OverviewThe term ummadesignates one of the most
fundamental concepts in Islam. Often translated as
the “Muslim community” of men and women, the
term has assumed different meanings in evolving
historical circumstances. Conceptually, the mean-
ing of the term ummaunderwent significant trans-
formations in three main contexts: the early,
formative use of the term in the Qur±àn and ™adìth;
the elaboration of the concept in Islamic legal and
political thought; and finally, the extension of the
use of the term to denote national communities and
the concept of a nation. The sources for the study
of the concept of ummain the first phase are both
relatively limited and equivocal. In the second and
third phases of its development, a wealth of histor-
ical information and a vast and diverse literature
both refine and complicate the understanding of
the concept in its different settings and contexts.
The foundational source for the study of the
Islamic concept of ummais, naturally, the Qur±àn.
The term ummaappears 64 times in the Qur±àn; in
Qur±ànic usage, it usually designates a people to
whom God sends a prophet, or a people who are
objects of a divine plan of salvation. In both cases,
the term umma, and the communities identified in
its various uses, equally refer to and are made up of
men and women. According to most studies of the
Qur±ànic concept, the term ummarefers to a single
group sharing some sort of common religious ori-
entation. In Qur±ànic usage, however, the connota-
tions of community and religion do not always
converge.
The word ummahas multiple and diverse mean-
ings in the Qur±àn. In several instances it refers to
an unspecified group of people (for example, “And
when he [Moses] came to the water of Madyan, he
found on it a group of men [umma min al-nàs]
watering,” 28:23). The term can also mean a spe-
cific religion or the beliefs of a group of people (for
example, “they say: We found our fathers follow-
ing a certain umma, and we are guided by their
footprints,” 43:22), or an exemplar or model of
faith, as in the reference to Abraham as an “umma,
obedient to God” (16:120). Ummaalso refers to
the followers of prophets (for example, “For every
ummathere is an apostle,” 10:47); to a group of
people adhering to a specific religion (for example,
Umma
“To each one of you We have appointed a law and
a pattern of life. If God had pleased He could surely
have made you all a single umma,” 5:48); to a
smaller group within the larger community of
adherents (for example, “They are not all alike;
among the people of the Book is an upright
umma,” 3:113); to the followers of Mu™ammad
who are charged with a special responsibility (for
example, “And thus We have made you a medium
ummathat you may be the bearers of witness to the
people and that the Apostle may be a bearer of wit-
ness to you,” 2:143); or to a subgroup of these fol-
lowers (for example, “So let there be an umma
among you who may call to good, enjoin what is
right and forbid the wrong, and these it is that shall
be successful,” 3:104).
Ummaalso often denotes a misguided group of
people (for example, “Were it not that all people
would be a single umma, We would certainly have
allocated to those who disbelieve in the Beneficent
God [to make] of silver the roofs of their houses
and the stairs by which they ascend,” 43:33), or a
misguided party from among the followers of a
prophet (for example, “And on the day when We
will gather from every ummaa party from among
those who rejected Our communications, then they
shall be formed into groups,” 27:83, or “Then We
sent Our apostles one after the other; whenever
there came to an ummatheir apostle, they called
him a liar, so We made one follow the other [to its
dooms], and We turned them into bygone tales,”
23:44). Ummacould mean a period of time (“And
if We hold back from them the punishment until a
stated umma/period of time, they will say,” 11:8);
it can also mean an order of being (“And there is no
animal that walks upon the earth nor a bird that
flies with its two wings but they are an ummalike
yourself,” 6:38).
With the vast majority of Qur±ànic injunc-
tions addressed jointly and explicitly to men and
women (al-mu±minìna wa-al-mu±minàt), and lack-
ing any textual evidence for a gender specific use of
the term umma, the community in the Qur±ànic
conception of ummaencompasses men and women
alike. This inclusive use of the term is corroborated
in the events of the formative period and, to a great
extent, in the ™adìthliterature where the communal
sense of the term is clearly articulated. Although it
is hard to come up with precise estimates, it is likely