No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1996.

No abstract available / RELIGIOUS STUDIES & ARABIC / MA (ARABIC)

No abstract available / RELIGIOUS STUDIES and ARABIC / MA (ARABIC)

As is well-known, fasting is one of the 'Pillars of Islam'. It might therefore be expected that as such, it would already have been extensively investigated. But this is not the case, for, besides the many minor points of interest which still require elucidation, it is not an exaggeration to say that even the broadest facts about the beginnings and early development of the Islamic fast have not hitherto been conclusively established. Theoretically, the fast is based in the Quran, yet part of the relevant section in the Quran is consciously ignored by most Muslims, while many of their conceptions as regards the rest are at best ill-founded. It should be stressed from the outset that there is no intention here of implying any conscious perversion in this; the reasons underlying the Muslim view of the fast are expounded later.

Cette recherche est née de la volonté de mener une réflexion sur la pérennisation de la mendicité des talibés en milieu urbain sénégalais, notamment dans la ville de Dakar. Les talibés sont des enfants confiés par leurs parents à des maîtres coraniques pour l’apprentissage du Coran. À l'origine, cet apprentissage qui est une tradition religieuse se faisait exclusivement en zones rurales. Toutefois, depuis les années 1970, en raison des grandes sécheresses qui se sont abattues dans les zones rurales du Sénégal et qui ont appauvri les populations, s’est développée la migration vers les villes d’hommes et de femmes en quête de meilleures conditions de vie. L’enseignement coranique a été touché par ces mutations socio-économiques car depuis lors, certains maîtres coraniques qui sont avant tout des cultivateurs, s'installent dans les villes sénégalaises, accompagnés d’enfants destinés à être leurs talibés. Toutefois, arrivés en ville, ces enfants passent plus de temps dans les rues que dans les daaras (« écoles coraniques ») car leurs maîtres leur demandent de mendier quotidiennement et de leur ramener entre autres une somme d'argent fixée d'avance. Même si l’Etat sénégalais dispose de lois répressives contre la mendicité infantile, il arbore une attitude équivoque face à ce que des organisations internationales considèrent comme une exploitation infantile. Ainsi, pour appréhender la pérennisation du fait social qu’est la mendicité des talibés, cette thèse se propose d’étudier les pratiques sociales à l’égard des talibés mendiants, des pratiques qui consistent essentiellement à leur adresser des dons d’aumône. En plus des raisons religieuses et humanitaires qui peuvent justifier ces dons, ces derniers sont également effectués pour des raisons plus mystiques notamment après certaines divinations de marabouts de type féticheur/guérisseur/voyant. Comme on le verra dans le cœur de cette recherche, ces distributions d’aumône apparaissent ainsi tel un enchevêtrement de croyances religieuses et hétérodoxes. In fine, il s’agira à partir d’une méthodologie qualitative d’élucider et d’analyser les ambivalences tout comme les enjeux sociaux que recouvre la pérennisation de la mendicité des talibés dans la plupart des villes sénégalaises. / This research followed the will to lead an inspection about the perennation of children begging in Senegal urban areas. Talibes are children whose parents entrust to some koranic masters. At the very beginning, this kuranic teaching that is a religious tradition was solely organized in rural area. Even so, in the seventies, rural areas faced harsh droughts that empoverished its inhabitants. As a matter of fact, some men and women started leaving their villages in quest for better living conditions in Senegal big cities. Koranic teaching was also affected by these socio-economic mutations because since then, some koranic masters who are first and foremost growers, have set up in cities taking with them children who are meant to be their talibes. However, when the latter arrive in town they spend more time in the streets than into daaras (koranic schools) because their masters ask them to beg daily and to bring them among other things a specific amount of money. Thus, those children are at the same time talibes and beggars. Even though the Senegalese government owns repressive laws against children begging, it shows off an equivocal attitude towards this social phenomenon. In this way, to apprehend the perennation of children begging, this thesis aims to study and to re-examine social practices towards talibes-beggars. Those practices consist mainly in giving them alms. Apart from religious and humanitarian reasons that can justify those practices, the latter can also be operated for more mystical reasons namely after some divinations made by marabouts like fetishs, healers and diviners. The scope therefore is to elucidate and to analyze, through a qualitative methodology, both ambivalences and eventual issues involved in the perannation of talibes begging in most of senegalese cities.

The issue of a Muslim woman‟s dress code has been debated for centuries. This is of great importance as it is widely used as a criterion to measure the extent of a woman‟s piety or devotion to Allah. A study of the religious texts on the issue is essential. Therefore, Qur‟anic text, Prophetic Traditions and Qur‟anic exegesis of both classical and modern scholars would have been used in determining the correct dress code for Muslim women. While all research indicates that women dress conservatively, in order not to attract the attention of the opposite sex. The extent to which a woman must be covered has not been agreed upon. Even if what has to be covered is established by scholars, the manner in which this is to be done and the type of colours and fabric to be used needs further clarification. The issue of the female dress code needs to be presented from a female perspective. / Religious Studies and Arabic / M.A. (Islamic Studies)

The issue of a Muslim woman‟s dress code has been debated for centuries. This is of great importance as it is widely used as a criterion to measure the extent of a woman‟s piety or devotion to Allah. A study of the religious texts on the issue is essential. Therefore, Qur‟anic text, Prophetic Traditions and Qur‟anic exegesis of both classical and modern scholars would have been used in determining the correct dress code for Muslim women. While all research indicates that women dress conservatively, in order not to attract the attention of the opposite sex. The extent to which a woman must be covered has not been agreed upon. Even if what has to be covered is established by scholars, the manner in which this is to be done and the type of colours and fabric to be used needs further clarification. The issue of the female dress code needs to be presented from a female perspective. / Religious Studies and Arabic / M.A. (Islamic Studies)