RITUAL

Ritual is a term that indicates more or less fixed acts and actions that take place at certain recurrent moments and in which certain bodily gestures, words, music, and material objects may play a role.

Theories

In the past, the word ritual referred to religious ritual acts and to the rules regarding these acts. Therefore, the Roman Catholic Rituale Romanum (1614) and the famous Islamic work on Islamic ritual and law, the Mukhtasar of the Malikite scholar Khalil ibn Ishaq al-Jundi (b. c. 1374), are comparable phenomena in the sense that they both prescribe rituals. Early twentieth-century scholars of religion such as Sigmund Freud and the biologist Julian Huxley began to use the word ritual in a much broader meaning. Freud used it to describe compulsive acts and movements of neurotic patients, and Huxley for certain animal acts and behaviors. Since then there has been a tendency to use ritual in a broad sense. Hence, rituals can no longer be associated solely with the domain of religion. They play an important role in many fields of public and private life; for example, in political life, war, festivals, and feasts.

Many nineteenth-century students of religion, particularly those educated in the tradition of liberal, modern theology and later the phenomenologists of religion, tended to view ritual as merely an illustration of religious beliefs and myths. At the other end of the spectrum, scholars such as William Robertson-Smith and Émile Durkheim held the opposite view, namely that ritual is more basic than beliefs. Later scholars have tried to overcome the belief-action dichotomy by formulating notions such as habitus (learned techniques, including such basic activities as running, etc.) and discourse/discursive practice (Talal Asad) which stresses the embodied nature of beliefs or the unity of actions and beliefs. Four brief theoretical observations should be made.

1. In the course of time, rituals may change. In general, they tend to become more complex. Therefore, in many religions (including Islam) ritual specialists exist. These ritual specialists have different names in different parts of the world and in different religious settings. The pilgrimage to Mecca, a very complex ritual, is guided by specialists as well.
2. The meaning of rites may be subject to reinterpretation. For example, according to modernist interpretations, purity rules have their background in hygiene, that is, they claim that the original meaning of these regulations has its base in conceptions of clean and dirty, thereby diminishing their religious, symbolic, meaning. For example, in traditional Islam, a menstruating woman is not allowed to perform the salat (ritual prayer) because she is ritually unclean. The modernists argue that it is permitted to her not to do so, on account of her being ill. Such interpretations are for obvious reasons called "medical materialism." They attempt to give a modern, "scientific" explanation.
3. In many periods of Islamic history, reformists have criticized ritual behavior that deviated from orthodox norms and values. This criticism is especially apparent in the orthodox reform movement of the end of the nineteenth century (Muhammad ?Abduh [1849–1905], Muhammad Rashid Rida [1865–1935]), but we also come across it in the work of the neo-modernist Fazlur Rahman (1910–1988). He sharply criticizes forms of Sufism for teaching superstitionism, miracle mongering, tomb-worship, mass-hysteria and, of course, charlatanism (Islam, p. 246).
4. The existence of historical meanings does not mean that all participants in rituals are fully aware of these meanings. Muslims in the Netherlands, when asked about the meaning of shaving one's hair on the occasion of the ?aqiqa ritual (see below), simply answered that it was part of their religion, or that by doing so, the hair would become thicker (Dessing, p. 30ff). In other words, rituals may drift out of meaning or acquire new meaning in changed circumstances, for example, as a result of "transplantation" to a Western country, or as result of the secularization of rituals.

Catherine Bell distinguishes six major categories of rites: rites of passage or "life crisis" rituals; calendrical or commemorative rites; rites of exchange and communion; rites of affliction; rites of feasting, fasting and festivals; and, finally, political rites. These categories will be applied here to the major Islamic rites. I have added a seventh category, rites of communication.

