihad is not war in the usual sense; Arabic has other terms for that. Rather, it is a self-sacrificing and risky "service of God under arms." It can be called for by representatives of political power, but also by private individuals who have the necessary authority. Only adult Muslims may follow the appeal. In the case of attacks from outside it becomes a duty for all Muslims concerned.
Jihadism: Radical Islamists who do not shrink from violence against civilians or suicide attacks are often called "jihadists", derived from the Arabic word jihad. They include groups such as the worldwide operating al-Qaeda (Arab. the base), the Pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba or the Indonesian Jemaah Islamiyah.
Jihadists hold an extremely anti-Western ideology. In 1998 al-Qaeda, operating from Afghanistan, declared war on the USA: the order to kill the Americans and their allies is an individual duty for every Muslim who is able to do so, in every country in which this is possible, in order to force their armies to leave all Islamic soil."
The anger of al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden had been ignited by the stationing of US troops in Saudi Arabia in 1990 – it was branded as the occupation of the "land of the two holy places". The USA responded to al-Qaeda's attacks of 11 September 2001, in which almost 3,000 people died, with the "war on terror". Today the internet is the main medium for spreading and networking jihadism. In 2007 the then Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble put it this way: "For terrorists the internet is a distance university and training camp, news exchange and recruitment office all in one."
Jinn: The Koran mentions jinn several times: intelligent spirits, invisible to humans, which were created from a mixture of fire and can change into various forms. The message of the Koran is addressed to them as well: they are threatened with the same punishments and promised the same rewards as humans.
Angels: Angels play a large role in the Koran. Unlike humans, they cannot transgress God's laws, since they are not able to make their own decisions: "They do not precede Him in speech and act only at His command." Mentioned by name in the Koran are Jibril (Gabriel) and Mikail (Michael) as well as Harut and Marut. With God's permission Gabriel sent the Koran down "into the heart" of Muhammad.
Fatwa: Every Muslim can turn to a mufti and ask for information on a question concerning the Sharia. In principle anything can be asked: Is smoking tobacco forbidden? Is donating organs permitted? On the basis of the most important sources of law, the mufti – or the relevant authority – then issues a fatwa, a religious legal opinion. This can comprise a few lines or many pages.
The fatwa has no legally binding consequences; it serves merely for clarification and recommendation. Today the internet is the preferred place of publication for fatwas: there are online fatwa services, fatwa archives and fatwa chats.
In spring 2010 a fatwa by the Saudi Council of Senior Religious Scholars caused a stir; it distinguishes "terrorism" from legitimate liberation struggle and condemns it. At the beginning of March the influential Pakistani scholar Mohammed Tahir-ul-Qadri issued a 600-page fatwa that brands terrorists as "rebels against Islam": "There is no Islamic terrorism – whoever propagates terrorism places himself outside the Umma."
Friday: Unlike the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian Sunday, the Islamic Friday is traditionally not a day of rest. The idea that God had to rest from His work of creation on the seventh day is alien to Muslims. Rather, Friday is regarded as the "day of assembly": for adult male Muslims the joint Friday midday prayer with subsequent sermon in the mosque is compulsory. Originally the caliph led the Friday prayer; since the 10th century only the imam has been responsible for it.
Five Pillars: In Islamic tradition the five basic duties of Muslims are called the pillars of religion. First among them is the profession of faith (Arab. Shahada): There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God. (Among the Sunnis; the Shahada of the Shiites differs by a third clause: and Ali is the friend of God.) It is part of the call to prayer and is spoken before witnesses as a sign of conversion to Islam. The Shahada actually only says: There is no god but God.
A further duty is the ritual prayer (Arab. Salat), which is to be performed five times a day at fixed times and comprises a sequence of prayers and movements. The faithful turn towards the Kaaba and must be in a state of ritual purity; the ground on which they pray must also be clean. Furthermore, Muslims are obliged to give alms to the needy (Arab. Zakat) and to fast in the month of Ramadan. The pilgrimage (Arab. Hajj) also counts among the Five Pillars: whoever is able to do so in terms of health and finances should make the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their life.
For all duties except the profession of faith there are a number of exceptions, be it because of illness or poverty, because someone is travelling or a woman is pregnant – after all, the Koran emphasises in several places: "God wants to make things easy for you, not hard."
Hadith: The Prophet Muhammad is regarded by all Muslims as a model. According to the Koran, "he commands them what is right and forbids them what is reprehensible, he permits them the most delicious things and forbids the bad ones, and he relieves them of the burden and the fetters that lay upon them". That is why, after his death, people began to collect all the traditions of his deeds and sayings. These reports are called hadiths (lit. "conversation, communication") and, alongside the Koran, form the second main source of Islamic law (Sharia). The entirety of the hadiths is called Sunna (custom, tradition).
Hajj: The pilgrimage to Mecca in present-day Saudi Arabia is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. It takes place in the last month of the Islamic lunar year. Almost 3 million faithful take part in the rites, which, besides circling the Kaaba, also include the stay at Mount Arafat and a symbolic stoning of Satan. After the Feast of Sacrifice and the return to Mecca with a renewed circling of the Kaaba, the state of consecration (Arab. Ihram) in which the pilgrims find themselves ends, and they take off the pilgrim's garment. From then on the men may bear the honorary title Hajj or Hajji; women are called Hajja,
Harem: The Arabic word harem originally denotes a religious, "protected, inviolable place". In everyday usage in the Islamic world it denotes the private living area of a house which, in contrast to the official rooms in which the master of the house also receives visitors, is reserved for the female members of the household.
In the West, harem is mostly understood to mean the large, secluded women's quarters of the palaces of Muslim rulers and dignitaries, in which wives, concubines, female slaves, overseers and eunuchs lived, and which goes back to pre-Islamic, ancient Oriental tradition.
These harems, with occasionally thousands of women, were strictly hierarchically structured. At the top were women who were blood relatives of the ruler, followed by his wives, concubines and favourites. Each of these high-ranking women had her own living quarters and her own servants. Guarding the harem was the task of the "Black Eunuchs", who had access to the ruler at any time in order to report anything suspicious.
Homosexuality: The Sharia forbids same-sex sexuality as fornication (Zina). The punishments vary between the different schools of law and from country to country. They can range up to flogging and the death penalty, for instance in Iran or Saudi Arabia. In literature, male homosexuality nevertheless has a certain tradition in the Islamic world, whereby at least the "male active" part is viewed quite positively.
Imam: The Arabic title "Imam" has 2 meanings: on the one hand it denotes the prayer leader and head of an Islamic community – an activity that in principle any male Muslim can perform; only at large mosques do imams have special training. On the other hand it denotes the religious-political head of all Muslims.
In the Shia the significance of the imam goes far beyond this concept. Here the imam is regarded as an infallible teacher whose religious guidance the faithful need.
The main Shiite branch, Twelver Shia, assumes a chain of twelve imams. The twelfth imam is said not to have died in the year 874, but to have been taken into occultation, from which he will return at the end of time (Mahdi). With the exception of Ali, the first imam, the imams of Twelver Shia were not granted the opportunity to take over state power in addition to their spiritual leadership role.
Islamism: In the 20th century numerous heterogeneous groupings developed that interpret Islam as a political ideology. Their followers are called "Islamists", sometimes also by the originally American-Protestant term "fundamentalists".
Guided by the Koran and the hadith, they demand an Islam that radically encompasses all areas of life; they fight for an Islamic state, the validity of the Sharia and a return to the values of the forefathers.
Some groups use peaceful means to achieve their aims, others violent ones (jihadists).
