Salvation of the Soul and Islamic Devotion

By Muhammad Abul Quasem

Book Series: Routledge Revivals

Publisher: Routledge

Publication Date: June 15, 2023

ISBN: 9781032514628

First Published in 1983, Salvation of the Soul and Islamic Devotion demonstrates that salvation is a central concept of the religion of Islam, even though its meaning, causes and results according to Islam may differ from what is taught by Christianity and other world religions. The first chapter of the book presents the Islamic doctrine of salvation as set forth in the Quran and prophetic tradition. The meaning of salvation is explored, and the means to it on both human and divine sides are considered with special emphasis upon Islamic devotions. The remaining eight chapters deal with both obligatory and supererogatory devotions prescribed by Islam, concentrating on the methods of their correct performance, on which salvation is largely dependent.

The material used in this book has been derived entirely from the original Islamic sources written in Arabic. Efforts are made to make the book useful to both Muslim and non-Muslim readers of English interested in the Islamic theory of salvation and acts of devotion.

Table of Contents

• Preface
• Transliteration
• Abbreviations
• 1. Salvation
• 2. Cleanliness
• 3. Ritual Prayer
• 4. Fasting
• 5. Divine Tax
• 6. Pilgrimage
• 7. The Creation of the Quran
• 8. Remembrance of God
• 9. Supplication to God
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index

Source: Routledge

I examine this question through the work of Tom Toby, a Sydney artist whose photography has traced the ziarat for a number of years, and whose work has been widely distributed in the Shia community. In this presentation I show how practices of ziarat involve liturgical and ethical practices that break the rules of Copernican space, enabling complex modes of interaction with the sublime across ‘distance’. Paralleling and augmenting these practices, Tom’s photography inhabits a similarly complex approach to space. I show how modes of photographic production and distribution used by Tom, as well as the form and technique of his work, offer an additional long-distance means for the Shia of Sydney to aesthetically and ethically participate in the sublime.

Source: The Australian National University

Authors: Babak Rahimi (University of California San Diego) and Mohsen Amin (Allameh Tabatabaʿi University)

Published in: Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture, Vol 9, Issue 1 (2020)

Publisher: Brill

Online Publication Date: May 1, 2020

Since the collapse of the Baʿathist regime after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Shiʿi Muslim rituals, in particular the annual commemorations of Arbaʿin, have seen a revival in popularity. Based on two fieldwork studies conducted during Arbaʿin in 2016 and 2017, the present study attempts to examine the changing characteristics of the rituals. It does so by studying the increasing digitization of Arbaʿin as a commemorative pilgrimage to Karbala, Iraq, to the shrine of the Prophet’s grandson, Imam Husayn. This ethnographic study argues for a mediated conception of Arbaʿin pilgrimage in that digital technologies serve as an embodied site of interaction in shaping shared experiences based on networked sociability. Examining the intimate connections between “physical” and “virtual” spaces, as in the case of Mawakib or gatherings shaped in the form of temporary lodgings in the course of walking processions, the study argues that various uses of digital technologies for pilgrimage are less about means of devotional expression than a series of experiences of digital significance. The paper makes the final argument that the digital practices embedded in ritual processions are acted upon to enhance experience, which increasingly fuses technology with ritual action.

Source: Brill

Guest Editors: Dr. Nadia Caidi, University of Toronto and Dr. Perla Innocenti, Northumbria University

Religious and secular pilgrimages have been part of human history since the beginning of time and remain very much alive today, whether it is the Holy Land, the Hajj, Lhasa, Kumbh Mela, Char Dham, or else the Camino de Santiago, Kumano Kodo, Glastonbury Tor, Elvis’s Graceland, national parks, or war memorials. Pilgrimage has been an object of study across disciplines: in art, architecture, and heritage, history, literature, social anthropology, religious studies, and tourism, among others. Yet, as a research context in information science, pilgrimage has been surprisingly overlooked. Similarly, while a body of work investigated religious tolerance and pluralism, few scholars explicitly addressed contemporary questions of diversity and inclusion in pilgrimage studies.

