PROGRAMMATIC

textsNo. 13, 2019

The power of God. Four proposals for an anthropological engagement

Samuli Schielke, Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient

-words.2 The ethnographic works that I have con بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم In the name of the All-Merciful God sulted (see footnote 1) show that their authors are well aware of the role of God in the lives of the In most Muslim-majority contexts in the world, people they converse with and write about. God is this pious formula is the customary way to begin present in ethnographies conducted among Mus- a speech, a work, or a transaction. This is so also lims, but until recently has not been the focus of in Egypt, which I know better than other contexts. anthropological debates and theories about Islam But in the world of academia (including parts of or those about the lives of Muslims. This absence the Egyptian scene),1 speaking and writing in the is the more striking since other disciplines such as name of God can be seen as odd. Although many theologies, religious studies, and intellectual his- academics do have a relation of faith with the mon- tory do not have a comparable blind spot regard- otheist God of the Qur’an, He appears out of place ing the divine. A similar absence or marginality in an academic text. has been noted by Jon Bialecki (2014) in anthro­ Islam without the subject of human submission pologies of Christianity, although God became a and worship, the One God, makes as little sense as topic of enquiry earlier in that field. More recently, Christianity without Christ the Son of God. There the One God of the Qur’an has become the sub- is no doubt that anthropologists and other social ject of more systematic reflections by anthropolo- scientists are fully aware of the God-centredness gists. I return to these reflections below, but first of Muslim faith and lives. And yet a quick glance we need to ask why it is that God, so central to at recent articles, books, conferences and fund- monotheist faiths and so present in ethno­graphic ed projects shows a clear prevalence of »Islam« encounters, has until recently been so difficult to and »Muslim« and the relative rarity of »God« or »Allah« (the Arabic name of the One God) as key- 2 I have checked the indexes of thirteen English-language anthropological monographs that address Muslim faiths and lives, and have been influential for my work. Eight 1 In fact, my experience of teaching and publishing in (Abu-Lughod 2013, Agrama 2012, Asad 2003, Deeb 2006, Arabic in Egypt has influenced my reasoning in this article. Gilsenan 1982, Hafez 2011, Hirschkind 2006 and Marsden Some lectures are opened in the name of God, others are 2005) do not have »God« or Allah as index entries. Only Bow- not, and the lines of division are complex and sometimes un- en 1993, Ghannam 2013, Khan 2012, and Mittermaier 2011 predictable. At least in some protected intellectual spaces, do feature »God« as index entry. Mahmood 2005 features the incommensurability of different ways of reasoning is a »Fear of God«. In contrast, »Foucault« or »Foucault, Michel« productive friction rather than a fundamental obstacle. In is indexed in nine books – only Abu-Lughod 2013, Gilsenan a study circle I taught from 2014 to 2017 at the Alexandria 1982, Khan 2012 and Marsden 2005 do not have him in the Library, people with secularist and Islamist-leaning theo­ index. In a recent critical review of the anthropology of Is- ries and commitments could fit not only into one lecture lam and everyday life (Fadil and Fernando 2015), the words room but also around one coffeehouse table afterwards. »Muslim« and »Muslims« appear 124 times, including the The dividing lines that were more difficult to cross were title and references. »Islam« appears 148 times, including those between supporters and opponents of the regime, and the references. »God« only appears 7 times, and only in cita- also those between attempts to understand social dynamics tions from texts by others. In comparison, introductions and in their own right on the one hand, and a developmentalist textbooks on the anthropology of Islam feature better: All epistemology of dividing the social world into negative and three that I consulted index either »Allah« (Marranci 2008; positive aspects on the other. Kreinath 2012) or »God« (Bowen 2012) as keywords.

Kirchweg 33, D-14129 Berlin © ZMO 2019 Telefon: 030-80307-0 Fax: 030-80307-210 Internet: www.zmo.de E-Mail: [email protected] include more systematically in anthropological sciences, avoiding God can result in a situation theories. I do not mean metaphysical speculation where we invent new unseen entities – which goes or theological arguments about the existence, against the principle of Ockham’s razor, that is, nature and essence of God. I am also hesitant the imperative to prefer explanations with few to claim a phenomenological knowledge of other speculative assumptions over those that have people’s knowledge of God. Rather, I am referring many speculative assumptions. Methodologically, to the quite tangible acts and presence of God in we are trained not to reckon with God, while we relations among humans whom anthropologists habitually engage with modernity, society, econo- try to understand. my, the state, the individual, religion, traditions, There is evidently politics involved. It is more neoliberalism, the secular and so on; yet none of urgent to speak about Islam and Muslims when these entities, as it were, exist in the same way they are the subject of Western policies and na- that, say, a schoolteacher or a marketplace exists. tionalist fears in a way that God is not. It is easier to In fact, they are often highly elusive, even mysti- talk about religion than about God when secular- fied beings. ism is the hegemonic political framework. Posi- Jon Bialecki (2014) has argued that it is possible tionality matters. In a Western context, somebody to account for God as a social actor while main- who has a relationship of faith with the One God taining the imperative of methodological atheism of the Qur’an, absurdly enough, is more likely to by means of understanding Him as the effect of be dismissed as biased when speaking about Him a hybrid network of objects. This is an important than somebody who follows a competing mono­ proposal, but I wonder if it is possible to follow it theist faith or who is speaking from a position in a systematic manner without slipping into an of non-faith or unbelief (in Muslim-majority con- unacknowledged theological (or atheological) jud- texts, the opposite is often the case). gement, namely one that ecxcludes the possibility But there is no unbiased position. Rather, each that God speaks to the evangelical Christians stud- bias facilitates the perception of some things or as- ied by Bialecki because they in fact are His chosen pects better than others. As somebody who grew people. Yasmin Moll (2018) has argued vis-à-vis Bi- up in the materialist faith of Marxist-­Leninist alecki that although anthropologists should take communism (I lost the faith at around the age of talk about God seriously, they should not become seventeen, but it still structures my identity and involved in theological debates. Anthropological sensibilities), I have learned to under­stand God theories and debates may echo theological ones, as a human artefact. But as an anthropologist, I and anthropologists can definitely learn a great have also come to recognise that this does not deal from theological debates;3 but theologies are make Him any less important and powerful for normative, even judgemental disciplines by defini- people who have a relation of faith with Him and tion, and anthropology should better maintain a who understand that humans are God’s creation. position of agnostic indecision towards them. On a In this article, I draw on the ways in which peo- different note, Rane Willerslev and Christian Suhr ple I know in Egypt relate with the God of the (2018) have called attention to the unsettling ex- Qur’an and reflect on their relation. I also draw periences of »leaps of faith« that anthropologists on the ways in which I have been involved in those have faced in their fieldwork, and which we should reflections as somebody who does not share the not try to rationalise away. Mayanthi Fernando faith but can learn to perform some of its expres- (2017) has gone a step further and proposes that sions. we should take spirits seriously as a potential or This particular positionality and bias inform actual part of a »supernatureculture« world. Dra- my key argument, namely that relations between wing on the work of Taha Abdelrahmane, Amin humans and God can be understood and studied El-Yousfi (forthcoming) proposes to ground the as a multitude of relationships of power. They also study of Islamic ethics in a theological philoso- inspire my aspiration to think about God beyond phy of divine trusteeship, which implies replacing the ontology debate in anthropology. Anthro­ anthropology’s methodological relativism with an pologists should recognise theistic ontologies in approach that integrates commitment and analy­­ their own right. But they can also consider that sis. I find Fernando’s and El-Yousfi’s proposals some of God’s powers may be effective regardless interesting to think with, but I hesitate to follow of one’s ontological standpoint, no matter if we them. Taking intentional beings (animal, human, see in Him our Creator or our creation, or some- divine or spiritual) seriously in a full sense implies thing altogether different. entering relations such as faith, trust, help, fear, This compels me to question whether the enmity, agreement or disagreement with them. well-proven scientific imperative of methodolog- ical atheism is always helpful. Considering per- In my own work, for example, I have found Sunni Muslim ceivable, knowable causes before considering 3 theologies of freedom and predestination insightful to un- not perceivable, unknown ones has undeniably derstand what it means to act as a human in a world ruled been good for scientific progress. But in social by greater powers.

Programmatic Texts 13 · ZMO · Samuli Schielke · The power of God · 2019 2 Abandoning methodological relativism and taking of Islam have given comparably more attention seriously claims about the reality of things implies to ethics, politics and identity, and have been an open-ended engagement with them that may re- more informed by the work of Michel Foucault sult in affirming or rejecting them as true or false, (1984). This has often contributed to a primarily helpful or dangerous, or in searching to revise and this-worldly analysis of discursive power, where- improve them. For pragmatic reasons, I prefer not by the authors of discourse (whether divine or hu- to take that step. I tend to agree with Moll as well man) and the otherworldly horizons of ethical ac- as Willerslev and Suhr, and propose that instead of tion were, initially at least, not the primary focus methodological atheism (or methodological theism of attention. In a critical engagement with that or animism, for that matter), one may, as a social line of study (Schielke 2010), I have in the past scientist of any faith, also adopt a position of meth- argued (among other things) that too much focus odological indecision and openness, and study the on Islam results in attributing to a conceptual en- presence and power of God and other unseen be- tity power that properly speaking is God’s. That ings in human interactions, without having to de- part of my argument remained marginal, how­ cide how that reality comes to be. ever, in a debate about how to understand ethics In this article, I make four proposals about how and everyday life. I cannot go into the details of anthropologists may account for the monotheist that debate here (see Fadil and Fernando 2015; God as a social reality, embodying and enacting a Schielke 2015; Deeb 2015), but it is worth point- form of power that makes us, and through which ing out that while the debate brought up different we make ourselves, in manifold and also con­trary understandings of everyday life and ethical be- ways. The first proposal is to pay ethno­graphic coming, it also less explicitly points at a shared attention to the way in which different specific interest in including the unseen and superhuman powers of God are present in human interactions in the analysis. In her rejoinder to the debate, Na- through linguistic references and the search for dia Fadil (2015) argues: guidance and sustenance. The second proposal is to consider more systematically the forms of rela- Furthermore, what is not the everyday? It is in- tional or relationship power that God commands deed hard to imagine any situation mediated over humans. The third proposal is to pay attention by human interaction that would not be part to the productive tensions and conflicts that arise of the everyday. Are objects part of everyday from encounters with a God who is both harshly life? Animals? Plants? Angels? Miracles? (Fadil punishing and merciful, disciplining and sustain- 2015, 98) ing, the Life-giver and the Death-bringer. The fourth proposal is to think of secularity or »the We seem to differ on the everyday. In my under- secular« as a reconfiguration of the human–God standing, everyday is not a class of situations or relationship in which humans are empowered, and objects. Everyday is an attribute, a qualifier that whereby a triadic relationship in which God acts characterises the recurring, goes-without-­saying, as supreme mediator between humans is weak- undramatic, pragmatic and regular livelihood-­ ened, transformed or partially replaced by sepa- related qualities of actions, situations, experiences rate relationships. and ways of reasoning vis-à-vis their potential These proposals are by no means exhaustive, extra­ordinary, dramatic, liminal, systematically and the overall argument I put forward is not reflected qualities. Nearly all things and situa- new. It is largely common sense in the Middle tions mediated by human interaction that can be East. It is also no news to scholars in theologies, everyday can also be exceptional and extraordi- religious studies and intellectual histories who nary. So in contrast to Fadil, I would argue that have a major record of thinking about God in va- situations mediated by human interaction that rious ways – so major that I cannot engage with are not everyday are manifold and easy to im- it in the limited framework of this article, which agine: revo­lutions, weddings, accidents, romantic acknowledgedly has a social scientific tunnel vi- encounters, pilgrimages; and yet all of them can sion. Also Western philosophy and sociology have be made everyday when they become routinised, a record of taking God seriously. Anthropology, such as in established revolutionary regimes, in contrast, has a strong record of accounting for in the work of ambulance drivers and wedding spirits, ancestors, saints and other unseen com- photo­graphers or in the lives of inhabitants of panions, but only more recently also the mono- Mecca. theist God. However, in another regard our concerns show Anthropologies of Christianity have had a head an important convergence. Fadil mentions mira- start in thinking about God, perhaps thanks to cles (which are extraordinary by definition but greater attention on materiality (Meyer 2015), re- for people serving a pilgrimage site can become lationality (Orsi 2004) and the theoretical influ- routine) and angels (who can indeed be everyday ence of Bruno Latour (1993; see, e.g., Keane 2007; companions, just as their interventions might also Luhrmann 2012; Bialecki 2014). Anthro­pologies be extraordinary), and thinking along that line of

Programmatic Texts 13 · ZMO · Samuli Schielke · The power of God · 2019 3 thought I would add Resurrection Day, Paradise, ical or idealistic more than personal. Some ways Hell and most importantly God. Resurrection Day of speaking about »Islam«, »the Church« or »true as an anticipated event is the liminal moment of religion« do have that quality, but even when they ultimate truth par excellence, neither routine nor do they are also about the relationships that hu- ordinary. But the anticipation of judgement can of mans have with God, prophets and saints. Just course be routine and ordinary; and making that like a theory of ethics that knows of nothing out- anticipation part of one’s ordinary routines is a side the everyday misses something important, so central aim of the Islamic revival. I think that Fadil does a theory of religion that deals with schemes and I agree on that. This is also true of God. The but not with God and prophets. power of God is inseparable from everyday living Luckily, many recent anthropological contribu- when His commandments are cultivated as part tions have come up with textured understandings of one’s life and moral being, when He is includ- of how humans live with the God of the Qur’an. ed in conversations by means of invocations and Contributions that have inspired this essay in- when His gifts bear fruits as material livelihood clude dream visions and the elsewhere (Mitter- (themes to which I return in the next section). maier 2011), livelihood (Nevola 2015a; Gaibazzi But none of this would have the compelling pow- 2015), dest i ny (El l iot 2016; Men i n 2015; Men i n a nd er of authority and promise if it weren’t for the Elliot 2018), death and resurrection (Hirschkind transcendent reality and truth over and above or- 2006), moral relations that involve God (Schaeu- dinary existence He claims. Ritual practice often blin 2016), the striving for paradise (Mittermai- involves searching contact with His transcendent er 2019), theological talk about God (Moll 2018) otherworldly reality, without this conflicting with and encounters with transcendence (Abenante the same practice’s more or less ethically form- and Vicini 2017). »Towards an Ethnography of ative effect in this world. God’s immanent pres- God« was the title of a panel organised by Amira ence as a close companion dialectically coexists Mittermaier and Omri Elisha at the 2016 annual with His transcendent supremacy as well as the meeting of the American Anthropological Associ- transcendent supremacy of His revelation. ation. This emerging body of work also builds on This is something that Liza Debevec and I (2012) and intertwines with longer-standing enquiries were approaching in our book Ordinary Lives and into invisible realms (Drieskens 2008; Suhr 2015; Grand Schemes – but we did not yet include God Doostdar 2018), and the veneration of the Prophet in our thinking, which is a main shortcoming of Muhammad (Mahmood 2009) and Muslim saints the book. »Schemes« tend to be systemic, ideolog- (Abu-Zahra 1997).

Figure 1: »Don’t forget to say the name God.« Sticker in a barber shop in northern Egypt, 2016.

Programmatic Texts 13 · ZMO · Samuli Schielke · The power of God · 2019 4 Figure 4: »In the name of the All-Merciful God {Whatever good things you may have, it is from God} This is the true speech of the Mighty God«. Part of a Qur’anic verse (16:53) that is associated with the provision by God of material goods and blessings (ni‘ma) and livelihood (rizq), painted on the wall of a café in Alexandria, February 2014.

Figure 2: »Oh God, heal our sick and have mercy upon our dead.« Cairo, March 2010.

Figure 3: »My hijab is religion, not fashion. Hijab that pleases the Merciful, or fashion that pleases Satan. God is great, Praise to God.« Poster by the Muslim Brotherhood (unsigned but recognisable by design and slogan) in northern Egypt, Figure 5: »Allah«. Transportable name of God made of electric February 2010. lights at the annual festival (mulid) of al-Sayyida Fatima al- Nabawiya in Cairo, March 2008.

With this essay, I follow in the footsteps of those work in the past seven years has been in literary contributions, and reflect on the power of the circles in Alexandria, two of them are poets, and monotheist God as it is recognised and reckoned the third is a master of improvised poetic expres- by Muslim Egyptians I have worked and lived sion in conversations. The role of poetic language with during the past two decades. This article is and poetry is not only a fieldwork contingency. not based on dedicated fieldwork about God, but Language is a key means (but of course not the instead on the accumulated knowledge of many only one) of communication with and about God. years of fieldwork and friendship in various con- Poetic language can make God’s presence tan- texts with Egyptians from different walks of life. I gible among humans. At times it can also be in- have learned much in situations that were not un- volved in a heretical rethinking of that presence. derstood to be research encounters by the people involved. Some people I know in Egypt consider Don’t forget to say the name of God their relationship with God to be a highly private The most difficult part of learning Arabic for me and intimate matter, so parts of this article are was to learn to speak with older people in the vil- intentionally vague in their references to specific lage in northern Egypt where I began to conduct people and contexts. However, three people make fieldwork in 2006. One part of the difficulty I en- an explicit appearance. Because much of my field- countered was the local dialect, which is different

Programmatic Texts 13 · ZMO · Samuli Schielke · The power of God · 2019 5 from the Arabic spoken in Egyptian cities. But the People with whom I learned to speak better Ar- part that required the longer learning process, abic in the village use these expressions often, but and one that I have still not mastered well, was un- they do not satisfy themselves with simply reiter- derstanding that so much communication among ating them. Especially among women born before humans has God as a third party. the 1970’s, I have often encountered an eloquent Islamic traditions of pious speech do not share and poetic flow of invocations to God that He may the Biblical taboo against taking »the name of the protect, care, help, guide, sustain, heal, reconcile, Lord thy God in vain« (Exodus 20,7). The Qur’an console, retaliate, forbid… I, too, have learned a repeatedly urges the faithful to remember and few phrases that feature God, often referred to as mention (udhkuru) God. Stickers and graffiti with »our Lord« (rabbina) or by one of His ninety-nine the message »Say the name of God« (Udhkur illah) canonic names or other attributes. For example: proliferate in vehicles, homes, streets and shops Allah yusluh halkum – May God make your condi- around Egypt (Figure 1). The name and words of tion well (a general wish for well-being); Rabbina God are present – and in the wake of the Islamic yikhallihumlak – May our Lord keep them for you revival have become more so – in the sound of the (said to somebody about their children or family); Qur’an and sermons and in visible public writing Rabbina yikfik sharr al-marad, ya rabb! – May our (Hirschkind 2006; Starrett 1995). The presence Lord keep the evil of sickness away from you, oh they generate highlights different aspects of God’s Lord; Allah yigawwik – May God give you strength; power over humans, such as healing and forgiv- Rabbina yihdik - May our Lord guide you (meaning ing (Figure 2), disciplining (Figure 3; see also you’re stupid, foolish or crazy; it can also be an Figure 6 further below), livelihood (Figure 4) and appreciation of someone’s piety); Allah yisamhak – confirming His presence and inviting experience May God forgive you (meaning you’re wrong and (Figure 5). should apologise, sometimes also used jokingly); While learning Arabic, I soon understood that Allah yarhamha – May God have mercy on her (said answering »God willing« (in sha’ Allah) to a ques- about deceased people); Rabbina yakhduh – May tion could be a polite way to say yes, a polite way our Lord take him (meaning I hope he drops dead; to say no or a polite way to avoid saying either yes this is not said in jest); Ya Satir – Oh Protector or no – depending on context and intonation. Later (said in the face of danger); Ya Musahhil – Oh Who I understood that for many speakers the proposi- Makes Things Easy (said in the face of problems); tional thrust of »God willing« was not about saying and Ya Latif – Oh Kind One (said when in pain). yes or no in the first place, but about recognising I have never learned to use these and other ex- that either way it is up to the will of God. I also pressions with the poetic eloquence of the people learned that the answer to »how are you?« was I learned them from. But over the years, I have »praise to God« (al-hamdu lillah), which means that learned how to speak and reply with invocations in praise is always to God, no matter how one is do- return, and thereby I have, however imperfectly, ing. (Sometimes, the word of praise is spoken in a learned to embody the position of a person who defeated, depressed voice that indicates one is not puts their trust in God, who addresses God for help well at all.) Again, it took me longer to understand and guidance, and whose relations with other hu- that the main point of the phrase is not telling mans involve God as a third party. Such learning how one is doing, but expressing contentedness is a case in point for the ethical power of acts and with the will of God – a major virtue that God has utterances that Saba Mahmood (2005) argued for, promised to reward well.4 Although these expres- but it also reminds that such ethical power is open sions are Islamic in origin, they are also used by ended, that intention makes a difference, and that Arabic-speaking Christians. Even people who have communicating and acting with others is key to little faith in God use them routinely. Their per- moral and ethical practices. vasive power is based on their being both a con- People with whom I have learned to speak Ara- ventional linguistic performance between humans bic in the presence of God have followed various and an act of faith that will be heard and rewarded paths in their lives. Some have more and others by God. They thrive on the open-endedness of a less consistently tried to follow His command- triadic relation between human-oriented polite- ments (that is, the Shari‘a, which is not the same ness and God-oriented faith, whereby the human as law) in their worship of God (‘ibada) and their or the divine dimension may be more pronounced interaction with other humans (mu‘amala). All have depending on speaker and context. been searching for their rizq, legitimate worldly income or sustenance provided by God. They have faced at times lucky, at times devastating turns of nasib, the materialisation of God’s predestined 4 For example, in Surat Ibrahim (14,7): »If you are grateful, decree or what from a materialist point of view I will certainly give to you more« (la’in shakartum la-azidan- is called luck. Some among them have at times re- nakum). Ritual prayer (salat) includes the line »God listens to those who praise Him« (sami‘a llahu li-man hamidahu), flected to me about din (approximately »religion«) as based on prophetic practice.

Programmatic Texts 13 · ZMO · Samuli Schielke · The power of God · 2019 6 a moral, political, ritual and metaphysical frame- employers in Saudi Arabia, where her sons were work.5 Some people I know have been for some working in low-income jobs. In the course of the periods of time very keen to gain a knowledge of interview, she occasionally included God in her ac- God – not so much in the sense of the Shari‘a-based count in different capacities. With regard to the disciplinary knowledge of right and wrong, but property conflict, she addressed Him as the Pro- more in the sense of Sufi Muslim traditions that vider (al-Raziq): have a long history of highlighting the search for an experience and encounter with the transcend- I would give him [the lawyer] 100 pounds every ent.6 All of them have also been committed to some month,7 and keep the 200 pounds [remaining of other strivings that they have not framed in terms her widow’s rent]; our Lord alone knows that of din/religion. In the course of their strivings and they’re gone the next day. I don’t know how I live setbacks alike, they have all been cultivating re- the rest of the month. Our sublime and exalt- lationships of trust, hope, guidance, support or ed Lord (rabbina subhanahu wa-ta‘ala) provides encounters with God in a wider sense that both (byurzug). includes and exceeds din/religion in the limited sense of normative doctrine and practice. When talking about her hope for security and Few among the people who are younger than justice for ordinary people, she addressed God as me, however, express these relations with the elo- the initiator of conscience: quence that I have encountered among many peo- ple above my age. I pray (bad‘i) to our sublime and exalted Lord Born in the late 1950s, al-Hajja Z is the widowed that He gives everybody their conscience, in mother of three and grandmother of seven by the every position, whether officer or civilian. There most recent count. She radiates motherly author- is only our sublime and exalted Lord from whom ity, has a good sense of humour and can be sharp we ask, because He can change the hearts; the if needed. She belongs to the first generation of hearts are in the hand of our sublime and exalt- girls in the village who attended school. Her style ed Lord. […] Because if people see our Lord, the of expression stands on the generational threshold entire country will be just (tit‘idil). between the verbal eloquence of a society where most people could not read, and the increasingly She went on to address the need to educate peo- textual references and communications learned by ple (she has a keen sense of not knowing enough many among the younger generations. Like most and a desire to know more) about what human women of her generation and social background, rights are, and to provide the moral and profes- she puts her trust in God and is religious by any sional foundations on which the development of account. Unlike most women of her age and social the country can proceed. This brought her back to milieu, she is also very interested in politics and the situation of Egyptian migrant workers abroad, has outspoken political views. who often have to endure grave injustices – some- In spring 2012, Mukhtar Shehata and I recorded thing she knew all too well from her sons: with her an interview where she told of her hopes and confusions regarding the 2011 revolution, the We say »Oh Lord« and He shall reward us (yijazi- outcome of which was not yet apparent. After open- na): but those who demand justice must … those ing with »In the name of the All-Merciful God«, who demand justice (‘adala) and equality (mu- she started to tell us of the joy she felt about the sawah), if only they also looked after these people. outbreak of the revolution, and related it to the in- justices that she and her two sons had faced owing Towards the end of the interview, God became to a property conflict in the village and oppressive more present in her speech, as she wove together her hope for change, her trust in God’s predeter- mined decree, her sense of the urgency and neces- 5 »Religion« as a social scientific concept and din as an Is- sity of taking action, her frustration and confusion lamic theological concept are not quite the same, the latter being more encompassing and, most importantly, normative about the situation in general, and a moral admo- and exclusive. It is commonly claimed that only Islam, Chris- nition towards those committing injustice: tianity and Judaism qualify as being a din, and also that only Islam is the proper din authorised by God. In both ordinary Z: So if I had the means to go to that square, or and academic language, din is distinguished from tadayyun, if it were close to me, or if somebody could take »religiosity«, which describes the actual ways in which hu- mans follow a religion/din. As a social scientist, I would in me there, I would have joined them, because I Arabic claim to study tadayyun, not din. believe that our sublime and exalted Lord does 6 As Amira Mittermaier (2011), Paola Abenante and Fabio not change the condition of a people until they Vicini (2017) have pointed out, the Sufi search for commu- nication with God seldom shares an ontology of authentic individuality, and instead focuses on the capacity and expe- rience of being subject to God’s immense power on an invis- 7 In 2011, 100 Egyptian pounds was equivalent to about ible (batin) level. 12 to 13 euros.

Programmatic Texts 13 · ZMO · Samuli Schielke · The power of God · 2019 7 8 change what is in themselves. So if I [unclear]; conversastions might have had a different focus. what happens is that we escape from God’s pre- And yet it is remarkable in how many different destined decree to God’s predestined decree capacities God became part of the conversation: (min qada’ illah li-qada’ illah). If I’m inside the as a provider, as the one who listens to prayers, house, it will also hit me. But I do something I as the one who can instil in hearts a will for the can meet God with, that I can say to Him: I did, right and good, as the judge after death and the oh Lord. All I did was praying (bad‘i) to Him, I one who writes destinies, and the ultimate witness was standing in front of them [meaning the dem- of justice and injustice between humans. Because onstrators she saw on television]; changing and of the political focus, yet other dimensions such as switching channels on television. But I feel that worship, proper ritual action or health and sick- they don’t say the truth. They say one eighth of ness did not arise, although al-Hajja Z would cer- the truth! I don’t feel… There is a channel that tainly affirm them if asked. Remarkably, she did makes me feel frustrated, and another chan- not speak about religion/din or Islam even once. nel… I don’t know which one to believe! And while she is sympathetic of Salafi preachers Mukhtar: Last word, Hajja. How do you see to- and Islamist political movements (albeit with some morrow? doubts and misgivings), she articulated the future improvement of Egypt that she envisioned in rather Z: Tomorrow will be good, God willing (in sha’ unspecified terms of an increase of knowledge and Allah), with the commandment of God (bi-amr responsible behaviour. The moral problem she ad- illah) because He commands. Our sublime and dressed was not a meticulous ethical enquiry about exalted Lord, the hearts of the people are pure. the correct shape of human interaction with each You say: Oh Lord! It will not make you shy, other and their worship of God, but rather the need Mukhtar. Our sublime and exalted Lord will not to put an end to blatant and obvious injustice and let anyone go to waste. We have lived… I’m 53 oppression. years old, I have lived my life and lacked noth- Al-Hajja Z helps us to understand how God ing. If I get a thousand [pounds] I will live on emer­ges as a constitutive third party of relations them, if I get three hundreds I will live on them. among humans in communication and interaction. Either way, I will live on them. I won’t die for Furthermore, her focus on justice, responsibility them. But I’m defeated (maghura) because those and destiny reminds us that speaking with God is people who made sacrifices [in the revolution] usually not about establishing coherence (which it still don’t stand on their feet. I’m not defeated might be if she had tried to formulate a correct because of myself, but because of everybody. I doctrinal understanding of what is and what is not say to our Lord: Oh Lord, let everyone find their justice, or how exactly responsibility and predes- conscience, and know that they stand in front tination come together),9 but about getting to the of a Generous Lord, [the pitch of her voice in- point, and firmly so. creases and she raises her hand for emphasis] Al-Hajja Z also helps us to think of God’s power as and they will be alone in the grave, and they will a moral authority in a way that exceeds (but does be questioned! There will be a day when they not contradict) the disciplinary mode of moral stand alone in isolation and darkness; nobody enquiry that has been perhaps the most produc- will stand by them, and no money and nothing tive theme in the anthropology of Islam under the else will work. And nobody will get more than is keywords ethics and piety. The first wave of piety written (maktub) for them. and ethics studies highlighted Islam’s this-worldly continuity as a discursive tradition, and the ways An interview was not an everyday speech situa- in which pious Muslims worked towards craft- tion for al-Hajja Z. She had prepared carefully, and ing a God-fearing self. Authors of the first wave the outcome was quite unlike the rapid exchanges of ethics and piety studies were well aware of the of words and phrases that she entertains in more role of God in the process, as they were of the ul- conversational settings. But the way she con­cluded timate aim of Paradise after death that motivates her account (that otherwise mentioned God only ethical practice in this world (e.g. Mahmood 2005, occasionally) with a series of invocations and ad- 140–145; Hirschkind 2006, 173–204). And yet God monitions reminds me of the use of invocations to and the afterworld remained marginal to a theory conclude one’s speech in everyday contexts. that focuses on traditions of debate, pedagogies of The political theme of the interview let her conduct and ethical becoming in this world. In al- emphasise matters of justice, conscience, the ul- Hajja Z’s speech, in comparison, God is the focal timate responsibility one has for one’s acts and point of moral trust, conscience is a divine gift to the inevitability of divine predestination. Other

9 Such questions have inspired sophisticated intellectual, theological, and political debates over the centuries, and do 8 This is a citation from the Qur’an, 13,11: inna llaha la yu- so also today. See, e.g. al-Ash‘ari 1980; Vasalou 2008; Fahmy ghayyiru bi-qawmin hatta yughayiru ma bi-anfusihim. 2018.

Programmatic Texts 13 · ZMO · Samuli Schielke · The power of God · 2019 8 be accepted and the key moment of enquiry comes as the immanent substance of ordinary life, ap- after death. How may these and other dimensions proached as a transcendent truth of theological be thought together? enquiry or encountered in the path of mystical Studying zakat (almsgiving) and voluntary giv- search. ing for God (sadaqa) in Nablus, Palestine, Emanuel I do not aim to provide a systematic exposition. Schaeublin (2016) has highlighted the triadic form There are other dimensions that I have not ad- of the moral relationship of giving, which always dressed or am not aware of, and in any case the involves God as a supreme third party and guaran- search for guidance, coherence, sustenance and tor. In her work on charity in Cairo, Amira Mitter- experience are evidently not mutually exclusive. maier (2014; 2019) has addressed different modal- They reinforce each other much of the time, but ities of giving and exchange between humans and they are also not necessarily mutually dependent. God, such as those expressed by the concepts of However, because these relations – what­ thawab (reward) and baraka (blessing), where the ever their emphasis – almost always involve an first is earned by humans for good deeds, while acknowled­ge­ment of His immense power, it does the second is a form of unconditional generosity make sense to think of the human–God relation- by God. Laura Menin (2015) and Alice Elliot (2016) ship as a power relation; or, more specifically, as have drawn attention to destiny as an intimate relational power. part of love relations, flirtation and the search for a marital partner in Morocco. The active search to Relational and relationship power find one’s destiny, Menin and Elliot (2018) argue, The most compelling theory of relational power re- is about openness and receptivity towards the su- mains the one developed and elaborated by Michel preme agency and authorship of God – in line with Foucault, especially in his later work on bio­power the currently mainstream Ash‘ari theology of des- (the power of discourses to shape and regulate tiny, whereby the power or potency (qadar) to cre- the lives of the populace) and governmentality ate action is only God’s, but humans actualise or ac- (2007). For the sake of a thought experiment, we quire (the theological concept is kasb, acquisition) might try to understand the power of God along their predetermined destiny from their own will the lines drawn by Foucault as a relationship that and with full responsibility (Al-Ash‘ari 1980, 538- constitutes and structures communal and individ- 542; Bhat 2006). Paolo Gaibazzi (2015) has shown ual moral trajectories. However, this would not be how Gambian men who search for wealth through a binary this-worldly relationship between a dis- migration, diamond mining and trade trust that course and a subject, but a triadic relationship God has predetermined for each of them their own where God (along with the Apostle of God and, in share of »luck«, the English translation used in the some versions of the relationship, the friends of Gambia for the Islamic concept of rizq. Working in God) connects humans in this world and the after- northern Yemen, Luca Nevola (2015b) has argued world alike (Salvatore 2008; Schaeublin 2016). We that rizq and destiny are power­ful, God-centred might also think about His power in terms of what »models of« (Geertz 1973) that describe how the it produces: conditions of human life, thriving, world is and works for the pious and the impious reproduction, well-being, success – but also their alike. They have a descriptive power that differs limits: sickness, failure, death. In that sense God from the prescriptive power of ideals of ethical could be seen to be involved in biopower, which and moral becoming that work as »models for«, to importantly includes necropower (Mbembe 2003), follow Geertz’s language. the power over life’s end. God of the Qur’an is both For al-Hajja Z, these capacities go hand in hand. the Life-giver (al-Muhyi) and the Death-bringer Some other people I know have given more or less (al-Mumit). As much as His power is personal, in- emphasis to some capacities over others. Learning timate and suggestive of affects, it also involves Arabic in the village thus meant for me not only some very Clausewitzian domination by direct the acknowledgement and involvement of God as force. And it is evidently strategic, involving an a third party in human interactions, but also to omniscient master plan that humans encounter in realise that His involvement and power may be the shape of destiny. In any case – and this would of different kinds in different situations and re- accord with Foucault’s work on human biopower – quire different cultivated skills and attitudes by the power of God is not limiting but productive. It humans. Cultivation of a relationship with God in- is creation. volves both active as well as receptive attitudes But although the power of God has aspects that by humans: proactively striving, working and wor- resemble biopower, I do not propose to study it in shipping, recognising and hoping for divine gifts that framework. For one thing, God does not deal and inspiration, accepting destiny as it comes. It with populations in Foucault’s sense. The relation may involve different temporal horizons: more of power involved is more intimate and personal. afterworldly when it comes to justice and ethical The monotheist God does not create populations discipline, more this-worldly when it comes to the made up of individualised subjects; He creates search for rizq. Powers of God can be experienced communities of humans bound by moral ties in a

Programmatic Texts 13 · ZMO · Samuli Schielke · The power of God · 2019 9 triadic relation with one another and God (Salva- the expectation of moral responsibility. Responsi- tore 2008, Schaeublin 2016). Furthermore, in con- bility, in turn, requires intention and moral ac- trast to the discursive procedures that Foucault’s countability. This, Laidlaw says, is not the case in work relied on, His »procedures« are invisible and actor-networks. And yet at least some of Latour’s beyond human knowledge. non-humans are commonly treated by humans as What one can study as an anthropologist – responsible actors in Laidlaw’s sense. Intention regard­less of one’s theological or atheological and responsibility are an intuitive and therefore judgement, belief or faith – is how the power of also in practice very compelling basis for human God emerges as something tangible when it is ad- interaction. Humans do not generally try to ver- dressed, anticipated and enacted in human inter- ify whether they are dealing with an intention- action. Above, I gave an example that highlights al being unless they have a specific reason to do conversation and language, but God’s power can so. Instead, intention and responsibility seem also emerge and be communicated through other to be the taken-for-granted default assumption. senses, bodily practices, objects and mediated im- This can be a compelling and sensible way to act ages. Birgit Meyer (2015) has addressed the often with non-humans too. That is what animism is all quite tangible materiality of the Divine in human about, and it is also what nationalism is about, interaction: the invisible other world, in order to and it is how leftists often speak of capitalism. be accessed by humans, needs material mediation Social scientists commonly treat concepts and in the shape of media productions, objects, archi- abstractions as intentional beings: »neo-liberal- tectures, scripts and more. ism«, »the state«, »the secular«, »Islam« and oth- In her work on Northern Irish Pentecostals, Hilar y ers often appear as remarkably conscious beings Foye (2015) uses Bruno Latour’s idea about human who aim, attempt and strive – and may be held and non-human »hybrid networks« to under­stand accountable. how humans position themselves in relation to Of all non-humans, divine beings are among the God. In fact it may be to a large measure thanks to most explicitly intentional – and the most power ful. Latour that social scientists have recently become The monotheist God of the Bible and the Qur’an in more easy-going about their distinctions between particular builds strong moral and emotional re- humans and things, intentional subjects and con- lations with humans. This is relational power in a sequential objects. With Latour, we can recognise different sense to Foucault’s. It comes closer to the that humans are not that special and unique, and contemporary English vernacular use of »relation- that agentic power is embodied by all kinds of be- ships« as intimate bonds. Such bonds connect not ings in complex networks. Latour points out that only humans who share a life in this world; they his approach also allows us to bring God back into also link »heaven and earth«, as shown by Robert social scientific analysis: Orsi (2005) in his work on the American Catholics he grew up with. This kind of »relationship power« Do we need to add that the crossed-out God, is effective by means of intimate, emotional bonds in this new Constitution, turns out to be liber- of friendship, enmity, love, anger, fear, trust, help, ated from the unworthy position to which He guidance and importantly gratefulness. had been relegated? The question of God is re- A power to which one can be grateful – this opened, and the nonmoderns no longer have to seems to be a crucial part of the human–God re- try to generalize the improbable metaphysics of lationship known as Islam. And this was the key the moderns that forced them to believe in be- point about learning to speak Arabic with God as lief. (Latour 1993, 142) third party in conversations. At least among the Muslim Egyptians I know, No wonder that some anthropologists of Chris- the possibility of and search for gratefulness goes tianity (see also Bialecki 2014; Luhrmann 2012; along with a strong emotional taboo against an- Keane 2007) in particular have found Latour good ger and ungratefulness towards God. The Arabic to think with. Important tensions remain, however. concept for unbelief, kufr, etymologically means Latour’s vision is an animist one, which may work ungratefulness. There are elaborate techniques well with spirits, saints, science and technology, to not express anger or blame towards God. The- and non-human living beings. Monotheism and an- ologically, Satan is identified as the source of evil imism, in contrast, do not make good bedfellows. – often as a semi-internal force who drives one to Latour proposes a »parliament of things« (1993, act in immoral ways.10 In Arabic poetry, existen- 142-145). But the God of the Bible and the Qur’an tial laments conventionally address dunya, »this is an absolutist autocrat who doesn’t share power with republican institutions. Latour’s ontology is flat, monotheism’s is hierarchical. 10 Remarkably, Satan is even more absent than God in an- thropologies of Islam. On ways in which Satan takes respon­ James Laidlaw (2013, 185) has pointed out that sibility for deeds and desires that otherwise might be at- Latour’s actors in network lack one crucial part tributed to oneself or to God, see Gregg 2007; al-‘Azm 1969, of what makes something or somebody an actor: 55 –87.

Programmatic Texts 13 · ZMO · Samuli Schielke · The power of God · 2019 10 world«, for its cruelty and injustice in order not to ern Europe;12 the divine ontology of God’s power place blame on God.11 As Saba Mahmood (2015) over life, healing and death, which motivates pa- has shown in her work on piety activists, cultiva- tients and their families to pray, sacrifice, call oth- tion of the fear of God and His punishment is a ers to pray, consult spiritual healers and act out key part of the work of becoming a pious person in the virtues of patience and contentedness with the the framework of the Islamic revival. Piety, a free will of God; and the ontology of humoural medicine translation of the Arabic taqwa, is the quality of in the tradition of Hellenic and Islamic techniques somebody who unites fear of God and trust in God, of healing (Hamdy 2009; Tabishat 2014). One rare- and who has internalised His commandments. It ly encounters in Egypt the sense that these are al- is ideally a state of peace of mind (itmi’nan), and ternatives; rather, they coexist almost seamlessly. I have encountered a few (often older) people who appeared to embody it. But often, striving for that God punishes harshly, and He is forgiving and condition is marked by a cultivated anxiety about merciful the state of one’s heart and acts, whether one’s The coexistence of different forms of power, even deeds are accepted and rewarded or not by God. different ontologies, is also inherent to the hu- Such anxious and hopeful cultivation is today man–God relationship known as Islam. This is well the most visible and politically most contested exemplified in the ninety-nine Beautiful Names of way to relate to the God of the Qur’an, but not to God, a list of divine attributes mentioned in the the exclusion of other ways. Moreover, people who Qur’an that in Egypt is often displayed as printed do not actively or consistently cultivate the fear of calligraphy in homes and shops, and performed as God often ask Him for a kind of support for which an introductory song (composed by the influential they may be grateful. During sickness and other twentieth-century popular musician Sayyid Mak- crises, otherwise rather impious people may speak kawi) at weddings. Most of the ninety-nine names in invocations or call others to join them in asking are also human attributes, and when they come to- for God’s help: id‘i li »call upon God for me«. Social gether in a human being they might be considered media has become an important medium for such a contradiction or a form of ambivalence. ْاعلَ ُموا أَ َّن اللَّ َه شَ ِد ُيد الْ ِع َق ِاب َوأَ َّن اللَّ َه :requests, and online calls for invocations for the In the Qur’an, God says I‘lamu anna llaha shadidu l-‘iqab wa-anna . َغفُ ٌور َر ِح ٌيم -sick and announcements about friends and rela tives passing away result in lengthy comment sec- llaha ghafurun rahim. »Know that God is severe in tions with invocations for healing and success, and punishment; and that God is forgiving and merci- for God’s mercy to the dead. They are another case ful« (Surat al-Ma’ida, 5,98). of triadic communication where invocation (du‘a’) My attention was turned to this verse in June is a way of showing mutual support and solidari- 2016, during Ramadan, when a friend of mine ty among humans by means of collectively asking whom I call B cited it on his Facebook page. Ram- God to grant His help and protection. adan is a time when Muslims generally give more The issue of healing and sickness is also helpful attention to God and worship, so it did not surprise in understanding the coexistence of God-centred me that B, who otherwise would publish sarcastic and other ontologies in lived practice. The onto- aphorisms, political and social critique, and exis- logical turn in anthropology has been helpful in tentialist love poetry on social media, would now understanding human–God relations, although be citing the Qur’an. But the verse struck me, as perhaps not in the sense of self-containing islands it did a few others who left their comments under- as in Eduardo Viveiros de Castro’s (2003) famous neath. They noted that the same verse had made »conceptual, I mean ontological, self-determi- them stop and reflect. I asked B how he under- nation of people. Or peoples to be more exact.« stood the verse. He replied: With the universalist, expansive drive of mono­ theist faiths and with the translocal connectedness By God, my brother in God Samuli,13 this verse of the Middle Eastern region, such insular self-­ is for me the confirmation that the aspect of determination has not been the case in Egypt for a forgiving with its reality and necessity does not very long time. In Egypt today, health, sickness and deny the existence of the aspect of punishment, healing in particular are the site of lively ontologi- and that’s natural because the divine subject cal pluralism. People searching for healing in times (al-dhat al-ilahiya) in Islamic religion is the sub- of illness make use of coexisting yet different on- ject that carries all human attributes (sifat) in tologies: the molecular ontology of biomedical ther- full divine power/extent (qadr), and which God apies, which people I know in Egypt tend to trust more than some people in my social circles in West- 12 To the degree that Egypt is facing the problem of drug-resistant bacteria as a consequence of excessive use of antibiotics; see El Kholy et al. 2003. 13 The address »my brother in God«, which would usually 11 I’m grateful to Dr Ahmed Saad Mohamed Saad of Ayn be used among people who share a religious striving, is used Shams University for this point. here by B jokingly.

Programmatic Texts 13 · ZMO · Samuli Schielke · The power of God · 2019 11 put into the human with his limited human pow- This tension appears productive for lives that er/extent, because He breathed into him His are lived in the guidance of the God of the Qur’an. spirit. And [the verse is a confirmation] that the It is not a one-dimensional force, as anybody even difference of the qualities themselves is appar- a little bit aware of the manifold and rich history ent in the Beautiful Names of God, where it says and present of Muslim lands and peoples knows that the god (al-ilah) is the First (al-Awwal) and (see Ahmed 2016). Rather, this tension is among at the same time the Last (al-Akhir). And he is those productive dialectics that compel humans to the Visible (al-Zahir) and the Invisible (al-Batin). take a stance – in one way or another – towards That also confirms and explains the difference the forgiving and punishing, the visible and invisi- of the qualities humans have. Note: this is a per- ble, the disciplining and the sustaining, the closed sonal interpretation that may be right or wrong. and the open-ended dimensions of God’s relation with His creatures. As a relationship, the power In a private message, I then asked B for permis- of God requires that humans act in anticipation of sion to quote his interpretation of the verse in a it, thus actualising one attribute or another of the research article. He replied and clarified: divine subject, living out the resulting tensions in one way or another. Of course, I have no problem. But Our Lord B unites some irreverent views about God and doesn’t have schizophrenia. Only we do humans, decidedly leftist and secularist politics and a consistent practice of worship. Additionally Then we went on to politely ask how each of us to fasting in Ramadan, he prays regularly, which is and our families were doing. He answered: visible by a dark spot on his forehead. His idiosyn- cratic ways also show in our online conversation. B: I’m fine. Fasting is getting tough on me, you There is some irony in that I used the pious and lucky bastards polite language of invocations in reply to B, who jokingly complained about the difficulty of fasting Samuli: May God give you patience, and may in summer heat and envied non-Muslims who do your fasting be accepted. not have to fast. And rather than trying to pres- In his replies, B addressed the fundamental ent a »correct« (that is, authorised) understanding tension between God’s capacity to unite all hu- of the verse, he insisted that his interpretation of man qualities and the human incapacity to find the verse was his own and as such was subject to a balance between them. There is a fundamental error. ambiguity involved in being subject to the power B’s way of being both pious and irreverent has a God: it is biopolitics and necropolitics at once, for pol it ica l, societ a l a nd h ist or ica l cont ex t . It is l i n ked God is the Life-giver and the Death-bringer in one to his upbringing in a communist family between person. It is pastoral and it is repressive, for God a village and a major city, his educational and is forgiving and caring, punishing and severe. It economic resources as a young, male, white-col- makes sense for God, but humans try to be one or lar employee in a private company, and his gen- the other, and the unity of life and death, reward erational socialisation during the Islamic revival and punishment, visible and invisible can result in that in Egypt had successfully reconfigured parts a schizophrenic experience of incommensurability of the human–God relation by the time he came of in us.14 age in the 2000s. This context has provided him with a societal and spiritual mainstream in which he is at home yet not at ease, as well as specific resources to search for an alternative position. 14 I am aware of the potential misunderstandings in- When God–human relations shift, so do human– volved in the metaphorical use of a pathological term bor- human relations, and vice versa. While the mono- rowed from psychology. In the metaphorical use by B and theist God does not share power with the parliament me in this article, schizophrenia is not a pathology, but a of things, He does delegate some tasks to humans. feature of human understanding. »Incommensurability« im- plies that some discourses, ideas and practices cannot fit Despite the Qur’an’s strict monotheism, all Mus- together in a coherent account or system. Describing an ex- lim traditions involve some human intermediaries. perience or knowledge as schizophrenic in a metaphorical Expressing faith in both God and his Messenger is sense, in contrast, implies that the things we try to know the bare minimum of Islamic creed. For Muslims may very well exist together, but for various reasons we find worldwide, God is the primary addressee of their it difficult or disturbing to think them together, and there- fore treat them in a compartmentalised fashion as incom- prayers, but the Prophet Muhammad provides the mensurable, and may shift between one and the other. I also ideal model for how to live and a very powerful fo- prefer in this context »schizophrenic« to »ambiguous« or cus of emotional attachment (Mahmood 2009). The »ambivalent«, because the latter attributes do not describe Shi‘a tradition gives enormous importance to the limits of human understanding: on the contrary, ambiguous spiritual leadership of Muhammad’s descendants. language and ambivalent affects may at times quite com- fortably bring together things that otherwise might appear Sufi movements within the wider Sunni tradition as incommensurables. have generated expansive networks and chains

Programmatic Texts 13 · ZMO · Samuli Schielke · The power of God · 2019 12 of friends of God (or saints for the sake of an im- Poetry, secularity, heresy precise translation), who in turn are spiritually B is also a poet. In spring 2017, his first collection and genealogically connected with the Prophet of colloquial poems was published by a public sec- Muhammad (Mayeur-Jaouen 2005). Supporters of tor press. He told me that his collection fell victim Salafi-oriented reform movements in the Sunni to what he saw as narrow-minded fearfulness of tradition commonly reject the Sufi veneration of the societal mainstream. Before publication, the friends of God and often consider Shia Muslims not collection passed an editorial board which recom- to be Muslims at all. Foregrounding the demand mended it for publication, with two reservations. to live as precisely as possible by the Shari‘a (the The first was that it was very subjective in tone teachings about how to worship God and interact (which B happily admitted). The second was that with humans), they emphasise the example of the some poems contained »insults on the Islamic re- Prophet Muhammad and his companions, who thus ligion.«. He was asked to either revise or remove are reinforced in their position of privileged inter- those poems, and he decided to remove them from mediaries. the collection. In Eg y pt, t he t went iet h cent ur y w it nessed a sh i f t Among the poems that were removed was one يا سبحان التي أسرت بقلبي وخلته in theological hegemony from Sufi hierarchies and that opened with the line Ya subhan allati asrat bi-qalbi w-khallituh مشتاق chains of sainthood on the one hand and religious learning based on traditions of scholarly authority mushtaq. »Exalted is she who took my heart and on the other, to a reformist emphasis on discipline made it longing.« and a direct access to scripture. There has been a The verse contains a direct intertextual ref- shift in emphasis from a more personally mediat- erence to the widely cited Qur’anic verse (Surat ed and distributed relationship with God towards al-Isra’, 17,1) about Prophet Muhammad’s night- one that is more textually mediated and unity ori- time journey to Jerusalem and heaven that begins ented. This shift also resonates with the individu- Subhan alladhi asra bi-‘abdihi laylan min al-masjidi alistic tendency of neoliberal capitalism, whereby l-harami ila l-masjidi l-aqsa … »Exalted is He who some (but not all) of the moral thrust of following took His servant by night from the Sacred Mosque God’s commandments has shifted from communal (in Mecca) to the Remote Mosque (in Jerusalem)…« discipline to self-discipline (Karlsson-­Mignanti 2007; It also uses the female gender together with the Abenante 2014). It has also gone hand in hand with word subhan reserved for God, and that in a love increased sectarian tension between Muslims and poem. This was unacceptable for the editors. Addi- Christians. Different configurations of triadic tionally to poems with provocative religious refer- trust and solidarity, and correspondingly different ences, B also had to remove poems that addressed sensibilities towards difference within and across the revolutionary events from 2011 to 2013. The traditions, faiths and identities seem to be at play collection was originally titled Memoirs of a Re- here. In short, major political and societal strug- tired Prophet, but the publishing editor crossed out gles are related to the question about how to live »prophet« and replaced it with »saint«, using the such relations. word qiddis that is reserved for Christian saints, Talal Asad (1986) has pointed out that struggles, thus avoiding any association with Islam. Eventu- debates and critique are an inherent constituent of ally, the collection was published with an entirely a tradition (see also Salvatore and Eickelman 2004; different title that had no religious reference. Khan 2012; Aishima 2016; Ahmad 2017). At least in B told me about the fate of his collection when my reading of Asad, orthodoxy is not a given posi- we met in a coffee house in downtown Alexandria tion, but a relationship of power where one side in February 2017. He complained about what he in a debate is able to establish its way of relat- described as the sensitivity of people, »including ing to God as the correct, accepted and authori- people who in practice are not religious«, towards tative way. Connecting Asad’s insight with that of discussing religious matters in ways that depart B, ortho­doxy is the currently victorious version of from the musallamat (accepted, taken-for-granted one aspect or another of humans’ schizophrenic axioms): inability to understand the unity of contrary quali­ ties in God. They fear such different thinking about faith B’s call to consider both mercy as well as pun- and religion (din) more than outright atheism. ishment, and – implicitly – both love as well as fear Atheism is something outside the framework stands in the context of such struggles. His vision and can be left on its own; different thinking is is not encompassing either: he clearly leans to- more dangerous. wards mercy and love rather than punishment and fear. He also clearly positions himself in societal B actively cultivates thinking and speaking struggles by identifying himself as a leftist and a against the grain of religious, political and soci- believer with his own ideas about faith. Others etal musallamat, and considers the increase in such who disagree with his views might call him a her- speech one of the few successes of the defeated rev- etic. olution of 2011 (in which he actively participated).

