Abstract
This chapter considers the range of rationales that motivate Muslims in Cabetigo to generate, accumulate and transfer merit. Merit-making rationales relate to beliefs about a Muslim’s obligations to Allah and the deceased, and the efficacious operations of merit in dunio and alam al-barzakh. Those who fulfill their ritual obligations to Allah are rewarded with merit. Merit accumulated in dunio contributes to the one’s comfort in the grave. A second set of merit-making rationales relate to both obligations to the deceased and the ability for bun or pahalo to be transferred to those in the grave. A major concern in this chapter is to highlight the lack of consensus in Cabetigo concerning the correct and effective means for assisting the dead. The third and final merit-making rationale considered below is the operation of merit in dunio to assist the living. The generation, accumulation and transference of merit in Cabetigo resemble an economy of merit which I compare with conventional economic activity. This chapter concludes by delineating the Thai influences and Islamic credentials of Muslim merit making in Cabetigo.
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Notes
- 1.
Surahs 23:100, 25:53 and 55:20.
- 2.
Eklund thus referred to the dead being “perpetually at home to receive visitors”.
- 3.
The most important of these are medieval death manuals imparting moral lessons to the living, written by Ibn Abi al-Dunya (d. 894), al-Ghazali (d. 1111), Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 1350) and al-Suyuti (d. 1505).
- 4.
Benjamin Soares, in his study of Islam in Mali, notes that in addition to people generally seeking to “assure their place in the next world” they frequently wish to “obtain merit and God’s blessings in the world in which they are living as well” (1996, p. 744).
- 5.
- 6.
Muhammad Qasim Zaman quotes a second prophetic tradition involving qirat and the mountain of Uhud states: “He who recites 100 verses [from the Qur’an] will not be reckoned among the heedless (Ar. ghafiluin); [the name of one] who recites 200 will be written among the devout (Ar. qanitun); one who recites 300 will be written among the upright (Ar. qa'imfn); and for one who recites 400, there will be a qintar—a qintar is 100 mithqal, a mithqal is 20 qirat, and a qirat is like Uhud” (2001, p. 28).
- 7.
1,600 m2.
- 8.
Similar points are make by Marion Katz (2007, pp. 143–168).
- 9.
- 10.
- 11.
This issue is one which features in Stephen Headley’s studies of Islam in Central Java (2000, 2001, 2004).
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Joll, C.M. (2012). Merit-Making Rationales and Motivations. In: Muslim Merit-making in Thailand's Far-South. Muslims in Global Societies Series, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2485-3_8
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