Islam Explained

By Ahmad Salim

With more than 1.8 billion followers worldwide, Islam is one of the world's largest religions, but it is also one that is poorly understood by many Americans. Islam Explained offers an informative overview of the faith, helping those who are new to Islam foster cultural awareness while also providing those already familiar with it the opportunity to deepen their understanding.

Whether you are looking to expand your own knowledge of Islam or just better understand the practices of Muslim friends, coworkers, and neighbors, this concise and essential guide provides a solid foundation for future study and conversation.

Islam Explained features:

Easy-to-understand explanations―This book provides a complete overview ideal for those who are interested in Islam as a faith, a subject of study, and beyond.

Historical contexts―Better understand the history of Islam, how the religion has evolved, and the ways that history has shaped the lives of Muslims.

Beliefs and practices―Explore what it means to be a practicing Muslim, including the Five Pillars, laws, dress codes, and brief glimpses into how they vary between individual sects.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wilson Publishers
• Release date: Feb 11, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215179406

Book preview

Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258)

The Abbasid Caliphate was a long-lived Sunni dynasty that ruled the Islamicate empire for five centuries and set the standard for Muslim rulers who came later. It took power in a tremendous revolution in 750 that ended the U mayyad calIph- ate in Damascus. It was during the Abbasid era, particularly until the 10th century, that the for - mative elements of Islamicate civilization were put into place. Among the achievements of this era were a massive project of translation, thanks to which Greek philosophy was made available to the Arabs (and later to Latin Europe), the flowering of Arabic prose and poetry, the forma - tion of the major schools of Islamic law, and the consolidation of Shii and Sunni communities with distinctive traditions.

The Abbasids came to power on the back of a masterful propaganda campaign that targeted those elements in the Islamicate empire whom the Umayyads had alienated, especially those who harbored various degrees of loyalty to the family of Ali: the nascent Shia. They put forward the claim, later largely accepted, that a caliph must come from the clan of Hashim, which included Muhammad and Ali, but also Abbas, Muhammad’s paternal uncle and the ancestor of the Abbasids.

Only after they had attained power did they make it clear that the revolution they had led was for their own family, not that of Ali, crushing the messianic expectations of those who had awaited a descendant of Ali to come to the throne. The messianic expectations generated by the struggle between the Abbasids and Umayyads, as reflected in hadIths that can be dated to this period, remain even now an important part of Islamic apocalyptic beliefs regarding portents of the Last Hour and JUdgment day.

During the heyday of the Abbasid  Caliph- ate, the Islamicate Empire stretched from India and the Central Asian steppes in the east to the western coast of northern Africa. But the heart of the empire was always IRaQ, where they had their capital, baghdad, and what is now IRan. Iraq, in particular, was extensively irrigated and therefore was a rich source of agricultural produce and the resulting tax revenue. By the ninth century, major parts of the empire were functionally indepen - dent, and this gradual breakdown of central rule only increased as time went on. Nonetheless, the provincial rulers, ever anxious to legitimize their rules through official recognition from the calIph, largely maintained their symbolic allegiance to him. Even when these rulers were, in fact, much

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K 2 Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud

stronger than the caliph, few considered declar - ing themselves independent outright, in order to maintain an aura of legitimacy as supporters of the traditional caliphate. The clear exceptions to this were the FatImId dyNaSty (909–1171) and the Umayyads in aNdaLUSIa.

The Abbasids thus had little more than sym - bolic power by the middle of the 10th century, except for a limited revival of their political for- tunes in the 12th and 13th centuries. They were finally crushed by the invading Mongols, who took Baghdad in 1258, wiping out most mem- bers of the Abbasid family and destroying their legendary capital, Baghdad. While a few of the Abbasids escaped to Egypt, where a figurehead caliphate survived under the tutelage of the mam- LUk dyNaSty, they no longer held even the moral aUthORIty that they had had when in Baghdad. Today, the Abbasids remain important as a symbol of the former greatness of the Islamicate civiliza - tion, and as a model for what a united Muslim community might again attain.

See also adab; aRaBIC LaNGUaGe aNd LIteRa- tURe; mahdI; ShIISm.

John Iskander

Further reading: Paul M. Cobb, White Banners: Conten- tion in Abbasid Syria, 750–880 (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001); Tayeb El-Hibri, Reinterpreting Islamic Historiography: Harun al-Rashid and the Narra- tive of the Abbasid Caliphate (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999); Hugh Kennedy, The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates (Harlow: Longman, 2003);

J. J. Saunders, A History of Medieval Islam (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1965).

Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud (Ibn Saud) (1880–1953) charismatic founder of the modern Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and political patron of the conservative Wahhabi sect of Islam

Abd al-Aziz was the descendant of the Al Saud clan of central Arabia that had formed a strategic alli - ance with the revivalist leader mUhammad IBN aBd

aL-WahhaB (1703–92) and established a tribal state that ruled much of the Arabian Peninsula during the 18th and 19th centuries. In a period of political fragmentation, he revived Saudi control of the pen- insula after conducting a raid from neighboring Kuwait in 1902 that resulted in the capture of the town of Riyadh, the future capital of SaUdI aRaBIa. He then conquered other regions of the peninsula with the assistance of the Ikhwan (Brotherhood), a Wahhabi fighting force recruited from among Arab tribes. In 1926, after the fall of meCCa and medINa, religious authorities recognized Abd al- Aziz as king of the Hijaz and sultan of Najd, the western and central regions of Arabia, respectively. With the support of tribal allies, ULama, and the British, he defeated a rebellion among the Ikhwan in 1927–30, and in 1932, he renamed his realm the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Abd al-Aziz was a skillful statesman and leader in times of peace, in addition to being a man of war. He consolidated his power through consultations with close advisers and merchants, intermarriage with influential tribes and clans, and generous disbursements of state revenues. Although he had ruthlessly suppressed the Ikhwan, he maintained solid ties with Wahhabi ulama and gave them control of the country’s religious and educational affairs. They were not capable of seriously oppos- ing him as he moved to modernize the kingdom, however. He granted Standard Oil of California OIL exploration rights in 1933, and he persuaded the ulama to allow for the introduction of radio transmissions and the telephone. Oil was first dis - covered in 1938, and Abd al-Aziz quickly moved to use the new revenues to build family properties and palaces. It was not until after World War II, however, that the Saudi kingdom and the royal family began to fully enjoy the profits of the oil industry. This was when Saudi Arabia became the first Arab country to form close ties with the United States, as signaled by Abd al-Aziz’s meet- ing with President Franklin Roosevelt in 1945 on the deck of the USS Quincy. The newly formed Arabian American Oil Company (ARAMCO) then

Abd al-Qadir al-Jazairi 3 J

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King Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud meets with President Roos- evelt aboard the USS Quincy in the Suez Canal Zone, February 14, 1945. (Courtesy of Dr. Michael Crocker/King Abdul Aziz Foundation)

took charge, with Saudi participation, of build - ing much of the country’s infrastructure: roads, airports, communications, electrical power, and water system. When Abd al-Aziz died, he left a country that was about to embark on a rapid and far-reaching modernization program. Since that time, Saudi Arabia has been ruled by his sons, in alliance with the Wahhabi ulama. He is still held in high esteem by his country.

