Top

Contemporary Islam

Published in:

22-08-2017

The hair of the Prophet: relics and the affective presence of the absent beloved among Sufis in Denmark

Author: Mikkel Rytter

Published in: Contemporary Islam | Issue 1/2019

Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.

search-config

AI-assisted search

Off

Abstract

This paper explore the politics of (in)visibility in Islam by discussing the affective presence and agency of relics - in this case a single hair of the Prophet Muhammad. The relic is obviously not the Prophet, but it is also not-not the Prophet, as the hair is filled with the baraka (blessings) of the Prophet and thereby seems to confirm Sir James Frazer’s thesis of ‘sympathetic magic’ where part and wholes are forever connected. Based on a study of the Naqshbandi Mujaddidi Saifi tariqa, this paper set out to ‘follow the hair’ in different settings in Denmark, Norway and Pakistan in order to discuss how it connects the visible and the invisible aspects of reality. I argue that the relic not only constitutes an affective presence of the beloved, but also that it becomes a significant agent in the establishment of an enchanted subaltern counter-public within Danish secular society.

previous article Burdening visions: the haunting of the unseen in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

next article Metaphors and paradoxes: secrecy, power and subjectification in Sufi initiation in Aleppo, Syria

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 102.000 Bücher
über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 67.000 Bücher
über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Evoking the idea of ‘contagious magic’ I do not suggest that Muslims are superstitious or that the Prophet Muhammad is an magician, but simply that Frazer’s archive outlines some general principles of connectivity that can be used to understand the emerging relationship between the Saifis, the hair and the Prophet Muhammad.

The vast majority originates from villages around Kharian in rural Punjab and are Muslims with a barelvi orientation. The barelvi movement has the name Bareilly from the Indian hometown of the founder Ahmad Raza Khan (1856–1921), they are sunni Muslims belonging to the Hanafi school of jurisprudence, characteristic by acknowledging saints, shrines and Sufism (Lewis 2002). The Pakistanis are part of the Muslim community in Denmark currently consisting of approximately 230.000 individuals (Jacobsen 2012: 46).

I have been explained by a khalifa (deputy) of Sarkar Colonel Sahib (see Fig 1) that the Prophet Muhammad is not al-ghayb—he is believed to be present on earth and alive in the grave. Still, the Prophet Muhammad has knowledge of al-ghayb. Before he lived as a man in this world he was part of al-ghayb. At the same time he is also a significant character in the future, Doomsday etc. In this respect the Prophet Muhammad is both the one who has knowledge of al-ghayb and is part of al-ghayb.

Many Danish Pakistani newborn boys are also given the name of Muhammad—a name that is believed to ensure a particular close relation with the Prophet (cf. Schimmel 1985b).

The reception of nur (the light of the Prophet) during the zikr gatherings, where they eventually experience the presence of the Prophet Muhammad in their religious ecstasy (wajd), is another significant vehicle of transformation in the Saifi tariqa (see Buehler 1998).

It is believed that you can experience the Prophet’s scent from the fragrance of the rose (see Schimmel 1985a: 35)

I have heard about the incident from two different Saifis that were also present that evening in Oslo.

The list of youth organizations includes CEMYC (Council of European Youth Minority Commitees), OPSA (Organisationen af Pakistanske Studerende og Akademikere), MYL (Muslim Youth League), WYL (Women Youth League), FASM (Foreningen af Studerende Muslimer), MUNIDA (Muslimsk ungdom i Danmark), Kritiske Muslimer, Vision—den om lighed, MID (Muslimer-i-Dialog) og Dialog Forum.

Bangstad, S. (2014). Anders Breivik and the rise of islamophobia. London: Zed Books.

Bille, M., Hastrup, F., & Sørensen, T. F. (Eds.). (2010). An anthropology of absence: Materialization of transcendence and loss. New York: Springer.

Brown, P. (1981). The cult of the saints: Its rise and function in Latin Christianity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Buehler, A. (1998). Sufi heirs of the prophet. The Indian Naqshbandiyya and the rise of the mediating Sufi shaykh. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.

