Lived Islam in Bangladesh

263 Pages·2010·4.18 MB·English

by  Matt Yarrington

Lived Islam in Bangladesh: Contemporary religious discourse
between Ahl-i-Hadith, „Hanafis‟ and authoritative texts,
with special reference to al-barzakh

Matt D. Yarrington

Submitted in fulfilment of the
Requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
In the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies,
The School of Literatures, Languages & Cultures

Ph.D.
University of Edinburgh
2010
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This thesis has been solely composed by me and the work is my own. The work has not been
submitted for any other degree or professional qualification.

Matt D. Yarrington
1 September, 2010
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Abstract

Lived Islam in Bangladesh: Contemporary religious discourse between Ahl-i-Hadith,
„Hanafis‟ and authoritative texts, with special reference to al-barzakh

Contemporary north-west Bangladesh is the scene of a religious contest between the
self-described ‗Hanafis‘, who include various expressions of Islamic faith and practice, and
Salafi reformist groups known as Ahl-i-Hadith. Occasionally labelled ‗Wahhabis‘ due to their
affinity with the doctrine from Arabia, the Ahl-i-Hadith actively seek to purify local Islam of
all practices which they consider to be bidaʿ. Local Hanafi Muslims, who form a majority,
are resistant to these efforts at total religious reform. This thesis investigates the
contemporary discourse taking place between these two communities in Rajshahi,
Bangladesh, and between these groups and their authoritative Islamic texts.
The case study used to focus on inter-group debates is the contested issue of whether
or not to perform rituals meant to assist the dead during al-barzakh – the conscious waiting
period in the grave believed to last from death until the day of resurrection. Especially during
a soul‘s first forty days in al-barzakh, the Hanafi community observes rituals intended to
reduce the torment of the grave and send soʾab, or merit, to the account of the deceased.
Participant observation at numerous milad, chollisha and khotom ceremonies for the
dead, as well as interviews with local ʿulamaʾ and other informants highlight the progress of
Ahl-i-Hadith reform efforts, but also the way in which Hanafi leaders defend and interpret
their ‗unorthodox‘ practices using authoritative Sunni hadith and Qurʾanic passages.
Additional Islamic texts which are locally influential are examined. Special voice is given to
―what Muslims say‖ in an attempt to let the words and actions of those involved in the
debates direct the research agenda as they interpret and defend their respective positions.
This thesis provides other researchers with a field-based account of contemporary
Islamic belief and practice in Bangladesh – an understudied Islamic context containing over
150 million people. Dozens of quotations from ʿulamaʾ are reproduced in the original
Bengali and in English. Additionally, this study complicates Islamic fundamentalist and
Western scholarly conceptions of ‗popular Islam‘ and ‗syncretism‘ by showing that Hanafi
ʿulamaʾ in Rajshahi explain their (contested) beliefs and activities in Islamic terms, using
universally recognised Sunni sources of authority, especially the hadith literature.
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Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ................................................................................................................... vii
Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................. viii
Notes on Transliteration and Translation ................................................................................ xii
Chapter 1 - Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1
1.1 Research Problem ....................................................................................................... 2
1.1.a Project. ................................................................................................................ 2
1.1.b An inter-disciplinary text-and-practice study ..................................................... 5
1.1.c Islam as a discursive tradition. ............................................................................ 6
1.1.d Limitations and boundaries. ............................................................................... 9
1.1.e The case study: Two Islamic views on death-related rituals ............................. 11
1.1.f The need for this study. ..................................................................................... 15
1.2 Methodology .............................................................................................................. 18
1.2.a Ethnographic research methods ....................................................................... 18
1.2.b Geographical limitation ...................................................................................... 18
1.2.c Research design and data collection methods .................................................. 19
1.3 Theoretical Orientation ............................................................................................ 30
1.3.a Death studies as a means of inquiry into religious knowledge ......................... 30
1.3.b Western approaches to the study of Islam in local contexts ............................ 34
1.3.c Islam as discursive tradition elaborated............................................................ 40
1.4 Chapter Plan ............................................................................................................. 44

