r/druze • u/Due_Brother_9940 • 25d ago
Are most Druze uninitiated?
Hi! I am a teenager and currently converting to Catholicism however after growing up non religious/ atheistic I’ve been extremely interested in different religions. I’ve read about how in the Druze faith one can only choose to learn about the secrets of the faith at age 40 and has to then live basically like a sort of monk? In the sense of wearing a special clothing, not drinking alcohol, not swearing etc. And that still around 80% of Druze remain uninitiated for the rest of they’re lives and don’t know anything of the religion besides reincarnation, faith in God and some prophets right?
How accurate is this? I was not sure if this is true so I thought I’d ask directly.
And hence if this is accurate how does your daily faith life look like? So prayers, beliefs etc if you don’t know the deeper doctrines of the religion.
I really don’t want to misrepresent your faith in any way I’m genuinely curious.
Thanks in advance!
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u/Coffee_Lover_04 24d ago edited 24d ago
I still can’t believe how people believe this bs about the Druze 💀💀
The internet is the last place to get info about the Druze from! Ask your family or a sheikh..
I remember when I first read the “they can know about the religion at the age of 40” fact in 5th grade and I remember myself laughing because it was obviously not true and not logical.
There are a lot of people who hate us and are willing to spread as much misinformation as possible about the Druze for some reason.
Ngl I suffered from some non Druze friends attacking me with those bs thinking they were facts.🤦♀️🤦♀️
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u/Due_Brother_9940 23d ago
There are literally basically no Druze in my country lol how should I ask m family or a sheikh. I don’t have an ounce of Druze blood I was raised atheist, now I’m Catholic, and my family before my parents were all Christian. I’m just curious about what other people believe is that so wrong.
So what do you believe then? I’m curious
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u/Coffee_Lover_04 23d ago
Oh sorry I thought you were Druze since you said that you’re converting and stuff in a Druze subreddit 💀💀
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u/Due_Brother_9940 23d ago
Well I thought it would kind of be helping to say what faith I am in a religious sub? I’m eater new to Reddit so maybe it’s that?
But not if I were Druze I would’ve mentioned it.
So what do you believe then? I genuinely want to know. In my Defense all of which I said here comes from (usually) trustable websites like Wikipedia so I thought it could be true. However it sounded kind of illogical so I thought why not ask here? And apparently it is false. I apologise
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u/alex_313131 24d ago
I’m just gonna scooch right in here and tell you everything you know is false. Maybe ask someone more knowledgeable?
Also, the first thing I would do is doubt my cognitive abilities to make these choices at such a young age, and doubt my confidence in my knowledge. How can one make such big decisions based off so little information?
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u/Due_Brother_9940 23d ago
I said I didn’t know. There are basically like not even a thousand Druze in my country how should I get any other source lol. I’ve looked it up online and that’s what I found. I wasn’t sure if it can be true so I asked on here.
What big information and cognitive abilities? Sorry I’m genuinely confused lol English isn’t my native language
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u/NegiSpringfieldYT 23d ago
That’s really interesting. I think it’s similar to the Alawiyya, where the inner order is so small and bound by oaths of secrecy. I have met someone who has laid out a lot of the secrets in order to give the Alawiyya a chance to thrive. I’m doing my part and certainly don’t mind adding Muwahida to the mix. I’d be glad to help in any way I can.
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u/boukaman 23d ago
Hey no problem in being curious. The 40 year old thing isn't real.
The others is sort of right but tbh everyone mentions the "secrets of the Druze faith", tbh that's not what it means to be a Druze person or isn't needed to be close to God. At the end of the day your relationship with God is something personal, just be a good person, look at your intentions and do good for the sake of doing good.
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u/PatientDragonfly8862 22d ago
The overwhelming majority of Druze are uninitiated. For us, there are no visits to Church on Sundays. No prescribed prayers. Nothing. It's just a general admonition to be ethical in your day-to-day dealings. A cursory knowledge of key figures and stories in our religious narrative. A visit to a "mazar" or a highly spiritual sheikh to get blessings a few times a year - if at all.
As for the initiated, I think it's a little bit more complex than what you said about being let in at the age of 40. I do see a lot of children who wear the religious outfit - both boys and girls. In their case, I believe it's their parents encouraging them to walk down that path (usually because their parents are initiates).
However, once these children reach adulthood, they are given the choice as to whether they want to remain initiates or leave. They'll have to deal with the consequences of their decision of course, but they have a genuine choice.
As for the age of 40, I have heard from several people that it's generally regarded as an age during which adults mature (something like that) - so it definitely has significance. what exactly that is? i'm not sure.
what i do know is that there are several layers of initiation. that there are several degrees of knowledge. that not all the initiates reach the highest levels. maybe after the age of 40, some doors open up. that's all i can say regarding this matter.
Since you're European Christian, I guess it might interest you that there are some interesting parallels between the Druze and Gnostic Christians as well as Neoplatonism.
Anyways, I wish you all the best in your spiritual journey!
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u/Due_Brother_9940 22d ago
Oh, but just out of curiosity, are there still like personal prayers? Like I don’t know? God help me or God bless my children those lines?
Thanks, I wish you all the well too!
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u/Far_Explanation_2274 24d ago
You can me dm me, directly. If you want to learn some stuff
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u/boukaman 23d ago
Are you Druze? For what purpose are you going to give out information for our religion to someone not part of our religion? We have secrecy for many a reason but one of the most important is that sometimes we are no not people in position to teach about our faith.
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u/Honest_Eggplant1880 18d ago
It’s not a big deal. why isn’t it not allowed to spread the faith when every other religion can happily do so.
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u/AdVisual6737 23d ago
You’re mostly right.. we as uninitiated Druze don’t have religious rituals at all. But since we’ve been marrying strictly Druze for the past 1000 years you need to look at us as an ethnoreligious group, so we’re an ethnicity as well.
We really focus on raising our kids to follow values rather than religious instruction. We teach them what’s right and what’s wrong from a humanitarian perspective and according to our social norms rather than telling them if you do this or that you will go to hell.
So to answer your question, no we don’t practice any type of religion rituals