Those who follow the elected caliphs are “the
people of the Sunnah” (the sayings and practices of the Prophet, as collected
under the Sunni caliphs). They consider themselves traditionalists, and they
emphasize the authority of the Qur’an and the secondary authority of the Hadith. They believe
that Muhammad died without appointing a successor and left the matter of
successors to the ummah, the Muslim community. They look to the time of the first
four “rightly guided caliphs” (Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and ’Ali) as the golden
age of Islam.
| Following the death of Muhammad, a meeting took place at Saqifah.
At that meeting, Abu Bakr was elected caliph by the Muslim community.
Sunni Muslims developed the belief that the caliph is a temporal
political ruler, appointed to rule within the bounds of Islamic law
(Sharia). The job of adjudicating orthodoxy and Islamic law was left to mujtahids, legal specialists collectively called the Ulama.
Many Muslims call the first four caliphs the Rashidun, meaning the “Rightly Guided”, because they are believed to have followed the Qur’an
and the sunnah (example) of Muhammad. (wikipedia/Caliphate) |
Sunnis
regard not only the life of the Prophet but
also
the lives of the rightly guided caliphs — who had heard the revelations
of the
Prophet firsthand and been inspired by his personal example — and a few
other
close companions of the Prophet as the models for the ideal Muslim. The
line of caliphs as temporal rulers nonetheless continued until the end
of the Ottoman Empire, when Mustafa Kemal Ataturk disbanded the
institution in creating a secular state. (Living Religions, 396) |
The Shi’a feel that ’Ali was the rightful original successor
to the Prophet Muhammad. ... They feel that spiritual power was passed on to
’Ali, and that the caliphate is based on this spiritual as well as temporal
authority. ... Rather than recognize the Sunni caliphs, the Shi’a pay allegiance
to a succession of seven or twelve Imams
(leaders, guides). ... “Twelver” Shi’a believe that there were a total of twelve
Imams, legitimate hereditary successors to Muhammad. The twelfth Imam, they
believe, was commanded by God to go into an occult hidden state to continue to
guide the people and return publicly at the Day of Resurrection as the Mahdi. A
minority of the Shi’a, the Nizari Isma’ilis, recognize a different
person as the seventh Imam. This line of Imams has continued to the present forty-ninth Imam, HRH Prince Karim Aga Khan IV.
Unlike
the Sunni caliph, the Imam combines political leadership (if possible)
with continuing the transmission of Divine Guidance. This esoteric
religious knowledge was given by God to Muhammad, from him to ’Ali’s lineage. It includes both the outer and inner meanings of the Qur’an. (Living Religions, 397-8)
In 1953 in Iran, a predominantly Shi’a
country, the democratically elected government of Muhammad Mosaddegh
was overthrown by a coup reportedly planned by Great Britain and the
United States, since Mosaddegh intended to nationalize Iran’s oil production. The country was returned to the authoritarian rule of the Pahlavi Shah,
and the gap between the rich and poor grew. At the same time, the Shah
tried to rapidly modernize his country, turning it into a major
military and industrial power. In the process, he eroded the respected
authroity of the ulama, the clerics and expounders of the shari’ah.
A revolutionary leader emerged from this disempowered group, the
Ayatollah Khomeini (c. 1900-89). From his Paris exile he led mass demonstrations in Iran against the Shah, who was removed from power in
1979.
Khomeini insisted that social transformation should be linked
with spiritual reformation, with government headed by a ruler “who acts
as trustee and maintains the institutions and laws of Islam.” ... Khomeini’s
call for governmental change was not heeded. Radicals resorted to
sabotage and terrorism as their most powerful weapons, in what Khomeini
described as a great world battle between Islam and the Satanic forces
of Western imperialism and Zionism. When the radicals attacked the
American Embassy in Tehran and took hostages, the crisis with the West
reached its highest level. It also tended to turn world opinion against
Islam. In time, however, demonstrators returned to their homes, and the
government metamorphosed into a new political system with a unique
blend of theocracy and democracy. (Living Religions, 419-20)
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What are the roots of religious intolerance?
Should religions be tolerant of internal and/or external diversity?
What can we do as individuals to promote religious tolerance?
Sufi
In
addition to the two orthodox traditions within
Islam — Sunni and Shi’a — there is also an esoteric tradition, which is
said to
date back to the time of the Prophet. ... Sufis have typically
understood their way
as a corrective supplement to orthodoxy. Rather than rejecting Islamic
law, Sufism has added to and deepened adherence to the law. Sufis
consider their way a path to God that is motivated by longing for the
One. In addition to studying the Qur’an,
Sufis feel that the world is a book filled with “signs” — divine
symbols and
elements of beauty that speak to those who understand. The intense
personal
journeys of Sufis and the insights that have resulted from their
truth-seeking
have periodically refreshed Islam from within. Much of the allegorical
interpretation of the Qur’an and devotional literature of Islam is derived from Sufism. (Living Religions, 398)
Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu,
Buddhist, Sufi, or Zen. Not any religion
or cultural system. I am not from the East
or the West, not out of the ocean or up
from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not
composed of elements at all. I do not exist,
am not an entity in this world or the next,
did not descend from Adam or Eve or any
origin story. My place is placeless, a trace
of the traceless. Neither body or soul.
I belong to the beloved, have seen the two
worlds as one and that one call to and know,
first, last, outer, inner, only that
breath breathing human being.
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The
aim of Sufism is to become
so purified of self that one is a perfect mirror for the divine
attributes. The
central practice is called dhikr, or
“remembrance,” in which the Sufi recites, sings, or sometimes dances
while repeating a prayer over and over, such as the phrase “la ilaha
illa Allah.” Sufis understand this phrase in its esoteric
sense: “There is nothing
except God.” Nothing in this ephemeral world is real except the
Creator;
nothing else will last. As the seventy thousand veils of self —
illusion,
expectation, attachment, resentment, egocentrism, discontent, arrogance
— drop
away over the years, this becomes one’s truth, and only God is left to
experience it. (Living Religions, 401)
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