Chapter 2 – Religious Knowledge in Rajshahi ........................................................................ 47
2.1 The research context: Rajshahi, Bangladesh ......................................................... 49
2.2 The Hanafi religious landscape .............................................................................. 62
2.3 General characteristics of South Asian Islamic reform ....................................... 65
2.4 Islamic reform movements impacting on Bengal ................................................. 73
2.5 The Ahl-i-Hadith ...................................................................................................... 80
2.6 Print proliferation in reformist movements .......................................................... 89
2.7 Authoritative texts in Rajshahi............................................................................... 93
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Chapter 3 – Death Above Ground - community rituals during al-barzakh ........................... 103
3.1 Preparation of the soul before death ..................................................................... 105
3.2 Death, gosol, and preparation of body .................................................................. 109
3.3 Khotom: Preparation of the soul by the community ............................................ 114
3.4 Bokshano: Transferring merit to the account of the deceased ........................... 119
3.5 Janaza Namaz: The funeral prayer ....................................................................... 123
3.6 Burial ....................................................................................................................... 128
3.7 Milads: Continuing to benefit the dead ................................................................. 132
3.8 Ziarod kora: Regular visitation of graves ............................................................. 142
3.9 Expressing grief ...................................................................................................... 142

Chapter 4 – Death Below Ground - al-barzakh in the local understanding .......................... 149
4.1 Barzakh .................................................................................................................... 151
4.2 Ordering the events of the grave - sources ........................................................... 153
4.3 Indications of consciousness in the grave ............................................................. 156
4.4 Removal of the soul from the body ....................................................................... 159
4.5 The soul‟s journey to the seven heavens and back to the body .......................... 167
4.6 The angel Ruman .................................................................................................... 170
4.7 Interrogation by Munkar and Nakir .................................................................... 172
4.8 The trial of the grave .............................................................................................. 175
4.9 The states of the grave ............................................................................................ 179

Chapter 5 – Assisting the Dead in Rajshahi .......................................................................... 184
5.1 So'ab management in hadith thought ................................................................... 187
5.2 Assisting the dead in al-barzakh ............................................................................ 195
5.3 Key example I: Speaking well of the dead ............................................................ 202
5.4 Key example II: Large numbers at the funeral prayer ....................................... 209

Chapter 6 – Evaluations and Direction for Further Research ................................................ 220
6.1 The sliding scale of reform ..................................................................................... 223
6.2 Local reform and global Salafism ......................................................................... 236

Bibliography .......................................................................................................................... 243
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vii

List of Illustrations

Maps

2.1 Bangladesh 49
2.2 Rajshahi District with City 55

Tables

1.1 Interview Structure and Questions 25
2.1 Authoritative hadith compendia 99
3.1 Spectrum of local attitudes: khotom, milad, bokshano 148
4.1 Class five textbook – questions and answers in the grave 174

Photos

1. Shops near a residential neighbourhood in Rajshahi 53
2. Shaheb Bazar, downtown Rajshahi 57
3. Khatia (bier) 113
4. Khotom ceremony 116
5. Gravesite 129
6. Milad notices 141
7. Funeral procession 170
8. Hanafi mosque 196
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Acknowledgements

