Download Session 1 – Introduction

Session 1 - Introduction to Islam
In this class we will not have the time to
cover everything there is to know
We will look at how to reach your average
Muslim you will run into (not the Taliban)
- 1.2 billion Muslims worldwide today
- Second largest religion in the world
- Dominating religion in 50 countries, 35 countries
of populations over 87% Muslim.
What countries are they located in?
Indonesia = 196 million
Bangladesh = 104 million
Pakistan = 125 million
India = 133 million
China = 133 million
Russia = 26 million
Turkey = 62 million
Iran = 65 million
America = 6 million
What do Muslims believe?
1. God: There is one true God, named Allah.
2. Angels: They are the servants of God, through
whom He reveals His will. The greatest angel is
Gabriel, who appeared to Muhammad. Everyone has
two "recording angels": one to record his good deeds,
the other to record his bad deeds.
3. The Prophets: Allah has spoken through many
prophets, but the final and greatest of these is
Muhammad. Other prophets include Noah, Abraham,
Moses, and Jesus.
4. The Holy Books: The Koran or Quran is the holiest
book of Islam, believed to be Allah's final revelation to
man. It supersedes all previous revelations,
including the Bible. It contains Allah's word as
passed on orally to Muhammad by Gabriel.
5. The Day of Judgment: A terrible day on which each
person's good and bad deeds will be balanced to
determine his fate.
6. The Decree of God: Allah ordains the fate of all.
Muslims are fatalistic. "If Allah wills it" is the
comment of a devout Muslim on almost every
situation or decision he faces.
Five Pillars of Islam
1. Affirmation (Shahada): "There is no God but
Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger." This is
recited constantly by devout Muslims.
2. Prayer (As-Salah): Muslims are required
to pray five times a day, kneeling and
facing Mecca.
3. Almsgiving (Zakah): A worthy Muslim must give
2.5 percent of his income to the poor.
4. The Fast (Siyam): Faithful Muslims fast from
dawn to dusk every day during the ninth month
of the Islamic lunar calendar, Ramadan.
5. The Pilgrimage (Al-Hajj): Muslims are
expected to journey to Mecca at least once in
their lifetime.
6. Some have added Jihad as the 6th
Pillar of Islam
How did it all begin?
Muhammad was born in A.D. 570 in the town of
Mecca located in what we now call Saudi Arabia
The sources we have of Muhammad's life come
about a century after he lived, and have obvious
embellishment within them
Some scholars (we will not) actually question
if Muhammad ever existed
The life of Muhammad is very focused
on the city of Mecca
Today, only Muslims are allowed in
the city of Mecca
Muslims believe that Mecca was a center
of worship all the way back to the
time of Abraham
It is maintained that Abraham and his son Ishmael,
established the Kaaba in Mecca as the center of
true worship to the one God
After that time they believe a gradual decline took
place in Mecca (they call jahaliya) where they
allowed images to be place in the Kaaba and they
began worshipping them instead
This continued until the days of Muhammad
Muhammad was born to Abdullah & Amina
of the Banu Hashim clan
His mother and father both died when he was
young, and he was send to his uncle Abu Talib
With his uncle, he would begin traveling with
Caravans and gaining knowledge of the
region and business
We do not have many records of this time of his
life, so we will not say too much
(nor is it very important)
Understand though that Christianity and
Judaism were both very common in the regions
that he was traveling too, so he would have
some exposure to them
After a while (in 595 A.D.) Muhammad married an
older women (15 years older) and became the
leader of his tribe in Mecca
Muhammad became troubled by the polytheism
of Mecca, and tradition says he retired for times
of contemplation and mediation in a cave
on Mount Hira
In 610 AD, at age forty, he claims he experienced
a supernatural visitation
In the words of Martin Longs who wrote
one of the most popular biographies
on Muhammad:
“there came to him an Angel in the form of
a man. the Angel said to him: "Recite!" and
he said: "I am not a reciter," whereupon, as
he himself told it, "the Angel took me and
whelmed me in his embrace until he had
reached the limit of mine endurance. then
he released me and said:' Recite!‘…
I said: 'I am not a reciter,' and again he took
me and whelmed me in his embrace, and
again when he reached the limit of mine
endurance he released me and said: 'recite!',
and again I said 'I am not a reciter.' then a
third time he whelmed me as before, then
released me and said: "Recite in the name of
thy Lord who created! He created man from
a clot of blood. recite; and thy Lord is the
Most bountiful, He who hath taught by the
pen, taught man what he knew not".
(Quran Alaq :96)
He recited these words after the Angel, who
thereupon left him; and he said "It was
though the words were written on my heart."
