ISLAMISM

In view of the present inquiries about Islamic teachings following the New York and Washington suicidal bombings, herewith is an article and in-depth study by Reverend Nichola Turich, professor of History of Religions in the University of Rome, with additional comments of Msgr. Pietro Palazzini, Secretary of the Sacred Congregation of the Council. This article forms part of the book Dictionary of Moral Theology compiled under the direction of Francesco Cardinal Roberti prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signature and edited under the direction of Monsignor Pietro Palazzini, Secretary of the Sacred Congregation of the Council. This is a translation from the second Italian edition under the direction of Henry J. Yannone, S.T.L. The second Italian edition is entitled Dizionario de Teologia Morale published in 1957 by Editrice Studium, Rome, Italy. If it is true thet "ideas rule the world" (ideae regunt mundum B B an expression of ancient Rome), we must have open discussion about the different ideas underlying present conflicts where even religious teachings become mixed-up, lest the admittance of error will make to ensure the continuity of chaos and violence. As St. Paul suggested: "Do not stifle the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test everything: retain what is good. Avoid any semblance of evil". (1 Thes. 5:19). "The devil is a murderer and the father of lies" (Jn. 8:44). We must help one another discover the "truth in love and grow to the full maturity of Christ the head" (Eph. 5:15). "It is the truth that will set you free" (Jn. 8:32).

Bp. Patricio H. Alo, D.D.

ISLAMISM was the religion preached by Mohammed to the tribes of Arabia. Due to the lack of direct sources of information, little is known of the Arabian religion before the preaching of Mohammed. Information gathered by Moslem historical research on inscriptions and scattered references in Christian writings indicates that previous Arab beliefs retained characteristics proper to other Semitic religions: an animistic foundation, in which spirits (ginn) are attributed to sacred trees, fountains and stones; and a naturalistic element, particularly found in worship of the sun, moon and stars. The act of cult consisted bloody sacrifice, offered on special occasions, and the consecration of young male children to the divinity of cutting of hair. This sacrifice was offered on sacred stones, as indicated by discovery of these stones in desert.

Islamism (islam-abandonment in Allah) was a monotheistic reform movement against the polytheism of the Arab tribes, it was centered at Mecca, in the holy sanctuary called Kaaba. This sanctuary held the sacred images set in a cubic stone.

The Islamic movement was initiated by Mohammed who possessed all the necessary qualifications for success. He was representative of the redemption of Arabia; his name (hamada B B to glorify) signified the glorified one. His private life is relatively unknown, save for his marriage to Khadigia, to whom he was a faithful husband. He began his mission at a mature age. Believing himself inspired to carry out his mission, he beagn by proclaiming himself the executor of a superior will. Apart from ethnic elements, stemming from his race and circumstances, his preaching was based on a Christian doctrine of Monophysite and Nestorian extraction, which at the time flourished in the monasteries on the boundaries of the Arabian territory. He also borrowed from the doctrine of Judaism, prevalent in sections of Arabia.

Mohammed first preached reform to the tribe called Corescites; he affirmed the unity of God against the multiplicity of gods adored in the Kaaba; he called for greater charity and justice to heal the economic and social imbalance in Arabia. These Corescites, at first, ridiculed and ignored the prophet; later, as his success and fervor met with enthusiam, they proceeded to persecute him. He fled to lathrib, which was then called "the town of the prophet" (Madinat al-Nabi, Medina).

Mohammed met with success in destroying the idols of the sanctuary and engaged in subjugating those tribes beyond the borders of Arabia by conquering the neighboring countries in battles at Honian, Taif and Tebuk, which was subject to Heracleus, the Emperor of the East.

Triumph for the new movement was assured because of the coordinationof an innate power within the Islamic organization, for Islam repaired the major defects of the Arab society; it established a rough but firm political organization, that was created by a strong military system; it introduced a sense of discipline, thereby turning anarchical tendencies among the Arabs to a respect for law and obedience to an executive power invested with authority beyond individual whim.

In the year 631 A.D., Mohammed made his last pilgrimage to Mecca, and died the following year in Medina, where his remains laid to rest.

Successors of Mohammed. Since Mohammed died without male descendants, the question of a successor became a lively issue, upon which rested the fate of the Moslem movement. Four caliphs (khalifa B B successor, vicar), who succeeded Mohammed, where extremely orthodox and patriarchical. These were Abu Bake, Omar, Othmann, Ali, who was Mohammed's son-in-law.

With the death of Ali, the era of patriarchical Islamism ended. This era was characterized by an elected succession in accordance with ancient Arab custom, a simple and austere life by the caliphs, and a certain degree of democracy.

