Zwemer Center

Rites of Passage in Folk Islam: Dr. Warren Larson Lecture

Dr. Warren Larson Lecture: Rites of Passage in Folk Islam

Dr. Warren Larson delivered a lecture on rites of passage in Folk Islam during a CIU course. Here, Larson presents on the rites of passage from birth to death in both of Islam’s main traditions: Sunni and Shia.

Here starts the auto-generated transcription of Dr. Warren Larson Lecture: Rites of Passage in Folk Islam.

37 has to do with the rituals, and the practices, rituals, practices, and the rites of passage. Also a reference here as noted in the class notes is, of course, Rhema, the influence of animism on Islam, and, the rites of passage. Before we move to Islam, let’s just think of of Jesus. You know, he had rites of passage, didn’t he? Remember when, well, one of them, when he is 12 years old, the Jews had this, of course.

Here he is 12 years old. He is now in Jerusalem, and he, is in the temple, and he’s discussing with the leaders of the law. Certainly, this was a rite of passage for Jesus. Wasn’t it? And another one could have to be his, his baptism.

And then we have rites of passage as well, don’t we? For some of us, I suppose, the rite of passage is beginning our driver’s license at 16 or 18, whatever it is. The Muslims have rites of passage and oftentimes they do things on those days, that are very, very focused. In other words, they realize the importance of them. Birth is 1, and on the time when the child is born, there is a certain things that they do, which might, at first glance, you know, not seem too popular.

In other words, too, unorthodox. But it really is when you think of some of the the meaning that they pour into it. In the right ear of the child, they give the call of prayer. And, you know, and then on the left ear, they give the confession. Bismil Al Rahman Ar Rahim.

They would say, you know, that there is no other god but god. I give, give witness that there is no other god but god. I I didn’t give the confession there. I was actually using the other opening in the name of god, the merciful, the compassionate, so, don’t get confused. But in the right ear, the call to prayer, in the left ear, then the, the confession which Muslims are always giving.

There is no other god but Allah and Mohammed is the apostle of God. For Muslims, we could say folk Muslims, but, many, many Muslims look at this, these two things just mentioned, as protection from the spirits. In Iran, they do certain things like a red hot iron is put into the mother’s drinking water for 10 days. An onion over the head is to protect from that wicked witch, Al, and an amulet on the baby. Now you see here, one here.

This this sort of look like a bracelet for beauty. I don’t know what it is, but, blue stone. Salt is also used, and the placenta is buried in an amulet, buried, to protect against the jinn. In the Philippines, noise to frighten the spirit. The name of the spirit is the Bulban, you can Google this, who is a fearsome spirit with the body of a man and has wings.

Now there is the, on this rite of passage, a naming. It’s, on the Akika sacrifice, 7th day after birth, child is named, shaved, there’s a sacrifice. An astrologer may be consulted to make sure that you get the right name. And sometimes, all too often, probably, a derogatory name is given to the child, like, you know, some derogatory name or the name, you know, God be thanked. It it it’s we thank god for it.

Or a girl’s name is given to a boy, see, to confuse the spirits. The taureg in North Africa, we know are more free than most Muslim women, and so they are the ones who teach their children. They’re the ones who seem to have the hold the social rank and, they’re not the ones to wear the veil. I mean, how is that for a switch? It’s the men who who wear the veil, these taurig, but they practice some of these things as well.

The rites of passage here, pretty sure this is the Middle East because of some of the things they do. There is this ceremony where the maternal grandmother carries the child, and, with other women, they circle the the the tent where this little child is, and they chant some blessings. And then the leader takes a knife, plunges it into the sand to show the end of threat on the mother and the child. This is sort of an exorcism of the old woman, who is considered to be a bush spirit. So they’re saying Fatima and Ayesha entering.

Shoo, shoo, Fatima and Ayesha, and we’re cutting you here tomorrow. Now this little one is not the best picture because that child is more than 7 days old, but, you get the point. In Iran, a diviner may be advised. In other words, be the one called upon to give the right name or to change the name. For instance, a little boy who’s sick could have been cursed, so Hassan would be changed.

The name Hassan would be changed to Asadullah, lion of God. So with a name like that, how can you stay sick? Or children are often named after the saint, imam, or named after the prophet preceded by the word hulam, of course, servant, servant of Muhammad, servant of this, servant of that, or just called the peer, peer bashed, given by the peer. Is, be be given before an attractive child. Remember, the term that is used to, you know, thank thanks be to god.

I mean, god did it, so something. Now we talk about circumcision. This is this is the circumcision of of women, of girls. Of course, the boys are circumcised, in Islam, but that’s nothing. What we’re talking about is the circumcision of women.

Now to be fair, these little girls are not just Muslims. In other words, circumcision is more of a tribal thing, but a lot of Muslims do it and a lot of Muslims insist on it. 1000 and thousands of these are done every day and there are different names for it. The one is the GFM, the genital female mutilation. Sometimes, it’s called pharonic.

Presumably, it dates back to the time of pharaoh. I had one student who did a study of this in Indonesia. Don’t think it was, all you know, it was the severest type of, circumcision where, all of the sexual organs of the girl are removed, but, you know, there are degrees of it. And, of course, the greater the degree, the greater harm, the greater danger, physically, mentally, and socially, and, it’s a terrible practice. I, remember one anthropologist, Just forget her name for the moment.

The one the anthropologist from the University of Toronto. It’ll come to me, but, she said I remember reading her she was saying something in some newspaper that was published out of Canada that she didn’t think this was, you know, such a bad thing after all. And I wrote a letter to the editor and said this is this is terrible to to to but but it’s this idea, you know, where anthropology always accepts the culture and they they’re supposed to and not say anything against it. I think there’s lots to say against it and, one book, you may be books that you may be, acquainted with in person is Ersi, Ali Ersi, who, wrote the book nomad and also infidel. She talks about her own her own, circumcision, horrible though it is.

She’s Somali. Horrible situation that it is. She is, extremist in her statements about Muslims. She’s Somali born and, Dutch based, based in Holland. But, I’ve wondered sometimes if the circumcision doesn’t open the door, the trauma of that open the door to demonic influence.

You know, it’s such a horrible experience. You wonder, really, if if, those kind of things open the door to demonic influence. Satan somehow gets you know, it’s such a horrible thing. Now leaving that terrible, morbid topic of circumcision and the the fact that it’s done remembering that it’s not just Muslims, I mean, some Christians do this as well. To to the best of my knowledge, it’s not done in South Asia, but it’s more of a, you know, along the Nile sort of thing, But I think other Middle Eastern countries too practice it, for various and sundry reasons, often a sign of purity.

Others would do it to control the the girl’s, sexual impulses or activity and all of those things, the the women of the family, grandma, you know, and mother are the ones that insist on it, although fathers would be sometimes against it. Anyway, that’s a whole other topic and a terrible one it is, but let’s talk about marriage. And, marriage too. You know, this rite of passage, is it is it not? But in marriage, the to get married, people sometimes sometimes sometimes rely on magic and, particularly if the girl is not spoken for.

Here you are. I mean, parents, the main goal in life is to marry off your children, but here is this young lady, nobody’s speaking for her, Nobody is offering. So what are you going to do? Well, she or somebody in the family may resort to magic, to try to get her through this, through this door. In other words, through this rite of passage.

And the verses there that I’ve given are 696-ninety one. See there they are underlined to make sure that we don’t miss them. And each one of these verses starts with he it is that does this. He it is who makes the stars, 97. He it is who hath produced you.

He it is who sends his rain, and on and on and on. So that’s the passage that sometimes is used, written and bound, to the feet, and and so love charms may be used as well. And other ways and techniques us choosing an auspicious day, like the saints, Malid and, you know, and, numerology and sort of And then, some other thing too, if you can’t get along with your spouse, you know, the man and wife are fighting, We’ve looked at that from the second seuda. You might have to do a name change change. So, you know, here, there’s a conflict of of personalities so let’s change the name.

Would that it would be that easy to solve the conflict. In other words, marital conflict, which is so important. And then, of course, death. That’s a rite of passage, is it not? Definitely a rite of passage and, death is to be feared.

I mean, it’s to be feared in Christianity, too, isn’t it? It’s the last enemy. Let’s not deny it and let’s not argue with that, but in Christianity, if we really live out the faith, we know that, Christ has conquered death and that, and that we have nothing to fear. You know, it’s easy to say, but that’s what the Bible says and that’s clearly what it says that Christ conquered death through his own resurrection and we will be raised ourselves. So that’s the teaching of scripture and that’s what we believe, and so, funerals are really not times to of of our Christian believing parents and so on.

They’re really times of joy. I’ve I’ve, mentioned this to me. When I was 1972, my dad was killed in a car accident. He was 70 years old, and this was very sudden. He was hit by a drunken driver.

Both my parents were in there, in the accident. My dad was killed and an aunt was severely injured. In fact, no. An aunt was killed. Uncle was injured.

My mother was had both legs broken. But I was talking to my Pakistani friends about this and, you know, and I I told them that my dad had been killed and, and then I told them that he is with the Lord. This is what the scripture says. Well, they were surprised. Hence, father, they were shocked.

In some ways, Muslims look at this as arrogance, you know, to say, but but I had the scripture and I had the promises, that my father was a believer and had eternal life and that I would see him again and that’s what my mother said too. That was our faith, and so it was a great witness that I gave to my Pakistani Muslim friends. But, you know, death is such a terrible, terrible, fearful thing in Muslims Muslim eyes. We’ve looked at this verse before, I think, 79 in verse 1, by the angels who tear out the souls of the wicked with violence. Well, you know, I don’t think that, those because no one knows who’s wicked and who’s not.

Mohammed, according to the traditions, heard the screams from the grave. They we have, looked at this before. Israel, the angel of death, is frightful. He’s used. He pierces the soul.

He detached from the body. You have those 2 large black angels, Munkar and Nakhr. You have the terrors of the grave and so on. Oh, boy. You know, it’s pretty fearsome stuff, and and so, how do you avoid it?

