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2 - Charismatic authority in Islam: an analysis of the cause of schisms in the ummah

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2009

James R. Lewis
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point
Sarah M. Lewis
Affiliation:
University of Wales, Lampeter
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Summary

Any attempt to explore the causes of schism within Islam has first to acknowledge the powerful rhetoric of unity that is constructed upon the ideal of ummah (the universal community of believers). So successful is the rhetoric that a general perception of Islam is one of a monolithic religious entity that overrides the diversity of nationalities and ethnicities that form the whole. This ideal is maintained by Muslims themselves, who though aware of the diversity of religious positions across the Islamic spectrum still persist in presenting the ideal of a single community of believers in the one God to outsiders. So successful is this strategy, arising from a powerful sense of an imagined community, that few outside the knowledgeable are likely to know more than the fact that Islam has two main branches, the dominant Sunnis and the minority Shi'as. Even between these two, differences are likely to be played down in spite of centuries of conflict.

The ideal of the ummah has supplied a rationale for political and moral activism. Guided by the word of God and the actions of the Prophet Muhammad, the ummah is believed to possess a moral mission to create a new social order based on faith and obedience to the revelation. It is reasonable to argue that it is this ideal of the solidarity of the ummah, or threats to its apparent unity, that has been Islam's major contribution to the political sphere.

Type
Chapter
Information
Sacred Schisms
How Religions Divide
, pp. 37 - 60
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

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