See also aUthORIty; WahhaBISm.

Further reading: Leslie J. McLoughlin, Ibn Saud: Founder of a Kingdom (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1993); Medawi Rashid, A History of Saudi Arabia (Cam- bridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002)

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Abd al-Nasir, Jamal See NaSIR, JamaL aBd aL-.

Abd al-Qadir al-Jazairi (1808–1883) Sufi shaykh, leader of Algerian resistance to French colonization, and hero of Algerian independence

Abd al-Qadir, the son of a Sufi shaykh of the QadINI SUFI ORdeR, was chosen by his father Muhyi al-Din to lead the resistance to France’s slow-motion colonization of aLGeRIa, which had begun in 1830.

From his base in the region of Oran, in the north - west of Algeria, Abd al-Qadir led a fierce and pro- tracted resistance. For about a decade, until 1842, he controlled much of the Algerian hinterland and had de facto recognition as ruler from both the Algerian populace and the French army, which negotiated with him. He implemented a number of reforms during this time, inspired in  part by his admiration of Muhammad Ali (r. 1805–48), the founder of modern e Gypt, whose reforms he had witnessed at first hand during a visit to that country. But French determination  to  conquer the Algerian hinterland led to a brutal policy of depopulation, in which the native Algerians were forced off their land and into camps, with massive destruction of their crops, livestock, and villages. Eventually, in 1847, Abd al-Qadir surrendered to the French in order to stop the catastrophic war. After being exiled to France, he migrated to IStaN- BUL and then to damaSCUS, where he would spend the rest of his life. In Damascus, he became a large landholder and influential personage, dispensing patronage but also teaching Quran and SUNNa at the main Umayyad mosque.

Abd al-Qadir wrote works in which he pro - moted rationalist explanations of the Quran and Islam, and in this he was in the forefront of Arab and Muslim reformers who sought to understand their religion in light of the changed situation imposed on them by modernity and the supremacy of science. Toward the end of his life, he began to propound a literalist reading of the scriptures, which, while not contradicting his earlier empha- sis on reason, marked a new direction for him. As one of his biographers points out, however, this combination of rational and literal approaches to Islam and the Quran is typical of Salafi, or neo- traditionalist, Islam. Abd al-Qadir is remembered now, and was honored by Europeans during his life, for his part in stopping a massacre (based on local grievances) of Christians in Damascus in 1860, protecting many himself.

He is remembered by Algerians as the first to mount organized resistance to the colonial

K 4 Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani

French, who would stay in that country until they were forced out by a widespread revolution in 1962. His position as patriot and early nation- alist, but also as an Islamic leader, make him a hero around whom most Algerians can safely unite, and it is largely in Algeria that his memory remains important today.

See also ChRIStIaNIty aNd ISLam; COLONIaLISm; OttOmaN dyNaSty; SaLaFISm.

John Iskander

Further reading: David Commins, Islamic Reform: Poli- tics and Social Change in Late Ottoman Syria (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990); Raphael Danziger, Abd al-Qadir and the Algerians: Resistance to the French and Internal Consolidation (New York: Homes & Meier, 1977).

Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani (1077–1166) Sufi saint and founder of the Qadiri Sufi Order

Abd al-Qadir was from the Caspian region of Per- sia and went as a teenager to BaGhdad to study Hanbali law and theOLOGy;  he was also attracted to the teachings of Sufi masters there. After retreating to the  Iraqi  desert  for  several  years as an ascetic, he returned to Baghdad, where he became a scholar and a popular preacher who attracted a wide circle of followers, including Jews and Christians whom he had converted to Islam. The center of his activities was a madRaSa, where he taught religious studies and was con- sulted as a mUFtI. In his sermons, he admonished his listeners to care for the poor and needy, and he sought to harmonize Islam’s legal require- ments with its spiritual message. When  he died in 1166, he was buried in his Baghdad madrasa, which became a popular mosque-shrine  that drew pilgrims from the Middle East and India. His followers circulated many stories about his miraculous powers so that within a century after his death he was regarded as one of the leading Sufi saints in the Muslim world. He is considered to be the founder of the QadIRI SUFI ORdeR, which

now has branches in the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, and Indonesia.

See also haNBaLI LeGaL SChOOL.

Further reading: Khaliq Ahmad Nizami, The Qadiri- yyah Order. In Islamic Spirituality, 2 vols., edited by Seyyed Hossein Nasr, 2: 6–25 (New York: Crossroad, 1991); J. Spencer Trimingham, The Sufi Orders of Islam (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998).

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Abd al-Rahman, Umar (1938– ) a blind radical Islamic leader who was implicated in the assassination of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat (d. 1981) and the 1993 New York World Trade Center bombing

Umar Abd al-Rahman was born in al-Gamalaya, eGypt, in 1938, and lost his sight very early in life. After learning Braille as a young child, he excelled at his studies. By age 11, Abd al-Rahman had memorized the QURaN. Having been trained in a series of traditional Islamic learning academies, including al-azhaR University, he received his doctorate in 1972. He is best known for his work as a preacher and as an Islamist organizer and activist. In this capacity, throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Abd al-Rahman ran afoul of Egyptian authorities, most notoriously for allegedly issuing the FatWa (religious edict) leading to Egyptian president Anwar Sadat’s assassination in 1981.

Abd al-Rahman has been linked to two Egyp- tian Islamist organizations, JIhad and the Jamaa Islamiyya. As a result of his involvement with these organizations and his criticism of the Egyp - tian state, Abd al-Rahman was imprisoned a num - ber of times, including after Jamal Abd al-Nasir’s death in 1970 and after Sadat’s assassination. Through his involvement with Islamist networks, he became active in anti-Soviet resistance in aFGhaNIStaN in the early  1980s,  raising  money and recruiting through his preaching and organi - zational activities. Abd al-Rahman is said to have established links with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), who offered funding and military

Abduh, Muhammad 5 J

and logistical support to those fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan.

Making his way to the United States after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1988, Abd al-Rahman continued preaching jihad against non-Muslim powers. Following the Gulf War of 1991, he, like some other veterans of anti-Soviet resistance in Afghanistan, turned his attention to the United States. In 1996, he was found guilty of orchestrating the 1993 attacks on the World Trade Center from his mOSQUe in New Jersey. He is serv- ing life in prison for this crime.

See also JIhad mOvemeNtS.

Caleb Elfenbein

Further reading: Gilles Kepel, Jihad: The Trail of Politi- cal Islam (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2002); Omar Abd  al-Rahman,  Umar Abdul Rahman: A Self-Portrait. Afkar Inquiry (3 November 1986): 56–57.

