Dr. Warren Larson Lecture: Comparing Folk and Ideal Islam
Dr. Warren Larson delivered a lecture on Comparing Folk and Ideal Islam during a CIU course. Here, Larson presents the difference between Folk (Popular) and Ideal Islam and some of its characters.
Here starts the auto-generated transcription of Dr. Warren Larson Lecture: Comparing Folk and Ideal Islam:
In lecture number 3, we’re going to be doing more comparisons. You know, we said that there are comparisons between ideal and folk, and then there are differences in how they look at things like God, Satan, the Quran, and all those kind of things. Those are some of some of the differences, so that’s the point of this lecture, comparisons, between folk and formal. That’s what we’re doing this time. High religion is defined like this.
Well, first of all, let’s just look at this. Muslims often present Islam as a religion of principle, and admittedly there is some truth in that. They want to present it as modesty, monotheism, devotion to God, lofty ideals, education, free choice, fasting, piety, and human rights. I think of, someone I just heard about just recently, an imam in Atlanta and arranging a marriage with someone here in Columbia, and very strict as far as the modesty. In other words, his daughter’s rather his son is gonna marry some Muslim woman up here, and extremely strict on modesty.
You know, that’s how they want to come across as we are much more modest than you are, and in a sense, that’s true. They are. And, of course, monotheism, one god stuff, and and devotion to god. It’s it’s all, you know, very pious stuff, lofty ideals, and and all of this kind of stuff. Some Muslims, particularly Muslims who have a chance, are highly educated, and they emphasize education, very sincere, devoted to fasting and piety and all those kind of things.
That’s what we call high religion, but it’s not the end of it. Low religion, is a folk Islam is a catchall for mixing formal, orthodox with animistic practices. And high or ideal Islam is like a shopping mall, where everything is neat, organized, clearly marked. Just think of of our shopping malls. Some of them are more organized than others.
Others don’t seem to be as as as organized, but, nevertheless, that’s high Islam. It’s like a a very neat shopping mall where everything is clear. In folk Islam or popular Islam, it’s like an open market and many of you have been in those kind of things. You’ve seen, that kind of a deal. The streets are crooked and everything is fluid and free flowing, bargaining for this and that and the other thing, and there isn’t seem to be much planning.
The power of Islam may not be in its dogma or even its opposition to the trinity, though that is very clear. But in the oak cult, the headaches, the love potions, the curses, the procession cults, So, that’s something to think about, isn’t it? Because, Islam is into those kind of things. Now let’s be careful and not just accuse Muslims of this kind of thing. I was recently reading of how witches or those suspected to be witches are treated in parts of Africa.
This, in particular, case was Congo, where Christians included are very much into accusing people of being witches, even a child, and so that child may be tortured, because, it’s a they’re afraid that this little person this one is a a witch. Well, Muslims are into this kind of thing as well, and, into love potions, curses, possession cults, very much. Procession cults will be talking about the czar along the Nile later on. But a little bit more on on low religions. Zwemer, back to him.
We’ll be quoting him, talking about him quite a bit in the course. We always do. While Muslims, that’s the way they used to talk about Muslims, they spelled it o m o s l e m s, Muslims, and in some circles, they still do, while Muslims profess to believe in one god and they repeat his glorious incommunicable attributes in their daily worship. They everywhere permit this glorious doctrine to be buried under a mass of pagan superstitions? Borrowed?
Question mark. I’m not sure where they borrow it from, but, he says, from demon worship of the Arabs, Hindu gods, or animistic practices of Malaysia and Central Asia. Now, Samuel Zweymer said that in his book, famous book, really, The Influence of Animism on Islam, pages 7 through 8. And you can go to most universities today, and you can find, that book, The Influence of Animism on Islam by Samuel Zweymer. A good book it is, really, and the fact that it’s still being, you know, still being referred to, is witness to the to the scholarship of Samuel Zwaymer.
