Umma (Islam)

Umma or ummah (from Arabic: امة [ˈƱm.mæ]) is the term used in the Quran and also in the Constitution of Medina to designate the community Muslim. Etymologically it comes from the Arabic ummah, which literally translates into the word “community” according to the Royal Spanish Academy; although in the definition of the term it states: “Community of believers in Islam”. The description of its properties, characteristics and theoretical scope has evolved throughout history and continues to be the object of study and debate by researchers. from the scientific field as well as theology. Currently the value of these studies and their results affect the lives of nearly one billion eight hundred million people devoted to the Muslim religion distributed throughout the planet.

The concept of umma was born with the preaching of Muhammad, in the territory of the Arabian Peninsula at the beginning of the VII century our era. Some authors place it in the year 632, specifically in the last sermon upon his return to Mecca, known as the “Final Pilgrimage.” This idea will cause a substantial transformation of the ties of identity that governed the pre-Islamic Arab tribes., linked mainly for reasons of kinship or political agreements between clans or chiefs. With Muhammad the Muslim faith will be that thread of community unity and will exceed the Arab ethnographic scope, for the sake of a universal expansion of the Islamic world.

The birth of the umma will therefore occur in a historical and social framework governed by the pluri-religiosity of the tribes and inhabitants of ancient Arabia, in a cultural context influenced by religious traditions with several centuries of settlement in the region, as is the case of those of Persian origin and the Jewish and Christian monotheistic currents. The political and religious unification that the Prophet Muhammad will lead in the peninsula and its subsequent expansion across large areas of Asia, Africa and part of Europe, will intensify the interest of Koranic schools and secular scholars in a better understanding of this new community or umma that supports a new civilizational force.

The umma (Arabic: امة) or community of believers of Islam includes all those who profess the Islamic religion, regardless of their nationality, origin, sex or social status. Most scholars opt for the more inclusive view of membership in Islam and thus, normally, anyone who pronounces the shahada under the prescribed conditions is considered to become part of the Muslim community of believers.

However, there were and are visions that deny said belonging to the most serious sinners or to those belonging to any Muslim creed other than that of the interlocutor (Sunnis, Shiites, Kharijites).

Basics

The umma as a Muslim community is a concept that, in accordance with the religion that supports it, has a universal vocation. It expands and is projected on the political, economic and social plane. It is part of other notions that define aspects of human collectives (people, nation, State, society), without being confused with them. In the lands of Islam it is considers the notion of "umma” as a true substance of the Muslim soul. A bond that unites believers beyond territories, nations, ethnicities, etc.

The ethical-religious support of the umma is found in the pillars of Islam and in the existence of a morality and a right common to all believers established by the Quran and completed or specified in the Sunna. The political-economic support is also interpreted from the sacred texts and is based on the conviction that the umma is based on the same political regime based on general consensus and consultation open to all its members. On the economic level, it is pointed out that solidarity must govern the distribution of all the world's goods.

This interpretation of the umma is inseparable from another Quranic concept, the asabiyyah, translated as consciousness of social solidarity. In the Middle Ages, the historian and sociologist Ibn Khaldun pointed out various forms of asabiyyah, from those that unite small tribal or urban groups to what he defined as the great asabiyyah that unites all the members of the great Muslim community, the Umma. According to Ibn Khaldun, it is in the strength of the sabiyyah where the strength or, on the contrary, the weakness of the State resides. For for the members of the great umma, the caliphs, chiefs or leaders are not a source of law nor do they legitimize their power except to the extent that they respect the maxims of Islam. The subjects only feel solidarity among themselves, Ibn Khaldun points out: “the Umma is under the protection of the Umma itself.”

The umma in the Quran

The term umma appears mentioned 62 times in the Quran but not always with the same meaning. This is confirmed by various researchers who point out that sometimes umma refers to ethnic, linguistic or religious groups subject to the divine plan of salvation. But On other occasions the term is linked to a small group within a larger community of believers, even to an identity or way of being of a human group.