I mean, you don’t. You’re terrified as a Muslim of this rite of passage. The body is unclean, but you have washers of the dead. Always always always, would be, older, respected women in the community who would wash the body of a young of of of of a younger person, and men with men and so on. Three washes, in Iran would use the big five under the tongue.

You see the ring with the big five. Who are they? Well, we remember who they are. And, or names of the 14 on the finger ring too. You see all the imams, plus Mohammed and and Ali and Hassan and sticks under the arms, hold up the arms to greet Ali.

Quranic verses on the winding sheet, you see. 36. Well, Surah 36 is thought to be the heart of the Quran, to give comfort and in the face of terror because there, these bones are squeezed to powder, especially if unclean. Now I have never personally to be honest with you, I’ve never personally been I’ve never had a Muslim say, look. You’re a Christian.

I’m not gonna eat with you. I’ve never had a hotel, even a little hotel, at the side of the road say, look, we’re not going to serve you because you’re unclean and you’re a Christian, but I do know Christians who have experienced this. So, you, you know, you read the Quran when the person has died and they’re about to die and good Muslims do this. They do. So you see, you have these crisis rights when you need special healing and help, and, certainly, death is to be feared, you know, but for us, there is no sting.

We, belong to one who has conquered it. Lord, help us to remember this. Though death is not easy, nevertheless, we do have the message of hope, and we do have the message, the hope of resurrection, and we hold to it. We cling to it, no matter what happens, even in the face of death of our loved ones. That’s why Muslims need Christ.

They need to have hope through the scriptures. Now sickness, in this topic, Sickness is often diagnosed through herbal messages, medicine, or religious activities. In Uzbekistan, the cause of death is discovered by a shaman, or the trance of a dream. In Turkey, you ask a wise woman. Now this picture here looks much more like it should.

You know, it’s not just a white person, which most of the pictures, unfortunately, in this turned out to be. Philippines ask a medicine man. Morocco, it’s The Exorcist. Now, here is something we close with, and it is a drought. Rain prayers.

Now nothing wrong with praying for rain, is there? But when you look at this as sort of a, you know, a rain dance, then you realize how how, you know, it’s focus is this. It’s really, not really prayer in the sense of directing your request to god, but it’s a, an animistic exercise, and, and Muslims do pray for rain. I mean, Umar prayed for rain, according to Al Tabri, the king of commentaries, but as long as we don’t get the idea that it’s just a sort of an animistic

Festivals in Folk Islam: Dr. Warren Larson Lecture

Dr. Warren Larson delivered a lecture on festivals in Folk Islam during a CIU course. Here, Larson presents festivals per region and sects in Folk Islam and how they are understood. 

Here starts the auto-generated transcription of Dr. Warren Larson Lecture: Festivals in Folk Islam.

We are going to be talking this time about the rituals and practices, but specifically about festivals. But before we get into that, this really has nothing to do with the festivals. But I, unless I forget, and don’t know where to fit it in, really, I wanted to show you I hope you can see some of this stuff. This is a Starbucks, if you can imagine. Starbucks cup, from Turkey, really a contextualized cup, just to put it mildly, with the evil eye on it.

So here is a place like Turkey and, you can buy Starbucks as as contextualized. Here’s another one, really, with all kinds of things. It’s a punch, but really another one too is remember, we’ve talked about the the, a knife under the pillow. I hope you can see this, you know, for good luck and to do all kinds of things. Pick those up somewhere in my travels or students very kindly bring them back to me.

I always appreciate it, and maybe you could, you know, if we think of me, you might do the same, though I don’t know that I’ll ever see you face to face. But another interesting thing is a is a a lighter with, horseshoe on it. You know, horseshoes. Horses are good animals. Then there’s also the, you know, the, it’s all in blue and all that kind of stuff.

Blue is special. So let’s now let’s get on to the topic at hand, festivals, lecture 36, rituals, practices, and festivals. We’re gonna talk about, you know, the different sects and regional families, stuff like that. Wanted to mention in the beginning here, which I think you know already, is that there are only 2 legitimate celebrations in Islam, only 2 legitimate ones, but Muslims have added, others, and and and folk Muslims add their own interpretations. So So in other words, even though it’s the same festival, the same celebration, Muslims do different things.

In other words, they add some folkish stuff. Here’s the first one. The the the biggest well, not the biggest one, but the one we’re gonna talk about right now is, the the one that comes at the end of the fast month. I sometimes remember it that way, fitter and fast. It comes at the end of the fast month, almost the end of it.

The 27th of the month, fast faced the fast breaking. I had a interesting discussion on Twitter. At least, I thought it was. There was a, I take it to be a Muslim who was saying that, you know, they the Muslims don’t understand our no. I’m sorry.

She she was saying that the the Muslims in the Middle East, the the the religions, different religions, know nothing about other festivals. And, so I said, well, you know, that’s that’s quite true. You don’t very often have this interaction on Twitter, but I wrote back and said, but, you know, we too here in the west don’t under often don’t understand the festivals in the Middle East, you know, Muslim festivals. And she wrote back. Well, she said, well, not don’t think it’s deliberate ignorance, is it?

And I wrote back and I said, yes. Sometimes it is deliberate. We could find out more about the festivals and celebrations of these festivals that go on in the Muslim world. I was thinking we know more about the Jewish festivals, I think. I said I don’t wanna fight with you, but it seems to me that sometimes our ignorance is, you know, we’re ignorant because we want to be.

And she wrote back and says, yes. You’re right. Probably true. So, we need to understand. Now I don’t want to you know, I’m not educating you here on the elements elements, you know, the primary stuff of Islam and going over what everyone knows, practically, at least a Muslim, of course, students in Muslim Studies, but I’m just doing this because I want to, point out that folk Muslims add their own meanings.

In other words, they get their own things out of these these stuff. Now this, of course, is the Eid al Fitr, the feast of the fast breaking. It’s during the 10th month of the Islamic year. Cards are sent and when and and and, you know, and everyone’s great celebration. What I wanted to mention was this, that after the men go to the mosque, or while they’re going to the mosque, then women go to the cemetery with fruit, flowers, and candy, and then husbands join their wives.

There’s Koranic reading, burning incense to prevent evil spirits. What at the cemetery? Ancestors. Ancestors. Now at the other one, the really the big one, you know, they they in Pakistan, we had what they call the the Chota Eid and the Burda Eid, the little festival, and the big one, this is the big one, or the, you know, it’s not just Pakistan that’s used all over the place, the big one, the little one.

To me, in Christianity, the big Eid is really Easter, although the celebrations are much more at Christmas. But, I mean, as far as the meaning is concerned and the significance, it’s you know, they’re both important, the birth of Christ too, but the fact that he rose from the dead is really what makes our message so glorious. Well, there’s Eid al Adha, the feast of sacrifice. While Muslims are on the pilgrimage, 2 months 9 days after Eid al Fitr, you see, after the one where they celebrate the Quran, the last month of the of the year, and Hijjah meaning the, you know, the pilgrimage, When the Muslims are in Mecca and, at least many of them doing their pilgrimage and they’re going to the plain of Arafat and on and on and on. The animal sacrifices are done there in the valley of Mina.

This is orthodox Islam, isn’t it? You can’t argue with that. They celebrate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice Ishmael or Ishmael, as we say, Although, when you look at the Quran, it really sounds like Isaac, but, Muslims have always said Ishmael. Okay. We won’t fight with him with that.

festivals But the rich and the poor give sacrifices, they give the might meat away and they say, in the name of God, God accept this sacrifice, and then and then this is some of the other stuff that goes on. The dried eyes of that sacrificial animal are used for charms against the evil eye. Wow. Interesting question here is do you have redemptive analogies in Islam? Don Richardson, for 1, says no.

He says there are no redemptive analogies in Islam. I think he’s wrong. I think he’s wrong. I think there are different ones. This is, this is one that really, I think, a redemptive analogy.

If you look at the Quran and where this sacrifice is mentioned, I think you can it’s not easy, really, to point out to Muslims that, that really there is a bridge here. In other words, to use a bridge to the redemption because Muslims deny it, and and this Quran too with its commentary fiercely denies any type of redemption, or so on, but I think, it’s there in the Quran and in the traditions, but not just that one. There are other ones as well. Sacrifices in a mug of themselves speak, I think, of the sacrifice of Christ, but they are doing these sacrifices in Islam. They say they’re not redemptive, but, here is a here is a diagram of the pilgrimage and what they do.

Of course, they come in, you know, to Mecca from the outside into, and then they, of course, they’re in the spirit of Haram, not supposed to sin now. And if you sin, lose your temper or something, then you have to go back and start over again. But you get there and, you know, you make circles around the Kaaba, head over to Mina, then down, as we’ve mentioned before, to the plain of Arafat, sit there in contemplation and reflection that thinking that god comes down. You see? And you can see tears in the eyes of people in their sincerity, and it is a very emotional event.

Praise god that, that we in Christianity, we know that god comes down has come down, and we fellowship with him all the time. But then they way their way back to Muzdalifa, back to Minas, where there are 3 pillars, throw stones at the devil, which in itself is popular Islam in every sense of the term, I believe. Now those 2 are the only legitimate ones, really. This one, the celebration of the prophet’s birthday is, strictly speaking, not even a legitimate celebration of the prophet, the nabi. It’s a celebration of the prophet, the birthday of the prophet.

You have, at that time, recitations with the Quran and the Sunnah. I have mentioned, I believe, in this, in this course that when I first went to Pakistan in 19 68, this celebration in Pakistan was nothing. But over the years, the next 20 odd years, it grew in its magnificence. It grew, to amazing proportions, which would indicate that the veneration of the prophet is growing. And when you see things, like going on today at the moment and the uproar over, a video that was made, a tacky video that was made about Muhammad and the killings and the angry reaction.

I mean, I know that it’s, rubs against their sensibilities, but, nevertheless, it’s out of proportion. And I think it’s because, veneration of the prophet is growing. You have recitations of the Quran according to, Musk and according from the traditions. In Bukhari, they often say the birth and the death day. We celebrate both festivals.

Bukhary says this is one miracle, the birth and the death, but I wanted to point out to you something that is shocking. I hope you can see this. This is a book by the very orthodox traditional person Maulana Maududi. He’s born in India but came to Pakistan. He was the one that started the Jama’at Islam, the party of the of the Islam.