You know, when I think of Samuel Zwaymer, I think of a man who combines scholarship with seal. He was a scholar in motion. He just didn’t sit in a chair and, theorize about Islam. He knew a lot, he had a keen mind, but he also had a passion to win them to Christ. Now, we are still talking about low religion and the fact that there has been resistance, resistance to focus on, resistance to this, this, you know, this popular stuff, if you wanna call it, strong denunciations like ibn Aymih, who died in 13/28.
He was of the Hanbalayt School, Hanbalayt School as you have it today in Saudi Arabia and a few other Arab places, Arab countries, that being the strictest of the strict of the 4 schools. There are 4 schools of Islam, also the Muslim world. Where I was in Pakistan, it was Hanafi. That’s strict enough, but the Hanbalites are very strict, and, ibn al Tamiyya came from that school. He spent his life defending Islam against a tidal wave of what he called deviation or bada, and, these Muslims are very strong on this word that there should be no innovation or deviation in Islam, that is orthodox Muslims, and he said who summon sheikhs in time of need.
So in in other words, what he was saying is that when you’re in trouble, when you want to, you know, get the victory over a curse or, an evil spirit or something like that, then you go to a sheikh. And he spent his lifetime denouncing it, fighting against it, and not so sure he succeeded. The dangers of independent judgment, We have here a word called Ijtihad, which comes right out of the Quran, which, you know, you’re you’re not supposed to be making any independent personal judgments on anything. When you think of Islam, think of the fact that, you are supposed to do what you’re told. In other words, you’re not supposed to be evaluating in a on a personal basis, or deciding what’s right and what’s wrong.
And, so he, he argued against this, and and and and Muslims do today too. Don’t really think about it, argue with it, or examine it. Just just accept it and do it. He and others have accused Christians of saint worship, and it’s true. Some Christians have been involved in that.
I remember years ago, even before I went to Pakistan, going into a church in Montreal. You can guess what kind of a church it was. There were the saints all the way all around the the, around the outside, Peter and people like that, in their standing there, and people came in and they would bow to these saints. Well, I’ve often thought of what a Muslim would think when he or she sees that. Of course, they would think that they’re bowing in worship to these images.
The Roman Catholics would say, no. We’re venerating them, but it doesn’t look like that to Muslims. So they accused Christians of saint worship, of pilgrimages, and, and and they spoke of us and they were in strong opposition to astrology and called it haram, in other words, forbidden and horoscopes. Ibn Ahamiyyah has written an article against the jinn, which is the spirits, of course. But when you come to think of it, you know, the Quran is full of the jinn.
What I mean by that is it talks about them all the time and much more considering the size of the Quran, much more about the spirits and and than the Quran than the Bible does, so you really can’t pull it out of the Quran. It’s in there. Now, specifically, when we think of comparisons between folk and ideal Islam, let’s think about the names of God. His book, his names and his attributes are used as amulets against demons and jinn or as a fetish. You know, you can look at verses in the Quran like chapter 2 and 152.
The Quran has a 114 chapters in it, but, Muslims use words like this. To what? To fight against, or resist, curses, bad luck, these are names of god. Marsha Allah, you know, god did it, or give him the praise or something like that, and Bismillah, in the name of god, or and Insha’Allah. God will, if God wills.
Zikr is the repetition of his name. Well, Muslims use these terms. Let me give you an example. Bismillah, this word here, in the name of God. Muslims, a real good Muslim, would repeat this name even, when he’s having a physical relationship with his wife.
Bismillah, he would say, to, make sure that the child, if there is one, as a result of this union, does not become a devil. So you see the repeating the names of God or these special words, Insha’Allah, Mashallah, Bismillah, These are words that are really powerful words. They’re the names, that are are gods, really of God, but they’re used as amulets against the demons or they’re written, in written form to use as protection against, but, another thing is if you’re following along in your class notes, which I hope you are, the places of prayer. How do they compare folk and ideal? Well, places of prayer, we know that in reference to orthodox Muslims, the place of prayer is a mosque.
