Transcript Understanding Islam: A Brief Introduction

Understanding Islam:
A Brief Introduction
with information from Wendy Frey
and Alan D. DeSantis
Islam Today: Demographics
• There are an estimated 1.5 billion
Muslims worldwide
– One out of five people in the world is
Muslim
• Where Do Muslims Live?
– Muslims live in nearly every country in the
world
– Most people in the Middle East and North
Africa are Muslim
– The majority of Muslims are Asian
World Religions
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2013/08/world-map-all-religions-1.png
Understanding
Muhammad:
His Life and Times
The Life of Muhammad:
The early years
• Muhammad was born in Mecca around the
year 570
• Lived with a nomadic family in the desert
• Orphaned early and left in the care of his
grandfather
• Tribes all worshiped many different gods
(polytheistic)
• Muhammad began working as a merchant
and was known for his trustworthiness
• Muhammad and Khadija (wife) had 4
daughters and 2 sons; only one daughter,
Fatimah, continued the bloodline of
Muhammad
The Life of Muhammad:
The Visions and the Message
• Fifteen years after his marriage, he began to have visions and
hear mysterious voices
• When Muhammad was about 40 years old an angel appeared
to him in the form of a man
• This revelation was soon followed by others about the one true
God; illiterate Muhammad recited messages directly from God
• Unlike Jesus (who Christians believe was God's son) Muhammad was
a mortal, albeit with extraordinary qualities
• He preached a strong social justice message about equality
and poverty
• Khadijah became the first convert to Islam
• Muslims “those who surrender to God”
The Life of Muhammad:
The Trouble
• Muhammad slowly began to attract some followers,
most of them young and of modest social standing
• Khadijah (Muhammad’s dear wife) and Abu Talib
(Muhammad’s protector) die in 619
• In the same year, Muhammad’s Night Journey takes
place. A winged horse carries Muhammad to meet
earlier prophets (like Abraham and Moses) and then
finally through the seven layers of heaven to meet
God.
• The ruling elite feared Muhammad and his followers
and began to persecute them; Makkans refused to do
business with Muslims (in 624, fighting broke out
between the Muslims and the Makkans;; after a rief
truce, Muslims took Makkah and destroyed idols at the
Ka’ba and rededicated it to Allah.)
The Life of Muhammad:
Conclusion
• Muhammad's life was cut short by his
sudden death on June 8, 632 at about
60 years old
• Within 100 years, Islam spread across
the world, occupying more territory than
the Roman Empire
The Expansion of Islam, 632-750
Koran (or the Qur'an)
• Introduction
– God's revelations to Muhammad
• The Creation of the Book
– Muhammad and his followers recited and
memorized these verses (Muhammad was
illiterate)
– Scribes wrote down the passages
– 651 Caliph Uthman established an official
edition of the Qur’an and destroyed other
versions
– Muhammad called the Qur’an Allah’s
“standing miracle”
– Muslims memorize the Qur’an in Arabic
Koran (or the Qur'an)
• The Content
– A) The Koran as a book is
comparable in length to the Gospels
– B) Chapters of the Koran follow in
descending order of length
– C) Many commandments, few stories
– D) Introduced life after death and
heaven & hell (divine reckoning)
– E) The Qur’an provides general
commands to perform The Five Pillars
of Faith
The Sunnah
• “The Practice”
– The example that Muhammad set for Muslims during his
lifetime
– “God forbids all of you to disobey your mothers.”
– Guests should never leave a table hungry.
– Muhammad’s Sunnah is seen as his words and deeds as
the chief role model for Muslims
– Hadith (“tradition”): the collection of stories collected by
scholars about Muhammad’s behavior
– Explains how to perform The Five Pillars of Faith
The Five Pillars
•
The believer worships God directly without the intercession
of priests or clergy or saints.
•
The believer's duties are summed up in five simple rules,
the so-called Five Pillars of Islam:
• 1) Belief
SHAHADAH
– Declaration of Faith:
A Muslim says, “There is no god but God, and
Muhammad is the messenger of God.” (monotheism)
Day of Judgment: God will weigh people’s actions
The good enter paradise.
The evil are sent to hell.
• 2) Worship
SALAT
A) Daily, ritual Prayer
Worship God five times a day — at dawn, noon, midafternoon, sunset, and nightfall
Perform ritual washing
Face qibla (the direction of Mecca)
B) All males gather together on Friday for the noon
prayer and listen to a sermon by the leader of the
community.
The Five Pillars
• 3) Almsgiving
ZAKAT
– The word means “purification” and purifies
wealth
– Muslims must give 1/40 (2.5%) of their
income to the poor
– Helps take care of the community
• 4) Fasting
SIYAM
– Ramadan (9th month on Islamic calendar);
the month God first revealed his message to
Muhammad
– Encourages generosity, community, equality,
and charity
– Teaches self-control and empathy for the
poor and hungry
The Five Pillars
• 5) Pilgrimage
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HAJJ
The pilgrimage to Makkah in theIslamic year’s 12th month
All Muslims who are able are expected to go once in a lifetime
Follow the steps of Abraham and Muhammad
Wear simple, white clothes and announce themselves by saying, “Here I
am, Oh God, at thy command!”
