Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the experiences of young, 'practising' Somali women in London, who often complain of feelings of 'low iman' (faith), as a way of articulating, discussing and ultimately finding solutions to moments of uncertainty and a lack of commitment to Islamic norms and practice.

Paper long abstract:

Newly 'practising' Muslims frequently feel uncertain about aspects of their selves, which they seek to alter to become fully 'practising.' These moments of anxiety arise from everyday contradictory experiences of seeking to conform to a coherent model of a pious self in a context of multiple, often contrasting moral frameworks. This paper, which is based on 16 months of ethnographic fieldwork amongst young Somali women in London, explores the ways in which young 'practising' women often complained about 'low iman' (low faith). This idiom is used to denote a moment of 'disconnection' from God, and employed to articulate, discuss, and address a moment of hesitation, lack of commitment to Islamic norms and practices, or an experience of ambivalence. It also works as a heuristic device to interpret feelings of uncertainty and to share inconsistencies and failures with others. By investigating their somatic experiences of hesitation, this paper unravels the ways in which Islamic pedagogies were employed creatively, to overcome these contradictions and to set up horizons of hope. Young newly 'practising' women felt they were never fully able to transform themselves into a coherent religious subject. Although these moments of doubt temporarily steered them away from faith, they also served as a means of addressing and coping with the pushes and pulls of a fragmentary self, allowing them to think of themselves as multi-constituted subjects.