But he feared that this might mean he had
become a jinn-inspired poet or a man
possessed. So he fled from the cave, and
when he was half-way down the slope of the
mountain he heard a voice above him saying:
" O Muhammad thou art the Messenger of
GOD, and I am Gabriel (JIBRAIL)."
…The Prophet stood gazing at the Angel;
then he turned away from him, but
whichever way he looked the Angel was
always there, astride the horizon, whether it
was to the north, to the south, to the east or
to the west. Finally the Angel turned away,
and the prophet descended the slope and
went to his house”
It’s interesting to note Muhammad was
worried he had become spiritually possessed
It bothered Muhammad so much that he
said the following after it happened:
"Now none of God’s creatures was more
hateful to me than an (ecstatic) poet or a man
possessed: I could not even look at them. I
thought, Woe is me poet or possessed —
Never shall the Quraysh say this of me! I will go
to the top of the mountain and throw myself
down that I may kill myself and gain rest.“
Ibn Ishaq’s "Sirat Rasul Allah," The Life of Muhammad,
translated by A. Guillaume, p. 106
When trying to commit suicide, Muhammad
is confronted again by Gabriel who tells him
he is a prophet
After a while he get’s the Qur’anic
revelation from Allah
The classic belief is the entire Qur’an was
sent down in one night (The night of Power),
Muhammad received it piece by piece over
the next 22 years
“The inspiration ceased to come to the
Messenger of God for a while, and he was
deeply grieved. He began to go to the tops of
mountain crags, in order to fling himself from
them; but every time he reached the summit
of a mountain, Gabriel appeared to him and
said to him, ‘You are the Prophet of God.’
Thereupon his anxiety would subside and he
would come back to himself.“
(History of Tabari [1155], translated by
W. Montgomery Watt, vol. 6, p. 76.)
Muhammad became a messenger of pure
monotheism (Tawhid) and he became emphasizing
heaven, hell, judgment, prayer, fasting, etc.
Around this time another event takes place
in Islamic tradition, Isra.
Isra is Muhammad's night flight & the Mi’raj,
his visitation to heaven.
The most popular view is the Isra is not a dream
or vision, but happened in reality
Muhammad was given a winged steed that he
rode to Jerusalem (to the farthest mosque) and
from there, guided by Gabriel, he ascended
through the levels of heaven where he received
his instruction on prayer
Muhammad is said to have traveled through
the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th Heaven
As he travels, he meets different
people along the way
The account of each heaven is repetitive, the same
thing is said to a different person, and they always
ask if Muhammad has been called at each heaven
and then say “What an excellent visit his is”
First heaven = Adam
Second heaven = John the Baptist & Jesus
Third heaven = Joseph
Fourth heaven = Idris
Fifth heaven = Aaron
Sixth heaven = Moses
Seventh heaven = Abraham
Muhammad then ascends to The Lote Tree of
the Utmost Boundary) there ran four rivers from
there, two hidden (that were in paradise), two
visible (The Nile and the Euphrates)
After that Muhammad was told that he and
his followers should pray fifty times daily in
their new faith
After he leave he passes Moses and is asked
what he was told, he tells him 50 prayers and
Moses says go back and have them lower it
This goes on for quite a while, it’s lowered by
10, then 10 more, and eventually we reach the
five prayers a day
When we examine this visitation to heaven it is
easy to understand why Muslims see Islam as a
continuation of sorts of the Jewish and
Christian religions
The next big event is called the Hijra, which
is the pilgrimage of Muhammad’s followers
from Mecca to Yathrib (renamed Medina)
210 miles north
This exodus was needed for the survival of
Muhammad and his followers who were not
very popular in Mecca anymore
He became known as the prophet in Medina,
and his religious and political power grew (as
did the new Islamic state)
After arriving in Medina, Muhammad
ordered his followers to begin
raiding Meccan caravans.
