Lived Experiences of Ideologies in Contextual Islam

This is an important piece of research – a thorough and thoughtful study of the beliefs and practices of a particular group of Muslims, with a focus on their experience of spiritual powers. Judy Wang’ombe has observed and listened to both leaders and “ordinary ” practitioners of that group, but has also investigated how they relate to their more orthodox Muslim kin, and how the more orthodox Muslim leaders view them. She offers rich insights into motivations and perceptions, and into a complex web of social, medical, family, and spiritual factors.

Ida Glaser, PhD
International Academic Coordinator and Founding Fellow,
Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies, UK

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Dr. Judy Wang’ombe’s in-depth study into Borana Muslims’ involvement in the Ayyaana cult unearths their lived experiences of the spirit world. The research findings exhibit the cognitive and epistemological disparities between the official Islamic teacher’s interpretations and the ordinary Borana Muslims’ understanding of the spirit world they experience in everyday life. Thus, this book is a must-read for those looking seriously into Islamic phenomena in a specific cultural context.

C. S. Caleb Kim, PhD
Coordinator of the Center for the Study of Religions,
Institute for the Study of African Realities,
Africa International University, Kenya

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It is a privilege to write an endorsement for this excellent study. I especially appreciate Dr. Wang’ombe’s excellent use of literature, including the Qur’an and Hadith, to explain general Islamic views of jinn and spirit possession. While this careful and comprehensive study focuses narrowly on one Muslim group, the way in which she carried out the research serves as a very helpful template for similar research in other contexts. I highly recommend this book.

John Jay Travis, PhD
Affiliate Faculty in Islamic Studies,
Fuller Theological Seminary, California, USA

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This pioneering work is based on a solid ethnographic methodology, enriched with analyses of lyrical Ayyaana songs and terminologies, and it offers refreshingly original exploration of the world of spirit management that oscillates between exorcism and adorcism as imagined by diverse religious actors. Students of ethnography, sociology, Islam, and Christian-Muslim relations studies would definitely find this work highly informative and useful in understanding the lived experiences of Muslim Borana in northern Kenya.

Halkano Abdi Wario, PhD
Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies,
Senior Volkswagen Foundation Humanities Research Fellow,
Egerton University, Kenya
Associate Director, Center for Study of Terrorism, Violent Extremism and Radicalization,
HORN International Institute of Strategic Studies, Kenya

1. Abstract
2. Acknowledgments
3. Arabic Transliteration
4. Chapter 1 Background Information to the Study
5. Chapter 2 Scholarly Works on Spirits in Islam
6. Chapter 3 Research Methodology
7. Chapter 4 The Islamic Model of the Spirit World
8. Chapter 5 Religiocultural Model of Ayyaana According to Ordinary Borana Muslims in Marsabit County
9. Chapter 6 Lived Experiences as Instantiation of Religiocultural Model
10. Chapter 7 Comparative Interdisciplinary Analysis and Theory Formulation
11. Chapter 8 Summary of Findings and Recommendations
12. Chapter 9 Some Missiological Implications for Christian-Muslim Interactions
13. Appendix 1 The Borana Calendar
14. Appendix 2 Excerpt from a Conversation between a Practitioner and Ayyaana
15. Appendix 3 Ashaka’s Experience with Ayyaana
16. Appendix 4 References to Jinn in the Hadith (Bukhari and Muslim)
17. Appendix 5 Scholars Who Have Studied or Alluded to Ayyaana and the Sheikh
18. Hussein Cult
19. Glossary of Non-English Words
20. Bibliography