The Spirit of Islam - Research Paper Example

Religion in Islam-Field Research Module Module no: Religion in Islam-Field Research By critically investigating into the history of human cultures and civilizations, it appears to be crystal clear that belief in the supernatural and metaphysical powers has always been an essential part of almost all human beings since their creation and arrival on the earth. It is partially due to the very reality that faith in the Supreme Being is in the basic human instinct, which could not be denied or ignored altogether. “The critical difference between a religious and non-religious person is the acceptance of the transcendent, or otherworldliness, as the first reality. The transcendent provides a vehicle for meaning outside life itself and because, to the religious person, it has ontological primacy over the material world it provides a solid grounding.” (Prevos, 2005:3) Hence, religion gives meaning to human life, by making people oriented with the morality, ethics, values and systematic patterns of acting, reacting and behaving while entering into interaction with the social and natural environment. Thousands of religious belief systems exist on the face of the mother-earth, which maintain several similarities and differences from one another in nature, scope and teachings. In the long list of countless beliefs, Abrahamic faiths, including Judaism, Christianity and Islam, are quite distinguishing ones from the rest, and seek inspiration from one and the same light. Not only this that the Holy Scriptures of these three faiths narrate the same tales, but also all the three share one and the same mythology including the Oneness of God, existence of the holy prophets, angels, heaven and hell, Day of Resurrection and life after death, and reward and punishment on the concrete foundations of the deeds and misdeeds performed and committed respectively during their stay on earth as mortals. Although the Abrahamic religions are similar to one another in different ways, the followers of these faiths abhor each other and observe serious reservations on the basis of the misconceptions they have developed for one another without conducting any in-depth research on the philosophy and doctrine of purported rival faiths. It is therefore all the three Abrahamic faiths appear to be at daggers drawn against one another, where slightest space of displaying tolerance towards one another has turned out to be a dream particularly during the contemporary times. The same was the situation with me, as being the true follower of the Christian faith, I viewed Islam as the religion consisted of extremists and fundamentalists, which condemned and censured people’s mixing up with the Jews and Christians as well as developing cordial social and corporate relationships with them at any cost. I also view the Muslims as hard-hearted nation, which looks down upon the others by declaring them pagans, atheists and infidels. Keeping in mind all these reservations, I decided to attend a religious gathering arranged and organized by the Muslims for some spiritual and moral purpose, so that I could have personal experience of the teachings and behavior adopted and observed by the Muslims. Though I had developed the very idea that interviewing some religious person at an Islamic center might bring some alteration in my established onion about the Muslims, yet attending of the gathering brought revolutionary changes in my views about the community I had maintained serious reservations in past, and I returned from there carrying new image about Islam and Muslims at large. Last week I visited a mosque, situated in my city during the month of Ramadan, the ninth month according to the Islamic calendar. The month is reserved for fasting, and the Muslims keep fast the entire month from dawn to the sunset. However, the Shiite Muslims break their fast after ten minutes of sunset, as they argue that the sunset completes after seven to ten minutes of the apparent disappearance of the sun. Somehow, Shiite Muslims make up less than 15% of the total Muslim population, while the Sunnis are the largest group of Muslims, as over two fifth of the followers of Islam display their adherence with this sect. (Quoted in Myers, 2005:1) I visited the mosque that belonged to the Shiite Muslims, who had arranged an aftaar (or fasting-breaking) gathering to memorize the death of Khadija on 10th day of Ramadan, their distinguished saint as well as the first and beloved wife of the Holy Prophet Muhammad. The function had been organized in a hall called Imam-bargah, where the walls had been decorated with the large banners and black flags carrying the hand made of silver on every black