Ulema

Ulema is the community of scholars of Islam and Sharia law. The term literally means "those who have knowledge" or "those who know" (from Arabic 'ilm, knowledge or learning), and is generally used to refer to the learned academic class of Muslim societies, whose main occupation is the study of the texts that make up the tradition Islamic (religious sciences such as the Qur'an, hadith, Qur'anic commentary, jurisprudence, and theology, but also applied sciences such as medicine, biology, astronomy, and mathematics). Although the word ulema is singular in Spanish, in Arabic it is plural (ʿulamā'), its singular being ʿalīm, meaning "scholar&# 3. 4;.

A ʿalīm is the product of a religious institution of higher learning (madrasa), where he is educated to be a religious official, for example a judge (qadhi) who makes legal decisions in accordance with sharia, a preacher (jatib ) who reads the Friday sermon, a jurist (faqih) or canonical lawyer (mufti), who gives a formal opinion (fetua) on the legality of a case. Thus, members of the ulema class have also been called upon to act as advisors to rulers or as qadis (judges) implementing the law (sharia) within Muslim societies. The authority of the mullah class in defining correct doctrine and practice within Islam has been immense in Muslim history.

Their organization and powers may change depending on which Muslim community they belong to. Often described as the "clergy" Muslim, ulama do not have a rigid organization. They do not require ordination or hierarchy of authority, although in the Ottoman Empire the Shaykh al-Islam was the Grand Mufti of Istanbul and he appointed all the muftis in the big cities. After independence, chief muftis were established in large cities, but the decision of one mufti is not necessarily binding on the others. Only in Shi'a imamism has there been a development towards a centralized church, with the victory of the Usuli branch of jurisprudence.

The authority of the ulama in matters of doctrine and law has been definitive. The ulema themselves, however, have been divided on many issues and therefore should not be seen as a unified group with common purposes and intentions. An example of this division can be seen in the famous Mihna inquisition that began in AD 829. AD, when a group of scholars, the Mu'tazili, persuaded the Abbasid Caliph to persecute (and declare as heretics) scholars who did not adhere to the doctrine of the 'created Qur'an.'

The ulema are especially powerful in Shiism, where their role is institutionalized, but they are subservient to the heirs of Ali, and the hierarchy of mullahs. In most countries, numerous sages such as Averroes, Al-Khwarismi, Ibn Khaldun and the sages of the hadith are mere figures of power, later the jurists, chemists, historians and physicists, followed by doctors, mathematicians and scholars. poets; all were structuring their knowledge based on the methodological rules imposed by the scholars of the hadith.

Debate over the role of the ulama in the life of the Muslim community became more heated in the modern period. In the Shi'i Imami (Twelver), Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini argued that the ulama should govern the Muslim community until the return of the Hidden Imam, a theory he put into practice after Iran's Islamic revolution in 1979.

In the modern Sunni Muslim world, on the other hand, several trends can be recognized. Many Sunni Muslim governments have used members of the ulama to portray their government as religious, in a way reminiscent of the medieval period. However, in revivalist movements there is a backlash against the ulama, who are often seen as obscurantists and pedants, more concerned with matters of religious technicality than with the more important issues of preserving Muslim identity in the light of non-Muslim imperialism. Popularist commentaries on the Qur'an by, for example, Sayyid Qutb or Abul Ala Maududi, represent a rejection of the ulema and an exhortation to "the people" to approach the divine texts without the burden of the academic tradition of learning.

In other Muslim countries (eg, Saudi Arabia and Morocco), however, there is a re-emergence of the ulema as active political agents, working for change. In the recent past, the Saudi ulema have challenged the concentration of power in the person of the king and his royal family. In Morocco, legal scholars such as Muhammad Allal al-Fasi have stood up against the modernization of Islamic law, and along with others has been responsible for an intellectual movement in which sharia is seen as more sensitive to the needs of a changing society under the influence of scientific and technological changes.