Islam, a Religion of Peace - Research Paper Example

Islam, a Religion of Peace Islam is the second most popular religion in the world. It trails only Christianity in membership and, along with Judaism and Christianity is one of the Abrahamic religions. Basically, Islam and Christianity are brothers of the father Judaism. Islam should be familiar to both of the other religions in its family. However, Islam is largely misunderstood and therefore feared in the western world. I have good friends, as does everyone probably, who actually thinks a good percentage of Muslims, followers of Islamic faith, are terrorists who are intent on jihad (religious war) and instilling Sharia Law all over the world. People fear what they do not understand. I don’t think a clearer example exists than the current Islamophobia gripping the nation. This has resulted in the discrimination and hate crimes directed at Muslims. This leads me to ask the question, who are the real terrorists? Education is the key to understanding and a peaceful coexistence between different faiths and cultures. My paper will give a brief overview of Islam in an effort to help bridge the gap of understanding. The Prophet Muhammad founded Islam in the year 622 in the city of Mecca located in what is today the nation of Saudi Arabia. Of the world’s great religions Islam is the youngest yet because it is an extension of Judaism and Christianity Muslims do not consider it newer. They think of it more as the refined version of a very old religion. All three have the same stories featuring the prophets Moses, David, Abraham and Jesus. Most people I’ve talked to had no idea Jesus is a large part of the Qur’an, the holy book of Islam. In fact Jesus in mentioned more times than Muhammad who was the last prophet and, according to Muslims, added clarity to the original faith and removed the errors contained within it making it the more perfect religion. Islam became a major religion after growing rapidly from its humble beginnings as a small group of believers in Arabia. The central belief is Muhammad, a businessman who lived in Mecca, a religious, cultural and commercial center of Western Arabia, wrote down received divine revelations from God. These writings are preserved in the Qur’an. The theme of this message from God is assertion that “there is no god but Allah (The God), and Muhammad is the messenger of God.” (Wuthnow, 1998). The word ‘Islam’ is taken from s-l-m, a root-word in Arabic meaning peace and submission. Islam means submitting to the will of God. A Muslim is one who submits to God. Living an Islamic life generally means adhering to the Five Pillars of Islam: “publicly bearing witness to the basic affirmation of faith; saying prescribed prayers five times a day; fasting during the month of Ramadan; giving a tithe or alms for support of the poor; and making a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once during the believer's lifetime, if this is possible.” (Wuthnow, 1998). The Qur’an is not viewed as a new revelation of God separate from its family religions but instead a more accurate and complete version therefore the final edition of those faiths. When Muhammad died in 632 A.D., Muslims were confronted with the challenge of preserving their faith so they created a hierarchal system of leaders called khalifahs (cliphs) which means successors to the Prophet Muhammad but not themselves prophets of God. The initial four caliphs were friends of Muhammad. Most Muslims believe their rule which lasted from 632 to 661 was the age of the ‘Rightly Guided Caliphate.’ A great expansion of the Islamic faith occurred during this period of time. Muslims conquered the Persian Empire known today as the Islamic Republic of Iran and took Syria and Northern Africa away from a crumbling Roman Empire. Within just a few short decades Islam expanded from a small village in the desert of Arabia to include territory that stretched from Africa to Asia. From the tenth century to the sixteenth the caliphs effective power ended but the area of the Muslim world increased nearly two-fold. It did not expand due to invading armies however. Islamic teachers and travelling merchants were mainly responsible for spreading the religion to more of Africa, the Indian Ocean basin nations and Central Asia. This expansion has continued into the modern era. As western imperialistic influences in the Middle Eastern region were ending during the Twentieth Century Muslim societies gained their political independence. Islamic nations were stretching across the Eastern Hemisphere. The break-up of the former Soviet Union in the early 1990’s was the last step in this process as new Islamic states emerged in states with a Muslim majority such as Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Khazakstan, Uzbekistan and Azerbeijan. “A new Islamic spirit of renewal gained increasing visibility in the final quarter of the twentieth century. The most dramatic manifestation of this was the Islamic revolution in Iran” (Wuthnow, 1998). Today, about four dozen countries have a majority Muslim population. The total number of Muslims in the world is estimated to be between 1.2 billion and 1.6 billion or approximately one-fifth of the world’s population. The Muslim world consists of countries in the Middle East, Saharan and Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia. Though Islam is most often associated with Arabs less than 18 percent of the total Muslim population is of Arab descent. Indonesia boasts the largest Muslin population. (Wuthnow, 1998). 30 percent of the world’s Muslim population is located in the Indian subcontinent, 20 percent inhabit Sub-Saharan Africa, 17 percent in Southern areas of Asia, 10 percent are in China and Russia. 