Dr. Warren Larson Lecture: Historical Perspectives on Folk Islam
Dr. Warren Larson delivered a lecture on historical perspectives on Folk Islam during a CIU course. Here, Larson presents historical perspectives on Folk Islam’s development, elements, and characteristics.
Here starts the auto-generated transcription of Dr. Warren Larson’s Lecture, Historical Perspectives on Folk Islam:
Today, we’re, starting on lecture 4, and, it is unit 1. Let’s just keep that in mind. It’s unit 1 and its, comparisons we’re doing, and, we’re talking, of course, about comparisons between formal Islam or and folk Islam, popular Islam, and orthodox Islam or unorthodox as some people would call it, and so we’re using those various terms. I hope that you are following the notes, the class notes, and, keep in mind that, in the end of those class notes, there’s not only a bibliography, but there is a glossary and you can check there for terms. In fact, the glossary is quite good, as is the, bibliography.
But, this is all unit 1, and we’re doing these comparisons. So, let’s go ahead with lecture 4. And, this one here is has to do with historical perspectives. So what we’re gonna do is we’re going back into before Islam, first of all, and, we’re also including a little bit on Sufism here. The we say I say including Sufism, not that we’re going to spend a whole lot of time on it this time, though I think next lecture, it will be we’ll bring it up again, but later on in the course, I believe, about lecture 24, something like that, we will talk more about the Sufis.
Just wanted to make sure that we understand that Sufism is not the same as folk Islam. There is overlap. There’s no question there. When you read some books, I think one book that doesn’t really make that much of a distinction, between Sufism and, Folk Islam is Phil Parcel’s book. However, we will show a chart at the end, I believe it is, of next lecture showing the overlap and how they, how they compare.
But let’s just think of the fact that before Islam came into being, in other words, before Mohammed was born in 5 70 AD, before that, really, let’s remember that in pre Islamic Arabia, there was a lot of, spirit stuff going on. All kinds of, of folk religion stuff was going on. So, lest we think that, Islam is the only thing that has folk religion in it, but really in in the paganism that was there, there was a lot of, folk practices, in other words, spirits and, one thing or another, and, when Islam came into being, of course, Muslims would say that Islam already always was, that Adam was a Muslim, Moses was a Muslim, Abraham, and so on, but but that’s a misreading of history. Really, Islam was born in the 6th century and then took off, but when Islam came into being, it reacted to the, spiritism and stuff that was going on there in pre Islamic Arabia, but, nevertheless, it, it did embrace it. In other words, it it was colored by it.
Maybe that’s the best term. It was colored by, paganism, and so we we will keep that in mind. But but but before Islam, in other words, before Mohammed, there were all kinds of magical powers. There were demons and witches and, various objects of blessings, if we can call it object of of power sources, and we can use those for bridges. But one of the objects that was there was the black stone.
Now we’re not talking here about a a rock group. If you were to, Google black Stone, it it you you will get information, of course, on that Black Stone that’s right embedded in the Kaaba, But you’ll also, come up come up some other groups too, singing groups, rock groups, I believe, that take on that term. But, the Black Stone is a pretty good example of, and and how it was viewed beforehand, before Islam, and how it’s viewed today to show that the, in pre Islamic Arabia, there was this stuff. The black stone, incidentally, according to tradition, is is a stone that, according to tradition, Islamic tradition, namely, Ibn Ishaq, who wrote the major work on on on Muhammad and on early Islam. Ibnayas Haqq says that the stone fell from heaven.
It was a meteorite. It fell from heaven. It was white, and, it has turned black, as a result of people’s sins. But what happened according to tradition, and notice that we’re repeating that tradition stuff, because, we don’t know whether it was really true or not. But when this thing fell, in other words, the tribes wanted someone in each tribe wanted to have the privilege of putting this in the Kaaba, which was there before Islam and was the place where people gathered in their paganism to worship, and they wanted to include the back black stone in the in the Kaaba, but they were fighting over who would have the privilege of doing it.
And so Mohammed, according to tradition, took a cloth. He laid it down, and then he had someone from, various tribes grab a corner of the cloth. They took it, placed it in, in where it is today, right in the Kaaba, I believe, the northeast corner, if I’m not mistaken. And there it sits today. We’ll see pictures of it later.
Not as good, the ones as I would like because, we weren’t allowed to use them for copyright purposes. But, you will see that, it, it is the really the object of devotion and adoration, and and I can say worship. But then, of course, before Islam, you had the beings as well. That means the the spirits. They were there in force, before Islam, and you had the various rituals.
Good example, again, is, the the pilgrimage, circling encircling the the Kaaba as is done today, 7 times in a, in a as as a counter, counterclockwise, and the ritual was there. Mohammed what did he do? He really picked it up, from paganism, and he whitewashed it a bit, enter in and pulled it into Islam. Mohammed, as we know, was a great contextualizer, wasn’t he, if there ever was one? And I’ve already been talking about the pilgrimage, so won’t say anything more about that.
