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ISLAM
What is Islam?
Islam is the monotheistic religion
articulated by the Qur’an and by
the teachings and example of
Muhammad, the last prophet of
Islam. The word Islam means
“submission (to God)” and
adherents of Islam are referred to
as Muslims.
Islam is the second largest
religious tradition in the world
The origin and development of
Islam
The Semitic roots of
the Islamic faith
Abraham’s son
Ishmael and his
descendants
Monotheistic faith and the tribal
religions of the Arabian peninsula
Mecca emerges as the
center of religious
devotion and
commerce
Muhammad (570–632)
Muhammad
worshiping at the
Kabah in Mecca
God’s final (perfect)
revelations to the
prophet Muhammad
“Recite in the name of the Lord who created– created man from clots of blood. Recite! Your Lord is the Most Boun<ful One, who by the pen taught man what he did not know. Indeed, man transgresses in thinking himself his own master; for to your Lord all things return... Prostrate yourself and come nearer...”
The first revelation on Mt. Hira
Muhammad’s flight to
Medina and victorious
return to Mecca
The mission and legacy of
the man Muhammad
Muhammad did not consider himself to be divine in any way; rather he considered himself to be God’s instrument to deliver the will of God to the people
Muhammad died in Medina in 632 AH (a@er Hijra)
All Muslims regard Muhammad as a man who showed perfecDon in his life, and they revere him as an ideal human being, a model for all believers to emulate
Caliphate struggles,
civil war and the first
major division of Islam
The Golden Age of
Islam (750–1258)
A few important beliefs shared
by all Muslims
The heart of islam is the belief in
an all-powerful, transcendent
God who created and continues
to control the universe
The nature of God in the
Islamic tradition
Muslims refer to God as Allah, which simply means “the God”.
Allah is not God’s name, but a rather a Dtle. In Islam, God has many names (e.g. ‘the Merciful’, ‘the Just’, ‘the Compassionate’) that display his “personal” character
Affirming God’s absolute power over, total presence in, and complete providenDal control of everything in the universe is a central tenet of Islam and something of paramount importance to all Muslims
There is only one destiny for all
creatures... the will of God
Islam is a prophetically oriented
religious tradition
The five pillars of Islam
All Muslims must accept and
practice the five pillars
because these “pillars” are
supposed to provide the
necessary support for one’s
faith and practice...
The five pillars of the
Islamic faith
(1) Creed -­‐ “ There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger.” It is recited daily in prayer; and wriQen in Arabic everywhere inside the domes of mosques and over doors.
(2) Prayer -­‐ Devout Muslims are called on to pray five Dmes a day: before dawn, midday, mid-­‐a@ernoon, sunset, and nighWme.
(3) Charity to the poor -­‐ Islamic pracDce demands that believers donate certain percentages of their total wealth to the poor.
(4) FasDng during Ramadan -­‐ FasDng is thought to be good for individual spiritual growth, and it is also an important bond that unites Muslims in commemoraDng Muhammad’s first received his revelaDons.
(5) Pilgrimage to Mecca -­‐ All Muslims, both men and women, unless prevented by poverty or sickness, are expected to visit Mecca at least once in their lifeDme (the Hajj). Only Muslims may visit the city.
A few different schools of
thought within Islam
The Sunni versus Shiite
division within Islam
The Sunnis and the Shiites are the two most dominant branches of Islamic thought. Both groups share and accept the authority of the Qur’an, the Five Pillars of Islam and many other arDcles of Islamic faith and pracDce.
However, there are important differences that separate these groups: Who was the proper successor to Muhammad? Different interpretaDons of Qur’an and authoritaDve teachings of Muhammad on religious laws concerning marriage, inheritance, proper forms of worship
Traditional Islam is theocratic,
seeking the “rule of God” in
every aspect of life
A few important religious
practices and rituals of Islam
A few Islamic dietary
restrictions
The Qur’an forbids the consumpDon of pork on the grounds that swine are an “unclean” animal
Alcohol is also forbidden because of it’s common associaDon with addiDon and violent behavior
Prohibitions against
usury and gambling
Muslims are not permiQed to charge “interest” on financial loans because this is deemed as a form of exploitaDon. SomeDmes a “commissions” charge is permiQed instead
Gambling is prohibited on the grounds that it is a waste of Dme and resources The institution of
marriage within Islam
Generally speaking, Islamic marriages are social/civil contracts
Most Muslim marriages are arranged and typically involve a wriQen agreement and the exchange of a dowery
A@er marriage, a woman takes on a new, more “responsible” role as wife, mother, etc.
