Initial Thoughts on the Societal Effects of Islam
- I am not a religious study major; these are simply some thoughts I am beginning to gather based on my limited experiences and not through deep research on the tenets of Islam.
“I see what’s wrong. We haven’t prayed yet. Maybe the students’ minds are not clear yet.”
I’m standing at the front of a class of 17 students, smaller than most classes comprised of almost 40 high schoolers. I have just recited a brief English monologue, exhibiting the different uses of future perfect and continuous conjugations. It was after a brief silence and 17 blinking eyeballs that Bu Diyah, my co-teacher, turned to me and said this quote and I remember having a brief moment of perplexity before really absorbing what had just been said to me. They took the few seconds to pray and then we returned to the exercises, with a seemingly refreshed sensation.
I think in this moment I realized one major difference between the Sunni Islam practice here and my Catholic upbringing in faith. Here, a connection with God is seen as providing an ease to your daily life, clearing your mind and bringing you towards doing good deeds. Growing up, I largely saw my Catholic faith as a duty, without many benefits for personal development. Much of Roman Catholicism is founded on doing good deeds, or facing purgatory in the afterlife, with not too much stress on faith, almost like it’s more or less expected. There is also a concept of purging of sins within the Catholic faith, with confession being an important aspect of healing an imperfect human’s deeds. This is not very prominent within Islam or any other world religion, which could explain the greater focus on conservative piety compared to Catholicism.
There have several examples of this excitement for maintaining their religious rituals that I have noticed and in all I have both learned much about Islam, but am also forming more detailed questions as a result of my curiosity.
Gender Roles
There are certain social safety rails in place that make a big difference the way that Muslims interact with each other. For example, in Islam, a man and a woman should not date unless they are intent on being married very shortly as it is expected they cannot keep their chastity for long in long-term relationships. In addition, men and women are separated in mosque, with men sitting in the front and women sitting in the back. This is because during sholat (prayer) men should not have any distractions that could keep them from keeping their thoughts pure and only towards Allah. As a hijab wearer, many women are also subject to social norms that involve them not painting their nails, dressing modestly, not smoking or being boisterous and in some cases not leaving their home after Maghrib (dusk). These are all specific guidelines in place generally to keep peace and ward women from being involved in dangerous situations but can be interpreted and executed differently based on personal values of the women.
The Choice of a Husband
In Islam, because many adherents reject the concept of pacaran (dating) in many cases the meetings between a young woman and a potential suitor are restricted to public areas and home visits with the family. In some cases, women are put in a situation where they must choice a husband out of a few suitors that approach them. In these situations, Islam also offers a solution. Istihoro is a prayer that a woman can execute in the days before she makes a decision. This prayer must be performed at midnight for 3 days minimum and in it the woman asks Allah to give her the right choice. After a few days, the woman will receive an answer in her dream, or sometimes her mother will receive the response for her. In these cases, Istihoro is repeated and al’Quran is opened and the first passage randomly chosen in the holy book serves as confirmation. If the passages invoke negative feeling, Istihoro must be repeated. If the content is happy, the bride-to-be can be satisfied in her decision.
Motivation and Community Building
A few weeks ago, I attended Tahlill (meeting for reciting from the Qur’an for a group of women, almost like a religious book club) with Bu Ana where I witnessed a room of women reading from the Qur’an, chanting together and tossing money around while two little girls ran around the room, occasionally plopping in the laps of their mothers. One thing that astounded me was that one girl, only two years old was being held by her mother with her arms out and she was with glazed eyes lazily mouthing the words to the do’a that was currently being recited with no problems. At the ripe age of 2, this girl was already deeply into the religious fold of this culture and it was such an impressive thing to witness. For many Indonesians, the core of social involvement relates to their religion as most of the teachers of my school participate in these weekly religious meetings.
A Note on the Diversity of Religion
As I continue doing research on Islam I am beginning to realize that not all Islamic customers are followed and not all customs are Islamic. The diaspora of Islam has resulted in cultural mixing where some local traditions are misconstrued as Islamic principles, even within the community itself. Something like FMG, which is prominent in some Muslim African communities is not tied to Islam itself but rather the history of the region. So, the variance in interpretation of al’Quran can mean great differences of the practice of Islam between countries. Places like Iran which have recently reinstated laws requiring women to wear the hijab have stricter rules for women, mirroring the current state of women rights in places like Saudi Arabia. However, in Turkey they are having a political uprising similar to Indonesia in the 70’s where women are fighting to change the ban on hijab as their right to religious freedom. The biggest lesson I have learned about the definition of Islam is just that Islam has all sorts of sects and degrees of following depending on the country, region and even family.
However, one thing that I could point to as a larger trend related to Islam is the effect of religion on motives. In many ways, Islam is an incentivizer, propelling society forward through social opportunity and reward, as the whole community shares similar values because of a common belief system. In addition, the stories in al’Quran are typically referred to when making difficult decisions and when trying to understand morality in cases of social conflict. In the west, we would like to think about places like Indonesia as somehow backwards because of the limited technological, economic progress but it’s important to consider the social network, which is an incredibly valuable trait that is rarely found in the west because of the stress on individuality. People here are motivated towards a single bigger cause. I remember at the Manasik Haji (mock-pilgrimage to Mecca) in the group that I was shadowing, the student leading the prayer passionately addressing his peers. Though I could barely understand his speech, I could feel by the tone of his voice and the expression of his face that he was successfully instilling a sense of inspiration and hope in them, rekindling an excitement for Allah, in this practice for the sought-out pilgrimage to Mecca.
Religion here creates leaders, it builds communities, it produces mindfulness, it can keep social order and it allows a commonality to further bring closer community members. No matter the negatives people draw about Islam, it’s important to remember its pivotal influence in maintaining social structure in communities totaling over 1 billion people all over the world across cultures.
