Islam
"There is no god but the one God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God" is the central proclamation of Islam. Muslims see themselves as rescuing Judaism from the cumbersome complexity of the Torah, and rescuing Christians from the Gentile (Greco-Roman) tendency to anthropomorphize God, and return believers to the simple and straight path that existed between God and Abraham.
Islam
The covenant relationship between God and Abraham has an ethical and social dimension built into it. Peace--salaam (Hebrew shalôm)--results when one's relationship with God is the same as one's relationship with one's fellow human being. One who submits willingly to the commandment of God is a Muslim. The religion of such a submission is Islam. The root of each of these words is SLM: peace, contentment, well-being.
The Arab People
The Arab people historically are a loose confederation of bedouin tribes who became great merchant traders of antiquity. Living in the Arabian peninsula, they existed on the periphery of the Byzantine Greeks and Parthians / Persians, yet not isolated from them. They carried Mediterranean goods to India and parts East, and vice-versa.
Muslims believe that Abraham took his first-born son, Ishmael (whose mother was Hagar, Sarah's handmaiden) into the desert valley of Mecca in Arabia after Sarah gave birth to Isaac. There Abraham and Ishmael built the holiest sanctuary in Islam, the Ka'bah, believed by Muslims to be the original dwelling place of Adam. The Ka'bah historically is a very old pilgrimage site that contains a black meteorite.
Arab religion was mostly henotheistic, worshiping many local spirits or gods and jinn--a race of beings created from fire, some good, others bad. The Ka'bah became a communal shrine for various tribal deities, especially the three main goddesses of Mecca: Al-Lat, Al-Manat, and Al-Uzza. There was also widespread belief in a creator deity, Allah, who ruled over the henotheistic pantheon. Diaspora Jews settled in Arabia as well as Christian members of sects outlawed by the Church. There was also a strain of regional monotheism (the Hanif) that had existed for millennia.
According to Muslim tradition, the peoples of Arabia over time adopted polytheism and other forbidden practices, a time referred to as the "time of ingratitude." In the 7th century of the Christian Era God sent a messenger to redirect the Arab people back to the straight path of God. His name was Muhammad ("the highly praised one").
The Prophet Muhammad
Muhammad was born in 570 CE into the Hashimite clan of the most powerful of the tribes, the Quraysh. His father died before he was born; his mother died while he was a young boy. Muhammad was raised a poor orphan. The traditions around Muhammad say that he was a man with spiritual gifts who went often on solitary retreats of fasting and prayer, according to his tribal custom, during the month of Ramadan.
Muhammad came into the employment of an wealthy widow, Khadijah, 15 years his senior, whom he later married. When Muhammad was forty he undertook his annual spiritual retreat during Ramadan. In his cave retreat on Mt. Hira the angel Gabriel came to him and insisted that he recite. Being unlettered, Muhammad initially hesitated. But upon the command of the angel Muhammad was able to recite the first words that became the Qur'an ("recitation"):
Proclaim! In the name of the Lord and Cherisher, Who created--created man out of a mere clot of congealed blood: Proclaim! And thy Lord is Most Bountiful--He Who taught (the use of) the Pen--taught man that which he knew not! (96:1-5)
Muhammad returned home, shaken, fearing he was an ecstatic visionary or worse, possessed by a jinn. He told Khadijah of the encounter. She reassured him, asserting that it was God who had spoken. The revelations continued throughout his life. Muhammad shared these revelations at first with family and a few close friends who became the first Muslim community, the ummah:
Khadijah, his (first) wife
'Ali, his young cousin and son-in-law (married to Muhammad's daughter Fatima).
Zayd, his manumitted slave and adopted son
Abu Bakr, his close friend, business partner, and father-in-law (Aishah, Abu Bakr's daughter and Muhammad's second wife)
'Uthman (later the 3rd calif, from the Ummayad clan of the Quraysh tribe), his son-in-law
After three years Muhammad was commanded to preach the revelations publicly. He was ridiculed and stoned by the Qurayshites who controlled the Ka'bah. There were also plots to kill Muhammad and his followers.
Meanwhile, the people of Yathrib, an oasis to the north of Mecca, had heard of Muhammad's moral and spiritual excellence. A faction (the ansar, "helpers") invited him and his fellow Muslims to come to the city and help solve its political and social problems. Muhammad agreed on the condition that the people of Media accept Islam and Muhammad as the political and religious leader. Muhammad and his followers (muhajirun) left Mecca for Yathrib in June 622 CE. This event is called the Hijra ("migration") and is the point at which Muslims begin calculating their history.
A series of wars erupted between the people of Mecca and Medina after which the Muslims of Medina were victorious. Muhammad triumphantly returned to Mecca in 630 CE. The Ka'bah was purged of its idols and became the holiest site of Islam. Many Meccans converted to Islam in the aftermath of Muhammad's victory. Muhammad returned to Medina where he lived out the rest of his life. After Muhammad's death in 632, Yathrib was renamed al-Medina ("The City of the Prophet").
The faith soon spread to outlying countries: Egypt and north Africa, the Persian states of the Arabian peninsula, then Persia, northern India and Spain. The prophet declared that every Muslim is the brother of every Muslim and Muslims form one brotherhood.
The Qur'an
The focus of devotion in Islam is God and the Qur'an (alternate spelling Koran) is God's word through the prophet Muhammad. The word means "reciting" and refers to the Arabic (and Jewish) tradition of public recitation of sacred scripture. Most of the Qur'an is written in rhymed prose (like the Jewish Torah; metrical poetry is the domain of the ecstatic tradition of prophesy of the Greeks, Persians, and Hindus, i.e., Indo-Europeans).