What the groupings have in common (and this distinguishes them from the Wahhabiyya) is that they arose as a response to an already secularised environment. Despite their mostly anti-Western attitude, Islamists do not want to do without modern achievements – the professionally successful technocrat who does not belong to the traditional ulama was long regarded as the prototype of the Islamist.
The oldest and to this day most important Islamic grouping is the Muslim Brotherhood, founded in 1928, which also gained a foothold outside Egypt; Hamas, founded in 1987, grew out of the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood.
Jesus: In Islam Jesus is regarded as one of the most important prophets. The Koran speaks of his virgin birth and praises the "son of Mary" as a "servant of God" and as an "example for the children of Israel". Unlike in Christianity, however, Jesus is not regarded as the Son of God; the Christian Trinity is rejected by Islam as polytheistic.
Kaaba: The Kaaba is a cube-shaped building in Mecca, which today is surrounded by a huge mosque. It is the centre of the Islamic religion; all Muslims turn towards it during ritual prayer, and millions of faithful make the pilgrimage to it every year. They circle the building and try to kiss the black stone set into its eastern corner. Already in pre-Islamic times the Kaaba was an important sanctuary. According to Islamic belief it is "the first house of God on earth", built by the Prophet Abraham.
Every year at the end of the Hajj the Kaaba is dressed anew with a covering of black brocade.
Caliph: When Muhammad died in the year 632, the question of his succession was unresolved. (according to the Sunni view). After a short controversy, the Muslims in Medina agreed on the Prophet's close companion Abu Bakr as leader of the young community. This first caliph designated Umar as his successor, who in turn appointed an electoral body of six men, which elected the third caliph, Uthman. After rebels had murdered Uthman in 656, Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law Ali was appointed the fourth caliph.
He was, however, suspected by Uthman's relatives of having been involved in his murder. Open fighting broke out: for the first time Muslims faced each other on a battlefield – this conflict entered Islamic literature as the first "trial" (fitna). Despite these bloody conflicts, the Sunnis venerate the first caliphs as the "four rightly guided ones".
Ali too was murdered in 661; Muawiya, his opponent and successor, founded the first caliphal dynasty in Damascus, the Umayyads (661 to 750); later the dynasty of the Abbasids followed in Baghdad (until 1258).
In the 8th to 10th centuries Muslim legal scholars defined the tasks of the caliph: he was both religious leader (imam) and commander of the faithful, but had no authority in legal questions. In 1517 the Ottoman Sultan Selim took over the title of caliph.
In 1924, only a few years after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the founder of Turkey, Kemal Atatürk, declared the caliphate abolished.
Poll tax: In the Middle Ages non-Muslims under Islamic rule had to pay a special tax. Its basis is a verse of the Koran: "Fight against those who do not believe in God and the Last Day and who do not forbid what God and His messenger have forbidden, … until they humbly pay tribute out of what their hand possesses". [9:29]
By paying this special tax, called jizya, Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians were exempt from military service. At the same time they were regarded as protected persons with the right to practise their religion freely.
Koran: Believing Muslims always name the Koran ("recitation, reading") with the addition al-Karim, "the Noble". To them it is God's word, revealed to the Prophet Muhammad and written down after his death. Shorter units of revelation were combined into suras; these are arranged not chronologically but roughly by length. In terms of content, the Koran contains narratives as well as legal provisions, praises of God or warnings of the Last Judgement – all in the special linguistic form of Arabic rhymed prose. Because of the complexity and many layers of the text, the Koran has always been interpreted. The fourth caliph, Ali, is credited with the saying: "The Koran is a scripture between two book covers that does not speak. Only people make it speak."
Mahdi: In early Islamic times the idea arose that a Mahdi (Arab. "rightly guided one") would establish a kingdom of justice at the end of time. This redeemer was at first identified with Jesus. Later Muslims assumed that the Mahdi must be a descendant of Muhammad. The Koran does not speak of a Mahdi or Messiah. In Islamic history self-proclaimed Mahdis appeared again and again, often leaders of opposition groups. Twelver Shiites believe that the twelfth imam will save the world as the Mahdi.
Martyr: Whoever dies in the struggle for Islam is regarded as a martyr (Arab. Shahid, "witness"). Tradition promises him direct entry into paradise, where, according to a hadith, 72 virgins await him. The question of for whom the term is appropriate has been discussed at all times. Particularly revered in Shiite Islam are the early martyrs and first imams Ali, Hasan and Husayn.
In modern usage, a shahid is frequently also someone who loses their life on duty as a police officer or soldier. Above all, however, demagogues use the term to exalt death in battle religiously and to fanaticise their own followers. Thus extremist groups propagate suicide attacks as "martyrdom operations" – although high-ranking Islamic scholars deny the attackers the status of martyrs in fatwas.
Minaret: Since the 10th century all large mosques have had at least one minaret. From its outer gallery the muezzin calls to prayer five times a day; today the call mostly sounds via loudspeaker. The first minarets were modelled on ancient tomb and watch towers. In November 2009 a Swiss referendum caused an international stir, in which 57.5 percent of those entitled to vote spoke out against the construction of minarets in the Alpine country.
Muhammad: Muhammad, born around 570 in the trading city of Mecca, experienced his calling as a prophet at the age of about 40. Through the Archangel Gabriel he received revelations until his death in the year 632, which were later compiled in the Koran. He is venerated by Muslims as the messenger of God and regarded as a model and good example in all matters.
Countless traditions (hadith) report on his appearance, his actions and his habits.
Particular emphasis is placed on his friendly, patient nature – and on his beard: the Prophet is said to have had a thick black beard in which, even in old age, at most 20 grey hairs could be found.
Mosque: The mosque (Arab. Masjid, "place where one prostrates oneself in prayer") is the most important building of Islamic architecture; it functions as a place of prayer and assembly room at the same time. The architectural model of the first mosques was the Prophet's house in Medina, which was equipped with a large inner courtyard. This "original mosque" functioned as a political and religious centre at the same time: here not only matters of faith were discussed, but also political and military decisions were taken.
In Germany, in the seventies and eighties of the 20th century, mostly "backyard mosques" came into being. Only recently have representative buildings increasingly been erected. The largest German mosque so far was opened in 2008 in Duisburg-Marxloh; it is regarded as a successful model of religious integration.
Mufti: A mufti is an Islamic scholar who is authorised to issue fatwas. Whether women may also be muftis is currently hotly disputed. While female muftis are already active in India, in Turkey there have so far only been female "deputy muftis". Then, in February 2009, the sensation: Grand Mufti Ahmed al-Haddad, head of the Ministry of Islamic Affairs in the Emirate of Dubai, issued a fatwa according to which women may also act as muftis.
Three Emirati women are currently undergoing the two-year training.
Muslim Brotherhood: The Muslim Brothers were founded in 1928 by the young Egyptian teacher Hassan al-Banna. The aim of the grouping was the reform of Egyptian society through "the order of Islam": a society based on the Koran and Sharia would be able to resist its internal and external enemies (leftists, secularists, the British, Zionists). While with the Salafiyya (orientation towards the time "of the pious forefathers") the idea of education was at the centre, with the Brotherhood it was morality. The Brotherhood rejected the West with its "profit-seeking materialism" and its "imperialism" just as much as "godless" Marxism. Through a tight organisation, committed social work and the threat of violence, the Muslim Brotherhood grew into a mass movement in the forties (Islamism). Its most important ideologue was Sayyid Qutb (executed 1966). Despite being banned, the Muslim Brothers are today the largest Egyptian opposition movement.
