Islamism

Islam or Islamism is one of the religions with the largest number of followers today: 1.3 billion worldwide. It extends over all of Western Asia , Southeast Asia and all of North Africa and some countries in Europe .

The Spanish word “Islam” comes from the Arabic language and means ‘submission’ or ‘obedience’ to the god Allah . Its believers are “Muslims”, a word that in Arabic means ‘those who follow Islam’. The founder of Islam was Muhammad . This is why Muslims are sometimes called “Mohammedans.”

Islam is divided into two fundamental branches: the Sunnis (who claim to follow the direct line of Muhammad ) and the Shiites (descendants of Ali, Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law). Sunnis make up the vast majority of Muslims (around 90%). There are other groups, but they have few followers: Jarichites, Imamis, Druze, Alawites, etc.

Summary

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• 1 Main beliefs of Islam
• 2 Islamic customs
• 3 Calendar
• 4 Celebrations and parties
• 5 Influence of Islam on Cuban culture
  • 1 History
  • 2 Clues of an Arab-Islamic foundation in the theogony of the Yoruba pantheon
• 6 Extension
• 7 Gallery
• 8 Sources

Main beliefs of Islam

Islam is based on five fundamental pillars:

• The testimony ( ash-Shahadatan): means that only the god Allah deserves to be worshiped, and that Muhammad (Muhammad) is his messenger: it translates to a male testifying that he firmly believes and submits to the god Allah, and will worship only the god Allah, abandoning any type of worship directed towards another being.
• Establishing the Prayer (Salat)– is a set of words and actions that begin with the pronunciation of the Takbir (Allahu akbar) and concludes with the pronunciation of the Taslim (As-salaamu ‘aleikum wa rahmatullah). Prayer is an obligation for every Muslim man or woman, and must be performed at its prescribed times five times each day these are: Fajr (dawn) for two Rak’at, Duhur (noon) for four Rak’at, ‘Asr mid afternoon) of four Rak’at, Maghrib (sunset) of three Rak’at, Ishaa’ (night) of four Rak’at.
• Giving Zakat (help to the needy)– The original meaning of the word Zakat is “purification” and “growth.” Giving Zakat means giving a specified percentage on certain properties to certain classes of needy people. The percentage, which is made mandatory on gold, silver and cash that has reached the amount (or the money equivalent in the case of cash) of approximately 85 grams of gold and that has not been used in the course of of a lunar year, it is 2.5 percent. A person may also give as much as he wants as alms or charity.
• Fasting in the month of Ramadan: Every year during the (lunar) month of Ramadan all Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset, abstaining from eating, drinking and having sexual relations. Although fasting is very beneficial for health, it is considered (by Muslims) primarily as a method of spiritual self-purification, since abstaining oneself from the comforts of earthly life, even for a short time, Fasting creates true sympathy for those who suffer from hunger, while growing in their spiritual life.
• The Pilgrimage to Mecca: The annual pilgrimage (Hajj) to Mecca is a once-in-a-lifetime obligation for those who have the physical and financial means to perform it. The annual Hajj begins in the twelfth month of the Islamic calendar. Male pilgrims wear special and simple clothing (two pieces of cloth) that make any type of cultural or class distinction disappear. So that everyone appears before God without differences. About two million people go to Mecca every year from all corners of the planet.

Some basic beliefs of Islam are

“Allah” is the most important word to be a Muslim or follower of Islam.

• Belief in God: Muslims believe in a Unique and Incomparable God, who has no son or partner, and that He is the only one who has the right to be worshiped. He is the true God and any other deity is false. He has the most magnificent Names, sublime and perfect Attributes. No one shares the Divinity of him, nor the Attributes of him.
• Belief in Angels: Muslims believe in the existence of Angels and that they are honorable creatures. Angels only worship God, obey him and act only on his orders. Among the angels is Gabriel, who descended the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).
• Belief in the books revealed by God: Muslims believe that God revealed the scriptures to his messengers as a test for humanity and as a guide for humanity. Among those books is the Quran that God revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).
• Belief in the prophets and messengers of God: Muslims believe in the prophets and messengers of God, beginning with Adam, including Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and Jesus (Peace be upon them all) But the God’s last message to man, a reconfirmation of the eternal message, was revealed to the prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), who for Muslims is the last prophet sent by God, just as God says.
• Belief in the Day of Judgment: The Muslim believes in the Day of Judgment (The Day of Resurrection) when all people will be resurrected to be judged by God regarding their beliefs and actions.
• Belief in Al-Qadar: Muslims believe in Al-Qadar which is Divine Predestination, but this belief in Divine Predestination does not mean that human beings do not have free will. On the contrary, Muslims believe that God has given human beings free will. This means that they can choose between good and evil and that they are responsible for their decisions.