Very political, orthodox, strict, wrote about 50 books, very influential. What does he say? On page 41 of this book, what does he say about Mohammed? He says on page 41, the savior is born. See?

Toward Understanding Islam. This is the name of the book, Toward Understanding Islam. That, to me, is is a strange thing because he’s making Mohammed out to be way, way more than he than he should be. And and in other words, how could this guy who who is so strict and religious and orthodox say something like that? The savior.

Mohammed never claimed to be the savior, but here he is calling him the savior is born. That’s quite a term. It’s blasphemous, it’s sacrilegious, and it shows you that Islam, is, you know, is going way, way too far and and, Islam is at war with itself. Muslims are at war with themselves. I have mentioned before that this kind of thing is disallowed in Saudi Arabia, you know, where they claim to be, better Muslims, the protectors, guardians of Islam.

There’s an article in the Atlantic Monthly, May 3rd. I I I no. I’m sorry. In 2003, page 53 to 62 called the fall of the house of Saud. Well, a lot of, disunity within Islam, obviously, But, another one is the 10th of Muharram, and that is a Shiite celebration.

Great theological differences here between Sunnis and Shi’ites. And the video, if you ever get a chance, you can Google it. Just Google ASHRA. You can go from country to country to country, even, in in done in some western countries, but mainly, you know, you can look at Lebanon, Pakistan, Syria, and so on where the Shiites take out their processions. And on 10th of Muharram, they mourn and they grieve and they cry and they beat themselves, and they sort of make Hussein into be into sort of a sacrificial person who was, you know, who had the atonement for, for our sins.

That’s what he goes now, moving on then, there is of course, there are 3 special dates. These are in relation to the what we’ve just talked about. There’s the Laylat al Qadr Qadr, sorry, the power night, the night of power, 26th to 27th of Ramadan, and the angels shower peace and blessing on those who stay awake all night. And then you have the maulids or mollids, however you wanna spell it, the birthday and the death day of the local saints. You have other holidays like, you know, the spring harvest festivals in Bekaa Valley and Lebanon, fertility rights, all kinds of stuff.

Then you have those 3 nights that we’ve talked about that that, folk Muslims, you know, put their own meaning into. I wanted to talk a little bit about the Akika sacrifice festival. The Middle East, not aware of this in South Asia. Hard to to trace, but often the 7th day of of a male child. In other words, when the male the little boy is 7 days old, and they say redeemed by his comes from the word true or, you know yeah.

True is is good. And the Arabic denotes the first hair. Zramer says originally, things about this in his book, but the religious ceremony is sort of kicking this thing off. In pre Islamic practice, the child was smeared with blood, and then, Egypt took it up, in other words, a 100 years ago, taken up by the cops, the sacrifice of an unblemished sheep or goat offered. Meat is given away.

The head of the little boy is shaved, but they do leave a lock of hair in some cases. And, in Morocco and and oftentimes, the child is then named. There’s blood sprinkling on the land and the foundations, and the tradition says that the blood was shed to avert evil from the child. Where did it come from? Well, Donaldson and others would say that it seemed to have its origins from the Jews, but I guess the question here is redemptive.

In other words, back to this topic of of, trying to find bridges to preach the message of redemption. And close with this, but Zwemer says Samuel Zwemer says that if Paul had the chance Paul had the chance, and he certainly did preach every chance he got, didn’t he? He would preach at the Akika ceremony or he said he visited the great feast at Ida Latha. What would he preach? He’d preach the redemption of Christ.

Yes. I believe he would. Paul, every chance he got, he would preach, the, you you know, the redemption. Look at the Ephesians 1 and verse 7. I like don’t you like Paul, his directness, his love for the gospel?

In him, he says in verse 7 of chapter 1 in Ephesians, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. And then, going over to Colossians 114, It says that in he in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, and, lastly, Romans 511. God help us to preach the gospel too at every chance we get and to use every bridge. Not only this so, we rejoice in god through our lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received reconciliation. So you see, it’s not just redemption, but it’s reconciliation, to God.

And we we this is what we would hope for Muslims, that they would see that, Christ is the redeemer. It’s certainly there’s no saving through Mohammed.

Pilgrimages in Folk Islam: Dr. Warren Larson Lecture

Places and Pilgrimages

Dr. Warren Larson delivered a lecture on places and pilgrimages in Folk Islam during a CIU course. Here, Larson presents the normal pilgrimages to the Kaaba in the Hajj, but also other shrines, such as Muhammad’s shrine, the Tomb of Hussain, and other Saints, and the rituals involving these places and pilgrimages.

Here starts the auto-generated transcription of Dr. Warren Larson Lecture: Places and Pilgrimages.

This is a lecture about the places and pilgrimages, lecture 35, special pilgrimages, you know, not just to Mecca. Let’s not forget that. The the pilgrimages are not just to on the on the the special one to the Kaaba, but all kinds of pilgrimages and, of course, that’s included. Now we’ve said before that the main reason Muslims do the Hajj is to touch this black the black stone. The black stone meaning that little stone there, not so little, in the, corner of the Kaaba, and they would want to bring black brack clay and from Mecca or something back from Karbala in Iraq, zumzum water, something like that.

I’ve told you stories of my own experience in that regard. But, let’s go on to some of the other tombs, you know, besides, and and I I guess what I’m saying is that the one in Mecca, you know, that’s not really called a true a tomb or a shrine. Muhammad is built is buried in Medina, 280 miles to the north, and that’s really what, you know, Muslims really want to do. They wanna go on the Hajj, of course, but then they wanna go on that little jaunt up to Medina to take in the blessing, of being up there. But there’s other stuff too.

In for Shiites, there’s the tomb, the shrine of Hossein in Karbala, and remember remember that every year during Muharram, 1st month of the year, Shiite Muslims grieve, agonize, sweat over the death, the unfortunate, unreasonable, grievous death of Hussein, and it’s it’s it’s a it’s a wound that never goes away. For, another one, it’s Ali in Najaf, and that’s in Iraq. Wasn’t I was always interested when, you know, in reference to the war when we were in Iraq, and, they would be mentioning these various places in Iraq that, most people have never heard of except that those are the places where Shiites go, and and often the Sunnis would attack Shi’ite pilgrims in Iraq at these holy sites. Of course, not only in Iraq, they do it in Pakistan as well and other areas. For the Alawites in Syria, they have their own tombs.

Alawites, you know, are really heretic heretics, and the president, Assad, Bashar Assad, is a another white and he has there’s so many minorities that somehow he has managed to pull them together, he and his whole family, his father did too, But, it’s a, quite an amazing thing. Now there are various and sundry tombs, not just, you know, the ones that you think of. And a ziara or ziara as we say in Pakistan, but Arabs would say ziara, is really a pilgrimage to a mazar, a pilgrimage to a shrine, place of pilgrimage, and it’s where you go. For example, ziara to Muhammad’s tomb or to a grave of a saint. I give the illustration of Benazir de Puto, that beautiful, western educated woman who twice was a prime minister in Pakistan.

And, by the way, she would have, I think, been much more was much more keen to, to deal severely with the Taliban than, other prime ministers have, other leaders in Pakistan. And she ended up getting assassinated just before she was killed. There was a huge explosion, you know, just at the time or shortly after she arrived from exile in Karachi, I think 140 people were killed. And then not too long after that, she herself was assassinated in, Rawalpindi, which is near the capital, Islamabad. I have, I’m reading right at the moment a couple of books.

Well, I had read one by Ahmed Rashid, who wrote on Pakistan. He called the book Taliban, and now he writes another one. It’s the night title of the book is, Pakistan on the brink. Very straightforward, very clear, and he says that Pakistan is paying a terrible price for, you know, playing games with the Taliban, because they have used the Taliban in their war with India. Not that not their so much their war, but their fears of India, so they’ve used them.

That’s why they can’t deal with them today, and that’s why there’s such a headache. But what I started to tell you and wanted to finish telling was what was about Benazir Bhutto and her book, Daughter of the East. Now here is a beautiful, western educated, woman who’s articulate, in every sense of the word. She says in her book that, when she really was pressed to you know, for guidance and encouragement and all those kind of things, what does she do? She goes and consults with a peer in Pakistan.

And, also, she goes on a pilgrimage when she’s on the hud, she goes up to to visit the shrine in, Muhammad’s tomb. So there’s an example. Now you have tombs of major figures like Shafi, who is the founder of the Shafi school. You know? The Sunnis have 4 schools.

They they have agreed to disagree, but the founder of that school, Shafi, there’s a special shrine of his in Cairo. But there are other shrines too that the Shiites have. For instance, Mazar I Sharif in the town way up north, the noble tomb of Ali. Even say that, his, apparently, his horse was up there. Of course, I don’t think his horse ever made it that far.

He died in Iraq, for Pete’s sake, so how could his horse be up there? But, nevertheless, those are the kind of legends you hear. Another one,is a place, a tomb of the mystic and and, he was a mystic and poet, Ansari. Al Ansari Abu Ismail ab Abu Dula. Abu Dalla, the servant of Allah.

In Iran, he’s called the in in Sarai, saint, you see, saint, and then you have even the mixing over, you know, to the tombs of non Muslims, for instance, the tomb of a Christian in Harat. This one here was, if you’re not careful, your computer, the, spelling will turn that to heart, but it’s a place called Harat. Apparently, there’s a tomb up there of a Christian non Muslim. Now another one is the tomb of Bellekesu Sanbu in Nigeria. You can Google that, and you can find you know, it’s amazing, really, isn’t it?

All you can find, she’s a female saint and they say that that’s the queen of Sheba. Interesting. I didn’t know that she’d gone that far south, but that’s the tradition. Now, also, Yoruba women and dogs suffer if they visit that shrine. It’s taboo.

See? So then besides that, you have tombs of holy men. For instance, some holy guy, you know, some saint in Morocco or somewhere, you can find all kinds of stuff. There’s a tomb of this holy man who is revered for his power, not holiness. It could be, you know, some holy guy or some ruler, who, does this.

