Dr. Warren Larson Lecture: Rites of Passage in Folk Islam
Dr. Warren Larson delivered a lecture on rites of passage in Folk Islam during a CIU course. Here, Larson presents on the rites of passage from birth to death in both of Islam’s main traditions: Sunni and Shia.
Here starts the auto-generated transcription of Dr. Warren Larson Lecture: Rites of Passage in Folk Islam.
37 has to do with the rituals, and the practices, rituals, practices, and the rites of passage. Also a reference here as noted in the class notes is, of course, Rhema, the influence of animism on Islam, and, the rites of passage. Before we move to Islam, let’s just think of of Jesus. You know, he had rites of passage, didn’t he? Remember when, well, one of them, when he is 12 years old, the Jews had this, of course.
Here he is 12 years old. He is now in Jerusalem, and he, is in the temple, and he’s discussing with the leaders of the law. Certainly, this was a rite of passage for Jesus. Wasn’t it? And another one could have to be his, his baptism.
And then we have rites of passage as well, don’t we? For some of us, I suppose, the rite of passage is beginning our driver’s license at 16 or 18, whatever it is. The Muslims have rites of passage and oftentimes they do things on those days, that are very, very focused. In other words, they realize the importance of them. Birth is 1, and on the time when the child is born, there is a certain things that they do, which might, at first glance, you know, not seem too popular.
In other words, too, unorthodox. But it really is when you think of some of the the meaning that they pour into it. In the right ear of the child, they give the call of prayer. And, you know, and then on the left ear, they give the confession. Bismil Al Rahman Ar Rahim.
They would say, you know, that there is no other god but god. I give, give witness that there is no other god but god. I I didn’t give the confession there. I was actually using the other opening in the name of god, the merciful, the compassionate, so, don’t get confused. But in the right ear, the call to prayer, in the left ear, then the, the confession which Muslims are always giving.
There is no other god but Allah and Mohammed is the apostle of God. For Muslims, we could say folk Muslims, but, many, many Muslims look at this, these two things just mentioned, as protection from the spirits. In Iran, they do certain things like a red hot iron is put into the mother’s drinking water for 10 days. An onion over the head is to protect from that wicked witch, Al, and an amulet on the baby. Now you see here, one here.
This this sort of look like a bracelet for beauty. I don’t know what it is, but, blue stone. Salt is also used, and the placenta is buried in an amulet, buried, to protect against the jinn. In the Philippines, noise to frighten the spirit. The name of the spirit is the Bulban, you can Google this, who is a fearsome spirit with the body of a man and has wings.
Now there is the, on this rite of passage, a naming. It’s, on the Akika sacrifice, 7th day after birth, child is named, shaved, there’s a sacrifice. An astrologer may be consulted to make sure that you get the right name. And sometimes, all too often, probably, a derogatory name is given to the child, like, you know, some derogatory name or the name, you know, God be thanked. It it it’s we thank god for it.
Or a girl’s name is given to a boy, see, to confuse the spirits. The taureg in North Africa, we know are more free than most Muslim women, and so they are the ones who teach their children. They’re the ones who seem to have the hold the social rank and, they’re not the ones to wear the veil. I mean, how is that for a switch? It’s the men who who wear the veil, these taurig, but they practice some of these things as well.
The rites of passage here, pretty sure this is the Middle East because of some of the things they do. There is this ceremony where the maternal grandmother carries the child, and, with other women, they circle the the the tent where this little child is, and they chant some blessings. And then the leader takes a knife, plunges it into the sand to show the end of threat on the mother and the child. This is sort of an exorcism of the old woman, who is considered to be a bush spirit. So they’re saying Fatima and Ayesha entering.
Shoo, shoo, Fatima and Ayesha, and we’re cutting you here tomorrow. Now this little one is not the best picture because that child is more than 7 days old, but, you get the point. In Iran, a diviner may be advised. In other words, be the one called upon to give the right name or to change the name. For instance, a little boy who’s sick could have been cursed, so Hassan would be changed.
