1. Introduction
When discussing Bible translation for Muslim audiences, most authors take orthodox Islam and compare it with the biblical worldview. The trouble is that most Muslims around the world are folk Muslims or mix in Sufism with their beliefs, either of which is a kind of syncretism. To reach ordinary Muslims, therefore, we need to start with their actual beliefs and practices, which mix in their traditional religion with Islamic teaching, and more often than not call this ‘Islam.’ i.e., they do not differentiate between orthodox Islam and folk Islam, also known as popular Islam,[1] because they consider themselves to be a Muslim, whatever that means in their context.
Once when visiting a Turkmen family in Bayram Ali (ancient Merv), I gave a Turkmen Injil (New Testament) to the family grandfather, who happened to be a mullah. He thanked me for it profusely, and later that evening started to use the book, not to read[2] – but touched it to his forehead, while kneeling and rocking to-and-fro, reciting some kind of prayer (that I couldn’t, unfortunately, hear). To him this was a ‘holy book,’ but holy in the Folk-Islamic sense of ‘magic.’ For him the book contained powers that could be used for good. This story illustrates how different folk Islam is from orthodox Islam.
As the above story illustrates, folk Islam can be different from the orthodox Islam we learn about in seminaries! The aim of this paper is to study such folk-Islamic beliefs and practices from a Power-Fear perspective and attempt to draw out some Scripture Engagement ideas that flow out of this. I also want to analyse these beliefs from a felt needs perspective. How can folk Muslims be delivered from their fear of the evil eye, jinn, and so on? A programme focused only on communicating Biblical truth may not be enough in such circumstances.
So, what is folk Islam? Many of my examples will come from Central Asia, where I lived and worked for many years.
2. Folk Islam in Central Asia
Bill Musk’s book ‘The Unseen Face of Islam’[3] will be familiar to many of you. Much of what he describes is found in Central Asia as well as the Middle East. Here are some beliefs I came across that are probably explained in more detail in Musk’s book, albeit from a slightly different perspective:
The Evil Eye
The evil eye is seen as a malevolent power that can be harnessed by bad people to do harm to things that are precious to you such as your children, livestock, house, and car. When people hold Huday yoly[4] or sadaka[5] sacrificial meals, inviting their friends, families and neighbours, they are trying to prevent the evil eye from touching them. If someone is jealous of your cow, they can put the evil eye on it and the animal will die.
Amulets
These are coloured strands of camel wool of particular colours[6] twisted together and wound round the neck of a child, or the steering column of a car, to prevent the evil eye touching it. Children, in particular, are very vulnerable to the evil eye. It is very bad luck to complement a child, as it may attract the eye. It is possible to say something nice as long as you spit three times over your left shoulder, where the angel who records bad deeds is said to reside. Sometimes, necklaces are made in the shape of an eye and put around a child’s neck so that the evil eye is attracted to the necklace, not to the child. Amulets may also contain a piece of jewelry that helps distract the eye. In houses, a piece of carpet sewn into the shape of a triangle may be hung above the door or somewhere in the room to protect that part of the house. Other things used as amulets include certain herbs, chili peppers, and ram’s horns.
Charms
Turkmen believe it is possible to influence another person with the use of a charm. These will often be made by a mullah or tebip (herbalist or holy man), who will take payment for the service. A mullah might write some words from the Qur’an in Arabic script on a piece of paper, and roll up that paper and put it inside the charm, or burn the paper, and the person using the charm will put it in a bowl of tea belonging to the person they want to influence. A tebip is more likely to use herbs. The herbs are tied into a piece of cloth and hung around the person’s neck, if that is a possibility, or hidden someone amongst their possessions. A young man who can’t get a girl to respond to him might take this route, for instance. Charms are also used to heal the sick. A child suffering from diarrhoea might be taken to a tebip who will tie a charm round their waist to help them recover.