Circle the Ka’ba seven times
Run between two small hills as Hagar did
Pilgrims drink from Zamzam as well
Sleep in tents at Mina
Climb Mt. Arafat
Reject evil by casting stones at pillars representing Satan
Afterwards, pilgrims celebrate with a four day feast
Sacrifice animals
Circle the Ka’ba seven more times before leaving
Jihad
– The word means “to strive”
– Originally meant physical struggle with spiritual significance
(Early on this mean protecting territory and extending rule
over other regions, but the Qur’an forbad forcing others to
convert and set specific terms for fighting…)
– Jihad represents the struggle to overcome difficulties and
do things that would be pleasing to God.
– Examples include: working to become better people,
reforming society, or correcting injustice
– “Lesser jihad” = external struggle against oppression
“Greater jihad” = the fight against evil within oneself (e.g.
giving up a bad habit)
– Muslims should fulfill jihad with heart, tongue, and hand
Shari’ah: Islamic Law
• “The path to be followed”
• Covers Muslims’ duties to God
• Guides Muslims in behavior and relationships
• Promotes obedience to the Qur’an and respect for others
• Islamic Law guides Muslim life by placing actions into one of
five categories:
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Forbidden
Discouraged
Allowed
Recommended
Obligatory (required)
• Today most Muslim countries apply only some parts of Islamic
Law, but it continues to develop in response to modern ways
Two Main Braches of Islam
There are two main branches of Islam today:
•Sunni recognized Mu’awiyah, the leader of the
Umayyads, as a Caliph, Muslim Ruler.
•Shi’a “party” of Ali ibn Abi Talib
•Believe that only people directly related to
Muhammad through his son-in-law Ali should be
caliph
•In all other ways Sunni and Shiite are very
similar, but this split lasts to this day.
Muslims view other religions:
• Muslims believe that God had previously
revealed Himself to the earlier prophets
of the Jews and Christians
• Muslims therefore accept the teachings
of both the Jewish Torah and the
Christian Gospels and consider them
“People of the Book”
• They believe that Qur’an contains God’s
final revelations to the world
Moses
Contributions of Muslims to
World Civilizations
• Islamic civilization flowered throughout the
vast Muslim Empire, from Cordoba, Spain to
Baghdad, Iraq
• Muslims learned from other cultures and
passed this information on to Europeans
• Also learned from Greek works and
produced new scientific, medical, and
philosophical texts
City Building and Architecture
• Abbasid capital of Baghdad
• “The round city”
• Soon Baghdad was one of the world’s
largest cities
• The Mosque
Muslim House
of Worship
Scholarship & Learning
• “The ink of scholars is more precious than
the blood of martyrs.” --Muhammad
• Arabic language promoted learning;
scholars far and wide could share ideas
• Great centers of learning sprung up
• Studied Greeks
• Ibn Sina: Islam’s most famous philosopher
Science and Technology
Qur’an instructed Muslims to learn more
Zoology
• Presented theories about evolution
and established zoos
Astronomy
• Wanted to learn more about the universe
• Used compasses and astrolabes
Irrigation and Underground Wells
• Helped them make the most of their scarce water supplies
• Built dams, aqueducts, canals, underground wells, and water
wheels
Geography and Navigation
• Geography: Muslim scholars
examined plants, divided the
world into climate zones,
created accurate maps and
travelers’ guides, calculated
the Earth’s circumference
within 9 miles of its actual
size (during Medieval times
when most educated people
believed the Earth was round)
Mathematics
• Based ideas on Greek and Indian
knowledge
• Al-Khwarizmi = the father of algebra
• European scholars studied Al-Khwarizmi’s
work
• We still use Arabic numerals today
• Muslims also spread the Indian concept of
zero (zero=“something empty” in Arabic)
Medicine
• Learned from Greeks, Mesopotamians, and
Egyptians and improved on this earlier
knowledge
• World’s first hospitals (governmnet sponsored)
• Pharmicists: made hundreds of medications
• Doctors conducted surgeries
• The Canon of Medicine by Persian philosopher
Ibn Sina
• Impacted Western Medicine a great deal
Bookmaking and Literature
• In the 8th century, Muslims learned the art
of bookmaking from the Chinese
• Craftspeople turned bookmaking into an
art form
• Storytelling and Poetry were highly prized
• Arabian Nights was hugely popular
• The poetry of 13th century
Sufi Poet, Rumi
Art and Music
• Art of shapes and patterns found in
nature
• Illuminated manuscripts
• Arabesque
• Calligraphy: art of beautiful
handwriting (Wrote poetry
everywhere)
• Textiles: clothes showed rank and
status
• Music—Ziryab established Europe’s
first music conservatory
• Singing was essential in Muslim
Spain’s musical culture
Recreation
Muslims helped popularize two favorite
pastimes:
Polo – Muslims learned from the Persians
= “Sport of Kings”
Chess – probably invented in India; Persians introduced
chess to the Muslim world in 600s
Popular in all levels of society
Muslims adapted and improved these games