$Unique_ID{COW03292} $Pretitle{286} $Title{Somalia Chapter 2D. Religious Life} $Subtitle{} $Author{Irving Kaplan} $Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army} $Subject{religious islam leaders somalis socialism islamic order somalia orders scientific} $Date{1981} $Log{Aerial view of Mogadishu*0329201.scf } Country: Somalia Book: Somalia, A Country Study Author: Irving Kaplan Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army Date: 1981 Chapter 2D. Religious Life The vast majority of Somalis are Muslims. (Less than 1 percent of ethnic Somalis are Christians.) Loyalty to Islam reinforces the distinctions that set them off from their immediate African neighbors, most of whom either are Christians (particularly the Amhara and others of Ethiopia) or adhere to indigenous African beliefs. The ideal of Islam is a society organized for the implementation of Islamic precepts in which no distinction between the secular and the religious spheres obtains. Among the Somalis this ideal had been approximated only occasionally-and less fully in the north than among some groups in the settled regions of the south where religious leaders were an integral part of the social and political structure. Among nomads, the exigencies of pastoral life gave greater weight to the warrior's role, and religious leaders were expected to remain aloof from political matters. Generally Somali belief and practice has differed to some extent from that required by Islam, either because ancient Somali ritual has persisted or because Somalis cannot or will not submit to the rigors of Islamic practice. Whatever the discrepancies between the requirements of Islam and Somali practice, their Islamic identity is integral to Somalis' conception of themselves. The role of religious functionaries began to shrink little by little in the 1950s and 1960s as some of their legal and educational powers and responsibilities were transferred to secular authorities, but their situation changed substantially after the revolution, whose leaders introduced an ideology they called scientific socialism (see Siad Barre and Scientific Socialism, ch. 1). These leaders insisted that their version of socialism was not at odds with Islam but compatible with Quranic principles, and they condemned atheism. Nevertheless they relegated religion to the moral sphere, and religious leaders were warned not to meddle in politics. The new government instituted changes in law that some religious figures saw as contrary to Islamic precepts. The regime reacted sharply to criticism, executing some of the protestors (see Islam in the Colonial Era and After, this ch.). Subsequently, religious leaders seem to have accommodated themselves to the government, but their private views cannot be known. The Tenets of Islam Islam, founded in A.D. 622 when the prophet Muhammad left Mecca and marched with his followers to Medina, was brought to Somalia by South Arabian merchants and seamen who founded settlements along the Somali coast 1,000 or more years ago (see Coastal Towns, ch. 1). Before Islam reached the Somalis, quarrels over the succession to leadership had led to a split of the Islamic community into Sunnites (traditionalists) and Shiites (from Shiat Ali, or partisans of Ali). All ethnic Somalis are Sunnites. Islam means submission to God, and a Muslim is one who has submitted. The religion's basic tenet is stated in its creed: "There is no god but God (Allah) and Muhammad is His prophet." Recitation of the creed, daily prayers (of which the creed is always a part) performed according to prescribed rules, fasting during the lunar month of Ramadan, almsgiving, and the pilgrimage to Mecca constitute the so-called Five Pillars of the Faith. Four of these duties may be modified by the situation in which believers find themselves. If they are ill, they may pray without prostrations and reduce the number of times they pray from the obligatory five to three. Fasting (going without food, drink, tobacco, and sexual relations from two hours before dawn until sunset) may be omitted during journey but should be made up for at a later time. Almsgiving and the pilgrimage depend upon one's ability to afford them. The basic teaching of Islam is embodied in the Quran, believed to have been given to Muhammad by God through the angel Gabriel. After Muhammad's death his followers sought to regulate their lives scrupulously by his divinely inspired works; if the Quran did not cover a specific situation, they turned to the hadith (remembered doings and sayings of the Prophet). Together, the Quran and the hadith form the sunna (tradition), a comprehensive guide to the spiritual, ethical, and social life of Muslims. Islamic law (sharia) derives from the Quran, the hadith, and from a large body of interpretive commentary which developed centuries ago. Several schools of legal thought developed, among them the Shafii school, which is represented in Somalia. The sharia covers a number of categories