Fraser, N. (1990). Rethinking the public sphere. A contribution to the critique of actually existing democracy. Social Text, (25/26), 56–80.

Frazer, J. (1993 [1922]). The golden bough. A study of magic and religion. London: Wordsworth Reference Series.

Gad, U. P. (2011). Muslimer som trussel: identitet, sikkerhed og modforanstaltninger. In M. H. Pedersen & M. Rytter (Eds.), Islam og Muslimer i Danmark: Religion, identitet og sikkerhed efter 11, september (Vol. 2001, pp. 61–88). Museum Tusculanum: København.

Goldziher, I. (1911). The cult of saints in Islam. The Muslim World, 1, 302–312.CrossRef

Henare, A, M. Holbraad, and S. Wastell. (2006). Introduction: Thinking Through Things. In Henare, A., Holbraad, M and S. Wastell (Eds.): Thinking Through Things: Theorising Artifacts Ethnographically. London and New York. Routledge. pp. 1–31.

Hervik, P. (2011). The annoying difference: The emergence of Danish neo-nationalism, neo-racism, and populism in the post-1989 world. New York: Berghahn Books.

Jacobsen, B. (2012). Muslims in Denmark: A critical evaluation of estimations. In J. Nielsen (Ed.), Islam in Denmark: The challenge of diversity (pp. 31–56). Lanham: Lexington Books.

Jakobsen, J. S. (2011). Præmisser for dialog efter 11. september 2001: Gülen- bevægelsen i danske offentlige sfærer. In M. H. Pedersen & M. Rytter (Eds.), Islam og Muslimer i Danmark: Religion, identitet og sikkerhed efter 11, september (Vol. 2001, pp. 245–264). Museum Tusculanum: København.

Kabbani, M. H. (2004). Classical Islam and the Naqshbandi Sufi tradition. Fenton: Islamic Supreme Council of America.

Khawaja, I. (2011). Blikkene: Muslimskhedens synlighed, kropsliggørelse og forhandling. In M. H. Pedersen & M. Rytter (Eds.), Islam og muslimer i Danmark: Religion, identitet og sikkerhed efter 11, september (Vol. 2001, pp. 269–291). Museum Tusculanum: København.

Klausen, J. (2009). The cartoons that shook the world. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Koefoed, L. and Simonsen, K. (2010) ‘Den fremmede!’, byen og nationen om livet som etnisk minoritet. Fredriksberg: Roskilde Universitets Forlag.

Lewis, P. (2002). Islamic Britain: Religion, politics and identity among British Muslims. London and New York: I. B. Tauris publishers.

Lizzio, K. (2003). Embodying history: A Naqshbandi shaikh of Afghanistan. Central Asian Survey, 22(2/3), 163–185.CrossRef

Lizzio, K. (2014). Embattled saints: My year with the Sufis of Afghanistan. Wheaton: Quest Books.

Louw, M. (2007). Everyday Islam in post-soviet Central Asia. London: Frank Cass Publishers.CrossRef

Marcus, G. (1995). Ethnography in / of the world system: Emergence of multi-sited ethnography. Annual Review, 24, 95–117.

Margoliouth, D. S. (1937). The relics of the prophet Muhammad. The Muslim World, 27, 20–27.CrossRef

Mathiesen, K. (2014). Bonds of love: Sincerity and the unseen flow of Baraka. Unpublished paper presented at the conference: Multi-sited Sufism: Transmission, Translation and Transcendence, Istanbul, October 20–23, 2014.

Meri, J. W. (2010). Relics of piety and power in medieval Islam. Past and Present, 206(Suppl. 5), 97–120.CrossRef

Mittermaier, A. (2011). Dreams that matter. Egyptian landscapes of the imagination. Berkeley and London: University of California Press.

Rytter, M. (2010). In-laws and outlaws: Black magic among Pakistani migrants in Denmark. The Journal of Royal Anthropological Institute, 16(1), 46–63.CrossRef

Rytter, M. (2011). Demonic Migrations: Re-enchantment of Middle Class life among Danish-Pakistani Muslims. In M. Rytter and K. F. Olwig (Eds.): Mobile Bodies, Mobile Souls. Family, Religion and Migration in a Global World. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, pp. 53–76.