flag, displaying the gloom and woe they contained at the eve of the Khadija’s death anniversary. An overwhelming majority of the participants had worn black robes as a sign of the grief they had been undergoing. As I entered the main gate, I listened to the verses from the Qur’an expressing the commands related to keeping fast issued from the Lord God. The stage secretary was reciting the verse: “O you who have believed, decreed upon you is fasting as it was decreed upon those before you that you may become righteous.” The verse simply means that the fasting had also been the part of the previous nations created by God. Since I had little knowledge of Islamic teachings, I became curious to understand the meaning of it as well as the previous nations alluded to in the Qur’an. One of the spectators took me to a scholar, and I entered into conversation with him. The scholar had worn black turban on his head with black cloak and white dresses. He welcomed me there and treated me with sheer kindness and consideration. He politely enquired about my religious background, and I informed him that I belonged to the Christian faith. I requested him to interpret the previous nations expressed in the verse. He informed me that by the previous nations, the Qur’an means the Followers of Scriptures i.e. the Jews and Christians, because fasting was also the part of Judaism and Christianity. Being a Christian, I was well acquainted with the very reality that the Christian community keeps forty fasts before Easter every year. It was a pleasant surprise for me to note that the Qur’an also discusses our community. I asked the scholar about their views about Jesus Christ; in reply to my question, the scholar narrated some verses from different chapters of Qur’an including Al-Baqara (the Cow), Aal-e-Imran (the House of Imran), Al-Maeda (the Supper {sent to Jesus Christ from heavens}), Al-Kehef (the Cave of seven sleepers) Al-Mariyam (the Virgin Mary) and others. The scholar cited the verses related to arch-angel Gabriel’s arrival to Virgin Mary with the glad tidings of a sacred son to her without her marriage with any man. “He (Gabriel) said, "I am only the messenger of your Lord to give you [news of] a pure boy. She (Mary) said, "How can I have a boy while no man has touched me and I have not been unchaste?" He said, "Thus [it will be]; your Lord says, It is easy for Me, and We will make him a sign to the people and a mercy from Us. And it is a matter [already] decreed."” (19:19-21) Listening to the admiration and reverence for Holy Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary from the mouth of the Muslims was an extremely pleasant experience for me. Hence, the Qur’an narrates almost the same tales explicitly described and mentioned in Torah and Bible. I came to note that only one faction of the Muslims called Deoband is extremist one, and all other factions maintain great reverence for the biblical personalities and Christian mythology as well. The scholar refuted the very disbelief that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) plagiarized the narrative from Bible, because Bible had neither arrived in Arab that time, nor had its any translation been made in Arabic language till that time. “The New Testament was not translated into Arabic until centuries after Muhammad’s death, and the oral traditions that circulated among the Arab Christians during his lifetime were considered heretical by the Christian orthodoxy. And yet the Holy Qur’an doesn’t convey the heretical view of Jesus, but the truth as we know it.” (Brown, 1989:12) Consequently, both Christianity and Islam sought spiritual inspiration from one and the same source. I enquired the scholar regarding the concept of Jihad (holy crusade against non-believers), and the validity of suicidal attacks on the civilians. Since it was a question that could provoke the scholar’s anger and resentment, I looked at it and sought his response. To my surprise, there appeared a tender and eloquent smile on the scholar’s face. He explained in details that the Jihad stands for jehed or struggle to be made for the peaceful preaching of the message of God. He informed me that the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him), his wife Khadija, cousin Ali, daughter Fatima and grandchildren Hassan and Hussein underwent serious trials and opposition from the pagans and infidels while communicating the God’s message to them. The Holy Prophet and Ali were pelted with stones and garbage, and were tortured mentally and physically by the pagans and hypocrites, but they always displayed tolerance of the highest magnitude towards their bitterest enemies even. Both Muhammad and Ali had to migrate from their native land