Abd al-Raziq, Ali (1888–1966) liberal Egyptian jurist and political reformer

A reform-minded judge in Egypt’s ShaRIa courts, Ali Abd al-Raziq was the author of a controversial book that advocated the separation of Islam from politics. He came from a prominent landholding family in the district of Minya in Upper eGypt that favored the creation of a constitutional monarchy and other liberal secular reforms. After studying at al-azhaR and Oxford University, he began his career as a judge in the Egyptian court system. In his book Islam and the Principles of Government, published in 1925, he argued that mUhammad’s mission was a moral and spiritual one only, and that neither the QURaN nor the hadIth had ever authorized the establishment of a CaLIphate, or Islamic state. Abd al-Raziq developed his thesis after  the  new  republican  government  in  tURkey had formally abolished the caliphate in 1924, a time when there were strong secular and national - ist currents in the Middle East. Nevertheless, his book outraged religious authorities and tradition-

ally minded Muslims who wanted to hold on to the ideal of united Muslim polity, even though the caliphate had long before ceased to be an effective political institution in Muslim coun- tries. They were even more offended that he was contesting the role of religious law in public life and traditional doctrines about Muhammad’s role as a prophet-ruler. They accused Abd al-Raziq of undermining Islam with European ideas, for which he paid a high price: A council of al-Azhar religious scholars condemned his book, stripped him of his degree, and dismissed him from judi- cial office. He continued to write but stayed out of public affairs for the rest of his life.

See also aBdUh, mUhammad; GOveRNmeNt, ISLamIC; SeCULaRISm.

Further reading: Hamid Enayat, Modern Islamic Politi- cal Thought (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1982); Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798–1939 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983).

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Abd al-Wahhab, Muhammad ibn See

IBN aBd aL-WahhaB, mUhammad.

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Abduh, Muhammad (1849–1905) modern Islamic modernist thinker

Muhammad Abduh was an Egyptian religious scholar, jurist, and leader of a major social reform movement in the Muslim world who advocated a modernist reinterpretation of I SLam. Known as the father of Islamic modernism, he was born in 1849 to a modest family in the Egyptian delta. His early education involved traditional QURaN mem- orization, although Abduh’s natural inclinations tended toward SUFISm. In  1877,  he  concluded his studies in religion, logic, and phILOSOphy at aL-azhaR  University and  began  teaching there as a religious scholar. Simultaneously, he became interested in politics, publishing articles on politi- cal and social reform and joining the Egyptian

K 6 ablution

nationalist movement against British occupation of the country. This culminated in Abduh’s partici - pation in the unsuccessful 1882 Urabi Revolt and his exile by the Egyptian khedive (ruler).

A major influence in Abduh’s life was JamaL aL-dIN aL-aFGhaNI, who had come to CaIRO in 1871. They worked closely together there and later in Paris, where in 1884 they organized a secret society and published al-Urwa al-Wuthqa (the strongest link), a newspaper promoting resis - tance to European expansionism through Mus - lims’ solidarity with one another  and  through the revival and reform of Islam. Both Abduh and al-Afghani saw stagnation and weakness in Islami- cate societies as rooted in the imitation ( taqlid) of old traditions and called for the use of rational interpretation ( IJtIhad) to incorporate  modern ideas into Islam. Abduh in particular saw many parallels between concepts in Islam and ideas associated with the European Enlightenment and drew on these for inspiration. He rejected, how - ever, a wholesale appropriation of western secular values, choosing instead the middle path of an enlightened Islam that valued the human intellect and modern sciences but revered the divine as the source of human morality. He presented his ideas on theology in a series of lectures given in Beirut that were later published as Risalat al-tawhid (The Theology of Unity, 1942–1943).

In 1888, Abduh returned to Cairo, focus - ing his energies on educational and institutional reform. After becoming the head ( mUFtI) of the nation’s ShaRIa court system in 1899, he worked to liberalize interpretations of religious law. In this field, he was especially concerned with the status of women and advocated changes in family law and equal opportunities in education, but he was often countered by strong conservative forces.

Muhammad Abduh’s ideas were carried  on by his associates long after his death. mUhammad RaShId RIda, a Syrian, published the reformist journal Al-Manar (the beacon), which they had started together, until his death in 1935. Qasim Amin (d. 1908) developed further the arguments

for women’s emancipation as integral to national development and a healthy Muslim society, and he became an inspiration to feminists in the region. haSaN aL-BaNNa (d. 1949) would take the spirit of Abduh’s activist Islamic ideology and apply it in the founding of the m USLIm BROtheRhOOd. Abduh died in 1905 near Alexandria, Egypt.

See also edUCatION; eGYPt; ReNeWaL aNd ReFORm mOVemeNtS; SaLaFISm; SeCULaRISm.

Michelle Zimney

Further reading: Hamid Enayat, Modern Islamic Politi- cal Thought (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1982); Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798–1939 (London: Oxford University Press, 1970); Malcolm H. Kerr, Islamic Reform: The Political and Legal Theories of Muhammad Abduh and Rashid Rida (Berke- ley: University of California Press, 1966).

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ablution

Ablution involves the ritual cleansing of the body with pure water in preparation for perfor - mance of other acts of worship. Although there are minor differences of opinion among Islamic legal schools, Islamic law generally stipulates two kinds of ablution. One, called ghusl, requires an expression of intention, followed by a cleansing of the entire body. It must be performed after sexual activity, menstruation, and  childbirth; it is also performed on the body of a dead person to prepare it for funerary PRaYeR and burial. The second kind of ablution, wudu, involves a partial cleansing starting with an expression of intention, followed by washing of the face, hands up to the elbows, head, and feet. It may also involve wash- ing the ears and nostrils and rinsing the mouth. This method is believed to purify the body after urination and defecation, touching the genitals, sleep, and other activities. Ablution may be per- formed at home or at the mOSQUe, which has special facilities for this purpose. The numerous communal bathhouses that characterized medi -

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eval Islamicate cities also helped to meet this need. In the absence of water, Islamic law allows for the performance of dry ablution with sand or a similar substance. Only the hands and face are cleansed if this is the case. Failure to perform the proper ablution prohibits a person from per - forming prayer, entering a mosque, touching the QURaN, or visiting the KaaBa in meCCa.

See also FUNeRaRY RItUaLS.

Further reading: Laleh Bakhtiyar, Encyclopedia of Islamic Law: A Compendium of the Major Schools (Chi- cago: ABC International Group, 1996), 20–61; Marion Holmes Katz, Body of Text: The Emergence of the Sunni Law of Ritual Purity (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002); Arthur Jeffrey, Reader on Islam (The Hague: Mouton & Company, 1962), 464–470.

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abortion

Abortion is a human intervention to end a preg - nancy  prior  to  birth. Although  people living in many different societies throughout history have practiced it, abortion has caused consider- able reflection and debate about its ethical, legal, religious, social, economic, as well as medical implications. Decisions about abortion involve interrelationships between the woman and her fetus, the woman and her mate or husband, and the wider society—including religious, legal, and medical authorities. At the center of the debate are life and death questions that no individual or society takes lightly.

