These past few weeks we have read two different authors; Meri and Grehan, who both approach the concept of saints in their writings. Meri starts by categorizing saints in two categories; traditional saints and historical saints. Traditional saints are those who were prophets, patriarchs, and other figures from monotheistic traditions. Historical saints are those who are mystics, rulers, and others who generally lived in the Islamic period. These two definitions give us a fundamental base of our future definition of what makes a saint in the Judaism religion and Muslim religion. The overall arching theme of saints between theses religions we have study is that they provide people with a security blanket, its something they can pray to and hope for, each saint has different strengths and weaknesses that people relate to them.
Today when we hear the word saint we think of a charismatic individual who attains the Christian ideal of perfection in his or her lifetime. Usually these individuals go through the process of beatification and canonization as being worthy of veneration by the Catholic Church. The process of recognizing saints in Islam is much different. It is both personal and informal; nominations were often based on a popular census of the common people and their accounts of interactions with the saints. These saints are living and dead. Islam also has something called Baraka, which is a divinely inspired quality that makes saints holy. Baraka is a security force, though it can be very good, but one must be careful how they use it because it can be used for bad as well as good. In Judaism saints were regarded as miracle workers, all the prophets had different miracles they could perform. For example, Abraham depicted as a healer and Elijah was known for quickening the dead and able to multiple grain and oil. These saints they look to are long dead. Judaism also had strong beliefs in ancestry. ‘Merits of the Ancestors’ is the idea that one must have good ancestral merit and do good deeds to receive salvation of the soul. The overall Jewish cultural we see an absence of Jewish saints and more of a focus on the idea of righteous ancestors would look after the Jewish people.
Overall idea of saints is more influential in the Muslim religion than the Judaism religion. Saints are more involve in the everyday life- culture in an Islam society. Saints are a contemporary aspect to daily life.
The past week we have read the chapter “Blood and Prayer” by Grehan. One key point that stood out to me was that people wanted their sacrifices to be offered to the saints, not God. This made me think why Saints and not God? Saints provide a more physical intimacy, where the worshipper can go to the saints shrine and be there. Saints are more personable than God. One has the opportunity to connect to the saint and get what they need.
After studying this material I am left with some questions; Why worship a God in general, when saints have such a strong impact on the people alone? How does one in a Muslim religion validate sainthood/ respect ones community’s choice of a saint if they oppose the individual? How does one become a saint that is recognized by Muslims all over the world? Why do ancestors play a more important role in Judaism than saints? These are just some of the questions I want to explore in my future paper regarding saints across these religions.
