# Islam: Beliefs and Observances

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-19 — 1 clipping.*

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Caesar E. Farah, Islam: Beliefs and Observances, bahai-library.com.
> ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
> 
> Islam:
> 
> Beliefs and Observances
> 
> Caesar E. Farah
> pp. 220, 243-48, 274
> 
> Woodbury, NY: Barron's Educational Series, 1970
> 
> [pages 219-220]
> 
> The literature of the Sufis is rich and revealing of their unselfish mystical search for God. Indeed, Islam's Sufis have left us a most heavily endowed body of devotional literature, enough
> to evoke the envy of all those who have dedicated themselves to
> the worship of the one God.
> 
> A more lasting impression on the orthodox body of Islam
> was felt during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when a
> number of outstanding orthodox scholars strove to restate the
> bases of Islamic theology independent of the set dogmatism and
> formalism enshrined in the orthodox manuals of religion. These
> scholars attempted to place more emphasis on the psychological
> and ethical elements in religion.
> 
> The Sufi influence in the Sufi world was persistent, albeit
> circumscribed. Here Sufi doctrine and Shí'í "orthodoxy" fused
> in the work of Mulla Sadra (d. 1640) and Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsá'í (d. 1826), the systematizer of Sadra's beliefs into a heterodoxy termed Shaykhiyyah. Their chief doctrine stressed the necessity of having an open channel of communication with the
> "Hidden Imam" of the Shi'ah. It is this one concept that gave
> rise almost immediately to the Babi movement and its offshoot
> Bahá'ísm.
> 
> [pages 242-249]
> 
> THE TRIUMPH OF Ash'ari orthodoxy represented the first
> significant religious development of any consequence down to
> present times. Several factors may account for this subsequent
> dearth of theological agitation. The political dislocations in the
> body politic resulting from the Crusades, the split of the 'Abbasid
> empire at the seams and the Mongol invasions, the rise of multiple
> dynasties, and the disappearance of caliphal authority as a force
> symbolizing spiritual unity, the deterioration of commerce and
> sources of wealth, the stepped up incursions of Tartar and other
> Turkic invaders, all contributed to a widespread spirit of uncertainty.
> 
> [... text missing ? ...]
> that Islam should be championed through rationalism, but rather
> through the authentication made possible by revelation and divine
> assistance. The Egyptian reformer Muhammad 'Abduh on the
> other hand advocated the "precedence of reason over the literal
> meaning of the Divine Law in case of conflict between them."
> Later on, when Ahmadi missionaries were confronted by Christian
> rivals in search of converts, they did not hesitate to resort to reason,
> arguing that "objections raised against Islam are due either to a
> lack of serious reflection or because passion is allowed to prevail
> over reason."10
> 
> The Ahmadi stand on science countenances the important
> premise that Islam encourages the study and use of science, as
> proven historically when Muslims in medieval times made basic
> contributions to the sciences. If the spirit or text of the Qur'an is
> used as a measure, there can be no contradiction; indeed, science
> is more incompatible with Christianity, it is argued, than it is
> with Islam.
> 
> Similarly the Ahmadis find Súfism perfectly Islamic on the
> grounds that "the leaders of thought among them [the Súfis],
> never diverged a hair's breadth from the path chalked out for them
> by Islam." Furthermore "they have been the true expounders of
> Islam, and during the decline of the Muslims it is they who held
> aloft the beacons of true Islamism." In continuing their defense
> of the Safis the Ahmadis argued that "There was never any question of their departing from the Holy Quran [sic] or the traditions
> of the Holy Prophet." What the orthodox termed as "Súfi aberrations" the Ahmadis defended by denial, holding that the Sufis
> "put down all those beliefs or practices that savoured of asceticism,
> monasticism or - esotericism - as un-Islamic [sic] and wholly foreign
> to their own convictions.
> 
> Mbisin [?] originated not from Sunnism but from Shi'ism. Like
> the Ahmadiyah, this earlier movement was also eclectic. In the
> earlier centuries we witnessed the rise of equally eclectic and
> syncretistic movements: the Nusayri, Druze, Yazidi, a number of
> Shi'i sects, then later, in the Turkish period of ascendancy, of the
> Bektashi order.
