View source for Karamat

{{Short description|Miracles of Muslim saints}}
{{redirect|Keramat|the district in Sulawesi, Indonesia|Keramat, Sulawesi}}
{{other uses}}
{{Italic title}}
{{Sunni Islam}}
{{Sufism|Ideas}}
In [[Sufism]], '''''karamat''''' ({{langx|ar|کرامات|translit=karāmāt}}, singular {{langx|ar|کرامة|translit=karāma}})<ref>*{{Cite book|author=Hans Wehr, J. Milton Cowan| year=1979 | title=A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic|publisher=Spoken Language Services|edition=4th|url=https://ejtaal.net/aa/#q=krm}}</ref> refers to supernatural wonders performed by [[Wali|Muslim saints]]. In the technical vocabulary of Islamic religious sciences, the singular form ''karamat'' has a sense similar to ''[[charism]]'', a favor or spiritual gift freely bestowed by God.<ref name=karama>Gardet, L., “Karāma”, in: ''Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition'', Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs.</ref>  The marvels ascribed to Muslim saints have included supernatural physical actions, predictions of the future, "interpretation of the secrets of hearts",<ref name=karama/> and walking on water.<ref>Aziz, M. A. (2011). Religion and Mysticism in Early Islam: Theology and Sufism in Yemen. Vereinigtes Königreich: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 46</ref> 

The concept is closely related to that of ''[[Barakah]]'' (divine blessing) which endows the individual with such abilities.<ref name="Ernst">{{cite book|last1=Ernst|first1=Carl W.|title=The Shambhala Guide to Sufism|date=1997|publisher=Shambhala|location=Boston, Massachusetts|isbn=9781570621802|edition=1st|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781570621802|page=68}}</ref> Another characteristic of miraculous powers is that the saint's [[Dua|prayers]] are answered immediately. These prayers must never be for material gain, but are requests for helping or punishing others, if seen befitting.<ref>Schimmel, Annemarie. Mystische Dimensionen des Islam: Die Geschichte des Sufismus. Diederichs, 1992. p. 230 (German)</ref> The prayers of saints may also grand them power over the fate of angels, as in mystical hagiography, a saint may pray for forgiveness of a ''[[Fallen angel#Islam|fallen angel]]'' and restore their place in the [[Angels in Islam|angelic hierarchy]].<ref>Schimmel, Annemarie. Mystische Dimensionen des Islam: Die Geschichte des Sufismus. Diederichs, 1992. p. 230 (German)</ref>

== History ==
Historically, a "belief in the miracles of saints (''karāmāt al-awliyāʾ'', literally 'marvels of the friends [of God]')" has been a part of Sufi [[Sunni Islam]].<ref>Jonathan A.C. Brown, "Faithful Dissenters," ''Journal of Sufi Studies'' 1 (2012), p. 123</ref> This is evident from the fact that an acceptance of the miracles wrought by [[wali|saints]] is taken for granted by many of the major authors of the [[Islamic Golden Age]] (ca. 700–1400),<ref name="wali">Radtke, B., Lory, P., Zarcone, Th., DeWeese, D., Gaborieau, M., F.M. Denny, Françoise Aubin, J.O. Hunwick and N. Mchugh, “Walī”, in: ''Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition'', Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs.</ref> as well as by many prominent late-medieval scholars.<ref name="wali" /> According to orthodox Sunni doctrine, all miracles performed by saints are done by the leave of [[God]],<ref name="wali" /> and usually involve a "breaking of the natural order of things" (''khāriq li’l-ʿāda'')," or represent, in other words, "an extraordinary happening which breaks the 'divine custom' (''sunnat Allāh'') which is the normal course of events."<ref name="karama" /> Traditionally, Sunni Islam has also strictly emphasized that the miracles of a saint, no matter how extraordinary they may be, are never in any way the "sign of a prophetic mission," and this has been stressed in order to safeguard the Islamic doctrine of Muhammad being the [[Seal of the Prophets]].<ref name=karama/>

[[Abu Sa'id Abu'l-Khayr]], who lived in the second half of the twelfth century, can be seen as an example of Sufi-conversation and miracle performance of his time.<ref>Aziz, M. A. (2011). Religion and Mysticism in Early Islam: Theology and Sufism in Yemen. Vereinigtes Königreich: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 45</ref> In his twenties, it is said he had a vision, while he was sleeping, ordering him to pray. Thereupon he woke up and began to learn and practise all Islamic rituals and teachings, until he eventually reached the state of ''[[Fana (Sufism)|fanāʾ]]''. During his spiritual journey, at the time he entered [[Zabid|Zabīd]], he began to experience divine gifts and gathered a multitude of followers around him. A group of people once challanged one of his disciples, whereupon al-Khayr's student, with aid of his tachers influence, began to walk on water.<ref>Aziz, M. A. (2011). Religion and Mysticism in Early Islam: Theology and Sufism in Yemen. Vereinigtes Königreich: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 45</ref>

