Mollah
Mollah , mullah , mulla or mollâ , this word is especially used to indicate the clergy Chiite, in the Sunnisme one uses rather the word Ouléma S (ʿalim/ʿulama) for similar functions.
The word has Arab very varied directions, even almost contrary: helps; associated; customer; champion; defender; Master; owner; freed slave; owner; suzerain.
Derived words
- Mawlânâ or maulânâ was the title given to the Iranian mystic Jalal AD-DIN Rûmî founder about the Dancing dervishes. Mevlana indicates Jalal AD-DIN Rûmî.
- Moulay or mawlay is the title of the sovereigns Alaouites of the Morocco.
- plural Mawâli of mollâ designated the new converts not-Arabic attached to an Arab tribe on which they depended.
- Mawlawiya is the name about the dancing dervishes founded by Jalal AD-DIN Rûmî.
- Walîy . Coran invites to choose his/her friends (ʾawlyâʾ) among the believers. For the Shiites, `Alî is largest of the walîy: he is the friend of God, his lieutenant (sometimes translated regent). The Imams which succeed to him will be also invested of this quality of “friends of God”. They directly do not receive the divine message of the mouth of the angel as for Mahomet, but they receive its inspiration in dream.
Shiite Mollahs
Mollahs carries a cape (Persan: `abā, rear RTL عبا) and a turban blacks if they are descendants of the family of the prophet Mahomet (Sayyid S), white if not.There are ranks:
- Hodjatoleslam, proof of Islam
- Ayatollah, sign of God . It is the most rank in the hierarchy Shiite.
These ranks are allotted by the Islamic universities and a system of co-optation, your pars recognizing you the right to receive this title.
Notice
The ambiguity of the word explains the differences in interpretation of the Hadith of Ghadir Khum between Shiites and sunnites. Mahomet would have said: That for all those of which I am Mawlâ, that `Alî is also their Mawlâ. The implications of this sentence are different according to whether one includes/understands this word like “the Master; the lord” as the Shiites do it or like “the friend; the support” like the sunnites?