Rites of Communication

This type of rite mainly serves to communicate with God, jinn and zar spirits, or with deceased humans (saints, prophets). The most important example is the salat, or ritual prayer. According to Islam, it is a human obligation to communicate with God in prayer, or as Sura 51:56 has it: "Jinn and humans are created only to worship God." In the salat, the Qur?an is to be recited as if it were revealed onto the believer's heart. The performance of the salat includes a number of more or less fixed bodily movements, which express core religious values. According to tradition, during the salat the believer speaks with his Lord. In the salat, there is also space for saying invocations of a personal nature, du?a?. Prayer as well as other Islamic rituals, for example those involved in saint veneration, are in one way or the other related to notions of purity. A well-known tradition says, "Purity is half the faith." The overall term for these notions is tahara, which means purity.

Rites of Passage or Life Cycle Rituals

Rites of passage mark the biological and spatial transitions in human life and give them cultural meaning. Sometimes the rites occur at the same time as the biological transition themselves, but they may occur earlier or later. Important steps towards a theory of ritual structures have been made by Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner. Van Gennep noted the threefold structure of rites of passage in the life cycle and territorial passages. Each rite of passage is marked by phases of separation, transition (the so-called liminal phase, from the Latin word limen, threshold), and incorporation or reaggregation.

The most important rites of passage in Muslim religious life are: the naming and birth ritual (subu?, ?aqiqa), circumcision, marriage, funerary rites, and the commemorative mourning rites that follow at certain fixed periods.

Depending on the stages in life, these three stages get different values, for example, by the complexity of the rites to be performed. One example is a child's initiation ritual in Islam, which is carried out on the seventh day after birth. The rite involves three interrelated elements: sacrifice of an animal (usually a sheep, ?aqiqa), the name-giving rite, and shaving the hair of the baby.

An instance of a separation rite preceding these three acts is the bathing of the child, performed in some parts of the world at the beginning of the ritual. The bath symbolizes the separation from the mother (who had kept the child near her until then) and the introduction of the child to the natural world. The naming ritual, which confers an Islamic identity (often in accordance with the Prophet's injunction to the believers to call themselves by graceful names), and expresses its membership in the community, is closely connected to the sacrifice. Shaving and sacrifice may be seen as liminal rites, whereas the festive meal that often concludes the ritual and to which the family is invited, is an aggregation ritual.

Marriage is an important social, juridical event as well as a life cycle ritual with a number of fixed elements. At many ritual occasions, including marriage rituals, a festive meal (walima) is held.

Calendrical Rituals

Calendrical rituals include seasonal (often agricultural) rites and commemorative rites. They are meant to give meaningful social definitions to the passage of time. The first rites are closely connected to the changes in the seasons. The second commemorative rites recall certain important events. As is explained in the article on the ?ibadat, rituals such as the ?umra and the hajj are seasonal rites in origin. Because of the abolishment of the intercalation in 31 c.e., Islamic rites are no longer tied to the solar calendar, and hence no longer tied to the changes of the seasons. The determination of the new months, by sighting the new moon, acquired ritual significance, especially in connection with the beginning and end of the fast in the month of Ramadan. In Islam, the narrative component in this ritual cycle is perhaps less present than in some other religions; nevertheless it appears, for example, in a very outspoken way in the poems about the birth and life of the Prophet, which are recited at various occasions.

The ritual cycle opens with ?Ashura on 10 Muharram. ?Ashura had been a fasting day before the revelation of the Ramadan fast, and it has remained a voluntary fasting day in Sunnite Islam until the present day. For Shiite Muslims ?Ashura is the day on which the martyrdom of the grandson of the Prophet, al-Husayn, at Karbala in 680 c.e., is commemorated by emotional and at times violent mourning rituals.

On 12 Rabi? I, the third month, the birthday of the Prophet is celebrated. On 27 Rajab, the Laylat al-Mi?raj, or ascension of the Prophet to the Heavens, is celebrated. The ascension of the Prophet to Heaven via Jerusalem (Isra?-Mi?raj) is one of the great symbols of Islam that serves as a (mystical) symbol of the ascension of the believer toward God. This is when the number of daily salats was fixed at five. Elements of the ritual celebration may include recitation of Surat al-isra? (Sura 17), followed by commentaries, singing, and the recitation of religious poems.

The popularity of the celebration of the fifteenth middle night of Sha?ban can be explained by its age-old associations with the Divine which is believed to be made on that night with regard to those who will die the next year.