Blessings and Curses
This is the belief that bereket (or baraka[7]) can be given to someone by use of well-chosen words such as, ‘May the inside of your home be white!’ White is seen as a positive colour in Central Asia, and black negative. These ‘blessings’ arrive in the form of material goods, livestock, success, and so on. A host will often invite guests in and feed them just because they are hospitable, but they might inwardly hope that the guest will pronounce some blessings on the family over the meal. The opposite of a blessing is a curse. These are pronounced on enemies and are believed to cause actual harm. From a linguistic point of view these are both classic kinds of speech acts, where a certain form of words spoken out loud can cause a change in reality.
Possible Barriers, Bridges, and Door-Openers
These are well known people called pir. They are often tribal ancestors, who have died and are buried in mazar (shrines) on what is considered to be holy ground,[8] with a mosque nearby on the same plot of land. People who are suffering from an illness or who are worried about something will visit their local shrine and pray at the tomb of the saint in order to gain bereket. They will walk around the tomb, touching their right hand to the tomb then to their forehead, which is believed to have their destiny written on it. They may also pray over a piece of cloth and tie it to a rope outside the tomb. As the wind blows the cloth, the prayers continue to go up.
Fortune tellers[9] often operate near a shrine. They read salt, rather than tea, and can predict your future, or tell you what you must do in order to be happy or lucky or blessed. In some cases, they have told people to get closer to Isa pygamber (Jesus the prophet).
Some saints are known for their special protective powers. Dawut pygamber (prophet), for instance, is known as the (patron) saint of iron, and protects motorists from harm. An amulet around a steering wheel will have not only wool thread, but also a piece of iron that has been prayed over by a mullah or tebip.
Since saints are seen as intermediaries operating between God and humans, the belief in saints is often seen as a kind of Sufism. This is particularly true if the Sufism includes certain kinds of music, dancing, and political activity. Sufism is stronger in the Caucasus than in Central Asia, nevertheless, Central Asians will sometimes pray to a pir if they are in trouble.
Sacred Trees and Wells
If you want to know the answer to a question about the future, you can visit a sacred tree in a graveyard near your home town or village. You put your hand under the roots of the tree, or into the hollow trunk, and if it comes out white the answer to your question is in the affirmative. The question might be, ‘Will I marry next year?’ Or, ‘Will my future husband be Murad?’ Sometimes a barren woman will visit a shrine, offer a sadaka, and then look into a sacred well at the shrine asking, ‘Will I have a child or won’t I?’
Ancestors
When a relative dies, it’s very important to hold sadaka ‘sacrifice/gift’ meals after three days, seven days, one month, forty days, two months, and so on until seven sadaka meals have been celebrated. The sadaka involves the sacrifice of a goat or sheep, and eating its meat in silence out of respect for the dead. If you don’t do this the person’s spirit may do you harm. After the seventh meal the person’s spirit is satisfied, and will leave you in peace.
It’s also very important to be buried with your ancestors, in the same graveyard. The burial usually takes place within twenty-four hours of the relative passing away. Once the body has been placed in the grave a stick is put into the ground at the head and the foot and all the relatives run from the graveyard, as they are afraid of meeting the two angels called Munkar and Nakir, who come to question the dead person’s spirit to find out how many good and bad deeds the person has done during their life on earth.
Children may be named after recently deceased ancestors in order for the latter’s ‘name’ to continue. Sometimes, this belief can be so strong that it is comparable with the belief in reincarnation found amongst the shamanists of Siberia (many Central Asian peoples originally came from the steppes of Mongolia and Southern Siberia). One of the translators on the Turkmen translation team returned home one university holiday to find a new baby in the house – her youngest brother. The uncle had recently passed away. The family introduced the baby by saying, ‘Your uncle is in the next room – why don’t you go and see him?’
This reverence for ancestral spirits, which can include fear of them, is similar to the more developed forms of ancestor worship found in many parts of the world.
The gods
The longer phrase for ‘thank you’ is a kind of blessing. Tangry yalkasyn means ‘may Tangry bless [you]’ and the reply is often, ‘Bile yalkasyn,’ meaning ‘and you too!’ It’s interesting to note that the word for God used in this phrase is taken from the old term Göktangry[10] ‘sky-god’ who was the head of the pantheon of the gods of the Oguz[11] and other proto-Turkic groups. The Sky-god was over all the other gods (Moon, Harvest, and so on). Many of the names of the old gods are still used, albeit without their original associations.
