Download An Introduction to Islam

Islam: an Introduction
Session Plan
•
•
•
•
•
•
The Religion of Islam?
Muhammad’s Life & Significance
What is the Quran?
Islamic Understanding of God
The 5 Pillars, Briefly
Function, Role and Layout of a Mosque
The Muslim World
A Religion Called Islam?
A Religion Called Islam?
• ‘Religion’ as a descriptive term drawn from
particular context
• Doesn’t match Islamic context exactly
• ‘Din’ is the Arabic term usually translated as
‘religion’
• Range of meanings, including ‘religion’
• Also, ‘way of life’, ‘transaction’ and ‘justice’
• Referred to a number of times in the Quran:
‘This day have I perfected your religion for you,
completed My favour upon you, and have chosen for
you Islam as your religion (din)’ (5:3)
‘The religion (din) before God is Islam…’ (3:19)
What is Islam?
• What, then, is ‘Islam’?
• Comes from the root salaam, meaning ‘peace’
and ‘submission’
• Linked to the Hebrew term shalom
• In a religious sense, refers to submission to God’s
will
• A Muslim is thus someone who submits to and
follows God’s will
• In a sense, everyone is muslim in that they follow
Divine order in their very existence
• Thus, a famous prophetic tradition states that
every child born a muslim
The Shahadah
• A Muslim someone who accepts the
shahadah, the declaration of faith (literally
‘witnessing’)
• In Arabic:
La ilaha ill Allah, Muhammadur rasul Allah
• Literal translation:
‘There is no god but God and Muhammad is
the Messenger of God’.
• Fuller translation:
‘Nothing has the right to be worshipped but
God and Muhammad is the Messenger of God’
The Shahadah
• Allah is the Arabic name for God
• Literally, al-ilah or ‘The God’
• Cognate with Hebrew Elohim and Aramaic
Alaha
• Arab Christian term for God
Muhammad’s Life & Significance
Muhammad at Mecca
• Born in Mecca, most probably in 570CE
• Bani Hashim clan of the Quraish tribe
• Orphan, looked after by grandfather, then
uncle
• Merchant, known as al-Amin (‘The
Trustworthy’)
• Marriage to Khadijah
• Deeply perceptive and intuitive
• Awareness of social issues
Muhammad at Mecca
• Spiritual Retreats: the Cave of Hira
• Ramadan 610CE…Meeting Gabriel
‘Read in the name of your Lord, Who created:
He created man from a clot. Read, by your Most
Generous Lord, Who taught by the Pen. He
taught man what he did not know’ (96:1-5)
• Waraqah ibn Nawfal
• Early revelations: oneness of God, imminent
Day of Judgement, moral and social reform
Muhammad at Mecca: Reactions
•
•
•
•
Hostility, Rejection & Opposition
Reactions to the Quran: poetry & magic
The ‘Night Journey’ (al-Isra’ wa’al-Mir’aj)
The birth of the Muslim community
• The ‘Emigration’ or Hijra to Yathrib (Medina) a
turning point
• Year 1 of the Muslim calendar
• Severing old allegiances
• The Muslim community (ummah)
• Revelations deal more with social organisation
and legal matters
Muhammad at Medina: Later Years
• Defensive Warfare
• The ‘Opening’ of Mecca
• Reconciliation: the words of Joseph
‘Let there be no reproach against you this day.
God will forgive you and He is the most Merciful
of those who show mercy’ (12:92)
• Islam spreads throughout Arabia
Muhammad in Islamic Thought
• Why is Muhammad so significant?