Even, Umar, who was the, the, 3rd caliph in other words, after Muhammad, there was Ali and then there was yes. It was Ali and and following Ali was Umar. Umar said when he saw that, Muhammad kissed the black stone, that he said, I wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t for the prophets. So people today do the same thing. They kiss kiss or touch the back black stone, preferably kiss it, if at all possible, and they do it because Mohammed did it.
But it is really an amazing thing to see. Just a word or 2 more about the pilgrimage and the historical perspective. You notice that we’re including Sufism in here. When the Muslims go on their pilgrimage, their Hajj, it’s you’ll notice here that it’s 2 4 to 6 days. They fly into Mecca.
As I mentioned, they they do their circles around the Kaaba, and then they take off, to Mina and then head down to, to the plain of Arafat where they sit for an afternoon and basically, are experiencing God or trying to when they believe God comes down. It’s very if you ever see a movie on the Hajj, the pilgrimage, you will be moved by the emotion and the tears and and the obvious sincerity of people thinking that God has come down and met with them. But, here then then sitting there in the afternoon, and they head back, to Musdalifa and then, to Mina, and there they cast stones, 3, stones at the at the devil represented by the 3 pillars, and that in itself is was there beforehand and then back to Mecca, and that ends the Hajj. But a lot of stuff that goes on during the pilgrimage is, very, very folk in my, sense, and it was done for our purpose right here, before it was it was there before Islam came into being. But but, let’s talk about another popular element that is very, folkish on the Hajj, on the pilgrimage, and that is the Zamzam water.
There is a picture here of of a bottle. It’s possible that some of the bottles look like this, but when I was in Pakistan, they brought back water from Zamzam, and the the Zamzam well is right in here inside of of the, Kaaba. Muslim Hajjis, people are going on a Hajj. They bring back this holy water. There’s this well right there.
It’s called Zamzam, and, tradition has it that Hagar was provided when she ran back and forth between the two pillars, ran back and forth searching for water that God gave, that water, and, today Muslims, when they go over to pilgrimage, on the pilgrimage, they come back with all kinds of of that stuff. And what they I’ve seen them carrying it back to Pakistan is jerry cans, you know, the jerry cans that you use for jeeps. So, I was once, I think it was 1995 when I went over to Pakistan to do my dissertation, having been kicked out, asked to leave in 1991, accused for of spying on the nuclear facilities, which was untrue. But then I went back in 1995 and did some research for my dissertation on Muslim converts and why they convert. And incidentally, I found out that, realized that, which I knew before, but I wanted research that they oftentimes convert, be they ever so few as far as Pakistan is concerned, they convert because they’re getting fed up with the rigorous, unbending nature of fundamentalist Islam.
And, anyway, I was standing there at an airport, one of the largest airports in Pakistan, waiting for my luggage. And down the conveyor belt, I could see all these jerry cans. It was just at the end of the Hajj. And so, the fellow next to me was a Muslim. He’d obviously been working overseas or something like that.
He was embarrassed, and he said, oh, these Muslims. He said, these Muslims. This is not really Islam, but they do this. They bring back that holy water so that they can, take a little of it, rub it on their their kids, aunt or uncle or grandpa or whoever it is, and that’s, the holy water, just something like, we’ve seen in certain branches of Roman Catholicism. Alright.
Another popular element is something that we’ve already referred to and that is, the touching of the black stone. This is a this is a replica. 1 of my students, did this so we could use it without, without getting a copyright permission, but she drew it. I think she did a tremendous job. And what they are doing here, you can’t see it very clearly, but, they’re reaching out to touch that black stone because in touching the black stone is the blessing or kissing it.
And I have one picture, it’s not on the PowerPoint, of somebody actually kissing. He’s putting his head right inside the as far in as he can, the, black stone. It’s encased in a silver sort of a casing. That in itself has evolved over over time, because they’ve it’s been repaired, and now Muslims have put a silver case around it to hold the splinters together, but it’s, you know, it’s not huge. It’s just a few inches wide and a few inches long.
And that black stone is to touch that or to kiss it, better yet, is one of the most important things of the hunch. The problem is if you get, you know, hundreds of thousands of people in that as they walk around that and even though they’re they’re keep they keep moving when they every time they go by, they wanna either touch it or or wave to it. Not the best thing, but, there is a a rush there, a crush of bodies, and so you can get trampled. If you’re old and weak, there is that danger, but that’s what they’re doing. And if the picture was more clear, you would see a woman or 2.
The woman women are not, their dress is not so specific. It’s not so important how they dress, although the men are all dressed in white 2 peat 2 pieces. The women, it’s more free. But women are on Hajj too, and interestingly enough, on that Hajj, the gender barriers break down. You know, men and women, mix quite freely, whereas in normal, Muslim society, that’s not true.
But there they are trying to touch the black stone, and then when they get that blessing, they go home and they will touch their relatives. And they too are supposedly supposed to get the blessing. I missed one there, but it was just another another picture of the black stone, which is a little more clear. Sorry about that. But let’s keep rolling here.
