Download Islam The Way of Submission For the presentations on a religion the

Islam
The Way of Submission
For the presentations on a religion the following elements of the religion should be presented:
“To understand the role of Islam in the world today, you need to understand its view of the problem of
self-sufficiency and the solution of submission. You need to make sense of the goal of Paradise, and
how that goal motivates human behavior.” (62)
According to Stephen Prothero in the book God Is Not One, each religion/non-religion has these four
aspects. In your presentation, describe what your tradition would put for each one of these categories:
1. A Problem (something is awry in the world).
2. A Solution (to deal with the problem)
3. A Technique (or techniques, for moving from
this problem to this solution
4. An Exemplar (or exemplars “who chart this
path from problem to solution” (p. 14))
Self-sufficiency
“In Islam, the problem is self-sufficiency, the hubris of
acting as if you can get along without God, who alone
is self-sufficient.” (32)
Submission to Allah
“ 'The idol of your self,' writes the Sufi mystic Rumi, 'is
the mother of all idols.' Replace this idol with
submission to Allah, and what you have is the goal of
Islam: a 'soul at peace' (89:27) in this life and the next:
Paradise.” (32)
“All of us are born Musims, they argue. No baby
imagines that she is self-created or self-sufficient. As
we grow older, however, we 'wax proud' (16:32) and
forget our true nature. The Quran seeks to shake us
out of this forgetfulness, to remind us of our radical
dependence on God, and to offer us ways to practice
humility.” (43)
“Five times a day, 365 days a year, for more than a
millennium, Muslims have heeded the call to prayer
going from mosques and minarets into cities and
towns scattered across the globe.” (27)
“Muslims perform the ancient choreography of this
prayer with their whole bodies – standing, bowing,
prostrating, and sitting.” (30)
“Here the technique that will take you from selfsufficiency to Paradise is to 'perform the religion'
(42:13).” (32)
Muhammad and the mystics called Sufis
“Sufism, which emerged in the eighth century, is a
mystical tradition. Like other mystics, Sufis stress the
experiential dimension of religion. Less patient than
other Muslims, they don't want to wait until they die to
experience the divine.” (58)
According to Stephen Prothero in God is not One, “Families” of religion have several dimensions. In your
presentation, describe the dimensions that are emphasized in your religion.
1. Ritual
2. Narrative
3. Experiential
“In Islam...the core practices are prescribed in the so-called
Five Pillars.” (33) see How does one become a good
person?
“It is a nearly universal article of Islamic faith that the Quran
is the perfect, unaltered, and untranslatable word of God.”
(41)
“Real Islam [the Sufi] said, has nothing to do with law and
everything to do with experience. It is about a heart-andsoul connection between the individual believer and God –
the sort of crazy love that sets your whole being into
dance.” (57) This is according to a Sufi, “who takes it as
their task to look beneath the surface of the...Five Pillars to
something that is, as the English poet William Wordsworth
put it, 'far more deeply interfused.' “ (57)
4.
5.
6.
7.
Institutional
Ethical
Doctrinal
Material
Include how this religious tradition answers the 4 fundamental questions of life:
1) What is the nature of reality? What is “real”?
“More than any other great religion Islam emphasizes life after death.” (42)
There is a huge stress in Islam of Paradise and the wonders of the afterlife for those who truly
submit to Allah.
2) What would your life look like if you were “doing well”? Or what is a quality life?
Islam is a way of life as well as a religion. The Quran tells Muslims not just how to worship
Allah but also how to lend money, divide estates, enter into contracts, and punish criminals.”
(42)
“Repeatedly the Quran warns of horrors to come for those who persist in their pride and
refuse to submit to Allah.” (43)
3) What does it mean to be a truly good person? Or what is real goodness?
“Muslims do not believe in original sin.” (31)
The response that Allah demands from humanity is not so much belief as obedience. Yes,
there is one God, but believing that is the easy part, since heaven and earth sing of Him
unceasingly. The hard part is submitting to God.” (32)
4) How does one become a truly good person?
The Five Pillars - “The central pillar supporting this building is the Shahadah: 'I testify that
there is no god but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God.'...The four pillars
supporting the corners of this building are salat (prayer), zakat (charity), sawm (fasting), and
hajj (pilgrimage).” (33)