Jinn
These are spirits that can cause good, but are more likely to cause harm. A belief in jinns is included in orthodox Islam, but I include it here because within folk Islam they are something to fear.
Baxshi
In some parts of Central Asia Baxshi are not merely musicians and singers, they have the ability to listen to messages from the spirit world and pass them on, and also try to heal people. Here’s a story of one Baxshi:
We asked Turdijân how she had become a Baxshi. Her story was typical of other stories we’d heard: her calling had arisen in the aftermath of her own illness. "I was sick for a whole year. I lost a lot of blood. I went to the doctor and he gave me a shot in my hand, but my hand swelled up. My body didn’t accept the shots. The doctor said that I should go and see a Baxshi. ‘If a Baxshi can’t cure you, I’ll take you myself to Dushanbe,’ he told me. I went to Mexri Baxshi. When she did a fâl[12] for me, she said that the dâyra[13] that belonged to my husband’s mother – she was a Baxshi- was broken, and that is was having a bad effect on my livestock and on the health of my children. I said, ‘Yes, I did have some animals that died.’ She told me that until I accepted the responsibility of being a Baxshi, this bad luck would continue. Then my husband went to buy a three-year-old yellow calf. There was a Baxshi named Haljan Baxshi – he’s dead now- and Xaljan Baxshi did a koch, a cleansing. Haljan Baxshi ordered me to do a retreat [chilla] at home. I didn’t see anyone; I’d go out only in the evening completely covered up. I didn’t speak to anyone. After I did the chilla, I started to get better, and I started to live completely differently. It was the will of the jinns. If they give a road [yol], we can do something; if they don’t, there’s nothing we can do for ourselves.[14]
3. The Power-Fear Factor
Much of the above beliefs are an attempt to have power over the spirits. It is important to realise that people believe everything has a spiritual cause. If someone gets sick, or a woman is barren, there must have been a charm that caused it, or the evil eye, or a jinn, or an ancestral spirit. Even a car breaking down is no accident. As well as the mechanical fault there must be a spiritual cause.
Muller calls such dynamics ‘Fear-based.’[15] Much of his chapter on fear-based dynamics is relevant to the Turkmen people:
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Fear of the supernatural; the need to appease these spirits
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The power holders are mullahs and tebip who apparently have power to appease and/or control these spirits
Power, Truth and Cultural Encounters
Richard Love argues that, when working with folk Muslims, it is important to use a ‘three-dimensional approach’ which includes power encounters, truth encounters, and cultural encounters.[16] Power encounters are to do with showing that the Lord Jesus Christ has power over all, including the evil eye, the jinn, and so on. Truth encounters are to do with communication of the truth found in the Scriptures. Cultural encounters are to do with setting up new rituals to replace the old ones. In some cases the old rituals can be modified, but it is important for the community to think through what the Bible teaches and how this critiques their worldview and cultural practices. No practice should be labelled as ‘Christian’ without going through careful analysis. For instance, it is not possible to ‘redeem’ (make Christian) charms and amulets simply by saying a prayer over them. The associations in the minds of local believers will not disappear quite as easily as that.
In the next three sections I will go into some detail on all three of these, starting with truth encounters.
4. Truth Encounters
Biblical Worldviews
We have to be careful to study biblical worldviews, not our own Western worldview, which has ‘the flaw of the excluded middle.’[17] Both folk-Islamic worldviews and biblical worldviews acknowledge the existence of a middle realm inhabited by angels, demons (or ‘jinn’ in folk Islam), and so on. Nevertheless, the Bible teaches that God is in control of the universe (Gen 1), so we have no need to fear the so-called ‘gods’ named after the sun, moon, stars, and so on, nor any earthly or heavenly powers (often called ‘the powers and authorities’ in the Bible[18]). In Psalms, we are encouraged to worship God from within a pluralistic context, where the existence of other ‘gods’ is not denied, rather they are shown to be ‘worthless’:
96 Oh sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth!
2 Sing to the Lord, bless his name;
tell of his salvation from day to day.
3 Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples!
4 For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
he is to be feared above all gods.[19]
5 For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,[20]
but the Lord made the heavens.
