DIVERSITY IN ISLAM

Presented by
Michael G. Knapp
17 February 2004
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The Language of Islam

BISMILLAH AL-RAHMAN AL-RAHIM
(the Basmallah: In the name of God, the merciful, the
compassionate)

AS SALAAMU ALEIKUM
(Peace be unto you)

WA ALEIKUM AS SALAAM
(And unto you the peace)

ASHAHADU AN LA ILAHA ILL ALLAH WA

ASHAHADU ANNA MUHAMMADAR RASUL
ALLAH
(the Shahada: I declare there is no god except God, and I
declare that Muhammad is the Messenger of God)
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A Diverse Faith
Second-largest faith worldwide (one-fifth of mankind) and
fastest growing, but still misunderstood in the West
Most Muslims (80%) live outside the Arab world, with
many in Southeast and South Asia, Africa
Two main branches, but divisions within each; also
includes mystics, opposition movements, reformers,
modernists and fundamentalists
Has small proportion of extremists, but most Muslims
disagree with violence, intolerance toward others
Not monolithic: many Muslim interpretations of Islam, in
spite of its commonalities
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Common Beliefs & Practices

Five pillars (personal rituals):
- Shahada (testimony of faith)
- Salat (prayer, five times daily)
- Zakat (charity; annual religious payment to needy)
- Saum (fasting during the month of Ramadan)
- Hajj (once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca)
Three duties (communal):
- Jihad (primarily individual, spiritual struggle to lead
a good life; secondarily communal defense of faith)
- Dawah (spreading the faith to others)
- Encouraging good and forbidding evil

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Beliefs and Practices (2)

Seven beliefs:
- Oneness of God (tawhid): He has no partners or
son, and is all-powerful, all-seeing and all-knowing
- Angels: intelligent robots made of light energy who
can assume physical form to carry out Gods will
-- 4 top: Gabriel (brings revelations), Azrail (angel
of death), Michael (controls the weather), and Israfil
(blows the horn signaling the end of the universe)
-- Each person has two angels, one at each
shoulder, to record good and bad deeds
-- Also jinn unseen spirits made of smoke who
cause mischief
- Revealed books of God: all have been changed or
corrupted except for the Quran (Koran)

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Beliefs and Practices (3)

Prophets: Many have been sent by God to all
peoples, but their teachings have mostly been
ignored by other faiths; Muhammad is the last and
greatest of these prophets
Day of Judgment: God tests us in our beliefs and
actions, and all our good and bad deeds are recorded
through life; we are confronted with this book on the
Last Day, when witnesses are called and we must
repay all injustices to others
Divine measurement: On the Last Day, we are held
accountable as our good and bad deeds are weighed
against each other; finally the verdict is given and our
souls are sent to heaven or hell
There is life after death
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Islams Two Branches

SUNNI:
85-90% of Muslims
Leadership by consensus (of
Muhammads followers)
No organized clergy; authority from below to above
Literal interpretation of the
Quran (apparent meaning)
Majority status throughout
duration of the caliphate

SHIITE (SHIA):
10-15% of Muslims
Leaders only descended
from family of Muhammad
Authoritarian: guidance from
Imams (above) to below
Leadership determines
(hidden) meaning of Quran
Oppressed, tragic minority:
greater emphasis on
martyrdom, and use of
dissimulation (taqiyyah)

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The Great Split

Resulted partly from pre-Islamic tribal customs: age and
wisdom respected, leaders chosen by shura
Muhammad died in 632 A.D. without a male heir or a
designated successor
Abu Bakrs selection as first caliph by Prophets small inner
circle went against tribal consensus, alienated Alis followers
Uthmans selection as third caliph after Umar reflected ongoing
Mecca-Medina tribal rivalry
Ali eventually becomes fourth (and last rightly-guided) caliph,
but challenged by Muawiyah and assassinated by Kharijites
Death of Ali and his son Hasan leads to transfer of caliphate to
Damascus, start of first Muslim dynasty (Umayyads)
Tragedy of Yazids massacre of Alis son Husayn at Karbala in
680 A.D. marks beginning of Shiism as a religio-political
movement

