Download guided study guide p90

NAME: _______________________________________________________
DATE: _____________
PD: ______
STUDY GUIDE: PROMINENT RELIGIONS OF
SOUTHWEST ASIA
(Standard: SS7G8.c.)
DIRECTIONS: Complete the study guide by reading pages 90-94 in the CRCT
Workbook.
The three prominent religions of Southwest Asia includes Judaism,
____________________, and _________. Historically there has been a great deal of religious
_________________ in this part of the world. Israel is the only country in that area mostly ______________.
The other countries are mostly ________________. Most of the countries have a Christian ________________.
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JUDAISM
Judaism is a __________________________ religion, which means its followers believe in only ______ God.
Its origins are traced back to ________________, a man born in Mesopotamia in approximately 2000 BC.
Abraham was one of the first people to profess the belief in a single God; even society at that time worshipped
many different __________.
The first ___________ books of the Hebrew Scriptures are called the _______________. They say that God
made a ________________________, or agreement, with Abraham promising to set him as the head of a new
________ if he dedicated himself and the ______________ people to the worship of one God. The Hebrews
lived on the _________________________ Coast on the land of Canaan (part of the present day state of
_________). They worshipped _____________. Abraham and his wife Sarah had a son named
______________. The founders of the Hebrew nation are Abraham, his son Isaac, and his grandson
____________. The ancestors viewed as the _______________ Tribes of Israel are Jacob’s ______ sons.
The Hebrews were forced into slavery in ____________, and after years of suffering, ____________ led them
out of slavery and took them into the Sinai desert to escape ________________. It is known as the
______________ and is remembered each year by the celebration of ____________________ in the Jewish
religious calendar.
The Hebrew people united under a series of kings in the kingdom of Israel. __________________ established
his capital in the city of Jerusalem. Later ____________ built a great temple there and dedicated it to the one
true God of the Jewish people. At one time the kingdom was divided, but Hebrew control was restored. Due to
Roman takeover, the Temple of Jerusalem was _________________ in 70 AD. The Jewish people were forced
out of the lands, and for many ___________________ they lived in what was called “________
________________,” or the scattering of the Jews to other parts of the _______________.
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CHRISTIANITY
Christianity is a religious movement that grew out of ___________________ during the time of Roman rule in
Palestine. The founding figure in Christianity is __________________. He followed Jewish law and belief, but
spoke of a more personal relationship with God, focusing on both ____________ of God and the generous
treatment of ________________________ and acquaintances. His followers became known as his disciples,
and their writings provide a lot of what is known about Jesus. These writings are the first ____________ books
of the New Testament, and are known as the ______________________. Because of the attention that Jesus
was attracting, the Roman ruler Pontius Pilate, saw him as a threat to his authority and sentenced
_______________ to death by _______________________. The followers of Jesus believed that he was able to
rise from the dead and walk among them again before entering ____________________.
He was called: __________________________, or the Greek “Christos” which was shortened to
____________________, and ________ of _________. The spreading of the news that Jesus has risen from the
dead spread and with his teachings a new religion began called _____________________________. By the
year 300 AD, Christianity had spread to most parts of the Roman world. In ___________ AD, the Roman
Emperor Constantine officially ended the harsh treatment of Christians and made it a __________________
approved by the empire.
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ISLAM
Islam is a religion that began in the city of _______________ in the Arabian
____________________. The city was a trading center located along a main route on the
__________ Sea coast and many different people visited this city. In the center of town stood
the __________________, a rectangular building which held several ___________________
different ____________ inside. It was believed that the building had originally been built by
__________________________ and his son, __________________, to honor God for saving them from dying
in the desert. However, over the centuries many other statues of idols and gods were placed in the building.
Muhammad was born in Mecca and was raised by his uncle and trained to become a
______________________. He married and became a respected member of the Mecca community. One
evening at the age of ____________, Muhammad was in one of the cool ______________ in the hills around
Mecca, he began to hear the voice of the _____________ Gabriel calling on him to tell the word of God to the
people. So he began to tell others in Mecca about what he had heard and told them that they needed to
rededicate themselves to the _____________________ of one God, whom he called _______________. The
people who agreed became known as “__________________,” or “ones who __________________” to the will
of God. Some people of Mecca thought that his teachings would hurt their trade because it would anger those
who worshipped other gods, and some of his followers began to face threats of ______________________. In
order to escape the threats, Muhammad and his followers moved about ___________ miles north to Yathrib, a
city he renamed Medina, which means “the city of the ________________.” This became known among
Muslims as the “________________,” and the date serves as the first year of the __________________
calendar. Muhammad was accepted as both a political and ___________________ leader, and many people
followed the new religion of ___________.
Muhammad returned to ________________ as the head of an army and obtained control over the city. The first
thing he did was to go to the Ka’aba and remove all the ___________ and dedicated the building to Allah, the
one God. Mecca and the Ka’aba remained __________________ to Muslim worship. After his death, his
followers collected the teachings from the angel Gabriel into the ___________, which is the holy book of Islam.
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Muslims believe that there is only _______ God.
They view __________________________ as God’s final prophet.
Muslims see the Quran and Islam as the final and complete __________ of God.
All Muslims believe that they must meet five obligations known as the ________ ______________.
1) _____________________ - the belief that “There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his
prophet.
2) ____________________ - praying __________ times a day facing the direction of Mecca.
3) ____________________ - charity to the _____________.
4) Sawm – eating or ____________________ nothing during the daylight hours of the month of
Ramadan, the ____________ month in the Muslim calendar.
5) Making the ___________, or pilgrimage to Mecca sometime during one’s lifetime.
After Muhammad’s death, the religion of Islam spread _________________ throughout the
_________________ __________________________ and parts of the Persian and Byzantine Empires. Led
by four men who had been friends of Muhammad, the “Rightly ___________________
____________________,” Muslim armies were able to easily conquer areas where these older empires had
weakened over the years. “________________” means leader or ______________.
(Standard: SS7G8.d. – Explain the origin of the division between Sunni and Shia Muslims.)
After the death of Muhammad, there was disagreement about who should ____________ the Muslim
___________________ (ummah). For some time it was agreed to place power in the hands of men who had
been friends of Muhammad’s in his lifetime, and they were called the “Four _________________ Guided
______________.” When the last of the men had died, the disagreement came about once again.
One group said that leadership should be placed in the hands of whoever was most able to keep the community
______________. They became known as the ______________ Muslims and they saw themselves closely
following Muhammad’s example.
The ______________ group said that leadership should go to a direct ___________________ of Muhammad
and they wanted to choose one of his grandsons, the children of the son-in-law Ali. This group became known
as the __________ Muslims.
They battled for _________________ and this resulted in the death of one of Muhammad’s grandsons. The
divisions in the Muslim community remains ___________. There is little difference in their ___________
religious beliefs, although the ___________ Muslims have always been in the majority. They make up about
_______ percent today. The __________ Muslims have always been a ______________, but are a major
portion of the populations of a number of countries today including, Iran, ___________, and
_________________.