The month of Ramadan is marked by the fast and by Laylat al-Qadr (27 Ramadan). On 1 Shawwal, the Day of the Breaking of the Fast (?Id al-Fitr) is celebrated.

On 10 Dhu-l-Hijja, the twelfth month of the Islamic year, ?Id al-Adha is celebrated. This ritual marks the end of the year, but in fact it does not represent the end of the ritual cycle, since there is a clear connection between the ?id (feast day) and the ?Ashura rituals. The pilgrimage itself can also be seen as a rite of passage, in the sense that pilgrims set out for a place "out there," from which they return with a higher religious status, that is to say, as hajjis.

Rites of Exchange and Communion

The central element in these rites is an offering (sacrifice) or a gift. Major Islamic rites that can be mentioned are the ?aqiqa and the sacrifice at the occasion of ?Id al-Adha. Moreover, sacrifice can also take place in other settings, such as possession cults (see under rites of affliction). Votive offering may also be included here. Such offerings happen at the graves of the saints.

Rites of Affliction

These rituals heal, exorcise, protect, and purify. In Islam, they occur, for example, in the context of saint veneration, where people seek healing, and in possession cults. Possession cults are marked by public and private gatherings where sacrifice, dance and trance are central elements. Those who suffer from particular mental, social or physical problems seek healing by establishing contact with the spiritual world of the jinn and other meta-empirical beings such as the zar. Other examples of (public) rites of affliction are the special salats to be performed at times of drought, or the recitation of Surat Ya Sin (Sura 36) in times of distress.

Rites of Feasting, Fasting and Festivals

These rites display both the hierarchical prestige social system and the interdependence or unity of human and divine worlds. The two major "canonical" festivals are ?Id al-Fitr and ?Id al-Adha (another name for the great feast, al-?Id al-Kabir). ?Id al-Fitr marks the end of Ramadan fast. Ramadan is the sacred month par excellence. This has to do with the communal aspects of the fast, which expresses a number of basic values of the Muslim community. As various scholars have argued, fasting may extol fundamental distinctions, lauding the power of the spiritual realm, while acknowledging the subordination of the physical realm. According to popular beliefs, the devils (shayatin) and jinn are powerless, while God is nearer then than during other months. This increased religious awareness culminates in Laylat al-Qadr, when, as some people believe, the gates of heaven are opened. After the salat al-?id, people will pay visits to relatives, which often includes visits to the graves (ziyarat al-qubur).

?Id al-Adha on 10 Dhu-l-Hijja, commemorating Ibrahim's readiness to sacrifice his son, marks the end of the pilgrimage (the hajj). Another major festival, the Mawlid al-Nabi, grew out of the Fatimid Shiite ritual practice (11th century c.e.). Nowadays, although it is celebrated nearly everywhere (although exceptions, such as Saudi Arabia, exist), its status as a feast has nevertheless remained controversial until the present time.

In Morocco, ?Ashura is a festival honoring the dead, and during which the participants give alms, eat dried fruit, and buy toys for their children. It is marked by reversal and carnival-like rituals such as masquerades, processions, and theater (Hammoudi 1993).

Political Rituals

These rites construct, display, and promote the power of political institutions. The early history of Islamic rituals has partly been determined by their relationship to politics. For example, the salat al-jum?a (Friday prayers) originally had political connotations as a medium to convey messages to the body politic. Muhammad's birthday festival also came into being in highly political surroundings, that is, as a palace ritual. It was meant to enhance the position of the Fatimid ruler. It stressed his bond with the prophet Muhammad and his family in particular. By giving presents to his most faithful servants, the ruler stressed the existing hierarchy in the Fatimid state. Later in the Middle East and the Islamic West, the celebration often continued to be a court ceremony, but became a popular festival as well. The Islamic world knows numerous truly political rites, such as, for example, the celebration of the accession to the throne in Morocco, or the anniversary of the death of well-known political figures, such as (again in Morocco) that of King Muhammad V.

See alsoCircumcision ; Death ; ?Ibadat ; Khutba ; Law ; Marriage ; Pilgrimage: Hajj .

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Gerard Wiegers