Transcript What Is Islam And Who Speaks For It? Empathetic

WHAT IS ISLAM AND WHO
SPEAKS FOR IT? EMPATHETIC
UNDERSTANDING
1.2 Approaching the subject, Chapter 1, first
section (see model syllabus)
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Islām = Religion of those who follow Muhammad
Three levels:
 1. Submission or commitment – the meaning of islām
muslim = one who submits
muslima = feminine form in Arabic
 2. The religion = a system of beliefs and practices
ordained by God
 3. Culture(s) and/or civilization(s) created by
Muslims, but also shared by many non-Muslims,
including and integrating elements of other cultures.
islām is also linguistically related to salām
and is sometimes defined as entering into peace
with God
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One who is at peace with God may then be:
 - at peace with him/herself
 - at peace with other people
 - at peace with nature
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The religion (2) began with the career of
Muhammad (610-632)
• in some sense complete with his career (cf.
Qur’an 5:3)
• in another sense develops or at least unfolds over
time
•Western non-Muslim scholars emphasize the
element of development and change more than
Muslims do.
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The culture/civilization developed more slowly
and changes more
• reached its first flowering about two centuries
after Muhammad
• is quite diverse in different times and places
• but has a significant common core
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PEOPLE are the bearers of both religion and
culture
• must never be lost sight of
• in some sense, Islam is Muslims.
• Are there as many Islams are there are Muslims?
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“True Islam”
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Muslims often contrast “true Islam”, Islam as it ought to be, with its
imperfect realization in actual practice, which may be considered
quite corrupt.
But different Muslims have different views as to the content of “true”
Islam and what constitutes “corruption”.
e.g. Is celebrating the birthday of Muhammad an essential part of
true Islam, an optional practice, or a violation of Islam?
e.g., Is jihad in the sense of fighting a necessary part of “true” Islam?
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Those (including some non-Muslims) who speak of “true Islam”
generally mean certain beliefs and practices, which they consider
central, as opposed to others.
e.g. some critics of Islam see violence as an essential part of Islam.
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In this course we will not judge what is “true Islam”
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In principle, we will give equal value to all forms of Islam though, in
practice, we will give more attention to some than to others.
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Empathetic understanding:
• An understanding that results from imaginatively
entering into the experience of another person and
seeing the world as they see it.
 This is our primary goal.
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Sympathetic understanding:
•adds to this a favourable attitude toward the other
person and their experience.
• is usually possible but not always
 is the goal when possible
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Might sympathetic understanding go to the point of
being converted, or at least being tempted to convert?
Do you think one can understand Islam without at
least being tempted to convert?
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Both empathetic understanding and
sympathetic understanding require:
1. Getting an accurate understanding of the facts, what
Muslims think and do.
 e.g., in the case of Muslim female garb commonly
called hijab, what do these women actually wear, how
does it vary, how does it compare with what Muslim
women have worn in the past?
2. Seeing these and other facts and realities from the
perspective of the Muslims (or some groups of
Muslims), i.e. seeing what they mean to Muslims.
 e.g., what positive values or benefits do women who
wear hijab find in it?
 What sort of a point are they making?
 Do they do so of their own free choice.
 How do they view women who don’t wear hijab?
 How do they vary in all these things?
Cont…
3. Making careful and critical use parallels from our
own experience and culture.
 Might we find parallels in clothing worn by some
Westerners that others find strange or abhorrent?
How far can we take such parallels?
4. “Bracketing”, i.e. setting aside our views and
attitudes, especially where they are highly valueladen or emotional.
 Westerners tend to have a “gut reaction” that finds
hijab strange, oppressive, and “medieval”. We have to
set these feelings aside, at least for a time.
5. Eventually taking away the brackets and making
informed judgements in terms of our own values
(which may have changed in the process).
 At the end of the day, we may still dislike hijab, but
have a more human and humane attitude toward
those who wear it.
Another example
 If there is serious accident during the Hajj (the
Pilgrimage to Mecca):
- Non-Muslims may criticize the Hajj for bringing
large crowds of people together in one place.
- Some may criticize the Saudi government, which
is responsible for the arrangements for the Hajj,
for inadequate preparation or an inadequate
response to the accidents.
- Many Muslims, however, will rejoice for those
who are killed because, according to traditional
thinking, anyone who dies on Hajj is guaranteed
to go to Paradise.
Empathy and Critical History
 For many Muslims the caliph Yazid (r. 680-3), whose army
defeated and killed the Prophet’s grandson, Husayn, is the
greatest of villains and a by-word for evil and corruption.
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A historian studying Yazid would have to find out as many
facts about what he did and the circumstances surrounding
his activities as possible and would have to try to see these
facts from Yazid’s viewpoint, bracketing out the common
negative view. Only then could he or she make an
appropriate judgment.
A historian of modern Islam, however, might ignore much
of this and study the negative “myth” of Yazid, focusing on
the people who hold it, their understanding of it and the
influence it has on them. One can understand the role of
Yazid in the Islamic revolution in Iran without knowing
much about the historical Yazid, if the historical Yazid
differs from the Yazid of myth.
(NB. In this usage, a myth is not necessarily false, though
most are, but is a story that has power over people.)
Pitfalls of Language
Traduttore traditore (The translator is a betrayer)
Translating the word “Islam”: some considerations
 Submission: probably the most accurate lexically; but
“submission” generally has negative associations
among English-speaking people today. It is never
negative for Muslims.
 Commitment: has the appropriate positive
associations, but perhaps suggests something a bit
more optional that Muslims take Islam to be.
 “Islam” in English is a noun, a “thing” in some sense.
In Arabic it is a verb (strictly speaking, a verbal
noun) and in the first instance an action.
 “dynamic”
 “My islam” in Arabic is likely to mean “When I
became a Muslim”, or “When I submitted to God.”
To some extent Islam and the other forms of the
same verb convey a general ideal of commitment
to God as well as a strictly “Muslim” one (most
Muslims would not distinguish these).
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Can a Christian say, “I am not a Muslim” in
Arabic? He or she might be taken as saying, “I
don’t submit to God”
In English we can deal with this by
distinguishing between Muslim (adherent of the
religion) and muslim (one who submits), but
Arabic does not have capital letters.