Muslim religious and legal experts have been involved in discussions about abortion since the 11th century, and they have expressed different points of view on the subject. They often turn to teachings found in the QURaN and hadIth that emphasize the sacredness of human life, such as those that deal with man’s creation with a soul (ruh) from God (Q 15:29, 32:9), the development of the fetus (Q 23:12-14), and condemnations of murder and the killing of one’s own offspring (Q 17:33, 6:151, 81:8-9). Most schools of Islamic law

make a distinction between the first 120 days, when abortion is allowed for a valid reason (for example, to save the life of the mother or a nurs - ing child), and the remainder of the pregnancy, when it is believed that the fetus has received its soul and gains legal status as a person. Abor- tion thereafter is generally prohibited, unless the mother’s health is threatened, since her welfare has precedence over that of the fetus. This is espe - cially true for those who follow the recommenda - tions of the haNaFI LeGaL SChOOL. On the other hand, most jurists of the maLIKI LeGaL SChOOL believe that ensoulment occurs at the moment of conception, and they tend to forbid abortion at any point, which puts this school’s position closer to that of the Roman Catholic Church. The other schools hold intermediate positions. The penalty prescribed for an illegal abortion varies according to the particular circumstances involved. Accord - ing to the ShaRIa, it should be limited to a fine that is paid to the father or heirs of the fetus. According to Islamic theOLOGY, there may also be punishment in the aFteRLIFe.

There are no accurate statistics concerning actual abortion rates among Muslims. Most Mus- lim countries, which often have high birth rates, fall among the group of developing nations, where an estimated 78 percent of the world’s abortions are performed. The Muslim countries with the most liberal abortion laws for women are IRaN, Tunisia, and tURKeY. In accordance with the sharia, it is allowed in special circumstances in most other Muslim countries, especially when the health of the mother or a nursing child is involved.

See also adam aNd eVe; BIRth CONtROL aNd FamILY PLaNNING; ChILdReN; SOUL aNd SPIRIt.

Further reading: Jonathan E. Brockopp, ed., Islamic Ethics of Life: Abortion, War, and Euthanasia (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press,  2003);  especially the chapters by Marion Holmes Katz, Donna  Lee Bowen, and Vardit Rispler-Chaim; Basim F. Musallam, Sex and Society in Islam (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni- versity Press, 1983).

K 8 Abou El Fadl, Khaled

Abou El Fadl, Khaled (1963– ) leading scholar of Islamic law, religious reformer, and human rights advocate living in the United States

Khaled Abou El Fadl was born in Kuwait in 1963 and was raised in both Kuwait and eGYPt. In his youth, he was attracted to the strict, literalist ten - dency in contemporary ISLam, but as he matured he came to understand his religion in a less literal way. He credits his parents for helping him to do this. He went to the United States to attend college in 1982 and obtained a bachelor’s degree at Yale University in 1986, then a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania (1989), and a doctor- ate in Islamic studies from Princeton University (1999). He has taught on the faculty of law at the University of California, Los Angeles, since 1998 and lectures frequently to audiences in the United States and abroad.

Abou El Fadl is an outspoken critic of teRROR-

ISm and  the puritanical Wahhabi understanding of Islam that is promoted by an influential party of Muslim religious authorities in SaUdI aRaBIa and other countries, including the United States and Europe. His views became known to a wider public in the United States after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon through newspaper editorials, pub - lications, and speeches. He condemns religious fanaticism and supports religious and cultural pluralism, democratic values, and WOmeN’s rights. His Muslim opponents accuse him of being a tool of the West, serving the interests of Islam’s enemies. What makes Abou El Fadl’s ideas so powerful, however, is that he supports many of his opinions with an encyclopedic knowledge of the QURaN and the ShaRIa, enhanced further by his training in the secular Western legal tradition. His California home contains thousands of volumes and manuscripts, including many classics on Islamic subjects, which inspired the essays in his Conference of the Books: The Search for Beauty in Islam. For him, the search for the truth, or God’s law, is an ongoing endeavor, one that involves rea- soned argument, the weighing of different points

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of view, and placement of quranic command - ments in their appropriate historical context. Abou El Fadl boldly maintains that this method has been a norm in classical Islamic thought but has been violated by religious fanatics, who base their views on blind imitation and superficial, erroneous interpretations of God’s will. In doing this, Abou El Fadl is claiming a place for himself squarely within the reformist tradition in modern Islam. A careful and reflective synthesis, he writes, must be worked out between modernity and tradition (And God Knows the Soldiers, p. 115). Through his writings and his public service on behalf of hUmaN RIGhtS, he is impacting both American civil society and Muslim immigrant communities. What remains to be seen is whether he and other progressively minded Muslims will be able to have a profound affect abroad in Mus- lim-majority countries.

See also ReNeWaL aNd ReFORm mOVemeNtS; SaLaFISm; SeCULaRISm; UNIted  StateS; WahhaBISm.

Further reading: Khaled M. Abou El Fadl, And God Knows the Soldiers: The Authoritative and Authoritarian in Islamic Discourses (Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2001); Khaled M. Abou El Fadl,  Conference of the Books: The Search for Beauty in Islam (Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2001); Omid Safi, ed., Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender, and Pluralism (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2003).

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Abraham (Arabic: Ibrahim) one of the leading Muslim prophets, believed to be the ancestral founder of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

One of the most important figures in Islamic sacred history is Abraham, who is considered a patriarchal figure, a close friend of God, and, above all, a prophet and founder of the K aaBa in meCCa. Western scholars disagree  about  when the historic Abraham may  have  lived—some say as early as 2000 B.C.e., others say up to a thousand years later (ca. 1000 B.C.e.). Muslim understandings of Abraham drew significantly

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from stories found in the book of Genesis in the Bible and related accounts that were circulating among Jews and Christians in the Middle East during the seventh century C.e. These accounts were then adapted to the Arab Muslim environ- ment, as first shown in the QURaN. The fact that Muslims as well as Jews and Christians look to Abraham as an ancestral figure for their respec - tive religions has led some people to call all three religions Abrahamic and their followers children of Abraham.

Abraham is mentioned in the Quran  more than any other prophet except for mOSeS. As in the Bible, he is portrayed as an opponent of IdOLatRY (Q 6:74–84), a person who converses with God and the angels (Q 11:69–76), the father of Ish - mael (Arabic: Ismail, Q 2:133) and Isaac (Arabic: Ishaq, Q 37:112), a founder of sacred places (Q 2:125–127), and a pious man who was prepared to sacrifice his son at God’s command (Q 37:99– 111). Islamic traditions emphasize his role as the builder of the ancient Kaaba and his connection with many of the haJJ rituals. His wife, Hagar, and their son Ishmael are associated with the well of zamzam in the Sacred Mosque and the ritual run - ning between the hills of Safa and Marwa. One of the most important memorials in the Sacred Mosque’s courtyard is the Station of Abraham, where it is believed he stood while building the Kaaba. Muslims commemorate the attempted sac - rifice of his son every year during the Id aL-adha (Feast of the Sacrifice), which closes the hajj sea- son. The Quran does not say which of Abraham’s two sons he intended to sacrifice, but the consen - sus reached among Muslims is that it was Ishmael. In Judaism, it is believed to have been his other son, Isaac. Abraham is thought to have been bur- ied in the West Bank town of Hebron, which is called al-Khalil in Arabic in memory of Abraham’s reputation as the friend of God (see Q 4:125). His tomb there is a place of worship for both Jews and Muslims, but it has become a flashpoint for confrontations between members of these com- munities in modern times.

