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2 born, 570 CE, into a world of violence and crime a member of the leading tribe in Mecca (the Koreish / Quraysh) ‘Mohammad’ means ‘highly praised’, and is now the most common male name in the world father died a few days before his birth, mother when 6, grandfather when 8 raised by his uncle, well-loved and accepted in his family at 25 began a caravan business, worked for Khadija, a wealthy widow 15 years his senior, whom he later married became frustrated with wickedness in his world and began frequenting a cave on Mt. Hira for solitude while most Meccans were polytheistic and animistic, some, the hanifs, worshipped one god exclusively, ‘Allah’ became convinced while meditating in his cave that Allah was the only God, The God on the Night of Power, the angel Gabriel appears to Muhammad in human form and urges him to ‘proclaim’ this is the beginning of the writing of the Koran 1. 2. 3. earn a living maintaining the 360 shrines to various gods around Mecca enjoy, as Smith says, ‘licentiousness’ maintain class distinctions Muhammad rejects • • • • living in a clay house milking his own goats mending his own clothes, and advising the humblest visitors personally His role as a general emerges as he leads the Medinese against the Meccans • first battle his forces win a great victory over a much larger Meccan force • second battle he is injured and Medinese lose • finally, after exhausting themselves laying siege to Medina, the Meccans retreat and are later finally conquered Always merciful in victory, Muhammad accepts the Meccan’s conversion to Islam • ‘al-Qur’an’ in Arabic means ‘a recitation’ (see Smith, p231) • Written over 23 years, Smith emphasizes that Muhammad considered it the only “miracle” associated with himself. • Illiterate as far as formal education, Muhammad wrote down the Koran in fits and spurts, describing the experience of inspiration as hearing “the reverberating of bells.” Smith, p232 • The Koran is composed of 114 chapters, called Surahs (Sura, Surat, Sewar), arranged in order longest to shortest. • Muslims believe there are, in a sense, two Korans—an uncreated, eternal Koran, and an instantiation of it, the written Koran. • Smith, p232: “If Christ is God incarnate, the Koran is God inlibriate.” • As literature, Arabic speakers Smith mentions find the Koran poetic and beautiful; English writers like Carlisle and Gibbon consider it, in translation of course, “wearisome,” “crude,” “a jumble.” • See an example of devotion to reading it perfectly, in Arabic. (Begin at the 40:00 minute mark to experience a bit of the competition) “innovation was to remove idols from the religious scene and focus the divine in a single invisible God for everyone. It is in this sense that the indelible contribution of Islam to Arabic religion was monotheism.” “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.” –Deut. 6:4 Christians have worldwide monotheism, but they have the Trinity: “They say the God of mercy has begotten a son. Now have you uttered a grievous thing … It is not proper for God to have children.” (Koran, 3:78, 19:93) Islam eschews all “parental images” of God. They make God too human; they are anthropomorphic. –Smith, p236 Are ‘Son of God’ and ‘God the Son’ equivalent? __________ Still, Allah’s compassion and mercy are mentioned 192 times in the Koran, wrath and vengeance 17. What do you think of Smith’s argument, p237, mid-page: “Mistakes could be disastrous. Koranic images of heaven and hell are pressed into service here; but once we come to terms with the fear that life’s inbuilt precariousness inspires, other lesser fears subside. The second, supporting root of the word islam is peace.” What kind of peace is this? __________________________ (Yes, I’m asking a serious question ) Rather than emanating from the divine as in Hinduism, or from the Form of The Good (Goodness itself), as the Neo-Platonists held, nature exists because of “a deliberate act of Allah’s will.” –Smith, p238 Does Allah have to continue willing existence to all other things to sustain them? ______________ Smith notes two consequences of this view: 1. 