Why did somalis adopt islam instead of christianity or judaism?

[Diophantus]

Title basically. Like Ethiopia was right next door. So was yemen which had some jewish communities i think. Yet we didn't adopt either religion en masse. Would really appreciate if the answers were more "academic" instead of things like "cuz islam is the only right religion". I bet our ancestors didn't care much about the intricacies of christianity/Judaism.

What was it about Islam that lead to us being 100% mulims today?

My only hypothesis is that we avoided christianity because the ethiopians were christians and we used to fight them a lot?

Thx in advance

 

[Espaa_]

our religion before that was very close to islam in theology.

some northerners were christian icl but vast majority worshipped 1 god. Even the ones that were Christian rejected the trinity.

We never really believed in christianity at all it was too unknown to us

 

[Espaa_]

Another thing is terrain weirdly. Islam came from the desert and is appealing to those living in harsh hot climates. Somalis happen to live in the desert and so principles apply
To us even more and we relate to it.

 

[SixthAbdi]

I've also been confused by this. There has been Sabaic inscriptions found in Somaliland so I imagine the northern city-states like Zeila were connected to the outside world, yet there seems to be little to no information on such prior to Islam. Ethiopia during early antiquity like D'mt and Axum on the other hand does seem to have evidence of it's connection with the outside world (i.e Ge'ez deriving from Sabaic, Greek translations in coinage and the Ezana stone, Hellenization with gods like Astar and Mahrem, Christianization like you mentioned). Same with Sudan during it's Meroitic era.

 

[Diophantus]

our religion before that was very close to islam in theology.

some northerners were christian icl but vast majority worshipped 1 god. Even the ones that were Christian rejected the trinity.

We never really believed in christianity at all it was too unknown to us

This kinda makes sense. But most laymen knew little about that i think. Like christianity is still monotheistic (at least for the most part). Couldn't they have just ignored the other bits and converted.

 

[Espaa_]

This kinda makes sense. But most laymen knew little about that i think. Like christianity is still monotheistic (at least for the most part). Couldn't they have just ignored the other bits and converted.

Thats what the christian northerners did but at the end of the day it conflicted with the religion and it wasnt a big hit.

anither thing is christians at that time believed islam was a form of christianity but the more heretic form of it. So they didnt really try to convert us or to talk to us about it

also we are nomads. To be christian is to stay in 1 place, go to church every week and adhere to traditionalist standards and follow your local priest/bishop. It has a heirarchy basically. Islam is easier to follow you pray where you want as long as you face makkah and complete your 5 daily pillars. Its more freer for nomads and they get to rule themselves without being constrained by preaching and bible thumpers

 

[World]

“we”

 

[Diophantus]

“we”

Wacha tabiya mbaya waryaa. Delete pls.

 

[Diophantus]

Thats what the christian northerners did but at the end of the day it conflicted with the religion and it wasnt a big hit.

anither thing is christians at that time believed islam was a form of christianity but the more heretic form of it. So they didnt really try to convert us or to talk to us about it

also we are nomads. To be christian is to stay in 1 place, go to church every week and adhere to traditionalist standards and follow your local priest/bishop. It has a heirarchy basically. Islam is easier to follow you pray where you want as long as you face makkah and complete your 5 daily pillars. Its more freer for nomads and they get to rule themselves without being constrained by preaching and bible thumpers

Your last points actually make a lot of sense. I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't accept it cuz we hated the hierarchy lol.

 

[Espaa_]

Your last points actually make a lot of sense. I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't accept it cuz we hated the hierarchy lol.

Exactly islam isn’t structured but Christianity is. We are qabiilists by blood especially in those days where we fought clan wars over grazing land.

why do we want a religious leader to be watchinf us 24/7 and to force us to settle and have control over what we believed in?? to a somali medieval man it doesnt make sense in fact its extremely disrespectful. He would reject it asap.

With islam cane freedom to believe in the message however you want to believe in and to rule yourselves as long as you believed in the 5 pillars.

fasting was easy for us every year as we did have famines where we went for some time without any food or water. It wasnt hard for us to take part in. In fact it mustve relieved us since it takes energy to prepare and make food traditionally

Salah creates routine. As nomads, routine is a must in order to keep animals in the best condition possible. Salah just solidifies that routine and in fact encourages getting up earlier to pray fajr salah which im assuming nomads woke up around that time to tend to their animals

Zakat. Somali nomads helped one another out frequently and ofc zakat is very fluid meaning anything can be zakat as long as it involves helping others out.

Hajj. Somalis are well known travellers and although this was really hard, we have extensive experience with desert climates and know our way through them. We also had a lot of merchants who have traded with those arabs even before Islam was a thing.

it came from the desert too so majority of the rules in Islam spoke to them directly and it just felt correct.

combine it with the fact that its similar to that the teachings of waaq and you got yourself the ideal religion.

Overall islam was very easy to follow and just enhanced our way of living more whereas Christianity would disrespect a nomad. It basically tells a nomad to settle and to pray at church and to always be in congregation. Minute a nomad does that, his animals are being snatched by a rival clan or they are dead due to neglect.

islam makes sense dietary wise too. Everything we ate already fit into the concept of halaal. Blood, pork, carrion and alcohol was practically nonexistent in our diet. It was all foods that were readily available in dessert climates like camels, wild donkeys, goats, chicken and more.

 

[cunug3aad]

Expanding on espaa point. Islam is intended to be for anyone who wishes to be guided so it has to be applicable to any person. Unlike judaism which focuses on the chosen people and their society so there would be no reason for them to dacwo to us. And christianity as a religion is so vague it took all the societies together to try and figure out some semblances to the practices, so these practices end up involving the whole community. It would be hard for christian missionaries to apply their societal model to a society that 1 is completely different to theirs and 2 isn't really a society just scattered families of pastoralists. There is no real way to esablish church and a congregations throughout the whole land whilst keeping everything consistent under the christian model.

Geeljire understands badawi, the whole reason jimcada is not a pillar despite its importance is because it is not feasable for remote peoples to perform it, and that is significant enough that it is left out of pillars of islaam

 

[Barkhadle1520]

We had a (most likely) monotheist religion with priests, and the tawheed of island ressembled that religion enough for most to convert

 

[Bursalah]

The same reasons Central Asians are Muslim;

Cross roads of trade: Both of us were in the middle of trade networks. They had the Silk Road we have the Red Sea. This exposed us to Muslim traders which brought Islam more frequently.

Top down conversion: The central Asians were led by tribal leaders same as us and if the leadership converts then they all convert en masse less they be ostracized.

Sufism; They had Sufis doing the heavy lifting. The history of Sufi in Islam is bit complicated but basically they are our Missionaries. Same thing with Somalia, we use to and even still do have strong Sufi links.

Pastoral Nomads: “Leave the Abyssinians alone as long as they leave you alone, and leave the Turks alone as long as they leave you alone.”

Source: Sunan Abu Dawud 4302, Grade: Sahih (authentic) according to As-Suyuti

Lots of meanings being discussed on the internet such as the terrain and a formidable army being an obstacle. But I believe it’s because the Turks in the prophets time were Asians and not the Anatolian Greeks in Turkey today. Those Asians in Central Asia were Pastoral nomads. And I believe he meant us when he said Abyssinians because we are also Pastoral nomads. Perhaps us three with similar cultures and diet had led to easy adaption much like Whites taking Christianity and Easter Asians taking Buddhism.