ABSTRACT
Popular religious practices and pious activities of Muslims have always been matters of debate from the very early days of Islam precisely because Islam was born into Mecca – Mecca was a pagan pilgrimage centre that commanded the allegiance of people throughout the region. Consequently, early Islam had to define itself over against other religious practices of the time, and in its first days the fledgling community was in contention with various pagan rites. Conflicts with Jews and Christians gradually developed a little later. Indeed, the Qurʾān itself critiques various types of spiritual and religious activities, indicating that Muslim rules for relating to such practices had to be established. Hence we can assume that during Muḥammad’s time, jostling about normative religious practice was a common, perhaps almost constant occurrence. The important feature to note for our purposes is that both the Qurʾān and the developing Islamic religion affirmed that culture was not a neutral force in religious life, and that it had to be transformed to conform to true religious standards.