2. Islamic thinkers were the first Western scientists The world is both real and important Being the handiwork of Allah, who is both perfectly good and perfectly powerful, the world must be good. 2. Being the handiwork of Allah, who is both perfectly good and perfectly powerful, the world must be good. “You do not see in the creation of the All-merciful any imperfection. Return your gaze … It comes back to you dazzled” (Koran, 67:4) –Smith, p238 Smith takes this statement to be an endorsement of “confidence in the material aspects of life”; notes that Christians and Jews share that confidence. What does that mean? __________________________ Are nature’s imperfections ignored? _______________ Recall Tennyson’s “Nature, red in tooth and claw.” 2. Being the handiwork of Allah, who is both perfectly good and perfectly powerful, the world must be good. Regarding the creation of the human self or soul, Smith extends the commitment to such being created ‘good’. 1 2 This could have been inferred, given its Maker, but the Koran states it explicitly: “Surely we have created humanity of the best stature” (Koran, 95:4) …The closest Islam comes to the Christian concept of original sin is in its concept of ghaflah, or forgetting. People do forget their divine origin, and this mistake needs repeatedly to be corrected…. With life acknowledge as a gift from its Creator, we can turn to its obligations, which are two. The first of these is gratitude for the life that has been received. The Arabic word “infidel” is actually shaded more toward “one who lacks thankfulness” than one who disbelieves. The second standing obligation [is surrender … total commitment to God] –Smith, p238-239 (my brackets) 1. 2. the duty to be grateful, and the duty to surrender and be committed to God feed ourselves clothe ourselves educate ourselves etc. 1. 2. they didn’t ask for, and (say, a diamond) are hard for them to return (say, a huge fish tank) and at the same time demand something in return, like gratitude and or surrender / commitment. no duty of gratitude, no duty to return what’s given, no duty to treat what was given according to the wishes of the giver Consider the common theatre device of the starlet pursued by the admirer bearing gifts Smith explains the human self or soul in Islam by contrasting it with the ‘no self’ of Buddhism and the ‘ecological’ self of Confucianism. Why not compare it to the ‘ultimate self’ of Hinduism? Recall the question of whether, on dying, the soul becomes one with Brahman or retains a bit of individuality so as to “taste honey, not be honey”? Smith calls the Muslim self an “inexplicable center of experience that is the fundamental fact of the universe,” (p240) and so it is clearly not the empirical self. Nonetheless, Smith rejects the comparison, apparently, because, In India the all-pervading cosmic spirit comes close to swallowing the individual self. – Smith, p240 The Muslim soul retains its absolute individuality after death. The total individuality of the soul leads to its complete responsibility for its choices. Whoever gets to himself a sin, gets it solely on his own responsibility … Whoever goes astray, he himself bears the whole responsibility of wandering. (4:111, 10:103) –Smith, p241 Islam then provides a complementary picture of the afterlife. When life is over, souls are judged by Allah … When the sun shall be folded up, and the stars shall fall, and when the mountains shall be set in motion … and the seas shall boil … Then shall every soul know what it has done. (81, passim) – Smith, p241 The imagery in the Koran of the afterlife … of heavens and hells … is extremely sensuous. Lots of sex in the heavens for the virtuous … men and women … though, mostly men; for the wicked, the hells present “burning garments, molten drinks, maces of iron, and fire that splits rocks into fragments.” – Smith, p241 Do all Muslims accept this as a literal depiction of heaven. The Koran itself says: Some of the signs are firm—these are the basis of the book—others are figurative. (3:5) –Smith, p242 So, no, some Muslims think the imagery is sensuous in order to be compelling, but is literally false. See Koller, p143; Smith, p242-248 This is to be recited at least once by all Muslims “slowly, thoughtfully, aloud, with full understanding and with heart-felt conviction.” –Smith, p244 Al-Farabi 870-950 CE Avicenna Anselm Averroes 980-1037 CE 1038-1109 AD 1126-1198 CE 900 Ockham 1287-1347 AD 1300 Al- Kindi 801-873 CE Al-Ghazali 1058-1111 CE *All images link to scholarly articles Maimonides Aquinas 1138-1204 AD 1225-1274 AD Wikimedia Commons