of behavior; obligatory actions, desirable or recommended actions, indifferent actions, objectionable but not forbidden actions, and prohibited actions. The Five Pillars of the Faith would be in the first category; night-long prayer and watching in the second, and many ordinary secular activities in the third. Divorce is in the objectionable but permitted category, whereas adultery and other sins are prohibited. Both settled and nomadic Somalis tend to conform to Muslim requirements for ritual purity, e.g., washing after contact with unclean things and after specific activities. Some settled Somalis, particularly in communities founded by religious orders, are more likely to observe Islamic requirements than are nomads. For example Muslims may omit (or put off) certain duties while traveling, and nomads may take advantage of this permission, although their laxity may arise from lack of instruction. Ordinary settled Somalis were also likely to pay less attention to religious observance by the 1960s. Luling (cited by David Laitin) states that only a few devout Somalis in Afgooye said their daily prayers regularly. Devout Somalis (and others who value the title of haji-pilgrim-for its prestige) may make the pilgrimage to Mecca, but many more to go to the tombs of the local saints (see Religious Orders and the Cult of the Saints, this ch.). Religious Roles in Somali Islam In Islam there are no priests who are intermediaries between the believer and God, but there are religious teachers, preachers, and mosque officials. In Somalia religious training is most readily available in urban centers or wherever mosques exist. These children learn to memorize parts of the Quran, often without understanding what they have memorized, in part because many of their teachers do not understand it either. It is customary for some teachers to travel on foot from place to place with their novices, depending on the generosity of others for their living. The teachers serve the community by preaching, leading prayers, blessing the people and their livestock, counseling, arbitrating disputes, and performing marriages. Few are deeply versed in Islam, and they rarely stay with one lineage long enough to teach more than rudimentary religious principles. In the absence of a wandering teacher, nomads depend on a person associated with religious devotion, study, or leadership, called wadad (pl. wadaddo). The wadaddo constitute the oldest stratum of literate people in Somalia. They function as basic teachers and local notaries as well as judges and authorities in religious law. They are rarely theologians; some are active members of a religious brotherhood, or belong to a lineage with a strong religious tradition. In the latter case they were not necessarily trained but were nevertheless entitled to lead prayers and to perform ritual sacrifices at weddings, on special holidays, and during festivals held at the tombs of saints. Religious Orders and the Cult of the Saints Somali Islam is marked by the significance of religious orders (turuq; sing. tariqa, meaning way or path). The rise of these orders was connected with the development of Sufism, a mystical current in Islam that began during the ninth and tenth centuries and reached its height during the twelfth and thirteenth. In Somalia Sufi orders made their appearance for the first time in towns during the fifteenth century and rapidly became a revitalizing force. Sufism seeks a closer personal relationship to God through special spiritual disciplines. Escape from self is aided by poverty, seclusion, and other forms of self-denial. Members of Sufi orders are commonly called dervishes, from a Persian word perhaps denoting a mendicant. Leaders of branches or congregations of these orders are given the Arabic title "sheikh," a term usually reserved for such leaders or others learned in Islam and rarely applied to ordinary wadaddo. Dervishes tend to wander from place to place as religious beggars and teachers. They are best known for their often spectacular ceremonies, called dikr (from the Arabic dhikr-meaning testifying or remembrance) in which states of visionary ecstasy are brought on by group chanting of religious texts, by rhythmic gestures, dancing, and deep breathing. The object is to free oneself from the body and to be lifted into the presence of God. Dervishes have been important as founders of agricultural communities, called jamaha. A few of these contain only celibate men, but usually they are inhabited by families; specific regulations of behavior are applied to women. Most Somalis are nominally members of Sufi orders, attending services in mosques of the order with which they are affiliated, visiting the tombs of saints connected with that order, and so on. In fact few undergo the rigors of complete devotion to the religious life, even for a short time. Three Sufi orders with various subdivisions are prominent in Somalia. In order of their introduction into the country