it is comparable to the animal sacrifices performed
for the Id al-Adha. It is supposed to earn forgive-
ness for wrongs done during Ramadan and help
provide assistance to the poor so that they can
enjoy the holiday too. Muslims who are able are
expected to attend a special communal prayer in
the early morning, traditionally held in open air
or at a mosqUe, where they listen to a holiday ser-
mon. When prayers end, people go home to break
their fast with a daytime meal.
Like other major feasts during the year, Id
al-Fitr enhances the sense of community among
believers. People gather together with family and
friends; children go outdoors to play wearing
brightly colored new holiday clothes. Girls in
india and pakistan show off fresh henna designs
on the hands and arms. Gifts are exchanged
between family members. Each local Muslim cul-
ture has its own holiday food traditions. In many
countries, sweet pastries are a favorite food, tra-
ditionally prepared by Women at home during the
last days of Ramadan. Rice and vermicelli dishes
are also popular.
See also almsgiving; Feasting; Food and
drink.
Further reading: Marjo Buitelaar, Fasting and Feasting
in Morocco: Women’s Participation in Ramadan (Oxford:
Berg, 1993); Riadh El-Droubie, “Muslim Festivals.” In
Festivals in World Religions, edited by Alan Brown, 211–
- (New York: Longman, 1986); Hava Lazarus-Yafeh,
“Muslim Festivals.” Numen 25 (April 1978): 52–64.
idolatry
Idolatry (Arabic: shirk) in Islam is mentioned in
the qUran in a variety of forms whose root (sh-r-
k) meaning is “sharing, participating, associating,”
in the context of “associating” anything other
than God with God. “Associationism” in Islamic
tradition has been applied in two basic contexts.
The primary meaning is usually understood as
actual polytheism or the worship of images, both
overt infringements of Islam’s cardinal principle,
tawhid, declaring in life and thought “the one-
ness of God.” The secondary and polemic sense
involves accusations by some Muslims against
other Muslims for being insufficiently “pure” in
thought or practice, even though those accused of
shirk might consider themselves monotheists in
good standing.
The early quranic contexts for shirk, mean-
ing polytheism and idolatry, identify “opponents”
of Muhammad and the early umma, or religious
community of Muslims, among the pagan Mec-
cans. According to one of the earliest postquranic
Arabic sources on pre-Islamic religion, Kitab al-
asnam (The book of idols) attributed to Hisham
ibn al-Kalbi (d. 821), the Prophet’s pagan contem-
poraries among the qUraysh, who dominated the
social, political, economic, and religious life of his
hometown, mecca, had images of plural divini-
ties and sacred powers within the center of tribal
worship for the region, the kaaba, including such
deities as Hubal, Shams, Sin, and, among others,
a triple goddess associated with Arabian star-wor-
ship of Venus as the morning-evening star who
is named briefly (Q 53:20) in the Quran as Allat
(fem. of Allah, lit. “the Goddess”), al-Uzza (fem.
“the Mighty One”), and Manat.
According to a highly problematic narrative
known later as the satanic verses, the triple
goddesses were alluded to in the eighth- to mid-
ninth-century biography of the prophet (Sirat
rasul Allah) as well as described by Muslim histo-
rian al-Tabari in his early tenth-century History of
the prophets and kings as “the high flying cranes
(gharaniq) whose intercession is to be hoped for.”
In other words, the early Meccans could continue
to have recourse to the triple goddess alongside
recourse to allah. This reference to the “satanic
verses,” which do not actually appear in the
Quran as we have it today, is usually explained
in Islamic exegesis as an occasion of abrogation
(naskh) in the Quran wherein God sent down a
later revelation (Q 53:19–23) to supersede and
“abrogate” the authority of the earlier narrative
suggested in the Sira. The quranic verses as theyidolatry 343 J