Nationalism: Nationalist ideas arose in the Islamic world at the end of the 19th century – through the encounter with European modernity. From the colonially ruled territories and the remnants of the Ottoman Empire, numerous states emerged in the 20th century, based on the idea of a nation defined by language and area of settlement. At the same time, supranational nationalisms such as Pan-Arabism and Pan-Turkism developed in the Middle East. A great champion of Pan-Arabism was the Egyptian President Gamal Abd al-Nasser (d. 1970).
In Syria the Pan-Arab Ba'ath Party ("Rebirth") had already been formed in 1947 with Christian participation; it also came to power in Iraq. But all attempts to unite several Arab states failed. What remains is the Arab League, founded in 1945, which has 22 members.
Nationalism in a certain way contradicts the ideal of the Umma ("people, community"); Islamist groups therefore often strive to overcome the nation state.
Paradise: Paradise is depicted sensuously in the Koran: in the "Gardens of Delight" water, milk, wine and honey flow, and the most splendid fruits grow there. One sits on soft couches and is served by young cupbearers.
Although women as well as men can enter paradise, some of the pleasures seem to be tailored specifically to male desires; "houris" are at their disposal, eternal virgins with large, beautiful eyes.
(And who cannot become pregnant!)
Philosophy: An independent philosophy arose in the Islamic world in the 9th century. It is based on the great translation movement which, between the 8th and 10th centuries, transferred almost the entire scientific literature of antiquity into Arabic. Abu Yaqub al-Kindi (d. around 870) standardised the philosophical terms in Arabic for the first time. While his philosophy is entirely in the service of Islamic dogma, the physician and philosopher Abu Bakr al-Razi (d. 925 or 932) rejected an orientation towards religion. The first philosophical "system" in the Arabic language was created by Abu Nasr al-Farabi (d. 950), a representative of the Baghdad school, to which many Christians also belonged.
The Aristotle experts Ibn Sina (d. 1037) and Ibn Rushd (d. 1198) had an enormous influence on European philosophy. Ibn Rushd answered the question of whether the study of philosophy and logic was permitted at all from the religious point of view by saying that the Koran prescribes philosophy as obligatory for all those who possess a strong intellect: "Reflect, you who have insight!" [7 : 185]
Prophets: Islam knows a whole series of prophets, the last of whom, the "Seal of the Prophets", is Muhammad. In several places in the Koran there are lists in which, besides the important prophets of the Old Testament, many biblical figures are named who do not bear this title in Jewish and Christian tradition, from Adam as the first human being and at the same time the first prophet, through Abraham, to Jesus. In addition there are some Arab messengers such as Hud, Shuaib and Salih, as well as a large number of prophets not mentioned by name: tradition speaks of several hundred thousand.
Ramadan: "The month of Ramadan, in which the Koran came down as guidance for mankind… – whoever is present in it shall fast, but for whoever of you is sick or on a journey, a number of other days is possible. God wants to make things easy for you, not hard." So the Koran demands, and it also lays down the conditions of abstinence from dawn to sunset.
In this "holy month", additional night prayers and Koran readings take place in the mosques. A hadith says: "When the month of Ramadan begins, the gates of heaven are opened and the gates of hell are closed, and the devils are put in chains."
Reform Islam: European thinkers of the colonial era held the view that the material superiority of the West also had to do with Islam, since it was not compatible with science and civilisation. Muslim intellectuals around the turn of the 19th to the 20th century defended themselves against this insinuation. In their understanding, the painfully perceived backwardness was due to the fact that Islamic doctrine had become rigid over the centuries and the ulama (scholars) clung to long outdated norms.
Representatives of Reform Islam such as Muhammad Abduh, who held the office of Grand Mufti of Egypt until 1905, therefore pleaded for an inner renewal of Islam.
The most important guideline should always be reason.
With their modern approach, reform Muslims succeed in placing values such as democracy and human rights in the context of their religion and in reconciling scientific findings and physical laws with the Koran. In this way they oppose the West with a new Islamic self-confidence.
Salafiyya: Literally, the term Salafiyya means orientation towards the time of the "pious forefathers" – meaning the first generations of Muslims. Important thinkers of the reformist Salafiyya movement were the Iranian Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (d. 1897), the Egyptian Muhammad Abduh (d. 1905) and the Syrian Rashid Rida (d. 1935). They advocated a renewal of Islam by reference to the values of the early Islamic period – in order to reconcile Islam and modernity in this way. The modernisation of education and upbringing was particularly important to them.
Today's Salafiyya movement, by contrast, has moved far away from the reformist movement and turned its intentions into their opposite: the term today is almost synonymous with Islamism or Wahhabism. Jihadist groups also call themselves Salafists, such as the Groupe Salafiste pour la Prédication et le Combat (GSPC) in Algeria.
Satan: The Islamic Satan (Arab. Shaitan, Iblis) resembles the Judeo-Christian one in many respects. According to the Koran he is the "enemy" of mankind"; he sows discord among them and awakens desires in them. Yet Satan once dwelt in paradise. Because he refused to prostrate himself before Adam, he had to leave the garden realm with his demons. He asked God for the right to seduce people from then on: "My Lord, because You have led me astray, I will make everything on earth appear to them in the most beautiful light and lead them all astray, except Your servants who are chosen from among them."
Ritual slaughter: In Islam, as in Judaism, blood is regarded as ritually unclean. Muslims therefore make sure when slaughtering animals that they bleed out completely. The traditional method for this is to open the carotid artery of the living animal, so that as large a part of the blood as possible flows out of the body through the still active circulation; the remaining blood is carefully removed. This practice contradicts European ideas of animal protection and is also at odds with industrial meat production. Many Islamic scholars therefore hold the view that stunning the animal beforehand is compatible with the Islamic dietary rules.
Sharia: The order of life and law of the Muslims based on God and Muhammad, His messenger – the Sharia – was developed over three centuries by Muslim theologians and legal scholars. It is therefore not the result of a ruler's or the state's will. In debates and teaching circles that were in contact with one another, the ulama tried to answer, for all areas of life, the question of what corresponded to the Koran and Sunna and what did not.
Gradually, insofar as the scholars agreed, decisions on individual questions on the basis of the Koran and hadith, as well as by means of analogies drawn from precedents, were combined into larger subject areas: everything on marriage and divorce, everything on war, everything on slaves and so on. Between the 11th and 14th centuries the results were set down in writing in comprehensive legal compendia, mainly as collections of cases. In keeping with its origin far from the state, the Sharia is strongly developed in all areas of everyday life (religious practice, personal status, customs and practices), but less so in the areas of state, administration and treasury. Perhaps precisely for this reason, from the 16th/17th century onwards the Sharia was gradually replaced by European legal forms in almost all Islamic countries.
When Islamists today demand a "reintroduction" of the Sharia, they are apparently concerned above all with the drastic threats of punishment and the downgrading of women. They are often barely or not at all familiar with the complex and complicated legal system of the Sharia and its high juridical quality.
Sheikh: The Arabic word sheikh ("venerable man") is used to address authorities respectfully, be it the head of a tribe or of a Sufi brotherhood, an Islamic scholar, a secular prince or a respected old man.
Shiites: The split between the two largest Islamic groups – Sunnis and Shiites – is almost as old as Islam itself. The two branches differ less in theological-dogmatic positions than in their allegiance to certain persons to whom the highest authority in the Umma is attributed (caliph, imam). The schism had been ignited by the succession to Muhammad: one group regarded only Ali ibn Abi Talib, Muhammad's cousin and husband of his daughter Fatima, as the rightful successor. When he was raised to fourth caliph more than 20 years after Muhammad's death, the decision met with criticism from other Muslims. Ali and his partisans (Arab. Shia, "party") thereupon withdrew to Iraq – to this day a heartland of the Shia.