6 Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.[21]
This is helpful for believers from a folk-Islamic background and for others of us too. We are encouraged to ‘fear’ God in a new way in that we cannot control him; we can only hear his voice and obey. Ultimately believers need to be taught that it is Isa Mesih (Jesus the Messiah) who is above all other powers in this realm (Heb 1–2) and brings all believers, whatever their backgrounds, complete security (Eph 1).
Possible Barriers, Bridges, and Door-Openers
One approach is to begin with a worldview comparison between folk Islam and the biblical worldview (see Appendix 2), then look for possible barriers, bridges, and door-openers.
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Barriers - differences or conflicts with the Biblical worldview. While these barriers remain, they will obstruct the full acceptance of the Bible’s message.
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Bridges - things which are very similar or parallel to the Biblical worldview, views held in common. They are like bridges over which the Bible’s message can pass.
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Door-openers - aspects of the Biblical worldview which are attractive to people even though they are different from their own worldview.[22]
Obviously, a study of the worldview as a whole is necessary for this, not just a narrow focus on Folk-Islamic issues. The barriers are the fear of powers and their mediators, and the whole veneration of ancestors and relatives. Possible bridges are their belief in God (though distant), their love of stories of the prophets, proverbs, and their belief in an afterlife, albeit paradise with one’s ancestors.
Proverbs are a key part of Central Asian cultures, so including a selection of Suleyman’s Proverbs is a good idea. It may not be the best place to start, as some teaching from Genesis, Exodus and Psalms will provide a useful backdrop for Proverbs. The other approach is to begin with an audio series called Lives of the Prophets. This can be very popular, as the names at least are familiar. Some stories may need adapting e.g., Genesis 22, Abraham’s test. His son is called Isaac in Genesis, but just ‘son’ in the Qur’an. To avoid complications, it may be best to leave Isaac’s name out of the story for the moment, in the audio version at least. It is better not to just borrow the set of stories used in the Middle East, but rather adapt them for a Central Asian context by thinking through which story helps the listeners gain release from fear. Job is also a useful story to tell, as it shows how Satan is under God’s control.
Door-openers would be stories that show God is in control, and also stories of Jesus such as the calming the storm, feeding the five thousand, and the many stories of him healing the sick and casting out demons. Parables will also be of interest, as they teach truth indirectly, which appeals to Central Asians.
Stories are the most powerful way of getting truth across in any culture, but this is especially true in oral cultures, where analytical arguments are not so well known. Groups of believers gather together and study God’s word – when one person reads it out loud to the group – or when it is played on an MP3 player. Then they can talk about what impacted them, and what they are going to change in their lives. This brings in the social dimension to their life as a believer. This also fits in with cultural encounters, as it is part of their life as a believer in community.
5. Power Encounters
Spiritual Hunger
Wayne Dye’s eight conditions of Scripture Engagement have a sixth condition; Spiritual Hunger. As part of this condition Dye discusses the issue of felt needs:
Many Muslims are interested in hearing parts of the Bible. This is usually related to their hunger to know God and the high respect which Islam teaches for most of the Bible. Any renewed interest in traditional or organized religion is a strong indicator of unmet felt needs and spiritual hunger (S. Dye 2003), but it is not a strong predictor of Scripture Engagement unless Christians are showing them that God can meet those needs. … A key component in spiritual hunger is the perceived relevance of Christianity and the Bible to felt needs of whatever sort (S. Dye 2003). … Identifying the legitimate needs of the community and demonstrating how the Word of God addresses their important life issues is one of the most important tasks that local pastors, missionaries, and Bible translators can undertake (Loewen 1967; T. W. Dye 1985; S. Dye 2003; Hill 2006).[23]
If those needs are not being met, new believers from a Muslim background will go back to their folk-Islamic practices, such as visiting shrines and their associated fortune tellers. They remain believers in Jesus in their heads, but folk Muslims in their hearts. It is therefore important that new believers have their emotional and spiritual needs met, not just their rational understanding changed. This means that running inductive Bible studies is not enough. We need to think about prayer times, including prayer for healing and release from fear, shame, and guilt, especially the former. Prayer ministry should be a part of Christian meetings, not just Bible study, preaching, and praise prayers or worship through music.[24] Another way of gaining confidence in God is through memorisation of scripture. Verses on God’s strength, faithfulness, love and care can be read in context then memorised and repeated day after day. These then work their way into a believer’s heart, and fit in well with an oral culture where memorisation and repetition are both valued highly. Dreams can also be a powerful way for God to speak to Central Asian believers. The example of mission workers can be key. I heard a story of a mullah sending people to the mission worker when they run out of ideas of how to help someone with a daughter possessed by jinn, saying, ‘Go to the missionaries, their prayers are more powerful than ours.’ This can be a challenge for those of us who don’t have experience of exorcism, but we know the one who has conquered all evil (1Jn 3:8) and should not be afraid to get involved, albeit with humble dependence on the one who has all authority to send us out (Mat 28:18–20; Luk 10).