10 percent live in Afghanistan, Turkey and Iran. “Although there are Muslim minorities in almost every area, including Latin America and Australia, they are most numerous in the Soviet Union, India, and central Africa. There are 5 million Muslims in the United States.” (“Understanding,” 1989) The Muslim population as a whole shares a common faith but very little beyond that. They are very culturally diverse. I know people in the U.S. like to generalize Muslims using terms such as ‘those people’ but there is no such thing as a typical Muslin people, culture or country. Large Muslim populations live in places other than official Islamic countries. Sizeable Muslim minority communities can be found throughout Europe, Africa, the Americas and Asia which has a much larger Muslim population than does all of the Western Hemisphere and Europe combined. In addition, “due to birth and conversion rates, Islam is widely considered to be the fastest growing religion in the world today” (Dodge, 2011). The Qur’an and Hadith are Islam’s two sacred texts. The Qur’an is Arabic for ‘The Recital.’ As discussed before Muslims believe these are the words of Allah recited to and written down by Muhammad. Allah is Arabic for the term God. According to Islamic legend, the angel Gabriel, who was featured in the Bible as well, commanded Muhammad to ‘Recite.’ The Qur’an is the principal text in Islam and a must read for anyone wishing to understand Islam. Muhammad received the revealed words of God during a twenty-two year span. The first revelation came in the year 610 on the outskirts of Mecca while on a meditative retreat in the Cave of Hira which is located on Mt. Hira otherwise known as Jabal al-nur or The Mountain of Light. “The Qur'an is distinct from the Hadith which are the sayings of Muhammad. It is agreed that Muhammad clearly distinguished between his own utterances (Hadith) and God's words, the Qur'an.” (Godlas, 2008) The Hadith is a collection of phrases and sayings by Muhammad and other Islamic sages which were first evaluated by Islamic scholars in the Eighth and Ninth Centuries and combined to form a large set of texts. The Hadith is an important book to help understand the Qur’an and is still to this day heavily utilized for Islamic history, traditions and law (Sunna). Different sets of the Hadith are used by the two main denominations of Islam, Sunnism and Shiism. More than 600,000 Hadith had been written by the Ninth Century which was edited to approximately 25,000 over the ensuing years. The Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim are authenticated collections therefore two of the most highly regarded Hadith. Four other Hadith collections are well-respected though not to the same extent. They include the Nasa'i, Ibn Majah, Sunan of Tirmidhi, and Abu Da'ud. Together these and the two sahih collections are referred to as the ‘six books’ (al-kutub al-sitta). Two other significant collections, particularly, are the Nasa'i, Ibn Majah the Nasa'i, Ibn Majah and Muwatta of Ibn Malik, the founder of the Maliki School of Law. (Godlas, 2008) Muslims refer to commentaries on the Qur’an as ‘tafsir.’ Verses within the Qur’an are ayah’s, the smallest unit of the Muslim holy book, is a general Arabic term that encompasses the terms proof, sign, rule, guidance, commandment, law and omen. Each of the 6236 ayahs are a sign from God according to Islamic belief. Surah’s are chapters which contain many ayah and vary in length, from 3 to 286. Ayah’s may be divided within long surahs into thematic passages or sequences. (Godlas, 2008) Muslims are monotheistic. As do Jews and Christians, they believe in one God who is merciful, all powerful and omnipotent (all knowing). Muslims believe in Satan who will greet all non-believers and host them for an eternity in hell. However, those who repent their sinful ways and return to the flock will not perish but have eternal life in paradise with God. This sounds all too familiar to me. This is the same story I heard in church growing up. This ‘revelation’ either helps to confirm what I heard is true or is simply a recycled myth, a cut and paste job long before such a term existed. Allah created the heavens and earth and to worship any other entity is blasphemous. Yes, same story and besides Muhammad, same cast of characters but a newer version which leads Muslims to believe they have the more perfect version of it. Muhammad received the latest word from God. Muslims and Christians who think in a more traditional way still embrace the creation narrative. Neither is aligned with prevailing scientific evidence that provides ample evidence to the contrary. Just as not all Christians believe in the creation myth, neither do all Muslims but the ones who do in both religions claim that the acknowledgment of science in this instance is to deny God’s ability to create life from nothing. Unlike Christians, however, many Muslims circumvent the debate. They refer to ayahs of the Qur’an which state all living creatures emanated from water which is aligned with the scientific version. (Nyang, 2005). The Islamic point of view for life is complex unlike the teachings of Christianity. Ayahs within the Qur’an allow room for wide interpretation thus flexibility of thought for Muslims regarding how life came to be. “Man is a pontifical creature who serves as a bridge between the terrestrial and the celestial worlds. Neither angel nor animal in the absolute sense, man is more than what scientific knowledge knows about him. His intellect, his psyche and his spirit have endowed him with attributes and capacities that go beyond the wildest dreams of the scientific community” according to prominent Islamic philosopher Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University. “Rather than enclose man within the biological framework of