I I when when I was thinking about this, I was thinking of the fact that, that this is what Jesus said about the Jews of his day. What did he say? He says in 23 of Matthew, chapter 1st 29, Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees. Now who would have thought that the Pharisees and the teachers of law would do something like this? These were orthodox people, weren’t they?

He says, you build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. So it’s not just the Muslims who did those kind of things, you know, because Jesus accused the the Jews, Orthodox folks, as they would have liked to have been thought, of the same kind of thing. Now here is another comment of a relic or imprint. In other words, that in itself is holy too. We’ve talked about those imprints, about those footprints.

And, in pilgrimage to the top Topkapi Palace, if I’m pronouncing that right, there are 650 different items. Even one of them is the, supposedly, the huge footprint in brass of Mohammed. But there’s underwear of Muhammad, hairs of the prophet, as we’ve mentioned before, and his cloak, the. Now not just, hairs of the prophet there, but I’ve mentioned too that that famous mosque, the Badshahi mosque in Lahore, built during the days of the the Moghuls. These great builders is what they did.

If you ever go to Lahore, you’ll see some of the fancy stuff that they built. There is a great mosque there, Badshahi Mosque, meaning king mosque, and, it all looks very orthodox and so on on the first floor. But if you go up the steps, what do you see behind the glass? Dirty glass it is because it’s been touched by so many over the years years, by may pilgrims because in this place there behind are are some relics, including underwear of the prophet. Now was it his underwear?

I doubt it. But, I wanted to say a word about the burda and this is the cloak and, some of you, many of you perhaps, will remember Muhammad, Mullah Omar, who was the second in is the second in command. He’s still alive as far as we know, second, in command of of, Bin Laden. One patch over his eye, definitely a good warrior, a fierce warrior. Some years ago, when he wanted to speak and show his authority, you know what he did?

He had one of these bhurdas. Put that on to show his authenticity. And I thought to myself whenever, you know, is this is very folk. This is really folkish stuff. It’s, popular Islam that he would do that, put on that burgha or the cloak to show his authority and somehow gain authenticity.

Now, other areas here, especially, they’re, specialized in some some thing, and one was, the fact that Hoda’s son, Ismet, was taken through Saint Theresa in who loves children. This is obviously a Muslim who brings her little boy, Ismet, to a Christian saint who apparently was supposed to have loved loved children and apparently was healed. Bill Musk give us this story. So, all kinds of things. And here is a picture of that, that, thing that I was telling you about, the top copy, museum in Turkey, the palace, actually, with all of these artifacts.

Maybe someday you’ll have a chance to get in there and look at it yourself. But but it is, it is worth noting, and you can Google it and find stuff there too, and it’s a it’s a magnificent building, a magnificent place. Northwest corner of the 3rd courtyard, you will find relics of the prophet brought after the conquest of Egypt, boxes and boxes of holy hairs, and, Quran’s, you know, real kind of stuff. Now let’s talk about how veneration is shown at these places. What kind of places?

The things that we’ve been talking about, the tombs and how merit is achieved, you see? So there is a procedure to all this. There is a way. Now, it’s often through lamps. We’ve talked about this before that that the way to show your veneration and to get something, is often through a lamp that is lit usually on Thursday nights.

It might be a simple shrine. It might be quite, you know, elaborate. And, here’s one that says, 1 night, Imam Ridah shine in Mashed. In other words, this is Iran. And he says that whoever makes the pilgrimage has me with him when good and bad separated.

So I guess I guess what he’s saying is that if you go to my shrine and then, you know, get something relic or something, then when I when you make the pilgrimage, I’m with you. The bridge of Sirat, you know about, that’s that thing that Muslims fear so much at the end, crossing over sharp as a razor and so on, well, what do you do to to to try to to navigate that bridge at the end? You’re hoping for some extra stuff. Now the weighing of merits so you take home, from these shrines, you take home souvenirs. Maybe the railing around the shrine is what you, rub.

In other words, rub against it so you can take home that. Or you might pick up a brass bangle with the imam’s name or the big five that we’ve talked about before. There, the tiny picture of the imam will serve as a talisman in worship. Vases, inkwells. Sorry.

Went too far there. Whoops. Vases, inkle jars, bowls, pots of black stone from Meshed, and the best idea is a sheet with dust on it that you can take and and take it with you. If you do guarantee all your sins will be forgiven. So how does Shu show veneration?

Well, through a cloth. If a person is sick, in other words, your little little guy is sick, your little boy baby is sick, then you would take a cloth from that little person and take it to the shrine, tie it on the branches or railing near the shrine, and then you would take that cloth and, make some knots in it, various requests. In other words, just imagine that I’ve got a hanky here, and take that cloth and make a knot in it. That’s one request. Make another knot.

That’s another request. And, then as as you make the requests, then you vow to do something if those requests are fulfilled. A blind person may tie a black rope to his neck and fasten it to the railing, and then say that I’m not leaving until I’m healed. Well, one guy I heard of stayed there for 7 years in vain. Now, as we’ve said before, the dust is invaluable.

To rub on your eyes or under the corpse, you see, to lessen the sin burden, rub on the roof of a newborn. Flags are often left there. You see, various and sundry flags. I drive driven by shrine after shrine after shrine, and I see the flags. Not sure why those flags, but the flags are there flying in the wind, little ones.

And oftentimes, money is left at the shrine. Now what are the signs of the prayer? In other words, the special prayer or the vow or even an answer. Well, basically, there are 2 steps to the vow. The first step is that a vow is composed, and you have a vow box just like we have little boxes for some churches have they don’t take up an offering, but they have the box.

So they, put write out the vow, probably have someone write it in beautiful classic Arabic or Urdu or something, which no one can understand. But the, the scholar and probably he or she can’t understand it either, but it could be as simple as as this. You see, you compose the vow and then, if if this comes true, then I will do the pilgrimage. It’s it’s, you know, it’s sort of a a deal, isn’t it? Cut a deal.

It’s like Jacob saying, you know, if if you you’re with me, oh god, you know, then I will give this. I’ll do this. It’s it’s you’re making a deal with god. So this is the second part of the vow. Very, very important that you do what has been promised.

For example, I will not cut the child’s hair for 7 years if a son is born. Then I will give its weight in gold to the saint. So God forbid. I mean, in the scripture too, doesn’t it say that if you vow a vow, you have to keep it, you have to keep your word? Well, same in Islam.

And as I mentioned before, the flags and and, you know, the nails and the so on, the money, these are all part of what goes into it. And now, fairs, we have talked about at these fairs. I I mentioned before, fairs, where a saint is doesn’t mean that other things don’t go on, like, the one that was close to me, the prostitutes would set up too, set up shop there and do a roaring business. But at these fairs, religious fairs, you have, processions. People go up there during the birthday and the death day of a saint, maybe for a few days each year, replicas of the tomb, and there, you have people doing petitions.

This is the the Mawlid, the birthday of this celebration. It’s an annual celebration of the birth and death of the saint, and I’ve already talked about that. Women and men go. We had one friend in Pakistan, a little woman who couldn’t have a baby. She could not have a baby boy.

Tried and tried in years. Finally, she went to this saint, only 20 miles away. It was Sakhi Sarvar, quite close to the Balochistan border in south central Pakistan. What happened? She had a baby.

And what do you think they called the baby? Peer bachsh given of the peer. Well, interesting. You know? I mean, I’m not sure how in the world it happened.

But, is this legitimate stuff? Of course, it isn’t. I mean, the Quran says clearly, no intercession, only he. It says vows are made to God, and, it says here in 5326, some of the verses we’ve already looked at, angels in heaven, intercession will avail nothing, but then accept what Allah has given. So you can always argue that, well, you know, after all, after all, you know, this special saint is he is the one through whom we can can pull this off and gain access to God.

You know, they have, one way or the other, that they will manage to, to legitimize it or rationalize it, I should say. And that’s how they do, they do rationalize it. In other words, I know Christians, and you probably do too, who make vows, and I I don’t see think there’s anything particularly wrong with it, in other words, but I do think that it’s substandard because, after all, God has given his promises and we have those. We don’t have to try to cut a deal with him, though it is in the scriptures, you know, Gideon and others, they made vows in Jacob and so on, just for, I guess, for their own security and emotional stability, but, we probably shouldn’t encourage it as Christians, though we do know Christians who have done it.

Other Forces in Folk Islam: Dr. Warren Larson Lecture

Dr. Warren Larson delivered a lecture on the other forces of natural representation in Folk Islam during a CIU course. Here, Larson presents other representations of the most sacred material forces in Folk Islam, like hair and jewelry.

Here starts the auto-generated transcription of Dr. Warren Larson Lecture:  Other Representations of Forces in Folk Islam.

Lecture 3rd or 34, I guess it is now, and it’s, objects, other forces representations. Other not meaning of lesser importance because we’re going to be talking about, I think the most important, material representation and its hair. I say sacred, most sacred, particularly if you don’t have any, but, seriously, in folk practices, hair is of utmost importance. The animistic belief is that it’s it says that parts of the body, including the placenta and hair, notably right now looking at hair mainly, but teeth, saliva, sweat, tears are sort of the soul stuff. Tears, definitely more a part of some than others, but, hair couldn’t be of any more importance in Islam.

And the traditions say that, the, you know, the prophets, that’s the Arabian prophet, Mohammed’s spittle, his urine, his blood, and his hair were, you know, of great value. And there is a lot of spitting and blowing and and then, specifically, we’re going to look at some of the, the, the fact looking at the fact that hair is the way through which bewitching is done, haircuttings, and particularly when you get your haircut. So in Morocco, women hang their hair. In other words, they cut the hair. When they get their hair cut, they hang it on a tree, of the saint.

In other words, where the shrine is, there’s always remember, there’s a tree there, and sometimes they say that here, the, the saint planted his his staff and up came the tree. But there, they would hang their hair on the branches of the tree hoping to gain forces for some help and, blessing and also perhaps even a miracle In, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, North Africa, hair clippings and nails are disposed of very carefully. In North Africa, a man won’t let his hair be cut in the presence of an enemy. Why? Because the enemy could use that against him to put a curse on him and to cause him harm.