Islamic customs

In addition to the previous precepts or laws, Muslims follow their own customs. For example, when they are born, verses are recited in their ears to drive away evil spirits; Furthermore, after six days, boys undergo circumcision (a simple operation that consists of removing a small piece of skin from the penis), like the Jews .

First Ramadan of Pakistanis in Cuba.

A Muslim cannot eat pork nor can he drink wine or beer or taste alcohol .

The book where these and other precepts are collected is the Quran , which contains all the basic religious, moral and legal norms of Islam.

Calendar

The Islamic calendar begins with the Hijrah , that is, the emigration of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina . That year is equivalent to 622 of the Gregorian calendar. Lunisolar calendar years can have 354 or 355 days. Therefore, to establish an Islamic year, it is not enough to subtract 622 years from the Gregorian calendar.

Islamic holidays, based on the lunisolar calendar, would be celebrated on different dates each year if we transferred them to the Gregorian calendar.

Celebrations and parties

Friday is the day on which Muslims celebrate their weekly holiday, as Sunday is for Christians, and Saturday is for Jews. On that day, the muezzin or muezzin calls the believers to go to the mosque and pray with their companions, men and women separated.

In countries where there are no mosques, Muslims can go to oratories, which are places prepared to pray. They can even pray in the field, facing the direction of Mecca .

A group of travelers pray in the direction of Mecca

In addition to Friday, Muslims remember the life of Muhammad and his most important events in a series of holidays. Muslims have two holidays: Eid al-Fitr (‘charity banquet’) and Eid al-Adha (‘celebration of sacrifice’), others add Friday.

• Eid al-Fitr: means the end of Ramadan (the month of fasting). The night before the first day of this festival is also considered particularly auspicious. Early in the morning, the community as a whole performs different prayers and celebrates a breakfast that marks the end of the fast of the most important month for the Muslim world.
• Eid al Adha: is represented by [Muslims] around the world with the offering of an animal sacrifice (commonly a cow or a lamb) as an action of gratitude to God for saving the life of the son of the prophet Abraham. With this holiday, Muslims remember that Islam means submission, since no one showed his submission to God better than Abraham (Arabic: إبراهيم Ibrahim), who was willing to sacrifice his own son as proof of his loyalty. bye bye.

These two festivals are celebrated by believers by visiting homes and eating the special dishes cooked for this occasion. Everyone sits together. Traditionally, children receive gifts, rewards and sweets from their loved ones as a symbol of love. The way to wish a happy holiday is by saying the words: Eid Mubarak!

Influence of Islam on Cuban culture

• Islamic influence on Cuban culture of African origin

Several findings and clues lead to the visibility of an Islamic component in the formation of the Cuban nationality, which was contributed by African slaves brought to Cuba from the northwest of present-day Nigeria where the Yoruba ethnic group settled.

Throughout the entire history of Cuban ethnology, there have been few researchers who have highlighted, in one way or another, the imprint of the Islamic component in the formation of Cuban nationality.

Publications on this topic have been limited to highlighting the migrations to Cuba of mainly Arab, Lebanese and Syrian Dadans, who managed to build a community that still works for the conservation of their traditions.

However, new findings have confirmed that Islam arrived in Cuba much earlier, at the hands of African slaves taken from the northwest of present-day Nigeria and, possibly, as a substrate of that Yoruba culture that, since that time, was established among its inhabitants. descendants and today constitutes one of their greatest assets.