Three major conflict happened between the
Muslims (Medina) and Mecca in a short period
The Battles of Badr (AD 624) Uhud (AD 625)
and Trench (AD 627)
In all cases the Muslims were outnumbered,
but they won the battle at Badr
As you could imagine this was taken as
evidence that God was on their side
At Uhud the Muslims were winning, until their
archers abandoned their post to loot some booty,
causing a dramatic turn and loss for the Muslims
Even though they had won that battle, the
Meccans did not capitalize and finish the job
because they thought Muhammad had been killed
(when he was only wounded)
After that battle a revelation came down
that is now in the Qur’an:
“And Allah had certainly fulfilled His promise to
you when you were killing the enemy by His
permission until [the time] when you lost
courage and fell to disputing about the order
[given by the Prophet] and disobeyed after He
had shown you that which you love. Among you
are some who desire this world, and among you
are some who desire the Hereafter…
Then he turned you back from them [defeated]
that He might test you. And He has already
forgiven you, and Allah is the possessor of
bounty for the believers.” (Surah 3:152)
The third Muslim-Meccan large battle
was a brief siege
Having taking advice from the Persian, and
knowing a large Meccan force would come
against them, Muhammad dug trenches
around the vulnerable part of Medina
Once again revelation comes down, normally
associated with Surah 33:9-27
At this time the Muslims turn against the Jewish
tribe of Banu Qurayza, who they said had entered
into negotiations with the Meccans
The earliest sources say that Muhammad
beheaded all but a few men (who converted to
Islam) and enslaved all the women and children
The Muslims expanded through alliances as
Muhammad grew by bringing more Arab tribes
under the banner of Islam
At the same time the Meccan leadership was
dwindling and loosing influence
In 628, they marched on Mecca, not to
conquer it but to engage in hija (Pilgrimage)
They were not allowed to enter, and an
agreement known as the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah
was worked out that allowed them to return
the following year
However, in 630, Muhammad brought a huge
army into Mecca, and started clearing the idols
out of the Kaaba and establishing himself as
the ruler of Central Arabia
Few people were killed, many converted, and
many were driven out who would not convert
The issue of Muhammad's wives
As his political power increased, so did the
number of wives he had. The Qur’an limits legal
wives to four (Surah 4:3) but it was not long
before new revelation allowed him as a
prophet to have more
We will look at two major issues (wives)
that Muhammad took in his lifetime,
Aisha and Zaynab
Aisha, Daughter of Abu Bakr
The harshest denunciations of Muhammad
have been based on his marriage to
the young Aisha
She was betrothed to him at age six, and the
marriage was consummated at age nine (one
source says ten)
The idea of a fifty three year old marrying a
nine year old is troubling to many people today
The Qur’an gives no evidence of
embarrassment or apology for Muhammad
taking this young wife
There are stories in the
Qur’an about
Aisha that we could talk
about, but they
are not incredible
relevant to our
purposes
in this session
Zaynab bint Jash
This story is just as problematic for Islam
as the one of Aisha
Zaynab by all accounts was a very beautiful
women, and she was married to a man named
Zayd bin Muhammad
A former slave who was the adopted son of
the prophet (Muhammad) himself
At that time the Arab tribes, like the Jews,
Romans, and many others, had practices and
honored the concept of adoption
If a man married the wife of his adopted son in
that culture (and still today) it was a
fundamental violation of morality and
was seen as incest
The Qur’an changed this to make it acceptable
for Muhammad to marry and fulfill his desires
“Allah has not made for a man two hearts in
his interior. And He has not made your wives
whom you declare unlawful your mothers.
And he has not made your adopted sons your
[true] sons. That is [merely] your saying by
your mouths, but Allah says the truth, and He
guides to the [right] way. Call them by [the
names of] their fathers; it is more just in the
sight of Allah . But if you do not know their
fathers - then they are [still] your brothers in
religion and those entrusted to you…
…And there is no blame upon you for that in
which you have erred but [only for] what
your hearts intended. And ever is Allah
Forgiving and Merciful.” (Surah 33:4-5)
The Qur’an says that adoption should
not be honored as it had been for
thousands of years
This cleared the way for Muhammad to
take Zaynab as his wife
“And [remember, O Muhammad], when you
said to the one on whom Allah bestowed
favor and you bestowed favor, "Keep your
wife and fear Allah ," while you concealed
within yourself that which Allah is to
disclose. And you feared the people, while
Allah has more right that you fear Him. So
when Zayd had no longer any need for her,
We married her to you in order that there
not be upon the believers any discomfort
concerning the wives of their…
…adopted sons when they no longer have
need of them. And ever is the command of
Allah accomplished. There is not to be upon
the Prophet any discomfort concerning that
which Allah has imposed upon him. [This is]
the established way of Allah with those
[prophets] who have passed on before. And
ever is the command of Allah a
destiny decreed.”
But Muhammad didn’t steal her
from his adopted son
Zayd tells Muhammad that he will divorce
his wife (Zaynab) so that Muhammad
could marry her
At first Muhammad says not to do it, until he
suddenly has a vision that tells him that the
adoption is undone, it’s okay for them to get
divorced, and he is to marry Zaynab
Aisha recognized this as an issue and is
recorded saying “I feel that your Lord hastens
in fulfilling your wishes and desires”
Muhammad died on June 8th, 632 AD after
getting sick, tradition say he was sixty three
years old
Many believe a prophets body does not decay
and it looks the same still today. A few
companions of the prophet are buried next to
time, and by tradition there is an empty tomb
for Jesus’ burial after he returns
Memory Verse
Deuteronomy 17:17A: “And he shall
not acquire many wives for himself,
lest his heart turn away”