because of severe trials and opposition. However, when they returned as victorious in the same city of Mecca after eight years, along with ten thousand companions, they did not take revenge from their enemies and forgave all of them. History does not demonstrate such type of greatest tolerance observed and performed by a powerful victorious. Muhammad preached chastity, pity, compassion, sacrifice and meekness towards the humanity at large without any discrimination of caste, clan, class, community, gender, ethnicity, race, region, religion and socioeconomic status. The scholar told me that Islam strictly prohibits its followers to attack on any creature without an adequate reason. A Muslim is not allowed to invade over any non-Muslim state even without the sound proofs and evidences of conspiracies or plans being devised against Islam. Islam does not allow to attack on any civilian person including women, elderly, children, sick and disable belonging to the enemies even during the course of war. Additionally, Islam only allows defensive warfare provided the Muslims had been attacked by the opponents. Islam does not allow misuse of power on the military personnel that has no intentions of waging a fight or war. It is therefore suicidal attacks are vehemently condemned and censured by an overwhelming majority of the Muslims all over the world. The Qur’an says: “Fight in the way of Allah those who fight you but do not transgress. Indeed. Allah does not like transgressors. And kill them wherever you overtake them and expel them from wherever they have expelled you, and fitnah (chaos/infliction of pains and sufferings upon others) is worse than killing.” (2: 190-191) On my enquiry, the Muslim scholar read some extract from the Holy Qur’an, related to the story of Adam’s creation, and Satan’s grudge and malice for him. He threw light on the facts how Satan seduced both Adam and Eve, and caused their expulsion from the Eden Gardens. The scholar discussed Adam’s pious life on the earth as the beginning of the conflict between good and evil. He was of the opinion that the strife made by Adam and Seth by preaching the holy message of God was actually the same one for which Noah was molested, and he had to build an arch to protect the followers of good. It was the same message for which Abraham happily accepted exile and chains of difficulties on his way. Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Job were also the followers and torch-bearers of the same light, according to the scholar, for which Ali, Hassan and Hussein were martyred. Hussein was, according to him, the spiritual successor of the noble teachings of Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Zachariah, John the Baptist, Jesus Christ, Prophet Muhammad and Ali (peace be upon them all), who bravely fought against the followers of Satan in the desert of Karbala. I was startled to note that Hussein was kept hungry and thirsty along with his adolescent and infant children, wives, siblings and companions. He had the choice to render vengeance to the wicked, obnoxious, mean and cruel ruler of his times. However, he preferred martyrdom to the life of dissipation and humiliation, and thus turned out to be immortal forever. (Ali, 2003) The discussion with the pious scholar and exchange of views with him wide opened new horizons of wisdom and knowledge to me. I came to the conclusion that misconception about Islam was only the outcome of aggression and antagonism displayed by few nasty people belonging to the extremist Deoband sect of Muslims. Otherwise, an overwhelming majority of the Muslims love peace, harmony and sacrifice. I agreed with the scholar that extra-marital relationships, including adultery, fornication and homosexuality, are strictly forbidden in Torah and Bible too; thus, Islam preaches almost the same moral values and ethics. Hence, Islamic moral teachings appear to be the ditto copy of Leviticus 19 of the Old Testament as well as the Sermon on the Mount addressed by Holy Jesus Christ. References Ali, Syed Ameer (2003) The Spirit of Islam Kessinger Publishing, LLC Brown, Dr. Laurence B. (1989) MISGOD’ED: A Roadmap of Guidance and Misguidance Within the Abrahamic Religions http://protectedpearl.webs.com/Books/MISGODED.pdf Myers, Jim (2005) A Guide to Muslim Sects Biblical Heritage Report& Discovering the Bible Number 61 http://www.biblicalheritage.org/BHR/BHR-61.pdf Prevos, Peter (2005) Values and the Meaning of Life: Religion as a Vehicle for Meaning Retrieved from http://prevos.net/ola/religion.pdf The Holy Qur’an (Translation) Chapter 2: Al-Baqara Retrieved from http://quran.com/2 The Holy Qur’an (Translation) Chapter 19: Al-Mariyam Retrieved from http://quran.com/19 Read More