Other Felt Needs
It might well be that the community has other, more material, felt needs. There is usually a connection between the two, however (consider drug addiction as an example), so an integrated approach where both material and spiritual needs are being considered is the best way forward. This is known as integral mission.
6. Cultural Encounters
Freedom to Commit
Not only do believers need their felt needs met, they will need a new community to belong to, in fact this is also a felt need. Wayne Dye’s eight conditions of Scripture Engagement have a seventh condition; Freedom to Commit. When filling out the eight conditions questionnaire, this seventh condition often ranks lowest and is one of the ones to address first in terms of Scripture Engagement activities when working with a folk-Islamic audience.
Freedom to commit means exercising spiritual freedom to choose to follow Christ wholeheartedly, including turning from ancestor worship, traditional magic, fetish worship, and any other belief or practice that conflicts with the teaching of the Bible. The Bible makes demands on people, demands to accept God’s solutions to life problems and to give one’s life over to obeying its teaching. If there is no freedom to do so, then people will not continue to read or hear the Scriptures.[25]
New believers are much more likely to continue in their faith if they have a community they belong to, where they can be accepted as believers from a Muslim background (BMBs[26]). Often such gatherings of believers are mainly formed by BMBs getting together. It is rare for them to be accepted into traditional Christian denominations, where believers might be Orthodox or Coptic Christians. In some cases Protestant groups have been able to loosely associated with the new gatherings of BMBs, and encourage them, mainly from the outside, but sometimes from within. It is within these groups that new practices can be established, either by redeeming old practices, or by creating new ones based on the Bible.
Culture Meets Scripture
It is possible to take a course called ‘Culture Meets Scripture,’ which helps students answer the following questions:
How do we live in a way that honours God while still being culturally meaningful?
How do we use Scripture to both evaluate cultural practices and discern what to do?
When cultural practices and values clash with obedience to God, what do we do?
When pressures from family/community require us to behave in an ungodly way or participate in certain ceremonies, what choices do we make?
How can we make choices that align with Scripture—especially when the costs are great and when cultural beliefs are powerfully ingrained? Can we do this while still being culturally relevant?[27]
Working through such issues with a community of BMBs (from a folk-Islamic background) would be well worthwhile.
7. Conclusion
We have seen that felt needs are an important factor to consider when working with folk Muslims. Various Scripture Engagement tools, such as Dye’s eight conditions and the worldview, bridges, and barriers study can help us decide what to prioritise in terms of activities and products to lead believers into all truth and deliver them from evil. Love’s three-dimensional mission paradigm for use amongst folk Muslims helped us here. It is vital that their heart needs (not just their head needs) are met. These are called ‘felt needs’ in the Scripture Engagement world. The main issue in a folk-Islamic context, as we have seen, is fear of spiritual powers. These are mediated by various human mediums, who are respected by the local community. Coming to a trust in Jesus the Messiah and a heart knowledge of the truth found in the Bible, as well as an experience of the living God, can set people free from such fears, though it is important that they are quickly integrated into a gathering of BMBs so that their cultural needs are met, and they no longer need to use folk-Islamic mediums. Ultimately, we would like to see BMBs flourishing in a like-minded community (Eph 4.7–16). This is the goal of our work: as important as Bible translation is, to neglect the felt needs of the community is to make our work peripheral, as far as they are concerned.