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Lebanon
Index
In A.D. 610 Muhammad (later known as the Prophet), a merchant
belonging to the Hashimite branch of the ruling Quraysh tribe in
the Arabian town of Mecca, began to preach the first of a series of
revelations granted him by God through the angel Gabriel. A fervent
monotheist, Muhammad denounced the polytheism of his fellow
Meccans. Because, the town's economy was based largely on the
thriving pilgrimage business to the Kaabah shrine and numerous
polytheist religious sites located there, this vigorous censure
eventually earned him the bitter enmity of the town's leaders. In
622 he and a group of followers were invited to the town of
Yathrib, which came to be known as Medina (from Madinat an
Nabi--The Prophet's City). The move, or hijra (known in
the West as the Hegira) marks the beginning of the Islamic era and
of Islam as a force in history. The Muslim calendar, based on the
lunar year, begins in 622. In Medina, Muhammad continued to preach,
eventually defeated his detractors in battle, and consolidated both
the temporal and the spiritual leadership of all Arabia in his
person. He entered Mecca in triumph in 630.
After Muhammad's death in 632, his followers compiled those of
his words regarded as coming directly and literally from God as the
Quran, the holy scripture of Islam. His other sayings and teachings
and precedents of his personal behavior, recalled by those who had
known him during his lifetime, became the hadith. Together they
form the sunna, a comprehensive guide to the spiritual, ethical,
and social life of the orthodox Muslim. The shahada
(literally, testimony or creed) succinctly states the central
belief of Islam: "There is no god but God (Allah), and Muhammad is
the Prophet of God." This simple profession of faith is repeated on
many ritual occasions, and its recital in full and unquestioning
sincerity designates one a Muslim.
Like Judaism and Christianity, Islam is a monotheistic religion
that acknowledges the absolute sovereignty of God. Islam means
submission (to God), and one who submits is a Muslim. Muhammad is
the "seal of the prophets;" his revelation is said to complete for
all time the series of revelations received by Jews and Christians.
The duties of the Muslim form the five pillars of the faith.
These are the recitation of the creed (shahada), daily
prayer (salat), almsgiving (zakat), fasting
(sawm), and pilgrimage (haj). These religious
obligations apply to all Muslims, although there are slight
variants in the beliefs of Shias as opposed to Sunnis
(see Sunnis;
and Shias
, this ch.). The believer is to pray in a prescribed
manner after purification through ritual ablutions each day at
dawn, midday, midafternoon, sunset, and nightfall. Prescribed body
movements accompany the prayers, which the worshiper recites while
facing toward Mecca. Whenever possible, men pray in congregation at
the mosque under a prayer leader or imam and on Friday, the holy
day, are obliged to do so. In the early days of Islam, the
authorities imposed zakat as a tax on personal property
proportionate to one's wealth; this was distributed to the mosques
and to the needy. The fourth pillar occurs in the ninth month of
the Muslim calendar, Ramadan, a period of obligatory fasting
throughout the daylight hours in commemoration of Muhammad's
receipt of God's revelation, the Quran. Finally, all Muslims at
least once in their lifetime should if possible make the haj to the
holy city of Mecca to participate in special rites held there
during the twelfth month of the lunar calendar.
A Muslim stands in a personal relationship to God; there is no
clergy in orthodox Islam. Those who lead prayers, preach sermons,
and interpret the law do so by virtue of their superior knowledge
and scholarship rather than because of any special prerogative
conferred by ordination.
Sunni and Shia Muslims differ over the fundamental issue of
succession. The Prophet neither designated his successor nor
decreed how a successor should be chosen. Some members of the
Muslim community (umma) believed Muhammad's successor should be a
close blood relative of the Prophet, i.e., Ali, who was a member of
the Hashimite line, the Prophet's cousin, and the husband of
Fatima, Muhammad's sole surviving daughter. Other Muslims believed
such kinship was not a necessary prerequisite and held that the
caliph (from khalifa--successor) should be chosen by the
community. A split in the ideally egalitarian and harmonious umma
developed over this issue. The rift subsequently generated the two
major divisions of Islam: Shia, from Shiat Ali (the party of Ali),
and Sunni, from men of the Sunna and Jamaa (i.e., those who favored
a leader chosen by the community).
Data as of December 1987
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