Muslims are the followers of Islam, a world religion second in number of adherents after Christianity. Muslims live in 125 countries around the world, the largest number of people professing this religion live in Indonesia. Despite different countries of residence, all Muslims have many common traditions that reflect Sharia law and are prescribed in the Koran.
Holidays and religious customs of Muslims
Followers of Islam celebrate all holidays according to the lunar calendar. The beginning of knowledge, which is marked by a special date - the day of migration (08/15/622) of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina. Eid al-Adha and Kurban Bayram are considered special and significant annual holidays. There is also an important weekly holiday - namaz. Muslims also celebrate celebrations that appeared before the birth of Islam.
Eid al-Adha
70 days after the end of Uraza (fasting), the date of celebration of the first largest Muslim celebration begins. On the eve of the holiday, pilgrims climb Mount Arafat. On the day of the sacrifice, a seven-fold circumambulation of the Kaaba (tawaf) and a symbolic ritual - throwing stones - are performed. The history of the appearance of Kurban Bayram is closely connected with one of the sacred legends: Ismail, under the punishment of the angel Gabriel, was going to sacrifice his son. Allah prepared this test for him to test whether his faith was true. At the last moment, God took pity on the unfortunate father, and the sacrifice was replaced by a ram. Since then, every Muslim family slaughters a camel, sheep or ram on this day. They keep only 1/3 of the animal’s meat for themselves, the rest is distributed to those in need.
Preparations for the celebration begin long before the onset of Kurban Bayram. In the previous 20 days, it is prohibited to organize special events, have fun, appear in public in new outfits, or visit a hairdresser. xHousewives always bake ritual bread on the eve of the celebration. On holiday mornings, services are held in mosques. After this, the family feast begins. The main dishes of the holiday are prepared from the meat of an animal sacrificed. Eid al-Fitr lasts 3 days. These days, Muslims visit the graves of deceased relatives and distribute alms.
Eid al Adha
The holiday of breaking the fast is celebrated the day after the end of Ramadan. The date of the celebration is 1 Shawallah. During Eid al-Fitr, adherents of Islam, instead of the usual greeting, address each other with the phrase “Eid Mubarak!” Translated, this phrase means “Blessed Holiday!”
The celebration of Eid al-Adha begins with Eid Namaz (ritual prayer). After this ceremony, they set the tables, go to visit, and have fun. On this day, it is customary to ask for forgiveness, treat all children with sweets, give gifts to relatives and friends, and distribute alms to those in need.
Daily five times prayer
The primary and obligatory ritual for every Muslim is prayer. The prayer is said daily 5 times a day. It is not necessary to go to a mosque for this; you can say sacred prayers at home or at work. This applies to all days of the week except Friday. On this day, adherents of Islam, regardless of age and gender, are required to visit the mosque. Friday prayer is called Juma prayer.
Nowruz
One of the most ancient and brightest holidays is the Day of the Vernal Equinox. This celebration began to be celebrated long before the advent of Islam. Nowruz has ancient Iranian roots and is associated with the cult of the Sun and the legendary prophet Zarathushtra. The first mention of this holiday was found in the holy book “Avesta”.
In ancient times, this day was considered the beginning of a new year, according to the lunar calendar. The ancient traditions of Muslims are still honored in some countries. On the eve of Navruz, houses are thoroughly cleaned and festive dishes are prepared. In the morning, men and women, dressed in beautiful clothes, organize a procession (gulgardoni): they walk along the street with bouquets of the first spring flowers and sing songs dedicated to the arrival of spring and the beginning of sowing work.
At a gala family dinner, there are always 7 dishes prepared from ingredients whose names begin with “sin”, and the national sweet – malt halva (sumanak). A mirror is placed on the table, and candles are placed on both sides of it. Their number corresponds to the number of family members.
Muslim cuisine
It is difficult to briefly describe the traditions of Muslim cuisine: the number of adherents of Islam is about 1.8 billion people living in 28 of the 197 countries of the world, and in each country the national cuisine has its own characteristics. What Muslim peoples have in common is the predominance of meat dishes made from beef, lamb or horse meat.
TOP 10 most popular Muslim dishes
- Pilaf (pilaf). An oriental dish based on rice and meat, fish or vegetable dressing. Spices used include turmeric, cumin, red pepper, cardamom, barberry, garlic, raisins, dried apricots, and quince. Indian Muslims and Pakistanis call it biriyani.