Muhammad: the Final Prophet
‘Muhammad is not the father of any of your men,
but is the Messenger of God and the seal of the
Prophets (Khatam al-Nabiyyin)’ (33:40)
• ‘Seal’ understood as ‘final’
• Eschatological significance
• First sign of ‘the Hour’ (al-Sa’a)
Muhammad in Islamic Thought
•
•
•
•
Bearer of the Quran
Muhammad the chief interpreter of Quran
‘Authentic’ (Sahih) reports constitute final exegesis
Interpretation remains important
Based on Quranic statements, such as:
‘Your Companion [Muhammad] is neither astray nor being misled, Nor
does he speak from (his own) desire. It is no less than Inspiration
sent down to him’ (53:3)
• Traditions:
‘Indeed, I have been given the Book and something similar to it…’
• ‘Book’ refers to the Quran
• ‘Something Similar’ refers to Sunnah
• Logical Foundation of his place in Islamic Law (al-Shariah)
Muhammad in Islamic Thought
•
•
•
•
•
Muhammad the Lawgiver
Muhammad’s rulings held to be binding
Authority 2nd only to the Quran
Derives from exegetical role
Explain practical application of Quranic
principles
Prayer a good example:
‘And establish prayer and give charity [literally
zakat] and bow with those who bow’ (2:43)
• Prayer very common theme
Muhammad in Islamic Thought
Muhammad the Lawgiver
• Further clarification required
• Prayer Times
‘…And exalt [Allah] with praise of your Lord before the
rising of the sun and its setting; and during periods of the
night [exalt Him] and at the ends of the day, that you may
be satisfied’ (20:130)
• Detailed exposition from Prophetic Traditions
• Based on following command:
‘Pray as you have seen me praying’ (Related by Bukhari)
• Quran lays down broad principles
• Traditions give detailed practical application
Muhammad in Islamic Thought
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The Best of God’s Creatures
Muhammad’s role broader than exegesis and
law
Role Model
Contents pages from Hadith works illustrative
‘Religious’ Themes: Revelation, Faith &
Religious Knowledge
Less Obviously ‘Religious’: Cultivation &
Agriculture, Loans, Bathroom Conduct
Muhammad’s conduct divinely inspired
Aisha: ‘His conduct was the Quran’
Muhammad in Islamic Thought
•
•
•
•
•
The Beloved of God
Muhammad the ‘Friend’
‘A Mercy for all of the Worlds’ (Rahmatan lil
`Alameen)
Deep, emotional connection
Imam al-Busiri & Qasida al-Burda
Central refrain:
‘O God! Bless and grant eternal peace without end to
your Beloved and the Best of all Your creatures’
• Muhammad Iqbal:
‘Love of the Prophet which runs like blood in the veins of
this community’ (Rumuz: 190)
What is the Quran?
What is the Quran?
•
Esposito’s Definition Useful…
‘For Muslims, the Quran is the Book of God. It
is the eternal, uncreated, literal word of God
sent down from heaven, revealed one final
time to the Prophet Muhammad as a guide for
humankind’ (Esposito, 1998, 17)
•
•
•
Divine Origin
Literal Word of God (Kalam Allah)
Importance of Arabic
‘Indeed, We have sent it down as an Arabic
Quran that you might understand’ (12:1)
•
Untranslatable
Meanings & Descriptions
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Quran literally means ‘Reading’, ‘Reciting’
Public proclamation
Iqra (‘Read!’) first word of revelation
114 Surahs (Chapters)
Approximately 6,000 verses
Ayat (Ayah sing.), ‘sign’
Revealed piecemeal over 23 years
Not arranged chronologically
Longer passages toward beginning
Shorter passages toward end
The Significance of the Quran
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Difficult to overestimate importance of the
Quran
Infallible and miraculous in every word
Literary form believed miraculous
Basis for the entire system of Islam
Legal Verses
Unchallenged (and unchallengeable) legal
authority
Attempts to understand Islamic religious
concepts must be based on the Quran
The Role of the Quran
•
•
What do Muslims do with the Quran?
A few examples…
1.
2.
3.
4.
The Ritual Prayer
Dhikr ‘Remembrance of God’
Recitation
Calligraphy
Quranic Style: Key Features
•
•
•
The Quran uses a wide range of stylistic
techniques
Impossible to cover all of them here
A representative sample…
1.
2.
3.
4.
Narrative in the Quran
Quranic Simile and Metaphor
Divine Instruction
The Use of Oaths in the Quran
Narrative in the Quran
•
•
Use of story common in the Quran
God as the Narrator
‘Has the story of Musa [Moses] reached you?’
(79:15)
'We do relate to you [O Muhammad] the most
beautiful of stories, in that We reveal to you
this [portion of the] Quran' (12:3)
•
1.
2.