Programmatic Texts 13 · ZMO · Samuli Schielke · The power of God · 2019 13 I translate speaking against the grain of author- that is seen as wrong and threatening by a vast so- ised musallamat within a tradition as heresy (Ara- cietal mainstream in Egypt. Publishing such work bic zandaqa).15 In my reading, B’s manuscript was might cause legal and other trouble not only for a potentially heretic and on occasions politically the author but also for the editors. radical work that could have offended important While B is a declared political secularist, his sensibilities about both God and the state. But poetry and many of the views he expressed point after it was censored by the editorial board, B’s at another dimension that also has something to published collection became something quite dif- do with secularity but in Egypt is more often ad- ferent: it now avoids addressing God directly and dressed in relation to faith – that is, correct faith. relegates religion to a position of indirect, limited Supporters of Islamist movements often propose relevance. a theory of secularism that is explicitly related to The published version fits strikingly well into faith and the authority God ought to have over a theory of the secular that has been developed the affairs of the faithful. Posters distributed by by Khaled Furani (2012) and Michael Allan (2016) the Salafi movement in Alexandria in spring 2011 in regard to contemporary Arabic literature. The declared »The separation of religion and politics secular, they argue, is not just about people being is the shortest path to unbelief« and »God alone more or less religious, but rather about the crea- is the Lawmaker.« (Figure 6). This was at a time tion of autonomous fields and forms of language when some secularist supporters of the revolution that relegate religion to the position of a separate were (unsuccessfully) challenging the second arti- field. Their work is inspired by the work of Ta- cle of the Egyptian constitution which states that lal Asad (2003) and others (e.g. Asad et al. 2009, Islamic Shari‘a is the main source of positive law. Agrama 2012) who argue that »the secular« is pri- Three years later, in spring 2014, after the rev- olution had given way to a military-led counter-­ revolution supported by secularists and Salafis alike, I had a similar discussion with H, a poet, school teacher and a former member of the Mus- lim Brotherhood in his forties, who at that time was enthusiastically protesting against what he saw as a military coup against Egypt’s legiti- mate president. H argued to me that the reason why leftist and liberal revolutionaries would not join the movement against the military coup was a matter of faith. In Egypt, he explained, eman- cipatory (taharruri) ideas have been united with Islamic faith, which gives them an enormous force of determination. As a Muslim he knows that his existence is eternal, proceeding in three stages: dunya (this world), barzakh (an in-between state after death and before resurrection) and akhira (the afterworld). This ground of faith, H argued, gave the protesters the willingness to die as mar- tyrs, which meant that they and seventy persons of their family will go directly to paradise. »If I Figure 6: »God alone is the Lawmaker.« Poster on the wall get caught by a bullet, it is just one hit and I pass of a mosque in Alexandria, October 2011. to the next world«, H told me; and he went on to marily about religion becoming problematised and argue that the leftists and liberals have a weaker compartmentalised as a subject of the sovereign ground of faith, which is why they cling harder to state, and religious lives therefore policed and this-worldly life and come up with ideological dif- disciplined as part of secular governmentality. Es- ferences with the Muslim Brotherhood as a pretext pecially in regard to the establishment of auton- for their lack of courage. omous fields (such as literature) and their sepa- H’s claim does not account for the many pro- ration from »religion«, this theory works well for ponents of a separation of religion and politics, the published volume. But what about the original among them B, who do have a strong relation of manuscript? The editors did not censor it in order faith with God. It is also unfair towards the cour- to keep religion in its right place, but because it age and strength that followers of other than Isla- related to God, His word and His prophets in a way mist movements in Egypt showed during the revo- lutionary uprising that began in 2011. And yet it is not entirely mistaken, insofar that it points at the 15 My field notes do not reveal whether or not I discussed the term »heresy« with him explicitly, but he approved the need to understand secularism as a reconfigura- draft of this chapter that I sent to him in spring 2018. tion of the power relation between humans and God

Programmatic Texts 13 · ZMO · Samuli Schielke · The power of God · 2019 14 – a reconfiguration that concerns both this world as God – but only some. I disagree with his claim that well as the invisible realm and the hereafter. this is generally true of secularists or secularism. In what was sadly her last book, Saba Mahmood It is definitely not true of B’s secularism. It is also (2016) develops A sad’s t heor y of sec u la r i sm f u r t her not true of the secularism of the Egyptian state. to think systematically about both the governmen- Following the lead offered by H and Mahmood, I tal power of secularism, as well as its groundings therefore argue that a focus on human and divine in relations of human and divine power, or what she power invites an analysis of various secularities, calls »secularity – the shared set of background as- rather than one. sumptions, attitudes, and dispositions that imbue The question is not simply an either/or of divine secular society and subjectivity«. (Mahmood 2016, or human power. We need to look at different con- 181). In that move, the power relation between figurations of the relationship. The secularist de- humans and God becomes an explicit issue, and mand that religion ought to be a private matter im- much of the vagueness of preceding theorisations plies reconfiguring triadic relations where human about the secular is overcome. In her final chap- communities always have God as a third, constitu- ter, Mahmood takes up the controversy regarding ent party, towards binary relations where individ- Youssef Ziedan’s bestselling novel Azazeel (2012). ual humans may entertain a constituent relation In Mahmood’s reading, the novel not only depicts with God, but interaction among humans is not al- Jesus as human (which would be entirely in line ways mediated by God as a third party. Sometimes with Muslim narratives), but effectively also God this is a cover for an atheist call for a disempower- and religion as human creation: We can perhaps at ment of God that cannot be voiced openly in Egypt this point begin to except in protected societal niches. But more often, people who demand faith to be an intimate rather get a sense of the different meanings of the than societal relationship do entertain a relation term humanity in Christological debates and in of faith with the One God, and do wish to maintain Azazeel: in the former, the humanity of Jesus is some triadic relations but maybe not others. a medium for God’s Word, whereas in the lat- In the triadic relations, not only does God have ter, the humanity of Jesus is a symbol of man’s power over how humans interact, but also humans capacity to create truth and meaning. The sec- have power over the ways in which each other re- ond view wrests power from God and locates late to God. The possibility of enforcing certain it in man. This secular-humanist conception of ways to relate to God rather than others gives religion offends Bishoy (as it would Muslims of religious traditions their recognisable continuity, similar sensibility) because it fundamentally re- much in line with Asad’s (1986) understanding of verses the epistemological basis of religion: it is orthodoxy. And yet secular regimes also enforce not God who creates us, but we who create him. or at least encourage some triadic relations of (Mahmood 2016, 204, my emphases) power rather than others (for example, they quite systematically favour theologies with apolitical or This is a helpful point, even if somewhat too bi- loyalist tendencies against politically oppositional nary. Mahmood argues that there are two ones). The preference for strong triadic, weak tri- adic or binary relations between humans and God incommensurable understandings of religion: is thus not just a formal question; it is about what one in which humanity itself provides the values God wants, and what humans want to realise with and models of human flourishing against which His aid. the contributions of religious tradition are to be The historical emergence of secularism in many measured and judged; and another wherein hu- places around the world has been directed not so man existence must be molded in accord with much against public religion as such (if there is the dictates of a transcendent god (Mahmood such a thing) and rather against specific moral val- 2016, 182). ues and relations of power embodied and author- ised by the orthodoxies of respective religious tra- I hope to add that there are not only two but ditions – such as the alliance of the church and the many understandings of the human–God relation- crown in defence of established class hierarchies ship, which may or may not appear partly or fully that were being challenged by socialist move- incommensurable. If we stick to a binary model, ments in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-cen- we end up equating secularity with H’s critical tury Europe (e.g. Jokinen 1906). Today, left-wing view of secularists as people who lack faith in life proponents of privatised faith in the Middle East after death. After all, the claim that humans cre- or Western Europe may object against God being ate God is substantially an atheist one, although involved in gender relations in favour of men and Mahmood for some reason abstains from making heteronormative sexuality. But they may entirely that point. I would agree with H that some secu- agree when communities under God are involved larism (or secularity, to follow Mahmood) indeed in assisting refugees, homeless and hungr y people, is a cover for having faith in humans instead of and others in need. More right-wing proponents of

Programmatic Texts 13 · ZMO · Samuli Schielke · The power of God · 2019 15 privatised faith may object against religious polit- ration of the human–God relationship, whereby ical movements that challenge the nationalist and God not only maintains individual relations with militarist foundations of the state they identify humans but also holds some triadic power in mat- with, but they will enthusiastically call upon God ters of moral or identitarian importance, and yet to support and unite the nation in wars against its may not intervene in many other matters of the enemies. And it is often the case that proponents common good. Unsurprisingly, El-Messiri’s theory of privatised faith articulate both left- and right- resonates well with common sense in Egypt, and wing visions in combination. Secularisms share his work has been inspirational for the so-called the same schizophrenia that according to B marks post-Islamist current in Egypt (Kinitz 2016, 160– human faith in God. 187). Privatisation of the human–God relationship is Importantly, El-Messiri’s partial secularism is a controversial stance in Egypt where not only Is- also largely congruent with the actually existing lamist movements but also the wider conservative secular power (in Asad’s sense) of the Egyptian societal mainstream (including many government state, which has to reckon with divine certainties functionaries who execute secular policies) are and cannot manipulate them at will, but possess- committed to God’s role as the guarantor of mor- es power to demarcate and govern them, and can al and societal bonds between humans. Removing selectively translate God’s commands into secu- the communal, societally constitutive role of faith lar positive law. Such governmental secularism, in God means from the point of view of conserva- as it may be called, is prevalent and established tive Egyptians a moral chaos where children will in Egypt, and rarely challenges the power of God not know their fathers, trust among humans has no as a constituent of moral and societal bonds. In- foundation, debauchery and injustice prevail, and stead, it is a useful means to turn Him into an ally the path to Paradise is blocked. This is why pub- of state power very much along the lines analysed licly identifying as »secularist« (‘almani) invites by Asad (2003), Agrama (2012) and others. Sub- the accusation of actually being an atheist and an ordinating religion to politics on a governmental unbeliever, or at least a morally depraved person. level means not confronting head-on key sensibil- Again, the accusation is unfair but not entirely ities of the human–­God relationship that the im- misplaced: the privatisation of the human–God position of state power over that relationship may relationship opens the door to a wide variety of infringe upon. But it also generates conflicts and unauthorised ways of relating to God, and among legiti­mises state violence. It shapes rather than them is the possibility of a godless life. overcomes existing sectarian conflicts (Mahmood But not every secular reconfiguration of the 2016), and it reinforces the supremacy of the secu- power relation between humans and God consti- rity state over the lives and deaths of its citizens.17 tutes such a threat. There are less radical recon- What may be called life-worldly secularism, in figurations of the triadic relations between God contrast, is closer to Mahmood’s notion of secu- and humans that are widely accepted, even con- larity but in a non-binary way: it entails various sensual in Egypt. The influential Egyptian social theorist Abdelwahhab El-Messiri (2002) distin- guishes between »partial« and »comprehensive« 17 I am grateful to Mayanthi Fernando for pointing out secularism or secularity.16 Partial secularism only that this can be understood as a shift of sovereignty from concerns the relation of religion with public life God to humans and/or the nation state. I agree that some and the state. secularisms involve such a shift of sovereignty. However, at least in the Egyptian context, state sovereignty does not appear to replace divine sovereignty, and Arabic speakers Comprehensive secularism involves the sep- may not use the same word for the two sovereignties. Old- aration of all human, moral, and religious val- er Middle Eastern traditions and vocabularies of statecraft ues not only from the state but from the nature provide a clue: they involve a soft division between the di- and from the life of humans in its private and vinely grounded competence of shari‘a and justice that was exercised by sometimes remarkably independent experts, public dimensions alike, whereby sacredness is and the political power (siyasa) of the court (diwan) that removed from the world which transforms into had partly different sources of authority and commanded a useful material that can be employed by the greater means of violence. The Arabic word of human gov- strongest (El-Messiri 2002, 16). ernmental leadership and sovereignty, siyada, is derived from sayyid, »master, lord«, which in the historical record of classical Arabic dictionaries is explained as a human attrib- El-Messiri is evidently not a supporter of com- ute endowed by God (see, e.g., Almaany online dictionary’s prehensive secularism, but he considers partial entry on siyada, especially point 14, citing the classical dic- secularism inevitable and useful in contemporary tionary Lisan al-‘Arab: https://www.almaany.com/ar/dict/ar- society. Partial secularism is a softer reconfigu- ar/%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%AF%D8%A9/). Follow- ers of a twentieth-century radical Islamist theory of divine political sovereignty speak not of siyada but of hakimiya, de- rived from the verb hakama that can mean both »to judge« 16 Arabic ‘almaniya can be translated in English as both and »to rule« and thus unites the historical competencies of »secularism« and »secularity«. shari‘a-based judgement and siyasa-based rule.

