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Reincarnation for the Druze
Article Excerpt
Auteur(s) / Author(s) BENNETT Anne (1) ; Affiliation(s) du ou des auteurs / Author(s) Affiliation(s) (1) California State University, ETATS-UNIS Résumé / Abstract A belief in reincarnation is atypical within Islam, although exceptions exist with a few small sects. This essay analyzes the role that reincarnation plays in maintaining a sense of unity and identity among the Druze, an Islamic sect residing primarily in the Levantine Middle East. It also describes the necessary conditions for reincarnation according to Druze doctrine and as evidenced in reincarnation stories. Reincarnation is of great social significance for the Druze, regarding family and village relations, and the Druze community at large. There is, however, some resistance within the community to a belief in reincarnation. This resistance is due in part to image management in the political context of Syria, and also because a belief in reincarnation is a stigma for a group in the Islamic Middle East. It also works against Druze efforts to present itself to the world as modern. (Islam, Druze identity, reincarnation). Revue / Journal TitleEthnology ISSN 0014-1828 Source / Source 2006, vol. 45, no2, pp. 87-104 [18 page(s) (article)] (1/4 p.) ********** A belief in reincarnation is atypical for Islam. There are, however, some Islamic sects that believe in reincarnation, including the Druze and Alawi who are most numerous in Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey. These minority groups hold a tenuous position among Muslims, in some measure due to their belief in reincarnation, and are often considered by their mainstream Sunni or Shi'a co-religionists as heterodox or even heretical. Druze and Alawi differ in several particulars regarding how they describe the workings of reincarnation, but this essay focuses only on the Druze. The Druze believe that reincarnation occurs among all humans at all places and times, and that some remember previous lives but the majority do not. There is, however, no blanket agreement among Druze regarding reincarnation. There are many who are skeptics about the phenomenon and dismiss it outright. At the same time there are many others who circulate stories and maintain a curiosity and openness about the phenomenon. On both ends of the spectrum there is a guardedness associated with talk about reincarnation because of sensitivity to outside perceptions. A complicating factor is that the Druze sect is esoteric and secretive about most aspects of its religious tenets. As such it is difficult to ascertain much regarding how reincarnation fits into Druze doctrine. This essay, however, is less concerned with Druze reincarnation as religious doctrine and practice, and more as a social phenomenon that enhances sect unity and identity despite the fact that reincarnation is not uniformly accepted among Druze. The genre of concern here is reincarnation stories that may have roots in religious doctrine but exist and proliferate in everyday informal talk. Fieldwork for this research took place in two locales in southern Syria, Jeremana, and Suwayda. Jeremana is a densely populated urban neighborhood in southern Damascus with a large Druze population; Suwayda is a rural provincial capitol about one hundred kilometers south of Damascus and the villages in this province are almost exclusively Druze. Research consisted of participant observation, living among informants, and interviews. Reincarnation was not a major focus of research at first, but the topic arose frequently and it became clear that reincarnation was tied to notions of Druze identity. Reincarnation stories were recorded on audio tape. The relationship between reincarnation and sect unity and identity is illustrated with examples from three stories--those of Abu Qasim, Areal, and Saeed (1)--collected during fieldwork in Damascus and Suwayda, Syria. (2) The first story is of Abu Qasim, whose older brother Marwan died in a fanning accident when Abu Qasim was a boy. Several years later, an adolescent named Shafiq approached Abu Qasim's family claiming to be Marwan reincarnated. The second story is about Amal, a woman living in Damascus who, at the age of eighteen, lost her mother at home in an electrocution accident. Approximately five years later a girl named Lamis, who lived in a distant village, was thought to possibly be Amal's reincarnated mother. The third story concerns Saeed, whose mother died in an automobile accident when he was a teenager and whose family, about five years later, agreed to meet a girl who was rumored to be their reincarnated mother. Forty years later Saeed, now in his seventies, maintains a relationship with this woman, his "mother," who is currently known as Um Yasir. These stories contain shared elements that include a sudden and unexpected death as a catalyst toward remembered past lives; the contemporary prelude, where