Muhammad received the messages over a period of twenty-three years, with some later passages replacing earlier ones, such as the change of facing Mecca instead of Jerusalem for prayers after the Jewish faction of Medina refused to accept Muhammad as a prophet of God. The early verses of Mecca focus on stark, often terse, affirmations of the unity of God. Later messages address the organizational needs and social lives of the Muslim community in Medina, such as marriage and divorce, inheritance laws, treatment of orphans and widows, etc.
Muhammad is said to have committed the recitations to memory. Originally they were transmitted orally. During the Prophet's lifetime his followers attempted to preserve in writing the oral tradition as a way of safeguarding it from loss. A council was convened c. 650 CE to establish a single authoritative written text. This written Qur'an is divided into 114 surahs ("chapters") arranged from the longest to the shortest, with a short exordium at the beginning, the Fatihah, which reveals the essence of the Qur'an:
In the name of God the Compassionate, the Merciful. Praise be to God, Lord of the Universe, the Compassionate, the Merciful, Sovereign of the Day of Judgment! You alone we worship, and to You alone we turn for help. Guide us to the straight path, the path of those whom You have favored, not of those who have incurred Your wrath, nor of those who have gone astray. (1:1-17)
The Qur'an was preserved orally by special reciters until the first compilation was created by Zayd ibn Thabit, Muhammad's freedman, shortly after Muhammad's death. Several variants circulated for a quarter of a century until the definitive text was ordered by the third successor of Muhammad, Uthman. To hear more of the Qur'an recited click Al-Baqara.
After Muhammad's death, stories of his life and sayings began circulating. They were collected into a work of literature called the Hadith ("talk" or "speech"). Although not revealed scripture, the Hadith presents a portrait of Muhammad as the ideal Muslim whom every Muslim should emulate. The Hadith contains also the judgments of Muhammad in civil cases. These in conjunction with the proclamations of God in the Qur'an form the basis of Islamic law, the Shari'ah.
The Five Pillars of Islam
The teachings of Islam are marked by their simplicity and grace, and the directness of their intent (similar to the Ten Commandments of Judaism).
Shahadah: "There is no god but the one God (Allah), and Muhammad is the messenger (rasul) of God." Muslims believe that the Oneness of God, without partners or descendants (Tawhid), is the primordial religion taught by prophets of all faiths. Muhammad merely served to remind humanity of if. As a result, Islam by nature is tolerant of all faiths that profess belief in a single God. In Islam there are essentially two sins that violate the shahadah:
shirk: associating anything else with divinity except the one God; idolatry
kufr: ungratefulness to God; atheism
Salat (Daily Prayers): Faithful Muslims should pray five times a day, beginning with ritual ablutions with water (or sand), by facing Mecca, bowing and kneeling, and reciting a series of prayers and passages from the Qur'an (rak'as). This prayer ritual unites all Muslims around the world daily. Communal prayer is held on Friday, the Muslim day of rest.
The call to prayer, adhan, is made from the minaret (tower: ma'dhana) of a mosque (communal prayer hall: masjid). The caller is a muezzin (mu'adhin). Communal prayer is led by an imam, who need only know the Qur'an and be accepted by his peers as their prayer leader. The men stand shoulder to shoulder, kneel and bow facing the mihrab, the niche that points toward Mecca. At the end, everyone turns to the person left and right and says the traditional Muslim greeting: Assalamu Alaykum ("Peace be on you"). As in Orthodox Judaism, men and women separately, with the women behind a screen, to avoid sexual distractions.
Zakat (Almsgiving): At the end of the year Muslims donate at least two and a half percent of their discretionary income (that is income after meeting basic expenses) to needy Muslims, either directly or to charitable institutions such as religious schools, orphanages, etc. This requirement is designed to help even out inequalities of wealth and to prevent personal greed. Almsgiving is the response to the fast of Ramadan. Although zakat is obligatory, "charity" (sadaqa) should be given frequently.
Sawm (Fasting): Frequent fasts are recommended to Muslims, but the one that is generally obligatory is the fast during Ramadan, commemorating the first revelations of the Qur'an to Muhammad. All who are beyond puberty, not inform or sick or menstruating or nursing children, a dawn-to-dusk abstention from food, drink (including water), sexual intercourse, and smoking is required of the whole month of Ramadan. Like ascetic practices of all faiths, fasting creates a physical state of the body that is conducive for transcending the material world and communing with the Absolute. This fast also reminds Muslims of the poor and hungry of the world and the Muslim obligation to care for them, rather than a purely ascetic practice.
Hajj (Pilgrimage): All Muslims who are physically and financially able are expected to make the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lifetime. Pilgrims wrap themselves in a special garment of unsewn cloth, like a burial shroud. No one is allowed to wear jewelry, make-up, or other items that reveal class distinctions. Only Muslims are allowed into the sacred precinct (haram). The Hajj is a time for dhikr--the constant repetition of the Shahadah. Pilgrims circumambulate the Ka'bah seven times. Other rituals are performed while in Mecca whose origins lie in the pre-Islamic practices when the Ka'bah was a shrine to the polytheistic deities of the Arab peoples (such as throwing stones at rock pillars that symbolize the devil).
