Dr. Warren Larson Lecture: Comparing Ideal and Folk Islam on God
Dr. Warren Larson delivered a lecture on Comparing Ideal and Folk Islam on God during a CIU course. Here, Larson presents the comparison of Ideal and Folk Islam on how they understand God and what they share in similarities and differences.
Here starts the auto-generated transcription of Dr. Warren Larson Lecture: Comparing Ideal and Folk Islam on God:
Lesson 6, is has to do with God, comparisons, and I think, this is very, very important, comparing God in Islam and in folk Islam and formal Islam. Was just talking about him last lecture at the end, weren’t we? In other words, talking about, how much we need God and and how much we desire him, not only for security, but for meaning and life and purpose. All of us struggle with that. You struggle with it all of your lives.
We need God and, we need him very, very badly. But, thinking of the relationship, in other words, relation to ideal beliefs, You know, Muslims, in many ways, are seeking God. I I think of, we used to call some people in, Pakistan, some Muslims, we called them, you know, not very many, truly, but some were sort of like Nicodemus. They were seemed to be, seeking God. But I think that Muslims, they they have a desire for God.
They they worship him, if we can use that word in a loose term, unknowingly. In other words, they they they cannot know him within the system of Islam. So when we use the word worship, we’re not using it in any other way but to bow down to him or to acknowledge him, but just like, you know, Jesus used the term when he spoke to the Samaritan woman, he says you worship what you don’t know, and also Paul, remember in Acts 17, he said you have an inscription here to the unknown God, and he used the word worship, so I’m not using the word worship as if it’s knowing God, but, they are bowing down to him and they want to they want to think about him. In fact, they have many ways and means to constantly remind themselves of who of of God, that he exists, that he’s there, far more God conscious than we are in in a sense. In other words, when I’m talking about the West, they put up signs all over the place and the buses and one thing or another about God.
But one thing they do do, is I’m not saying that this is totally folk Islam, but the the, poor people in particular, and I wish I had a blackboard here, to to write on. But if you cup your hands, both of them, you will see a an upside down v, and a one in the left hand, and that’s in Arabic stands for 81. And then in the next one, if you wrinkle up your hands, provided you have wrinkly hands, you in the next one, you will see a one and then another, actually, a a v upside down is 8. So you have 81 and 18, and what does that mean? That stands that’s 99.
So your hands, you see, can remind you of God. And, I think it’s, it’s a sign, really, of of the fact that Muslims want to be thinking about God and they want to mention him. Now it’s true that they mention him in ways that are wrong. In other words, like we talked about last lecture, putting his name up on the foundation or up on the house, or they might say, in the name of God, to ward off evil spirits. As I mentioned before, a man having intercourse with his wife will say bismillah so that the baby doesn’t become a devil, or they might say inshallah, if god wills.
You know, there is truth in that. If god wills, we’ll do this and that and the other thing, but I’m what I’m trying to say is that folk Muslims use these terms in different ways, and when we say folk Muslims, we don’t see we’re not talking about a minority, we’re talking about most of the Muslims in the world. Now, we did mention the 99 names of God and Muslims, by cupping their hands, can remind themselves of that. But one name of God, one of those 99 names of God, Al Qahar, can be used magically to harm others. God’s name can it can compel him to fulfill requests.
In other words, see, the idea of manipulating God, forcing him to do some things, to fulfill requests. Zikr, which is or vikr, whichever you wanna pronounce it, Zikr is, also somewhat magical. You’re you’re naming you know, going over the 99 names of God and, there is some magical thing to it. Amulets, through God’s names are written, for instance, one of the names that women in particular like, one of those 99 names of God women like oftentimes is al Halim, the patient one or the humble one. So in other words, but that al kahar is one that’s used, in other words, perhaps to give harm.
And I could have used I could have, taken you to a scripture verse for that, but I’ll I’ll do wait just a minute. But let’s just think about another couple of things here. Books and sources. A book by the name of Friedlander talks about the 99 names of God. It was written in Lagos, and the use there of of in folk Islam or popular Islam is totally different than the orthodox Muslims who’d want to use it.
This is another book by Friedlander, The Whirling Dervishes, being an account of the Sufi order known as the Mevliz and its founder, the poet and mystic, Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi. So that’s a pretty long title, but Muslims have their have their sources. Now, thinking too while we’re on the topic here of how the books are used, there is a difference between bibliolatry, which is, worship of the book, and what does bibliomancy mean? Well, it means the same thing in Islam as it does in anything else that, Muslims will use this book, this Quran here. They will use this Quran to, work powerful things on people, such as his names, or they’ll use it to prevent magic and one thing and others.
So there are 2 words there, bibliolatry, which is worship of the book, and I think Muslims, in all for all practical purposes, do worship the book. Some of you, I think, would be aware that right at this moment, another case has come up in Pakistan where a little girl by the name of Rimsha, Rimsha Masih Masih means Christian, In the north of actually, near the capital of of, Islamabad in Pakistan was accused of burning the Koran. What happened was that, she is, as most Christians are, a lot of Christians in Pakistan, sweeper Christians, they do that for profession. She was sweeping up, and somebody said that you swept up certain portions of a religious book that were used to teach religious instruction, and in that book were verses, you know, Koranic, some words from the Quran, and they accused this little illiterate girl. There was first some, suggestion that she was mentally handicapped, which may be true and it might not be true.
It doesn’t make any difference. She was very, very young, perhaps 11, maybe 14, whatever, but definitely illiterate. She wouldn’t have known. She can’t read and write. Most of the people in Pakistan cannot read and write.
Certainly, those Christians up there, sweepers, cannot, and so she was put in prison. It has since then been revealed that the imam himself set people up to it, may even have given false evidence. In any event, Christians in the area were terrified. They fled because homes had been burned, Christian homes. And you see this all this illustrates that Muslims basically worship the book.
