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MOLBOG 535
avoiding pork. All the other prescriptions of Islamic orthodoxy are secondary
and only vaguely observed. The five daily prayers are never performed, and the
rule of fasting during Ramadan is never respected. Only the imams pray once a
week on Fridays and fast at the beginning and the end of Ramadan. No Molbog
has the money to visit Mecca so no one uses the title hajji. Islamic taxes, zakat
and sadakat, are paid irregularly.
The content of the Molbog's Islam is syncretic, and many pre-Islamic beliefs
and practices are present, blending with Islam in a unique religious body. Under
Allah and Tuhan, (God) the omnipotent and ultimate cause of everything, a large
number of spirits and beings (jinn, Saitan, Gargasi, Hantu) populate the supernatural
world of the Molbog. Besides orthodox Islamic festivals, traditional
rituals and ceremonies are performed to propitiate the good spirits and keep away
the evil ones. Together with the pakir, traditional shamans and practitioners
(balian) worship the divinities.
Islam has not changed traditional religion, it just reshaped it to make it compatible
with a monotheistic nature. Some of the names of the supernatural beings
were changed and to the traditional magical spellings and prayers was adjoined
the profession of faith: "La ilaha ilia' Llah wa Muhammad Rasullullah ,, ("There
is no God but Allah and Muhammad is His Prophet"). The entire complex of
beliefs and prayers existing before the conversion has been maintained, but
simultaneously submitted to the ultimate authority of Allah.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
Casino, Eric S. The Jama Mapun: A Changing Samal Society in the Southern Philippines.
Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1975.
Gowing, Peter G. Muslim Filipinos: Heritage and Horizon. Manila: New Day Publishers
of the Christian Literature Society of the Philippines, 1979.
, and McAmis, Robert D. The Muslim Filipinos: Their History, Society and
Contemporary Problems. Manila: Solidaridad Publishing House, 1974.
Kiefer, Thomas M. The Tausug: Violence and Law in a Philippine Moslem Society. New
York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1972.
Lebar, Frank M., ed. Ethnic Groups of Insular Southeast Asia. Vol. 2. New Haven:
Human Relations Area Files Press, 1975.
Majul, Cesar A. Muslims in the Philippines. 3rd ed. Manila: St. Mary's Publishing House,
1979.
Saleeby, Najeeb M. The History of Sulu. 1908. Reprint ed. Manila: Filipiniana Book
Guild, 1963.