> 
> The founder of the Babi sect is Sayyid 'Ali Muhammad of
> Shiraz who bad been an adherent of the Shaykhi school of philosophical thought among the Shi'ahs. The sect's name derived from
> the symbolic name "Bab" (gateway) by which Sayyid 'Ali called
> himself in reference to the "gateway" through which divine truth
> is said to be revealed unto the believers. It was on May 23, 1844
> that Sayyid 'Ali, "moved by the Spirit of God," officially proclaimed his mission to the Persians, in the city of Shiraz where
> there had gathered together "eighteen spiritually prepared souls,
> men of religious wisdom to whom it bad been given to understand
> divine realities." 12
> 
> The core of Babi teachings lies in Sayyid 'Ali's belief that he
> had been divinely commissioned to warn his listeners of the
> coining of the "great promised One," "He-whom-God-shall-manifest,"the "Latter-Day Revelator," "The Lord of Hosts" promised
> in the revealed sacred writings of the past who would establish
> soon the Kingdom of God on earth.
> 
> The Bab preached a peculiar mixture of liberal religious doctrine reinforced by a heavy dose of Gnosticism which actually
> yielded little success. His followers were few and scattered
> throughout Persia. Persian officials, not to mention the Sh!'ah
> fathers, did not take too kindly to Sayyid 'Ali's personal and
> doctrinal claims. By inciting his listeners the Bab compelled
> Persian authorities to arrest him and, following an uprising of
> his followers, to execute him as a common criminal in 1850.
> 
> But the movement established by the Bab did not die out as
> the Persian authorities had hoped. It merely changed form and
> proceeded to grow and spread, mostly outside Persia. Instrumental in the further spread of the beliefs established by Sayyid 'Ali
> was the role of a disciple, Bahá'u'lláh (d. 1892) who had taken
> charge of the majority of the Babis following the split that ensued
> upon the death of the founder.
> 
> Baha'ullah continued to elaborate on the doctrine of the Bab
> in such radical terms that he and his successors managed to draw
> it outside the religious fold of Islam, Since then the original doctrine based on Islam has taken on the trappings of a universal
> religion resting on two sustaining principles: pacifism and humanitarianism.
> 
> The movement was driven out of Persia largely because of the
> intense persecution to-which its adherents were subjected. Bahá'u'llah himself spent four months in a prison in Tehran. Scores
> of Babis were turned over by Persian officials to the orthodox
> Shí'í fathers to be tortured and slain for their heresy. Baha'ullah
> was exiled to Baghdad, then under Ottoman rule, in the hope
> of discouraging his followers and confining Babi preachings to
> limited circles. But be continued his preachings in Baghdad and
> in the fury of ensuing orthodox reaction he sought refuge in the
> mountain fastness of Kurdistan. Next he was exiled to Istanbul,
> thence under military surveillance to Adrianople where he lived
> and preached for five years. These setbacks notwithstanding, his
> small group of followers continued to see in Bahá'ulláh "Him-whom-God-shall-manifest."
> 
> Trouble still followed him wherever he went, because of the
> anger of the Sunni Muslims, who were provoked by his radical
> preachings. Finally in the summer of 1863 he was led to the
> fortress prison of Acre (Palestine) on the Mediterranean coast
> together with about seventy men, women, and children who
> constituted his following at that time. Privation and suffering accompanied him, and his followers until his death in 1892. A
> shrine was later erected over his burial place near Haifa. Today it
> serves as a place of worship and prayer, visited annually by those
> who call themselves "Bahá'ís."
> 
> His missionary activities were continued by his son 'Abd-al-Baha' who styled himself "The Center of the Covenant." He carried Bahá'í teachings first into Egypt, then into Europe, and later
> to America where be resided for eight months in 1912. While in
> America 'Abd-al-Bahá traveled extensively from coast to coast and
> delivered addresses to various churches, synagogues, university
> and civic organizations. During the period of World War I he
> confined his efforts to humanitarian activities in Palestine and
> was knighted after the war by the British Crown for these services. When be died in 1921, he was entombed next to the Bab in
> the Bahá'í shrine on Mt. Carmel.
> 
> The core of Bahá'í teaching lies in the collective writings of
> the founder, the Bab, known as The Bayan (Expositor) with its
> stress on awaiting ('Him-whom-~God-shall~manifest.") In the period
> of "awaiting," the devotees are exhorted to prepare themselves
> spiritually for meeting Bahaullah. What is significant about
> Bahá'ulláh's teachings is their source: Torah, Bible, Qur'án,
> which makes the movement highly eclectic and imparts to it the
> basis for a universalistic appeal.
