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Egypt Islam
In 610 Muhammad (later known as the Prophet), a merchant
member of the Hashimite branch of the Quraysh clan that ruled the
Arabian town of Mecca, began to preach the first of a series of
revelations that Muslims believe were given him by God through
the angel Gabriel. A fervent monotheist, Muhammad denounced the
polytheism of his fellow Meccans. His vigorous and continuing
censure earned him the bitter enmity of Mecca's leaders, who
feared the impact of Muhammad's ideas on Mecca's thriving
business based on pilgrimages to numerous pagan religious sites.
In 622 Muhammad and a group of followers left for the town of
Yathrib, which became known as Medina (the city). Their move, or
hijra (Hegira), marks the beginning of the Muslim
calendar, which is based on the lunar year and is several days
shorter than the solar year. Muhammad continued to preach in
Medina, defeated his detractors in Mecca in battle, and
consolidated both temporal and spiritual leadership of all Arabia
by 632, the year of his death.
Muhammad's followers compiled the Quran (also seen as Koran),
a book containing the words that had come directly to the prophet
from God. The Quran serves as the holy scriptures of Islam.
Muhammad's sayings and teachings were compiled separately and
referred to as the hadith. The Quran and the hadith
form the sunna, a comprehensive guide to the spiritual, ethical,
and social life of the orthodox Sunni Muslim.
The shahada (profession of faith) succinctly states
the central belief of Islam: "There is no god but God (Allah),
and Muhammad is His Prophet." Muslims repeat this profession of
faith during many rituals. Reciting the phrase with unquestioning
sincerity designates one a Muslim. The God about whom Muhammad
preached was known to Christians and Jews living in Arabia at the
time. Most Arabs, however, worshipped many gods and spirits whose
existence was denied by Muhammad. Muhammad urged the people to
worship the monotheistic God as the omnipotent and unique
creator. Muhammad explained that his God was omnipresent and
invisible. Therefore, representing God through symbols would have
been a sin. Muhammad said God determined world events, and
resisting God would have been futile and sinful.
Islam means submission (to God). One who submits is a Muslim.
Muslims believe that Muhammad is the "seal of the prophets" and
that his revelations complete the series of biblical revelations
received by Jews and Christians. They also believe that God is
one and the same throughout time, but his true teachings had been
forgotten until Muhammad arrived. Muslims recognized biblical
prophets and sages such as Abraham, Moses, and Jesus (known in
Arabic as Ibrahim, Musa, and Isa, respectively) as inspired
vehicles of God's will. Islam, however, reveres only their
messages as sacred. Islam rejects the Christian belief that Jesus
is the son of God. Islam accepts the concepts of guardian angels,
the Day of Judgment (or the last day), general resurrection,
heaven and hell, and eternal life of the soul.
The duties of the Muslim form the five pillars of the faith.
These are the recitation of the shahada; daily prayer
(salat); almsgiving (zakat); fasting (sawm);
and hajj, or pilgrimage. The believer prays in a prescribed
manner after purification through ritual ablutions each day at
dawn, midday, midafternoon, sunset, and nightfall. Prescribed
genuflections and prostrations accompany the prayers, which the
worshipper recites facing Mecca. Whenever possible men pray in
congregation at the mosque with an
imam (see Glossary), or prayer
leader. On Fridays corporate prayer is obligatory. The Friday
noon prayers provide the occasion for weekly sermons by religious
leaders. Women may also attend public worship at the mosque, but
they are segregated from the men. Most women who pray, however,
do it at home. A special functionary, the muezzin, intones a call
to prayer to the entire community at the appropriate hour; people
in outlying areas determine the proper time from the sun. Public
prayer is a conspicuous and widely practiced aspect of Islam in
Egypt.
Early Islamic authorities imposed a tax on personal property
proportionate to one's wealth and distributed the revenues to the
mosques and to the needy. In addition, many believers made
voluntary donations. Although almsgiving is still a duty of the
believer, it is no longer enforced by the state and has become a
more private matter. Many properties contributed by pious
individuals to support religious and charitable activities or
institutions were traditionally administered as inalienable
waqfs.
Ramadan, the ninth month of the Muslim calendar, is a period
of obligatory fasting in commemoration of Muhammad's receipt of
God's revelation, the Quran. Throughout the month, everyone
except the sick, the weak, pregnant or nursing women, soldiers on
duty, travelers on necessary journeys, and young children are
enjoined from eating and drinking during daylight hours. Adults
excused from the fasting are obliged to observe an equivalent
fast at their earliest opportunity. A meal breaks each daily fast
and inaugurates a night of feasting and celebration. Wealthy
individuals usually do little work for all or part of the day.
Because the months of the lunar calendar are shorter than the
months of the solar year, Ramadan falls at different times each
year. For example, when Ramadan occurs in summer, it imposes
special hardship on farmers who do heavy physical labor in the
fields in the daytime.
At least once in their lifetimes, all Muslims who are
financially and physically capable are expected to make a
pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca to participate in special
rites held there during the twelfth month of the lunar calendar.
Muhammad instituted this requirement, modifying pre-Islamic
custom, to emphasize sites associated with Allah and Abraham,
whom Arabs believe founded monotheism and is the ancestor of
Arabs through his son Ishmael (Ismail). More than 20,000
Egyptians made pilgrimages to Mecca each year in the late 1980s.
Traditionally the departure of Egypt's pilgrims climaxed in the
ceremony of mahmal, during which the national gift of
carpets and shrouds for the Kaaba shrine and the tomb of Muhammad
at Medina were presented. The pilgrims would later deliver the
gifts.
Once in Mecca, pilgrims, dressed in the white, seamless
ihram, refrain from activities considered unclean.
Highlights of the pilgrimage include kissing the sacred black
stone; circumambulating the Kaaba, the sacred structure reputedly
built by Abraham that houses the stone; running seven times
between the hills of As Safa and Al Marwa in reenactment of
Hagar's desperate search for water after Abraham had cast her and
her son Ismail out into the desert; and standing in prayer on
Mount Arafat. Id al Adha, a major Islamic festival celebrated
worldwide, marks the end of the hajj. Each family, if it has the
financial means, slaughters a lamb on Id al Adha to commemorate
an ancient Arab sacrificial custom. The returning pilgrim is
accorded the honorific hajj or hajji before his or
her name.
Data as of December 1990
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