Page 103 - Neglected Arabia Vol 1 (2)

f r

NEGLECTED ARABIA

Missionary News and Letters
Published Quarterly
FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION AMONG THE FRIENDS OF
THE ARABIAN MISSION t

j

Moslem Brotherhoods and Saintship
Rev. S. M. Zwemkk, D.D.

; SLAM, although unprogressive and hopelessly handicapped by
: i
its low standard of ethics and medieval intolerance toward mi Tr
iiorilics, has a marvellous vitality. 'This is must evident in the
spread and power of the religious fraternities, the so-called l
Dervish orders. There is not a single Moslem land where they v
i
tin not exert a strong intlueuee on the common people and they tl *
i knit together distant centres into one great web of mystic unity.
The present-day strength of Islam consists in its pan-Islamic
conception and programme. This, as has been pointed out by
Servier, is of a two-fold character; on the one hand, Nationalism
with a practical programme, and on the other Mysticism as inter­
preted and organized in the Dervish Orders. The one tendency
political and finds its centre in the struggle about the Caliphate.
The other tendency is religious and has for its goal a spiritual
deliverance through a Mahdi.
The one movement is strongest in Eastern Islam, e.g., Turkey and
India, and the other in the West, especially Morocco. ’ The one
lends to division—the other to unity. The one prevails more
among the common people (the illiterate) and the other among the *
educated and enlightened. The centre of propagandism in the one
case is the press—in the other the Zikr or religious ceremony.
Uolh movements arc based on a living hope in the final triumph
of Islam.
Each of the leaders or founders of one of the many orders,
draws his authority from a chain of spiritual ancestois in which
he is the last link. He receives his spiritual power through apos­
tolic succession. His authority is expressed by two words “Barn-
hit” (“Kuramat”), this is: the power of blessing, and “Tessarruf."
dial is: the power of demanding obedience. The superstitious and
credulous mind of the common people becomes the easy dupe of
Mich a system.
Each one of the Dervish orders is called a "Tanka'* or “Puthway"
—namely to Clod. The rules of the orders include three things: