Muslims in Ethiopian

In Islamic history and tradition, Ethiopia (Abyssinia or Al-Habasha) is known as the “Haven of the First Migration or Hijra.” For Muslims, Ethiopia is synonymous with freedom from persecution and emancipation from fear. Ethiopia was a land where its king, […]

In Islamic history and tradition, Ethiopia (Abyssinia or Al-Habasha) is known as the “Haven of the First Migration or Hijra.” For Muslims, Ethiopia is synonymous with freedom from persecution and emancipation from fear. Ethiopia was a land where its king, Negus or Al-Najashi, was a person renowned for justice and in whose land human rights were cherished. The meaning and the significance of “Hijra” is embodied in the Islamic calendar. Since its inception, the Islamic calendar represents a history of perpetual struggle between truth and falsehood, faith and blasphemy, freedom and oppression, light and darkness, and between peace and war. The first migration [Hijra] of the Companions and relatives of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) to Ethiopia celebrates the birth of freedom of expression and beliefs, whereas, the Second Migration of the Prophet Muhammad to the Madinah celebrates the end of oppression. History has shown that the first migration to Ethiopia and the second migration to Madinah have indeed laid down the foundation on which Islam, as a universal religion, was built. Ever since that experience, the Muslim community, wherever they settled, shifted from the positive of minority to majority, from weakness to permanent strength, from tribalism to universal brotherhood that knows no defined political boundaries. With this spirit in mind, Bilal ibn Rabah, an Ethiopian slave living in Makkah, became a leading companion of the Prophet Muhammad. It was not a coincidence that his native land, Ethiopia, was the country chosen by the Prophet when his followers needed protection and freedom form oppression. Muhammad Haykal, author of the “Life of Muhammad” said that the Prophet Muhammad trusted that his followers and relatives would be better off if they migrated to a country whose religion was Christianity-a scriptural religion whose Prophet was Jesus son of Mary. He was not afraid that his followers would convert and give up their faith in favor of any other established religion.

He was more convinced that Islam would be more protected in its infancy in a fertile and prosperous land ruled by the Scripture than among the ignominious pagans of Arabia. The companions and relatives of the Prophet were prepared to sacrifice and suffer all sorts of hardship and alienation rather than give up their own conviction and freedom. The king received the envoy of the Prophet with great respect and showed him the entire honor he deserved.

By the fourteenth century, there were seven Islamic Sultanates [kingdoms]. The Sultanate of Yifat, Dawaro, Arbabini, Hadiya, Shakara, Bali, and Dara survived as Muslim enclaves until the northern Christian, with the help of European colonial powers, mainly from Portugal, expanded by force and by the late 18th century, formed “Ethiopia” as we know it today.

Holiest Islamic Places in Ethiopia
Harar the fourth holiest city of Islam
The fortified historic town of Harar is located in the eastern part of the country on a plateau with deep gorges surrounded by deserts and savannah. The walls surrounding this sacred Muslim city were built between the 13th and 16th centuries. Historians have it more importantly the significance Harar as the most Muslim holiest place in Ethiopian. In 2003 the city, 500 kilometers (about 311 miles) east of Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, was given a World City of Peace award by the United Nations, in honor of Harar’s unique ability to accommodate many ethnicities in a small space without conflict, in a region often beset by tribal and border clashes. ‘‘Harar is a city of love,’’ bustling through the city’s lovely environs, regardless of religion or ethnicity, you can come to Harar and drink and eat in peace.

Harar is like the Noah’s Ark of culture. We have dark skinned people; light skinned people. Every Harari is multilingual, and they are very peaceful. Harar should be an example for the world – so many cultures coexist harmoniously.

More significant than the City of Peace award was the decision by the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to include Harar on its list of World Heritage sites in 2013, the seventh such distinction for Ethiopia. With this recognition, Harar’s international profile should have risen dramatically. So far, though, it hasn’t. Harar represents a crucial part of Ethiopia’s long history with Islam; its current status indicative of the role religion plays in government policies.

World officials all agree that Harar is an important Muslim city both because of its defiant and steadfastly religious pugnacity in the face of a growing Christian sovereignty hundreds of years ago, but also because it houses some 82 mosques and innumerable tombs within such a small area. Unfortunately, few agree on just how significant role the city’s Muslim roots should play in the country’s self-promotion.