The name Hassan would be changed to Asadullah, lion of God. So with a name like that, how can you stay sick? Or children are often named after the saint, imam, or named after the prophet preceded by the word hulam, of course, servant, servant of Muhammad, servant of this, servant of that, or just called the peer, peer bashed, given by the peer. Is, be be given before an attractive child. Remember, the term that is used to, you know, thank thanks be to god.
I mean, god did it, so something. Now we talk about circumcision. This is this is the circumcision of of women, of girls. Of course, the boys are circumcised, in Islam, but that’s nothing. What we’re talking about is the circumcision of women.
Now to be fair, these little girls are not just Muslims. In other words, circumcision is more of a tribal thing, but a lot of Muslims do it and a lot of Muslims insist on it. 1000 and thousands of these are done every day and there are different names for it. The one is the GFM, the genital female mutilation. Sometimes, it’s called pharonic.
Presumably, it dates back to the time of pharaoh. I had one student who did a study of this in Indonesia. Don’t think it was, all you know, it was the severest type of, circumcision where, all of the sexual organs of the girl are removed, but, you know, there are degrees of it. And, of course, the greater the degree, the greater harm, the greater danger, physically, mentally, and socially, and, it’s a terrible practice. I, remember one anthropologist, Just forget her name for the moment.
The one the anthropologist from the University of Toronto. It’ll come to me, but, she said I remember reading her she was saying something in some newspaper that was published out of Canada that she didn’t think this was, you know, such a bad thing after all. And I wrote a letter to the editor and said this is this is terrible to to to but but it’s this idea, you know, where anthropology always accepts the culture and they they’re supposed to and not say anything against it. I think there’s lots to say against it and, one book, you may be books that you may be, acquainted with in person is Ersi, Ali Ersi, who, wrote the book nomad and also infidel. She talks about her own her own, circumcision, horrible though it is.
She’s Somali. Horrible situation that it is. She is, extremist in her statements about Muslims. She’s Somali born and, Dutch based, based in Holland. But, I’ve wondered sometimes if the circumcision doesn’t open the door, the trauma of that open the door to demonic influence.
You know, it’s such a horrible experience. You wonder, really, if if, those kind of things open the door to demonic influence. Satan somehow gets you know, it’s such a horrible thing. Now leaving that terrible, morbid topic of circumcision and the the fact that it’s done remembering that it’s not just Muslims, I mean, some Christians do this as well. To to the best of my knowledge, it’s not done in South Asia, but it’s more of a, you know, along the Nile sort of thing, But I think other Middle Eastern countries too practice it, for various and sundry reasons, often a sign of purity.
Others would do it to control the the girl’s, sexual impulses or activity and all of those things, the the women of the family, grandma, you know, and mother are the ones that insist on it, although fathers would be sometimes against it. Anyway, that’s a whole other topic and a terrible one it is, but let’s talk about marriage. And, marriage too. You know, this rite of passage, is it is it not? But in marriage, the to get married, people sometimes sometimes sometimes rely on magic and, particularly if the girl is not spoken for.
Here you are. I mean, parents, the main goal in life is to marry off your children, but here is this young lady, nobody’s speaking for her, Nobody is offering. So what are you going to do? Well, she or somebody in the family may resort to magic, to try to get her through this, through this door. In other words, through this rite of passage.
And the verses there that I’ve given are 696-ninety one. See there they are underlined to make sure that we don’t miss them. And each one of these verses starts with he it is that does this. He it is who makes the stars, 97. He it is who hath produced you.
He it is who sends his rain, and on and on and on. So that’s the passage that sometimes is used, written and bound, to the feet, and and so love charms may be used as well. And other ways and techniques us choosing an auspicious day, like the saints, Malid and, you know, and, numerology and sort of And then, some other thing too, if you can’t get along with your spouse, you know, the man and wife are fighting, We’ve looked at that from the second seuda. You might have to do a name change change. So, you know, here, there’s a conflict of of personalities so let’s change the name.
Would that it would be that easy to solve the conflict. In other words, marital conflict, which is so important. And then, of course, death. That’s a rite of passage, is it not? Definitely a rite of passage and, death is to be feared.