they are the Qadiriya, the Ahmadiya-Idrisiya, and the Salihiya. The Rifaiya, an offshoot of the Qadiriya, is represented mainly among Arabs resident in Mogadishu. Qadiriya, the oldest order in Islam, was founded in Baghdad by Sayyid Abd al Kadir al Jilani in A.D. 1166 and introduced into Harer (Ethiopia) in the fifteenth century. It spread during the eighteenth century among the Oromo and Somalis of Ethiopia, often under the leadership of Somali sheikhs. Its earliest known leader in northern Somalia was Sheikh Abdarahman al Zeilawi, who died in 1883. At that time Qadiriya adherents were merchants in the ports and elsewhere. In an apparently separate development the Qadiriya order was also introduced into the southern Somali port cities of Baraawe and Mogadishu at an uncertain date. In 1819 Sheikh Ibrahim Hassan Jebro acquired land on the Juba River and established a religious center in the form of a farming community, the first of the jamaha in Somalia. Outstanding figures of the Qadiriya in Somalia include Sheikh Awes Muhammad Barawi (died 1909), who spread the teaching of the order in the southern interior. He wrote a great deal of devotional poetry in Arabic and also attempted to translate traditional hymns from Arabic into Somali, working out his own phonetic system. Another was Sheikh Abd ar Rahman Abdallah of Mogadishu, who stressed deep mysticism rather than teaching; a literary figure and an amateur astrologer, he attempted a series of prophesies on the future of the city. His reputation for sanctity caused people from a wide area to seek him out. His tomb at Mogadishu is a pilgrimage center for the Shabeelle area, and his writings are still circulated by his followers. The Ahmadiya-Idrisiya order, founded by Sayyid Ahmad ibn Idris al Fasi (1760-1837) of Mecca, was brought to Somalia by Sheikh Ali Maye Durogba of Marka. A distinguished poet who joined the order during a pilgrimage to Mecca, his visions and reported miracles gained him a great reputation for sanctity, and his tomb became a place for pilgrimage. The Ahmadiya-Idrisiya, which has the smallest number of adherents of the three orders, has few ritual requirements beyond a few simple prayers and hymns. During its ceremonies, however, participants attain spectacular states of trance. A conflict over the leadership of the Ahmadiya-Idrisiya among its Arab founders led to the establishment of the Salihiya in 1887 by Muhammad ibn Salih. The order spread first among the Somalis of the Ogaden area of Ethiopia, entering Somalia from there about 1880. The most active proselytizer was Sheikh Muhammad Guled ar Rashidi, who became a regional leader. He settled among the Shidle (Bantu speakers occupying the middle reaches of the Shabeelle River) where he obtained land and established a jamaha. Later he founded another among the Ajuran (a section of the Hawiye clan-family) and then returned to establish still another community among the Shidle before he died in 1918. Perhaps the best known of the Salihiya leaders in Somalia was Mohamed ibn Abdullah Hassan, leader of a long lasting resistance to the British and what he saw as errant Somalis in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century (see Mohamed Abdullah, ch. 1). Generally both Salihiya and Ahmadiya-Idrisiya leaders have been more interested in the establishment of jamaha along the Shabeelle and Juba rivers and the fertile land between them than in teaching because few were learned in Islam. Their early work establishing farming communities had some importance, however. They not only cultivated and harvested cooperatively but developed some effective agricultural methods. In Somalia's riverine region, for example, only jamaha members thought of stripping the brush from areas around their fields to reduce the breeding places of tsetse flies. Local leaders of brotherhoods customarily asked lineage heads in the areas where they wished to settle for permission to build their mosques and communities. A piece of land was usually freely given; often it was an area between two clans or one in which nomads had access to a river. The presence of a jamaha not only provided a buffer zone between two hostile groups or consisted of land with controversial title, but caused the givers to acquire merit and a blessing since the land was considered given to God. Tenure was a matter of charity only, however, and sometimes became precarious in case of disagreements. No statistics were available in the 1970s on the number of such settlements, but twenty years earlier there were more than ninety in the south, having a total of about 35,000 members. Most were in the Bakool, Gedo, and Bay regions or along the middle and lower Shabeelle River. There were few jamaha in other regions because climatic and soil conditions did not encourage agricultural settlements. Membership in a brotherhood is theoretically a voluntary matter unrelated to kinship. Lineages, however, are often affiliated with a specific