which we are more familiar.
Lebanon
I have been overseeing a church planting work in Lebanon for the mission organization I work
for, Frontiers, since 2000. Earlier this year church planters there had a baptism for a Muslim
convert whom I will call Yasmin. Yasmin had invited a number of friends and family members
to her riverside baptism. Afterwards one of Yasmins friends told her that during the baptism
she saw a vision of Jesus standing on the bank of the river and that he was inviting her to be
baptized too. She felt drawn to be baptized but fear held her back. Since that time she has been
coming to a weekly Bible study with Yasmin and one or two Western church planters.
In December 2001 in Lebanon, I meet with a Lebanese Muslim couple whom I will call
Mohammad and Jazira. They are devout Shiite Muslims. Members of the church planting team
had been ministering to this couple. It was mainly Jazira who mentioned to me a number of
common practices, which we would categorize as folk or occult and magic practices, but many
of which are considered a normal part of Muslim piety (these would normally be condemned by
orthodox Muslim teachers, but widely practiced by the masses).
Jazira talked about rohani: practices that involve black magic in the form of curses. Ordinary
people can perform curses without a professional practitioner. The usual way to perform a curse
is to write it out on a paper called a hijab. The paper must somehow make physical contact with
the person who is to be cursed. Jazira spoke of a woman who had malevolent feelings toward a
certain man. When the man died she wanted to ensure that he would have the worst possible
experience in the afterlife so she wrote a hijab and placed it in his mouth. The sheik, or Muslim
cleric in Lebanese Shiite Islam, found out what she had done and she was roundly condemned.
But a hijab can be benevolent as well. For a protective hijab, a sheik usually writes it. This type
of hijab is found in rings, a piece of paper in book, or kept in a pocket next to the heart, or it can
be a piece of paper tied in cloth and positioned on the left arm, which is closest to the heart.
Divination practices are also a normal part of life for Lebanese Muslims. When critical decisions
need to be made, guidance can be received from God by a three step process. First
one spends time reading the Quran. Secondly, the critical question is asked in such a way as to
receive a binary answer. Thirdly, the prayer beads, the musbaha (similar to a rosary), are grasped
at random points on two sides and then one precedes to slide the beads off two by two till the
center is reached. If one bead is left the answer is "yes". If no beads are left the answer is "no".
In extremely important decisions, the sheik can be employed for a fee. He will then go through
the process described himself.
At one point during the course of the evening Jazira related that she regularly sees evil spirits.
They appear as cloudy figures. Mohammed mentioned that Jazira is unusually gifted in being