The Twelver Shi'a As A Muslim Minority In India: Pulpit Of Tears

Book Summary

"The Twelver Shi'a as a Muslim Minority in India" looks at the minority identity of India's Shi'i Muslims and the sermons preached at their mourning gatherings. These mourning commemorations are held by thousands of Shi'i Muslims across the world to remember the death of Imam Husayn, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, at the Battle of Karbala. This book uses these mourning sermons as a window into understanding the identity of India's Shi'as in a context of extraordinary cultural and religious plurality. This book includes: An examination of the community's history and devotional life. Ten translated and complete sermons from a cross-section of the community, including men, women, lay preachers, and formally trained scholars An investigation of the subjects contained within these sermons which range from women's rights to the significance of fire walking and stories of miraculous healing. From an analysis of these issues, "The Twelver Shi'a as a Muslim Minority in India" offers a unique opportunity to hear and understand how one Muslim minority community understands its place and the multi religious world of today. This book is essential reading for those with research interests in Islamic studies, Shi'ism and Indian Islam. One of the most important current debates within and about Islam concerns its relation with power. Can Muslims be fundamentally content without power or as a minority? This book considers the voice of an important Muslim minority through its sermons. Indian Shi'i Muslims are a minority within a minority, constituting about ten to fifteen percent of the population as a whole, but comprising of about fifteen million people. Ten sermons are presented entirely and many more are quoted in order to analyze the preaching tradition in full. This book is the first survey to present the Indian mourning gathering and explain the history of this extraordinary phenomenon.

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