Islamic Beliefs and Social Practices
In addition to the Five Pillars is jihad, commonly mistranslated as "holy war." It means "striving" or "exertion" are refers to the outward extension of Islam that begins in the heart. Muslims speak of the "greater" or "inner" jihad: resisting evil and constantly struggling to do good, and the "lesser" or "outer" jihad: defending Islam against its enemies. Muhammad is the prototype of the true mujahid, fighter in the Path of God who values the Path of God more that life, wealth, or family. It is believed that a true mujahid who dies in defense of the faith goes straight to paradise for he has already defeated the internal jihad: the killing of ego.
Muslims affirm five holy realities:
The Unity of God
Angels and heavenly host
Holy Scriptures and Prophets of Judaism and Christianity
Last Judgment and Resurrection of the Dead
Divine Will and Providence of God
Many of these are inherited from the Jewish and Christian communities that were influential in Mecca. They are fused with traditional beliefs of the Arab peoples. Like Judaism, Islam has strong religious notions of social justice. Within the context of the 8th century, Islam was a liberating force for women. In the Christian world women had no rights of divorce, no right to own property, and had to accept without question the husband her parents contracted. Islam freed women from their second-class legal status (although cultural second-class status remained and women's "freedom" still varies from one Muslim society to another).
Women are not required by the Qur'an to be veiled (hijab), covered head-to-toe with a chador (a Persian garment). The Qur'an requires both men and women to dress modestly: burqa. Muslim women, like their Jewish and Christian sisters, are required to wear a head covering. Many modern Muslim women perceive this practice as liberating because by dressing modestly they don't have to worry about being harassed constantly by men or have to endure the hoots and whistles men all too often shower upon women.
Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims
In the eleventh year of the Muslim era Muhammad made a final pilgrimage to Mecca. Recognizing that the end was near he gave final instructions to his followers. However, he gave no clear instructions as to who should succeed him. In the confusion that followed Muhammad's death, longtime friend and father-in law Abu Bakr was elected the first calif, political successor to the prophet. The other possible successor was 'Ali, the prophet's cousin and son-in-law. (Muhammad married Aisha, Abu Bakr's daughter, after the death of Khadijah; their daughter, Fatima, married 'Ali). 'Ali deferred to his elder.
The calif is a temporal ruler, and not a religious prophet. He is the leader of the Muslim community (ummah) and administrator of Islamic law (shari'ah). He rules according to the "way of acting" (sunnah) of Muhammad. They are called Sunni Muslims as a result. They represent 85 percent of Muslims worldwide.
A small number of Muslims supported 'Ali because he was related by blood to Muhammad. They believed that the Muslim community should be guided by a spiritual leader, an Imam, who would also be a prophet of God, like Muhammad. Some years later, 'Ali was elected fourth calif after Uthman, the third calif, was assassinated. However, Mu'awiyah, the Governor of Syria and Uthman's cousin, made a claim for the caliphate and civil war broke out. In the ensuing conflict 'Ali was assassinated in 661 CE (perhaps by his own supporters, the Kharijites, who felt betrayed that 'Ali accepted the caliphate and thus legitimized it).
The caliphate passed into the hands of Mu'awiyah of Damascus and a hereditary dynasty was created, the Umayyad Dynasty (661-750 CE) who ruled from Damascus, thus internationalizing Islam. The party of 'Ali (Shiat 'Ali) did not recognize the legitimacy of the caliphate. They are called Shi'ites as a result. Shi'ites believe 'Ali to be the first Imam and his heirs to be the successors to the Imamate. 'Ali's son, Husayn, tried to establish a rival caliphate in 680, but was intercepted on his way to Karbala in Iraq. He was killed and beheaded, his head being sent to Damascus. As a result, the Shi'ites see themselves as the party of martyrs. Karbala is one of the holiest shrines in Shi'a Islam.
Two branches of Shi'a Islam exist: the Twelvers and Seveners. Each group believe in a separate succession of Imams from 'Ali, the last of which is still alive (in an occulted state) and a mystical leader who rules through his representative Grand Ayatollahs. Twelvers believe that the 12th Imam will reappear as the Mahdi--the Redeemer--to usher in a Golden Age of Shi'a Islam. Seveners believe it will be Husayn who will return to pass judgment.
Sufism
Sufis are Islamic mystics whose writings emphasize mystical union with God (Allah), following a more spiritual path (tariqah). This tradition is said to date back to the time of Muhammad who practiced a contemplative life, although the influence of Byzantine Christian mystics cannot be denied in the developed tradition. Nevertheless, Muhammad and his Muslim gathering of about seventy people lived in his Medina mosque in voluntary poverty, detached from worldly concerns, praying night and day. During the early caliphate, Muslims of deep faith and piety, both Sunni and Shi'ite, became distressed by the increasing secular, dynastic, wealth-oriented characteristics of the Umayyad successors. These faithful began to be known as Sufis (from Arabic tasawwuf).
Sufi mystics who have left a great deal of mystical literature are:
Rabi'a (717-801 CE), a freed slave girl, often referred to as the Muslim St. Theresa of Avila
al-Hallaj (d. 922) died a martyr and made "orthodox" Muslims suspicious of the Sufis
al-Ghazali (1058-1111 CE) Sufi philosopher who helped Muslims overcome fears of Sufis
al-Arabi (1165-1240 CE), a Spanish-born philosopher and metaphysician
ar-Rumi (1207-1273), a Persian mystic who poetry is probably the most widely read and popular, both then and now
Khalil Gibran, a modern mystical poet in the Sufi tradition, author of The Prophet
The Spread of Islam
In 750 CE a new dynasty arose in Baghdad, the Abbasids. They ruled until 1285 CE and extended the Dar al-Islam ("Abode of Islam") west to North Africa and Spain and east to Indochina and Malaysia, producing the largest unified religious, political, and economic "empire" the world has ever seen.
