Transcript World Religious Traditions II - Islam

Islam
There is no God but God
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One-fifth of the world now belongs to the
religion of Islam. Their creed is simple…
“There is no god but God,
and Muhammad is his
Messenger.”
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Tenets of Islam
• Original path of monotheism
• Traced to Abraham like Judaism and
Christianity
• “Islam” means surrender to God
• Muslims believe like the Torah and the
Bible, the Qur’an, is the word of God
• The Five Pillars
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The Five Pillars
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Belief & Witness – (the Shahadah)
Daily prayers – five times
Almsgiving – percentage to the poor
Fasting – daylight during Ramadan
Hajj – pilgrimage to Mecca
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The Story of Muhammad
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Sayings of Muhammad
“An hour of contemplation is
better than a year of prayer.”
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Sayings of Muhammad
“The signs of misfortune lie
in four conditions: eyes that
have never experienced
tears, a heart that is cruel
and hard, long chains of
desires that never end, and
wishing for an extremely
prolonged life.”
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Sayings of Muhammad
“There are as many ways to God as
there are created souls.”
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Muhammad & the Qur’an
• Muhammad was born in 570 A.D. in Mecca
• In the Cave of Hira, he received his first
revelation from the angel Gabriel in 610 CE.
• In 620, he left Mecca for Medina. This date
marks the beginning of the Muslim calendar.
• By the time he died in 632, Islam was a thriving
religion.
• The revelations he received were compiled into
the Qur’an after his death.
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Muhammad Preaching
“Revelation sometimes
comes like the sound of a
bell; that is the most
painful way. When it
ceases I have remembered
what was said. Sometimes
it is an angel who talks to
me like a human, and I
remember what he says.”
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“The Qu’ran taught that the Jews and
Christians had distorted the pure
monotheism of Abraham; Muhammad had
been sent to restore and supplement the
teachings of the apostles and prophets.”
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A Revolutionary Idea…
As the multi-cultural , multi-racial
embrace of Islam evolved, the Prophet
declared that the community of the
faithful was more important than the
older tribal identities that had divided
people. The new ideal was a global
family, under God..
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According to the Qur’an, the mission
of Islam is to reform society and to
actively combat oppression and
corruption.
Muhamnmad said, “The best Islam is
that you feed the hungry and spread
peace among people you know and
those you do not know.”
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The Qur’an
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Dictated to a scribe over 23 years
“Weep when you recite them…”
Divided into 114 chapters (suras)
Many stories from Jewish and
Christian histories
• Multiple levels of meaning
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Three Levels…
“O thou wrapped up/ In a mantle/Arise
and deliver thy warning!”
• 1 – go forth boldly and speak
• 2 – every good man should speak
boldly when his time comes
• 3 – give up the outward wrappings
and look to the inward purity, and
then boldly proclaim itself
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Belief in the prophets is a
cornerstone of Islam
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Ishmael
Joseph
Aaron
Adam
Jonah
- Isaac
- Job
- David
- Noah
- John
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- Jacob
- Moses
- Solomon
- Abraham
- Jesus
Islam Today
• Fastest growing and second largest
religion in the world
• 20% of the world’s population makes
up 1.2 billion Muslims
• 43 countries with Muslim majorities
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Large Muslim Populations
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Indonesia – 183 million
Pakistan – 134 million
India – 121 million
Iran – 62 million
United States – 7 million (but fastest
growing religion)
• Majority of Arabs in US are not Muslims
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The Shahadah
(only one Absolute Reality)
90% of Muslim theology deals
with the implications of the unity of
God. Allah is the name that
encompasses all the many attributes.
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No One Chosen People
Islam states there are no
chosen people because…
“all are invited into a direct
relationship with God.”
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Islam honors all religions
“Say ye; We believe In God, and the
revelation Given to us, and to Abraham,
Isma’il, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes,
and that given to Moses and Jesus, and
that given to all Prophets from their
Lord; We make no difference Between
on and another of them: And we bow to
God in surrender.”
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Two Major Sins
• Shirk –
• Kufr –
associating
divine qualities to
anyone but God
ungratefulness to
God, unbelief, or
atheism.
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Satan & Hell
According to the
Qur’an, Satan is a
non-submissive
being. Those
who fall prey to
Satan’s devices
will go to hell.
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Heaven
“There will be castles, couches,
fruits, sweetmeats, honey, beautiful
virgin women, and immortal youths
serving goblets and golden platters.”
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Sunni-Shi’a Split
• Suni are 80%
• Traditional
elected caliph
• Respect the
Shari’ah laws of
the community
• Shi’a are 20%
• Follow bloodline
of Muhammad
for leaders called
the Imam
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A True Jihad
A true Jihad is the internal fight between
wrong and right, error and truth,
selfishness and selflessness, hardness of
heart and all-embracing love.
The Prophet Muhammad said
“…the preferred jihad is a truth
spoken in the presence of a tyrant.”
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Mysticism of the Sufis
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After Muhammad…
“The position adopted by the successive
luminaries who followed Muhammad was to
affirm the belief in reincarnation but not to
propagate it as a teaching for the masses….
The emphasis in Islamic teachings has
throughout been on the purity of action.”
Reincarnation Phoenix Fire Mystery,
Head & Cranston, page 166
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Whirling Dervishes
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Well Known Sufis
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Rumi – author & mystic
Dante Raymond Lully
Paracelsus
Thomas Aquinas
Roger Bacon
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Nasrudin
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Nasrudin, your
donkey has
disappeared!
Thank goodness
I wasn’t on it, or
I would have
disappeared too!
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Nasrudin agrees to be a judge in a legal
dispute.
He hears the plaintiff and says, “You are
right.”
He then hears the defendant and says, “You
are right.”
Everyone complains and says everyone can’t
be right.
Nasrudin says, “You are right!”
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One evening people saw Nasrudin under a street
lamp looking all over the ground for his keys.
Soon people gathered around to help him.
Finally, someone asked where he last saw his
keys. He said it was way over there in the
darkness, but it was easier to look here under the
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street lamp.
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“I died as mineral and became a
plant,
I died as plant and rose to animal,
I died as animal and I was man.
Why should I fear? When was I less
by dying?
Yet once more I shall die as man, to
soar with angels blest;
Rumi
But even from angelhood I must
pass on…”
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Meher Baba
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A Review of
The Five Pillars
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Belief & Witness – the Shahada
Daily Prayers – five times a day
Almsgiving – Zakat
Fasting – during Ramadan
Pilgrimage to Mecca - Hajj
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