Noawiyn, Ali= = s successor, who left Medina and took up residence at Damascus, turned the fortunes of Islam from religious to political ambitions. By conquest, Islamism spread to Syria, Persia, Turkestan, Egypt and the Northern Coast of Africa; from there it swept into Spain, where it was eradicated finally after a bitter strugglemade famous in Spanish literature. It also spread in Western Asia, China and Europe through the efforts of the Abbasids and Ottomans.

KORAN. The Koran (Al Quran B B reading, meditation) is the main Islamic books, containing the religious, moral and social Islamic legislation. It consists of 144 chapters, divided into a number of versicles, which represent the revelations that Mohammed allegedly received from God through the angel Gabriel. The first was received at night on Mount Hira; the last in Medina. In these the prophet summarizes the maxims of his religion and exhorts his followers to remain faithful to their commitment.

The language of the Koran is the finest in the Arabic tongue, but the style, in its inspired vein, departs from the poetical language proper to the Arabs. Mohammed wished his language to differ from the poets because they spoke under the inspiration of the demons, whereas he spoke under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

Coherence is not to be expected in a book compiled chapter by chapter according to the various conditions prevailing in the Islmanic community. For this reason, Arab exegetes, faced with the impossibilty of reconciling the irreconcilable, have with pious ingenuity stated that in the Koran some verses, which they term abrogating, cancel out others, called abrogated, and in the third category, called dubious, no positive conclusions can be drawn.

Besides the holy book, the Hadith or tradition, which was written down after the number of followers dwindled, contained the authentic interpretations, which were said to have been provided by the companions of the prophet to new or dubious cases arising from the practice of the Moslem religion. "Companions are all those men and women who came into contact with the prophet, and whose testimony, therefore, deals woth the more particular facts of Mohammed= = s intimate life. The guarantee of authencity for this tradition is given the isnad (chain of testimonies), allegedly the chronological list of all persons who transmitted the tradition orally , until it was into writing.

This whole body of doctrines, developed in the Islamic theological schools, constitutes the Sunnite confession to which the Mohammedans of European and Asiatic Turkey, Arabia, Africa, Russia, Ceylon and the Malayan Archipelago adhere.

ISLAMIC DOCTRINE. The foundation of the Moslem doctrine is well stated in sura 112: "Thous shalt say: Allah is the only God, the God to whom all have recourse. He did not generate anyone nor was he generated; no one is like unto him." This dogma of rigorous unity in God, to the exclusion of any Trinity or Incarnation, which he considered poltheistic (Kor.V, 76-77), is a fulcrum of the whole Islamic doctrine. For this reason Mohammed opposed the Arab polytheism concentrated in the Kaaba. A simplicity of content was certainly the principal intellectual reason for the success of Islamism. In Mohammed= = s preaching, in which one finds both Christian and Jewish elements, Allah has the same attribute as the God of the Jews and the Christians: omnipotent, omniscience, justice, a creative and conserving providence. Allah communicates with mankind, not directly, but through his envoys, either invested with a special mission or as a prophet, suxh as Abraham, Moses, Jesus, or Mohammed, the main prophet of the present time.

Some Moslem sects arose in opposition to the universalistic expansion of Caliph domination. It suffices to name the Khangites, who tend to a patriarchical life of a distinctly Arab tinge; the Ismaelites, an important branch of Schiism, imbued with Neo-Platonic doctrines and preaching the second appearance of Allah to mankind; the Carmathians, who tried to translate into practical, revolutionary form the aspirations of the Ismaelites, the Druses, a branch of the Carmathians, foud in a few remote locales in Lebanon; the Nospites, representatives of the remnants of the old Surian paganism with some Christian and Moslem elements; the Sufites, who express the mystic current of Islamism and are found particularly in Persia, where the melancholy feeling of national decadence led many to embrace a more austere ideal; and Babiism or Bahaism, which arose in the nineteenth century to elevate a religiously decadent Persian Islamism.

The Mohammedan place of prayer is the mosque (mesgid - kneeling place); it contains a mihrale, which shows the direction of Mecca, toward each Mohammedan must face in prayer. The mosque must have a minaret or tower, which summons the faithful to ritual prayer with its bells.

There is no priesthood in Mohammedan beliefs; the Iman or presiding officer, in charge of the religious functions, represents the Caliph. He wears no special vestment or costume.

Moslem follow the lunar calender. All feast days begins at night; since the Mohammedans, adopting Jewish beliefs, consider the new day to begin at sundown. Their principal feasts are seven: (1) the prophet's conception; (2) his birth; (3) his ascension; (4) the feasts day of the diploma, on which the angels fixed the day of his death (5) the destiny; (6 and 7) the nights preceding the Great and Little Bayram. The Little Bayram is a feast at the end of the fast of Ramadan; the Great Bayram is a feast at the time of the solemn pilgrimage to Mecca. Each Mohammedan celebrates this feast in his own house with a sense of spiritual union with the actual pilgrims.