Harar has been cited by some as Islam’s fourth holiest city, but the origins of this postulation are dubious, and invariably bring controversial reactions.

Historians note that before Islam traveled to Medina, the religion’s second holiest city, it arrived in Ethiopia, where the country provided refuge for Muslims fleeing persecution in the time of the Prophet Mohammed.

Al- Nejashi
Islam in Ethiopia date back to the year 615 AD when the first Muslims, among them Prophet Mohammad’s wife came to Ethiopia as refugees and settled in Negash, a small village located 60 km east of Mekele, the capital of Tigray Region. The Quraysh sent emissaries to bring them back to Arabia, but the King of Ethiopia refused their demands. The Prophet himself instructed his followers who came to Ethiopia, to respect and protect Ethiopia as well as live in peace with Ethiopian Christians.

The Negash or Nejashi Mosque is as old as the faith of Islam in Ethiopia. It is the first mosque in Ethiopia as well as in Africa. The mosque was built in the 7th century AD and is considered by many as one of the most sacred places of Islamic worship and rightly dubbed by some as “The second Makkah”. Negash has been a place of great historical and religious significance in a sense that it is a symbol of peaceful coexistence between the Muslim and Christian religions. Even though Negash is considered as one of the important places in Ethiopia there are also anther holiest places too.

Holqa Sof Omar:
Is one of the most spectacular and extensive underground caverns in the world: the Sof Omar cave system. Formed by the Weib River as it changed its course in the distant past and carved a new channel through limestone foothills, the Sof Omar cave system is an extraordinary natural phenomenon of breathtaking beauty.
Here the Weib River vanishes into this giant underground world with its arched portals, high eroded ceilings, and deep, vaulted echoing chambers. These caves, now an important Islamic shrine named after the saintly Sheik Sof Omar Ahmed, who took refuge here many centuries ago (around early 11th century AD), have a religious history that predates the arrival of the Muslims in Bale — a history calibrated in thousands, not hundreds, of years.

The traditional belief of this part of Africa revolved around spirit worship and ghost cults in which the most powerful supernatural beings were believed to attach themselves to age-old trees, boulders rocks, and inhabit caves which became place of veneration where prayers were offered up and sacrifices made. Even today, in this Sof Omar cave system and catacombs there are so many signs of the persistence of such African traditional beliefs and practices. Ever since the coming of the saintly Sheik Sof Omar Ahmed and through its long period of existence the religion Islam is now indigenized into this African traditional belief. For this part of Africa Islam has now become a culture in a unique way and not only a religion.

The approach to the caves is made through the tiny village of Sof Omar, perched on the cliffs above the Weib River. To the rear of the village is a dark, gaping crevice down which a precipitous narrow footpath winds to the floor of the first cave. The total length of the Sof Omar cave system is about 16km and all along the cave system there are more than 40 main entrances and exits. Throughout the cave system, frequent crossings at the Weib River are necessary. It is possible to explore the caves on foot, torches and other lighting are needed, since it is a very long and dark journey that can be accomplished with a help of map indicating the different ground references of the underground cave system.

Holqa Sof Omar is a well preserved sacred place of worship, which has helped the preservation of the indigenous forest environment of the area and still serving as a natural habitat of the wildlife resources. The countryside around abounds with wildlife dik-dik and kudu, serval cat, rock hyrax, giant tortoises, snakes, and lizards as well as more than hundred species of birds. As a sacred place of worship Sof Omar cave system is believed to be the Caves of Mystery where the ancestral cult of Sheik Sof Omar Ahmad, his families and descendants is observed and practiced annually. Each and every cave structures are assigned and designated to diverse ritual practices. Annual festive events with comprehensive Islamic religious processions and traditional beliefs and practices are conducted in the
cave shrines and mosques of this underground karstic limestone caverns. Thus this site has exceptional cultural significance to the spiritual life of the Islamic community making pilgrims visit this site of outstanding cultural values as specified under the above criteria (iii), (v) and (vi). These ancestral cult beliefs and practices have revived for nearly 1000 years and are still a living culture for the Islamic community of this part of the region.

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