The Haj - Leon Uris [67]
Of course this only touches the vast number of other subjects the Koran instructs us on. Every house owned a Koran, but almost no one knew how to read it. Most people knew the required daily prayers and bits and pieces of the Book. The rest of it had to be taught by people like my Uncle Farouk because we have no formal clergy. Uncle Farouk didn’t seem to be too clear, but his sermons were accepted.
There were Five Pillars of Islam. The first pillar is the Moslem’s total submission to Allah. He must say, in all sincerity and belief that ‘There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is His Prophet.’
He must pray five times a day after ritual ablution and do the prescribed genuflections, kneeling, and bowing to Mecca and prostrating himself. Many times during prayer the words ‘Allah akbar,’ ‘God is great,’ are recited.
The Moslem must pay a purification tax for almsgiving.
The Moslem must fast during Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and our holiest time, for that was when the Koran was sent down to direct our lives. During Ramadan the gates of heaven open and the angel Gabriel asks grace for everyone. Old people in particular pray very, very hard for forgiveness of their sins, since they will be the ones trying to get into paradise the soonest. Although it is never seen by human eyes, everyone knows that even the trees kneel toward Mecca during Ramadan.
We must fast during the daylight hours for the entire month. We tell day from night by a thread. If you can see a white thread, then it is night. If you can see black thread, then it is daytime.
Ramadan is when new clothing is purchased and everyone gets a haircut from Uncle Farouk and everyone takes a bath. Most of the daylight fasting hours are spent in the mosque, praying. In Tabah we allow women into the mosque, but only on one side, in the rear, and out of sight of the men. During these hours there is complete abstinence from food, drink, smoking, and, worst of all, from sex. Pregnant women, wet nurses, the very aged and ill, travelers, and small children are exempt from fasting by Allah’s grace.
Late in the daylight hours people can start going crazy. Najnun, the spirit that makes you crazy, is in its full glory during Ramadan. Men, weak from hunger, thirst, and the sun, flare into fighting at the slightest pretext. My father is very busy keeping order during Ramadan. It is forbidden to cheat by eating. If anyone is caught he and his family are ostracized until the next Ramadan.
The night meal can go on for hours. They gorge themselves until they become bloated and start vomiting. Just before the sun comes up a second meal is eaten, but people are so stuffed from the night meal the morning meal becomes an ordeal. Everyone is glad when Ramadan is over.
Most important to Moslems is the Sunna. Although the Sunna is not formally written down, it cannot be divorced from the Koran. It is an interpretation of the values of the Koran by experience and tradition. Those who believe in the Sunna are called Sunni Moslems.
Everyone in Tabah was a Sunni. The Sunnis make up most of the Islamic world.
The main Moslem group other than Sunnis are called Shi’ites. Shortly after Islam rose in the seventh century, the center of its power shifted from the Arabian desert to the cities. First Damascus became the center of Islam, then Baghdad, then Cairo, and much later, Istanbul. The caliphs, or leaders of the Islamic world, were no longer from Mecca or Medina but from the most powerful Islamic country at the moment.
The Shi’ites believed that the caliph, the leader of Islam, should always be a descendant of Mohammed and Caliph Ali. They beat themselves with whips to prove their devotion and looked for martyrdom and did other crazy things. The Shi’ites often hated the Sunnis more than they hated the infidels. They always started riots. Palestine didn