Announcing the message of Islam, which the Qur’an refers to as a call or an invitation (da‘wa), represents preaching as an activity that all Muslims are expected to practice (Q. 16:125). In this broad sense, engaging in religious discourse in order to instruct, edify, admonish, exhort, counsel, inspire, or proselytize is understood to be identified closely with the general mission of the entire umma, or the community of the faithful. In some contexts, including both classical and contemporary works, this emphasis on the public presentation of Islam as a universal vocation is accompanied by the recognition that, formally speaking, Islam does not have a clergy, which therefore confers the duty of preaching, in a general sense, upon all believers.
Nevertheless, the emergence of preaching, in the narrower and more specialized application of the term, dates from the earliest period of Muhammad’s response to God’s revelation, since, to a large degree, much of what is contained in the Qur’an and the sunna might be characterized as constituting preachment. This diffuse work of addressing people in God’s name, however, soon came to be framed in a particular ritual setting that fixed the standard occasion for delivering a sermon in the mosque, originally meaning the courtyard of Muhammad’s house in Medina, at the Friday noon prayer, which free male Muslims were obligated to attend. This precedent has since been codified in the Islamic legal tradition that regards the Friday prayer service, including the valid performance of the sermon, as a defining feature of a properly constituted Islamic community.
Traditionally, the right to deliver this Friday sermon was specified as the prerogative of the Prophet’s successor, who would either preach himself or delegate others to do so in his name. Accordingly, the content of the sermon was meant to embrace both sacred and secular issues. Likewise, over time, formal oratorical elements and a certain language style came to be incorporated into the practice that required considerable knowledge and skill, leading to the rise of scholarly professionals who tended to occupy the posts of preachers. Among the elements prescribed as necessary for the sermon was a formula of blessing that explicitly mentioned the name of the ruler, under whose auspices the preacher was presiding. This requirement came to take on exceptional importance at many points, especially in times of political instability, when a preacher was obliged either to confirm his old loyalty or to signal a shift of allegiance to a rival.
In nations with Muslim majorities, mosque preaching continues to have an inherent potential for addressing political as well as religious themes. Accordingly, various mechanisms are employed to regulate the conduct of preachers who, for the most part, comply with policies of the state whose institutions train, subsidize, and supervise them. Preachers expressing dissent, however, typically may still find relative freedom of expression in mosque preaching, which provides ample opportunity to convey critical views through such devices as selective omissions and leading rhetorical allusions.
See also commanding right and forbidding wrong; Friday prayer; mosque; propaganda; pulpit
Further Reading
Jonathan Berkey, Popular Preaching and Religious Authority in the Medieval Islamic Near East, 2001; Jacques Waardenburg, “Islam as a Vehicle of Protest,” in Islamic Dilemmas: Reformers, Nationalists and Industrialization, edited by Ernest Gellner, 1985.
PATRICK D. GAFFNEY