Islam Communities - Essay Example

Religion Islam Islam's original meaning is the acceptance of a view or a condition which previously was not accepted. In the language of the Holy Qur'an, Islam means the readiness of a person to take orders from God and to follow them. Islam was founded by Muhammed in the early 17th century. He claimed to be receiving the messages from God at the age of 40. These messages were compiled and recorded in the Islam's holy book the Koran. Muhammed began preaching against the greed, economic oppression, and idolatry that plagued the Arab peoples. He called on the many factions of the Arab peoples to unite under the worship of Allah, the chief god of the Arab pantheon of deities. Though his message was initially rejected, by the year 630 he had succeeded in gaining control of Mecca, the economic and religious center of the Arabian Peninsula. Muhammed died after two years, this does not stop the Islam religion to spread rapidly. In 750 A.D. Islam spread out in Spain, India, Asia, and Africa. Some of the well known philosophers and mathematician were believed to be Muslim. In the time of the golden era Christianity and Islam clashed, as a result of the so called science of debate or Kalam. Kalam (literally the science of debate) denotes a discipline of Islamic thought which is referred to as "theology" or as "scholastic theology." This discipline involves the political and the religious controversies that engulfed the Islam community in its formative years, it deals with interpretations of religious doctrine and the defence of the interpretations by means of discursive arguments. The introduction of Kalam came to be associated with the Mu'tazilla, a nationalist school that emerged at the beginning of the 2nd century ah and the rose to prominence in the following century. Rationalism was discreted because of the failure of the Mutazilla, leading to a resurgence of traditionalism and later to the emergence of the Ashariyya School. The Asharite School gained acceptability within mainstream (Sunni) Islam. The Sunni comprises the 90% of all the Muslims, their name derived from the fact that they look both to the Koran and to the sunna in establishing proper Muslim conduct. The "sunna" is the behavior or example of Muhammed and of the early Muslim community. Another group arises in the Islam community is the Shiites. It comprises 10% of the Muslim community and usually lives in Iran and Iraq. The word Shi'ite means partisan and they are referred as the partisan of Ali. Ali is the son in law and cousin of Muhammed and one of the early Caliphs or successors to Muhammed as leader of the Muslim people. They believe that the leader of Islam should be among the descendants of Ali. The last of these divinely appointed leaders, or "imams" most Shi'ites believes to be in "hiding" in another realm of existence. The Ayatollah Khomeini was believed to have been a spokesman for this "hidden imam." The third group of Islam are the Suffis who seek a mystical experience of God, rather than a merely intellectual knowledge of Him, and who also are given to a number of superstitious practices. Beliefs of Islam To Islam there is no God but Allah. The early Islamic Arabs were polytheists. Muhammed is the instrument leading the Muslims to devote themselves solely to the chief God whom they called Allah which means God. They believe that Allah has a magical power and to worship others is considered blasphemy. The Islam religion also believes in angels and jinn. Jinn are spirits being capable of good and evil actions and of possessing human beings. The Muslims believed that they are being accompanied by jinn and angels one on the right to record good deeds and the jinn on the left to record the evil deeds. Muslims has great belief to their God's holy book called Koran. Chief among these are the Law given to Moses, the Psalms given to David, the Gospel (or Injil) given to Jesus, and the Koran given to Muhammed. According to Muhammed the Christian scriptures has been tampered and the real bible is the Koran. Difficulties and Issues in Islam Religion One significant person in Islam religion particularly in Kalam is Al-Iji. He speaks of science which makes it possible to prove the truth of religious doctrines by marshalling arguments and repelling doubts. Kalam serves as the place for debates over what constituted true religious doctrine between rival schools. The first issue that divided the Muslims into opposing schools was the question of political authority and its legitimacy. In electing the four caliphs as normative, they accepted actual procedures thus affirming that a ruler gains legitimacy by being freely elected by the influential members of the community. The Khawarij accepted the procedures up to the election of the third caliph, but then added that even an elected caliph should be removed if he deviated from his mandate. The Khawarij also held that any qualified individual was fit to be caliph, provided the community at large approved of him. The traditionalists narrowed the field of selection to the Prophet's tribe, Quraysh, while the Shi'a narrowed it still further to the Prophet's family, in particular his son-in-law 'Ali and the latter's descendants. Shi'ism argued that political leadership, being the most important religious institution, could not be left for human reason to determine. Another main issue in the Islam religion is the status of the grave sinner. The Khawarij started this debate by arguing, contrary to mainstream opinion, that any person who committed a grave sin automatically became a non-believer, thus forfeiting all rights and protections afforded by Islamic law. The Murjiya argued for the withholding of judgment while tending to widen the interpretation of who could qualify as a believer; the Mu'tazila held that such a person was in an intermediate position, being neither a Muslim nor an unbeliever. Freedom of will is another issue discussed in Kalam. The Mu'tazila and Qadariya came out in support of freedom of will. They held that we are the creators of our own acts, for otherwise God would be committing a grave injustice if he were to punish those who had no choice in what they did. At the other extreme, the Jabriyya held that man could not have any control over his actions, since God was the sole creator and actor. Most other groups tried to strike a balance between these two poles. The Shi'a tended to affirm the freedom of the will and some of them, such as the Zaydiyya, agreed completely with the Mu'tazila on this. Some Shi'a factions, however, qualified their stance by affirming that we are in part compelled because of the chain of causation that triggered our acts. The Khawarij accepted the idea of predestination, holding that God was the Creator of the acts of people, and that nothing happens which he did not will. Conclusion The teaching of Islam is acceptable to human mind, unless the human mind has been exposed to illogical teaching. This is the reason why Islam is called the religion of nature. Christians and Islam believed that they have their own creator only different in the interpretation of the story. No one can proved the claim of both religion since no one has witnessed the arrival of the creator 40 billions year ago. Reference: Definiton of Islam http://www.al-islam.org/inquiries/2.html , May 16,2007 Rood, R. (2002) What is Islam www.salisburybible.org/IslamRickRood.htm , May 16, 2007 Abdelwahab El-Affendi (1998) Islamic Theology www.muslimphilosophy.com/ip/rep/H009.htm May 16, 2007 Read More