== Creed ==
The doctrine of the ''karāmāt al-awliyāʾ'', which became enshrined as an [[ijma|orthodox]] and required belief in many of the most prominent Sunni creeds of the classical era, such as the [[aqida|creeds]] of [[Al-Aqidah al-Tahawiyyah|al-Tahawi]] (ca. 900) and [[Abu Hafs Umar an-Nasafi]] (ca. 1000), emerged from the two basic Islamic doctrinal sources of the [[Quran]] and the [[hadith]].<ref name=karama/> As the Quran referred to the miracles of non-prophetic saintly people like [[Khidr]] ([[al-Kahf|18]]:65–82), the [[disciples of Jesus in Islam|disciples of Jesus]] ([[al-Ma'idah|5]]:111–115), and the [[Seven Sleepers]] ([[al-Kahf|18]]:7–26), amongst many others, many prominent early scholars deduced that a group of venerable people must exist who occupy a rank below the [[prophets and messengers in Islam|prophets and messengers]] but who are nevertheless capable of performing miracles.<ref name=wali/>

The references in the corpus of [[hadith]] literature to ''bona fide'' miracle-working saints like the pre-Islamic Jurayj̲, seemingly an Arabic form of the Greek ''Grēgorios'',<ref>Bukkhārī. ''Saḥīḥ al-ʿamal fi ’l-ṣalāt'', Bāb 7, ''Maẓālim'', Bāb 35</ref><ref>Muslim (Cairo 1283), v, 277</ref><ref>Maḳdisī, ''al-Badʾ wa ’l-taʾrīk̲h̲'', ed. Huart, Ar. text 135</ref><ref>Samarḳandī, ''Tanbīh'', ed. Cairo 1309, 221</ref> only lent further credence to this early understanding of the miracles of the saints.<ref name=wali/> The fourteenth-century [[Hanbali]] scholar [[ibn Taymiyya]] (d. 1328), despite his well-known objections to [[ziyara]] (visiting of [[Mazar (mausoleum)|saints' graves]]), nevertheless stated:
{{quote|The miracles of saints are absolutely true and correct, by the acceptance of all Muslim scholars. And the Qur'an has pointed to it in different places, and the sayings of the Prophet have mentioned it, and whoever denies the miraculous power of saints are only people who are innovators and their followers.<ref>Ibn Taymiyyah, ''al-Mukhtasar al-Fatawa al-Masriyya'', 1980, p. 603</ref>}}
As one contemporary scholar has expressed it, practically all of the major scholars of the classical and medieval eras believed that "the lives of saints and their miracles were incontestable."<ref>Josef W. Meri, The Cult of Saints among Muslims and Jews in Medieval Syria (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 68</ref>

In the modern world, this doctrine of the miracles of saints has been challenged by certain movements within the branches of [[Salafism]], [[Wahhabism]], and [[Islamic modernism]], as certain followers of some of these movements have come to view the very idea of Muslim saints "as being both un-Islamic and backwards ... rather than the integral part of Islam which they were for over a millennium."<ref>Juan Eduardo Campo, ''Encyclopedia of Islam'' (New York: Infobase Publishing, 2009), p. 600</ref> Islamic modernists, in particular, have tended to dismiss traditional conceptions as "superstitious" rather than authentically Islamic.<ref name=karama/> Despite the presence, however, of these opposing streams of thought, the classical doctrine continues to thrive in many parts of the Islamic world today, playing a vital role in the daily piety of vast portions of Muslim countries like [[Pakistan]], [[Bangladesh]], [[Egypt]], [[Turkey]], [[Senegal]], [[Iraq]], [[Iran]], [[Algeria]], [[Tunisia]], [[Indonesia]], [[Malaysia]], and [[Morocco]],<ref name=karama/> as well as in countries with substantive Islamic populations like India, China, Russia, and the [[Balkans]].<ref name=wali/>

In the [[Malay Peninsula]] and surrounding cultural regions, ''keramat'' means any special tomb of any religious person venerated, including Buddhists and Taoists.<ref>{{cite thesis |author=Muhammad Faisal Husni |title=The grave that became a shrine: the lives of keramat graves in Singapore |degree=Master of Arts (Research) |url=https://dr.ntu.edu.sg/handle/10220/47512 |date=2018 |doi=10.32657/10220/47512 |publisher=[[Nanyang Technological University]]|hdl=10220/47512 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Haydar Ghazi]], also known as Abul Karamat
*[[Tay al-Arz]], the saintly power of teleportation
*[[Datuk Keramat]], local folk religion in Malaysia and Singapore

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*[[Reynold A. Nicholson]], Chapter 5 "Saints and Miracles" of  ''The Mystics of Islam''. 2002. {{ISBN|0-941532-48-8}} pp.&nbsp;88–104
*[[J. Spencer Trimingham|Trimingham, J. Spencer]]. ''The Sufi Orders in Islam''. Oxford University Press. 1971. {{ISBN|0-19-501662-9}} pp.&nbsp;26–28

{{Sufism terminology}}
{{Portal bar|Religion|Islam|Education|Psychology}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Islamic terminology]]
[[Category:Islamic miracles]]