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Divisions Within Sunnism

Four schools of Islamic law (madhhab):
Hanafi: oldest, most liberal and flexible of the schools; founded in Iraq;
introduced legal opinion based on analogy (qiyas); concentrates more
on juridical opinion and less on tradition; its 400 million adherents are
concentrated in Central/South/Southeast Asia and Turkey
Maliki: founded in Medina; produced the first law manual; focuses on
ahadith and emphasizes living legal tradition; its 50 million followers
located mainly in North and West Africa, Persian Gulf, Upper Egypt
Shafii: founded in Iraq, this school concentrates on the scientific
interpretation of law; defined community consensus (ijma) as the
strongest of the four roots of law, since it determines how other three
are used; 100 million adherents are in the Levant, SE Asia, E. Africa
Hanbali: smallest and strictest, most conservative of the four schools;
rejects consensus and only follows the Quran and tradition; basis of
reforms by Ibn Taymiyya and Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, and still
influences Salafis and radical Islamist movements today; its 12 million
followers are the Wahhabis of Saudi Arabia and Qatar

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Divisions Within Shiism

Differences over hereditary succession of Imams:
Zaydis (Fivers): differed with most Shia in that any descendant of Ali
could become imam, not just descendants of Ali by Fatimah (Prophets
daughter); named for Zayd bin Ali, grandson of Husayn; closest to
Sunnis since they do not regard their imams as more than human
Ismaelis (Seveners): recognize an unbroken chain of imams down to
present, but focus adoration on seventh in the line, Ismail (not
recognized by majority as an imam); early Ismaelis were revolutionaries
who attacked, assassinated Sunni political and religious leaders
Druze (Unitarians): offshoot from Ismaelis centered on the Fatimid
caliph al-Hakim, who believed he was a divine incarnation and cosmic
intellect; followers believe al-Hakim went into seclusion to test their
faith, return to restore justice in the world; have own scripture and law
Ithna-Asharis (Twelvers or Imamis): Majority of Shiite community,
believe that imamate succession ended in 874 A.D. when 12th Imam
went into seclusion; he will return as a messianic figure (the Mahdi) at
the end of the world to restore the Shiite community to its rightful place,
usher in a perfect Islamic society where truth and justice prevail

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Sufis the Mystics of Islam

Not a sect, but a spiritual orientation in both branches
Adherents are introspective, gentle, highly spiritual people who
seek to attain inner ecstasy, self-enlightenment, and emulate
the Prophets own example of frugality and self-discipline
Arose in opposition to social trends in the early expanding
Muslim empire such as opulence, overindulgence in worldly
pleasures, excessive emphasis on legalism, and pageantry
Faith in God experienced through meditation, chanting, selfless
love for others, self-denial, and pilgrimage to shrines of past Sufi
masters
Were not respected by many traditional ulema (Islamic
scholars), and reformers such as Wahhabis/Salafis still consider
them to be outside the Muslim faith

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Other Opposition Movements

Kharijites (Seceders):
- resulted from Alis submission to arbitration with rebellious
governor Muawiyah
- first radical dissenters and extremists: exclusivist view that
any deviation from Islamic principles rendered a person a nonMuslim (apostate) subject to excommunication (takfir), warfare
and death if no repentence
- divided the world neatly into realms of belief and unbelief
- combined puritanism and religious fundamentalism in literal
interpretation of the Quran and hadith
- separated themselves (hijra) then conducted revolts and
guerilla warfare against the early Islamic caliphates

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Opposition Movements (2)

Mutazilites (Moderate withdrawers):
- established middle position between Kharijites and feuding
companions of the Prophet: a sinning Muslim was merely a
hypocrite, not an apostate
- blended Greek philosophy and logical argumentation with
traditional Islamic learning; introduced theological science of
kalam (didactic discourse) that helped to explain issues such as
faith vs. reason, Gods power vs. mankinds freedom of action
- strict, militant movement which sought to force its beliefs on
other Muslims; even instigated an inquisition in Iraq where they
tortured and executed Muslim religious experts and jurists who
didnt agree with their views
- finally defeated and declared heretical during the Abbasid
caliphate

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Opposition Movements (3)

Ahmadiya:
- messianic movement founded in British India in
1889 by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
- core belief is prophetology, which postulates an
uninterrupted succession of non-legislative prophets
following Muhammad
- Ahmad claimed both messianic and prophetic
status
- has aroused the fierce opposition of Sunni
Muslims, especially in Pakistan and India