History

The history and culture of the various peoples who occupied African lands changed from the 7th century onwards, when the Arabs penetrated the north of the continent and occupied the region known as Maghreb (in Arabic, al-Yazirat al-Maghrib, ‘the land of setting of the Sun’, ‘the land of the west’, ‘the land of the west’), which includes the present-day countries of Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Western Sahara and northern Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad and Sudan.

The policy of religious proselytism that characterized the caliphs in their conquests for Islam spread the new faith to the south with various strategies that ranged from war to missionaries, often personified as merchants. In this way, through trade, the Quran arrived in northern Nigeria, the country where the Yorubas settled, the ethnic group to which a significant part of the slaves brought to Cuba in the 19th century belonged. In the words of Nigerian intellectual Bamigbetan Baju:

The introduction of the Islamic religion into Nigeria was preceded by earlier contacts with the outside world, coming from North and Northwest Africa. The contacts were the result of a gradual migration from the north towards the Nigerian area, in search of a more favorable climate, away from the Sahara desert. Other more significant and permanent contacts were established between Nigeria and North Africa and the Middle East, as a result of the penetration of Islam through northwestern Nigeria and the gradual expansion of trans-Saharan trade.

These first contacts date back to the 7th century. and. , but conversions to the new religion became notable around the 11th century .

The bibliography coincides in relating Islamism with the Haussa people (houssa), which emerged thanks to the mixture of Sudanese populations with Berbers and Arabs, and dedicated to the trade of gold, salt and slaves. This commercial profile, apparently, linked them with the Fulani (or Peule) shepherds from the north of present-day Sudan, who had already embraced the faith of Muhammad, to such an extent that they became the religious advisors of the Haussa rulers in what related to prayer times, the construction of mosques, the religious hierarchy of the army, the propagation of faith, etc. The Haussa government was characterized by its political advances. Suffice it to note that their domains were divided into city-states with a status very similar to the Greek city-states.

According to some references, the Haussa did not show all the conviction that Islam deserved when mixing it with their native animist practices. Consequently, the more imbued Fulani carried out a jihad against them. It is thought that around this time, in the late 18th century, Osman dan Fodio, a Fulani from the Haussa state of Gobir, rebelled against power with a jihad based on Haussa paganism. He was invested as Commander of the Believers, as he called his army, and unleashed a great invasion on the neighboring territories. Before each conquest he established a new system of government based on emirates that paid tribute and vassalage to Sokoto (Cameroon-Macina), his capital, in addition to declaring Islam as the state religion. It is recognized that this army attacked the northern region of the Yoruba and, after successive raids, finally managed to definitively break up the Oyó Empire in 1832.

This relationship between the receiving cultures and Islam had special characteristics, since in many regions the Islamic faith was established with all its rigor, but in others it merged with animist rites, creating a diverse religious universe, whose distinctive references tended to blur, forming a homogeneous whole. It is possible that those African cultures that arrived in Cuba , due to violent uprooting, have brought Islamic religious elements very integrated into their patristics. Phenomenon recognized by Dr. Luz María Martínez Montiel when she states:

With the Islamization of the peoples south of the Sahara, a stage is born in which a trait that carries new cultural values ​​is not only integrated but becomes the culture of those who receive it, and by transforming it, it becomes Africanized. […]
With the process of Islamization, those who arrived brought a cultural background that was added to the receiving towns. The new cultures of this part of the continent are the result of both components.

Clues of an Arab-Islamic foundation in the theogony of the Yoruba pantheon

The theogony of the Yoruba pantheon offers some clues as to what an Arab-Islamic substrate could be. In a novel by the Cuban diplomat and political scientist Ernesto Gómez Abascal titled The Sultan’s Envoy , which narrates the visit to Cuba of a high Turkish officer at the end of the 19th century , the main character, Amhed Pashá , is surprised when he hears, in On a saint’s day in Regla , practitioners greeted each other with the classic Asalamu Aleikum-Aleikum Asalam , something considered exclusive to Muslims. Furthermore, upon hearing the name of some of the orishas his surprise grows, since Obatalá , for its circumstantial Arabic, means Obat-Allá (the sent one of Allah), Yemayáes Yem-a-aya (Oh, water), the word babalawo seems say Bab-Allah-ijob (he who guards the gate of Allah ).