- Beshbarmak. Kazakh second course, which is stewed meat in large pieces with a side dish of noodles. They eat beshbarmak with their hands.
- Zhizhig galnash. National Chechen dish, which is prepared from boiled beef, lamb or chicken and served with meat broth, dumplings made from wheat or corn flour and sour cream sauce. The analogue of zhizhig galnash among the Chechens and Ingush is khinkal, where instead of dumplings they use pieces of dough boiled in meat broth.
- Ochpochmak. National dish of the Bashkirs and Tatars, yeast pies with potatoes or any meat except pork.
- Samsa. Triangular puff pastry pies filled with minced meat or minced meat and a large amount of onion.
- Belyashi. A dish of Kazakh and Bashkir cuisine. Thin fried pies with minced meat or minced meat.
- Change them. Tatar version of belyashi, round pies with beef.
- Kurutob. Tajik snack dish. Pieces of flatbread made from puff pastry (katlama) are filled with cottage cheese grated with milk and sour cream, and finely chopped onions, herbs, pieces of fresh tomatoes and cucumbers are added.
- Shurpa. A festive stew popular among Turkic Muslims. It is a strong (usually double) meat broth with vegetables and herbs. Black pepper and curry are used as seasonings.
- Bozbash. Azerbaijani dressing soup with lamb or beef brisket, chickpeas (chickpeas) and vegetables. A version of the dish prepared with meatballs is called kufta-bozbash.
Muslims, especially those living in Eastern countries, are especially fond of sweet dessert dishes. Among the most famous oriental sweets:
- Baklava. Baklava recipes differ in different national cuisines; the classic version of the dessert is thin layers of butter dough and a filling of honey and nuts.
- Halva. A mixture of caramel mass and crushed kernels of walnuts, pistachios, peanuts, almonds, sesame seeds or sunflower grains.
- Nougat. An oriental sweet that is popular all over the world and is made from egg whites, sugar and roasted nuts.
- Turkish Delight. A sweet dish made from starch, sugar syrup, nuts and dried fruits. When ready, it looks like translucent soft cubes sprinkled with powdered sugar.
Traditions and customs of Muslims at the birth of a child
The great gift and mercy of God is the birth of a new person. The birth of a child in a family, regardless of the religion of the parents, is the most significant and joyful event in life. Happy Muslim parents accept congratulations from all relatives and friends and conduct appropriate religious rituals.
Joining the Ummah
The first word a Muslim newborn hears from his father is God. Bending over the baby, dad says two words praising Allah. The azan is spoken into the right ear, and the iqamat into the left ear. The call and command to stand up for prayer introduces the baby to the Lord and protects him from the machinations of Satan.
Baby naming
Religious scriptures do not specify the exact day (the first or the seventh) on which parents should name their child. The main thing is to make the right choice. A person’s name accompanies him throughout his life, so its meaning should carry only positive characteristics.
Followers of Islam quite often name their children after angels or prophets. One of the common male names is Muhammad. Names in which the root “abd” is combined with one of the 99 sonorous names of Allah are also popular.
For girls, the names of women from the Prophet's family are chosen - Zainab, Fatima, Khadija.
Technician
The ritual is mentioned in ancient legends: the Prophet Muhammad performed it on the newborn son of one of his followers.
Saying prayers for health and wishing the baby a happy, sweet life, the mother should smear the lips and mouth of the newborn with date mass, honey or sweet juice from another fruit. Muslims believe that this ritual strengthens the baby's muscles and prepares him for breastfeeding.
Akika
A seven-day-old newborn must be shaved. This custom is associated with purification and the beginning of the Sunnah. Hair should never be thrown away. They are stored throughout a person's life.
After the procedure, parents distribute alms to people in need. According to the rules, the number of coins for beggars should correspond to the weight of shaved hair. If the baby is born bald, the mother and father still give out alms.
Thanksgiving Ritual
On the same day as the aqika, the father is obliged to sacrifice a ram. This is a kind of thanksgiving to God for the birth of a child. If a future warrior was born in the family, it is necessary to slaughter 2 rams, and if there is a beautiful daughter, one.
Conditions do not allow city residents to carry out such a ritual. But many parents find a way out of the situation and go out of town. After carrying out the ritual of sacrifice in the forest belt, the meat of the animal is brought home and distributed to the poor.