Genghis Khan and the Mongols brought an end to Abbasid rule. Even before, however, the Abbasid empire began breaking up into smaller political units based on cultural and geographical affinities: Spain and North Africa; Egypt and Palestine; Syria; Persia; Central Asia (Afghanistan and Pakistan).
The sultans of Turkey were able to repel the Mongols. In 1453 Mehmet II took control of the Christian Byzantine Empire by breaching the walls of Constantinople. Renamed Istanbul, it became the capital of the Ottoman Empire that ruled Eastern Europe, the Arab World, and North Africa until the late 19th century. The Shi'ite Safavids ruled Central Asia and Persia until the eighteenth century, and the Mughals--successors to the Mongols--ruled the Indian subcontinent until British rule in 1857.
The rapid spread of Islam was complex. To be sure, much of the conquests was motivated by pragmatic desires for territory and plunder. But religious zeal cannot be discounted. In addition, many peoples of the Middle-East voluntarily accepted Islam and Muslim rulers, preferring to be ruled by fellow Semitic Arabs than Indo-European Byzantine Greeks, who treated the native Semitic population harshly. Muslims also did not force conversion on Jews and Christians. Rather they were allowed to practice openly and legally as dhimmis. Jews and Christians, however, were not allowed to participate in the political life of the Dar al-Islam, and had to pay a special tax for their protected status. Jews and Christians managed to survive, but not able to live very well and under periodic threat of oppression and persecution. There was great incentive for converting to Islam. But the same held true several centuries earlier as the Roman Empire was converted over to Christianity. In the end it was Jews who suffered at the hands of both Christians and Muslims.
As Islam spread from Spain to the Philippines, it adapted local culture and Islamicized it. As a result many local forms of Islam were created. United by a common religion and language, Islam as practiced by the Moors of Spain differ greatly than the Islam of Saudi Arabia or of Malaysia, the largest Muslim county in the world. Over time, four major forms of Islamic Law (Shari'ah) also arose:
Hanifite, the more "liberal" form that employs ra'y, personal conviction, in some decisions to offer pragmatic solutions for modern situations, often in direct conflict to the Qur'an.
Malakite, which focuses heavily on ijmah, or consensus of the community.
Shafi'ite, which rejects personal conviction, but elevates the hadiths even above the Qur'an, using qiyas--analogies--to apply the Qur'an to practical situations
Hanbalite, which rejects personal conviction and the hadiths, focusing exclusively on the Qur'an.
Islamic Law is taught in a madrassah, or religious school. Traditionally, all four schools were taught, each building facing a square, or "quad," where adherents would debate and argue their positions (not unlike the Jewish practice in the yeshiva--rabbinical school). Graduates may become members of the 'ulamah--the council of clerical scholars--that interprets the Shari'ah for their respective country.
Besides the study of Islamic Law, Muslims had developed sophisticated sciences, mathematics, and philosophy. Many Euro-Centric textbooks of philosophy often ignore the contribution of Islamic philosophy and its influence on medieval Christian philosophy, as do Art History texts downplay the influence of Islamic art and architecture on Gothic art and architecture. Islamic culture played a tremendous role in fostering the transformation of the Gothic ideal to the Renaissance ideal in the 14th century in Europe.
The Resurgence of Islam
The collapse of the Ottoman Empire, European colonialism in the Arab world, and World War I reduced the Islamic World to near third world status. Europeans took political and economic advantage of the situation, controlling much of the Islamic world through puppet regimes that became wealthy by exploiting their natural resources and leaving the Muslim population in poverty. Resentment against the West climaxed with the establishment of the state of Israel after World War II, and the Arab World's humiliating defeat by the U.S. backed Israeli army during the 6-day war of 1967.
The Muslim world realized they had a trump card over the West by controlling the price of oil. The Arab Oil Embargo of 1973 was the first expression of a resurgent Islam, followed by the deposition of the Shah of Iran (a puppet of the CIA backed government of Iran) in 1979-80 and the Iranian Revolution.
A state of mutual distrust yet mutual necessity between the West and the Middle East has prevailed since the Gulf War. The Clinton Administration's good faith attempt to mediate between Palestinians and Israelis in a way that takes seriously Palestinian concerns created a window of opportunity for building peace in the region. The failure of the Oslo Agreement and Camp David summit, however, has thrown prospects for peace in the Middle East, and peace between the West and the Arab Nations, into jeopardy. And while the deposition of Saddam Hussein was a relief to the Iraqi people and the Muslim world, the Bush Administration's dubious reasons for going to war and the unilateral manner in which it was carried out, and the mishandling of the post-war administration, has left much of the Arab world more distrustful than ever of American motives in the Middle East.
The goal of a resurgent Islam is to become Modern without becoming Western. The Muslim world wants new technology, science, manufactured goods and a higher standard of living but without the westernization that follows: divorce, drugs, sex as a marketplace commodity, unequal distribution of wealth, spiritual malaise, and McDonalds. It is a difficult task indeed. But the West can speed up the process by giving up long held biases against Islam.
The Christian West had to face up to its own anti-Semitism that led to the Holocaust of Jews. The Christian West now needs to accept Islam as part of the family of Abraham and treat Islam, its adherents, and its religious and cultural heritage with the respect is deserves. This is the only weapon that will ultimately prove successful against militant jihad and terrorism. The West must offer a better alternative to Wahabism than consumerism and Western-style democracy.