See also JUdaISm aNd ISLam; PROPhetS aNd PROPheCY.

Further reading: Reuven Firestone, Journeys in Holy Lands: The Evolution of the Abraham-Ishmael Legends (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990); Gordon Darnell Newby, The Making of the Last Prophet: A Reconstruction of the Earliest Biography of Muhammad (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1989).

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Abu Bakr (573–634) first of four Sunni rightly guided caliphs to rule the early Muslim community after Muhammad’s death in 632

Abu Bakr, the close companion and father-in-law of mUhammad, was elected the first CaLIPh of the Muslim community when Muhammad died in 632. Sunni Muslims regard  him as one of the four rightly guided caliphs, along with UmaR IBN  aL-KhattaB  (r.  634–644),  UthmaN  IBN  aFFaN (r. 644–655), and  aLI  IBN  aBI  taLIB  (r. 656–661).

A native of meCCa, Abu Bakr  was a  member  of a branch of the QURaYSh tribe and made a living as a merchant. He is remembered as the first of Muhammad’s associates (excluding family mem- bers) to convert to Islam, and he helped protect Muhammad when he departed on the h IJRa to medINa in 622. His nickname was al-Siddiq (the truthful) because he  was  the  first  to  confirm the reality of Muhammad’s NIGht JOURNeY aNd aSCeNt. Abu Bakr was Muhammad’s main adviser, and he joined him in all his subsequent battles. His daughter aISha married Muhammad and became his most important wife. When Muham- mad died, Abu Bakr was the candidate favored by the powerful Quraysh and other emIGRaNtS from Mecca to become the Prophet’s successor (caliph), against Ali, who was favored by the aNSaR of Medina. Ali and his supporters, however, pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr without conflict. In what were called the wars of aPOStaSY, Abu Bakr was soon forced to suppress rebellions by tribes in outlying regions of the Arabian Peninsula that had refused to pay alms (zakat), or had turned away

K 10 Abu Hanifa

from Islam to follow rival prophets. After success- fully prosecuting these wars, he authorized the sending of Muslim and aRaB tribal armies into Syria and Iraq, thus inaugurating the first Muslim conquests outside the Arabian Peninsula. The first collection of the Quran in written form was also initiated at his order.

See also aUthORItY; CaLIPhate; fitna.

Further reading: Hugh Kennedy, The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates (London: Longman, 1985); Wil- ferd Madelung, The Succession to Muhammad: A Study of the Early Caliphate (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).

Abu Hanifa See haNaFI LeGaL SChOOL.

Abu Zayd, Nasr Hamid (1943– ) influential Egyptian intellectual who was forced to leave his native Egypt because of his secularist approach to interpreting the Quran and other Islamic texts

Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd was born in a small village near Tanta, a city in eGYPt’s Nile Delta. His father was a grocer, and his mother was the daughter of a professional QURaN reciter. He graduated from technical school in 1960 and worked as an electri- cian in a government ministry. In 1968, he moved to Cairo and enrolled at Cairo University, where he obtained a B.A. degree in Arabic language and LIteRatURe four years later. He earned a masters degree and a doctorate (1980) in Islamic studies from the same institution. Abu Zayd’s master’s thesis was on the Mutazili interpretation of the Quran, and his doctoral dissertation was about the famous Sufi mUhYI aL-dIN IBN aL-aRaBI (d. 1240) and his mystical interpretations of the Quran. His first academic appointment was to the Depart - ment of Arabic Studies at Cairo University. His published works deal with the modern interpreta- tions of the Quran, Islamic law, Ibn al-Arabi, and women’s rights. He has studied and taught in the

United States, Japan, and the Netherlands, where he has been a professor of Arabic and Islamic studies at Leiden University since 1995.

The main reason Abu Zayd left Egypt in 1995 was that his secular theories about how to inter- pret sacred Islamic texts upset influential Muslim conservatives who then caused such a public uproar in the media that he felt his life was in dan - ger. His fears were justified, because Farag Foda, a leading critic of political Islam in Egypt, had been assassinated in 1992 because of his views, and Egyptian Nobel Prize laureate Naguib Mahfouz had barely escaped a fatal stabbing in 1994. Abu Zayd’s trouble began in 1992, when he submitted his publications to a tenure review committee at Cairo University. Despite very positive evalua- tions, the committee recommended that he not be granted tenure, which sparked a national debate over academic freedom and defending Islam and Egypt from the threat of secular values. An influ - ential member of the tenure committee, who also preached at a major mosque in Old Cairo, accused Abu Zayd of intellectual terrorism and said that his works were a Marxist-secularist attempt to destroy Egypt’s society (Najjar, 179). Aside from minor technical flaws, what really upset Abu Zayd’s critics was his liberal secularist approach to reading Islamic literature. He argued that in the modern period Muslim extremists and authoritar - ians promoted misguided understandings about Islam as eternal truths that cannot be disputed. He concluded that such notions were self-serving and did not stand up to the light of rational analysis. A small group of closed-minded zealots, therefore, were preventing foundational Islamic texts such as the Quran and hadith from being debated and understood in terms of context, historical change, and universal values. In an unprecedented action, Abu Zayd’s opponents took his case to court and were able to convince the Cairo Appeals Court, backed by the Egyptian Supreme Court, to rule that he was an aPOState (a Muslim who had aban- doned his religion), and because of this he could no longer remain married to his wife, Ibtihal.

adab 11 J

Faced with death threats, forced separation from his wife, and the lack of support from Egyptian civil authorities, he and his wife left the country to live in exile.

See also mUtazILI SChOOL; SeCULaRISm.

Further reading: Fauzi M. Najjar, Islamic Fundamen- talism and the Intellectuals: The Case of Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd. British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 27 (2000): 177–200; Nasr Abu Zaid and Esther R. Nelson, Voice of an Exile: Reflections on Islam (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2004).

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adab

Adab is an Arabic word for refined behavior and good manners that are to be practiced daily. It is also used for areas of knowledge that are today called the humanities, especially literature written in eloquent prose. Both as a code of moral instruc - tions and as a body of knowledge expressed through literature, adab has been significantly shaped by the QURaN and the SUNNa of mUham- mad, but it has also absorbed local codes of behav- ior and non-Islamic traditions of learning based in urban social settings. The traditional masters of adab were Muslim religious scholars, mystics, and educated elites who served the rulers of Islamicate lands from Spain and North Africa to Southeast Asia, especially between the eighth century and the 20th.

