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Sudan
Index
Sudanese Muslims are adherents of the Sunni branch of Islam,
sometimes called orthodox, by far the larger of the two major
branches; the other is Shia, which is not represented in Sudan.
Sunni Islam in Sudan is not marked by a uniform body of belief
and practice, however. Some Muslims opposed aspects of Sunni
orthodoxy, and rites having a non-Islamic origin were widespread,
being accepted as if they were integral to Islam, or sometimes
being recognized as separate. Moreover, Sunni Islam in Sudan (as
in much of Africa) has been characterized by the formation of
religious orders or brotherhoods, each of which made special
demands on its adherents.
Sunni Islam requires of the faithful five fundamental
obligations that constitute the five pillars of Islam. The first
pillar, the shahada or profession of faith is the
affirmation "There is no god but God (Allah) and Muhammad is his
prophet." It is the first step in becoming a Muslim and a
significant part of prayer. The second obligation is prayer at
five specified times of the day. The third enjoins almsgiving.
The fourth requires fasting during daylight hours in the month of
Ramadan. The fifth requires a pilgrimage to Mecca for those able
to perform it, to participate in the special rites that occur
during the twelfth month of the lunar calendar.
Most Sudanese Muslims who are born to the faith meet the
first requirement. Conformity to the second requirement is more
variable. Many males in the cities and larger towns manage to
pray five times a day--at dawn, noon, midafternoon, sundown, and
evening. Only one of these prayer times occurs during the usual
working day of an urban dweller. A cultivator or pastoralist may
find it more difficult to meet the requirements. Regular prayer
is considered the mark of a true Muslim; it is usually
accomplished individually or in small groups. Congregational
prayer takes place at the Friday mosque when Muslims (usually
men, but occasionally women separately located) gather, not only
for the noon prayer, but to hear readings and a sermon by the
local
imam (see Glossary).
Muslims fast during the ninth month of
the Muslim calendar, Ramadan, the time during which the first
revelations to Muhammad occurred. It is a period during which
most Muslims must abstain from eating, drinking, smoking, and
sexual activity during the daylight hours. The well-to-do perform
little work during this period, and many businesses close or
operate on reduced schedules. Because the months of the lunar
calendar revolve through the solar year, Ramadan occurs during
various seasons over a period of a decade or so. In the early
1990s, observance appeared to be widespread, especially in urban
areas and among sedentary Sudanese Muslims.
Historically, in the Muslim world almsgiving meant both a
special tax for the benefit of the poor and voluntary giving to
the needy, but its voluntary aspect alone survives. Alms may be
given at any time, but there are specific occasions in the
Islamic year or in the life of the donor when they are more
commonly dispensed. Gifts, whether of money or food, may be made
on such occasions as the feasts that end Ramadan and the
pilgrimage to Mecca, or in penance for some misdeed. These
offerings and others are typically distributed to poor kin and
neighbors.
The pilgrimage to Mecca is less costly and arduous for the
Sudanese than it is for many Muslims. Nevertheless, it takes time
(or money if travel is by air), and the ordinary Sudanese Muslim
has generally found it difficult to accomplish, rarely
undertaking it before middle age. Some have joined pilgrimage
societies into which members pay a small amount monthly and
choose one of their number when sufficient funds have accumulated
to send someone on the pilgrimage. A returned pilgrim is entitled
to use the honorific title hajj or hajjih for a
woman.
Another ceremony commonly observed is the great feast Id al
Adha (also known as Id al Kabir), representing the sacrifice made
during the last days of the pilgrimage. The centerpiece of the
day is the slaughter of a sheep, which is distributed to the
poor, kin, neighbors, and friends, as well as the immediate
family.
Islam imposes a standard of conduct encouraging generosity,
fairness, and honesty. Sudanese Arabs, especially those who are
wealthy, are expected by their coreligionists to be generous.
In accordance with Islamic law most Sudanese Muslims do not
eat pork or shellfish. Conformity to the prohibitions on gambling
and alcohol is less widespread. Usury is also forbidden by
Islamic law, but Islamic banks have developed other ways of
making money available to the public
(see Islamic Banking
, ch.
3).
Sunni Islam insists on observance of the sharia, which
governs not only religious activity narrowly conceived but also
daily personal and social relationships. In principle, the sharia
stems not from legislative enactment or judicial decision but
from the Quran and the hadith--the accepted sayings of Muhammad.
That principle has given rise to the conventional understanding,
advocated by Islamists, that there is no distinction between the
religious and the secular in a truly Islamic society. In Sudan
(until 1983) modern criminal and civil, including commercial, law
generally prevailed. In the north, however, the sharia, was
expected to govern what is usually called family and personal
law, i.e., matters such as marriage, divorce, and inheritance. In
the towns and in some sedentary communities sharia was accepted,
but in other sedentary communities and among nomads local custom
was likely to prevail--particularly with respect to inheritance
(see The Legal System
, ch. 4).
In September 1983, Nimeiri imposed the sharia throughout the
land, eliminating the civil and penal codes by which the country
had been governed in the twentieth century. Traditional Islamic
punishments were imposed for theft, adultery, homicide, and other
crimes. The zealousness with which these punishments were carried
out contributed to the fall of Nimeiri. Nevertheless, no
successor government, including that of Bashir, has shown
inclination to abandon the sharia.
Islam is monotheistic and insists that there can be no
intercessors between an individual and God. Nevertheless,
Sudanese Islam includes a belief in spirits as sources of illness
or other afflictions and in magical ways of dealing with them.
The imam of a mosque is a prayer leader and preacher of sermons.
He may also be a teacher and in smaller communities combines both
functions. In the latter role, he is called a faqih (pl.,
fuqaha), although a faqih need not be an imam. In
addition to teaching in the local Quranic school
(
khalwa-- see Glossary),
the fagih is expected to write texts (from
the Quran) or magical verses to be used as amulets and cures. His
blessing may be asked at births, marriages, deaths, and other
important occasions, and he may participate in wholly non-Islamic
harvest rites in some remote places. All of these functions and
capacities make the faqih the most important figure in
popular Islam. But he is not a priest. His religious authority is
based on his putative knowledge of the Quran, the sharia, and
techniques for dealing with occult threats to health and well-
being. The notion that the words of the Quran will protect
against the actions of evil spirits or the evil eye is deeply
embedded in popular Islam, and the amulets prepared by the
faqih are intended to protect their wearers against these
dangers.
In Sudan as in much of African Islam, the cult of the saint
is of considerable importance, although some Muslims would reject
it. The development of the cult is closely related to the
presence of the religious orders; many who came to be considered
saints on their deaths were founders or leaders of religious
orders who in their lifetimes were thought to have baraka,
a state of blessedness implying an indwelling spiritual power
inherent in the religious office. Baraka intensifies after
death as the deceased becomes a wali (literally friend of
God, but in this context translated as saint). The tomb and other
places associated with the saintly being become the loci of the
person's baraka, and in some views he or she becomes the
guardian spirit of the locality. The intercession of the
wali is sought on a variety of occasions, particularly by
those seeking cures or by barren women desiring children. A
saint's annual holy day is the occasion of a local festival that
may attract a large gathering.
Better-educated Muslims in Sudan may participate in prayer at
a saint's tomb but argue that prayer is directed only to God.
Many others, however, see the saint not merely as an intercessor
with and an agent of God, but also as a nearly autonomous source
of blessing and power, thereby approaching "popular" as opposed
to orthodox Islam.
Data as of June 1991
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