Everything about Ulema totally explained
Ulema ( singular:,, "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.
Role
Teaching
Islamic clergy teach at
Islamic religious schools and
Islamic seminaries, as in Iran, Pakistan, and other Muslim countries.
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're merely local power figures.
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.
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.
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.
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's a list of famous
Da'i.
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.
History
The formative period of
Islamic jurisprudence stretches back to the time of the early Muslim communities. In this period, jurists were more concerned with pragmatic issues of authority and teaching than with theory. Progress in theory happened with the coming of the early Muslim jurist
Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi`i (767-820), who codified the basic principles of Islamic jurisprudence in his book
ar-Risālah. The book details the four roots of law (Qur'an,
Sunnah,
ijma, and
qiyas) while specifying that the primary Islamic texts (the Qur'an and the hadith) be understood according to objective rules of interpretation derived from scientific study of the Arabic language.
A number of important legal
institutions were developed by Muslim jurists during the classical period of Islam, known as the
Islamic Golden Age. One such institution was the
Hawala, an early
informal value transfer system, which is mentioned in texts of Islamic jurisprudence as early as the 8th century.
Hawala itself later influenced the development of the
agency in
common law and in
civil laws such as the
aval in
French law and the
avallo in
Italian law. The earliest known
lawsuits were described in the
Ethics of the Physician by Ishaq bin Ali al-Rahwi (854–931) of al-Raha,
Syria, who describes it as part of an early
medical peer review process, where the notes of a practicing
Islamic physician were reviewed by peers and he/she could face a lawsuit from a maltreated patient if the reviews were negative. The
Waqf in
Islamic law, which developed during the 7th-9th centuries, bears a notable resemblance to the
trusts in the English
trust law. For example, every
Waqf was required to have a
waqif (founder),
mutawillis (trustee),
qadi (judge) and beneficiaries. The trust law developed in
England at the time of the
Crusades, during the 12th and 13th centuries, was introduced by Crusaders who may have been influenced by the
Waqf institutions they came across in the
Middle East.
Several other fundamental
common law instutitions may have been adapted from similar legal instututions in
Islamic law and jurisprudence, and introduced to England by the
Normans after the
Norman conquest of England and the
Emirate of Sicily, and by Crusaders during the
Crusades. In particular, the "royal English
contract protected by the action of
debt is identified with the Islamic
Aqd, the English
assize of novel disseisin is identified with the Islamic
Istihqaq, and the English
jury is identified with the Islamic
Lafif." Other English legal institutions such as "the
scholastic method, the
license to
teach," the "
law schools known as
Inns of Court in England and
Madrasas in Islam" and the "European
commenda" (Islamic
Qirad) may have also originated from Islamic law. These influences have led some scholars to suggest that Islamic law may have laid the foundations for "the common law as an integrated whole".
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.
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.
Ulema as authors
Many ulema have left behind them only a lifetime of mediating disputes and giving sermons; their respectible contributions didn't include authorship. Other ulema have been prolific authors, writing 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 hasn't 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.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Ulema'.
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