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Reform Movements in Islam

Islah (reform): Quranic concept of a return to the fundamentals
of Islam, and reform preached by the prophets to warn their
sinful communities to return to Gods path by living within sharia
norms
Tajdid (renewal): Hadith that states that God will send a renewer
(mujaddid) at the beginning of each century to restore true
Islamic practice, regenerate the ummah (which strays off the
path over time)
Key features of renewal:
- removal of foreign (un-Islamic) historical accretions or
unwarranted innovations (bidah) that have corrupted the
community; and
- critique of established institutions, especially the religious
establishments interpretations of Islam
Goal was not to accommodate new ideas, but to get back to or
re-appropriate the unique and complete vision of Islam from its
revealed sources

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Reform Movements (2)

Revivalism not an attempt to reestablish the early community in
a literal sense, but to reapply the Quran and hadith more
rigorously to existing conditions
Prominent renewers/revivalists such as Ibn Taymiyya and Abd
al-Wahhab claimed the right to act as mujtahids to reinterpret
Islam to purify and revitalize their societies
Wahhabism (Muwahiddun, or Unitarians):
- compared Islamic community of the 18th century to pre-Islamic
Arabia: appalled by newer form of jahiliyya, and pagan
superstitions such as Sufi veneration of saints
- political weakness of the community and its moral decline
were due to deviation from the straight path; must repeat Islams
first reformation
- destroyed sacred tombs, including those of the Prophet and
his companions in Mecca and Medina, Husayns at Karbala

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Islamic Modernism
Response to threats from European colonialism in late 19th, early
20th centuries
Consisted of legal, educational and social reforms aimed at
rescuing Muslim societies from their decline and demonstrating
the compatibility of Islam with modern Western thoughts and
values
Used by Muslim governments to justify unpopular and
misunderstood reform measures
Reactions to this Westernizing of Islam led to the formation of
modern Islamist organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood
(Middle East) and Jamaat-i-Islami (Pakistan)
Catalyst for modern Islamic reform: Jamal al-Din al-Afghani
- traveled throughout the Muslim world calling for internal reform
to defend, strengthen Islam and drive out the West
- Muslims required to reclaim reason, science and technology to
reassert Islamic identity and solidarity

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Islamic Modernism (2)

Muhammad Abduh and Rashid Rida:
- great synthesizers of modern Islam, built on Afghanis efforts
- religion, reason and science are complementary; Islams decline due
to un-Islamic religious practices, spread of Sufi passivity and fatalism,
rigid views of scholars
- regulations governing worship are immutable, but regulations on
social affairs are open to change
- true Islamic governments are required to implement Islamic law, panIslamic unity needed to restore the caliphate
- shifted position of the Salafiyya movement to more critical of the
West: its secular nationalism and capitalist exploitation are political
and religious threats
Muhammad Iqbal:
- Muslims must return to the past for principles and values that can be
used to construct a modern Islamic society
- nationalism is a tool used by the colonialists to dismember the Islamic
world; the trans-national Muslim community needs pan-Islamism
tempered by political realism to unify against such threats

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Rise of the Fundamentalists

Original thinkers build on the ideas of Ibn Taymiyya and Abd alWahhab (1920s-1960s): Abul ala Mawdudi, Hasan al-Banna,
and Sayyid Qutb
Charismatic publicists apply, expand on and redirect earlier
radical Islamist thought (1980s to present): Muhammad abd alSalam Faraj, Abdullah Azzam, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and Osama
bin Laden
Instigating events 1979 was a key year:
- Iranian revolution brings Khomeinis militant theocracy to
power, gives hope to Shia and Sunni Islamists everywhere
- Soviet invasion of Afghanistan ignites regional jihad and plants
the seeds for its global expansion
Dispersion of mujahidin, durability of madrassas, and
widespread receptivity to radicals distortions of the faith will
ensure that anti-Western intolerance and violence continue

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What Can We Do?

Encourage reform efforts of friendly Muslim
governments apply commitment, resources to help
solve enduring problems
Approach all players in the Middle East (and South
Asia) in a more balanced and fair way
Realize that what we do is more important than what
we say, and that we are being carefully and constantly
scrutinized
Attempt to better understand Islams cultures and the
variety in its religious beliefs and practices
Realize that Islam (like Judaism and Christianity) is
not monolithic, and that most Muslims are not
extremists

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