May God Repay You: The Tenet of Baraji in Southern Mali, West Africa

Muslims in the West African state of Mali use baraji, which translates from Bambara as ‘divine reward’ or ‘recompense’, as a criterion for understanding proper religious practice. The concept also drives Muslims’ lifelong aim to acquire the unspecified amount of merit that God requires for a person...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Bell, Dianna (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2015
In: Journal of religion in Africa
Year: 2015, Volume: 45, Issue: 2, Pages: 150-169
Further subjects:B Mali West Africa merit Islam baraji Bambara ancestral relations kinship
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Description
Summary:Muslims in the West African state of Mali use baraji, which translates from Bambara as ‘divine reward’ or ‘recompense’, as a criterion for understanding proper religious practice. The concept also drives Muslims’ lifelong aim to acquire the unspecified amount of merit that God requires for a person to enter paradise. Drawing from life history and ethnographic research, this piece deepens understanding of West African Islam by exploring the Qur’anic basis of baraji and situates the concept as a form of value through which Muslims discern the complementary places of different ritual practices and daily choices in their lives. In order to understand the ways that Malian Muslims seek measurable units of baraji to benefit both the living and the dead, this study also shows how kin earn baraji on one another’s behalf, especially through posthumous sacrifices. By doing so, the article highlights death as a process in which the acquisition of baraji continues through kin and sacrifices, revealing West African Islam as embedded in daily social life and relations with one’s ancestors.
ISSN:1570-0666
Contains:In: Journal of religion in Africa
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/15700666-12340038