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A Valuable Remembrance At my arrival in the
He was lamenting the home-going of his second wife. Now living all alone in
his attractive The piece below does not seem to be copyrighted. Therefore, we are sure you will enjoy reading it and learning some important points about the religion in which the element of superstition is always present. Sincerely yours,
Thomas Cosmades
Dr. Samuel M. Zwemer in his younger and older days
From IGNACE GOLDZIHER MEMORIAL VOLUME
Part I
SAMUEL M.ZWEMER
1867-1952
HAIRS OF THE PROPHET[1]
When we recall pre-Islamic life in Arabia, it is not surprising that
a great deal of Animism persists in popular Islam even today[2])
Snouck Hurgronje, in his work on the
Achenese, calls attention to the numerous animistic customs among the
Sumatra Moslems and not condemned by their orthodox leaders because they
find parallels in early Islam (pp. 287-288). While Johannes Warneck and
Gottfried Simon go so far as to agree that "Islam is naturally inclined to
Animism and easily entangled in its meshes" (Simon,
Islam in Sumatra, pp. 157-109).
"It would seem that Animism is the primitive form of paganism maintaining
itself amid all the refinements of civilization. The study of Greek and old
German religions exhibits the same animistic features as we find in Hinduism
and in Islam" (Warneck, Living Christ
and Dying Heathenism, p. 7).
And Frazer remarks: “Brahmanism, Buddhism and Islam may come and go,
but the belief in magic and demons remains unshaken through them all, and if
we may judge of the future from the past is likely to survive the rise and
fall of other historical religions.”
Aberglaube seems to have a vitality surpassing
Glaube and
Unglaube even in Christendom.
In his large volume, Het
Animisme, A. C. Kruijt, the Dutch missionary, analyzes the origin of
animistic beliefs by showing that personal soul-stuff is regarded by all
animists as residing in parts of the human body, especially blood, hair,
teeth, saliva, etc. This soul-stuff with its potency for good or evil can
then be transferred or appropriated by others in various ways.
Among the interesting details recorded in Moslem tradition are those
relating to the hair and beard of the Prophet Mohammed during his lifetime
and after his death. Tradition is very specific regarding Mohammed's hair.
It was neither curling nor smooth but had four curled locks. He used to clip
his mustache and allow his beard to grow. He frequently oiled his hair and
perfumed it and his beard. The Prophet is related to have said: "Do the
opposite of the polytheists and let your beard grow long" (Mishkat
XX:4).[3]
The sanctity of Mohammed’s beard as token of manhood and dignity is
recognized in common oaths. Even as the Arabs swear by their own lives or by
their beards (walahyeti), so more
solemnly the Moslem community swears by the beard of their Prophet (lahyet
al-nabi). One hears this oath everywhere in the
Moreover, these hairs of the Prophet were not only sacred from the
outset but remained so down the centuries to our own day. In the spring of
1946 a Moslem ‘mela’ was held
near
We read in Ahmad Zaini Dahlan's biography of Mohammed: "When the
Prophet had his beard shaved and his companions surrounded him, they never
suffered a single hair to fall to the ground but seized them as good omens
or for a blessing. And since his Excellency had his hair cut only at the
time of the pilgrimage, this had become
sunna, so it is related in the
Mawahib, and he who denies it
should be severely punished."[8])
We read that Muhammad ibn Darain said: "I have a few hairs of the
Prophet which I took from Anas and when I told it to 'Obeid al-Suleimani he
replied, 'if I had a single hair it would be more to me than all the world.'
" There are many similar traditions telling how Mohammed's hairs were
collected,[9])
distributed among his followers after he was shaved at Mina,[10])
used against the evil eye[11])
and the value attached to a single hair from his head or beard.[12])
Furthermore, we are told whether and how and when he dyed his hair and
beard; also how he first dressed it like "the people of the Book" but
afterwards gave this up. ('For details see Wensinck,
Handbook of Early Muhammedan
Tradition, pp. 35, 91, 160, 169.) The great number of references to this
subject both in the standard traditions and in popular lives of Mohammed
indicates its importance in early and later Islam. Ignace Goldziher touched
the subject in writing on Relic
Worship in Islam and pointed out that three particular relics of the
Prophet lent themselves "to multiplication almost without limit — his shoes,
his manuscripts, and his hair." But down the centuries the relic which was
the object of the most diligent search is hair from Mohammed's head or
beard. "The hair", said Dr. Goldziher, "was worn as an amulet, and men on
their deathbed directed by will that the precious possession should go down
with them and mingle with the earth. Ja'far ibn Khinzabu, the vizier of an
Egyptian prince, had three such hairs which at his death were put into his
mouth, and his remains, according to his last testament, were carried to