In Bahrain, your fingernails are discarded in in a piece of white cloth with a magic formula. So, back to Muhammad. When Muhammad shaved, even in in his day, in other words, not even to mention today, 1500 years later, even in his day, it had already gotten to the place where every hair was kept for good omen, for blessing, and, preserved as relics among Muslims. When I say preserved, we’re going to note that, more hairs have been preserved than ever existed, a 1000000 times over because, you know, they’re always claiming that here is a relic, that is one of Mohammed’s heirs. So we’re really talking about heirs of the prophet, not heirs of the prophet, are of most importance.

I before we tar start talking about Tunis, let me tell you a little bit of a story about, Afghanistan. Not sure where it is, but I think it was Mazar e Sharif, which is way up north if you look on the map, but I’m not exactly sure. But any event, Jay Christy Wilson talks about this, and I believe his book on prayer, praying for, for for Muslim converts, he says that in this town, there was talk of building a school for boys. Good idea, said everybody. Great idea.

Let’s build it. But then somebody came back from the pilgrimage with a hair in his hand. He said, this is a hair of Muhammad, and what we need to do is we need to take that money that was set aside for school for the boys and build a shrine for the hair of Mohammed. Well, you know, who can disagree with that? After all, this would would bring good luck and all this kind of stuff.

But a journalist in the town said, wait a minute. If Mohammed was here, you know, Mohammed would want education of the boys more than that that we spend this money on a shrine for Mohammed. Well, the journalist who spoke up, and said this was basically run out of town, And, that’s the only way, I guess, the government saved his neck was by, giving him a job outside of the town, because he had dared to, to object. Well, talking specifically now about Tunis. In Tunis, nail pairings are buried or burnt.

In Algeria, if nail trimmings fall on the ground, Satan and his forces can use them, and he does use them. In Iran, nail trimmings are sometimes kept in bottles till the resurrection. In Java, Indonesia, you can’t cut your nails on Friday or after dark. And the Malays think that a guy is in danger if his hair, hair or nails are cut. So often, what do they do?

Get them cut by a friend. And, after eharam you know, eharam is the the state of, purity, when you’re on the pilgrimage. So when you when you go this, you know, Iharam is also the the gown or the the clothes that they wear, but Iharam is that state. So after that, then you are not to get your hair cut or your nails cut or anything like that. Zweymer talks about that, but it’s well known.

I mean, it’s well known in his book, the, influence of animism on Islam, page 66 and so for or onward. Fingernails in Uzbekistan, are the way to put a curse on somebody, and and I have had former students in my class and have talked to them who’ve come back from, Central Asia and have confirmed this and talked about it and talked about it on in class and in private conversation. A placenta often is buried by the midwife in the cemetery to avoid attack by jinn. You see, the the baby is pretty vulnerable, small babies, and and then, of course, the mother is too when she’s expecting pregnant stuff, but then the baby is is, and and, the mother continues to be vulnerable so that’s one thing that often is done. Dirt, excretions, excretions, and things like that too are, some are are to be noted as sacred objects and images.

Images. Wanted to just say something about images. You know, I don’t know about this. This is just a some wild thinking perhaps, but, you do know that Muslims are totally against showing any images of the prophet or any prophet. This is really, something that they don’t wanna do.

And, also, you know, you don’t you don’t show images or take pictures of people with a camera. That’s dangerous because the idea is, I think, besides the modesty and besides the other issues that Muslims talk about is that if you get someone’s image, then you have some controling force over them. I mean, this is an old idea in animism, And I have wondered if their strong objection to images of the prophet have anything to do with their animism, their their idea, that, you know and and if, also, of course, if you get a picture of a of a woman and you can, perhaps, process her or force her to marry you and stuff like that. So images, I believe that their aversion to images, I wonder, really, I’m just sort of thinking off the top of my head here, has anything to do with, this, this concept. Now masks are another thing.

If you get a person’s mask, then you can, you know, put put a use that to put a curse against someone. The I too, you know, the is is very, very important, and and we’ve talked about the evil eye. I’m going to, if god wills, show you some, before this course is over, some of the stuff that I have gathered and that friends, students, particular former students, have sent me from here and there, Turkey and wherever, of, you know, the objects that Muslims use, like a Starbucks cup and so on in Turkey. Now Fatima’s hand, this is what this represents. I don’t know.

Keep your eyes open for this kind of stuff because, Fatima’s hand. And notice the, the 5 fingers here. This represents the hand of Fatima force. And why is it used? It’s a protection against the curse, 5 fingers.

Of course, other things too, in other words, represented here, but, you know, the 5 pillars of Islam, it’s a protective gesture. And, as I’ve mentioned before, when you’re preaching, you don’t wanna go doing this here because you would be could be interpreted as warding off a curse. So you have to change your preaching style when you’re in the Muslim world if you are prone to those kind of gestures. There are 2 amulets here in this. This is the first one here on top.

It’s got all kinds of stuff. These are not earplugs, but they this was found on the left arm of a Turkish officer during a fight with the Arabs at the Suez Canal. Now the Suez Canal is this amazing canal that was built joining the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea. So that’s an amazing work of man, really, and women, I suppose we could say, of human beings. The second amnidate here in the bottom was found on Shadal Arab, where the Tigris Tigris and the Euphrates, merge.

So I guess we would be down here. The Tigris and the Euphrates River merge right here, and that’s where this other, was found on the body of somebody else, an officer. So you see, they would wear these amulets hoping to have face to save, you know, be delivered and protected from harm and danger. Now, also, other, representations are animal representations. For example, the antlers of a deer in Afghanistan ward off off the evil eye.

I have friends who do a lot of hunting and, this one particular fellow has more antlers in his living room than you can shake a stick at. I think his wife, finally got to his wife. But but, you you see, this is to to a Muslim, this would be something else. Atlas of Adir in Afghanistan ward off the evil eye, and the fish symbol, is for protection as well. I wonder where that comes from, don’t you?

Because the fish in Christianity too, is a, is a symbol of Christianity. You see the cars and, you know, Christian, they got this fish on the back. I’ve never put one on mine, but I’m not because I’m not much for that kind of stuff. But, the fish is a symbol of, for protection in Islam and Musk talks about that in his book, page 69. Here are a few fishies down here.

Then there’s vegetation and material representations. Sufis in Turkey consider the tree sacred. At least, I suppose the extreme ones would would because, most many Muslims would think that’s really idolatrous, but they would, according to some, maybe a, a powerful force phallic symbol from the fertility cult. I won’t say anything about that because I don’t really know, but there is a lot of those symbols. There has been since the beginning of time, really worshiped.

In other words, those are forceful symbols. Now, what about manufactured material? Well, beads have powerful force. I did bring one thing today, and that is the beads. Hold them up here.

Hope you can see them. These are the prayer beads called Taspi in Pakistan. They have other names in other places. You know, an orthodox Muslim would denounce these. He would say, this is this is not right.

This is not. But beads are used, very, very much. Now blue for children, and for vulnerable animals. Now what do we mean by what do they mean by a vulnerable animal? Would it be a tiny tiny little puppy or something very weak and small and delicate?

Not necessarily. A water buffalo would be constant value vulnerable because, of its value. In other words, it gives milk. And and if someone put a curse on that water buffalo and the milk dries up, wow. I mean, that’s vulnerable.

And so oftentimes, they keep these animals in their courtyard lest someone put a curse on them. In Moriah Rabat, Afghanistan, It talks about these kind of beads. I’m not sure what kind of beads those are. Whether they’re wind beads, I used to think wind beads. I I I really looked on the net for them and wasn’t sure.

I I I it sound looks to me like it’s, beads that wind up, but I’m not sure because that’s a kind of a word that you never know. But tied on the area of pain with the hopes that, it will it will alleviate the suffering. Now continuing on with beads, we have, of course, in the history of Christianity, the rosary, hail Mary, Christian used, this beginning in 11th century and could have been imported to Islam according to Samuel Zweimer, who had all kinds of ideas about these kind of things, 2, 300 years later. Excuse me. In Algeria, there is divining done when this where the sick will die.

How? It’s used they use the, prayer beads, and you can hear see here, prayer beads. I don’t know why they would put this little thing here, in here in but, those are used for divining. You know? The prayer beads are not just for prayer, you know, remembering the name of god.

They’re used for devotion, and they’re used for divining powerfully forces too, to figure out, you know, who put the curse on you or so on and on. In Java, well, back to Tunisia, there’s it’s similar to Algeria and Iran. That’s how you figure out what kind of medicine, you know, what kind of medicine. In Java, this is used for healing for sick, and you hold it in your hand and read to the 15th verse of some kind of of of a reading, presumably a Koranic reading, and you have, talismanic forceful power. During the reading, you count on that rosary.

You see, just picking a bead at random and working your back way back to the pointer. Now in Egypt, the cops too. I don’t wanna pick on the cops because I know that there are cops who, don’t believe in this stuff, but, they would sometimes use means like this to, to cure, you know, retention of urine, people who have weak kidneys or something like that. Again, Zwemer, gives witness to this kind of stuff. Now there is notice note here of bells.

Generally, Muslims don’t like bells. You know, we play the bells, don’t we, on our churches? I go to Germany every year, sometimes more, and I am very much impressed by the church bells as I get up, you know, Sunday morning and I hear the church bells. Muslims say sometimes, and you can Google this and look at it yourself, maybe study it, They say that the bells attract the devil forces, just like, whistling attracts the devil. You know, you wonder really why they, where they get these ideas, but, sometimes, you never know really what Muslims are thinking.

Containers, I’m not gonna say anything about those because I don’t know what to say. But, bracelets and anklets, these are all manufactured material that could be used forcefully, in some way, shape, or form for folk practices. Bowls, yes. Definitely, bowls are sacred, can be sacred as well. And, of course, the Quran and Koranic materials, these are all considered to be to be, you know, sacred stuff, and and depending on the area, used in different ways.

Names, and then with, you know, numbers, magic numbers. We’ve talked about this, the fact that, that numbers have great value. You know? I I can remember hearing about this kind of stuff in in, Christian circles too. I can remember a guy, and there have been many times people have spoken on numbers in the bible, you know, 7 is the perfect number and 3 and all this and 40.