Rytter, M. (2013). Family upheaval: Generation, mobility and relatedness among Pakistani migrants in Denmark. Oxford and New York: Berghahn.

Rytter, M. (2015). The scent of a rose: Imitating imitators as they learn to love the prophet. In B. Timm Knudsen & C. Stage (Eds.), Affective methodologies. Developing cultural research strategies for the study of affect (pp. 140–160). Basingstoke: Palgrave Maxmillian

Rytter, M. (2016a). By the beard of the prophet: Imitation, reflection and world transformation among Sufis in Denmark. Ethnography, 17(2), 229–249.CrossRef

Rytter, M. (2016b). Burger jihad: Fatal attractions at a Sufi lodge in Pakistan. Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 36(1), 46–61.CrossRef

Rytter, M., & Pedersen, M. H. (2014). A decade of suspicion: Islam and Muslims in Denmark after 9/11. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 37(13), 2303–2321.CrossRef

Schielke, S. (2009). Ambivalent commitment: Trouble of morality, religiosity and aspiration among young Egyptians. Journal of Religion in Africa, 29, 158–185.CrossRef

Schimmel, A. (1985a). And Muhammad is his messenger: The veneration of the Prophet in Islamic Piety. Chapell Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press.

Schimmel, A. (1985b). Islamic names. Lahore: Sang-E-Meel Publications.

Schmidt, G. (2007). Muslim i Danmark—Muslim i Verden. En analyse af muslimske ungdomsforeninger og muslimsk identitet i årene op til Muhammad-krisen. Uppsala: Universitetstryckeriet.

Simonsen, J. B. (2001). Det Retfærdige Samfund: Om Islam, Muslimer og Etik. Viborg: Samleren.

Suhr, C. (2015). The failed image and the possessed. Journal of Royal Anthropological Institute. special issue on Examples, 21, 96–112.CrossRef

Waltorp, K. (2017). Digital technologies, dreams and disconcertment in anthropological worldmaking. In N. Salazar, S. Pink, A. Irwing, & J. Sjöberg (Eds.), Anthropological futures: Researching emergent and uncertain worlds, London:Bloomsbury publishing (Vol. 2017, pp. 101–116).

Werbner, P. (2002). Imagined diasporas among Manchester Muslims—The public performance of Pakistani transnational identity politics. Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.

Werbner, P. (2003). Pilgrims of love: The anthropology of a global Sufi cult. London: Hurst and Company.

Wheeler, B. (2006). Mecca and Eden: Ritual, relics, and territory in Islam. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Williams, I. G. (2006). Relic and ‘baraka’: Devotion to the prophet Muhammad among Sufis in Nottingham, UK. In E. Arweck & P. J. Collins (Eds.), Reading religion in text and context: Reflections of faith and practice in religious materials (pp. 65–82). Farnham: Ashgate Publishing.

Zwemer, S. M. (1948). Hairs of the prophet. In S. Löwinger and J. Somogyi (Eds.), Goldziher Memorial Vol. 1. Budapest, pp. 48-54.

Title: The hair of the Prophet: relics and the affective presence of the absent beloved among Sufis in Denmark
Author: Mikkel Rytter
Publication date: 22-08-2017
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
Published in: Contemporary Islam / Issue 1/2019
Print ISSN: 1872-0218
Electronic ISSN: 1872-0226
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11562-017-0400-z

Springer Professional

Abstract

Please log in to get access to your license.

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Other articles of this Issue 1/2019

Islamic exorcism and the cinema fist: analyzing exorcism among Danish Muslims through the prism of film

A second look at invisibility: Al-Ghayb, Islam, ethnography

Spirits as technology: tech-gnosis and the ambivalent politics of the invisible in Indonesia

Metaphors and paradoxes: secrecy, power and subjectification in Sufi initiation in Aleppo, Syria

The unknown in the Egyptian uprising: towards an anthropology of al-Ghayb

Hidden Sufis and political effects of the unseen: cosmological activism in contemporary Lahore, Pakistan