> 
> Bahá'ísm utilizes a sophisticated approach founded on the
> promise that man can not achieve a higher spiritual status if he
> does not perfect the powers latent in his body and soul; training
> the body, it is said, provides man the organism to manifest his
> spiritual side. Education, according to the "world teacher" (Bahá'u'lláh), plays an important role in summoning all of mankind
> to one spiritual world-consciousness.
> 
> The Bahá'í view is that Muhammad arose at a time when
> people in Arabia were submerged in ignorance and superstition,
> and that he changed the situation by calling to the worship of one
> God and inculcating his followers with high moral standards
> through a code of laws and ordinances suitable to the spiritual
> and material needs of his day. The Muslim "church," however,
> soon departed from the real spirit of Muhammad's teachings. But
> Muhammad had taken the precaution of preparing his people for
> the "great latter-day Bahá'í revelation," as witnessed in the
> Hadith. The time of the spiritual awakening, equated with resurrection, was to be accompanied by signs mentioned also in the
> Bible, that is when religious faith has decayed and general demoralization set in.
> 
> So the early converts to Bahá'ísm accepted the new calling with
> the understanding that the Bab is the promised Mahdi and
> Bahaullah the Christ (spirit), as both seem faithfully to have
> met the prophesied condition and time of appearance.
> 
> The Bahá'í Revelation is held to confirm also the Hindu truth
> of religion as well as the Buddhist expectation of "Maitreya" ~ i.e.,
> "He-whose-name-is-Kindness," or Bahá'u'lláh. Thus he becomes
> to the Buddhists the return of their promised Buddha. 'Me
> Zoroastrians bad looked upon fire as the great cleanser; the
> Bahá'ís say this really signifies spiritual purity, "for it is through
> the spiritual fire of the love of God that men's souls are purified
> and quickened into eternal life." The Zoroastrians also have
> similar ideas concerning the resurrection or spiritual judgment.
> The end of the Zoroastrian dispensation, as foretold in their sacred
> writings, is contingent also on the prevalence of spiritual impurity
> which would necessitate another "Manifestation" to bring the
> divine fire of purification, or love of God, back to earth. Their
> latter-day prophet, "Shah Bahrain," is again the bearer of the
> Bahá'í Revelation, which accounts for the Zoroastrians of India
> and Persia-known today as Parsees-accepting the message of
> Baha'ullah. This is indeed an attempt at the broadest possible
> symbiosis, with Bahá'í Revelation being equated with the long-awaited one of Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, and
> Zoroastrians.
> 
> The Bahá'ís evolved a liberal cult confirming to the essential
> ingredients of other faiths - temple worship, fasting, prayer, good
> deeds to supplement creed and dogma, separation of state and
> church, and the unification of mankind through common institutions acceptable to all, such as what Bahá'ulláh represents, based
> not on separation of church and state but on the union of religion
> and state.
> 
> The Bahá'í modernist outlook stems from the conception that
> peace is desirable and can be achieved in the federation of all
> small and large nations and the establishment of a universal governing body supervised by one system of adjudication; Bahaism
> teaches cooperation in all affairs, between capital and labor, East
> and West. Cooperation materially and spiritually will make of
> various peoples one harmonious world-family.
> 
> There is no conflict between the divine and the natural; there
> exists rather, it is stated, scientific harmony between the two
> and perfect accord throughout the whole of creation. Indeed,
> natural science in the view of the Bahá'ís "teaches man how to
> live properly upon a human plane." Man can discover and
> utilize the laws of nature; but the laws of God are revealed unto
> man only through His mediators: Christ, Muhammad, the other
> prophets, and Baha'ullah.
> 
> The near-avid interest in modern thinking by the Bah5'is bespeaks their respect for it as an aid to religious fulfillment. "This general and widespread spirit of modern thought," they argue,
> "has been as a plough which has prepared the religious ground
> of the world to receive the spiritual seeds of universal religious
> ideals."13 Bahais regard themselves as being in perfect harmony
> with modern trends on the grounds that "the modernists of all
> religions are teaching many of the same principles as held by the
> followers of the Bahai Cause."14 Conflicts in the past between
> science and theology are attributed to "imaginations and superstitions" which religions had accumulated over the centuries to
> make them unacceptable to science. Since these are held to be
> outside the realm of the actual teachings of the great prophets
> like Jesus and Muhammad, dispensing with such unhealthy accretions in no way compromises the basic teachings of these religions. And by eliminating them there would remain no area
> of conflict between theology and science.
