Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians - Electric Scotland
Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians - Electric Scotland
Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians - Electric Scotland
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DEFINING AND DEFENDING BELIEVERS t 201<br />
The Umma Divided: Early Muslim Sects <strong>and</strong> Sectarianism<br />
The issue of the “genuine Muslim” <strong>and</strong> so of membership in the<br />
community arose as early in <strong>Islam</strong> as it did in Christianity, where it<br />
already concerned Paul no more than twenty-five years after Jesus’<br />
death. The Medina suras of the Quran speak often of “hypocrites”<br />
(munafiqun), <strong>and</strong> though the allusion, like much else in the Quran,<br />
is not entirely clear, it seems reasonably certain that the reference<br />
was to Medinese Arabs who had at least nominally professed <strong>Islam</strong><br />
but were not Muslims in their heart. Some hearts were easier<br />
to read. At the death of the Prophet in 632, many of the opportunistic<br />
Bedouin tribes of Arabia bethought themselves of leaving<br />
<strong>Islam</strong>, at least to the extent of not paying into the Muslim treasury<br />
the alms-tithe that was a sign of their submission. Muhammad’s<br />
successor as head of the umma had to make an immediate decision:<br />
was it possible to secede from the <strong>Islam</strong>ic community? The<br />
answer was a decisive “no.” The “secession” (ridda) was put<br />
down when armies were sent against the tribes to coerce their once<br />
declared <strong>and</strong> now irrevocable adherence to <strong>Islam</strong>.<br />
It was clear, then, that entry into the community of Muslims was<br />
regarded, as it was among <strong>Christians</strong>, as an only partially reversible<br />
act: a Muslim may be banished from the community, that is,<br />
denied the means of salvation, but may not willfully withdraw<br />
from it. That latter act is called apostasy <strong>and</strong> is viewed exceedingly<br />
gravely in all three faiths. In most cases apostasy requires a <strong>for</strong>mal<br />
act of disavowal on the part of the believer, but the question was<br />
raised in <strong>Islam</strong>, as it was among radical Re<strong>for</strong>m <strong>Christians</strong> we<br />
lump together as Anabaptists, as to whether nonobservance was,<br />
in fact, a kind of apostasy. The early Muslim sect called the Kharijites<br />
certainly thought so, <strong>and</strong> were willing to visit the fatal consequences<br />
of apostasy on those who did not pray daily or fast during<br />
Ramadan.<br />
In the classic <strong>for</strong>m cited above, the shahada is purely a verbal<br />
<strong>for</strong>mulation <strong>and</strong> leaves open the questions of interior intention<br />
<strong>and</strong> of the relative importance to be placed on interior faith <strong>and</strong><br />
external good works. The Kharijites, a group that was part of Ali’s