For folk Muslims, the place of prayer is really the shrine. What does that mean? It means that Muslims go to the shrine to make their requests. What is a shrine? A shrine is really, a peer’s place, a saint’s place, either dead or alive.
His tomb is there, but Muslims will go to that place to pray. In other words, to request make some special request for help to get rid of an evil spirit, to get rid of a sore back, arthritic back, or, some kind of paralysis for their son. So you see, the places of prayer are different. Now the interesting thing is is that, many Muslims go to the mosque on Friday. But where do they go on Thursday?
To the shrine. It’s not like they’re one or the other, that they’re both. In the mosque, they would say their prayers on Friday because that’s what you do on Friday is say your prayers if you’re any type of Muslim at all, other than Muslims in Central Asia who don’t seem to be very, pious, but you go to the mosque on Friday, and Thursday, you go to the saints’ tomb, be that ever so simple or, elaborate. Now what about written authority? Well, for Orthodox Muslims, the written authority is the Koran.
Of course it is. The Koran is everything. The Koran is in itself almost worshiped because of its importance. People memorize it. Heard of somebody claiming the other day that his little 6 year old son hadn’t memorized the entire Quran.
I don’t think it’s possible, that you could memorize it by age 6, but I do know of people who have memorized it by age 10 or 12, the entire Quran, which is about 2 thirds the size of the New Testament, to do that in a language particularly not your own, in other words, not you’re not Arabic speaking person, to memorize that when your mother tongue is Urdu or Farsi or something like that is no small feat. But, for an Orthodox Muslim, the written authority is the Quran. What about folk Muslims? Well, they would use the Quran but in a different way, particularly certain chapters, namely, suitors 113 and 114 are powerful protection against spirits, And those 2 short chapters, later on in the course, we’ll talk about the context of how they were revealed, but those 2 surahs were, given revealed to Muhammad in the context of a curse that was put upon him. What about the practitioners?
Well, in folk in formal Islam, the practitioners, in other words, the people who call the shots, are, you know, are the, those who know Arabic, they’ve memorized the Quran, they are teachers of the Quran, they are people who call give the call to prayer in the mosques, it may be a little mosque or big knot mosque. Their authorities in the Quran and the traditions, the the sunnah, the sunnah of the prophet. They are often known by their beards. You know, when a Muslim at least it was true where I was. When they defined a beard, they always held their hand down like this, to show the length of the beard.
The more the pie the more pious, the longer the length of his beard. So practitioners in formal Islam would generally be having a beard, but you know what? You can’t always tell, because even some of these Taliban, though they claim to be orthodox, they have long beards, and yet many of them are into folk practices. But in specifically in the practices practitioners, sorry, in folk Islam, the people who write the prayers, the people who put curses on people or protect, you know, from curses and so on and on and on, or saints. They are different than the practitioners in in formal Islam.
Women too, by the way, are pretty much practitioners in folk Islam. You know Islam, orthodox or formal Islam has pretty sort of held women down. In other words, put them down, kept them there out of leadership, but in popular Islam, folk Islam, they have found their own way, and they have places of leadership or power, what I should say, in the things that they do. So that’s, it’s really women are in there. Now what about training?
Well, in training for formal Islam, like I mentioned, was, you know, Arabic, learning the Quran by heart and had the traditions, the sunnah or the hadith. That’s the training, of course. But the training for the folk practitioners or leaders would be spending time with a mentor, learning how to how to do it, how to write the prayers, and if you’re really into the serious stuff, how to do sorcery, but that’s not all of the Muslim world. And so the training is different. And what about the authority of the practitioners?
Well, it varies. It really does vary. I believe it’s Musk who has a continuum where the power, in other words, does increase, but but but many times when you look at the, the practitioners, they overlap. In other words, especially in the villages, someone who, plays the role of a formal Islam, yet in the village, he also does the one who writes the prayers. So, the authority of the practitioners varies.
