Ulema
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Ulema (علماء, transliteration: ‘Ulamā’, singular: عالِم, transliteration: ‘Ālim, "scholar") (The people of Islamic Knowledge) refers to the educated class of Muslim legal scholars engaged in the several fields of Islamic studies. They are best known as the arbiters of shari‘a law. While the ulema are well versed in legal jurisprudence being Islamic lawyers, some of them also go on to specialize in other sciences, such as philosophy, dialectical theology or Quranic hermeneutics or explanation. The fields studied, and the importance given them, will vary from tradition to tradition, or even from seminary to seminary.
In a broader sense, the term ulema is used to describe the body of Muslim clergy who have completed several years of training and study of Islamic sciences, such as a mufti, qadi, faqih, or muhaddith. Some Muslims include under this term the village mullahs, imams, and maulvis—who have attained only the lowest rungs on the ladder of Islamic scholarship; other Muslims would say that clerics must meet higher standards to be considered ulema.
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[edit] Role
[edit] Teaching
Islamic clergy teach at Islamic religious schools and Islamic seminaries, as in Iran, Pakistan, and other Muslim countries.
[edit] Executive capacity
The ulema are most powerful in the Shi'a tradition of Islam. Following the 1979 revolution in Iran, factions of the Iranian Shia clergy, under the leadership of Khomeini, took control of the country. This was justified by Khomeini's doctrine of "Guardianship of the Jurists" (Wilayat-i Faqih).
Afghanistan's Taliban regime was also headed by a mullah, Mullah Omar. However, in most countries, they are merely local power figures.
[edit] Military commanders
In the Islamic State of Afghanistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran, mullahs have directly coordinated military operations. This is in keeping with Islamic traditions, as Muhammad and his successors were military commanders themselves.
[edit] Role in judicature
In certain Muslim countries, like Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, where there are sharia courts, Islamic clergy become judges. Therefore, a main job of ulema is the interpretation and maintenance of Islamic law in such countries.
[edit] Advisory role
In some countries like Saudi Arabia, Islamic clergy fulfills the role of a counsel for the king. There are also jobs for them in various governmental institutions.
[edit] Preaching
There are various jobs available for the Islamic clergy at mosques, such as leading public prayers, preaching, and delivering sermons, especially at Friday prayers.
Some Ulema have made Dawah a lifelong activity, as have the Tablighi Jamaat group; here is a list of famous Da'i.
[edit] Madhhab
The ulema usually work within a tradition (madhhab) that starts with one of five classic jurists. A Sunni Muslim jurist usually belongs to one of the four main schools:
- Shafi'i (most common in Indonesia, Malaysia, Jordan, and Palestine)
- Hanafi (Turkey, the Balkans, Central Asia, Indian subcontinent, Egypt, China)
- Maliki (North Africa, West Africa, and several of the Persian Gulf states)
- Hanbali (Arabia)
The Ja'fari school (Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, and parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan) is usually associated with the Muslims of Shi'ii persuasion.
Some ulema are not associated with any school, for various reasons. These include believing that schools are too conservative and that the idea of ijtihad, the right to personal opinion, means that understanding of the Qur'an can change with the times.[citation needed]
[edit] History
The second half of the 20th century was marked by a considerable loss of authority and influence of the ulema in most Islamic states. Many secular Arab governments attempted to break the influence of the ulema after their rise to power. Religious institutions were nationalized and the system of waqf "religious donations", which constituted the classical source of income for the ulema, was abolished.
In 1961 the Egyptian Nasser government put the Al-Azhar University, one of the highest Islamic intellectual authorities, under the direct control of the state. "The Azharis were even put in army uniforms and had to parade under the command of army officers" (G. Keppel, Jihad). In Turkey, the traditional dervish tekkes and Islamic schools were dissolved and replaced by state-controlled religious schools in the 1950s and 1960s. After the independence of Algeria, President Ahmed Ben Bella also deprived the Algerian ulema of their power.
[edit] Role of the ulema in the ummah
The ulema in most nations consider themselves to represent the ijma "consensus" of the Ummah "community of Muslims" (or to represent at least the scholarly or learned consensus). Many efforts to modernise Islam focus on the reintroduction of ijtihad and empowerment of the ummah to form their own ijma.
[edit] Ulema as authors
Many ulema have left behind them only a lifetime of mediating disputes and giving sermons; their contributions, while admirable[citation needed], did not include authorship. Other ulema have been prolific authors, wrdting translations of the Qur'an or Quranic commentaries, studies of hadith, works of philosophy, religious admonition, etc. There are enormous bodies of religious literature that form not only the substance of the courses in Islamic seminaries, but inspirational reading for the ordinary Muslim. Most of this literature has not been translated into English, but remains in its original language (usually Arabic, Urdu, Persian, or Turkish). Some has been printed; some remains in manuscript form.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Zaman, Muhammad Qasim (2002). The Ulama in Contemporary Islam: Custodians of Change. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691096805.
[edit] External links
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
es:Ulema eo:Ulema eu:Ulema fr:Ouléma ko:울레마 id:Ulama it:Ulema he:עולמא ms:Ulama ja:ウラマー pl:Ulem pt:Ulema tr:Ulema zh:阿訇