Well, Muslims have this too and they give great value to numbers. 7 which has force, they think, is a perfect number. But god does he like odd numbers? It would seem that there’s something like that, because Muslims have the idea that, you know, when you throw stones at the devil in on the Hajj, you have to throw a nod number of numb numbers. I think 49, but they couldn’t agree.

I heard some discussion there. They weren’t exactly sure how many, and and when you cleanse yourself, you have an odd number of of numbers and so on. It it’s it’s quite interesting, is it not numbers? And then, of course, artifacts and relics. We’ve talked about those a lot, relics of the prophet, relics of the saints, they have powerful forces.

More to come on that. And, here’s a little bit of discussion. A good friend, this is a, a religious guy. Somebody’s telling this story. It didn’t happen to me, but, this religious guy in his twenties with whom you have been spending time, tends to explain time what?

Spending time, talking about the Lord, about Christianity. He, doesn’t seem to have much interest at all, But then one day, he says his parents find a little bag of food, spices, and other things in the cabinets. And what they’re afraid of is that someone has put a curse on them, and so he wants to bring in the sheikh to cleanse the house. And he asks you, what should you do? What would you do?

Well, here again, as we’ve talked about before and, if we were face to face in the classroom, would have you, you know, break up into small groups and talk about this. You’d want to set this up in a careful, thoughtful way and say something like this to them, yes. I will cleanse the house, but I won’t do it in, conjunction with the sheikh because I know that Jesus can cleanse the house. And if you’re gonna call on me, then I will do it. If you’re calling the sheikh, you can do it.

But don’t call on both of us because I want Jesus to have the glory. I mean, maybe this sounds a little bit dogmatic, but you do want to under you want people to understand where the power force is coming from. You don’t want to because sometimes they’ll go to this person, that person, that person, then, you know, something will work. You don’t want to set it up that way, so, you know, Jesus will never get any glory that way. You wanna set it up so that, when all else fails, then Jesus is gonna come in and cleanse the place if, in fact, there is a curse put on it.

This is a difficult situation, isn’t but you want to glorify god. You want to set it up so that he gets the glory through Christ.

Natural Forces in Folk Islam: Dr. Warren Larson Lecture

Dr. Warren Larson Lecture: Forces of Natural Representation in Folk Islam 

Dr. Warren Larson delivered a lecture on the forces of natural representation in Folk Islam during a CIU course. Here, Larson presents the natural representation of forces in Folk Islam, such as the Black Stone of the Kaaba, the Dome of the Rock, Morghe Rebat, and the White Stone, how these affect the concepts of God, and how Christians should respond.

Here starts the auto-generated transcription of Dr. Warren Larson Lecture: Forces of Natural Representation in Folk Islam.

33 has to do with natural representations, and this is not the only one. It’s just the start of them. We will be talking this time quite a bit about stones and, natural representations talking about stones quite a bit, but there is some missiological stuff too, application, you know, coming as as always, at the end. Not as always at the end, but here in this case, we’ll be talking about it in the very end of the lecture. This is unit 3, of course.

We’re talking about forces, and so through thinking about, you know, the various representations, why Muslims, think that that these particular objects are so powerful. One of them we have talked about a lot, and that is the black stone, right there in the corner of the Kaaba. And when Muslims go there on the pilgrimage, I mean, goodness sakes, if we mentioned it once, we’d mentioned it half a dozen times that, they really want to go on the pilgrimage to, well, this is certainly one strong motivation force. Let’s put it that way. And not the only one, but, one strong motivation to touch the black stone, to to kiss it, to embrace it. Natural force

And so in that right in front of that black stone, you can see pictures of people pushing and shoving, and, and some of them are just raising their hand. They can’t they don’t dare to get close to it. Of course, the danger there of getting trampled. So if you’re a little short like Zaccheus was, or old and feeble, you would certainly want to be hanging on to somebody who is big and strong because people do get trampled together to to death in that in that place because they all want to touch the black stones. So you’ve got millions of people circling around, to touch, that and kiss it as they go around.

I mean, how whatever you can do. I mean, get get this the blessing. Now another blessing another, rather, another stone we’re talking about is the Dome of the Rock, and that is in Jerusalem. We really have a hard time, don’t we, figuring out why that is such a special place to Muslims. I mean, they are not about to give it up, but, of course, the Jews aren’t either.

And so when you think of Israeli Palestine Israel Palestine tension, the real problem there is in East Jerusalem, the Dome of the Rock, and it’s a very sacred place. I mean, I can’t help but but think that there is some of this spiritual, mystical, magical forces stuff going on in the Dome of the Rock, that, that has to do in other words, that strong poll, why why Muslims are not willing to give up Jerusalem. Now I’m not arguing. I’m not saying that the Jews are the only ones who have a, a place in Israel. I’m not I’m not arguing for that.

I believe, in a sort of a two state solution. I wouldn’t say like one republican candidate did here several months ago that, Palestinians are an invented people, which I think is a big mistake. They are not an invented people. But I’m I’m just saying that, the Dome of the Rock is extremely precious, to to Muslims, and I can’t help but believe that some of the very thing reasons we’re talking about is here. One of the things is that Muslims have the idea that, Muhammad’s the the beast he was riding as he touched down in Jerusalem right there in the dome of the rock.

He put his foot down and there is an imprint there, before he took off and went on the second half of the journey. Now I don’t know. I’ve never seen it myself, but, the stone, you see the dome of a rock. And now on a small less, of course, well known or publicized place is Moray Rabat. I hope I’m pronouncing that right.

Not a a big place, and, in fact, I couldn’t even find it on the map. But, in northwest is if I understand Afghanistan, There allegedly is the handprint of Fatima. Who is Fatima? Well, she’s the daughter of Muhammad, the wife of Ali, and there, the hoof prints of Ali’s horse, dudul. Now I have I doubt very much that, Ali’s horse ever went to Afghanistan. Both have natural forces.

After all, he died in Iraq, but but, this is the this is the thing that legends are made of, and that’s in Morghay Rabat. Now it’s not the only place. In Herat, which is also in Afghanistan. If you look at the map, it’s right over to the east. I’m sorry.

Yes. When I say east, I I mean that it is it’s really Western Afghanistan. If you look at the map, it’s right, next to to Iran. That’s a mistake there. There is a also a special natural force place there.

But, in the north, very much north of, Afghanistan is. There’s a tradition there that the throne was stone was thrown from the mountain, and so women pray that their sons would become strong, and they would be so men go there and try to lift it. Now the these various special places in Afghanistan sometimes hard to find, but, nevertheless, there they are. They’re they’re they’re small, but never in Afghanistan, you’d think that that was such a strong place. You know, the Taliban have been there and been on power.

But, nevertheless, in these settings, there are strong, I guess, traditions and strong folk practices. Now this is, a little bit of a missiological stuff here. Now we we could talk to of other places, but some missiological stuff here is, when you work with, Muslims, knowing the folk concepts, you know, we have to keep in mind that Muslims will, they think the our Bible is a holy book which has natural forces in itself, and so sometimes illiterate people will buy it thinking that, you know, if they put it on their shelf, good luck up high, it’ll bring them good luck. They have no intention to read it. In fact, probably can’t read it, so we have to be aware of that.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t get rid of Bibles and sell Bibles and get rid of the scripture. Just be aware of the fact that Muslims have these views. Now another question for us is is it right should we say every time a new baby is born? Let’s remember that, Muslims do this to to prevent any evil, harm, danger that would come to the baby. So is the the little formula that would prevent any harm coming from envy or evil spirits.

So, you know, you might think of saying something else that is not, that particular thing, but giving praise to God and then explaining, what you mean by it. You’re not, preventing any magic, but you are, you know, declaring that god, in fact, has given this little one and, and you trust you trust him. Another thing is too when you study the bible with, Muslim converts I know that I’ve studied the bible with Muslims, former Muslims, and they were sometimes it seemed to me that really what the only emphasis is is to memorize it but not to think about it. Of course, this is the oftentimes, this is what they do in the schools too. So you you really want to work with on Muslims is to not only memorize the word, but to think deeply and apply it personally to to Muslims.

I can remember one fellow who came with us, and for 2 years, he just seemed like he gave nothing but irrelevant answers, but we kept drilling and trying to get him to think and think and think. And finally, after 2 years, then he sort of took off and started to think through, apply the scriptures, and, certainly, it was a discipling you know, it was just a a great moment when that came. So this is what we have to think of given the background of Muslims, but there are other stones too, other stones, that, well, that that you know, around the Muslim world. One is a white stone in Iran. It bears Imam Ridah’s handprint.

Who is he? He was a great spiritual leader in in the history of Iran, and it has him it’s it’s it’s apparently, his hand is embedded in the wall. Now you didn’t ever see this, and so I’ve got on here. Remember the DVD, mysticus force Iran, which we show in class, but it’s an amazing video. And, apparently, in another situation here, there’s a white stone because the imam put milk on it. 

Mothers without enough milk for their baby would go there and would hope that they would then be able to have enough, produce enough milk for their baby. Nishapur is where Ali tied his horse, and there’s a lot of devotion to that spot. There are other stones too like the agate. In Yemen, it’s red and bright and powerful, cut his beads along bars, and it brings merit. It rids travelers of annoying beggars.

You see, if you have that, then the beggars won’t pester you, which they often do, protects from action, shuts up false witnesses, keeps from you from wanting anything or anything in need. If it’s heated and rubbed in the eyeball, it, it cures eye disease. So interesting, is it not? Turquoise, a magical power in that stone that makes the wearer happy. And and and and when you wear that, you’re never in want.

It rest the eyes. Ali apparently wore that to win battles. Unfortunately, he didn’t win them all. If you know history, Ali lost some battles and so did, his son, Hussein, grievously, for which the Shiites have been mourning for 1500 years. So those are, that’s the turquoise.

Another one is the stone is the serpentine. It cures poisonous stings. Well, I I suppose like, the sting of a scorpion or something like that and would protect from dangerous beasts. And jade cures travelers’ thirst. Wear it under the clothes to protect from the evil eye.