Now here are some comparisons between, folk Islam, popular Islam, and formal Islam. Now the we’ve put them side by side so that you can see. The just look right across and see the comparisons. Now in folk or popular Islam, as we keep reminding you and keep using this term, the, there is this heartfelt emotional stuff. In other words, when you really are afraid, then what do you do?
Then you appeal to this. Whereas formal Islam is more interested in truth or the cognitive stuff, you know, the head versus the heart. Folk Islam is a bit mystical. In fact, it’s very mystical opposed to the legalistic stuff. In folk Islam, there are concerns, health, guidance, success, prosperity, and fear, always, always, always.
These are the things that you really want to, you know, you you are concerned about. Health. Who wouldn’t be? Well, what do you do for good health? What do you do for guidance?
What do you do to make sure that you don’t have an accident with your truck or one thing or another? Whereas in formal Islam, there is an emphasis on the origins. In other words, God the creator, heaven, hell, purpose, judgment. These are more the issues. Here, it’s power in spiritual revelation.
In other words, sort of like god spoke to me or, I have this special, anointing and, and, so I can bless people and my saliva is will will do the trick and so on. Here, it’s the Quran and sacred traditions, as I’ve mentioned. This is inspirational, more off the cuff, more, free and flow feeling where this is institutional, beautiful mosques being built all over the world. It’s certainly institution. This is manipulative.
How can we use God? And also, I think, you know, sort of hold back Satan and his spirits. Here, there is supplicative supplication, really is the word, but not totally. So these terms are used. Now, we’ve already talked a little bit about about, this comparing folk and form of ideal Islam, and this chart here, for your information, talks about how animism tries to speak to these fears, and then it also is helpful in looking at Christian answers.
In Folk Islam, the felt needs, of course, are fear of the unknown, and here, there’s sort of a continuum where a lot of Muslims would be probably not, to the left, in other words, which would be extreme, but they would most Muslims would have, you know, something to do with fetishes, talismans, and charms, Certainly, superstition, they would be into that. So I I I guess what we’re saying is that there is the the middle here, but but but not always the extreme that you have on the left side. In the Christian answer, of course, is our securities in Christ who guides, keeps us. Here, you have fear of evil. Second one on the in the chart, extremism is sorcery of witchcraft.
There is incidence of this, more, I think, in Africa than some in the Middle East, But amulets, Muslims are into this. They certainly do this. They tie knots for our prayer request. They use amulets on the wrists of their children and one thing or another. There is exorcism, and that is quite common.
We do exorcism in Christianity too and we do it in the name of Christ. We do deal with it, We can’t ignore it, and, it’s more common than you think. Fear of the future. Angel worship is not all that common, but, certainly, divination is and spells. Islam, Muslims are fatalistic, and there is fanaticism.
We trust in Christ. We try to, through the power of the Holy Spirit, who’s Lord of the future, but it isn’t easy for us, is it? In other words, we too worry about the future. What’s gonna happen to me? How am I going to be to be protected and fulfilled?
I mean, what’s old age gonna be like? Will, I have medical? And things like this. Well, we trust Christ, and we do the best we can through God’s power, shame if not in the group or shame even if you’re in the group, magic is very common, curses are blessings, Nail hair trimmings, this is very common, not to allow your hair to be cut by an enemy or not to give anybody a chance to put a curse on your nail trimmings or your hair. Here, Baraka, saints, angels, petitioning, this is all very common.
Another one is powerlessness of the individual against evil. You cannot stand against it on your own, so you need the help of saints or, in other words, peers, and you have these familiar spirits in Islam, we’ll be talking about those later on, basically the is one word for it, and you have the power of the Holy Spirit. Would that we, as Christians, were more dependent and, full of the holy spirit and his power. Life has no meaning, purposelessness. Does that sound familiar?
It does, in the west, and, it certainly is in Islam as well, but maybe not as much. Sickness, so common in the Muslim world, especially with the lack of medical stuff, and then, divine healing, which we have in Christianity.