Islam in Ethiopia

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Much as the rest of the Muslim world, the beliefs and practices of the Muslims of Ethiopia are basically the same: embodied in the Qur'an and the Sunnah. There are also Sufi Orders present in Ethiopia. According to the 1994 census of Ethiopia (with similar numbers for the 1984 census), about half of its population is adherent of Islam and members of the Muslim community can be found throughout the country. The most important Islamic religious practices, such as the daily ritual prayers (Salat) and Fasting (Arabic صوم, Sawm, Ethiopic ጾም, S.om or Tsom - used by Christians as well) during the holy month of Ramadan, are observed both in urban centers as well as in rural areas, among both settled peoples and nomads. Numerous Ethiopian Muslims perform the pilgrimage to Makkah every year.

Most of Ethiopia's Muslims are Sunni Muslims. Islam arrived in Ethiopia in 615. During that year, the Prophet Muhammad's followers sought refuge in the Ethiopian Kingdom of Aksum, possibly settling at Negash.

In that year, his followers were fleeing from Mecca's new leading tribe, the reactionary Quraysh, who sent emissaries to bring them back to Arabia, but the King of Ethiopia protected the Prophet and his followers. Since then, the Prophet himself instructed his followers who came to Ethiopia, to respect and protect Ethiopia as well as live in peace with Ethiopian Christians. Accordingly, some scholars state that Ethiopia was the country that saved Islam from its near destruction and termination.

Under the former Emperor Haile Selassie, Muslim communities could bring matters of Personal and Family Law and inheritance before Islamic courts; many did so and probably continued to do so under the revolutionary regime. However, many Muslims dealt with such matters in terms of Customary Law. For example, the Somali and other pastoralists tended not to follow the requirement that daughters inherit half as much property as sons, particularly when livestock was at issue. In parts of Eritrea, the tendency to treat land as the corporate property of a descent group (lineage or clan) precluded following the Islamic principle of division of property among one's heirs.

In Ethiopia's Muslim communities, as in neighboring Sudan and Somalia, the faithful are associated with, but not necessarily members of any specific Sufi Order. Nevertheless, formal and informal attachment to Sufi practices is widespread, the emphasis seems less on the contemplative and disciplined mysticism and more on the concentration of the spiritual powers possessed by certain founders of the Orders and the Masters of the local branches of the respective Orders. Some developed the idea that these special persons possess extraordinary spiritual power to intercede with God and have the ability to promote the fertility of women and cure illnesses. In many cases, these individuals are recognized as saints. People visit their tombs to pray for their help or their intercession with God. perhaps the best-known example being Sheikh Hussein.

[edit] See also

• Islam by country
• Sheikh Hussein

[edit] References

• This article contains material from the Library of Congress Country Studies, which are United States government publications in the public domain.
• J. Spencer Trimingham. Islam in Ethiopia. Oxford: Geoffrey Cumberlege for the University Press, 1952.

[edit] External links

• Ethiopian Muslim and Christian War