World religions. Рахимбергенова М.Х. - 56 стр.

ety in which the government is Islamic, and Islam is the official religion. Ide-            The Sufi emphasis on love for God and union with him tends to relegate
ally the whole world should be a single Islamic empire.                              the details of the law to a matter of secondary concern. For the Sufi, it is often
     Further than this, Islam requires not only political dominance but also eco-    the spiritual significance of the law that is important, rather than its literal ful-
nomic and cultural superiority. The Islamic society ought to be the most ad-         fillment. For similar reasons Sufism is relatively indifferent to political con-
vanced, the most prosperous. For many Moslems the combined political, eco-           cerns.
nomic, and cultural predominance of the West in modern times is a cause of                  Sufism exists both in Sunni and in Shiite Islam. It is organized in brother-
dismay. This is especially true because of the sexual freedom widely permitted       hoods or orders which each typically owe allegiance to a particular spiritual
in the West, which is offensive to traditional Moslems.                              master.
     Some Moslems consider that the chief reason why their nations have de-                 Orthodox Sufism maintains the distinction between the individual and
clined in power is because they have not implemented the Shari’ah strictly and       God, viewing them as two separate realities. This is important if the individual
fully. The Ayatollah Khomeni’s rule in Iran was inspired largely by that view.       is to be said to love God and obey him. Some Sufis have gone further, however,
                                                                                     seeing the individual as essentially only an appearance of God, like a reflection
                              Sunni and Shiite Islam                                 in a mirror. This is the conception we earlier termed monism, that there exists
     The division between Sunni and Shiite Islam is a question of the form of        only a single reality. As we saw, this view also occurs in Hinduism, for exam-
authority in Islam. On Mohammed’s death, a majority of his followers rec-            ple, in the doctrine of some of the Upanishads, that Brahman alone is real; as
ognized his kinsman Abu Bakr as his successor or “Caliph”. Abu Bakr in turn          well as in Mahayana Buddhism, in the view that the Buddha nature is the true
was followed by three successors, all four being known as “the rightly guided        identity of all that is. Consequently there are some fundamental similarities be-
Caliphs”. Moslems who recognize their authority are termed Sunni, meaning            tween these otherwise very diverse viewpoints. Some Sufis have expressed this
“the tradition”. In Sunni Islam the ultimate source of authority is the Moslem       monistic outlook by saying that they were identical with God, a statement that
community. This is the most widespread form of Islam.                                has called savage persecution down on them from orthodox Moslems, for
     Some of Mohammed’s followers, however, maintained that Mohammed                 whom it is blasphemy.
during his lifetime had designated his son-in-law Ali as his successor, and they            Sufis have produced some of the finest poetry in Islam, and also, of all Is-
refused to recognize the authority of Abu Bakr. These were the Party of Ali, the     lamic literature, some of the most accessible to non-Moslems. For a non-
Shi’at Ali. In the view of Shiite Islam, authority resides not in the community      Moslem who wishes to understand the spiritual life of Islam, Sufi poetry pro-
but in the divinely appointed leader, the successor of Ali, called the Imam. God     vides perhaps the best introduction.
provides an Imam in every age, even though sometimes hidden. Shiite Islam                   At the present time Sufism is the object of heated dispute. While many
predominates in Iran, and has large communities in Iraq and Syria. There are         view it as the highest and noblest achievement of Islam, others see it as largely
several different Shiite sects, recognizing different Imams.                         responsible for the decline of Islam as a political force, and are bitterly opposed
     While Sunni and Shiite agree on the broad principles of Islam, Shiite Islam     to it.
has distinctive practices of its own. One of these is the celebration of the Tenth
Day of (the month of) Muharram, commemorating the death of Ali’s son                                                 Summary of Islam
Husayn in battle against other Moslems. Husayn’s suffering quickly came to be             1. The chief message of the Koran is the absolute supremacy of God.
interpreted as voluntary self-sacrifice. It is regarded by the Shia as redemptive,        2. The main doctrines of Islam are:
and it is celebrated in a dramatic “Passion Play” in which the participants flag-         The existence of a single God, Angels, Prophets and scriptures, Resurrec-
ellate themselves with chains and smear themselves with blood, ritually sharing      tion and the Last Judgement, The Divine Decree and predestination.
in Husayn’s fate.                                                                         3. The principal duties incumbent on a Moslem are the Five Pillars of Is-
                                                                                     lam: Recital of the Shahada. Formal prayer, Salat. Legal almsgiving, Zakat.
                                      Sufism                                         Fasting, Sawm. Pilgrimage to Mecca, Hajj.
     A Sufi aims to attain spiritual union with God through love. Conscious of            4. Islam is not only a private or individual religion, but a social one.
God’s love, the Sufi makes it the central goal of his existence to love God in re-
turn. The high point of this life of spiritual love is sometimes described as a
mystical marriage with God.
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