Popular mosque teachers faced criticism from educated elites over doctrinal imprecision

Evidence

One practice that was particularly popular among the attendees was Umm Faris’s habit of reciting short verses from the Quran and other supplicatory prayers (aurad) , which members of the audience could memorize and repeat during the day to impart a sense of benediction to their chores. More educated members of the community criticized this practice, and other aspects of Umm Faris’s durii (singular: dars) for their doctrinal impreciseness. Umm Faris was aware of these criticisms and obliquely addressed them in her lessons. In one lesson, for example, Umm Faris recounted an exchange between the Prophet and his son.. in.-law Ali that centered around the popular theme of “torture of the grave” ( �: dhab al�qabr)-in this instance, they were discussing the claustrophobic darkness that envelops one before the appearance of the angel of death who takes an accounting of the life one has led. — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 641

Categorization

• DEFINE: The passage defines durii/dars (a religious lesson) and ‘torture of the grave’ (dhab al-qabr), the claustrophobic darkness before the angel of death takes account.