After Ali's murder in 661, Hasan, Ali's eldest son from his marriage to Fatima (and according to the Shiite reading the second imam), renounced the caliphate. Not so the younger son Husayn, who in 680, with a few loyal followers, tried to defeat the Umayyad Caliph Yazid I militarily. The encounter at Karbala ended disastrously for the Shiites: Husayn and his companions were massacred. Only after this defeat – later dramatically exalted – does the "party of Ali" take on religious features.
In later centuries, too, the Shiites were fought as a political opposition movement. Only in the 10th century did rulers in Iraq promote the Shia. In 1501 the Shiite dynasty of the Safavids came to power in Iran and "Shiitised" the country, which until then had been predominantly Sunni. Today Shiites make up about ten percent of all Muslims.
Veil: The question of whether and in what form Muslim women should veil themselves has been hotly debated by legal scholars for about 100 years. A clear command to veil cannot be read from the Koran, and so different forms of covering are customary in different regions and social classes.
The Iranian chador, like the Maghrebi haik, is a huge cloth with which women cover their head and body. Full veiling with a niqab, which leaves only the eyes free, is spreading further and further beyond the Arabian Peninsula, supported by Wahhabi doctrine – sometimes combined with black gloves; unlike the burqa, it is also worn by some European Muslims. The general Arabic term hijab ("curtain, veil"), which in the 20th century was used in Egypt for the face veil, today often denotes a combination of headscarf and wide coat. Other terms are khimar, jilbab or sitr. In Turkey, where a headscarf ban applies to public institutions, there has been bitter dispute over female covering in recent years. What was new was the distinction between the headscarf tied under the chin and the "türban", a modern variant in which the cloth is wrapped tightly around the head and neck.
Shura: Sunnis and Shiites base the democratic basic principle on the 42nd sura of the Koran, which bears the title "al-Shura" (consultation), a term that today often stands as synonymous with "dimuqratiya". Sura 3, verse 159 also says: "And consult with them on the matter!" Occasionally this is supplemented by a saying of the Prophet: "God and His Prophet need no consultation (shura), but for my community God has made it a mercy, for whoever consults within it will not lack right guidance, and whoever neglects it will not lack error." In the 20th century a series of Islamic constitutions came into being which quite definitely interpret the concept of shura in a parliamentary sense, without giving up specifically Islamic basic ideas.
Dietary laws: The religious dietary rules for Muslims are based on the Koran. It expressly forbids the consumption of blood, pork, the meat of animals that have died, and of those that were not killed while invoking God and in accordance with the rules of ritual slaughter. In addition, most legal scholars derive a ban on alcohol from some verses of the Koran.
Sufism: Islamic mysticism began as an ascetic flight from the world; the terms Sufism and Sufi are mostly derived from the woollen garment (Arab. suf: "wool") of the first pious seekers of God. From the 11th century onwards Sufi brotherhoods formed, often tracing themselves back to a spiritual master. Nevertheless, the individual's search for pure love of God or union with God remains in the foreground to this day.
Sultan: The title sultan ("power, holder of power") arose as an epithet of the caliph and denoted the secular aspect of his rule. Later it was also borne by subordinate rulers.
Sunnis: The Sunnis derive their name from the "Sunna", the life of the Prophet Muhammad. The Shiites also recognise this as exemplary and therefore binding; however, they place the transmitted sayings of their imams alongside it as equal in value. While the Sunnis collected the Sunna in six canonical books, the Shiites transmit the directives of their imams in four books. At about 90 percent, the Sunnis today form the overwhelming majority of Muslims.
Theology: Islamic scholars are as a rule not theologians, but legal scholars. An Islamic theology developed from the 8th century onwards, mainly in the form of dialectical disputation (Ilm al-Kalam). At the centre were the unity of God and the resulting questions about His other attributes. The freedom of action and capacity for knowledge of human beings in view of God's omnipotence were also discussed.
Finally, a theology strongly oriented towards the Koran and hadith prevailed as "orthodox"; its most important representative is considered to be Abu al-Hasan al-Ashari (d. around 935). Later the Persian theologian Muhammad al-Ghazali (d. 1111) introduced into theology a view oriented towards mysticism (Sufism) and its living experience of God.
Ulama: In the Islamic world, scholars (ulama, singular: alim) are those who have completed a course of study in the religious sciences and are thus trained in the Koran, hadith and Islamic law. For centuries such training was a prerequisite for all religiously relevant offices such as mufti, qadi, preacher or even teacher and notary. Since, at least in Sunni Islam, no uniform organisation or hierarchy developed, doctrines arose in often lengthy processes of consensus-building (for the Shia: Ayatollah).
Since the 19th century ulama holding office have often had civil servant status; until then they were as a rule financed from religious endowments.
Through the formalisation of education systems and the introduction of state legal norms, the traditional scholars have lost importance. Nevertheless, with their authority based on knowledge, they represent an important social and moral authority. Many ulama wear a long black coat and a turban as a sign of their dignity.
Umma: The Arabic word Umma ("people, community") denotes the community of all Muslims worldwide, regardless of ethnic or linguistic affiliation. In this way Islam, as a unifying bond, replaced earlier identities such as tribe, clan or people, at least in theory. The ideal of unity despite all diversity, which the term still expresses today, has been put to a hard test in reality at the latest since the emergence of nation states and the end of the caliphate. Not least for this reason, spokesmen such as the Salafiyya and the Islamists, but also many other Muslims, strive for the "restoration" of an Umma united by its common faith.
Folk Islam: The term folk Islam covers a multitude of heterogeneous ideas and customs that do not belong to the canonical form of high Islam (if such a thing exists at all!) – and are thus more or less openly in opposition to the Islam of the scribes. The intertwining of Islam and seemingly "un-Islamic" customs can be observed throughout the Islamic world. This includes celebrating Muhammad's birthday as well as the use of amulets and talismans. A major role is played by the veneration of local saints, who are distinguished by a special power of blessing. Since the saint does not lose this through his death, a pronounced cult of graves arose in many places.
Wahhabism: Wahhabis is the name given to the followers of the teaching of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (d. 1792); they themselves call themselves Muwahhidun ("confessors of the unity of God"). Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, born in present-day Saudi Arabia, advocated his religious-political ideas uncompromisingly: he vehemently demanded a return to the Koran and Sunna and to the early period of the pious forefathers. He rejected impermissible innovations (Arab. bid'a) such as smoking tobacco or music, as well as the "exaggerated" veneration of the Prophet, let alone that of saints (folk Islam) or imams – to him they counted as polytheism.
In 1744/45 he concluded an alliance with the regional ruler Muhammad bin Saud. From then on the Wahhabiyya provided the ideological basis for the expansion of the Saudi family. Non-Wahhabi Muslims were fought as apostates; mosques and tombs of the Prophet's companions or of saints were devastated. The relationship between Iran and Saudi Arabia still suffers today from the destruction of the Shiite shrines in Karbala in 1802. In 1932 the third Saudi state was founded: the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Since 1986 the Saudi king has adorned himself with the title "Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques" (Mecca and Medina) – a provocation for many non-Wahhabi Muslims.