Truncation of the foreskin in boys
An ancient and very important custom of Muslims is khitan. Male babies are circumcised after the Akika ceremony. The only delay in this procedure may be the baby’s poor health or poor health. In Turkey and some other Muslim countries, foreskin truncation is performed on mature boys, aged 7 to 10 years. The operation is entrusted to a deeply religious man with a medical education. If parents delay the procedure and do not trim the flesh until adulthood, this is considered a shame. The father and mother are accused of neglect and cruelty. After all, the ritual carries a special meaning - parents who submit to the will of Allah betray their son to Him.
Household traditions
The main traditions and customs of Muslims relating to everyday life include:
- The greeting at a meeting is “Assalamualaikum” and the response to it is “Vaalaikum assalam”.
- Mentioning the name of Allah before eating.
- Using the right hand while eating.
- Shaving the face, armpits and pubic area.
- Circumcision (circumcision) is a surgical operation to remove the foreskin in boys, which is performed at the age of 7–10 years. Circumcision is evidence of a man’s belonging to the Muslim religion. The Jews also have this tradition, but Jewish boys undergo a mini-circumcision operation on the eighth day after birth.
- Mandatory washing after defecation (in Muslim countries, all toilets have bidets for this purpose).
Wedding traditions and customs of Muslims
Adherents of Islam treat the family with kindness and respect. Wedding celebrations are always approached with special seriousness. Not a single celebration is complete without observing centuries-old rituals and customs.
Khitbah
The groom and his relatives pay a visit to his betrothed's house to officially obtain paternal consent for the wedding. Muslim customs do not allow the betrothed to come to the house of his future wife empty-handed. He is obliged to present gifts; their quantity and value determine how financially secure the future spouse is. During matchmaking, all the nuances regarding the wedding are discussed: the date of the celebration, the number of guests, the venue. Usually all financial costs are borne by the groom and his family.
Henna night
Muslims traditionally call a bachelorette party “Henna Night.” The bride spends the last evening before the wedding with her close friends and relatives. Fancy patterns are drawn on her palms and feet with henna, each of which has a specific meaning. Sometimes the initials of the girl's betrothed are added to them. Only happily married women have the right to apply tattoos.
Nikah
The wedding ceremony – nikah – is obligatory for all Muslims. It is held in a mullah or ilam mosque. The bride is always dressed in a long, closed dress, decorated with all kinds of patterns. On the head is a multi-layered veil or a festive hijab. It is not customary for Muslims to give gold, so newlyweds usually have silver rings.
The groom pays mahr (ransom). It confirms the young man’s serious intentions, so the ransom will be valuable and quite expensive. Usually, lovers discuss the cost of the marriage gift in advance. It immediately becomes the property of the wife, and even in the event of a divorce, no one has the right to take the mahr from her.
Wedding feast
Muslims have always considered the festive table a symbol of hospitality. According to long-standing traditions, women and men should sit in separate rooms and not communicate with each other. All guests sing, dance, and, of course, eat delicious traditional dishes prepared according to ancient recipes. At the same time, there are no alcoholic drinks or pork on the table.
Bride's dowry
Even our grandmothers, and some even mothers, began collecting a dowry for their daughter almost from the moment of her birth. Now such fees have lost their relevance - everything can be bought in one day, if you have the money. And therefore, not everyone knows what a dowry is, how this word is spelled, where the emphasis falls in it.
What is dowry?
The stress in the word “dowry” falls on the second syllable. The word “dowry” comes from the words “to give, to add,” so the meaning of the word is quite clear without additional explanation. A dowry is what the wife brought with her to her husband’s house, with which she supplemented the life of the young family.
Wife's dowry among the ancient Slavs
Among the ancient Slavs, a wife's dowry was a prerequisite for getting married. In Rus' they took this moment very seriously - the girl herself prepared the dowry throughout her life, putting it in a separate chest. And there was a lot to prepare; in addition to the wedding attire for her beloved, the bride had to prepare more than 30 embroidered tabletops and towels. The bride also had to prepare sashes and patterned towels as a gift to the groom's family and the groom himself. A lot of attention was paid to the design of the wedding bed. And before getting married, each girl had to make a rag ball (shelgu), which she gave to the children for games. No one, neither boyars nor princely daughters, was exempt from women's work in preparing a dowry. On the contrary, the nicknames “netkaha” and “slobber” were among the most offensive for teenage girls.