Programmatic Texts 13 · ZMO · Samuli Schielke · The power of God · 2019 16 reconfigurations of the intimate relations of disci- limited by the ecological foundations of our and pline, sustenance and exploration that come to ap- other species’ existence? What if the major pro- pear as negotiable to some degree. This may – but blem humans face in 21st century is not good life does not have to – come along with one formulation but survival? or another of a secular concept of humanity. Such The difficulty of providing a conclusive account life-worldly secularism is heretical and threaten- also seems to be a key characteristic of the dif- ing in Egypt except in a few urban milieus, in the ferent senses of good life I have touched upon in sense that it involves unauthorised ways to relate this essay: they involve a striving for or at least a to God that challenge authorised, societally con- recognition of ultimate truth, unity, a final arbiter stitutive ways to relate to Him, and empower hu- over right and wrong, one who knows for sure. At mans to individually renegotiate their position vis- the same time, they have space for one way or an- à-vis God and, by extension, with other humans. other, various degrees of intensity, discipline, sus- This includes not only the few assertive atheists tenance, exploration and more – and they involve and the somewhat more numerous (but also few) dimensions that are difficult to combine from a hu- irreligious people in Egypt. B’s poetry and the man point of view. The power of God seems there- way he relates to God and the religiosity of people fore to lie crucially in His encompassing capacity; around him are a case in point of a pious version of that is, His ability to unite contrary capacities and life-worldly secularism. qualities and thereby to create productive ten- Where there is a struggle for authorisation and sions and contradictions that structure and guide authorised orthodoxy, there is also unauthorised human lives by promising clear guidance, certain heresy. In other words, heresy is an unauthorised trust and ultimate hope. relationship with God. But whether having a pri- It is possible, even attractive, to claim an en- vatised relationship with the monotheist God (or compassing social scientific theory of Islam (as has even none at all) is heretical or not depends on the been done by Asad 1986, Ahmed 2016 and others). context. In most societal contexts in Western Eu- However, I lean more towards a recognition of the rope, a privatised human–God relationship is he- schizophrenic limits of social scientific knowledge. gemonic and orthodox, and triadic relations are God invites us to follow lines of guidance, lines of uncontested only in certain social fields (such as sustenance, lines of experience and exploration, charity and welfare). In many contexts in the Mid- lines of politics and others. What we learn from dle East, a privatised relationship with God can be following some of these lines may not be, and may heretic and experienced as a societal threat. This not have to be, resolvable with what we learn from is also why anthropological analyses about Muslim others. lives and divine and secular powers that are very fitting and true about one place may not be helpful Acknowledgements to understand other places. This article is based on presentations I gave at the Department of Anthropology at the University of About a good life Copenhagen, the Nordic Middle Eastern Studies Living a life with the God of the Qur’an is crucially conference in Odense, and the Anthropology of about living a good life under the guidance and Religion reading circle at the Free University of sustenance of an ultimately benevolent Creator. Berlin in autumn 2016, at the National Museum Goodness, righteousness, ultimate justice, mercy of Ethnology in Kyoto in March 2017, at Leibniz-­ and reward are central to monotheist faith. Good- Zentrum Moderner Orient in September 2018 and ness in this world is linked with even better re- at the workshops »Modernity, Islamic Traditions wards in the afterlife. And moral goodness is not and the Good Life – Constructing Images of Mod- separate from material goods. Livelihood, well-be- ern Muslim Selfhoods« in Kochel am See in June ing, health, wealth and offspring are among God’s 2017, and »The ›Ethical‹ and the ›Everyday‹: In- generous gifts or blessings (baraka, see Mittermai- terrogating analytical turns for/in the study of Is- er 2014) to humans. lam and Muslims in Europe« at Cambridge Uni- I am unable, and perhaps unwilling, to provide versity in November 2018. Section 2 of this essay an account of what exactly such a good life entails, incorporates material from the afterword to a because such an account would already be caught thematic section on destiny by Laura Menin and in the schizophrenic inability to perceive the mul- Alice Elliot (2018) and has been shaped in conver- titude of powers, goods and lives in combination. sation with them and contributors to the thematic Followers of different faiths and also of different section. Additionally to the many people in Egypt interpretations of the same faith often have dif- who have inspired my thinking and who are either ferent ideas about what counts as good and right. not mentioned directly or who appear in this ar- Good in what way? By whose standards? In this life ticle without their real names, I am indebted for or in the Hereafter? Life in what sense? Is good the collegial feedback, comments and ideas that life potentially abundant like baraka, or is our pos- I have received from Montaser Abdel Mawgoud, sible share in rizq and moral goodness ultimately Paola Abenante, André Chappatte, Amin El-Yousfi,

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Programmatic Texts 13 · ZMO · Samuli Schielke · The power of God · 2019 19 Nevola, Luca. 2015b. »God exists in Yemen: Part 2: Sedgwick, Mark. 2017. »Eclectic Sufism in Contem- The moral economy of rizq.« Allegra Lab, Decem- porary Cairo.« Tidsskrift for Islamforskning 11(1), ber 16. http://allegralaboratory.net/god-exists- 65–82. in-yemen-part-2-the-moral-economy-of-rizq/. Suhr, Christian. 2015. »The failed image and the Orsi, Robert. A. 2005. Between Heaven and Earth: possessed: examples of invisibility in visual The Religious Worlds People Make and the Schol- anthropology and Islam.« Journal of the Royal ars Who Study Them. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Anthropological Institute 21(S1), 96–112. DOI: University Press. 10.1111/1467-9655.12168. Salvatore, Armando and Dale F. Eickelman (eds.). Tabishat, Mohammed. 2014. The Moral Discourse 2004. Public Islam and the Common Good. Leiden: of Health in Modern Cairo. Lanham: Lexington Brill. Books. Salvatore, Armando. 2008. »Notes on Locality, Con- Vasalou, Sophia. 2008. Moral Agents and their De- nectedness, and Saintliness.« In Georg Stauth serts: The Character of Mu‘tazilite Ethics. Prince- and Samuli Schielke (eds.), Dimensions of Local- ton: Princeton University Press. ity: Muslim Saints and Their Places (Yearbook of Viveiros de Castro, Eduardo. 2003. »And: After-din- the Sociology of Islam; 8), Bielefeld: Transcript ner speech given at Anthropology and Science, Verlag, 89–100. The 5th Decennial Conference of the Association Schaeublin, Emanuel. 2016. »Zakat in Nablus (Pal- of Social Anthropologists of the UK and Com- estine): change and continuity in Islamic alms­ monwealth.« Manchester Papers in Social Anthro- giving.« PhD thesis, University of Oxford. pology 7. Schielke, Samuli. 2010. »Second thoughts about the Willerslev, Rane and Christian Suhr. 2018. »Is there anthropology of Islam, or how to make sense of a place for faith in anthropology? Religion, rea- grand schemes in everyday life.« ZMO Working son, and the ethnographer’s divine revelation.« Papers No. 2. http://www.zmo.de/publikationen/ HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 8(1–2), 65– WorkingPapers/schielke_2010.pdf. 78. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/698407 Schielke, Samuli. 2015. »Living with unresolved Ziedan, Youssef. 2012. Azazeel. Trans. Jonathan differences: Reply to Fadil and Fernando.« HAU: Wright. London: Atlantic. Journal for Ethnographic Theory 5(2), 89–92. DOI: 10.14318/hau5.2.006 Samuli Schielke is a research fellow at Leibniz-Zentrum Schielke, Samuli and Liza Debevec (eds.). 2012. Or- Moderner Orient, associate primary investigator at Berlin dinary Lives and Grand Schemes: An Anthro­pology Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies, and visit- of Everyday Religion. New York: Berghahn. ing fellow at the ERC project »Comparative Anthropologies of Revolutionary Politics« at University College London. ([email protected])

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