"There is no god but the one God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God" is the central proclamation of Islam. Muslims see themselves as rescuing Judaism from the cumbersome complexity of the Torah, and rescuing Christians from the Gentile (Greco-Roman) tendency to anthropomorphize God, and return believers to the simple and straight path that existed between God and Abraham.
Islam
The covenant relationship between God and Abraham has an ethical and social dimension built into it. Peace--salaam (Hebrew shalôm)--results when one's relationship with God is the same as one's relationship with one's fellow human being. One who submits willingly to the commandment of God is a Muslim. The religion of such a submission is Islam. The root of each of these words is SLM: peace, contentment, well-being.
The Arab People
The Arab people historically are a loose confederation of bedouin tribes who became great merchant traders of antiquity. Living in the Arabian peninsula, they existed on the periphery of the Byzantine Greeks and Parthians / Persians, yet not isolated from them. They carried Mediterranean goods to India and parts East, and vice-versa.
Muslims believe that Abraham took his first-born son, Ishmael (whose mother was Hagar, Sarah's handmaiden) into the desert valley of Mecca in Arabia after Sarah gave birth to Isaac. There Abraham and Ishmael built the holiest sanctuary in Islam, the Ka'bah, believed by Muslims to be the original dwelling place of Adam. The Ka'bah historically is a very old pilgrimage site that contains a black meteorite.
Arab religion was mostly henotheistic, worshiping many local spirits or gods and jinn--a race of beings created from fire, some good, others bad. The Ka'bah became a communal shrine for various tribal deities, especially the three main goddesses of Mecca: Al-Lat, Al-Manat, and Al-Uzza. There was also widespread belief in a creator deity, Allah, who ruled over the henotheistic pantheon. Diaspora Jews settled in Arabia as well as Christian members of sects outlawed by the Church. There was also a strain of regional monotheism (the Hanif) that had existed for millennia.
According to Muslim tradition, the peoples of Arabia over time adopted polytheism and other forbidden practices, a time referred to as the "time of ingratitude." In the 7th century of the Christian Era God sent a messenger to redirect the Arab people back to the straight path of God. His name was Muhammad ("the highly praised one").
The Prophet Muhammad
Muhammad was born in 570 CE into the Hashimite clan of the most powerful of the tribes, the Quraysh. His father died before he was born; his mother died while he was a young boy. Muhammad was raised a poor orphan. The traditions around Muhammad say that he was a man with spiritual gifts who went often on solitary retreats of fasting and prayer, according to his tribal custom, during the month of Ramadan.
Muhammad came into the employment of an wealthy widow, Khadijah, 15 years his senior, whom he later married. When Muhammad was forty he undertook his annual spiritual retreat during Ramadan. In his cave retreat on Mt. Hira the angel Gabriel came to him and insisted that he recite. Being unlettered, Muhammad initially hesitated. But upon the command of the angel Muhammad was able to recite the first words that became the Qur'an ("recitation"):
Proclaim! In the name of the Lord and Cherisher, Who created--created man out of a mere clot of congealed blood: Proclaim! And thy Lord is Most Bountiful--He Who taught (the use of) the Pen--taught man that which he knew not! (96:1-5)
Muhammad returned home, shaken, fearing he was an ecstatic visionary or worse, possessed by a jinn. He told Khadijah of the encounter. She reassured him, asserting that it was God who had spoken. The revelations continued throughout his life. Muhammad shared these revelations at first with family and a few close friends who became the first Muslim community, the ummah:
Khadijah, his (first) wife
'Ali, his young cousin and son-in-law (married to Muhammad's daughter Fatima).
Zayd, his manumitted slave and adopted son
Abu Bakr, his close friend, business partner, and father-in-law (Aishah, Abu Bakr's daughter and Muhammad's second wife)
'Uthman (later the 3rd calif, from the Ummayad clan of the Quraysh tribe), his son-in-law
After three years Muhammad was commanded to preach the revelations publicly. He was ridiculed and stoned by the Qurayshites who controlled the Ka'bah. There were also plots to kill Muhammad and his followers.
Meanwhile, the people of Yathrib, an oasis to the north of Mecca, had heard of Muhammad's moral and spiritual excellence. A faction (the ansar, "helpers") invited him and his fellow Muslims to come to the city and help solve its political and social problems. Muhammad agreed on the condition that the people of Media accept Islam and Muhammad as the political and religious leader. Muhammad and his followers (muhajirun) left Mecca for Yathrib in June 622 CE. This event is called the Hijra ("migration") and is the point at which Muslims begin calculating their history.
A series of wars erupted between the people of Mecca and Medina after which the Muslims of Medina were victorious. Muhammad triumphantly returned to Mecca in 630 CE. The Ka'bah was purged of its idols and became the holiest site of Islam. Many Meccans converted to Islam in the aftermath of Muhammad's victory. Muhammad returned to Medina where he lived out the rest of his life. After Muhammad's death in 632, Yathrib was renamed al-Medina ("The City of the Prophet").
The faith soon spread to outlying countries: Egypt and north Africa, the Persian states of the Arabian peninsula, then Persia, northern India and Spain. The prophet declared that every Muslim is the brother of every Muslim and Muslims form one brotherhood.
The Qur'an
The focus of devotion in Islam is God and the Qur'an (alternate spelling Koran) is God's word through the prophet Muhammad. The word means "reciting" and refers to the Arabic (and Jewish) tradition of public recitation of sacred scripture. Most of the Qur'an is written in rhymed prose (like the Jewish Torah; metrical poetry is the domain of the ecstatic tradition of prophesy of the Greeks, Persians, and Hindus, i.e., Indo-Europeans).