brotherhood and, generally, a man joins his father's order. Initiation is followed by a formal ceremony during which the order's particular dikr is celebrated. Novices swear to accept the head of the branch as their spiritual guide. [See Aerial view of Mogadishu: Four Corner. Mosque (Arbaca Rukun) in foreground] Each order has its own hierarchy that is supposed to be a substitute for the kin group from which the members have separated themselves. Previous heads of the order known as the Chain of Blessing (silsilad al baraka) are cherished rather than ancestors. This is especially true in the south where residence tends to be more important than descent. Leaders of orders and their branches and of specific congregations are said to have baraka, a state of blessedness implying an inner spiritual power that is inherent in the religious office and may cling to the tomb of a revered leader who, upon death, is considered a saint. Some saints, however, are venerated because of their religious reputations whether or not they led or were associated with an order or one of its communities. Sainthood has also been ascribed to others simply because of their status as founders of clans or large lineages. Northern pastoral nomads are likely to honor lineage founders as saints; sedentary Somalis revere saints for their piety and baraka. Because of the spiritual presence of the saint at his tomb, pilgrims journey there to seek aid (such as a cure for illness or infertility). Members of the saint's order also visit the tomb, particularly on the anniversary of the saint's birth and death. Folk Islam and Indigenous Ritual The Somalis have interpreted or modified much of Islam in terms of their pre-Islamic heritage and their particular situation. The social significance of the idea of baraka is a case in point. It is considered a gift of God to the founders and heads of Sufi orders who also inherit it through their personal genealogies going back to Muhammad. It is likewise associated with secular leaders and their clan genealogies. A leader has power to bless, in some cases even to perform miracles and bring good luck to his people, but his baraka may have potentially dangerous side effects. His curse is greatly feared and his power may harm others. When a leader of a clan or strong lineage visits that of another, it is customary for the host's relative to receive him first in order to draw off some of the power so that his own chief may not be injured. The traditional learning of a wadad includes a form of folk astronomy or astrology based on actual stellar movements and related to the changes of the seasons. Its primary objective is to signal the times for migration, but it may also be used for other predictions such as determining the dates of rituals that are specifically Somali (and not Muslim). It is also used in connection with ritual and magical methods of healing and averting misfortune as well as for divination. Wadaddo help avert misfortune in other ways. For example they make protective amulets and charms that transmit some of their own baraka to others, or they add the Quran's baraka to the amulet in the form of a written passage. The baraka of a saint may be obtained in the form of an object that has touched or been laid near his tomb. Wadaddo may use their power to curse as a sanction. Occasionally they are suspected of misusing this power against rivals. Generally, however, misfortune is not attributed to curses or witchcraft, nor is it considered a special punishment from God; man's basic sinfulness would then make misfortune a permanent condition. Somalis have accepted the orthodox Muslim view that a man's conduct will be judged in an afterlife. It is thought, however, that a person who behaves in a shockingly antisocial manner, as in committing patricide, is possessed of supernatural evil powers. Despite formal Islam's uncompromising monotheism, Muslims everywhere believe in the existence of mortal spirits (jinn), said to be descended from Iblis, a spirit fallen from heaven. Most Somalis consider all spirits to be evil, unbelieving, and a source of difficulties, but some think that there are believing and benevolent spirits. Somalis have accepted the Arabic notion of jinn, but they lay greater practical and ceremonial stress on spirits of their own pre-Islamic traditions. Sometimes, however, they identify indigenous spirits with jinn. Certain kinds of illness, including tuberculosis and pneumonia or symptoms such as sneezing, coughing, vomiting, and loss of consciousness, are believed to come from spirit possession. The wadaddo of the spirit world who attack without reason are said to be involved. The condition is treated by a human wadad, preferably one who has recovered from the sickness. He reads portions of the Quran over the patient and bathes him with perfume, which in Somalia is associated with religious celebrations. Although there is scriptural support for the existence of jinn, and the spirit wadaddo