The Wahhabiyya differs from Islamist groupings in its close relationship with the USA: since 1943 the Saudi ruling family has de facto been allied with America. When an alliance led by the USA set about liberating Kuwait, which had been invaded by Saddam Hussein, in August 1990, US troops were deployed on Saudi Arabian soil. This was declared lawful by a fatwa of the Council of Senior Religious Scholars, the highest religious-political institution of Saudi Arabia – the former Saudi Arabian citizen Osama bin Laden saw it differently. (Jihadism)
Calendar: According to the Islamic calendar we are in the year 1431. The calendar begins with the migration (Arab. Hijra) of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in 622 AD. And it is based on a lunar year without leap days or leap months. This year is ten to eleven days shorter than a solar year, and so, with the dates of the Islamic calendar, the religious festivals of the Muslims also move backwards through the seasons. Since the moon is the actual regulator of time, the day begins (as in Judaism) at sunset.
Prohibition of interest: The charging of interest is the most discussed problem of an economic order in keeping with Islam. At the centre of the debate is the Koranic term riba, which can mean interest or usury. Some experts assume that the riba prohibition refers expressly to excessive interest, as was customary in pre-Islamic Mecca. In principle, financial compensation in money transactions could be permitted. The majority opinion, however, strictly rejects interest.
In the Middle Ages, therefore, money transactions in the Islamic world were carried out almost exclusively by non-Muslims. At the same time, resourceful merchants developed legal tricks to circumvent the prohibition. Today "Islamic banks" officially work without interest, but have practices that bring about an interest effect.
Source: Spiegel Geschichte 5 / 2010
Islam
After Christianity (approx. 2.2 billion followers), Islam is the second largest world religion with over 1.5 billion followers. It is the state religion in 40 countries.
The founder of Islam, Muhammad, was born in Mecca around 570 AD.
Mecca lies in an infertile valley with rugged mountains, short of water. Nevertheless, in the 6th century the Meccans made the best of the place.
Mecca lies at the junction of the caravan routes that connect southern Yemen with Syria and Mesopotamia in the north.
The city is quite prosperous, with a quarter of the rich on the plain and the quarter of craftsmen and plebeians on the mountain slopes.
A council of the rich families determines political affairs; most aristocrats belong to the tribe of the Quraysh. They control credit, they supply the numerous travelling businessmen and, for a fee, guarantee their safety.
In Mecca stands the Kaaba, a cube-shaped building in one corner of which a mysterious black stone is set. Not far from it pilgrims find the Zamzam well, from which they can fetch water.
A whole bundle of deities is worshipped: household idols in the form of shaped dates, upright stones which the pilgrim sprinkles with blood and oil, statues before which the seeker of oracles throws arrows. Camel market, cult and fair merge into one another, good for business – under the protection of an annual three-month truce of God, which forbids blood vengeance and plunder but encourages singing contests as well as feasting.
At the Kaaba the pilgrims worship the gods of pre-Islamic Arabia:
The Syrian moon god Hubal; the mighty goddess al-Uzza, who was called Isis by the Egyptians and Aphrodite by the Greeks; al-Kutba, the Nabataean god of writing and prophecy; Jesus, the incarnate one of the Christians, and his holy mother Mary; in and around the Kaaba there are a total of around 360 images representing all the deities of the Arabian Peninsula.
There is a multitude of divine and semi-divine mediators between the creator god and his creation. This creator god is called Allah, which, however, is not a proper name but the contracted form of al-ilah; the name simply means "the God".
The Kaaba is the centre of religious life in pre-Islamic Arabia of the 6th century AD, that fascinating but elusive pagan epoch which Muslims call jahiliyya, "time of ignorance".
The father of Muhammad (the "highly praised one") dies before Muhammad's birth. His mother Amina belongs to a sub-clan of the Quraysh and therefore has a claim to tribal loyalty, but does not belong to the economic upper class.
Muhammad is six when his mother dies, and eight when his beloved grandfather passes away.
His uncle Abu Talib becomes a lifelong father figure for him, accompanying him through all depths to the point of self-sacrifice – but he never becomes a follower of the new religion.
As yet nothing points to an extraordinary life. In his youth Muhammad accompanies caravans as far as Syria, and is likely to have come into contact with Christian zealots there. He carries out his work in the caravan so successfully that he catches the eye of a wealthy widow. She offers him her hand; at about 25 years of age he marries the roughly 40-year-old Khadija. She bears him four daughters and 2 or 3 sons, who however die in childhood (the sons).
Happily married, well off – but at about 40 years of age he falls into a crisis.
The social imbalance in the city weighs on him and makes him critically question his own position. He lets his business rest and withdraws into the solitude of the mountains to meditate.
One night in the year 610 he was sitting in a cave on Mount Hira, praying. Suddenly he was overwhelmed and choked by an invisible being. As he drew his last breath, a light flooded over him and he heard a terrifying voice: "Recite!"
"What shall I recite?" gasped Muhammad.
The invisible being (the Archangel Gabriel) clasped him even more tightly and repeated the command. When he believed his last moment had come, the grip loosened, and in the silence that now filled the cave, Muhammad felt the following words being imprinted on his heart:
Recite in the name of your Lord, who has created,
who has created man from an embryo.
Recite!
For it is your most noble Lord
who has taught the use of the reed pen,
who has taught man what he did not know.
Was Muhammad illiterate? The uneducated prophet? It should probably rather be the prophet for the uneducated. He was not a scribe or poet, but he was probably able to handle simple documents / caravan business papers.
This event was Muhammad's first revelation, his burning bush.
Shaken by his experience in the cave and trembling all over, Muhammad set off for home, threw himself into his wife's arms and cried:
"Cover me, cover me!"
Khadija wrapped him in a cloak and held him tightly in her arms until he had calmed down. Weeping, he told her what he had experienced. "Khadija, I think I have gone mad."
"That cannot be," she replied. "God would never treat you like that. He knows your honesty, your sincerity, your high morals and your kindness."
Her cousin Waraqa confirmed this. But Muhammad was still unsettled.
In addition, a long period of silence now followed. Muhammad contemplates suicide.
But in the deepest despair heaven sent him a second verse – in the same painful way as before. And this time God assured him that he was His messenger:
By the grace of your Lord you are not possessed.
And you have a reward to expect that will not then be held against you as a favour,
and you are a weighty personality; you will see, and they will see.
Now he was certain of his task. The first verses that Muhammad communicated to the Meccans can be divided in content into two main themes: those with a religious and those with a social thrust. In compellingly beautiful verses Muhammad praised the power and glory of God.
In sharp words he denounced the mistreatment and exploitation of the weak and defenceless. This was not friendly advice, but a warning. God had seen the greed and malice of the Quraysh and was no longer willing to tolerate it.
He did not yet preach pure monotheism; he demanded social justice.
But this was largely ignored, since at first he communicated this revolutionary message only to his closest friends and relatives.
The first to profess his message was Khadija, presumably his cousin Ali the second. He was Abu Talib's son and had grown up together with Muhammad.
Ali ibn Abi Talib married Muhammad's daughter Fatima, who gave the Prophet the legendary grandsons Hasan and Husayn. But at the time when he was the first to follow the Prophet's call, he was a thirteen-year-old boy.
A little later Abu Bakr joined, a good friend and rich Qurayshi merchant.
Through Abu Bakr the message spread throughout the city.
Nevertheless, because of Muhammad's reticence, in the first years it remained a small group of 30 to 40 people who called themselves Muhammad's companions.
In 613, three years after the first revelation, a dramatic change took place in Muhammad's message. It can best be summed up in the two-part profession of faith (Shahada):
There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God.
"There is no god but Allah!" [37:35]
This created profound social and economic implications.
Polytheism secured a large part of the Quraysh's livelihood. Polytheism, henotheism, monotheism, Christianity, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Hanifism, paganism with all its modifications were familiar to the Quraysh. The Quraysh saw in Muhammad a threat to the religious-economic system on which the city was built; and that only one path led to this threat: the attack on the Kaaba, the religious centre of many pilgrims, the origin and source of the wealth and prestige of the Quraysh.