These elements, this author says, arose in a conversation with a Muslim driver, who was assigned to one of the Arab countries where he was stationed as Cuban ambassador.

• Don Fernando Ortiz supported the thesis of the coexistence of Islamism with Yoruba culture :

On the other hand, some works by important Cuban anthropologists and ethnologists have left testimony of the presence of Islam in the African culture transplanted to Cuba. For example, in addition to the patakí in which Obatalá is placed crossing the desert from north to south, hence his white clothing, Ortiz highlights in several of his works the references that refer to a Muslim influence on African-Cuban culture.

Some witches who follow Obatalá’s rule call Allah “the one who can do everything.” The Islamist religion left indelible marks on the theology of the blacks of the African regions, with which it maintained centuries-old contact, when it failed to fully attract them to its dogmas. Quite a few Muslim slaves (Mandingas, Yolofes, Fulás, Macuás, etc.) entered Cuba, who probably call the god Oloruñ of the Yorubas Allah; apart from that (according to Elisée Reclus: Nouvelle Géographie Universelle; la terre et les hommes, Paris, 1887-1894) Obatalá or Obbat-Allah – as he describes – means “Lord Allah”. Furthermore, large masses of Yorubas converted to Islam (according to Charles Henry Robinson: Le pays de Hacussa: kano, Paris, 1898).

Specifically in his work Los Negros Brujos (1906), Ortiz makes several statements that support the thesis of the coexistence of Islamism with Yoruba culture. Both in relation to the postero-pelvic undulations, coming from Egypt, as well as the “witch” amulets with Arabic spellings, the divination methods from boards sprinkled with sand, to pointing out Agañdzú (the desert) as the grandfather of Shangó, so it is possible to appreciate the Arab-Islamic reminiscences in the Yoruba universe. However, one of the most recurrent references is to associate the Mandingas, another of the African ethnic groups, as the bearers of the Arab element in various aspects of their culture. Don Fernando says:

The Mandingas, very luxurious with their wide pants, short jackets and turbans made of blue or pink silk and edged with marabou. […]
Other troupes are called “Mandinga Moro Rojo” or “Mandinga Moro Azul”, titles that accurately remind us of the Mohammedanism so widespread among the black Mandingas, and on the other hand, by specifying a color, they try to revive by for a moment the symbolism of colors in Africa as distinctive features of this or that tribe. Without a doubt, knowing one about the other, the Moorish Mandingo troupes looked for something that would differentiate them and chose the color, exactly as their ancestors would have done in Africa.

• Finding from the House of the Arabs supports Fernando Ortiz’s criteria:

House of the Arabs in Cuba.

Apart from these references, the discovery by specialists from the Casa de los Arabs , from the Office of the Historian of the City of Havana , of a document treasured by the National Archive of Cuba, came to support Ortiz’s criteria about the Mandingas and support the thesis of the close coexistence of Islam with African cultures in Cuba.

This document is the transcription of an interrogation carried out on the 75-year-old Juan José Calbo in the Royal Jail of the City of Matanzas on August 19, 1844, four months after the outbreak and repression of the Ladder Conspiracy. Calbo, from the Mandinka nation, appears before the officer for having been seized with a sheet of papers written for the use of his land. When questioned, the old man answers:

The writing contains several sentences that the [unintelligible] made at bedtime, getting up, sunrise, eating, and going to work, not being able to make more extensive explanations because he does not know how to translate. ; But he does assure that the aforementioned prayers were directed to the Supreme Being to thank him and ask for mercy.

The copy of the prayers to Mr. Calvo were written in Arabic characters.

• Significance:

Findings such as those referred to, together with deeper studies of Muslim expansions in Africa, the contacts and linguistic loans between Arabic and the Yoruba languages, the parallelisms of theological conceptions between one religious system and the other, in addition to geographical verifications to find the commercial links in the precolonial era and other investigations will finally place the Arab-Islamic culture in the place it deserves in the tributary universe that formed that Ortician ajiaco that is the Cuban culture of African origin.