Now we’re gonna talk about Muhammad and the, the in reference to the Quran and the Hadith, and, the word for magic is al sihr, al sihr. And I wanted to, refer to the Quran here, And, a verse in the Quran is chapter 2. It’s 114 soon as here, chapter 2 and 102 just to point out the ambiguity in, in Islam in reference to magic. Now it says in chapter 2, that’s, Al Baqarah, chapter 2 and 102. It says that they followed what the evil ones gave out falsely against the power of Solomon, the blasphemers were not Solomon, but the evil ones, teaching men magic and such things as came down at Babylon to the angels Herut and Marut.
The, it here says of Solomon, the blasphemers are not of Solomon, but the evil ones, and here the word is shayatin in, Arabic, al shah shahateen, which is the devils. I wanted to note you to note something else, that in the footnote 103, the commentator, Yusuf Ali, says this. He says, this is a continuation of the arguments, in 2 101, and he says, the people of the book, Who’s that? Jews and Christians. Instead, of looking to the plain books of revelation.
In other words, he means the books that came before the Quran, the Taurat, the Zebur, Injeel, the books of Moses, in other words, the Psalms and the book of Jesus, instead of looking to that and seeking to do the will of Allah, ran after all sorts of occult knowledge, most of which was false and evil. Many wonderful tales of occult power attributed to the power of Solomon, to magic, but Solomon dealt in no arts of evil. It was the powers of evil that pretended to force the laws of nature and the will of Allah. Such a pretense is plainly blasphemy, and he calls it kufr. Now the thing that I object to is that he refers to people of the book who brought in this occultic stuff, and it’s true that so called Christians have been in involved in the occult, but to blame it on the people of the book as he does, and it doesn’t even mention paganism or pre Islamic culture, which Islam borrowed from.
But I read this, this first part here and then we’ll read a little bit more to show that, Muhammad was conflicted about magic and how to deal with it and so is Islam. It goes on to say, that, and by the way, those 2 angels, Harut and Marut, are are dreadful angels. Such things, without saying, we are only for trial, so do not blaspheme. They learned them from them, and here it shows that, though it speaks against it, yet it recognizes the power, the means to sow discord between man and wife. So in other words, Muslims could easily think from this, and they do.
Oftentimes, if a man’s not getting along with his wife, somebody’s put a curse on them, magic has been thrown on them, and we have to, break that. And, and then it says, but they could not thus harm anyone except by Allah’s permission, and they learned what harmed them. So, that’s, and then, incidentally, there are other references here that you see on the PowerPoint. Magic is referred to in the Hadith. In other words, the sunnah, and 3 then editions are mentioned, Mishkat, which is not one of the canonized, but, Al Bukhari is I guess, I guess, Al Bukhari isn’t mentioned here yet, but mentioned yet later on.
But, it says in the hadith that in in fact, it’s Muslim. That’s what that stands for, not a Muslim, but al Muslim, which should be in italics because it’s a book. That tradition said that, some magic was permitted to counteract the evil eye. Snake and scorpion bites. Now scorpion bites are pretty fearful, if if anything is fearful, but in other words, to overcome or to to to to survive a scorpion bite, a little bit of magic.
And then, as I mentioned before, Bukhari says the same thing, that, it’s generally not allowed, but it’s permitted to counteract yellowness in the eyes or jaundice, you see? And, a Mishkat, again, one of the sets of traditions, says that regarding magic, yes, providing you do not associate with other gods. So, see, that’s the end all. You can do anything, really. You know, you can get involved in magic to counteract something, to throw off a curse or the scorpion bite or something like that, provided you don’t, associate with other gods.
So that tells you quite a bit right there about how Muslims are thinking. And then, lastly, Islam, of course, forbids divination, and, they condemn the Quran condemns it. But I wanted to read a verse to you again out of the Quran. That’s this is in 5, surah 5 and verse 90. By the way, this, chapter for 5 and the one that we just read, this this is some of the last last stuff that was revealed to Mohammed.
Oh, you who believe who’s that? Muslims. Intoxicants and gambling are wrong, and, you know, he’s right, and and and the dedication of stones. And and then he says, divination by arrows are an abomination of Satan’s handiwork. Again, al Shaitan.
Eschew such abomination that you may prosper. Satan’s plan is but to excite enmity and hatred between you with intoxicants. Here, the word for intoxicants is, hamar, which is sort of the same word for yeast in some languages, but it’s quite interesting, and this is a little bit of apologetics here more than it is folk Islam, but, Islam forbids drinking down here on earth, but then you have other verses where, it talks about wine being permissible, permitted, and enjoyed in heaven. I guess it sort of becomes holy. There it’s in some cases, it’s called sharab, which is another word for for wine.
But, up there, there’ll be wine, women, and song. And even though intoxicants and so on are condemned down here, That said, some Muslims do in fact drink, but, theoretically and theologically, they are forbidden, they’re haram, and yet, up in heaven, it is permitted.