Darwinian theory,” Nasr states, “man should be seen as a creature that yearns for a rendezvous with the source of his life and existence.” That source, Nasr contends, is “not the atoms out of which he is made but the metaphysical and transcendental being whose existence cannot be fathomed by our intellects, even though signs about his presence and existence abound.” (Nyang, 2005). Muslims, again, the same as Christians and Jews believe in an afterlife for the faithful and that this present life in the body is a test, a preparation for a resurrection, the Day of Judgment and the realm of the next life. Abraham, of Jewish tradition, fathered Ishmael and Isaac. Muhammad is a direct descendent of Ishmael, the older son of Abraham while Moses and Jesus are descended from Isaac. What is known as the city of Mecca today was founded by Abraham who also built the Ka'ba, an ornate square shaped building in Islam’s holiest city which all Muslims turn toward as they pray. God told Abraham and Ishmael to build Ka’ba more than four thousand years ago and to summon all people to visit the stone structure built in the location Adam, the supposed first man on earth, took sanctuary. Muslims must pray five times per day, at dawn, noon, mid-afternoon, sunset and at nightfall. These prayers are named ‘salat’ and may be performed anywhere though praying with other Muslims in a Mosque is preferable. One of the key principles for Muslims is that wealth can only be held in trust by people because everything belongs to God. They refer to ‘zakat’ meaning growth and/or purification by giving a percentage of income to charity each year. “Our possessions are purified by setting aside a proportion for those in need, and, like the pruning of plants, this cutting back balances and encourages new growth.” (“Understanding,” 1989) Ramadan, one of the few terms of Islam I was familiar with prior to doing research on the subject occurs at varying times but is generally observed in late summer. This year Ramadan is from August 1 to August 29. It was the Arabic name for the ninth month of the year long before Islam and has its roots in the Jewish tradition of Yom Kippur, the practice of fasting. During this holiest of Islamic traditions Muslims do not eat, drink or have sex while the sun is shining. Allowances are made for the old, sick, pregnant, nursing or on a trip. In these cases Muslims may break the fast, the abstention from the previously mentioned activities, and then make up those days at another time. If a Muslim cannot physically do this they are required to feed a person in need for each day missed. (“Understanding,” 1989) There are several reasons Islam has spread as rapidly and peacefully as it did. It follows a simple monotheistic concept and continually instructs followers to use powers of observation in combination with intellect. Islam also rejects racist thought and language. Within a relatively few years after Islam was born respected universities and great civilizations blossomed in the region and culture because it is an obligation for all Muslims to seek knowledge. From this thirst of knowledge many vital systems such as Arabic numerals, algebra and the idea of zero (crucial to the development of mathematics) was conveyed from Islam to Medieval Europe. The combination of Western and Eastern thought and innovative ideas with ancient knowledge brought about enormous advances in physics, mathematics, architecture, literature, astronomy, history, art, geography and medicine. Sophisticated instruments were developed in the Muslim world which made possible the discovery of new worlds by European sailors such as accurate navigational maps, the quadrant and the astrolabe, an ancient instrument used by mariners to navigate by the stars and sun. (“Understanding,” 1989) I find it tragically ironic that Jews and Christians generally consider Islam part of ‘the other team’ while not hiding a mistrust of Muslims. It’s all the same religion essentially. Christianity is ‘Judaism, the sequel’ and Islam is ‘Judaism, the final edition.’ Christians added Jesus then a few hundred years later Muslims added Muhammad. Muslims do not believe Jesus was the son of God. Neither do the Jews. I assume a Jew would tell you his religion was fine the way it was and did not need improved upon nor added to. Muslims would say Jews provided a strong foundation which Christians later enhanced but Islam is the perfected model. Still, all three major world religions are of the same family tree. Why then so much mistrust between them? To me it’s similar to Catholics and Protestants disputes in Northern Ireland or Sunni and Shiite Muslims continual battles. It’s all the same religion so why so many misunderstandings? That’s the answer, misunderstanding. Right now many Christians in the U.S. have a great mistrust of Muslims due entirely to ignorance of the religion and culture. Hopefully the revolutions occurring in the Muslim world today will help bring attention to and knowledge of the region and it’s very similar religion and peoples. Works Cited Dodge, Christine Huda “The Muslim World Today” Netplaces (May, 2011) May 30, 2011 Godlas, Dr. A. “The Qur'an, Hadith, and the Prophet Muhammad” The University of Georgia May 30, 2011 Nyang, Sulayman “The Origins of Life: A Muslim View” NPR (August 8, 2005) May 30, 2011 “Understanding Islam and the Muslims” The Islamic Affairs Department, The Embassy of Saudi Arabia, Washington DC., Consultants The Islamic Texts Society, Cambridge, UK, 1989. May 30, 2011 < http://www.islamicity.com/mosque/uiatm/un_islam.htm#WIK> Wuthnow, Robert “Encyclopedia of Politics and Religion” Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly, Inc., 383-393. (1998). May 30, 2011< http://www.cqpress.com/context/articles/epr_islam.html> Read More