Encyclopedia of Islam

idolatry

  

343  J

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stand in canonical Islamic revelation absolutely 

deny both divine plurality and femininity as well 

as any powers of intercession outside Allah’s will.

The mushrik (one who associates) in broader 

polemic understanding acts as if there were divine 

beings other than God and may be viewed as a 

polytheist as well as an idolater, even though he 

is a Muslim. The accusation of “associationism” 

applied to Muslims views with suspicion objects 

of popular devotion, especially the veneration of 

saints and other supermundane beings, as poten-

tial rivals for the sole worship the Muslim owes 

to God. Later and modern Islamic interpreta-

tion view the two contexts of shirk—polytheist-

idolater and popular intercessionist—as virtually 

synonymous. Such popular devotion, however, 

became a large part of the belief and practice 

of the ordinary person as opposed to the theo-

retical rigor and almost ascetic purity of practice 

espoused by Muslim jurists and theologians. The 

devotions of the vast majority of Muslims from 

the lifetime of m

Uhammad

 down to modern times 

have included ritual propitiation of a wide array of 

spiritual beings (such as astral spirits and angels,

believed in medieval Islam to inhabit planetary 

bodies; the 

Jinn

; and the invocation, direction, and 

exorcism of spirits of the dead, whether familial or 

spirits of local saints and holy persons), manipu-

lation of elemental and divinely created powers 

of natural objects (planets and stars, lightning, 

rain, wind, fire, the ocean, as well as sacred trees, 

springs, and stones), ritual use of objects or 

images of sacred power (the verbal and material 

use of sacred texts in quranic 

calligraphy

 and 

recitation), or even people and institutions treated

as objects of sacred power and recourse (prophets 

and saints as in Muhammad and his family, the 

Shii imams, Sufi saints, great teachers and healers, 

and religious institutions such as famous 

mosqUe

s 

and 

madrasa

s [legal colleges], which were at the 

same time burial sites of local saints used as foci 

of 

ziyara

 (pilgrimage, intercessory prayer, divina-

tory and healing rituals). In modern times, belief 

in and practice of such popular devotions have 

significantly declined, especially in highly urban-

ized and educated milieus. However, the underly-

ing belief in God’s presence in the world and in 

his material instrumentality through nature and 

revelation is still a core of the Islamic worldview. 

Examples of popular devotion and intercessory 

aid can still be found in living contexts in many 

Muslim countries, whether modern jurists con-

tinue to think it “idolatrous” or not.

See also 

angel

; a

rabian

 

religions

, 

pre

-i

slamic

; 

aUthority

; 

bidaa

;  h

indUism

 

and

  i

slam

; 

interces

-

sion

; 

saint

; 

theology

.

Kathleen M. O’Connor