Muhammad received the messages over a period of twenty-three years, with some later passages replacing earlier ones, such as the change of facing Mecca instead of Jerusalem for prayers after the Jewish faction of Medina refused to accept Muhammad as a prophet of God. The early verses of Mecca focus on stark, often terse, affirmations of the unity of God. Later messages address the organizational needs and social lives of the Muslim community in Medina, such as marriage and divorce, inheritance laws, treatment of orphans and widows, etc.
Muhammad is said to have committed the recitations to memory. Originally they were transmitted orally. During the Prophet's lifetime his followers attempted to preserve in writing the oral tradition as a way of safeguarding it from loss. A council was convened c. 650 CE to establish a single authoritative written text. This written Qur'an is divided into 114 surahs ("chapters") arranged from the longest to the shortest, with a short exordium at the beginning, the Fatihah, which reveals the essence of the Qur'an:
In the name of God the Compassionate, the Merciful. Praise be to God, Lord of the Universe, the Compassionate, the Merciful, Sovereign of the Day of Judgment! You alone we worship, and to You alone we turn for help. Guide us to the straight path, the path of those whom You have favored, not of those who have incurred Your wrath, nor of those who have gone astray. (1:1-17)
The Qur'an was preserved orally by special reciters until the first compilation was created by Zayd ibn Thabit, Muhammad's freedman, shortly after Muhammad's death. Several variants circulated for a quarter of a century until the definitive text was ordered by the third successor of Muhammad, Uthman. To hear more of the Qur'an recited click Al-Baqara.
After Muhammad's death, stories of his life and sayings began circulating. They were collected into a work of literature called the Hadith ("talk" or "speech"). Although not revealed scripture, the Hadith presents a portrait of Muhammad as the ideal Muslim whom every Muslim should emulate. The Hadith contains also the judgments of Muhammad in civil cases. These in conjunction with the proclamations of God in the Qur'an form the basis of Islamic law, the Shari'ah.
The Five Pillars of Islam
The teachings of Islam are marked by their simplicity and grace, and the directness of their intent (similar to the Ten Commandments of Judaism).
Shahadah: "There is no god but the one God (Allah), and Muhammad is the messenger (rasul) of God." Muslims believe that the Oneness of God, without partners or descendants (Tawhid), is the primordial religion taught by prophets of all faiths. Muhammad merely served to remind humanity of if. As a result, Islam by nature is tolerant of all faiths that profess belief in a single God. In Islam there are essentially two sins that violate the shahadah:
shirk: associating anything else with divinity except the one God; idolatry
kufr: ungratefulness to God; atheism
Salat (Daily Prayers): Faithful Muslims should pray five times a day, beginning with ritual ablutions with water (or sand), by facing Mecca, bowing and kneeling, and reciting a series of prayers and passages from the Qur'an (rak'as). This prayer ritual unites all Muslims around the world daily. Communal prayer is held on Friday, the Muslim day of rest.
The call to prayer, adhan, is made from the minaret (tower: ma'dhana) of a mosque (communal prayer hall: masjid). The caller is a muezzin (mu'adhin). Communal prayer is led by an imam, who need only know the Qur'an and be accepted by his peers as their prayer leader. The men stand shoulder to shoulder, kneel and bow facing the mihrab, the niche that points toward Mecca. At the end, everyone turns to the person left and right and says the traditional Muslim greeting: Assalamu Alaykum ("Peace be on you"). As in Orthodox Judaism, men and women separately, with the women behind a screen, to avoid sexual distractions.
Zakat (Almsgiving): At the end of the year Muslims donate at least two and a half percent of their discretionary income (that is income after meeting basic expenses) to needy Muslims, either directly or to charitable institutions such as religious schools, orphanages, etc. This requirement is designed to help even out inequalities of wealth and to prevent personal greed. Almsgiving is the response to the fast of Ramadan. Although zakat is obligatory, "charity" (sadaqa) should be given frequently.
Sawm (Fasting): Frequent fasts are recommended to Muslims, but the one that is generally obligatory is the fast during Ramadan, commemorating the first revelations of the Qur'an to Muhammad. All who are beyond puberty, not inform or sick or menstruating or nursing children, a dawn-to-dusk abstention from food, drink (including water), sexual intercourse, and smoking is required of the whole month of Ramadan. Like ascetic practices of all faiths, fasting creates a physical state of the body that is conducive for transcending the material world and communing with the Absolute. This fast also reminds Muslims of the poor and hungry of the world and the Muslim obligation to care for them, rather than a purely ascetic practice.
Hajj (Pilgrimage): All Muslims who are physically and financially able are expected to make the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lifetime. Pilgrims wrap themselves in a special garment of unsewn cloth, like a burial shroud. No one is allowed to wear jewelry, make-up, or other items that reveal class distinctions. Only Muslims are allowed into the sacred precinct (haram). The Hajj is a time for dhikr--the constant repetition of the Shahadah. Pilgrims circumambulate the Ka'bah seven times. Other rituals are performed while in Mecca whose origins lie in the pre-Islamic practices when the Ka'bah was a shrine to the polytheistic deities of the Arab peoples (such as throwing stones at rock pillars that symbolize the devil).