A list of the dowry was necessarily compiled, which, when transporting things to the husband’s house, was kept by the bride’s mother and the matchmaker. The groom also had a hard time; there was such a thing as buying the bride’s dowry, or veno. With such a payment, the husband ensured the integrity of his wife's dowry in the event of his early death.
Collecting the wedding dowry
It is clear that now we are not talking about hand-embroidered towels and bed linen - everything can be bought ready-made, but not everyone knows what to buy. By the way, about making a dowry with your own hands, if the wedding is national, then this can happen. For example, the Kazakh bride's dowry necessarily includes about 5 korpe and korpeshe - homemade blankets and mattresses. If the wedding does not have a clearly defined national character, then brides can easily make do with purchased analogues.
So, what is included in a modern bride's trousseau? The list of things can be quite large; in general, the bride can take whatever she sees fit. But it’s nice to have a place in the dowry for the following things.
- Bed sheets.
Bedroom decoration is undoubtedly important, but what is its center? Of course, the marital bed. So, by including bedding in your dowry, you can create the right mood for your spouse. - Underwear, nightgown (pajamas), robe.
These things will also help set the mood for your husband, so when choosing them, make sure that everything is beautiful and quite sexy. - Bath towels. You will need bath towels, matching hand towels and waffle or linen towels for guests.
- Tablecloths, napkins.
It will be useful to take 2-3 tablecloths, and multi-colored linen napkins to match the tablecloth. The need to set the table may arise long before the family's first trip to the store, so it is better to prepare in advance so as not to lose face in front of your guests. - Dinnerware.
When purchasing it, look not only at beauty, but also at practicality. As a last resort, you can take 2 sets - for everyday use, and for holidays.
Muslim funeral rites
From the first day of their birth to the last minute of their earthly existence, Muslims live by adhering to Sharia. The code of laws mentions: every true believer must prepare himself for the afterlife during his lifetime.
It is customary to bury a deceased Muslim as soon as possible, preferably within 24 hours after death. Definitely before sunset. Preparations for burial and funeral are carried out in compliance with all Muslim customs and traditions.
Ablution
First, the deceased person is washed with water and cedar oil (powder). Then with water with the addition of camphor and only after that with clean water. After this ritual, the deceased is wrapped in a special robe (shroud). The man's shroud consists of 3 parts: lifawa, isar and kamis. Two more parts are added to the women's: khimar (head cover) and khirka (a separate piece of fabric for covering the chest).
Janaza
Funeral prayer is different from all others. During its reading, prostration and kneeling are not provided. Before reading the janaza, the imam addresses those present with questions: did the deceased have any debts or was he in a quarrel with anyone present? And then asks to forgive everything to the deceased.
The body of the deceased is delivered to the cemetery on a special stretcher - tobut. At least 4 people carry them to the grave. Lower the body with your feet down, at this time your head should be directed towards the Qibla.
Interesting Muslim traditions
Table etiquette rules
Muslims must wash their hands before and after eating. For this purpose, there is a special bowl near each person present. Dining utensils are passed only with the right hand. Eating food is allowed with your hands, using three or more fingers (two are prohibited). The first dish served at the table is bread. Usually these are flatbreads or pita bread. Products are never cut, only broken. Pieces that fall from the table are picked up and given to animals and birds.
After reading the prayer, the head of the family is the first to start the meal. The meal ends with a prayer of gratitude to Allah.
Pilgrimage to Mecca
Every Muslim should visit the holy city at least once in his life. According to Islamist teachings, pilgrimage to Mecca is one of the most honorable acts of a Muslim.
Bismillah
The meaning of this ritual is interpreted as the pronunciation of the formula (the formula itself) “Bismillahi rrahmani rrahim.” In Russian it sounds: “I begin in the name of Allah, the Merciful, to everyone in this world, and only to Muslims in the eternal world.” Almost all suras of the Holy Book of Muslims begin with these words. The phrase has been given a mystical meaning since ancient times. It is used to decorate body talismans. It is also found on architectural structures of the East.
The Bismillah ritual is performed when a child turns 5 years old. By this time, many have already begun to read the Koran. An imam or a deeply religious, pious male relative is invited to conduct the sacred ceremony. After correct reading and writing, children begin to thoroughly study the Holy Book.