Although mastery of the skills necessary for understanding and producing eloquently written literature was available only to a select minority, training in manners and morals was a life-long process that all members of society were expected to engage in, beginning with childhood education and  continuing  with  individual  self-discipline in adulthood. In premodern Islamicate societ - ies, there were written codes of adab for specific groups, such as the ULama, rulers, nobles, bureau- crats and secretaries, judges, Sufis, tradesmen and artisans, and even musicians. From the general religious perspective of Islam, there are also rules

of good conduct that are applicable to all believ- ers. The Quran and the sunna of Muhammad con - tain these rules, which involve ordinary activities such as eating, dress, grooming, speaking, visita- tion, and hospitality. Muslim theologians and phi - losophers saw adab as an etiquette or discipline that could help purify the individual’s God-given, rational soul by strengthening inner virtues and controlling or even eliminating wrongful behav- ior such as lying and cheating. Moreover, they thought adab could curb worldly passions, for example, sexual desire, greed, anger, jealousy, gluttony, and stinginess. One of the leading medi- eval theologians, al-Ghazali (d. 1111), linked adab to the FIVe PILLaRS of Islam (which involve an etiquette for human behavior toward God), Sufi practices, and the attainment of eternal bliss in

PaRadISe.

Adab is also used as a name for a large and diverse body of literary works that both conveys information and demonstrates the creative elo - quence of the written word in order to transmit cultural values and entertain readers. It includes books of history, geography, tRaVeL, BIOGRaPhY, poetry, and interesting information about people and natural phenomena. In the early centuries of Islam, much of this literature was written in Ara - bic and drew upon the styles of expression found in the Quran and hadith. But ancient Greek and Persian learning also inspired and was at home wherever Islamicate civilization flourished. One of the most important contributors to this body of writings was al-Jahiz (d. 869), who may have com- posed as many as 200 books and essays on a wide range of topics, including animal lore, singing girls, misers, politics, philosophy, and religion.

See  also  aRaBIC   LaNGUaGe   aNd   LIteRatURe; edUCatION; GhazaLI, aBU hamId aL-; mORaLItY aNd ethICS; SUFISm.

Further reading: Roger Allen, The Arabic Literary Heri- tage: The Development of Its Genres and Criticism (Cam- bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998); Barbara Daily Metcalf, ed., Moral Conduct and Authority: The

K 12 Adam andEve

Place of Adab in South Asian Islam (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984).

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Adam andEve ancestral parents of all human beings according to Islamic belief

Muslim understandings of Adam and Eve, the first human beings, are based on the QURaN, the hadIth, and other religious texts. Muslims also regard Adam as the first of a series of prophets that ends with mUhammad. Biblical and later Jew- ish and Christian stories about Adam and Eve were already familiar to aRaB peoples at the time Islam began in the seventh century, and these stories continued to develop in their new Arabic- Islamic setting thereafter.

According to the Quran, God created Adam from clay (Q 7:12) and gave him life by filling him with his spirit (ruh, Q 15:29). God appointed him to be his deputy (CaLIPh) on Earth, to which the angels objected because of their fear that he would cause trouble and bloodshed (Q 2:30). God had Adam prove his superiority to them by teach - ing him the names of everything (Q 2:30–32). The angels finally bowed down to Adam, except SataN,  whom  God  expelled  from  heaven  for  his disobedience (Q 2:34, 7:11–18). The Quran does not mention Eve (Hawwa) by name, but it does talk about Adam’s wife (Q 20:117). She was created from Adam (Muslim commentators say from his rib), and they lived blissfully together in PaRadISe, where they were allowed to eat whatever they wished except from the tree of immortality (Q 7:189, 2:35, 20:120). Muslim commentators speculate that this may have been a fig tree, a grape vine, or even wheat. Both Adam and Eve violated God’s taboo after being misled by Satan (not a ser- pent), thus committing the first sin. For punish- ment, they were expelled from paradise and sent down to Earth, where they and their descendants were to live, die, and be resurrected (Q 7:20–25, 20:121–123, 2:36). Despite this punishment, Mus - lims do not hold to a doctrine of original sin, which many Christian denominations in the West

believe humans have inherited from Adam and Eve. Rather, Islamic tradition holds that God for- gave Adam, allowing him to repent and providing him guidance toward salvation (Q 2:37–38).

After the Fall, according to Islamic tradition, Adam landed on Mount Nawdh in India (or Sri Lanka), where he initiated the first crafts; Eve landed in Jidda, Arabia. Some say that the city of Jidda, which means grandmother, was actually named in memory of Eve. Adam and his wife were reunited when the angel GaBRIeL brought Adam to meCCa for the first time to perform the haJJ. As in the Bible, Eve gave birth to Cain and Abel, and Cain later murdered his brother out of jealousy because God accepted Abel’s sacrifice and not his own (Q 5:27–32). Legendary accounts say that Adam and Eve gave birth to 20 sets of girl-boy twins, from which all the world’s peoples are descended. According to Shii tradition, Adam and Eve were given a premonition of the martyrdom of their descendant hUSaYN IBN aLI (d. 680), the prophet Muhammad’s grandson, and they were the first to express grief on his behalf. Sufis and others, on the other hand, have looked to when, prior to their existence, the children of Adam were brought forth from his loins to testify to God as their lord (see Q 7:171). This was intended to show that worship of one true God was inherent in human nature.

See also aLLah; aNGeL; PROPhetS aNd PROPheSY; SOUL  aNd  SUPPORt.

Further reading: M. J. Kister, "Adam: A Study of Some Legends in Tafsir and Hadith Literature." Israel Oriental Studies (1993): 113–174; Gordon Darnell Newby, The Making of the Last Prophet: A Reconstruction of the Earli- est Biography of Muhammad (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1989).

adat See CUSTOMARY LAW.

adhan (Arabic; also azan)

Adhan, the Islamic call to PRaYeR, is recited in Arabic before each of the five daily prayers from

adultery 13 J

a mOSQUe. According to traditional accounts, it was first performed by BILaL, one of Muhammad’s companions, after the hIJRa to Medina in 622 C.e. The man who performs the call to prayer is called a muadhdhin (mUezzIN), and he should stand fac- ing the qibla (toward meCCa) when he does so. Muslims are expected to perform their prayers when they hear the adhan. Although the call to prayer may sound melodic, many Muslims object to it being called musical because of its religious meaning.

For Sunni Muslims, the following phrases are chanted (with minor variations in the number of repetitions):

Allahu akbar (repeated four times) God is great;

Ashhadu an la ilaha illa Allah (repeated twice) I witness that there is no god but God;

Ashhadu anna Muhammadan rasul Allah (repeated twice) I witness that Muham - mad is the prophet of God;

Hayya ala s-salah (repeated twice) Come to prayer;

Hayya ala l-falah (repeated twice) Come to safety and prosperity;

Allahu akbar (repeated twice) God is great;

La ilaha illa Allah There is no god but God.

