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ORGANIZATION
OF THE DRUZE COMMUNITY
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The hikma is only
known to an elite of
religiously trained men ,the uqqal. Most Druze know only parts of their religion’s theology , and they are referred
to as juhhal ,‘ignorants’.One out of 50 members of the uqqal,reach as high as
perfection, and are called ‘ajawid, ‘noble ’,and work as the real leaders of
the Druze religion .The uqqal take care of the religion for the juhhal ,
and they alone attend the
religious meetings taking place at the night between Thursday and Friday,in ordinary
buildings in the outskirts of Druze villages. For the Druze,the centre of
religious activities islocated to the mountainous region called Jabalu
d-Duruz in Syria The juhhal
perform few of the
typical Muslim rituals ,prayer is not performed in mosques , fast is not
performed during the Muslim month of Ramadan,and there are no obligations of
performing the hajj, Muslim pilgrimage. |
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LIFE STYLES
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The Druze follow a life style of isolation where no conversion is
allowed, neither out of, or into, the religion. When Druze live among people
of other religions, they try to blend in , in order to
protect their religion and
their own safety . They can pray as Muslims , or as Christians depending on where they
are . This system is apparently changing in modern times, where more
security has allowed Druze to be more open about their religious belonging.Druze
have earlier been reported to practice polygamy. But there is no evidence of
such a practice among Druze today. Druze abstain from wine and tobacco. There are clear prohibitions
against any practice that could involve profanity of the religion.Druze have
a strong community feeling, where they identify themselves as related even
across borders of countries.There are sources suggesting that the Druze was a
people of their own even before conversion to the faith al-Hakim.
Unsubstantiated theories point in direction of the Druze being descendants of
Persian colonists, while another theory says they are descendants of
Christians from the time of the crusades. The latter is not very likely, due
to the fact that the first crusade came about80 years after al-Hakim’s
disappearance.Despite their practice of blending with dominant groups in
order to avoid persecution, the Druze have had a history of brave resistance
to occupying powers, and they have at times enjoyed more freedom than most
other groups living in the Levant . |
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