Dr. Abdullah Najjar of Georgia has spent the past 20 years helping the world fight epidemics and contagious diseases. Najjar, who from 1969 to 1980 was International Services Director of the U.S. Government's Center for Disease Control, in Atlanta, has traveled to dozens of countries as an American specialist in epidemiology. He was head of the malaria section of the U.S. mission to Ethiopia, and did extensive work in health care in Iran.
Najjar came to the U.S. in the 1940's with his parents from Baakline, Lebanon. Now retired, he remains actively involved in Middle East affairs as a member of the Executive Board of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
An expert on Druze affairs, Najjar once typified the Druze as "a traditional, conservative, God-fearing, closely-knit community akin to the Amish and Quakers in some respects." The Muwahhidoon Druze—Synopsis of An Islamic Sect
By Dr. Abdallah Najjar
The Druze are a protestant movement in Islam and a product of Sufism, Islamic mysticism and Neoplatonism. For the most part, the Druze are the product of religious and political disputes that date back to the Partisans of Imam Ali, the 4th Caliph after the death of the prophet Mohammed. The precepts of the faith are basically Qur’anic presented with aspects of the esoteric. The theosophy deals with two major features-the metaphysical, and the ethical-referred to otherwise as precepts of faith and precepts of living or ethical code. This latter is more explicit and simple and has more than any other factor helped mold the Druze character. It is so forcefully stressed that it has through the centuries left its wholesome mark on Druze thought and behavior such as dignity, love of liberty, good manners, perseverance and heroism.
The Pillars of Islam are understood by the Muwahhidoon (or Unitarian) Druze as follows: 1. Testimony (shahada) is the recognition and full comprehension of the oness of God, realized not by utterance only but by striving toward Tawhid in word and deed.2. Prayer (Salat) is the link of the hearts and the drawing nearer to God by realizing oneself in the Divine Unity. This self realization is attained proportionately to the extent of purity that a person attains. 3. Charity (Zakat) means helping and safeguarding the brethren. Such help is to be given freely without the feeling of an imposed duty. 4. Fasting (Sawm) is abstinence from every act that distracts from the knowledge of Tawhid. 5. Pilgrimage (Hajj) is the journey to the House of Knowledge-knowledge of the unity of God. 6. Allegiance (wilaya) is submission to the five Universal or Spiritual Luminaries namely: Al-Aql, Annafs, Al-Kalima, Assabiq, Attali. The Druze consider these five to be in authority and to them they pledge allegiance. 7. Strife in God’s ways (Jihad) is the believers exertion to suppress worldly desires and strive toward a state of peace and contentment known as Arridha.
Druzism, more accurately known to its adherent as TAWHID or unity, evolved under the tutelage of Al-Hakim bin Amrallah, the sixth Fatimid Caliph who ruled from 996 to 1021 C.E. Al-Hakim enlisted the help of learned preachers headed by Hamza bin Ali to proclaim the call to Tawhid in a society in need of spiritual and social revival. Al-Hakim proclaimed freedom of slaves and equal rights for women, among other reforms, and mounted a campaign against the superficiality of rituals.
The Druze have always been in front lines in the struggle for freedom and independence. They fought valiantly the invading Crusaders, the Ottomans, the French, and other foreign forces that threatened the homeland. The Druze proudly trace their genealogy to noble Arab tribes that settled in the Fertile Crescent in the ninth century C.E. History testifies that their Emires or Patriarchs were the founders of a pluralistic, nontheocratic state with equal justice for all its sects. Religious tolerance was outstanding quality of Emir Fakhred-Din II, the Druze ruler of Lebanon, (1590-1633). Under his enlightened rule, for example, the Maronites were the principle beneficiaries of his tolerance as they took refuge in his domain from the oppressive rulers in north Lebanon. Fakhred-Din’s tolerance was not religious indifference, for he built mosques at his own expense and often subsidized the pilgrimages to Mecca. The government under his direction was indeed just. Only when outside elements interfered or when one sect, within, attempted to impose hegemony, did the Druze rise to the challenge. The prominent role the Druze played in the history of the Arab East in spite of their small numbers, emanates from their belief in separating their religious affiliation from their loyalty to the State.
The Muwahhidoon Druze, throughout their turbulent history, were victims of persecution and falsehoods that were unjustly spread against them. Their liberal perspective and their doctrine were too far ahead of the times thus caused vile reaction against them resulting in persecution and massacres. Those who held on to the faith in the face of adversity inhabit today the mountain regions which were not easily accessible to the outsider. These include the Metn, the Shouf, Wadi-a-Tym and the slopes of Mount Hermon (Jebel-e-Sheikh) in Lebanon; Jebel-el-Arab, the Ghuta of Damascus, the Golan heights and small settlements near Aleppo in Syria and the Safad region, slopes of Mount Carmel and the Galilee area in Israel/Palestine. Today they can be found all over the world.
In the United States some twenty five thousand Druze are being served by the American Druze Society, the American Druze Foundation and the Druze Council of North America. An annual national convention is held during which time devotionals, lectures, seminars and lessons in Tawhid are held along with haflis (or parties) and picnics to which other Arab Americans are invited and welcomed to share or participate in. Several committees are active in religious affairs, charities, research and education. The Druze Cultural Center in Los Angeles, established in 1989, is a vibrant place for social, educational, and cultural activities that include teaching the Arabic language as part and parcel of their culture and heritage.
The Wisdom
According to the theosophy of TAWHID, faith without knowledge leads humanity to stagnation, and knowledge without faith leads it to emptiness. Only when Faith & Knowledge are joined in a holy matrimony, can humanity evolve in the direction of the creator. The Muwahhidoon Druze revere the five universal (spiritual) principles (referred to previously) that represent: REASON, WILL, THE WORD, THE PRECEDENT AND THE FOLLOWER. Each one of these Spiritual Luminaries is manifested to some degree in each person who gives it a corporeal quality in this physical life.
Reincarnation of the soul is also a cardinal precept of the faith that considers the physical person as the attire that clothes the eternal soul during a person’s life span.