Enshrinement of Non-S.ūfīs.
These two examples have been cases of great Ṣūfīs who are venerated as saints and were enshrined after their death. These cases have to be distinguished from others in which the enshrined person is not a Ṣūfī in the strict sense. First, veneration of the prophet Muḥammad must be considered. According to orthodox belief, he is not an equivalent of God but a mere man, though he is deeply respected as the Last Prophet and the ideal human being. Often, however, he has been venerated as though divine and similar to God by some groups of Muslims, especially among the less-educated masses. Great numbers eagerly visit his tomb in Medina before or after the pilgrimage to Mecca in order to receive divine blessing. The anniversary of his birthday (the twelfth day of Rabīʿ al-Awwal in the Islamic calendar), called Mawlid al-Nabī (the Prophet’s Birthday), has been celebrated in many cities and villages since the thirteenth century. Visitation to his tomb and celebration of his birthday have been conducted like those of Ṣūfī saints. Members of the Ṣūfī orders actively participate in events of the Mawlid al-Nabī.
The Prophet’s family is also widely respected in Muslim societies, and Shīʿī Muslims have developed especially elaborate cults of the first imam, ʿAlī, and his descendants. Their tombs are centers of folk Shiism, and many Shīʿīs visit them to receive divine blessing. ʿAlī‘s tomb in Najaf and that of his son Ḥusayn in Karbala are the most prestigious, and these towns in Iraq have served as Shīʿī sanctuaries. Although much less famous than these, there are many smaller shrines in Shīʿī areas, especially in Iran, which are presumed to belong to one of the imams and are generally called imāmzādah. They closely resemble Sunnī Ṣūfī saint shrines in their social and cultural functions.
Sunnī Muslims also revere Muḥammad’s descendants and generally refer to them as sharīf (noble person) or sayyid(lord). Some rulers of states, such as the Moroccan and Jordanian kings, and some saints, such as Sayyid al-Badawī, claim descent from the Prophet. Some of the Prophet’s descendants are venerated as holy in their own right and are celebrated annually in their own mawlids. The Mawlid al-Ḥusayn, for example, is held in Cairo, and a large number of his devotees, many of them members of Ṣūfī orders, visit the mosque-shrine where his head is said to be buried.
Also held in Cairo is the mawlid of Imam Shāfiʿī (d. 820), the founder of one of the four orthodox schools of Islamic law. His shrine is set up in a shabby district on the eastern periphery of the city. Although he was never a Ṣūfī, people visit his tomb to seek his mystical help, and they hold an annual celebration as they do for a Ṣūfī saint.
Prophets other than Muḥammad, together with some of the warrior heroes of early Islamic history, were also enshrined and celebrated, especially in Palestine, where there were many tombs and shrines that were presumed to belong to them. Such biblical figures as Abraham, Moses, David, Job, and even Jesus had one or more shrines where people came to receive divine blessing. Some of these shrines also held regular celebrations called mawsim (the season of visiting). Shrines set up for heroes in battle can be found in Palestine, Jordan, and other areas; usually such heroes are called not walī or Ṣūfī but ṣālīḥ.
There are various types of holy places in which some natural object such as a tree, a stone, or a cave is treated as sacred, although the ʿulamāʿ and others have harshly criticized these practices as non-Islamic. Some of them may be related to Ṣūfī saint shrine culture. In a Moroccan village, for example, a grotto where a great female spirit (jinnīyah) named ʿĀʿishah Qandīshah is said to dwell occupies a part of the sanctuary of the Hamdūshīyah order. Two shrines for its founding Ṣūfīs have been built there.
In the Maghrib, the local veneration and ritual surrounding a Muslim saint is generally known as “maraboutism.” The word “marabout” means “saint” and is derived from Arabic murābiṭ, which in this context means “a person living in a Ṣūfī lodge.” Some of the marabouts were evidently renowned Ṣūfīs in their lifetimes, and their shrines have kept a connection with one of the Ṣūfī orders; others, however, have no direct relation to a particular order. Some marabouts inherit their mystical powers (barakah) through the agnatic line, which results in the formation of a maraboutic family like those of the Sharqāwah in Boujad and the Ihansalen among the Berbers in the High Atlas.
In Sufism proper, both leadership and sainthood are passed on patrilineally and are consequently kept within one family or lineage in many Ṣūfī orders. The Majādhib family in El-Damer in the northern Sudan is one of numerous examples. The family has kept the leadership of the Majdhūbīyah Ṣūfī order, which had considerable political and economic influence in the area before the twentieth century, as well as being venerated as a holy lineage. The shrine of their ancestor has been maintained in the custody of the family.
Spatial Composition.
Except in a few cases, the tombs of Muslims are generally very simple in form. They usually have no special decoration except for plaques of ceramic or other materials on which are written personal details of the dead or phrases from the Qurʿān. In contrast, the tombs or shrines of saints, Ṣūfī or otherwise, have distinctive architectural features.
A saint’s tomb is usually set up inside a building specially constructed for it, and it often has a cupola. Sometimes the building or shrine is situated in a cemetery. Other institutions such as mosques, Ṣūfī training lodges, or facilities for visitors may be annexed to large shrines.
The tomb itself usually consists of a rectangular box-like structure with a catafalque, a cloth cover, and other elements, with some variation. The catafalque (tābūt) is a wooden box or frame set up over the spot where the saint is buried. It is covered completely with a piece of cloth called kiswah, which is generally donated by a devotee. In a place on the upper part of the catafalque (on one of the shorter sides, or at the center of the rectangle) an ʿimmah is set up, which consists of a wooden post draped in a green cloth, looking like a head with a turban. The ʿimmah is supposed to symbolize the saint’s authority.
There are other items, however, that are not found in all shrines. Some tombs, especially those belonging to renowned saints, are enclosed by a cage. A donation box may be set up to receive money offerings from devotees. Other features may include lamps, candles, copies of the Qurʿān, and plaques on which phrases from the Qurʿān are written or on which pictures of sacred places such as the Kaʿbah are drawn. Most of these, like the kiswah, are donated by pious devotees. There are of course neither pictures nor statues of the saint anywhere in the shrine.
Some of the items, however, do raise theological problems. In the shrine of Sayyid al-Badawī, for instance, there is a black stone in the corner of the chamber. On it can be seen two footprints, which are said to be those of the Prophet, and many devotees, mostly peasants of the Nile Delta, are eager to touch and rub it. This practice recalls pilgrims’ rituals relating to Abraham’s footprints and the Black Stone in the Kaʿbah at Mecca, and many scholars and modernist Muslims criticize it severely as a deviation from orthodox Islam.
The shrine and the other facilities are in many cases maintained financially through a waq f, an endowment provided by the Ṣūfī order related to the saint enshrined. In the case of a small shrine a custodian, and in the case of a large shrine custodians or a committee, are responsible for the upkeep of the buildings and facilities.