3.
Three Main Kinds…
Prophetic Stories
Past People & Events
Events in Muhammad’s Life
Prophetic Stories
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Many references to the stories of former
prophets
Link to sacred history
Strengthen Muslim community during
persecution
Examples…
Surah 26: Nuh/Noah
Surah 28: Musa/Moses
Surah 19: `Isa/Jesus
Past People & Events
•
•
•
•
•
Significant people and events
Surah 18…
‘The Sleepers in the Cave’
Dhu al-Qarnain (‘the Two-Horned One’)
Widely believed to be Alexander the Great
Divine Instruction
•
•
•
•
More than 200 passages use ‘Say’
Answers to questions
Wide-ranging topics
‘Say, ‘He is Allah, [who is] One, Allah, the Eternal Refuge,
He neither begets nor is born and nor is there to Him any
equivalent’ (112:1-4).
‘They ask you [O Muhammad], about the Hour: when is its
arrival? Say, ‘Its knowledge is only with my Lord. None will
reveal its time except Him. It lays heavily upon the heavens
and the earth.
It will not come upon you except
unexpectedly’. They ask you as if you are familiar with it.
Say, ‘Its knowledge is only with Allah, but most of the people
do not know’ (7:187).
See also 9:51
‘They ask you about wine and gambling. Say, ‘In them is
great sin and [yet, some] benefit for people. But their sin is
greater than their benefit’ (2:219).
The Concept of God in Islam
Definitions
• Esposito’s definition of the Quran reveals a
number of key ideas about God
• Esposito’s definition:
– ‘For Muslims, the Quran is the Book of God. It is the
eternal, uncreated, literal word of God sent down from
heaven, revealed one final time to the Prophet
Muhammad as a guide for humankind’
(Esposito, 1998, p.17)
•
•
•
•
God in the singular
A personal and active God (cf. Dahr)
God speaks to humanity
God actively intervenes in human history
Tawhid: God in the singular
• The central feature of the Islamic picture of God is that of
God’s Oneness
• In Arabic this is known as tawhid (literally ‘Oneness’)
• Tawhid has come to be synonymous with Islam itself
• Communicating and promulgating tawhid are thus the
entire purpose of Islam:
– ‘Allah witnesses that there is no Deity except Him, and [so do] the
angels and those of knowledge – [that He is] maintaining [creation]
in justice. There is no Deity except Him, the Exalted in Might, the
Wise’ (3:18)
– ‘Indeed I am Allah. There is no Deity except Me, so worship Me
and establish prayer for My remembrance’ (20:14)
• The entire purpose of life, according to Islam, is thus to
recognise Allah and to worship Him:
– ‘And I did not create the Jinn and Humankind except that they
should worship/serve Me’ (51:56)
God in the Quran
• The Opening of the Book (1:1-7)
• The Chapter of Purity (112:1-4)
• 42:11
– ‘There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the Hearing, the Seeing’
• The Verse of the Throne (2:255)
• The Names Most Beautiful (59:22-24)
• The Protecting Friend: 2:257
– ‘God is the Protecting Friend of those who believe. He brings them
out of the darknesses into the light…’
• Quranic Theology?:4:171
– ‘O People of the Scripture, do not commit excess in your religion or
say about Allah anything but the truth. The Messiah, the son of Mary,
was a Messenger of Allah and His word which He directed to Mary
and a soul [created at a command] from Him. So believe in Allah and
His Messengers. And do not say, “Three”; desist – it is better for you.
Indeed, Allah is but One God. Exalted is He above having a son. To
Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the
earth. And sufficient is Allah as Disposer of Affairs’ (4:171)
The Deceiver: the Devil in Islam
• Traditional picture of a horned devil with cloven hooves and
a pointed tail drawn from the Judaeo-Christian tradition
• Islam acknowledges the existence of the ‘Devil’
• Not an ‘anti-God’
• One of God’s creatures
• Iblis the Jinn (see 38:75); not an angel
• Made from fire
• Fell from grace through pride
• Became the Shaitan (‘the Adversary’)
• Seen as foul and accursed
• ‘I seek refuge with God from the outcast Satan’
• A trickster, tempter and deceiver (see 31:33; 35:5)
What’s a Prophet?