There is only one God, and everyone can call on Him directly. The images of the gods in the Kaaba are useless.
The Quraysh began to harass Muhammad, tried to bribe him, to dissuade him from spreading his message. In vain. And this message from a successful and well-known Qurayshi merchant! Not to be tolerated.
After the Quraysh had failed to silence Muhammad by other means, they imposed an economic boycott on him and his clan, the Banu Hashim. There were Quraysh who criticised this boycott and wanted to allow the Banu Hashim to take part in the city's trade again.
However, his protector and patron Abu Talib and his beloved wife Khadija now died, and a new person took the place of the sheikh of the Banu Hashim: Abu Lahab, who was hostile to Muhammad. Muhammad was publicly reviled and was no longer allowed to preach. Muhammad's situation in Mecca became critical, and he looked for a place where he could find refuge.
The small clan of the Khazraj lived in a union of settlements 400 km north of Mecca: Yathrib, and made him an offer of refuge.
The migration of Muhammad's followers took place slowly and in small groups. When the Quraysh noticed what was going on, only Muhammad, Abu Bakr and Ali ibn Abi Talib were still in Mecca. The Qurayshi clans feared that Muhammad might gather a force against them and decided to kill Muhammad jointly, with one man from each clan. In this way the blood guilt would be spread over all the clans.
But in Muhammad's house and bed they found Ali instead of Muhammad. Muhammad had learned of the murder plot and had fled together with Abu Bakr. They hid in a cave for three days and then set out on fast camels for Yathrib, where 70 followers were waiting. This flight to Yathrib was the Arab. Hijra; the Islamic calendar refers to this event: the year 622 as year 1 after the Hijra. In Yathrib, later called Medina (City of the Prophet), Muhammad builds his house, which will at the same time be a mosque, Arab. masjid. For all modern Muslim men and women Medina becomes the ideal image of the Muslim community: reformers and counter-reformers alike appeal to it. One should, however, understand the Koran in its historical context.
In Medina, besides the Muhajirun (those who had made the Hijra), there are 5 large Jewish clans and a few smaller ones and a few Arab ones. There were tensions between grouped clans, and something was urgently needed for arbitration: a hakam, a justice of the peace. As a wise and just man, he and the Umma gained influence in Yathrib.
Muhammad accepted polygyny in moderation as necessary for the survival of the Umma. In Yathrib Muhammad married nine women within ten years, most of them for political reasons.
Muhammad's revelations change and now refer more to life in this world: he preaches about the social obligation of property, the careful treatment of women, although the man stands one step higher than she does, about usurious interest, gambling and alcohol, precise everyday rules from brushing teeth to washing hands after sex.
Allah: a God of small things too.
Muhammad begins to raid Qurayshi caravans, once even during the holy month, thus breaking the public peace.
In 624 there is the victorious Battle of Badr against the Quraysh. The Muslims, far inferior in numbers, are victorious and see this as a special sign of heaven's grace.
In 625 the second battle takes place at Uhud; once again the Meccans are far superior in numbers. At first the Medinans manage to force the Meccans to retreat; but then their battle discipline breaks down in order to plunder. Now the Meccans rally, fall upon the Medinans and inflict heavy losses on them. On the false news of Muhammad's death, however, the Meccans let up and withdraw. But the Umma continues to grow through Muhammad's prophetic work.
In 627 the Quraysh, tired of the continual conflicts, decided to march against Medina one last time. This time Muhammad did not go out to meet them, but dug a trench around Medina in order to stop the attacks of the Meccans. After a month of futile attempts to overcome this ingeniously simple defence system, the Quraysh returned home almost without food and water.
During the month-long siege the largest Jewish clan, the Banu Qurayza, openly supported the Quraysh with weapons and food. They expected Muhammad's defeat and wanted to be on the side of the victor.
Because of the already wavering loyalty of Jewish clans before this, Muhammad's magnanimity was exhausted: a hakam was appointed, who sentenced this Jewish clan as follows:
"The men shall be killed, their children and women sold as slaves, and their property divided among the Muslims."
In 628, a year after the Battle of the Trench, Muhammad quite unexpectedly announced that he would make a pilgrimage to Mecca. He went with more than a thousand of his followers to his home town and fearlessly declaimed the pilgrims' call: "Here I am, O Allah! Here I am!" A few kilometres before the city, at Hudaybiyya, the Quraysh contacted him and offered him a treaty: he should give up raiding caravans and be allowed to make the pilgrimage the following year. Muhammad agreed. An armistice.
In 629 the pilgrimage took place and had an extraordinarily positive effect. In 630 a skirmish between his followers and the Quraysh gave him the occasion to break the armistice. He marched against Mecca with ten thousand men and was received by the inhabitants with open arms. Muhammad went to the Kaaba, carried out the images of the gods and destroyed them, except for Jesus and his mother Mary.
The sanctuary, the Kaaba, from then on called the House of God, became the centre of a new universal faith, Islam. (Islam "submission to God", Muslim "those who submit to God"). Muhammad wanted to be keeper of the keys, but not king of Mecca. After he had put the administration in order and sent military and diplomatic delegations to the other Arab tribes to win support for the new political order in the Hejaz (western Arabian Peninsula), he returned to Medina.
In 632 Muhammad dies, his head in the lap of his favourite wife Aisha, and this was to split the Umma. His succession had not been settled by him. The Muslim community grew and expanded unimaginably fast. There was a serious danger that its growth would overtax all organisational capacities. Some client tribes began to rebel against Muslim supremacy and refused to pay the alms tax (zakat) to Medina. With the death of Muhammad as the sheikh of the community, the oath of allegiance they had sworn to him also lapsed – suddenly they were released from their duty of loyalty to the Umma.
But the greatest challenge for the Muslim community after Muhammad's death was the question of how a stable religious system could grow out of the words and deeds of the Prophet, mostly preserved only in the memories of his companions.
In the year 632 the Koran had not yet been fixed in writing. It soon became clear that the unity and a certain degree of historical continuity of the Umma could only be guaranteed if a descendant of the Qurayshi clan, namely one of the early companions of the Prophet (muhajirun) who had made the Hijra to Medina in 622, were designated as Muhammad's successor.
Muhammad's clan, the Banu Hashim, now called ahl al-bayt, the "people of the house of the Prophet", agreed to this, although they were convinced that the Prophet would have wanted a member of his own clan as his successor. In fact, quite a few Muslims were convinced that on his last pilgrimage to Mecca Muhammad had designated his cousin and son-in-law, Ali, as his successor. An approximately equal number of Muslims disputed this.
To put an end to the disputes, Abu Bakr, Umar and a leading companion of the Prophet named Abu Ubayda met with a group of the ansar for a traditional shura. At its end, at the urging of Umar and Abu Ubayda, Abu Bakr was designated leader of the Muslim community with the title Khalifat Rasul Allah, or successor of the messenger of God, caliph for short.
Abu Bakr understood the caliphate as a secular office – similar to the traditional tribal sheikh. It was not up to him to lay down religious duties – and thus the way was clear for the emergence of a new class of scholars – the ulama, whose task it was to lead the Umma on the right path.
As caliph he united the community under one banner and ushered in an era of military triumphs and social harmony. It was under Abu Bakr and his immediate successors – the first four caliphs, the so-called rashidun or "rightly guided ones" – that the seed Muhammad had sown in the Hejaz sprouted.