rumors and gossip set the stage for reunions; the descriptions of first encounters; the use of reported speech in establishing proof of reincarnation; and the reporting of past-present accommodations, i.e., how people live with reincarnation. In telling these stories, there is often the acknowledgment that reunions occur at the cost of some dissonance both for the families who are approached by someone claiming to be a reincarnated relative and for the presumed reincarnated individual whose divided self becomes caught in the corporeal "shirt" of a body with its own life to live, but linked strongly to a past life. When speaking about reincarnation, Druze refer to it in standard Arabic as taqammus (reincarnation, transmigration of souls) but colloquially as natiq. In Arabic, taqammus derives from qammasa (to clothe with a shirt). There is thus the linguistic implication that taqammus describes a soul that becomes re-clothed, or re-enveloped from one life to another. The body that a soul enters as it transmigrates from one human life to another is conceived as being a container or robe of the soul (Abu-Izzedin 1993:116). Tanasukh, another term in standard Arabic for reincarnation, carries connotations of rebirth and transmigration that can include a soul moving from human to animal form, but this is not possible in the Druze conception of reincarnation. Tanasukh is rarely used by Druzes when discussing Druze-specific reincarnation. Druze sometimes refer to a person who has been reincarnated as natiq, which means remembering one's actions in past lives (Abu-Izzedin 1993:125). There is, however, no uniform agreement even among the Druze regarding the use and meaning of natiq. Dr. Samy Swayd, University of California San Diego, says Druze use natiq to index the fact that previous lives are remembered and spoken about (personal communication). In Druze reincarnation stories, the role of speech is essential, which the colloquial term natiq clearly implies because the reincarnated soul is "one who speaks." When Abu Qasim or Amal, for example, are convinced that they have encountered a deceased loved one in another person's body, it is largely by speech. Amal, as will be shown, also responds strongly to the idiosyncratic gestures that a girl uses as she greets Amal and her siblings as indicating her reincarnated mother. But the most crucial evidence is with verbal testimony, which may sometimes be backed up by telling examples of nonverbal communication. The stories people tell make frequent use of reported speech, a common linguistic strategy for establishing authority and veracity in narrative (e.g., Bauman 1986; Briggs 1988). DOCTRINAL UNDERPINNINGS AND NECESSARY CONDITIONS Secrecy and Esotericism Although secrecy and the esoteric characterize Druze religious knowledge, (3) several sources describe the basic tenets of the sect (Andary 1994; CORA 1984, 1996; Makarem 1974; deSacy 1838; Shavit 1993). The pursuit of formal religious knowledge is not open to just anyone, Druze included. If a Druze chooses to pursue religious study, it is only possible as an adult and through establishing a mentoring relationship with religious leaders. Thus, Druze children are not taught the more arcane aspects of Druze religion, yet they are aware of their sect identity, in part through the informal mechanism of reincarnation stories. The Druze are a closed sect, and for ten centuries have not accepted converts. According to Druze doctrine, all human souls were created in one moment, and their number is fixed for all... Reincarnation for the Druze Reincarnation: It's Background REINCARNATION: Its meaning and consequences by Ernest Valea Reincarnation in world religions Past-life recall as proof for reincarnation Reincarnation and cosmic justice Reincarnation and Christianity Precedent at Dar al-Hikma - Chapter 10 from Metaphysics by Default. Evidence of Reincarnation Prominent people who accepted reincarnation and/or appeared to recall past lives Reincarnation: Socrates to Salinger The Fifth Ecumenical Council, The Second Council Of Constantinople, A.D. 553, The Anathemas Against Origen. New Clothes for Old Souls There Is No Death Druze Belief in Reincarnation The Similarity of Features of Reincarnation Type Cases over Many Years A Third Study New Article The Merciful Veil of Oblivion New Article The Explanations About Evolution and Reincarnation of the Spirit New Article The Divine Gift of Reincarnation. External Link The Reincarnation In the Bible I External Link More about The Reincarnation In the Bible II External Link Reincarnation and Western Religions- The Controversy External Link The divine law of reincarnation as an spiritual doctrine External Link Reincarnation and Western Religions -The Scriptures External Link Reincarnation and Western Religions -Conclusion External Link Reincarnation and Human Science External Link A Parable: The many options of reincarnation External Link Paul Misunderstood External Link |