• What is a Prophet?
• The Collins English Dictionary defines a Prophet as
– ‘a person who speaks by divine inspiration, esp. one through whom
a divinity expresses his will…a person who predicts the future…a
seer in spiritual matters’
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The Purpose of Prophets
To preach God’s Oneness: Tawhid
To convey God’s messages to humanity
To lead people to God (in both an outer and inner sense)
To warn against the Devil
Types of Prophet (see Lesson 3 Handout)
Prophet (nabi)…
Messenger (rasul)
A rasul communicates a new religious law (or Shariah)
The Last Days according to Islam
The Hour
• The end of the world is an ever-present theme in
the Quran and it is described in many ways…
• The Hour (al-Sa’a): 6:31
• The Day of Judgement (Yaum al-Din): 1:4
• The Day of Resurrection (Yaum al-Qiyamah):
2:113
• The Day (al-Yaum): e.g.69:13-37, esp. 15
• The Day of Decision (Yaum al-Fasl): 77:7-15, esp.
77:13
• The Day of Distress (Yaum al-Asir): 74:9
• The Overwhelming Event (al-Ghashiyah): 88:1
Prophetic History
• Muhammad the Last Prophet
• Muhammad’s appearance is thus held to be
the first sign of the Hour
• Major & Minor Signs
• Many minor signs, though too detailed for
our purposes here
• Major Signs: considered those which will be
clear to all
• We will look briefly at a few of them now…
Major Signs
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The Appearance of Muhammad
The ‘Rightly Guided One’: al-Mahdi
The Return of Jesus
Al-Masih al-Dajjal: the Anti-Christ
The Rising of the Sun in the West
The Removal of the Quran from the Earth
The destruction of the world
Judgement
The Five Pillars
‘Islam is based on Five Principles’
A famous tradition of Muhammad
says:
‘Islam is based on five pillars: To testify that
none has the right to be worshipped except
Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger
of Allah (shahada); to pray (salat); to pay the
alms-tax (zakat); to perform the Pilgrimage to
Mecca (hajj); to fast during the month of
Ramadan (sawm)’
‘Islam is based on Five Principles’
The Five Pillars are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The Attestation of Faith (Shahadah)
The Ritual Prayer (Salat)
The Poor-due (Zakat)
The Fast of Ramadan (Saum)
The Pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj)
The Purpose of Pillars
• In ritual terms, the 5 Pillars are thus seen as
the means of actualising the principal of
tawhid
• In other words, the 5 Pillars are designed to
support the superstructure of Islam
• Therefore, any attempt to understand the
diversity and richness of contemporary
Muslim cultures needs to be based upon an
understanding of the nature and impact of
the 5 Pillars.
Prayer in Islam
• We looked at the declaration of faith (the Shahadah) at
the beginning
• Prayer in Islam consists of two distinct categories:
Supplication (Du’a)
• This is a personal prayer, with no necessarily set formula
(though many prophetic prayers exist) and can be said at
any time
Ritual Prayer: al-Salat
• Salat, by contrast, is a specific act of worship performed
at specified times, usually (though not always) in
congregation. Salat consists of a number of distinct acts.
• It is this kind of prayer that we will explore here.
The Ritual Prayer
• The Prophet (pbuh) is said to have
described salat as the ‘centrepole’ of
Islam, suggesting the image of the main
pole of a tent.
• The Quran commands the performance of
the ritual prayer more than any other
activity.
• Such is its emphasis that images of the
congregational prayer have come to
represent Islam.
The Ritual Prayer
• Literally, the word salat means ‘to pray’ or ‘to bless’ and is used
in a variety of ways in the Quran:
• God and the Angels perform salat:
– ‘It is He who performs the salat over you, and His angels, that He
may bring you forth from the darknesses into the light’ (33:43)
• All of creation performs salat, by virtue of their innate
submission to the Divine Will:
– ‘Have you not seen that everyone in the Heavens and the earth
glorifies God and birds spreading their wings? Each one knows its
salat and its glorification’ (24:41)
• As we saw previously, Muhammad did not conceive of his faith
as new but as a continuation of past revelations.