> 
> What makes the Bahá'ís modernists in their outlook is the
> conviction that their doctrine and teachings are free from the
> superstitions of the past and are compatible with modern science.
> 
> The Role of Extra-Shari'ah Legislation
> 
> Such radical movements typified by the Ahmadiyah and Bahaiyah are symptomatic of the impact of modern thinking on traditional beliefs and organizational concepts in Islam. The trend
> towards creeping change and readjustment may not be fully
> delineated as of the moment; but there is no denying that the
> motions already in process tend nearly in that direction, and not
> even the Shari'ah will be spared further scrutiny.
> 
> Revisions of the Shari'ah started tangentially with a variety of
> Ottoman decrees in the nineteenth century and more directly with
> the secular laws enacted by Muslim leaders in the twentieth.
> There are definite attempts in the Arab countries today, excluding
> perhaps Saudi Arabia, consciously to adapt Shari legislation to
> the needs of modern life and to a more liberal conception of
> human views. The resulting reforms betray careful thinking, stemming from the search and utilization of precedents in the Shari'ah that are best suited for the realization of such reforms without
> encroaching on the spirit and intrinsic philosophy underlying it.
> There is no outright innovation, but the trend towards an eclectic
> system of legislating for modern needs within the more broadly
> interpreted tenets of the canon law is clearly in evidence.
> 
> Muslim beads of state and legislators today may seem to be
> resorting to a form of ijtihad, justified by the argument that it is
> their prerogative to override a traditional canonical principle.
> if the interests of the modern public demand it. Invariably they
> resort to the argument that they are not innovating outrightly but
> simply choosing from the opinions of accepted, albeit rival, jurists.
> 
> They have circumvented Ijma' with the argument that it can not
> be established how encompassing public consensus really was
> when resorted to in the past. They have also drawn a line between
> the compulsive and permissive nature of canonical decrees on the
> grounds that by exploiting the permissiveness of a decree they
> are committing an act of conscience which they are willing to risk
> should they be called upon to account for it on the Day of Judgment. One of their stronger arguments, however, is that a divine
> ordinance can not be binding for all time when the condition and
> circumstance of its promulgation have changed.
> 
> [pages 273-74]
> 
> Islam in America
> 
> Islam in America is comparatively a very recent phenomenon.
> Muslim immigrants from Arab countries, India, Malaya, Yugoslavia, and Albania form small enclaves located mostly in the
> larger cities, although it is not uncommon to find them in the
> smaller cities as well.
> 
> These Muslim immigrants and their descendants are representative of the numerous sects of Islam: Sunni, Druzes, Shi'ites,
> Ahmadiyah, Bahá'í. They have organized themselves into numerous societies which reflect their ethnical derivation with all types
> of women's and youth's auxiliary groups.
> 
> American Muslims have endeavored to observe the tenets of
> their faith as best as they can determine them. Besides the
> Islamic mosque and institute in the capital, which caters principally to the diplomatic Corps representing Muslim states, there
> are only a few other mosques in places like Chicago, Detroit,
> Toledo, and Cedar Rapids. It is difficult to ascertain the number of immigrant Muslims in America because statistics are lacking. An educated guess would point to about ten thousand. They
> are mostly withdrawn. into themselves and have no active interest
> in propagating Islam in America. They have their Islamic culture
> centers in.New York, Washington, and San Francisco where the
> Sunni view predominates. These centers are open to all those
> interested in learning about Islam.
> 
> The Qadiyani Ahmadis and Bahá'ís are, on the other hand,
> quite active in disseminating their respective versions, of Islam.
> The Sunni elements lose no time, however, in discrediting their
> claims to Islam wherever and whenever the opportunity presents
> itself. Yet both have well organized missionary activities and are
> willing to spend to spread their beliefs; this type of zeal is lack-
> ing among the orthodox Muslim groups.
> 
> METADATA
> 
> Views21146 views since posted 2002-02-28; last edit 2012;
> 
> previous at archive.org.../farah_islam_beliefs_observances;
> URLs changed in 2010, see archive.org.../bahai-library.org
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> Scanned 2002-02 by Jonah Winters; Formatted 2002-02 by Jonah Winters; Proofread 2012-10-15 by Jonah Winters.
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> — *Islam: Beliefs and Observances (Used by permission of the curator)*