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Kuwait
EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF ISLAM
Islam is a system of religious beliefs and an allencompassing
way of life. Muslims believe that God (Allah) revealed to the
Prophet Muhammad the rules governing society and the proper conduct
of society's members. It is incumbent on the individual, therefore,
to live in a manner prescribed by the revealed law and incumbent
on the community to build the perfect human society on earth according
to holy injunctions. Islam recognizes no distinctions between
the religious institution and the state. The distinction between
religious and secular law is a recent development that in part
reflects the more pronounced role of the state in society and
Western economic and cultural penetration. The impact of religion
on daily life in Muslim countries is extensive, usually greater
than that found in the West.
The area that constitutes the present-day Persian Gulf states
was on the immediate periphery of the rise of Islam. In A.D. 610,
Muhammad--a merchant of the Hashimite branch of the ruling Quraysh
tribe in the Arabian town of Mecca--began to preach the first
of a series of revelations that Muslims believe was granted him
by God, some directly and some through the angel Gabriel. A fervent
monotheist, Muhammad denounced the polytheism of his fellow Meccans.
Because the town's economy was based in part on a thriving pilgrimage
business to the shrine called the Kaaba and to numerous other
pagan religious sites in the area, his censure earned him the
enmity of the town's leaders. In 622 he and a group of followers
accepted an invitation to settle in the town of Yathrib, later
known as Medina (the city), because it was the center of Muhammad's
activities. The move, or hijra (see Glossary), 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 begins in 622. In Medina,
Muhammad continued to preach, and he eventually defeated his detractors
in battle. He consolidated the temporal and the spiritual leadership
in his person before his death in 632. After Muhammad's death,
his followers compiled those of his words regarded as coming directly
from God into the Quran, the holy scripture of Islam. Others of
his sayings, recalled by those who had known him, became the hadith
(see Glossary). The precedent of Muhammad's deeds is called the
sunna. Together they form a comprehensive guide to the spiritual,
ethical, and social life of an orthodox Sunni Muslim.
The major duties of Muslims are found in the five pillars of
Islam, which set forth the acts necessary to demonstrate and reinforce
the faith. These are the recitation of the shahada ("There
is no god but God [Allah], and Muhammad is his prophet"), daily
prayer (salat), almsgiving (zakat), fasting
(sawm), and pilgrimage (hajj). The believer is to pray
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 worshiper recites while facing toward Mecca. Whenever
possible, men pray in congregation at the mosque with an imam
(see Glossary), and on Fridays they are required to do so. The
Friday noon prayers provide the occasion for weekly sermons by
religious leaders. Women may also attend public worship at the
mosque, where they are segregated from the men, although most
frequently women pray at home. A special functionary, the muezzin,
intones a call to prayer to the entire community at the appropriate
hour.
The ninth month of the Muslim calendar is Ramadan, a period of
obligatory fasting in commemoration of Muhammad's receipt of God's
revelation. Throughout the month, all but the sick and the weak,
pregnant or lactating women, soldiers on duty, travelers on necessary
journeys, and young children are enjoined from eating, drinking,
smoking, or sexual intercourse during the daylight hours. Those
adults excused are obliged to endure an equivalent fast at their
earliest opportunity. A festive meal breaks the daily fast and
inaugurates a night of feasting and celebration. The pious well-to-do
usually do little or no work during this period, and some businesses
close for all or part of the day. Because the months of the lunar
year revolve through the solar year, Ramadan falls earlier in
the solar year each successive year. A considerable test of discipline
at any time of the year, a fast that falls in summer imposes severe
hardship on those who must do physical work.
All Muslims, at least once in their lifetimes and if circumstances
permit, should make the hajj to 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 God and Abraham (Ibrahim),
founder of monotheism and father of the Arabs through his son,
Ismail.
The lesser pillars of the faith, which all Muslims share, are
jihad, or the permanent struggle for the triumph of the word of
God on earth, and the requirement to do good works and to avoid
all evil thoughts, words, and deeds. In addition, Muslims agree
on certain basic principles of faith based on the teachings of
the Prophet Muhammad: there is one God, who is a unitary divine
being in contrast to the trinitarian belief of Christians; Muhammad,
the last of a line of prophets beginning with Abraham and including
Moses and Jesus, was chosen by God to present God's message to
humanity; and there is a general resurrection on the last, or
judgment, day.
During his lifetime, Muhammad held both spiritual and temporal
leadership of the Muslim community. Religious and secular law
merged, and all Muslims have traditionally been subject to the
sharia, or religious law. A comprehensive legal system, the sharia
developed gradually through the early centuries of Islam, primarily
through the accretion of interpretations and precedents set by
various judges and scholars. During the tenth century, legal opinion
began to harden into authoritative rulings, and the figurative
bab al ijtihad (gate of interpretation) closed. Thereafter,
rather than encouraging flexibility, Islamic law emphasized maintenance
of the status quo.
After Muhammad's death, the leaders of the Muslim community consensually
chose Abu Bakr, the Prophet's father-in-law and one of his earliest
followers, to succeed him. At that time, some persons favored
Ali ibn Abu Talib, Muhammad's cousin and the husband of his daughter,
Fatima, but Ali and his supporters (the Shiat Ali, or Party of
Ali) eventually recognized the community's choice. The next two
caliphs (successors)--Umar, who succeeded in 634, and Uthman,
who took power in 644--enjoyed the recognition of the entire community.
When Ali finally succeeded to the caliphate in 656, Muawiyah,
governor of Syria, rebelled in the name of his murdered kinsman,
Uthman. After the ensuing civil war, Ali moved his capital to
Iraq, where he was murdered shortly thereafter.
Ali's death ended the last of the so-called four orthodox caliphates
and the period in which the entire community of Islam recognized
a single caliph. Muawiyah proclaimed himself caliph from Damascus.
The Shiat Ali refused to recognize him or his line, the Umayyad
caliphs, and withdrew in the great schism of Islam to establish
the dissident sect, known as the Shia, who supported the claims
of Ali's line to the caliphate based on descent from the Prophet.
The larger faction, the Sunnis, adhered to the position that the
caliph must be elected, and over the centuries they have represented
themselves as the orthodox branch.
Data as of January 1993
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