The statements made in books of Moslem law leave no doubt that in a
sense all human hair is considered sacred and may not, therefore, be sold or
in any way dishonored. We read in the
Hedaya, a standard commentary on Moslem law, — "The sale of human hair
is unlawful, in the same manner as is the
use of it, because, being a part
of the human body, it is necessary to preserve it from the disgrace to which
an exposure of it to sale necessarily subjects it. It is moreover recorded,
in the Hadith Sharif, that God
denounced a curse upon a wasila
and a mustawasila.[14])
(The first of these is a woman whose employment it is to unite the shorn
hair of one woman to the head of another, to make her hair appear long; and
the second means the woman to whose head such hair is united). Besides, as
it has been allowed to women to increase their locks by means of the wool of
a camel, it may thence be inferred that the use of human hair is unlawful".[15])
It is recorded in Ibn Sa'ad that on his last pilgrimage, Mohammed
after having saluted the Black Stone and performed the sacrifice,
slaughtering sixty-two camels with his own hand to correspond to the years
of his life, "had his head shaved and distributed his sacred hair, one-half
of it to Abu Talha and the other half to his chaste wives; also one or two
hairs to everyone of his friends according to his rank."[16])
Khalid, the famous warrior, received some hairs "from Mohammed's
forehead which he fixed in his skull-cap as a talisman" and was always
victorious.[17])
The reliques of the Prophet included more than the hairs of his head
so carefully numbered. A list of those sent to Sultan Selim the First and
preserved by him in the palace at Constantinople, included some of his hair,
a tooth, a pair of shoes, his mantle, prayer-mat, a hilt of his sword, a
stone bearing imprint of his foot, an arrow and the Prophet's flag.[18])
Hairs of the Prophet are found as relics today at
And to bring this cult of the Prophet up-to-date, we have the
following from the press in
We see from these examples how in the history of Islam these reliques
of the Prophet, once objects of individual solicitude and piety and by which
the early companions of Mohammed hoped for a blessing, became articles of
public exhibition. They are now more than relics, and lodged in mosques or
sacred tombs, are elevated to the status of objects of adoration and magical
power.
Of course, there have been protests against this species of
shirk (associating in worship) on
the part of austere, orthodox Moslems. We read that at the Sixth Congress of
Orientalists “a theologian of
But superstition and relic-worship die hard. The Reformation under
Luther and Calvin, for example, was not able to exterminate relic worship in
Medieval Europe; nor did the Counter-Reformation and the enlightenment of
modern education do away with all relics of the saints: hair, bones,
garments, etc., even in European churches.
Jean Calvin in 1543 wrote a remarkable treatise on the subject which
betrays his sense of humor as well as his sarcasm and displeasure. In it he
tells of hairs of the Virgin Mary and of saints, as well as of blood, bones,
napkins, the wood of the Cross, its nails etc., preserved as objects of
worship in churches.[22])
Perchance some Moslem Reformer with a sense of humor and indignation, will
arise lo write a treatise on the
traces of idolatry (shirk) in
modern relic worship, including the hairs of Mohammed.
SAMUEL M. ZWEMER
[1]
The title of this paper, to commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary
of the death of Dr. Ignace Goldziher, is not intended as a pun on my
recent study, ‘Heirs of the Prophet.’ It is rather a footnote to the
vast subject of the influence of Animism on Islam. Students of Dr.
Goldziher's writings know that his footnotes were often gateways to
wide areas of thought. l recall a postcard he wrote to me about 1906
on an obscure Arabian custom.
[2]
Frazer’s The Scapegoat,
p. 89, cf. Wensinck's
Animismus... im Untergrund...
Islamischen-rituellen
Gebets,
Der Islam, Band IV. pp.
220-235: Zwemer's The
lnfluence of Animism on Islam,
[3]
Hughes' Dictionary of Islam,
pp. 40 and 389.
[4]
See Index:
Hair, Beard,
Aqiqah,
Saints etc.,
in Westermarck's
Ritual & Belief
in Morocco,
2 vols.
[5]
Wellhausen, Reste Arabischen
Heidentums, pp.
139, 140.
[6]
M. H. Mazzeni, Daum in
Central Asia, Aug., 1946, p.
17.
[7]
Al-Halabi, Insan-al-'Ayun, Vol. 2:222. Cairo.
[8]
Margin of Sirat-al-Halabi,
Cairo, 1308 A.
H., Vol. III, pp. 238, 239.
[9]
Bukhari 79:41, Ibn
Sa'ad I: 135-139; etc. (Wensinck)
[10]
Muslim 15: 324, Al-Darimi 2 :78; Ibn Sa'ad 135.
[11]
Bukhari 77:66.
[12]
Bukhari 4:33; Ibn Mäja 744 sq.
[13]
Relic Worship in Islam.
Translated from the German of Professor Goldziher.
The Moslem World, Vol.
I, pp. 306, 307.
[14]
[15]
Zwemer's The Influence of
Animism on Islam, p. 76.
[16]
S. W. Koelle's Mohammed,
p. 355.
[17]
Ibid., p. 222.
[18]
18) The list was given in
Wady-al-Nil,
[19]
Das Christliche Orient,
September, 1911.
[20]
"Time",
[21]
The Moslem World,
Vol. I, p. 307.
[22]Traite
des Religues,
by Jean Calvin, Paris, 1921, pp. 95, 101, 144, etc.
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