Islamic Beliefs and Social Practices
In addition to the Five Pillars is jihad, commonly mistranslated as "holy war." It means "striving" or "exertion" are refers to the outward extension of Islam that begins in the heart. Muslims speak of the "greater" or "inner" jihad: resisting evil and constantly struggling to do good, and the "lesser" or "outer" jihad: defending Islam against its enemies. Muhammad is the prototype of the true mujahid, fighter in the Path of God who values the Path of God more that life, wealth, or family. It is believed that a true mujahid who dies in defense of the faith goes straight to paradise for he has already defeated the internal jihad: the killing of ego.
Muslims affirm five holy realities:
The Unity of God
Angels and heavenly host
Holy Scriptures and Prophets of Judaism and Christianity
Last Judgment and Resurrection of the Dead
Divine Will and Providence of God
Many of these are inherited from the Jewish and Christian communities that were influential in Mecca. They are fused with traditional beliefs of the Arab peoples. Like Judaism, Islam has strong religious notions of social justice. Within the context of the 8th century, Islam was a liberating force for women. In the Christian world women had no rights of divorce, no right to own property, and had to accept without question the husband her parents contracted. Islam freed women from their second-class legal status (although cultural second-class status remained and women's "freedom" still varies from one Muslim society to another).
Women are not required by the Qur'an to be veiled (hijab), covered head-to-toe with a chador (a Persian garment). The Qur'an requires both men and women to dress modestly: burqa. Muslim women, like their Jewish and Christian sisters, are required to wear a head covering. Many modern Muslim women perceive this practice as liberating because by dressing modestly they don't have to worry about being harassed constantly by men or have to endure the hoots and whistles men all too often shower upon women.
Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims
In the eleventh year of the Muslim era Muhammad made a final pilgrimage to Mecca. Recognizing that the end was near he gave final instructions to his followers. However, he gave no clear instructions as to who should succeed him. In the confusion that followed Muhammad's death, longtime friend and father-in law Abu Bakr was elected the first calif, political successor to the prophet. The other possible successor was 'Ali, the prophet's cousin and son-in-law. (Muhammad married Aisha, Abu Bakr's daughter, after the death of Khadijah; their daughter, Fatima, married 'Ali). 'Ali deferred to his elder.
The calif is a temporal ruler, and not a religious prophet. He is the leader of the Muslim community (ummah) and administrator of Islamic law (shari'ah). He rules according to the "way of acting" (sunnah) of Muhammad. They are called Sunni Muslims as a result. They represent 85 percent of Muslims worldwide.
A small number of Muslims supported 'Ali because he was related by blood to Muhammad. They believed that the Muslim community should be guided by a spiritual leader, an Imam, who would also be a prophet of God, like Muhammad. Some years later, 'Ali was elected fourth calif after Uthman, the third calif, was assassinated. However, Mu'awiyah, the Governor of Syria and Uthman's cousin, made a claim for the caliphate and civil war broke out. In the ensuing conflict 'Ali was assassinated in 661 CE (perhaps by his own supporters, the Kharijites, who felt betrayed that 'Ali accepted the caliphate and thus legitimized it).
The caliphate passed into the hands of Mu'awiyah of Damascus and a hereditary dynasty was created, the Umayyad Dynasty (661-750 CE) who ruled from Damascus, thus internationalizing Islam. The party of 'Ali (Shiat 'Ali) did not recognize the legitimacy of the caliphate. They are called Shi'ites as a result. Shi'ites believe 'Ali to be the first Imam and his heirs to be the successors to the Imamate. 'Ali's son, Husayn, tried to establish a rival caliphate in 680, but was intercepted on his way to Karbala in Iraq. He was killed and beheaded, his head being sent to Damascus. As a result, the Shi'ites see themselves as the party of martyrs. Karbala is one of the holiest shrines in Shi'a Islam.
Two branches of Shi'a Islam exist: the Twelvers and Seveners. Each group believe in a separate succession of Imams from 'Ali, the last of which is still alive (in an occulted state) and a mystical leader who rules through his representative Grand Ayatollahs. Twelvers believe that the 12th Imam will reappear as the Mahdi--the Redeemer--to usher in a Golden Age of Shi'a Islam. Seveners believe it will be Husayn who will return to pass judgment.
Sufism
Sufis are Islamic mystics whose writings emphasize mystical union with God (Allah), following a more spiritual path (tariqah). This tradition is said to date back to the time of Muhammad who practiced a contemplative life, although the influence of Byzantine Christian mystics cannot be denied in the developed tradition. Nevertheless, Muhammad and his Muslim gathering of about seventy people lived in his Medina mosque in voluntary poverty, detached from worldly concerns, praying night and day. During the early caliphate, Muslims of deep faith and piety, both Sunni and Shi'ite, became distressed by the increasing secular, dynastic, wealth-oriented characteristics of the Umayyad successors. These faithful began to be known as Sufis (from Arabic tasawwuf).
Sufi mystics who have left a great deal of mystical literature are:
Rabi'a (717-801 CE), a freed slave girl, often referred to as the Muslim St. Theresa of Avila
al-Hallaj (d. 922) died a martyr and made "orthodox" Muslims suspicious of the Sufis
al-Ghazali (1058-1111 CE) Sufi philosopher who helped Muslims overcome fears of Sufis
al-Arabi (1165-1240 CE), a Spanish-born philosopher and metaphysician
ar-Rumi (1207-1273), a Persian mystic who poetry is probably the most widely read and popular, both then and now
Khalil Gibran, a modern mystical poet in the Sufi tradition, author of The Prophet
The Spread of Islam
In 750 CE a new dynasty arose in Baghdad, the Abbasids. They ruled until 1285 CE and extended the Dar al-Islam ("Abode of Islam") west to North Africa and Spain and east to Indochina and Malaysia, producing the largest unified religious, political, and economic "empire" the world has ever seen.