But Abu Bakr's election as caliph was far from harmonious. Only a few of the most important companions of the Prophet took part in the shura. Ali ibn Abi Talib was only informed of the shura when Abu Bakr had already been elected. A large group was seething with rage and declared the election invalid without Ali.
Abu Bakr's reign, at two and a half years, was very short, but extremely successful. He had uprisings of client tribes mercilessly crushed.
Abu Bakr designated Umar as the succeeding caliph. In 634 Abu Bakr died. Under Umar's rule, among other places, Damascus and Jerusalem were conquered. The conflict over the succession to the Prophet continued to smoulder. The more the personal memory of the Prophet faded, the louder became the criticism of those who insisted that only blood relatives of God's messenger had the right to lead the Islamic community.
In the year 642 Muslim troops conquered the Egyptian capital Alexandria. In 644 Umar fell victim to an assassination. The reason was probably power struggles and clan feuds. On his deathbed Umar had a successor elected: Uthman bin Affan, a son-in-law of Muhammad. He promoted campaigns of conquest in the east, north and west of the emerging great empire.
Uthman had all the oral and written traditions about Muhammad's revelations compiled into a public codex: the Koran, 114 suras, arranged from the longest to the shortest, in 653 AD and thus 20 years after the Prophet's death.
Uthman replaced almost all previous governors on Muslim territory with members of his family. He dipped into the state treasury and distributed immense sums of money to his relatives. And finally he broke with tradition by adopting the title Khalifat Allah – representative of God. With his measures Uthman created only enemies. In 655 rebellions broke out in several Muslim provinces against the incompetent and often corrupt governors.
In the year 656 Uthman was murdered by indignant insurgents while studying the Koran. The negotiations on the designation of Muhammad's fourth successor were laborious. The majority of the electoral body declared itself in favour of Ali ibn Abi Talib. Numerous army commanders and clan chiefs, however, were decidedly against Ali's election. The governor of rich Syria, Muawiya bin Abi Sufyan, declared war on Ali and proved the stronger in a bloody civil war.
Near the Euphrates, on the battlefield of Siffin, Ali's army was within reach of victory over Muawiya in 657., Then Muawiya ordered his soldiers to put Korans on the tips of their lances, thus signalling his willingness to capitulate. Part of Ali's army, the Kharijites, wanted to fight on, but Ali acted in accordance with Sura 2, verse 193: "If the enemy desists, all further hostilities are forbidden." . Ali made the gross mistake of accepting a tricky arbitration and agreeing to a compromise with the rebels over the leadership of the Umma. This was to prove his undoing, the rightful leader of the Umma. Even before the arbitration, the Kharijites left the battlefield in a rage with the cry: "No arbitration but God's judgement!" Muawiya used the circumstances and the disadvantages for Ali arising from the arbitration to regroup his troops and move against Ali.
Some disappointed extremist followers, called the "Seceders", reviled Ali as a traitor and murdered him in 661 in the mosque of Kufa in Iraq – because he had caved in to the challenger Muawiya. But those Muslims who continue to see the rightful successors of the Prophet solely in Ali and his descendants entered history as the "party of Ali" (Shiat Ali).
Most Muslims, however, accepted Muawiya's enthronement as caliph. The split between Sunnis, as this majority was called from then on, and Ali's followers, the Shiites, continues to this day: about ten percent of the roughly 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide are Shiites, the great majority Sunnis.
At the time of its greatest extent, the Muslim sphere of power stretched from Portugal to Pakistan. In the year 732 the Frankish King Charles Martel defeated the Arabs at the Battle of Tours and Poitiers; otherwise the greater part of Europe might also have been Islamised. Describing negative excesses of parts of the Umma with the adjective "medieval" is inappropriate, for the Middle Ages were the heyday of Islamic culture. The Moors created an advanced civilisation on the Iberian Peninsula, tolerating the Christians and Jews living there.
After the Abbasid dynasty seized power, the newly founded Baghdad became the capital of the caliphs in 762. The Golden Age of Islam began, which was to last a good half millennium.
Islam? The Umma? A united, ordered whole? It does not exist. The Umma is split into Shiites and Sunnis, into numerous states, and within the states into various tribes and clans; and also into reformers and counter-reformers. The aim of the counter-reformers is to take Islam back to its origins in the 7th century, as they interpret that time.
Do they not reflect then? Or are there locks upon their hearts?
Muhammad [47:24]
The reformers do want to take Islam back to its original period, but with an exegesis of the circumstances that prevailed in the 7th century and no longer prevail now.
Islam is to be adapted to today's conditions by the use of reason.
Peace, charity, tolerance, human rights, secular jurisdiction, use of the reason given by God, preservation of culture and yet individual freedom of choice – this is the lofty ultimate goal of a reform. This will take not years, but generations. And religion. What? Religion? Last? Yes. After all, everyone stands alone with his life and his deeds before God's judgement on the Last Day. Religious upbringing and instruction of the younger generation may well take place. But in the end, may everyone in this country of ours find salvation in his own way.
This reform process should be supported by the "free" world. Muhammad as the "Seal of the Prophets"? The Koran contains verses that establish peace and tolerance between the religions possessing a scripture. Judaism, Christianity, Islam, coexisting peacefully, vying with one another in good things, until Armageddon and until the Day of Judgement.
World Trade Center, Madrid railway station, London buses and Underground – witnesses of the "clash of civilisations"? The essential struggle is taking place within Islam. Shiites against Sunnis, reformers against counter-reformers; since the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, over 110,000 Iraqis have fallen victim to the asymmetric civil war in Iraq, and millions are refugees.
Afghanistan
Afghanistan fact file
Area : approx. 652,000 square kilometres
Population : approx. 26 million
Capital :Kabul
Official languages :Dari, Pashto, Turkic languages
Illiteracy rate : approx. 70 %
Administration : 33 provinces, administered by governors
GNP/inhabitant :approx. 178 dollars per head
Afghan ethnic groups
Pashtuns, language Pashto, Sunni religion, 44 % of the population
Tajiks, language Dari, Sunnis and Shiites, 28 % of the population
Uzbeks, language Uzbek, Sunni religion, 9% of the population
Hazara, language Dari, Shiite religion, 7% of the population
Aimaq, language Dari, Sunni religion, 4% of the population
Turkmens, language Turkmen, Sunni religion, 3% of the population
Baluch, language Baluchi, Sunni religion, 1% of the population
Peace and reform
Peace and reform in the Near and Middle East? The situation is critical. India and Pakistan are nuclear powers in a state of high tension over the province of Kashmir. Shiite Iran will be the next to become a nuclear power. Sunni-Wahhabi Saudi Arabia feels threatened by this and may follow suit with nuclear arms, although it has been allied with the USA since 1932. Israel and Iran deter each other with nuclear weapons.
Pakistan supports terrorist efforts in India through the LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba, "Army of the Pure", Mumbai 26 November 2008); India has so far been kept from striking back. Pakistan is officially allied with the USA, but is internally and politically divided. Asif Ali Zardari is President of Pakistan, but politically in a weak position. The most powerful man in Pakistan is General Ashfaq Kayani, Chief of the General Staff of the Pakistani Army.
The General and the Pakistani intelligence service ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) are fairly independent in their aspirations.
The Taliban are strongly represented not only in Afghanistan, but also in Pakistan. Pakistan, within the Taliban's sphere of power, is al-Qaeda's area of retreat, rest and training. Al-Qaeda is trying to obtain a supply of recruits in states whose citizens need no visa to enter the USA. The Chief of the General Staff and the ISI do not want a democratic Afghanistan with a strong army allied with India. They fear Indian encirclement.