Now is that is is that, Orthodox Islam? I don’t think so. I think it’s folk Islam because, bibliolatry is not orthodox Islam. But when people get so wound up, the imam you see in the mosque on a Friday says, you guys, you’re you’re really not good Muslims and he shamed them into action. And so they went out and burned down houses and then the police came in and arrested this poor little girl.
I’ve blogged about it in my blog, ww Larson I’m sorry. Wwwarrenlarson.com, and I’m very upset about this that, even even a little girl is not spared who’s illiterate. So, we realize that that this is this is the way that Muslims treat the Quran. Now I wanted to to read from you, actually, a bit of the Quran here showing that amulets are used with names. And one of the verses from the Quran is Surah 2, 250, 51.
In fact, we’ll probably go back a bit to 249. Samuel Zweymer in his book, The Influence of Animism on Islam, mentions this, And I will, refer to this, but I wanna mention a couple of other things too in here in this passage because, I can’t I can’t resist it. It, it talks here in 249, verse 249 of chapter 2. It says, when Thalutes set forth with the armies, who is to loot? That’s Saul.
Allah will test you at the stream. If any drinks of his water, he goes not with my army: only those who taste not of it go with thee. A mere sip out of the hand is exercised is excused, but they all drank of it except a few. What does this make you think of? Gideon.
Yes. And this is just an example of the anachronisms. In other words, the chrono chronological misfit in the Quran. This is in other words, they’re mixing things up here, bringing in, you know, Goliath and then, Gideon. Gideon is probably at least a 100 years before Saul, but this is because the Koran, in other words, Muhammad himself didn’t have good sources, he didn’t, you know, how does he know the chronological order of things?
He gets a bit here and a bit there and a bit everywhere else. That’s why, by the way, I don’t think that this book here is so you know, I don’t think that Muhammad was necessarily demon possessed. That I don’t accept. I think that he was confused. I think that the that, he was confused and that’s why you have such misappropriation of the facts in the Quran.
Another example of this, of course, is Miriam, with the word for Mary in Arabic, Miriam in the Quran, the same, who’s the mother of Jesus is mixed up with the story of Miriam, the sister of Aaron and Moses. So that’s a little bit off the topic, but let’s go on. This is the verse that is sometimes used sometimes used for harm against another. 250, when they advanced to meet Goliath, you see it just talks goes on to talk about Goliath, and his forces. They prayed, our Lord, pour out constantly on us and make our steps firm.
And then by all his will they routed them 2 51 and David slew Goliath. So you see it’s a it’s verses of power where David overcomes Goliath. So you can see that, Interestingly here too, the commentary to 8 number 286, note that how the whole story is compressed into a few words as regards narration, but its spiritual lessons are dwelt upon by many points of view. Here he says this, Eusevele, the Old Testament is mainly interested in the narrative, which is full of detail, but says little about the universal truths of which every story is a parable. The Quran assumes the story but tells the parable.
Now this is a pretty weak explanation for mixing up facts and, and really, all of that, but, nevertheless, that’s what he says. So you see, amulets being used with, from the Quran. And then here here is a, a magic square that is used to prevent harm. I’ve never actually seen this myself but read read about it being used in the in the Arabic world Arabic speaking world, where, all of these numbers, anywhere you go, add up to 65. You know, kitty corner or up and down or whatever where you go adds up to 65, and this square is used to prevent harm.
Quite an interesting square, isn’t it, that is used? But but, it is used in parts of the Muslim world. I don’t know whether you’ve experienced it or not, but, it’s not used universally in the Muslim world, but it’s used sometimes. Now another thing to mention here is the use of the rosary. It is used for prayer and and zikr.
In other words, zikr, the the mentioning of God’s names over and over again, and and, you know, it’s good to mention his names, but to mention his names to ward off evil is not a good thing. I could mention here too it’s also used for divination where a practitioner, somebody whose authority would choose one of those little, things there for at random. In other words, a little red thing there by random and then count towards the to the pointer, and, that’s one way that Muslims might be able to divine whether something is true or false, who puts a curse on you, so the the rosary is used for prayer for, zikr, in other words, god’s name, but it’s also used for divination and, for healing. Zweemer Samuel Zweemer says it’s used for, for healing. And I could say just a little bit more about how the rosary is used.
It’s called the I forget what it’s used in Pakistan. I forget the word. But anyway, oftentimes, the holy man or the practitioner would read the Fatiha, which is the first Surah, the first part of the Quran, and he would breathe on it. He would pick a bead and count towards the pointer, and, he might you know, if somebody says, well, did so and so put a curse on me? So he reads the or she reads the and then points counts towards the pointer.
Yes, no, yes, no, and keeps heading towards the pointer. And if you end on, on yes when you’re saying yes, that’s the word. If you end on no, then it’s no. But you might end on maybe. So, I don’t know exactly, how that’s done, but let’s just keep in mind that the that the rosary is used for those purposes.
Now, here’s another thing, and we end with this, that the midwife would use an egg. And, you may not be able to see this clearly, but a midwife, especially in village areas, would take an egg, and she would wrap the egg in the little cloth, and then she would begin to twist the ends, to find out if it’s a boy or a girl. And so she says, boy, girl, boy, girl, boy, girl, and keeps tightening it and tightening it and tightening it. And if it breaks when she says boy, then it is a boy. If not, it’s a girl.
I don’t know how accurate this is, and nowadays, I suppose, with ultrasound in many Muslim areas, it’s not used, but let’s keep in mind that these are some of the ways, there are folk practices that are used in Muslim areas, but not just Muslim areas, other areas as well.