are considered to be in the same category, many Somalis regard the belief in spirit possession as superstition. This is especially so in the case of possession by the zar (a spirit). This form of possession and the ceremony of exorcism used to treat it are sometimes referred to as the "cult of the zar." The cult in various forms is found in Ethiopia among the Amhara and some Oromo. The victims are women with grievances against their husbands. The symptoms are extreme forms of hysteria and fainting fits. The exorcism ritual is conducted by a woman who has had the disease and is thus supposed to have some authority over the spirit. The ritual consists of a special type of dance in which the victim and others participate. The victim tends to reproduce the symptoms and fall into a trance during the dance. The illness enables a disgruntled wife to express her hostility without actually quarreling with her husband. Moreover there is always the threat that the attack may recur. If this happens too often, however, the husband may suspect that the agent is an old woman whose malicious suggestions have brought on the condition. In the colonial era the religious authorities disapproved of zar dances and had them banned in many districts. A third kind of spirit possession is known as gelid (entering), in which the spirit of an injured person troubles the offender. A jilted girl, for example, cannot openly complain if a promise of marriage, arranged by the respective families, has been broken. Only her spirit, entering the young man who was supposed to marry her and stating the grievance, brings the matter into the open. The exorcism consists of readings from the Quran and commands from a wadad that the spirit leave the afflicted person. The same type of possession is thought to be caused by the curse or evil power of a poor and helpless person who has been injured. The underlying notion is that those who are weak in worldly matters are mystically endowed. Such persons are supposed to be under the special protection of God, and kind acts toward them bring religious merit, whereas unkind acts bring punishment. The evil eye, too, is associated with poor unfortunates, especially women, but also with covetousness in a way that suggests the European medieval idea of a witch. It is consistent with this attitude that the Yibir, who are the least numerous and the weakest of the special occupational groups and traditionally the least acceptable socially, are the most feared for their supernatural powers. Somalis also engage in rituals that seem to derive from pre-Islamic practices and in some cases resemble that of other Eastern Cushitic-speaking peoples. Perhaps the most important of these were the annual celebrations of the clan ancestor among northern Somalis-an expression of their solidarity-and the collective rainmaking ritual (roobdoon) held by sedentary groups in the south. Islam in the Colonial Era and After Islamic law has its origin in prophecy and revelation. In principle, religious officials have the duty to ascertain the precise will of God by interpreting the Quran and the hadith. Ingrained in Islam is a certain inflexibility that has made it difficult to cope with the social, economic, and political changes beginning with the expansion of colonial rule in the late nineteenth century. Nevertheless adaptations have taken place, often without direct reference to the relation of those changes to the apparent requirements of Islam. Some, however, have sought in Islam sanctions for change they have thought desirable or necessary and have found them. As in any long-lived and widespread religion, interpretations of scripture may vary. In the Somali context none have rejected Islam, despite quite varied responses to the impact of colonialism, independence, and revolution. One response was to stress a return to orthodox Muslim traditions and to oppose Westernization totally. The Sufi brotherhoods were in the forefront of this movement, personified in Somalia by Mohamed Abdullah, the noted early nationalist. Generally the leaders of Islamic orders, fearing a weakening of their authority, tended to oppose the spread of Western education. Another response was to reform Islam by reinterpreting it in modern terms. Those responding in this way pointed out that early Islam was a protest against abuse, corruption, and inequalities, and they attempted to prove that Muslim scriptures contained all the elements needed to deal with the forces of modernization. To this school of thought belongs Islamic socialism, identified particularly with Egypt's late Gamal Abdul Nasser. His ideas appealed to a number of Somalis, especially those who had studied in Cairo in the 1950s and 1960s. The constitution of 1961 guaranteed freedom of religion but also declared the newly independent republic an Islamic state. The public course followed by the first two governments was vaguely defined as following the principles of Islamic socialism. The