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HISTORY OF ISLAM
Essential question CORRECTION
How is the history of Islam significant for us today?
1.
Adam and Hawa did not bring about the Original Sin:
- No need of a divine Savior, as it is key to Christianity, and hardly understandable for many Muslims.
- Mix of fatalism and Pelagianism, leading eventually to exclusivism and legalism.
2.
Hagar and Ishmael in Saudi Arabia:
- Source of sacredness to this day: Mecca, Hajj, the Ka’bah, Zam-zam, Sa’i, Maqam Ibrahim.
- The Abrahamic blessing went to Arabic Muslims, instead of the Jews, a cause of tensions to this day.
3.
The Abrahamic prophets:
Abrahamic filiation of Islam, after and above Judaism and Christianity, that are often overlooked.
4.
Laylat Al Qadr:
- A reversed Annunciation, threatening, forceful, and anxiogenic, still influences parts of the Islamic world.
- Muhammad shown as the ‘rasulallah’ of ‘illallah’, as professed every day in Islam: the Shahadah.
- The central inspiration for the Ramadan month Pillar, still practiced in Islam today.
5.
Laylat Al Miraj:
- The crowning of Muhammad, and of Islam to this day, as the better and purer Abrahamic tradition, with Jesus
equaled to John the Baptist at a lower level of heavens.
- The institution of the Salah, 5 times a day to this day.
6.
Hijirah:
- The creation of the 1st Muslim community, the Ummah, called so to this day.
- Year one of the Muslim calendar; year 2014 AD is 1435 in Islam.
- It drew a line between Meccan (inclusive) and Medinan (exclusive) surahs.
7.
The caliphate:
- It gave rise to the central Muslim schism between Sunnis and Shiites that still explains much of today’s Islam.
- Expanded the frontiers of Islam as far as Poitiers and Vienna, Central Africa and India, an expansion that still
impact our world today.
- It has been so domineering, in such a large area, and for so long, especially during the Abbasid and Ottoman
dynasties, and over Western powers, that some Muslims can feel nostalgic of their lost golden age.
- Western civilization owes a lot to Islamic salvaging and enhancing of antique advancements.
8.
Colonialism:
- It gave its unnatural shape to many Muslim countries where conflicts are soaring today.
- It fueled feelings of resentment and revenge in many Muslim hearts today, toward Western nations.
- It drew a line between progressive and reactive Muslims today.
9.
Re-Islamization:
A key explanation of many of today’s geopolitical challenges, in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.