Musahiplik or ''Müsahiplik'' (roughly, "Companionship / Spiritual brotherhood") is a

covenant Covenant may refer to: Religion * Covenant (religion), a formal alliance or agreement made by God with a religious community or with humanity in general ** Covenant (biblical), in the Hebrew Bible ** Covenant in Mormonism, a sacred agreement b ...

relationship between two men of the same age, preferably along with their wives. In a ceremony in the presence of a dede the partners make a lifelong commitment to care for the spiritual, emotional, and physical needs of each other and their children. After the ''

Hijra Hijra, Hijrah, Hegira, Hejira, Hijrat or Hijri may refer to: Islam * Hijrah (often written as ''Hejira'' in older texts), the migration of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE * Migration to Abyssinia or First Hegira, of Muhammad's followers ...

'', the

Islamic prophet Prophets in Islam ( ar, الأنبياء في الإسلام, translit=al-ʾAnbiyāʾ fī al-ʾIslām) are individuals in Islam who are believed to spread God in Islam, God's message on Earth and to serve as models of ideal human behaviour. So ...

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...

instituted brotherhood between the emigrants, ''

Muhajirun The ''Muhajirun'' ( ar, المهاجرون, al-muhājirūn, singular , ) were the first converts to Islam and the Islamic prophet Muhammad's advisors and relatives, who emigrated with him from Mecca to Medina, the event known in Islam as the ''Hijr ...

'', and the helpers, '' Ansar'', and he chose Ali as his own brother. This early Islamic practice has survived and continued to exist only in the Alevi sect of Islam. This early Islamic practice ceased to exist in all other Islamic sects .

Mânevî Kardeşlik

The ties between couples who have made this commitment is at least as strong as it is for blood relatives, so much so that müsahiplik is often called spiritual brotherhood ''(manevi kardeşlik).'' The children of covenanted couples may not marry.

Four Doors and Öz Verme Ayini

Krisztina Kehl-Bodrogi reports that the identify ''musahiplik'' with the first gate ''(

şeriat Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...

),'' since they regard it as a precondition for the second ''(

tarikat A tariqa (or ''tariqah''; ar, طريقة ') is a school or order of Sufism, or specifically a concept for the mystical teaching and spiritual practices of such an order with the aim of seeking '' haqiqa'', which translates as "ultimate truth". ...

).'' Those who attain to the third gate ''(

marifat Maʿrifa (Arabic: “interior knowledge”) is the mystical knowledge of God or the “higher realities” that is the ultimate goal of followers of Sufism. Sufi mystics came to maʿrifa by following a spiritual path that later Sufi thinkers categ ...

'', " Irfan") must have been in a ''musahiplik'' relationship for at least twelve years. Entry into the third gate dissolves the ''musahiplik'' relationship (which otherwise persists unto death), in a ceremony called ''Öz Verme Ayini'' ("ceremony of giving up the self").

Âşinalık, peşinelik, and cıngıldaşlık

The value corresponding to the second gate (and necessary to enter the third) is ''aşinalık'' ("intimacy," perhaps with God). Its counterpart for the third gate is called ''peşinelik''; for the fourth gate ''( hakikat'', Ultimate Truth), ''cıngıldaşlık''.See again "The significance of ''musahiplik'' among the Alevis" in ''Synchronistic Religious Communities in the Near East'' (co-edited by her, with B. Kellner-Heinkele & A. Otter-Beaujean), Brill 1997, p. 131 ff.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Musahiplik Alevism History of Islam