The adhan for the morning prayer adds the follow - ing after part 5: as-salatu khayrun min an-nawm (repeated twice) Prayer is better than sleep.

For tWeLVe-Imam ShIISm, the call to prayer can differ slightly with the addition of ashhadu anna Aliyan waliyu Allah (I witness that aLI is the friend of God) after part 3, and hayya ala khayr al-amal (Come to the best of actions, repeated twice) after part 5.

Traditionally, the muezzin chanted the adhan from the mosque  mINaRet, but today he can do it from the mosque floor using loudspeakers. It is not unusual in Muslim cities to hear the adhan

coming noisily from several mosques in the same neighborhood, each chanted in a different style. In cities where Muslims are a minority, it may have to be performed quietly or inside the mosque. The call to prayer is also performed on radio and tele- vision in Muslim countries, and it can sometimes be heard on radio stations in the United States. The adhan may also be chanted softly into the ear of a newborn child, welcoming her or him into the wider Muslim community.

See also mUSIC; shahada; SUNNISm.

Further reading: Hammudah Abd al-Ati, Islam in Focus (Beltsville, Md.: Amana Publications, 1998); Scott L. Marcus, Music in Egypt: Experiencing Music, Express- ing Culture (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007); Likayat A. Takim, "From Bida to Sunna: The Wilaya of Ali in the Shii Adhan." Journal of the American Oriental Society 120 (2000): 166–177.

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adultery

Sexual intercourse with someone other than one’s marriage partner is called zina (adultery) in Arabic. In the ShaRIa zina encompasses not only adultery but any sexual act among two people who are not married to each other. Pre-Islamic Arabian society may have considered zina as one of several acceptable forms of marriage, but Islam brought an end to these multiple forms. For men, the only exception to zina concerns sexual inter- course with the female slaves under their owner - ship, which is allowable (although not common practice today).

Adultery is a grave offense in Islam, as it undermines the basic foundation of Muslim soci - etal organization—the legal contract of marriage by which two partners are bound to each other exclusively by clearly delimited rights and obliga- tions. Among these rights and duties is exclusive sexual access to one’s spouse, so as to prevent pro- miscuity and social disorder. The QURaN includes numerous references on the subject, most notably Q 24:2, which pronounces the fixed hadd punish-

K 14 Afghani, Jamal al-Din al-

ment of 100 lashes for adulterers. Some hadIth accounts go on to specify that this punishment is reserved for unmarried adulterers, while married adulterers are to be stoned to death. The Quran (Q 4:15) insists that four eye witnesses must confirm the act of adultery in order to execute punishment,  since  unsubstantiated  accusations of adultery are an almost equally grave matter. The Quran (Q 24:4) states that anyone who insti- gates a charge of adultery without the required evidence of four witnesses is punishable by 80 lashes. Because of these stringent requirements of proof, punishment for adultery is rarely executed, although Muslim authorities have tried to enforce it in some modern Muslim countries.

See also CRIme aNd PUNIShmeNt; dIVORCe; SLaV- eRY; WOmeN.

Aysha A. Hidayatullah

Further reading: Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1992); Abdelwahab Bouh- diba, Sexuality in Islam. Translated by Alan Sheridan (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985); Noel J. Couslon, Regulation of Sexual Behavior under Tradi- tional Islamic Law. In Society and the Sexes in Medieval Islam, edited by Afaf Lufti al-Sayyid-Marsot (Malibu, Calif.: Undena, 1979).

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Afghani, Jamal al-Din al- (1838–1897) leading advocate for Islamic revivalism and Muslim solidarity against European imperialism in the 19th century

Some uncertainty surrounds the origins of Muslim writer, philosopher, and political activist Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, whose name indicates he was from aFGhaNIStaN but whose real homeland most scholars identify as Persia, or modern-day IRaN. Born into a Shii family of sayyids (descendants of mUhammad), al-Afghani spent his life traveling and teaching in INdIa, the Middle East, and Europe. His main objective was to inspire and organize

a pan-Islamic movement to strengthen Muslims’ resistance to the expansion of European, specifi- cally British, power around the world. Among his many prominent disciples were mUhammad aBdUh (d. 1905), with whom he published a newspaper (al-Urwa al-Wuthqa, strongest link) in 1884, and Saad Zaghloul (d. 1927), who later led Egypt’s independence movement. His major work was a treatise on the role of reason in understanding divine revelation titled al-Radd ala al-Dahiriyyin (Reply to the materialists). Many consider him the father of Muslim nationalism.

Al-Afghani’s early education in Iran was in theOLOGY and Islamic PhILOSOPhY, particularly that of aBU aLI aL-hUSSeIN IBN SINa (Latin: Avicenna, d. 1037)). As a youth, he studied modern sciences and mathematICS in India, where he witnessed firsthand the detrimental political and social effects of British imperialism. This contributed to his view that Muslims needed to band together to defend themselves. Muslim solidarity and a revitalized Islam, one that integrated the best of technology and science with traditional Islamic values, were essential if Muslims were to regain control of their lands. He enthusiastically pro - moted a role for rational interpretation ( ijtihad) in understanding Islam, a position he debated with European intellectuals, such as Ernest Renan (d. 1892), and Muslim clerics alike.

Al-Afghani’s career took him to many coun- tries and into the service of many Muslim gov- ernments, including the Ottoman sultan Abd al-Hamid (r. 1806–1909) and Persia’s Shah Nasir al-Din (r. 1848–96). However, this did not keep him from directing his criticisms at his patrons, whom he saw as extensions or at least facilita- tors of European influence in the Middle East. He advocated constitutionalism as a way to check autocratic power, criticized the taNzImat  reforms in Turkey, and initiated the popular agitation that led to the Tobacco Protests of 1891–92 against British concessions in Persia. In 1896, Nasir al-Din was assassinated by one of al-Afghani’s followers, leaving the latter to  live out his days

Afghanistan 15 J

in Istanbul under the distrustful surveillance of the sultan. Al-Afghani’s influence was seminal to the development of Muslim nationalism and Islamic modernism and to the lives of men such as Muhammad Abduh, mUhammad RaShId RIda (d. 1935), mUhammad IQBaL (d.  1938),  and  mUham- mad aLI JINNah (d. 1948), who would carry the Islamic reform movement forward in the 20th century.

See also CONStItUtIONaL ReVOLUtION; PaN- ISLamISm; ReNeWaL aNd ReFORm mOVemeNtS; SaLaFISm.

Michelle Zimney

Further reading: Albert Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798–1939 (London: Oxford University Press, 1970); Nikki R Keddie, An Islamic Response to Imperialism: Political and Religious Writings of Sayyid Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (Berkeley: University of Cali- fornia Press, 1983).