Genghis Khan and the Mongols brought an end to Abbasid rule. Even before, however, the Abbasid empire began breaking up into smaller political units based on cultural and geographical affinities: Spain and North Africa; Egypt and Palestine; Syria; Persia; Central Asia (Afghanistan and Pakistan).
The sultans of Turkey were able to repel the Mongols. In 1453 Mehmet II took control of the Christian Byzantine Empire by breaching the walls of Constantinople. Renamed Istanbul, it became the capital of the Ottoman Empire that ruled Eastern Europe, the Arab World, and North Africa until the late 19th century. The Shi'ite Safavids ruled Central Asia and Persia until the eighteenth century, and the Mughals--successors to the Mongols--ruled the Indian subcontinent until British rule in 1857.
The rapid spread of Islam was complex. To be sure, much of the conquests was motivated by pragmatic desires for territory and plunder. But religious zeal cannot be discounted. In addition, many peoples of the Middle-East voluntarily accepted Islam and Muslim rulers, preferring to be ruled by fellow Semitic Arabs than Indo-European Byzantine Greeks, who treated the native Semitic population harshly. Muslims also did not force conversion on Jews and Christians. Rather they were allowed to practice openly and legally as dhimmis. Jews and Christians, however, were not allowed to participate in the political life of the Dar al-Islam, and had to pay a special tax for their protected status. Jews and Christians managed to survive, but not able to live very well and under periodic threat of oppression and persecution. There was great incentive for converting to Islam. But the same held true several centuries earlier as the Roman Empire was converted over to Christianity. In the end it was Jews who suffered at the hands of both Christians and Muslims.
As Islam spread from Spain to the Philippines, it adapted local culture and Islamicized it. As a result many local forms of Islam were created. United by a common religion and language, Islam as practiced by the Moors of Spain differ greatly than the Islam of Saudi Arabia or of Malaysia, the largest Muslim county in the world. Over time, four major forms of Islamic Law (Shari'ah) also arose:
Hanifite, the more "liberal" form that employs ra'y, personal conviction, in some decisions to offer pragmatic solutions for modern situations, often in direct conflict to the Qur'an.
Malakite, which focuses heavily on ijmah, or consensus of the community.
Shafi'ite, which rejects personal conviction, but elevates the hadiths even above the Qur'an, using qiyas--analogies--to apply the Qur'an to practical situations
Hanbalite, which rejects personal conviction and the hadiths, focusing exclusively on the Qur'an.
Islamic Law is taught in a madrassah, or religious school. Traditionally, all four schools were taught, each building facing a square, or "quad," where adherents would debate and argue their positions (not unlike the Jewish practice in the yeshiva--rabbinical school). Graduates may become members of the 'ulamah--the council of clerical scholars--that interprets the Shari'ah for their respective country.
Besides the study of Islamic Law, Muslims had developed sophisticated sciences, mathematics, and philosophy. Many Euro-Centric textbooks of philosophy often ignore the contribution of Islamic philosophy and its influence on medieval Christian philosophy, as do Art History texts downplay the influence of Islamic art and architecture on Gothic art and architecture. Islamic culture played a tremendous role in fostering the transformation of the Gothic ideal to the Renaissance ideal in the 14th century in Europe.
The Resurgence of Islam
The collapse of the Ottoman Empire, European colonialism in the Arab world, and World War I reduced the Islamic World to near third world status. Europeans took political and economic advantage of the situation, controlling much of the Islamic world through puppet regimes that became wealthy by exploiting their natural resources and leaving the Muslim population in poverty. Resentment against the West climaxed with the establishment of the state of Israel after World War II, and the Arab World's humiliating defeat by the U.S. backed Israeli army during the 6-day war of 1967.
The Muslim world realized they had a trump card over the West by controlling the price of oil. The Arab Oil Embargo of 1973 was the first expression of a resurgent Islam, followed by the deposition of the Shah of Iran (a puppet of the CIA backed government of Iran) in 1979-80 and the Iranian Revolution.
A state of mutual distrust yet mutual necessity between the West and the Middle East has prevailed since the Gulf War. The Clinton Administration's good faith attempt to mediate between Palestinians and Israelis in a way that takes seriously Palestinian concerns created a window of opportunity for building peace in the region. The failure of the Oslo Agreement and Camp David summit, however, has thrown prospects for peace in the Middle East, and peace between the West and the Arab Nations, into jeopardy. And while the deposition of Saddam Hussein was a relief to the Iraqi people and the Muslim world, the Bush Administration's dubious reasons for going to war and the unilateral manner in which it was carried out, and the mishandling of the post-war administration, has left much of the Arab world more distrustful than ever of American motives in the Middle East.
The goal of a resurgent Islam is to become Modern without becoming Western. The Muslim world wants new technology, science, manufactured goods and a higher standard of living but without the westernization that follows: divorce, drugs, sex as a marketplace commodity, unequal distribution of wealth, spiritual malaise, and McDonalds. It is a difficult task indeed. But the West can speed up the process by giving up long held biases against Islam.
The Christian West had to face up to its own anti-Semitism that led to the Holocaust of Jews. The Christian West now needs to accept Islam as part of the family of Abraham and treat Islam, its adherents, and its religious and cultural heritage with the respect is deserves. This is the only weapon that will ultimately prove successful against militant jihad and terrorism. The West must offer a better alternative to Wahabism than consumerism and Western-style democracy.
Some info about Islam beliefs. Hope you all like.
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