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210 CHAPTER 26 The Muslim Life-Cycle Muslims throughout the world practice a number of rites and ceremonies that recognize the stages of life. These rituals developed from the native cultures upon which Islam took root as well as formal religious requirements of Islam, so they differ quite markedly from one area to the next. In fact, many life-cycle rituals that are recognized popularly as Islamic are actually cultural rather than religious. The three common life-stages that are shared throughout the Muslim world are circumcision, marriage, and death, but we shall examine some other practices that have absorbed religious overtones despite their being cultural in origin. Birth, Naming, and Circumcision The Qur’an does not require any particular ritual associated with birth or the first period of life, but there are some prophetic traditions and customs that suggest certain activities. Muhammad is purported to have articulated the call to prayer in the right ear of his newborn grandson, H . asan, and the similar call that is made in the mosque just before the prayer service in his left. It became customary, therefore, for a male relative or pious individual to do the same for a newborn after it has been washed and swaddled. The opening chapter of the Qur’an is then recited for the protection and health of the baby, and people often bring gifts. A special ceremony and sacrifice called `aqīqa occurs on the 7th day after birth (or later for some). The purpose is to give thanks to God, to 211 C H A P T E R T W E N T Y - S I X express joy at the birth of a child, and to announce the birth publicly. The word is associated with the sacrifice or with the child’s hair that is often shaved off on this occasion. The root meaning in Arabic comes from the verb “to split” or “to rip” and means roughly, “being irreverent or disobedient ” (`uqūq means “disobedience” or “recalcitrance”). It is possible that the custom emerged from a cultural wish to demonstrate the religious obedience of the parents or to forestall lack of obedience of the child. In any case, the ritual sacrifice is the responsibility of the parents or grandparents and is considered “recommended” by most jurists but not mandatory. In most places, two sheep are sacrificed for a boy and one for a girl, but an egalitarian trend recommends only one for a girl or a boy, based on a tradition that Muhammad sacrificed one lamb for each of his grandsons, Hasan and Husayn . The meat of the animal is divided like the sacrifice at the end of the Hajj period, one third for the poor, one third for friends, and one third for the family. But one may also give all the meat to the needy. For those who shave the infant’s hair there is a custom to give charity of equal value to the M U S L I M N A M E S According to both the Bible and the Qur’an, one of the first human acts was that of naming (Gen. 2:18–20, Q.2:30–33). While the actual story is told somewhat differently in each scripture, they agree on the significance of names—knowing names and giving names. Naming is important in most cultures—perhaps in every culture—because the giving of a name provides grounding for a newborn child in family, history , culture, values, and religion. Just as Jewish names have special meaning in relation to Jewish tradition, family tradition, and ritual practice , so do Muslim names provide a special grounding for belonging and for meaning within the religious context of Islam. Most Muslim names are Arabic in origin because of the Arabic linguistic environment out of which Islam and the Qur’an first emerged. Persian became another medium for naming because of the influence of its culture on developing Islam, and Turkish became a third medium for Muslim names. Jews and Christians who lived in Arabic-speaking lands often took on Arabic names too, though they rarely took on religious names known from Islamic religious history. The exception to that is the vernacular use among Jews and Christians of biblical names that occur in the Qur’an in Arabic. Perhaps the most common are Mūsā for Moshe, Yūsuf for Yosef, and Yàqūb for Yakov. 212 A N I N T R O D U C T...

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