Gender roles and the
rights of women
In Islam, male and female social roles are taken to be very different, yet complimentary
Women are expected to take on more “tradiDonal” roles and expected to be modest and circumspect in public
SomeDmes Muslim women are expected to remain vieled and only socialize with other females
The importance of
circumcision in Islam
Male circumcision is a religious requirement in Islam, even though it is not expressly commanded in the Qur’an
In some Muslim countries, female circumcision is also pracDced
One explanaDon for the pracDce of circumcision is that it shows submission to God when it comes to procreaDon and sex
Are there objective moral facts
that are absolute and universal?
Or is what’s morally permissible
a culturally relative matter?
Cultural ethical relativism
An act is right or wrong because the agent’s culture (or society) says it is right or wrong
Relativism and the cultural
differences argument...
The general form of the argument used to support cultural ethical rela4vism
(1) Different cultures have different moral principles and standards Therefore,
(2) There is no objecDve, universal “truth” in morality. Right and wrong are only maQers of opinion, and opinions vary from culture to culture. What’s wrong with cultural
ethical relativism and the
arguments used to support it?
Relativism and the
subjectivist fallacy
Confusing beliefs, percep4ons, or other representa4ons with reality
(1) Beliefs vary from one person (or culture) to another
Therefore, (2) Truth varies from one person (or culture) to another
The conclusion doesn’t follow from the premises. In fact the only way the argument would work is if an addiDonal premise were added–namely, the claim that “belief = truth”
A powerful argument
against cultural relativism
(1) According to cultural relaDvists, whatever a society approves of is moral, and whatever a society disapproves of is immoral
(2) In Nazi Germany, society approved of sending Jews to concentraDon camps and exterminaDng them in horrific ways.
Therefore,
(3) According to cultural relaDvists, Nazi Germany acted morally in sending Jews to concentraDon camps and exterminaDng them in horrific ways.
The muslim faith is a
an extremely
passionate faith and
religious passion is
often a good thing...
However, sometimes
religious passion can
lead to bad things as
well...
Could religion be the root cause
of all of the world’s woes?
The so-called New Atheism
Understanding the socalled New Atheists...
New Atheism refers to a 21st century movement in atheism. The term is typically linked to a series of six best-­‐
selling books by Sam Harris, Daniel C. DenneQ, Richard Dawkins, Victor J. Stenger and Christopher Hitchens.
According to the New Atheists, it is Dme to take a far less accommodaDng aWtude toward religion, supersDDon, and religion-­‐based fanaDcism than had been extended by moderate atheists, secularists, and some secular scienDsts. What the New Atheists share
is a belief that religion should
not simply be tolerated but
should be countered,
criticized and exposed by
rational argument wherever
its influence arises....
Christopher Hitchens
God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (2007) made author and journalist Hitchens one of the four major advocates of the “new atheism” “Religion is violent, irraDonal, intolerant, allied to racism, tribalism, and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hosDle to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children, and as such it ought to have a great deal on its conscience...”
Richard Dawkins
In The God Delusion (2006), evoluDonary biologist Dawkins contends that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and that belief in a personal god qualifies as a delusion, which he defines as a “persistent false belief held in the face of strong contradictory evidence...”
“When one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity... and when many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion...”
“[Before 9/11] many of us saw religion as harmless nonsense. Beliefs might lack all suppor<ng evidence but, we thought, if people needed a crutch for consola<on, where's the harm? September 11th changed all that. Revealed faith is not harmless nonsense, it can be lethally dangerous nonsense. Dangerous because it gives people unshakeable confidence in their own righteousness. Dangerous because it gives them false courage to kill themselves, which automa<cally removes normal barriers to killing others. Dangerous because it teaches enmity to others labelled only by a difference of inherited tradi<on. And dangerous because we have all bought into a weird respect, which uniquely protects religion from normal cri<cism. Let’s now stop being so damned respecXul!”
Richard Dawkins
Bill Maher
Religulous is a 2008 American comedy/
documentary film wriQen by and starring comedian Bill Maher and directed by Larry Charles.
According to Maher, the Dtle of the film is a portmanteau derived from the words “religion” and “ridiculous” the documentary examines and mocks organized religion and religious belief.
Responses to the criticisms of
the so-called New Atheism
The criticisms of the so-called
New Atheists are not new and
really not that good...
William Lane Craig
William Lane Craig is an American ChrisDan apologist, theologian, and analyDc philosopher. He is one of the most visible contemporary proponents of natural theology, o@en parDcipaDng in debates on the existence of God.
Craig has earned a PhD in philosophy as well as ThD in theology. Craig has held numerous professorships at presDgious universiDes and has authored a tremendous amount of scholarly books and arDcles within his field.