So you don’t see these things often, do you? But they’re there. Now, or or protect, you know, from the the the baby’s colic. You know? Kids’ little ones are always getting colic, and they cry and cry because of their tummy ache tummy ache.

So then the jade would help. Black stones natural force. There’s a great awe for the power of the black stone, and evildoers are turned into a black stone. Now example here, the tune of Bibi Sharbanu, who’s the wife of the 12th imam, near Tehran, and the rule here is that only women can enter. If a man enters, he’s in trouble and allegedly wounded and became stone.

Now let’s think just a little bit of missiology here before we wind this up. Isn’t it interesting that Jesus talked about stones, and he did it more than once? We don’t have to turn to all of them, but, they’re all the same, Matthew 21, 42, Mark 12 10, and Luke 20 17. It says that he is the head of the cornerstone, Mark 24. And, you know, you said he says you’ve rejected the the the one that you’ve rejected has become the head of the cornerstone.

So I think it’s a powerful thing to preach on, you know, something like that, because stones will connect. Not that we’re giving magical think magically power this, but we need to find things that connect with our audience in the Muslim world. Shells, the Bedouin use jewelry to for to protect against the evil eye. Water is also used for magical force purposes, and remember that when Muslims do their ablutions, this is this is part of it. In other words, cleansing from spells.

Now bread, boys, according to the tradition that they were playing football with bread and they turned into monkeys. Now metal is an iron box with tiny Quran is the Koran pieces and other with tiny Quran is the most powerful. Remember we talked before about iron and certain of the, evil spirits. Iron cures weak eyes or cures deafness, hemorrhoids, and the steel is beneficial, silver, gold, lead, and so on. So, interesting stuff.

Is it not?

Dr. Warren Larson Lecture: Fetishes and Charms in Folk Islam (Pt. 2)

Dr. Warren Larson Lecture: Fetishes and Charms in Folk Islam (Pt. 2)

Dr. Warren Larson delivered a lecture on the fetishes and charms in Folk Islam during a CIU course. Here, Larson presents the uses of fetishes and charms in folk Islam for mechanisms of protection (e.g., physical elements), using the Qur’an as protection.

Here starts the auto-generated transcription of Dr. Warren Larson Lecture: Fetishes and Charms in Folk Islam (Pt. 2).

In 32 lecture, the, the the ongoing topic is has to do with fetishes and charms, the objects that we’re so on. And I, thought I would just read a little story from one of my former students in Chad. He says, last Tuesday, we picked up our vehicle and, and drove it back to our homes to our home city. Soon as we pulled in the yard, one of our guards asked Tim if this was our new vehicle. As soon as Tim said yes, the guard proceeded to fake spit, see, along the vehicle doors.

He explained that this would keep the car from accidents and that Tim should give him a gift, a gift of narcotic leaf that he likes to chew as payment for his service. The next day, another man explained to Tim that everyone throws a big party when they buy a new car. They slaughter a slaughter a goat so the people come and eat the meat and pray for swift safety on the road. Later that day, Tim asked our house helper about this party idea, and she further added that the people also break an egg on the new car for good luck. See?

And Tim tried to say that we trust in god, not a broken egg, but the house helper quickly responded, of course, but you also break an egg. Now I’m not sure exactly what she meant, but, see, they they can’t quite understand us, can we? In other words and and when we’re working among Muslims, even I suppose some of the things that we do could be misinterpreted, so we have to, to, to watch our step. Not that we live on pins and needles, but that we’re just just be aware of the worldview and be aware of some of these things, before we even get there. Tim and Jen are trying to fit in here, but, in that country, but, you know, it is difficult.

I shouldn’t have said Chad. It’s not Chad, and I won’t mention what country it is. But, let’s continue on then as to what Muslims do for protection. Well, in provision, the provision, that is often used is the verse 2255. You see?

This is a great, great verse for protecting yourself from, you know, harm, and and this is called the throne verse. Surat Al, not Surat, but the ayah ayah al Kursi. Kursi is the word for throne, also the word for chair. Ayah al Kursi 2 and 255, and it’s a long, long verse. It says, who can intercede, as but but as he permits, you know, you see, that’s always the the the the the, know, the camel gets his head in the the tent through that as he in other words, as he god permits.

But in the middle of the verse, it says, except as he his throne doth extend. That’s the throne verse. Gotta remember that, you know, in Islam, god is king, isn’t he? He’s not father. He’s king, and it’s a good thing to be king.

I mean, god is king. There’s no question. But, the the fact that god, you see, is king, he’s sitting on his throne, and, so, we use that verse as a protective charm. See? Another one is writing, reciting the 2nd Sura, which is called Baqarah.

It’s a long, long Sura, long, long chapter. It’s called the heifer. You wonder might wonder why that is these why they’re given such names. Others would say the cow, but remember that something in that chapter mentions the heifer or the cow or something like that, and so that’s how the sutta got its name. One idea is that if you recite the second sudah at night, it gives all his protection from jinn until the morning.

Well, you would also be interested in having some kind of, you know, chronic reading to forgive your ancestors. And the deterrent to diseases is 113. Remember, we, just read that a minute ago, 113 and 114 in the last, lecture. Power to counteract psychic affliction. You know, mental disorders are are troubling in the Muslim world and troubling to everyone, particularly when you think of the fact, of the trauma.

Think of the trauma that’s going on in Muslim circles right now. Great trauma has occurred in Afghanistan and now Syria and people and children. In other words, you know, psychic affliction is is a horrible thing. What do Muslims do? Oftentimes, they are turning to the Quran in their desperation, but what a, you know, what a hopeless thing to do, to turn to the Quran, to something like that for help and healing.

In other words, it’s, it’s you you you pray that god would would bring real hope, the hope of the gospel through to Muslims who are so troubled by, the things that are going on. Now a morning recitation, remember that that’s what Quran means. Quran is Iqra, the the recitations, so that’s really what it is and, you know, Muslims, they memorize it and recite it. A morning recitation of 94, that’s surah 94, the name of which is Al Shar, would, would be, helpful, or another name for that Sura, and sometimes these Suras are given 2 names. It’s another one is al inshara inshara inshira, rather.

What does it mean? Well, it means expansion of the breast. If you look, and I wanted to take you back to the introduction here in, Yusuf Ali. He says this short Surah, that is now the introduction to 94, and they have a you know, he gives an introduction to each chapter. This short Surah gives a message of hope and encouragement in time of darkness and difficulty.

It was revealed to the holy prophet soon after the last Sura, al Duha, whose argument it supplements. And the father the prophet’s mind and heart had indeed been expanded and purified. The burden which pressed on his soul had been removed, and his name exalted in this world and the next. For this, the righteous man, there is no trouble. Now what it had this goes back to the history and and, Muhammad said one time, according to the tradition, Angel cut him open, took out a black spot, and they call that the expansion of the breast.

So I guess that’s why it is considered to be a, a a suit of hope, al Shar or al inshira. Now, excuse me. Another one is 105 and that’s called alphyl, the elephant. Gotta know a little history here too, because, in the year that Mohammed was born, that is 5/17, supposedly. There was an army coming up from the south to make war against Mecca, and, they were traveling on elephants.

And then, according to traditions and so on, the legend, some birds came along and disrupted the whole party and so the whole thing fell through. So so but that’s mentioned in the Quran 105, and so, possibly, that’s the reason because, you know, if god can do something like that, he can obviously protect us as well. See the point? And then, then surah 72, which is al jinn, the jinn that’s used to protect against evil jinn. You know, all jinn are not evil, but, some of them are and so we need protection against them.

Here are some, amulets with verses from the Quran. They it doesn’t of course, they’re not not quite clear, what they are, but that’s, basically what these amulets are versus from the Quran that Muslims would use for protection. You have versus to you know, for protection from the Quran from various and sundry other problems. For headaches interesting. Who doesn’t get headaches?

Well, one verse is 6 and 13. To him belongs all that dwells in the night and the day. Miserable headaches. You know, some people have migraine headaches. What are you gonna do?

Don’t always have, Ibuprofen and Advil and stuff like that. And so Muslims do resort to this kind of protection, protection against slander. And the verse there, 3665 through 66, that day we, meaning god, set a seal on their mouths. We remembering that we is here, the, plural of majesty in Arabic, we set a seal on their mouths. That verse seems to me to be pretty, precise and clear, so I can see how that would be hope that that would protect from from slander.

Now here’s one for toothache. Whoever reads 94 or 105, and in the in the morning, prayers will never suffer pain in his teeth, comes out of Zwemer, Samuel Zwemer, remembering those 2 sodas that we talked about last lecture, 94 and 95, both of them, supposedly in reference to Mohammed. Alright. Toothache. And then 114 in a box with valuables, presumably, you know, something like jewelry.

Well, how do you protect the jewelry? You do it through magic. And another verse, 2 and267, just a portion of it, Allah is free of all wants. So in other words, jewelry is pretty valuable. Put in there the short verse, of Allah is free of all wants.

He doesn’t want anything, so why should anyone want the jewelry? Another one is supposed to keep out moths and, 2 and, I guess, 15 to 16. It says, Allah will throw back their mockery on them and give them hope in their trespasses, so shall they wander like a bird. Now I I’m not sure the relevance of that, but, you know, it’s it’s, lots of verses that Muslims are using, for various and sundry problems. And here are some here are a few references from the the Hadith, and we’re talking about Mishkit here to illustrate what we’re what we’re saying.

Abu Huayah, and this is often the person through whom the tradition came, reported god’s messenger saying, do not make your houses your houses graveyards. The devil flies from the house in which Surah Al Baqarah is recited. And so, Abu Huwara reported it and Muslim transmitted it. So you see, you shouldn’t only find this in Mishkit, which is not one of the canonized sets. In fact, it’s one of the, you know, it’s it’s the the 6 that are canonized, but but a lot of them are the same.

In other words, Muslim transmitted it, so you should find it in Muslim as well, Al Muslim as well as al Bukhari. Abu Umama said he heard god’s messenger say, recite the Quran for on the day of resurrection, it will come as an intercessor for those who recite it. And recite the 2 shining ones, specifically. You know, 2, al Surah Al Baqarah and Surah Imran. Imran comes from the name, by the way, who is the father, I believe, of Moses and Aaron as well as as Miriam.

