The Encyclopedia of World Religions

212 S imam

form as gods, buddhas, and saints? Or do we find God best by taking away all that is not God, all that is man-made, worshipping him only as spirit and with the help only of words, not of things seen? These are questions that still divide the religious world. imam Arabic word meaning “leader.” The word is used in very different ways in I SLAM . In S UNNI I SLAM an imam is a leader of a MOSQUE . He is rec ognized for his understanding of the FAITH and his upright life. His duties include preaching the ser mon at the Friday noon PRAYER service ( see SALAT ). In S HI ’ ITE I SLAM the word takes on quite a dif ferent sense. Shi’ites are distinguished by their conviction that the leadership of the Islamic com munity should have passed through the prophet M UHAMMAD ’s cousin Ali, husband of the prophet’s daughter Fatimah, to his grandchildren and their male descendants. These leaders, who were denied their rightful rule over the entire Islamic commu nity, are called imams. Shi’ites hold that these imams should exercise both political and religious authority. However, even when they were not in political power, they continued to exercise religious authority by inter preting Islam to their communities and preserving its values. Different Shi’ite factions recognize different lines of imams. The largest and most conservative group, known as the Twelvers, believe that their 12th imam went into hiding in 873 C . E . and will reappear at the end of time. Another major group, the Ismailis, believe that the line of imams contin ues today. For example, a branch or subgroup, the Nizari Ismailis, recognize the A GA K HAN as their 49th imam. Inanna The most important Sumerian GODDESS . Inanna’s name means “Lady of the Sky.” She her self was associated with the planet Venus. She was identified with the Akkadian and Babylonian god dess Ishtar, was related to the Canaanite goddess Astarte ( see C ANAANITE RELIGION ), and is in some

food-offerings, accompanied by prostrations or kneeling, to those who totally reject all such wor ship. In the former camp would be much of H IN DUISM , B UDDHISM , and R OMAN C ATHOLICISM , together with much of P RIMAL RELIGION and ancient E GYPTIAN RELIGION , G REEK RELIGION , and R OMAN RELIGION . On the latter side would be I SLAM , J UDAISM , and Prot estant Christianity. However, mediating positions can be found between extremes. E ASTERN O RTHODOX C HRISTIANITY venerates sacred pictures of saints, called icons, but not three-dimensional statues. Many Protestants will accept pictures of biblical and other religious scenes, often in the form of stained-glass windows, together with crosses on altars and occasionally even statues, so long as they are not actually worshipped. Jews will usu ally accept pictures and symbols so long as they do not attempt to depict the divine and are not worshipped in the place of the divine. Those who reject the worship of images call such images “idols” and their veneration “idola try,” holding that they are honored in the place of the true G OD , and that such worship is highly offensive to God. Those who do use images in worship usually respond that this is not the case, though ways of interpreting the use of images may vary. Sometimes it is said that, though the statue is not exactly a god or saint in itself, it does have a definite and permanent relationship to the holy entity, who chooses to dwell in or, as it were, behind or above the image, so that worship of the form is definitely received by the divine being. Others would say the image is only a symbol or reminder of the divine, though one that it is quite appropriate to use. Nonetheless, the question of using images or not has been the stuff of bitter religious con flict and even bloody persecution. It was an issue in the Protestant R EFORMATION in Europe, and in the confrontation of Hinduism and Islam in India. Two different views of religion, and of the relation to religion of works of art and of the visual sense, lie behind the conflict. Do we use that which is seen, and is made by human hands usually in human form, to lift us to the sacred, because the sacred can in fact live in human