I wish to thank the faculty and staff in the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern
Studies at the University of Edinburgh, where this thesis was undertaken. A generous
studentship from the College of Humanities and Social Science, in addition to an Overseas
Research Students award, allowed me to focus my time on research and writing in Edinburgh,
in Bangladesh, and at the libraries at Yale University where I finished the writing phase.
In Bangladesh, the faculty, staff, and students of the Folklore Department at Rajshahi
University patiently accepted me during my study there. Five separate ethnographic research
excursions with the faculty and students to different parts of Bangladesh, each lasting two
weeks, are forever etched into my consciousness. I especially thank Founding Chairman
Professor Abdul Jalil, Professor Abul Hasan Chowdhury and Uday Shanker Biswas, my
friend and classmate who is now a lecturer in the department.
Many other professors and friends should be thanked here. Professor Mahbubar
Rahman, Professor of History at Rajshahi University and the founding director of Heritage
Archives, was always generous with his time, providing numerous insights into the Islamic
context and history of Rajshahi, for which I am indebted. Professor (Emeritus) Samsul Alam
greatly aided my study of Bangladeshi Ahl-i-Hadith movements, directed me to important
textual resources, and helped to open doors for me to visit with other Salafi scholars. ‗Uncle‘
Eneyet ʿAli, a respected leader in the neighbourhood where I lived, took me ‗by the hand‘ to
various mosques and instructed them to cooperate with me. I could not have achieved the
same depth of exchange with local ʿulamaʾ without his sponsorship.
Other imams and ʿulamaʾ at numerous mosques and madrasas of Rajshahi extended
warm-hearted hospitality. I wish to thank them for not only making me feel welcome, but for
the many contributions of their knowledge of Islam, which I hope are conspicuous in the
pages of this book. I thank other friends in Rajshahi for the many discussions we enjoyed
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while drinking chai, and for the encouragement they gave me during the time of this research.
Among these friends are Sheik Kamal Sumon, Jacob Thomas, Shahidur Rahman, Morshed
Likhan and Md. Obaidul Muktadir.
Segments of the research on which this thesis is based were presented at conferences
and lectures at the University of Edinburgh, at Yale University, and at the Society for
Arabian Studies‘ conference in 2008 at the British Museum, London. I am grateful to the
organizers of these conferences and lectures for the opportunities to discuss my work, and to
the participants for their insightful comments and questions.
If I had only been allowed to take one or two courses with Professor Carole
Hillenbrand (which I did), or if I had only rubbed shoulders with her at a department
reception, I would have considered myself lucky, and would have been able to brag to my
friends that I had met such a scholar. Instead, I have enjoyed four years of interaction and
mentoring from Carole as my supervisor for this project. Neither being effusively American
and ‗gushing‘ about her, nor being understatedly British and saying too little will do. Her
interests are broad-ranging – this is the third PhD thesis she has supervised on Islam in the
Bengal region – extending far beyond her well-known achievements centring on Islamic
medieval political thought, the work of al-Ghazali, the Crusades, Persian and Arabic travel
accounts, the Turkish language and Seljuq history, and more. I have been the recipient of her
attentiveness, her deft criticism and intellectual support, and also the encouraging word and
warm-hearted kindness that are indicative of her character. I can only assume that her other
fifty-six PhD advisees (a record?) have been as blessed as I have been. Thank you, Carole.
Others in Edinburgh made important contributions to this project. I thank Andrew
Newman, my second supervisor, for helping convince me to take up studies at Edinburgh,
and for guiding me through the first year of my work. David and Janice Anderson, David and
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Ida Coffey (now at Oxford), and Chris Stewart all significantly encouraged my progress in
various ways.
My wife Melissa Yarrington has been my constant companion and supporter
throughout this project. While I was writing up this thesis, we lived for two years in New
Haven, Connecticut, where Melissa was a Research Fellow at Yale University. Her fluent
Bengali and long experience in the Bangladeshi context allowed her to participate with my
work at an extraordinary level. She always found time to read chapters and sections when I
asked, and provided many helpful suggestions as the research developed. This thesis is better
than it would have been without her contributions.
Others at Yale contributed to this research. I thank John Hartley for discussions about
Persian religious terms and their use in the Bengali context; and Yasir Qadhi, Joseph
Cumming and Noah Salomon, each of whom provided valuable insights about global
Salafism‘s divergent expressions in the Middle East, Africa and the West. All photographs in
this thesis were contributed by the author unless otherwise noted. Mistakes which remain are,
of course, all mine as well.

Matt Yarrington
1 May, 2010
Edinburgh,
Scotland