Download Islam - Origins - Stephen J. Shoemaker

Islamic Origins
• Muhammad (570-632)
Muhammad’s Career
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Mecca (611-22)
Allah
Ka‘bah
Qur’an
• Medina (Yathrib)
• Hijrah – 622
• 630 – Conquest of Mecca
Islam at Muhammad’s Death
Prophets & Messengers
5 Messengers:
1. Noah
2. Abraham
3. Moses
4. Jesus
5. Muhammad
Sacred Writings
• Qur’an – “Recite”
– 114 Suras
– ca. 650(?)
– Dome of the Rock (691-2)
• Sunna (Hadith): Traditions of Prophet
• Isnad
• Tafsir: Commentaries
Dome of the Rock (691-2)
“Revisionist” / “Skeptical” Approaches
• Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam,
Patricia Crone (1987)
• “What did the Qur’anic Pagans Do for a
Living?”
• An Aramaic Qur’an?
• Apocalyptic?
Apocalyptic?
• Qur’an teaches about impending “Hour”
• Q 43.61: “It is knowledge of the Hour;
doubt not concerning it, and follow me.
This is a straight path.”
Qur’an & “the Hour”
• Q 79.42-6: They ask you about the hour,
when it will come. About what! You are
one to remind of it. To your Lord is the
goal of it. You are only a warner to him
who would fear it. On the day that they see
it, it will be as though they had not tarried
but the latter part of a day or the early part
of it.
Qur’an & “the Hour”
• Q 54.1: “The hour has drawn nigh and the
moon is rent asunder.”
• Q 16.1: “Allah's command has come,
therefore do not desire to hasten it; glory
be to Him, and highly exalted be He above
what they associate (with Him)”
Apocalyptic in Hadith
• “This hadith has been reported by Sahl b.
Sa'd that he heard Allah's Messenger
(may peace be upon him) as saying: I and
the Last Hour are (close to each other) like
this (and he, in order to explain it) pointed
(by joining his) forefinger, (one) next to the
thumb and the middle finger (together)”
Muslim, Sahih
Apocalyptic in Hadith
• “‘A’isha reported that when the desert
Arabs came to Allah’s Messenger (may
peace be upon him) they asked about the
Last Hour as to when that would come.
And he looked towards the youngest
amongst them and said: If he lives he
would not grow very old that he would find
your Last Hour coming to you the would
see you dying).”
Muslim, Sahih
Apocalyptic in Hadith
• “Narrated 'Abdullah bin 'Umar: ‘The
Prophet prayed one of the ‘lsha’ prayer in
his last days and after finishing it with
Taslim, he stood up and said, "Do you
realize (the importance of) this night?
Nobody present on the surface of the
earth to-night would be living after the
completion of one hundred years from this
night.”
Buhkari & Muslim
Apocalyptic in Hadith
• “My coming and that of the hour, the
prophet had said, are concomitant; even
that one has almost come before me.”
Maqrizi
Apocalyptic in Hadith
• “‘There has been no prophet after Noah
who has not warned his audience of the
Dajjāl, and I (Muhammad) warn you of him
as well.’ The Messanger of God described
him to us and said, ‘Some of those who
see me or hear my words will live to see
him.’”
Ibn Abī Shayba (& many others)