From the WSJ Opinion Archives
HOUSES OF WORSHIP
Wasting the Day
Friday has become an occasion for violence in the Muslim world.
To Western eyes, Friday has become a most dangerous time. In many Islamic lands, Juma--literally, "day of assembly"--has become the occasion for much bloodshed. Juma is supposed to feature midday communal worship that engenders faith, humility and reconciliation. Now outsiders know it as a flashpoint in Iraq and in other places of conflict.
To quell reprisals after a Shiite shrine was bombed last month, authorities in Iraq, fearing sectarian incitement by clerics and attacks on worshippers, declared a daytime ban on driving for the next two Fridays. Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari demanded that imams avoid inflammatory language in the sermon, or khutbah, that occupies much of the service.
Just weeks earlier, protests over a Danish newspaper's caricatures of Muhammad occurred after harsh words at Friday services. An imam in Gaza City called for beheading the cartoonists, and one in Nablus preached readiness for "a war of religions." In Indonesia, hard-liners left mosques and stormed Denmark's embassy.
Similar protests occurred in 2003 at Friday services throughout the Islamic world after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. American troops soon learned to gauge local sentiment by monitoring sermons at Iraqi mosques. "Fridays are a particularly active day," one sergeant told Greg Grant of Slate a little more than a year ago. "At 2 p.m. prayers end, and things will begin to heat up." As if on cue, Mr. Grant reports, "the war returned" at 2:15 p.m. with a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque.
On one level, the danger of Fridays makes sense: Even marginal or reckless imams have an audience, since attendance is required of able-bodied men. But incitement perverts the aims of Juma, which was instituted by Muhammad early in his ministry. Ahmed N. Kobeisy, the director of the Islamic Center of the Capital District, near Albany, N.Y., explains: "The spirit of Juma is the spirit of meditation, reflection, peace and getting the strength to face difficulties in life, not to make difficulties."
In the Quran, Allah directs believers to "hasten earnestly" to congregational worship on Friday. According to the Hadith (accounts of his life), Muhammad called Friday the best day. "On it, Adam was created and on that day he entered paradise and on that day he was expelled from paradise." The prophet also taught that the Day of Judgment will come on a Friday.
Muhammad led Juma services all his life. He used the sermon to elaborate on Allah's message and its application, still the main duty of imams on Friday. Though Muslims can work before and after midday prayers on Juma, they take extra care with their behavior and dress then, much like Jews and Christians on their respective Sabbaths.
Ideally, the ritual of Juma, the bending and kneeling in tight lines, encourages unity and humility. "It promotes egalitarianism in front of God and involves surrendering everything," says Zahid Bukhari, who directs Georgetown University's American-Muslim Studies Program.
Another side of that unity is political. Through Friday attendance, the first Muslims proclaimed their allegiance to Muhammad, just as later generations showed their loyalty to the caliph or governor who was leading the service. At other times in history, a change in Friday prayers signified a shift in power from Sunni to Shia.
From the start, the choice of a different holy day distinguished Islam. "We are the last (of the people to come) but the first on the day of resurrection," Muhammad told his followers. "The people, therefore, follow us: the Jews tomorrow and the Christians the day after tomorrow."
Given its history and the present tensions, it is small wonder that Fridays in Iraq often convey more of the human than the divine. To be sure, most imams and congregations embody faithful submission rather than hatred on Juma. On recent Fridays in Iraq, Shia and Sunni Muslim leaders preached restraint and unity and the curfew succeeded in reducing violence. The driving ban also prompted many to walk to services, which Muhammad considered meritorious.
Looking at his Muslim brethren, especially in troubled parts of the word, Mr. Kobeisy hopes for a return to responsibility, self-control and wisdom on the Muslim day of assembly. "It's a matter of giving priority to communal harmony over one's own sectarian impulses."
Mr. Ringwald's book on the Sabbath in Judaism, Christianity and Islam will be out next year from Oxford.