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Afghanistan

Afghanistan is a mountainous landlocked coun - try with an area of 647,500 sq. km. (comparable in size to the state of Texas) and an estimated population of 32.7 million in 2008. It is situated on the frontier between the Middle East, Central Asia, and South Asia, with IRaN on its western border and PaKIStaN on its eastern and southern borders. A large majority of its people are Sunni Muslim (80 percent), but there are also Shii Mus - lims (19 percent) and followers of other religions (1 percent). Religious life consists of a mixture of folk religion, SUFISm, and formal Islamic doctrine and practice. Ethnic and tribal loyalties are often stronger than religious and national ones. The major ethnic groups are Pashtun (42 percent, also called Afghans), Tajik (27 percent), Hazara (9 percent), and Uzbek (9 percent). Pushtu and Dari (the Afghani Persian dialect) are Afghanistan’s official languages, but there are more than 30 lan- guages and dialects spoken there, most of which

belong to the Indo-European and Turkic language families. Its major cities are Kabul (the capital), Qandahar, and Herat, but most of the population still lives in the countryside.

Because of its location, the Afghanistan region has been a crossroads for peoples, merchandise, and empires for centuries. The Arab Muslim armies that arrived in the seventh century were following the routes used previously by Persian and Greek invaders, but  none of these empires, or the nearly 20 empires and dynasties that came later, found Afghanistan easy to conquer and control. The Afghan peoples, though internally divided, tend to unite in fierce opposition to out- siders. Islamic rule was not secure there until the late 10th century, when it became the seat of the Ghaznavid dynasty (977–1163), which also gov- erned eastern Iran and launched a series of raids into northern INdIa. Afghanistan then succumbed to invasions by Turks and Mongols during the 13th and 14th centuries. The country’s strategic location continued to make it a focal point of conflict between Muslim rulers in Iran and India from the 15th to 18th centuries and a target for the imperial ambitions of Russia and Great Brit - ain in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Despite its turbulent history, medieval Afghanistan saw moments of significant religious and cultural achievement, reflected in its role in the exten- sion of Islamicate architectural forms  to India and sponsorship of Firdowsi’s Persian epic, the Shahnama (ca. 980), and  the scientific writings of aBU RaYhaN aL-BIRUNI (973–1048). In addition to being the base from which Muslims invaded northern India, Afghanistan  was  the birthplace of several important Sufi masters, including IBRa- hIm IBN adham (d. 778) and JaLaL aL-dIN RUmI (1207–73), and it witnessed the emergence of two of the most important Sufi orders: the C hIShtI SUFI ORdeR and the NaQShBaNdI SUFI ORdeR.

Afghanistan became a modern independent country in 1919 and evolved into a constitu - tional monarchy under the influence of the Soviet Union. After fighting off an armed Soviet invasion

K 16 Afghan mujahidin

in 1979–89, the country was torn by a lengthy civil war. Both of these conflicts contributed to the growth of heavily armed guerrilla militias and forced 6 million Afghans to become ReFUGeeS in neighboring countries. The civil war ended with the establishment of the extremist Islamic govern - ment  of  the  taLIBaN  in  1996.  That  government was infamous for its brutal treatment of women, persecution of religious minorities, and destruc- tion of the famed colossal images of the Buddha in Bamian (2001). The Taliban were removed by force in  late 2001,  when  the United States led an international invasion and occupation of the country as a consequence of the war on terror it launched in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks by the aL-QaIda organization, which was headquartered in Afghanistan. A constitution - ally based transitional government with its capital in Kabul has since been created, but the new regime, known as the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan (TISA), faces enormous challenges to its legitimacy from powerful regional warlords, opium drug traffickers, and Muslim guerrilla forces.

See also aFGhaN mUJahIdIN; CONStItUtIONaLISm; PeRSIaN LaNGUaGe aNd LIteRatURe.

Further reading: Larry P. Goodson, Afghanistan’s End- less War: State Failure, Regional Politics, and the Rise of the Taliban (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2001); Ahmed Rasheed, Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2001).

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Afghan mujahidin

The Afghan mujahidin (warriors) are bands of Muslim guerrillas who fought against the Soviet occupation of aFGhaNIStaN in 1979–89 and then turned against each other in a bloody civil war that resulted in the creation of the  taLIBaN  regime in 1996. Informal Islamist parties began appearing in Afghanistan in the mid-1960s, at a time when the radical ideologies of SaYYId QUtB (d. 1966)

and aBU aL-aLa maWdUdI (d. 1979) were becom- ing a strong presence in neighboring Pakistan. Afghan Islamist parties at the time began adopting the call for JIhad, which was central to Qutb’s and Maududi’s programs. It was only with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, however, that these calls were seriously heeded.

Afghan resistance to the Soviet occupation com - prised many different elements, including national- ist parties, pro-China communists, and Islamists. It was the latter group, however, that dominated the fight to expel the Soviets. Based in Afghan refugee camps in Peshewar, Pakistan, Islamist resistance groups, called the mujahidin, quickly began receiv - ing money and arms from SaUdI aRaBIa and the UNIted   StateS.  The  dominant  force  among  the Afghan resistance was the Hezb-e-Islami (Islamic Party), led by GULBUddIN heKmatYaR (b. 1947?), one of the earliest and most conservative Afghani Islamist activists. Early disunity among as many as seven different Afghan mujahidin groups slowed the progress of the fight against the Soviets, but with foreign assistance, they were able to operate effectively on the battlefield. During this time, the Afghan mujahidin were treated favorably in the Western media as freedom fighters.

The Afghan guerrillas were not alone in their fight against the Soviet occupation. Islamists from the entire Muslim world traveled to Afghanistan under the banner of Islam and JIhad. Among these Islamists were USama BIN LadIN (Saudi Arabia), Ayman Zawahiri (eGYPt), UmaR aBd aL-RahmaN (Egypt), Abdullah Azzam (Palestine), and legions of young men from countries around the Mus - lim world. The resulting hybrid, transnational network of Islamists advocated an active jihad against foreign powers and a reconstruction of Afghanistan according to an extremely conserva- tive interpretation of Islam. Together, the Afghan and Arab mujahidin forced the Soviet withdrawal in 1989. Hekmatiyar’s Hezb-e-Islami and Burhan- uddin Rabbani’s Jamiat-i-Islami (Islamic Soci- ety, based in northern Afghanistan) emerged as the strongest mujahidin groups after the Soviet

African Americans, Islam among 17 J

defeat, but they ended up fighting against each other as well as other groups for control of the country. From bases in Pakistan and central and southern Afghanistan, the Taliban took advantage of this chaotic situation to make their own play for power in 1994–96. Mujahidin continues to be a term used by various armed factions that are contending for power and influence in the coun - try since the United States overthrew the Taliban regime in December 2001.

See also JIhad mOVemeNtS; mujahid; QaIda, aL-.

Caleb Elfenbein

Further reading: M. Hassan Kakar, Afghanistan: The Soviet Invasion and the Afghan Response, 1979–1982 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995); Gilles Kepel, Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2002); Ahmed Rashid, Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2002).

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Africa See ALGERIA; EAST AfRICA; EGYpT; LIBYA; MOROCCO; SUdAN; TUNISIA; WEST AfRICA.

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African Americans, Islam among

The first African American Muslims were slaves