Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0178/01787.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 35KB | 566 lines

$Unique_ID{COW01787}
$Pretitle{268}
$Title{Iran
Chapter 2E.   Religious Life}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Eric Hooglund}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{religious
iran
shia
imam
century
shias
jews
shrine
islam
clergy}
$Date{1987}
$Log{}
Country:     Iran
Book:        Iran, A Country Study
Author:      Eric Hooglund
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1987

Chapter 2E.   Religious Life

    The overwhelming majority of Iranians--at least 90 percent of the total
population--are Muslims who adhere to Shia Islam. In contrast, the majority of
Muslims throughout the world follow Sunni Islam. Of the several Shia sects,
the Twelve Imam (see Glossary) or Twelver (ithna- ashari), is dominant in
Iran; most Shias in Bahrain, Iraq, and Lebanon also follow this sect. All the
Shia sects originated among early Muslim dissenters in the first three
centuries following the death of the Prophet Muhammad in A.D. 632 (see Islamic
Conquest, ch. 1).

    The principal belief of Twelvers, but not of other Shias, is that the
spiritual and temporal leadership of the Muslim community passed from Muhammad
to Ali and then sequentially to eleven of Ali's direct male descendants, a
tenet rejected by Sunnis. Over the centuries various other theological
differences have developed between Twelver Shias and Sunnis.

Shia Islam in Iran

Distinctive Beliefs

    Although Shias have lived in Iran since the earliest days of Islam, and
there was one Shia dynasty in part of Iran during the tenth and eleventh
centuries, it is believed that most Iranians were Sunnis until the seventeenth
century. The Safavid dynasty made Shia Islam the official state religion in
the sixteenth century and aggressively proselytized on its behalf. It is also
believed that by the mid-seventeenth century most people in what is now Iran
had become Shias, an affiliation that has continued.

    All Shia Muslims believe there are seven pillars of faith, which detail
the acts necessary to demonstrate and reinforce faith. The first five of these
pillars are shared with Sunni Muslims. They are shahada, or the confession of
faith; namaz, or ritualized prayer; zakat, or almsgiving; sawm, fasting and
contemplation during daylight hours during the lunar month of Ramazan; and
hajj, or pilgrimage to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina once in a lifetime
if financially feasible. The other two pillars, which are not shared with
Sunnis, are jihad--or crusade to protect Islamic lands, beliefs, and
institutions, and the requirement to do good works and to avoid all evil
thoughts, words, and deeds.

    Twelver Shia Muslims also believe in five basic principles of faith: there
is one God, who is a unitary divine being in contrast to the trinitarian being
of Christians; the Prophet Muhammad is the last of a line of prophets
beginning with Abraham and including Moses and Jesus, and he was chosen by God
to present His message to mankind; there is a resurrection of the body and
soul on the last or judgment day; divine justice will reward or punish
believers based on actions undertaken through their own free will; and Twelve
Imams were successors to Muhammad. The first three of these beliefs are also
shared by non- Twelver Shias and Sunni Muslims.

    The distinctive dogma and institution of Shia Islam is the Imamate, which
includes the idea that the successor of Muhammad be more than merely a
political leader. The Imam must also be a spiritual leader, which means that
he must have the ability to interpret the inner mysteries of the Quran and the
shariat (see Glossary). The Twelver Shias further believe that the Twelve
Imams who succeeded the Prophet were sinless and free from error and had been
chosen by God through Muhammad.

    The Imamate began with Ali, who is also accepted by Sunni Muslims as the
fourth of the "rightly guided caliphs" to succeed the Prophet. Shias revere
Ali as the First Imam, and his descendants, beginning with his sons Hasan and
Husayn (also seen as Hosein), continue the line of the Imams until the
Twelfth, who is believed to have ascended into a supernatural state to return
to earth on judgment day. Shias point to the close lifetime association of
Muhammad with Ali. When Ali was six years old, he was invited by the Prophet
to live with him, and Shias believe Ali was the first person to make the
declaration of faith in Islam. Ali also slept in Muhammad's bed on the night
of the hijra, or migration from Mecca to Medina, when it was feared that the
house would be attacked by unbelievers and the Prophet stabbed to death. He
fought in all the battles Muhammad did except one, and the Prophet chose him
to be the husband of his favorite daughter, Fatima.

    In Sunni Islam an imam is the leader of congregational prayer. Among the
Shias of Iran the term imam traditionally has been used only for Ali and his
eleven descendants. None of the Twelve Imams, with the exception of Ali, ever
ruled an Islamic government. During their lifetimes, their followers hoped
that they would assume the rulership of the Islamic community, a rule that was
believed to have been wrongfully usurped. Because the Sunni caliphs were
cognizant of this hope, the Imams generally were persecuted during the Umayyad
and Abbasid dynasties. Therefore, the Imams tried to be as unobtrusive as
possible and to live as far as was reasonable from the successive capitals of
the Islamic empire.

    During the ninth century Caliph Al Mamun, son of Caliph Harun ar Rashid,
was favorably disposed toward the descendants of Ali and their followers. He
invited the Eighth Imam, Reza (A.D. 765-816), to come from Medina to his court
at Marv (Mary in the present-day Soviet Union). While Reza was residing at
Marv, Mamun designated him as his successor in an apparent effort to avoid
conflict among Muslims. Reza's sister Fatima journeyed from Medina to be with
her brother but took ill and died at Qom. A shrine developed around her tomb,
and over the centuries Qom has become a major Shia pilgrimage and theology
center.

    Mamun took Reza on his military campaign to retake Baghdad from political
rivals. On this trip Reza died unexpectedly in Khorasan. Reza was the only
Imam to reside or die in what is now Iran. A major shrine, and eventually the
city of Mashhad, grew up around his tomb, which has become the most important
pilgrimage center in Iran. Several important theological schools are located
in Mashhad, associated with the shrine of the Eighth Imam.

    Reza's sudden death was a shock to his followers, many of whom believed
that Mamun, out of jealousy for Reza's increasing popularity, had him
poisoned. Mamun's suspected treachery against Reza and his family tended to
reinforce a feeling already prevalent among his followers that the Sunni
rulers were untrustworthy.

    The Twelfth Imam is believed to have been only five years old when the
Imamate descended upon him in A.D. 874 at the death of his father. The Twelfth
Imam is usually known by his titles of Imam-e Asr (the Imam of the Age) and
Sahib az Zaman (the Lord of Time). Because his followers feared he might be
assassinated, the Twelfth Imam was hidden from public view and was seen only
by a few of his closest deputies. Sunnis claim that he never existed or that
he died while still a child. Shias believe that the Twelfth Imam remained on
earth, but hidden from the public, for about seventy years, a period they
refer to as the lesser occultation (gheybat-e sughra). Shias also believe that
the Twelfth Imam has never died, but disappeared from earth in about A.D. 939.
Since that time the greater occultation (gheybat-e kubra) of the Twelfth Imam
has been in force and will last until God commands the Twelfth Imam to
manifest himself on earth again as the Mahdi, or Messiah. Shias believe that
during the greater occultation of the Twelfth Imam he is spiritually
present--some believe that he is materially present as well-- and he is
besought to reappear in various invocations and prayers. His name is mentioned
in wedding invitations, a