• Thus, past prophets and communities are also believed to have
been commanded to observe the ritual prayer by God:
– ‘And We delivered [Abraham], and Lot … And We revealed to them
the doing of good deeds and the performance of the salat’ (21:7173)
The Ritual Prayer Described
• The ritual prayer is of central significance in
Islam
• Its structure attempts to remind Muslims of the
Oneness and centrality of God.
• A means of purification
• The Prophet is reported to have said:
– ‘If there was a river at the door of anyone of you and
he took a bath in it five times a day would you notice
any dirt on him? ... That is the example of the five
prayers with which God annuls evil deeds’ (Bukhari
4:330)
• Prayer is obligatory for all sane Muslims, male
and female, from puberty onwards.
Islam & Society: the Poor-due
• Zakat (the ‘poor-due’) is mentioned next to
almost every reference to prayer, underlining its
significance.
• Part of Islam’s emphasis on social justice
• Literally, ‘purification’
• Purification of one’s wealth through the giving of
charity
• Zakat is a compulsory tax of 2.5% on surplus
wealth
• Payable on a wide range of property and wealth
• Used to help the poor and needy, those in debt,
to free captives and to help travellers, amongst
other things (9:60).
The Fast of Ramadan
• The Quran declares:
‘O you who have believed, decreed upon you is fasting as it was
decreed upon those before you that you may become righteous’
(2:183)
• The purpose of fasting is thus to develop the quality of
righteousness.
• The Quran defines righteousness in the following manner:
– ‘Righteousness is not that you turn your faces to the east or the
west, but [true] righteousness is [in] one who believes in God, the
Last Day, the Angels, the Book, and the prophets and gives wealth,
in spite of the love for it, to relatives, orphans, the needy, the
traveller, those who ask [for help], and for freeing slaves; [and who]
establishes prayer and gives zakat; [those who] fulfil their promise
when they make one; and [those who] are patient in poverty and
hardship…’ (2:177)
• To understand, in a direct physical sense, the hardship of
hunger and thirst, for empathetic reasons
Ramadan
• Ramadan is the 9th month of the Islamic
calendar
• Because the calendar is a lunar one, the
timing of Ramadan shifts backwards by
about 10 days each year.
• Ramadan thus falls in different months in
different years.
• Although the fast itself is a trial, Muslims
look forward to Ramadan, as it is a time for
reflection, re-dedicating the self and for
getting together with the family
Pilgrimage to the House
• Hajj, or the pilgrimage to the Ka’aba in Mecca, is
the fifth pillar
• The Ka’aba is seen by Islam as the first temple
established on earth for the worship of God.
• According to the Quran, Abraham and Ishmael
laid the foundations of the Ka’aba and initiated
the hajj.
• Muhammad is thus not seen as its originator, but
rather as its reviver.
• This is an important distinction, as the Hajj was
also observed by the Meccan opponents of
Muhammad
The Hajj
• The hajj itself takes place in the 12th month of the Islamic
calendar (dhu’l hijjah, or the month of hajj)
• As the fifth pillar, the hajj in a sense represents the final
concrete expression of Islam.
• That is, it has traditionally been seen as marking the end of
one phase of life and the beginnings of another
• This is perhaps easier to understand when we realise that it
is only with the recent arrival of air travel that travelling vast
distances has become a reality available to most people.
• The hajj has therefore traditionally been seen as a
preparation for death; before setting off, the pilgrim has to
ensure their affairs are put in order, as they may not return.
• This is also why someone returning from the pilgrimage is
accorded a certain prestige, being honoured with the term
hajji or hajjah
The Hajj in Pictures
Understanding the Mosque
Mosque Architecture from Around the World
The Minaret
The Mihrab
The Mihrab
The Minbar
Ablution Facilities & Domes
The Roles of the Mosque
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Key Roles of the Mosque…
A place of prostration (masjid in Arabic)
House of worship
Community centre: especially because of its role
in the Friday prayer
Yaum al-jumu’ah and ahl al-sunna wa al-jama’a
School: earliest schools were organised as part
of the mosque
Political centre: a centre of debate and
discussion
Government centre: the first mosque in Medina
was also the centre of government