ABSTRACT
Moslems in Egypt pride themselves that their faith is din al-fitrah (basic life), signifying there is no organized laymen posing as clergy who can issue binding fatwas legitimizing or condemning issues not definitive in formal faith (Koran and Hadith). Although the folk-belief practice system derives its credibility from formal religion, it does not totally stem from nor agree with formal sacred (ecclesiastical) dogma. Folk beliefs and practices constitute real behavioral patterns that influence daily thoughts, feelings, and actions of individuals and tradition-bound groups. In this respect, the concept of a folk “Motif” is applied to demonstrate the folksy nature of widely recurrent beliefs and practices.
When dealing with Sunni Islam as a cognitive system with numerous subsystems, all subsystems cohere around legitimacy (al-shar C iyyah), being in harmony with formal religion. A direct line of beliefs threads these areas of the formal and the informal together. Currently in 2023, there is reasonable concordance between the ecclesiastical institution and the formal political institution. Although these areas of belief are seemingly separate, they are interconnected in a “vicious circle” manner, even among the educated elite. Yet, all are based on formal religion, thus negating any possibility of being a “folk religion” separate from formal religion.