To create a good political climate, the Pakistani army acts half-heartedly against the Taliban, but allows the Taliban, supported by the Pakistani Taliban, to remain strong in Afghanistan – in order to prevent a stable, strong Afghanistan. The USA has CIA teams in Pakistan that reconnoitre targets for the Predator drones armed with Hellfire missiles operating over Pakistan: the Taliban and al-Qaeda have about 150 training camps in Pakistan.
Under George W. Bush the Pakistanis were informed about forthcoming Predator attacks, but since the Pakistanis warned the targets to be attacked, they are now only informed at the same time as or after the attack. Predator attacks have been going on for years, but significantly reducing Taliban and al-Qaeda targets in this way is about as effective as tackling a beehive by swatting each bee individually.
Acting against Pakistan with rough methods other than diplomatic ones is not advisable. Nobody needs a nuclear power sinking into chaos and anarchy, and nobody needs fanaticised Taliban or al-Qaeda terrorists, indoctrinated in madrasas (Koran schools), who have access to nuclear weapons.
Resolving the situation is about as simple as juggling on a tightrope.
In all cases, hoping is better than despairing.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The Islamic world finds itself in a struggle between the forces of reform and those of counter-reform. The forces of reform must be supported politically, and the message of reform (see above) must be spread among the people. For example, first of all in one's own country too.
Small projects that one carries out are better than big ones that one plans. Whoever wants to create something great must forgo being able to enjoy it himself. Do you want to contribute to reform? Recommend this page to your acquaintances. At present a few dozen people read or visit this page per month. But there were once hundreds. Meanwhile hundreds daily.
Oh yes. Afghanistan. The Afghan army and police (ANSF) were to be increased to 400,000 men by 2015, but because of the numerous departures the aim is now just to train as many as possible. Agricultural development is to be promoted. But no longer for poppy cultivation. Afghanistan is the world's largest opium producer. Its supply covers 90% of worldwide and 100% of European demand.
When NATO withdraws lock, stock and barrel in 2011, it is only a question of time until the Taliban are back in power. In July 2011 the Americans intend to begin slowly thinning out their forces and handing over areas to the ANSF (Afghan National Security Forces).
The problems with the forces of counter-reform cannot be solved by purely military means. At the same time, a battle for the hearts and minds of Muslims must be waged by peaceful means. It can be read from the Koran that it is God's will that there are several monotheistic religions. Morally and rhetorically valuable messages must be spread on all channels. Win the war not by slaying the opponent, but by convincing him – with the same patience as is needed for a falling drop of water to hollow out the stone.
Al-Qaeda
In the night of 1 to 2 May 2011, Osama bin Laden was killed by the Americans in Pakistan. The current number 2 of al-Qaeda is the 59-year-old Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Americans have put a bounty of 25 million dollars on his head.
The direct translation from Arabic is "the base" or "the outpost", which refers either to the bases of the mujahideen of the Soviet-Afghan War or to the organisation's numerous training camps from the early 1990s until now, in which, according to the German Federal Criminal Police Office, 70,000 fighters have been trained to carry out terrorist actions. What does al-Qaeda want? The declared aim of al-Qaeda is the establishment of a theocracy spanning all Islamic countries and territories as well as further territories, for all true believers, as a caliphate. Interim aims consist in waging war on the Western states, which it assumes are leading a worldwide anti-Islamic conspiracy, and in bringing about the destruction of Israel. It should be noted that al-Qaeda's ultimate aims are not short-term but long-term ones, which al-Qaeda expects to achieve only in years or decades. The main motive is not necessarily to achieve these aims itself, but to set in motion a chain of events that ultimately leads to the desired result. One must not imagine al-Qaeda as a political organisation that wants to conquer a certain territory and rule there. Al-Qaeda pursues a dual strategy. On the one hand it instigates a direct trial of strength with the great powers, or rather with the great power, which is synonymous with the might of America, relying less on real damage (whether financial or in the form of a large number of deaths) than on the power of images, media impact and terror. On the other hand it profits parasitically from existing conflicts and reinterprets them as a global jihad against the West. The mirror-image counterpart of the theory of the clash of civilisations circulating in the West further reinforces the effect. In fact al-Qaeda is quite dependent on those who demonise it, for in this case too, perception leads to political action. The large number of converts, by which al-Qaeda differs fundamentally from other Islamic organisations, makes several characteristics of the organisation particularly easy to understand:
- Al-Qaeda is a deterritorialised organisation that in no way reflects a traditional culture of the Middle East or represents a reaction to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
- Al-Qaeda attracts people who thirty years earlier would probably have joined extreme left-wing or extreme right-wing groups.
Al-Qaeda operates in internationally oriented networks. These networks consist of a small group of people who know each other well. They share flats and bank accounts, act as each other's best men, sign each other's wills, etc.. The isolation comes from the group, not from conspiratorial behaviour.
But al-Qaeda is not limited to personal networks. Alongside them we find a multitude of other forms of cohesion and cooperation: franchises, branches, networks and connections.
- Franchises: it is enough for local action groups to adopt the logo and concept of al-Qaeda, without being directly connected to the centre, and al-Qaeda can already claim an action for itself.
- Branches: local, relatively territorially bound organisations that operate in a limited area corresponding to a country or language area, that have their own history and are instrumentalised by al-Qaeda until they finally explicitly invoke al-Qaeda themselves. (e.g. Indonesia)
- Connections and networks: a special connection is developing between al-Qaeda and the radical networks of Pakistan.. The main reason for this is that the leadership of al-Qaeda is based in Pakistan; this has been known since the end of 2001, but is denied by the Pakistani authorities and passed over in silence by the Americans.
Al-Qaeda fits smoothly into the "asymmetric" strategy; it does not want to create a new political-territorial entity; rather, its aim is to multiply the number of "grey zones" in which there is no state, no administration and no fixed targets.
"We would not regard it as a crime to come into possession of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons. Our holy land is occupied by Israeli and American troops. We have the right to defend ourselves and to liberate our holy land:"
Osama bin Laden, January 1999
"If another Islamic country wants the bomb, then it must develop it itself. You don't get nuclear weapons served on a silver platter!"
Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, October 1998
Al-Qaeda strives to possess NBC weapons. To this day it most probably has no access to them, since they would have been used as a means of pressure or for a terrorist attack.
Al-Qaeda knows no promising tomorrow, and on this point there are cross-connections with suicide attacks: one dies for oneself, not for a common project. We must stop looking at the world through al-Qaeda's distorting lens, for that is where its only power lies.
Google al-Qaeda and take in the Wikipedia encyclopaedia on this subject to bring your knowledge on the matter fully up to date.
If you know the enemy and yourself, you need not fear the outcome of a hundred battles. Sun Tzu
Well? Read everything diligently? Then recommend the page to others. So that it spreads throughout Germany. Want to read more about the subject? These are the sources:
Spiegel Geschichte 5/2010
Kein Gott außer Gott Reza Aslan ISBN 978 3 406 54487 3
Allahs langer Schatten Michael Lüders ISBN978 3 451 29664 2
Der falsche Krieg Olivier Roy ISBN 978 3 88680 884 7
Mohammed Hans Jansen ISBN 978 3 406 56858 9
Obamas Kriege Bob Woodward ISBN 978 3 421 04508 9
9/11 Der Tag, die Angst, die Folgen Bernd Greiner ISBN 978 3 406 61244 2
Atomwaffen für al Qaida Egmont R. Koch ISBN 3 351 02588 2
Machen wir Frieden oder haben wir Krieg? Auf UN-Mission in Afghanistan Tom Koenigs ISBN 978-3-8031-3637-4
Der Koran ISBN 978 3 442 21846 2