coup of October 21, 1969, installed a radical regime committed to deep-rooted changes. Shortly afterward Stella d' Ottobre, the official mouthpiece of the Supreme Revolutionary Council (SRC), published an editorial that dealt with the relations between Islam and socialism and with the differences between scientific and Islamic socialism. Islamic socialism, it said, had become a servant of capitalism and neocolonialism and a tool manipulated by a privileged, rich, and powerful class. In contrast scientific socialism had the same altruistic values that inspired genuine Islam. Religious leaders should therefore leave secular affairs to the new leaders, secure in the knowledge that they were striving for goals that conformed to Islamic principles. Those who attacked scientific socialism were actually opposing Islam itself, the editorial argued. A short time later a number of protesting religious leaders were arrested and accused of counterrevolutionary propaganda and of conniving with reactionary elements in the Arabian Peninsula. Several members of religious tribunals were dismissed for corruption and incompetence. When the Three Year Plan 1971-1973 was launched in January 1971, the SRC leaders felt compelled to win the active support of religious leaders for the transformation of the existing social structure of which these leaders were an integral part. "A good Muslim must espouse scientific socialism because of its goals of justice, equality, and plenty for all," said a member of the SRC in a February interview. "Who is against scientific socialism is against the only system compatible with our religion," proclaimed Stella d'Ottobre in March. On September 4, 1971, more than a hundred religious teachers were assembled in the capital and exhorted by Siad Barre to participate actively in the building of a new socialist society. He criticized their method of teaching in the Quranic schools and said that some of them used religion as a source of personal profit. The campaign for scientific socialism and, parallel to it, the attack on what the regime referred to as the traditional upper classes (including the religious leaders) intensified in 1972. On the occasion of Id al-Adha (the most important Islamic festival of the year in January), the president defined scientific socialism as half practical work and half ideological beliefs. He declared that work and belief were entirely compatible with genuine Islam because the Quran condemned exploitation and moneylending and urged compassion, unity, and cooperation among fellow Muslims. But he stressed the distinction between religion as an ideological instrument for the manipulation of power and as a moral force. He condemned the antireligious attitude of confirmed Marxists. Religion, he said, was an integral part of the Somali world view, but it belonged in the private sphere whereas scientific socialism dealt with material concerns such as poverty. Religious leaders should exercise their moral influence but refrain from interfering in political or economic matters. In the years since that time, the compatibility of Islam and scientific socialism has been reiterated in print and orally. For example in 1980 Somalia's English-language newspaper Heegan carried an editorial essentially on that point. In 1973 the National Adult Education Center in Mogadishu began a training program for Quranic teachers. After one session in July the press reported that the sixty participants had accepted the truth of scientific socialism and had promised to pray for its success henceforth. Whether they did this out of conviction, out of opportunism, or out of a deep-seated feeling that scientific socialism represented only a short-lived threat to their ancient religion it is not possible to say. In early January 1975, Siad Barre, recalling the message of equality, justice, and social progress contained in the Quran, announced a new family law that gave women the right to inherit equally with men. The occasion was the twenty-seventh anniversary of the death of a national heroine, Hawa Othman Tako, who had been killed in 1948 during political demonstrations. Apparently this was seen by some Somalis as proof that the SRC wanted to undermine the basic structure of Islamic society. In Mogadishu twenty-three religious leaders protested inside their mosques. They were arrested within hours and charged with acting at the instigation of a foreign power and with violating the security of the state. Ten of them were executed on January 23. Most religious leaders, however, kept silent. The government has continued to organize "training courses...for our sheikhs from time to time, thus keeping them abreast of development," according to Heegan. There have been no clear public signs of opposition by religious leaders since the mid-1970s, but their private views have not been reported. One observer, Somali historian Abdi Sheik-Abdi, has suggested that the regime remains skeptical of religious leaders.