Islam Q and A. I know, gentle readers, you’ve missed it. You’ve beaten your chests and gnashed your teeth. You’ve stared holes into your monitor screens. And now, your wailings and gnashings of teeth can end. Friday Islam Q and A is back.
Honestly, I discontinued this regular post for awhile, because it seemed like I’d addressed most of the questions that you had. The post no longer seemed useful. Tonight, however, I had the honor of being a guest speaker at the post-Shabbat service social gathering at one of the local Jewish temples (Shul, Synagogue, call it what you like). I must confess that I’m always struck by the similarities between an Orthodox or orthodox-leaning Conservative Jewish Shabbat service and Muslim prayer services. While the Shabbat services are only held once a week and tend to last a bit longer than our daily prayers, I feel an undeniable familiarity. After the service, I gave a brief talk on Muslim theology and practices and then opened the floor to questions. Although none of the questions really surprised me, they did reinforce to me the fact that Americans genuinely do want to learn about Islam and that it is the duty of American Muslims to offer honest, accurate information whenever we are asked to do so, if for no other reason than to counter the fundamentalist Salafist or Shiite voices that emerge every day from the Middle East.
So, having said that, I’d like to re-open the Islam Q and A post for business and open the floor, so to speak, to you, gentle readers. Ask away.
As always, I do like to offer the following “disclaimers and rules” : 1. I am not a legitimate religious authority. Which is to say that I am not one of the imams or the ulema. I have a professional background in comparative religion and theology, not formal Islamic religious schooling. My answers are based strictly on my personal experience of Islam as a practicing Muslim. 2. In light of the above, please keep your questions fairly broad, or at least non-technical if possible. If your question starts with something along the lines of,”The Maliki school of jurisprudence says XYZ..,” then you would do better going to your local masjik and imam, not me.
I’ll start you off with an easy one: How does one become an “Imam”? I know that they are the same as priests (or rabbis?) but is there some formal education that you have to go through first? Are there special rules for behavior, special vows, etc. that Imams have?
As you can tell, I know nothing about the subject.
That’s a great question, Michael and one that has actually been under some consideration for awhile amongst the Muslim community.
In theory, any male Muslim of the age of majority who is considered “learned” in Qur’an, hadiths, theology, etc. may lead prayer services and act as an imam in the absence of an officially certified imam. A female Muslim may also act as a prayer leader in the absence of an imam, but only for women’s prayer services. This is not terribly different from the standard for Jews which, I believe, is that any adult, practicing Jew may lead prayer services (insert male into the above qualifier for Orthodox Jews).
To become an officially certified imam, a man must attend a formally approved Islamic studies program which includes training in Qur’an, hadiths, Islamic history, jurisprudence, etc. at both undergraduate and graduate levels. To gain admission to most, a student must demonstrate fluency in both written and spoken Qur’anic Arabic, must be of sound character (practicing, devout Muslim basically), and must understand the basics of Islamic theology and law. Older candidates are preferred (yes, I understand that there is some age bias; most institutions with limited space for new students will tend to choose candidates over 30 over young men in their late teens or 20′s). Institutions that offer these programs include, but are not limited to : Al-Azhar University (Egypt), Darul Uloom – Deoband (India), Imam Islamic University (Saudi Arabia), and Umm Al-Qura (Saudi Arabia). I know that there is at least one good program in Indonesia and another good one in Pakistan. I understand that a program exists in Britain, but is considered a haven for Salafists as is the program in the Netherlands. Currently, I am not aware of any certified program of training for imams in the US.
Now this is where things get tricky. Some scholars have ruled that a woman may become an imam, but that they may only lead prayer services for women. That’s all and good, but one of the roles of imams is to issue rulings on questions of Islamic law when no other guidance exists. Will the ruling of a female imam carry any weight with male members of the community? That issue is just now becoming a problem (female imams are a very new idea). Imams are considered to be scholars, ordinary fallible human beings.
All of the above applies, as a rule, to Sunnis. Shiites, on the other hand, believe that the imams of Ahlul Bayt are infallible. They are considered incorruptible and are meant as walking examples of Qur’anic perfection. They should be emulated by all Shia.
The Shia clergy also have a formal rank structure, vaguely similar to that used by the Roman Catholic Church. Very roughly, a mullah is the lowest rank (similar to local priest), then ayatullah (similar to a bishop or archbishop), then there is the highest rank which is held by only a very few people, Grand Ayatullah. The Grand Ayatullah is very similar to a Cardinal in that he usually holds jurisdiction over a major city or even entire country. For example, Grand Ayatullah Sayyid Ali Husaini Sistani is considered the “boss” of the Iraqi Shiite community. Now a special exception exists in Iran for their Grand Ayatullah (Ali Khamenei currently). He is also actually titled Supreme Leader of Iran and is, theoretically, superior to the president (he runs the military and courts, while President Ahmadinejad runs the cabinet and Parliament).
It’s actually quite confusing, especially when you throw in the ranks and honorifics used by the ulema (religious scholars). I hope that I have at least given you a basic understanding of how our “clergy” work without further confusing you with the technical details. I will happily elaborate on any aspects that you would like further information on.