Karakul Mutual Credit Association (near Bukhara), Letter to Fatih Suleimanov in Tashkent on the qualifications of their ideal imam. April 5, 1929

With gratitude to Shoshana Keller for sharing this archival discovery. Text translated from the Uzbek.

Original Source: RTsKhIDNI, f. 62, op. 2, d. 1145, ll. 10-11.

Honored Fatih Khoji,

Greetings and prayers to you. We are well. After the death of Shakir Mujavirov, imam of the Tatar mahalla in Karakul, our mahalla has remained without an imam. On account of this, lately the first wish of our mahalla has been to find an imam ...

Our future imam must know true religion well and must be a knowledgeable person in science and politics, in accordance with the demands of the time. Besides this the future imam must possess the qualities listed below:

1.- he must know science, economics, and politics;

2 - he must know Islam well, be familiar with the basics of other religions and have a deep knowledge of European philosophical scholars;

3 - he must be eloquent and attractive to listeners;

4 - he must possess the ability to prove scientifically that Islam is the supreme religion, and with intelligent proofs repudiate the rejection of religion

5 - he must be able to detach Islam from all superstitions and scholasticism, and prove that our religion is a living religion, organized in agreement with the demands of the time; besides this he must have the strength to promote movement of the people along the aforementioned path;

6 - he must be an exemplary mentor of the people, i.e., he must follow the path which he teaches. He must not intervene in various squabbles and groupings of people, and must possess the exterior ability to look upon all people equally;

7 - to sum up, he must have a positive character and eloquence that brings fruit (his speech must not be boring for the public, in order for the public to ascribe respect to his words). If his speech does not possess the aforementioned qualities, then it will not be possible to preserve the purity of our religion from the ruin of our people's persuasion and from the dissemination of unbelief.

... In all cases, our future imam must approximately possess the aforementioned knowledge; we want to have such an imam. If such an individual is not known to you, then our religion, when at the present time our people are moving away from it, will be difficult to preserve.