MORAL DOCTRINE. The basic moral prescriptions are five in number: (1) prayer, which the Koran exemplifies and stresses as necessary; (2) fasting or the abstention from eating, drinking or smoking throughout the entire day during the period of the year (Ramadan), for those who have reached the age of puberty; (3) tithing, which is two-fold obligation _ Zakat or purification, corresponding roughly to the notion of a tenth part of income, and sadaga or a voluntary offering; (4) pilgrimage to Mecca, by each Mohammedan once in his life, which can be fulfilled by a substitute if he is prevented from making a pilgrimage; (5) holy war, in which one dies as a martyr and enters paradise at once, if he defends his religion.

SCHISMS. The division of the religion of Mohammed into two main sects, Sunnite and Shiite, was a natural result of the characteristics of the religion itself and due to its two main geographical centers, Medina and Mecca. Medina, the center of the early followers who freely accepted the reform of the prophet, was far from Mecca, the center of those forced into conversion through the successes of the prophet. This tended to make Islamism a religious and political force, which subordinated the true religious advantages of the Moslem doctrine to the powers of each group.

The Shiites represented the Medina legitimism, which they spread throughout the East especially in India. Some followers exist today in the Hegiaz and Egypt. They reject the Sunnah, but respect the Koran, which, however they interpret it differently. Shiites have practically deified Ali, to whose tomb they make a pilgrimage. A Shiite is not permitted to make a pilgrimage to Mecca, for Mohammed is considered an infidel. Because of its Persian characteristics, Shiism is more accessible to rationalistic influences and covers with an amiable smile of mystical toleration the deepest expression of irreligion. Shiism continues to exist for political reason in general.

The holy day of the week is Friday, perhaps in remembrance of the ancient cult to the planet Venus, for, on that day, the Caliph used to say his ritual prayer in the mosque.

There is no obligation to community prayer except on Friday, but, since assembly prayer is twenty five times more valuable than individual prayer, it is always advisable to pray together. In assembly prayer, following the example of their leader in the prayer, all repeat the movements he directs.

Mohammed determined in a specific form the more vague doctrines of ancient Arabia concerning the destiny of the soul after death, by borrowing, it seems, from Christian and Hebrew sources. Mohammed was absolutely convinced of the final resurrection, when at the end of the world men will be scattered like butterflies and the mountains will fly about like locks of wool, and God will judge mankind by weighing each man's deeds on the scale of His justice. If the outcome of this judgment is favorable, the good Mohammedan will pass over the bridge of Siath, cross the abyss, and enter into paradise, which resembles a garden of delights of the senses and the spirit, and is located at the right hand of Allah. The infidel and evil Mohammedan will be cast down from the bridge into the abyss of hell to remain for a limited time, if he is Mohammedan, or forever, if he is not.

Today Islamism is affected by a modernistic current, both in India and Egypt. This modernism reached its heights in Turkey under Kemal Pascha (Ataturk), who suppressed the caliphate and laicized the State. It also tends to adopt Moslemism to modern requirements and seeks a return to the simple faith of earlier days, through a downgrading of subsequent theological developments, such as the salifiyyah and noewahabita movements. (Rev. Nichola Turchi)

COMMENTS. The religion of the Koran is a religion of dogma and precepts; these exist without a trace of supernatural; the mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation are completely denied. In its substitution of monotheism for polytheism, it was religious progress for mankind; it also supplanted Persian magic and African fetishism. It further borrowed many elements of good from Christianity, yet its incongruities, defects and errors destroy, in the negative sense, whatever positive good Islamism might accomplish.

Islamic monotheism is too rigid; God, a despot and a father, distributes rewards and punishment capriciously. He treats men as slaves.

The Shiites and philosophers attempted a mitigation of the fatalism of the Koran, but failed. The beatitude of the elect, instead of the state of happiness of children sharing the joy of the Father, is a liberation of slavery and a coarse appeasement of the senses, which philosophers have in vain attempted to allegorize.

The Ramadan is a parody of fasting and mortification, instead of an ascetic exercise; restrictions are limited to daytime alone. Virginity is not valued at all, but is considered an offense against nature. Conjugal chastity is shattered by polygamy and divorce. So great a liberty granted to the Moslem man brought about the degradation of the Moslem woman; the physical and intellectual torpor of the Moslem people and its conquered States was due in great part to the fatalism and sensuality of Islamic doctrines. (Msgr. Pietro Palazzini)