I mean, it’s to be feared in Christianity, too, isn’t it? It’s the last enemy. Let’s not deny it and let’s not argue with that, but in Christianity, if we really live out the faith, we know that, Christ has conquered death and that, and that we have nothing to fear. You know, it’s easy to say, but that’s what the Bible says and that’s clearly what it says that Christ conquered death through his own resurrection and we will be raised ourselves. So that’s the teaching of scripture and that’s what we believe, and so, funerals are really not times to of of our Christian believing parents and so on.
They’re really times of joy. I’ve I’ve, mentioned this to me. When I was 1972, my dad was killed in a car accident. He was 70 years old, and this was very sudden. He was hit by a drunken driver.
Both my parents were in there, in the accident. My dad was killed and an aunt was severely injured. In fact, no. An aunt was killed. Uncle was injured.
My mother was had both legs broken. But I was talking to my Pakistani friends about this and, you know, and I I told them that my dad had been killed and, and then I told them that he is with the Lord. This is what the scripture says. Well, they were surprised. Hence, father, they were shocked.
In some ways, Muslims look at this as arrogance, you know, to say, but but I had the scripture and I had the promises, that my father was a believer and had eternal life and that I would see him again and that’s what my mother said too. That was our faith, and so it was a great witness that I gave to my Pakistani Muslim friends. But, you know, death is such a terrible, terrible, fearful thing in Muslims Muslim eyes. We’ve looked at this verse before, I think, 79 in verse 1, by the angels who tear out the souls of the wicked with violence. Well, you know, I don’t think that, those because no one knows who’s wicked and who’s not.
Mohammed, according to the traditions, heard the screams from the grave. They we have, looked at this before. Israel, the angel of death, is frightful. He’s used. He pierces the soul.
He detached from the body. You have those 2 large black angels, Munkar and Nakhr. You have the terrors of the grave and so on. Oh, boy. You know, it’s pretty fearsome stuff, and and so, how do you avoid it?
I mean, you don’t. You’re terrified as a Muslim of this rite of passage. The body is unclean, but you have washers of the dead. Always always always, would be, older, respected women in the community who would wash the body of a young of of of of a younger person, and men with men and so on. Three washes, in Iran would use the big five under the tongue.
You see the ring with the big five. Who are they? Well, we remember who they are. And, or names of the 14 on the finger ring too. You see all the imams, plus Mohammed and and Ali and Hassan and sticks under the arms, hold up the arms to greet Ali.
Quranic verses on the winding sheet, you see. 36. Well, Surah 36 is thought to be the heart of the Quran, to give comfort and in the face of terror because there, these bones are squeezed to powder, especially if unclean. Now I have never personally to be honest with you, I’ve never personally been I’ve never had a Muslim say, look. You’re a Christian.
I’m not gonna eat with you. I’ve never had a hotel, even a little hotel, at the side of the road say, look, we’re not going to serve you because you’re unclean and you’re a Christian, but I do know Christians who have experienced this. So, you, you know, you read the Quran when the person has died and they’re about to die and good Muslims do this. They do. So you see, you have these crisis rights when you need special healing and help, and, certainly, death is to be feared, you know, but for us, there is no sting.
We, belong to one who has conquered it. Lord, help us to remember this. Though death is not easy, nevertheless, we do have the message of hope, and we do have the message, the hope of resurrection, and we hold to it. We cling to it, no matter what happens, even in the face of death of our loved ones. That’s why Muslims need Christ.
They need to have hope through the scriptures. Now sickness, in this topic, Sickness is often diagnosed through herbal messages, medicine, or religious activities. In Uzbekistan, the cause of death is discovered by a shaman, or the trance of a dream. In Turkey, you ask a wise woman. Now this picture here looks much more like it should.
You know, it’s not just a white person, which most of the pictures, unfortunately, in this turned out to be. Philippines ask a medicine man. Morocco, it’s The Exorcist. Now, here is something we close with, and it is a drought. Rain prayers.
Now nothing wrong with praying for rain, is there? But when you look at this as sort of a, you know, a rain dance, then you realize how how, you know, it’s focus is this. It’s really, not really prayer in the sense of directing your request to god, but it’s a, an animistic exercise, and, and Muslims do pray for rain. I mean, Umar prayed for rain, according to Al Tabri, the king of commentaries, but as long as we don’t get the idea that it’s just a sort of an animistic