Eternal India Encyclopedia

RELIGIONS

Eternal India encyclopedia

* The five pillars of Islam are: 1. The Shahadah (Profession of faith) : There is no God but God; Muhammad is the Prophet of God. 2. Prayer, five times a day. 3. The Zakat (Purification): The obligatory tax. 4. Fasting during the month of Ramadhan. 5 The Hajj (annual pilgrimage) to Makkah at least once in a lifetime. * Exploitation, hoarding and profiteering are condemned. HOLY PLACES * The Kabah sanctuary at Makkah, Saudi Arabia which is be- lieved to be the place where the heavenly bliss and power touches the earth directly. * The Prophet’s mosque at Madina. * Masjid al Aqsa at Jerusalem as the first Quiblah (the direction in which the Muslims offered their prayers at first before it was changed to the Kabah at Makkah). * The Mosque. HOLY DAYS * Id-ul-fitr- Celebrating the end of the month of Ramadhan. * Id-ul-Adha - (Bakrid - the feast of sacrifice) marks the end of the Hajj pilgrimage. * Muharram - (during the first month of the Muslim year) marking the day of Hussain martyrdom. * The death anniversaries ( urs ) of various saints. The most important urs in India and the whole of South Asia is that of Shaikh Muin-uddin Chishti of Ajmer. Those of Nizamuddin Auliya in Delhi and of Gesudaraz in Gulbarga (Karnataka) and Sharafuddin Maneri in Bihar Sharif are also important. THE SHARIAH * The Shariah is a comprehensive code of behaviour that em- braces both private and public practices. It is not society that moulds and fashions the law but the law that precedes and controls society. * Compilation of Islamic law began after the death of Muham- mad. * Islamic jurisprudence was developed through (1) explicit guidelines of the Quran (2) Hadith (3) Ijma (conses of the entire learned Ulma of the world and (4) Qiyas (analogy). * The practices and customs ( urf) not contrary to the Quran and Sunnah were also recognised. * Some jurists had recourse to istihsan (preferable or advisable) which did not obtain recognition among all the learned {ulema). * The differences in the degree of emphasis on the four roots of the jurisprudence led to the Hanafi, the Shafii, the Maliki and the Hambali Schools of jurisprudence. * The Shariah regulates man's relationship not only with his neighbour and the state but also with his God and his own conscience. RIGHTS OF WOMEN The Quran gives women the following rights : * Right to inheritance - Women get inheritence from the property of her father, mother, husband and children.

* Woman's consent necessary for marriage and to be given mehr (money or property given in absolute ownership before the marriage); if a minor at the time of marriage, she can demand its annulment after reaching the age of consent. * Divorce possible under certain circumstances. * Widows could remarry. SUFISM Islamic mysticism is called sufism. The word is derived from the Arabic word for wool - suf - a reference to the woollen garment of early Islamic ascetics. * The sufis evolved an intensely personal approach towards God and the spiritual life. * They preached among the masses, enrolled murids (disciples) and established Khanquatis (centres of community living). * The distinctive feature was the spiritual status of the Shaikh (pir or master). * The sufis, some orthodox, some unorthodox, were points of contact between Muslims and the non-Muslims, and served as effective means of spiritual assimilation. * The sufis have elaborated the image of the Prophet Muham- mad and have largely influenced Muslim piety by their mys- ticism. * Mystical ideas spread widely among the Muslims through Persian and other literatures. * The sufi vocabulary has enriched the Turkish, Urdu, Sindhi, Pashto and Punjabi languages. Sufism in India began its real history with the arrival of Khwaja Muin-uddin Chisthi. He was bom in Sistan in about 1142 and was educated at leading intellectual centres in eastern Iran. He arrived in Delhi in 1206 and moved on to Ajmer by the end of the year. He died in 1236 in Ajmer. In the history of Sufism in India Muin-uddin Chisthi's name and shrine are unrivalled. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims visit his shrine each year during his urs. His shrine greatly increased in importance from the time Akbar began to make pilgrimages there. Other Muslim emperors followed suit and left an impressive shrine as a testimony of their largesse. Ajmer became the leading Muslim pilgrim centre in India. numbers. The Bohras are followers of Ismail, the eldest son of the sixth Imam. They are also known as Ismailis and belong to the relatively small branch of the Shias, the Sabiyya (Seveners). The Khojas belong to the branch of Ismaili Shias who gave allegiance to Nizar, son of the Fatimid Caliph, al-Mustansir. The Ismailis came to power in Egypt as the Fatimid dynasty (1090-1171). After the death of the Fatimid Caliph, al- Mustansir, there was a division into the followers of one son, al-Mustali, and those of another, Nizar. The Bohras belong to the former group, while the Khojas belong to the latter. The spiritual leader of the Khojas is the Aga Khan. The outstanding reformer and modernist religious thinker of 19th century India was Sayyid Ahmad Khan. He joined the service ISLAM IN INDIA • The vast bulk of the Muslims in India (90%) are Sunnis. Less than 10% are Shias but their influence is far greater than their