This Special Issue of IJIDI will address this gap by offering a combined information and diversity perspective to the study of pilgrimage; shedding light on the approaches and concepts that can enrich our understanding of the pilgrim’s journey and it complexities through the lens of information and media practices, embodied experiences, memory work, discourses and practices around diversity, curation practices, and community building in a global and digital world. This holistic approach will pave the way for a broader conversation on social phenomenology and the diversity of human information behaviors and religious/spiritual practices in the context of pilgrimage.

This Special Issue will try to answer the following questions:

– What research approaches are most suitable for exploring pilgrimage from the standpoint of diversity and inclusion in a global, networked environment?
– What framework would best account for the diverse informational rituals related to pilgrimage (including material, symbolic, affective dimensions)?
– What is the current and future role of cultural and memory institutions as resources on, and sites for, the documentation and curation of experiences and rituals in our networked world?
– How can we best understand the role played by meaning-making, authenticity, value-making, and performativity in the context of a diverse set of pilgrimages?
– How are pilgrimage traditions evolving in an age of migration and displacement? For example, what is the role of secondary shrines and new pilgrimage sites?

The International Journal of Information, Diversity, & Inclusion (IJIDI) presents wide­ ranging and multidisciplinary perspectives on the intersection of equity, social justice, and information. The journal seeks to expand the discourse on how access to, interaction with, and the use of information by a range of populations can impact individuals, communities, and society. IJIDI is a quarterly, open access, online journal.

IJIDI is a collaboration between the University of Maryland Libraries and iPAC, the Information Policy & Access Center at the University of Maryland.

More information at: https://publish.lib.umd.edu/IJIDI/

Millions of black-clad Shia pilgrims are converging on the holy city of Karbala for the Arbaeen religious commemoration, the largest annual gathering of people anywhere on earth. Walking in long columns stretching back unbroken for as much as 50 miles, sleeping and eating in tents erected by supporters beside the road, the event has become an overwhelmingly powerful display of Shia belief and solidarity.

Arbaeen is the living symbol of the rise of the Iraqi Shia, a highly significant development in the Middle East, but it has happened only recently. Karim, 48, a tribal leader from Najaf, who provides free food for the pilgrims, recalls that when he first took part in an illegal Arbaeen walk under Saddam Hussein, “we had to take a roundabout route by the river [Euphrates] and try to keep hidden because, if we were caught, we would put in prison or executed”.

The Arbaeen has provided many modern-day Shia martyrs, murdered by Saddam Hussein, al-Qaeda and Isis, but its purpose is to mourn the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the revered Shia leader, killed in the battle for Karbala in AD680. The long ritual walk to his golden-domed shrine in that city – some walkers spend 10 or 12 days on the road from Basra or Kirkuk, others two or three days from Najaf – comes on the 40^th day of the mourning period as religious fervor reaches its peak among the faithful.

Shia cities, towns and villages all over Iraq empty out during a 20-day period as their people take to the roads in an elaborately organized and well protected mass movement not seen anywhere else in the world. Estimates vary of the total attending, from highs of 15-17 million to a low of 6-7 million, but it includes at least two million Iranians whose numbers are easier to calculate because they require documentation to enter Iraq. Mohammed al-Hilli, the author of a book entitled The Arbaeen: the Walk, says that “the city of Karbala can only contain two or three million people at one time, but, since pilgrims are coming and going over a long time, the total attending will be much higher.” … Pilgrims from all over the world head for Najaf, Iranians being much the most numerous, but they also come from Pakistan, India, Azerbaijan, Lebanon and places where the Shia community must be tiny. Many of the pilgrims are teenagers or in their twenties.

The US shows little sign of having learned much about the Iraqi Shia community in the 14 years since the invasion. It certainly still underestimates them. The Arbaeen was not a victory rally for the Shia as Isis is defeated, but they may well feel that, in Iraq, their day has come.

Source: The Independent