So the the 2 shining ones, those 2 suitas are pretty powerful suitas. And then here’s another one, Mishkat, volume 1, page 451. Aisha said and who’s Aisha? Aisha is also one through whom many, traditions I’m sorry. Yes.

Traditions come. Every night when the prophet went to his bed, he joined his hands like this, if you can see them, breathed into him, reciting into them, and says, he is God, 1. I seek refuge in the lord of the dawn and say, I seek refuge in the Lord of men, then he would wipe as much as his body he could with his hands, beginning with his head, his face, and the front of his body, doing that three times, and that is Bukhari and Muslim. So there is this, I guess, this magical part of it. Now, you know, I don’t see anything wrong with holding your hands out like that to receive the blessing, but I don’t think that there is a magical effect, in in doing that.

Now there are chronic amulets that are used against the evil eye and we’ve talked about this before, haven’t we? We’ve mentioned that in this famous this famous amulet here, in the center is Quran, Surah 6851 through 52. On the margins, there are, you know, certain parts of the Quran, and then in the 4 declarations in the corners that we’ve talked about before, Quran 112 through 114. So this is a, a famous ambulance in the Middle East against the evil eye. Maybe someday you’ll see this in person rather than just, hearing about it in Islam through the spirit world of Islam.

Wouldn’t that be, somethings? Keep your eyes open. And, then as we mentioned before, there is if you look close, there is Ali at the top. So here, there’s something you see in this this one here for everyone, Ali being the favorite among the the favorite among the, the Shiites.

Dr. Warren Larson Lecture: Fetishes and Charms in Folk Islam (Pt. 1)

Dr. Warren Larson Lecture: Fetishes and Charms in Folk Islam (Pt. 1)

Dr. Warren Larson delivered a lecture on the fetishes and charms in Folk Islam during a CIU course. Here, Larson presents the uses of fetishes and charms in folk Islam, from the Qur’anic magic, and other mechanics of fetishes and charms.

Here starts the auto-generated transcription of Dr. Warren Larson Lecture: Fetishes and Charms in Folk Islam (Pt. 1).

Alright. This is lecture 31, I guess, and good to be with you again. We’re talking, still talking about forces now in unit 3, not just, because we just started it. But, the today is specifically the fetish fetishes and charms, and we keep referring, don’t we, to surahs 113 and 114, and I thought, maybe I should read those 2 short Suras. These are, as we’ve said before, are used for magical purposes.

The the first one, 113, is, the daybreak. Say, I seek refuge in with the lord of the dawn, from the mischief of created things. See? That sounds very folkish, doesn’t it? From the mischief of darkness as it overspreads, from the mischief of those who practice secret arts, and, from the mischief of the envious ones as he practices envy.

I mean, this is really when you think about it and listen to it carefully. And then 114, say, I seek refuge with the lord and cherisher of mankind, the king or ruler of mankind, the god or judge of mankind, from the mischief of the whisperer of evil who withdraws after his whisper, the same who whispers in their hearts into the hearts of mankind, among jinns and among men. I mean, this is really something. But before we, get too hard on the, Muslims and Islam folk stuff, let’s just back up a little bit and let me remember. Let us just remind ourselves about the Jews.

The Jews of the dispersion used book, in other words, used the book, the holy book, in other words, the Torah, to lighten childbirth, and the specific reference there was Genesis 21 and verse 1. That’s about Sarah having a, a baby and I guess if Sarah could have a baby at age 90, I it would give, the Jews. But notice that it’s in the dispersion, so you get the strong impression that they must have picked it up from their, their neighbors. Divining rod, Genesis 24 and verse 2, that has to do with Abraham when he was finding a wife for his son, Isaac, which, you know, it makes sense, doesn’t it? After all, this is you’re going out on a limb when you do that, but you’re going out on a limb when you get married anyways.

So and then against danger on the road. That one is Genesis 3231. And, you know, when Jacob, he, I guess, sets out on his trip. There’s a lot of danger and so that one, but also the fact, I suppose, that Jacob limps quite a bit of his life. Now Genesis 49 and verse 18, interesting there why that would protect against the against the mad dog.

I’m not exactly sure what the reasoning is. 49 and, verse 18. Here it is. It says that, I look for your deliverance, oh lord. Well, you certainly would be deliverance from a mad dog, and then I suppose Genesis 17 and verse, 16 to help in the case of bleeding would be similarly, somewhat difficult to understand, but that’s 17 and verse 16, if I can find the verse.

And it says that, I will bless her and surely give you a son by her. I’m not sure exactly, as I’ve said before, what, you know, how they they they they choose these verses because some are more plain than others. But, Zweimer, who Samuel Zweimer, who was no fool, said this, quoting and and pulling his sources out of the Jewish encyclopedia, that this is the what the Jews did. And so pointedly and notably, the Muslims, it looks like, have picked up some things from the Jews in this folk stuff. Now when we’re talking about fetishes and charms, of course of course, we’re talking about the Quran.

And the fact that, Muslims think that their safety, security, well-being, and defensive measures by using the Quran. Defense against what? Against defense against harm, bad or, you know, bad luck or or things that could go wrong. We’ve mentioned this before too that the Quran admits or acknowledges that it is a kind of deception, but, nevertheless, it seems to contradict itself and it it, says that, you know, this can, this, these kind of things, can can sow discord between a man and his wife. So it it does acknowledge the evil of it, but yet acknowledges, or at least says that it can sow discord.

That’s one of the things. Now, there are various things mentioned here in the PowerPoint and on the class notes, but one of them that Muslims do is they swear on the Quran. Now this is not necessarily magic, is it? Because, people have doing been doing that with the holy books for years. I think the first time it happened with the Quran for a US senator was a few years ago when, I think maybe was his name, senator Ellis Ellison, swore on the Quran, which surprised Americans since they’ve always been swearing in the Bible.

Now, but this, is seen quite clearly through how the Quran is handled. And if you drop the Quran, if you, if you have any accidents with it, then you’re in, you know, in serious trouble. So if you, by any chance, any misfortune of dropping the Quran in the presence of Muslims, then, you apologize profusely and hope that, it will all end well. It hasn’t, it doesn’t always. I I I don’t know whether I told this story or not, but I certainly have told it in class, of incidents I know of where people dropped a Quran, for instance, a very wealthy influential woman in Pakistan that I knew of.

Didn’t know her personally, but read about it in the papers that she somehow dropped a Koran out of her purse into a a, a a ditch. And, I’m telling you, had she not been wealthy and influential, she could well have suffered harm from the local people. But another person whom I heard about, was having his devotions just like we do. In the morning, by a little fire, he would make some tea and, and then he would read his Quran. And, one day, one morning, inadvertently, the Quran fell into the fire.

Now whether he had gone and left or something, done something else, but he came back and the Quran was on fire. So he panicked, and he shouts out, I suppose, which was the thing to do to show your, how much you you you you dread this, and he said the Quran is on fire. The Quran is on fire. And a woman, just a neighbor neighborly well, not a neighborly woman, but some neighbor woman who didn’t like him shouted out and said, this, this man has burned the Quran. And so people gathered, and they were beating him up.

The police came and rescued him as they often do, rescue you by putting you in, in jail, but it didn’t help because, by that time, the people were so angry that they assembled, broke down the jail, took that old fellow, and he wasn’t young, but he was someone who read the Quran and probably had even memorized it, tied him up or and tied him onto a motorcycle cycle, dragged him around town to kill him because, they had accused him. They accused him of misusing the Quran. Well, these are sad stories, but they do show you, this how the Quran is, I guess, worshiped really. It’s, now, Muslims too would write, use the Quran to, in in other words, write verses, in mini buses or on other buses, ordinary buses, their calligraphy pages, of the Quran, in other words, water poured over pages of the Quran and then drunk to protect from the the witch, and on and on and on. These are the kind of things that are done.

Now memorizing holy books, of course, is considered to be a good thing, and we memorize the bible too. But I keep thinking that the emphasis on memorizing the Quran in Islam is not all good because it seems to me that they’re memorizing it in order oftentimes to for magical purposes. In Egypt, for example, it says that Satan, Shaitan, never enters the house where the Quran is recited daily. So the Quran is used oftentimes for for personal benefit and those 2 sunas that we’ve just read, the last 2 in the Quran, put under a pillow are supposed to make for an easy delivery. In North Africa, boys drink holy water that has been washed off their slates, so that they can, you know, be good at memorizing Quran.

In Iran, the Quran is laid in your lap in New Year for good luck. How’s that? And then then on, not so pleasant a topic is the matter of harming others. In other words, what magic how is the Quran used, to to do magic or harm against others magically? Well, you can do it through, various verses.

One of them is 3 in verse 127. That’s chapter 3, sutra 3 127, and the verse is that he might cut off part of those who disbelieve base so that they should return in failure. Now that’s the verse that they would use. Now for someone’s death, wow. Now that’s pretty wicked stuff, isn’t it?

To want someone’s death, the verse there or verses would be possibly 5 and verse 30 through 33. And if that is repeated 29 times, and if it was written on the face of a plaster, in other words, a plaster masks, not this isn’t necessarily the what we’re talking about, but the best we can do. And, if those verses that I’ve given you are written on that mask plus 29 times, those they are repeated. And the the I’m sorry. The victim’s name is repeated on the back, then a dragger is plunged into it, something like that, then, that’s how it’s possible that someone would want your death.

I I admit that that wasn’t always clear how they do it, but, nevertheless, that’s not the point. The the fact is that they do do. Specific verses, passages for, specific situations. Well, one of the things, of course, is marriage, and, you would want to write on a on a married woman’s garment. Whoever recommends this does it for a good cause.

The verse there, it’s a little bit off to the side, but it’s 485 through 87, and just giving you the the briefest part of that verse, but if that could be written on the woman that is wanted in marriage, on the garment that she wears, then possibly, you can, I’m sorry. I went too far. Then, possibly, then, you can gain her hand in marriage. You know, it’s hard to find a wife. It is really hard to find a wife in many, cultures.