Download The Islam

Essay of:
Group: 2A
Francisco Jimenez Blesa
Angel Alfonso Morales Sanchez
The Islam
Contents:
-The Islam
-The Coran
-God
-The prophet
-Final judgement
- Practics and institutions: the five pillars
-
Profession of faith
Oration
Alms
Uninformed
Peregrination
-ISLAM AND SOCIETY
Education
Islamic Law
Yihad
The Islam
Islam is a monotheist religion arisen in century VII in the Arabic peninsula from the
lessons of Mahoma, called the Prophet. In its literal meaning, the Arab word Islam means '
surrender, but the Coran establishes its religious sense, ` submission to the will or the law
of God. The person who professes and practices the Islam is a Muslim (in Arab muslim, '
the one who is put under god'). According to the Coran, the Islam is the universal and
fundamental religion. The own nature is even Muslim since it obeys the laws that God has
established in her. Them human beings, who have free will, the practice of the Islam does
not imply obedience but the free acceptance of divine mandates.
The Muslim is a follower of the divine revelation (gathered in the Coran) formulated
by Mahoma prophet, which turns to him member of the Islamic community (umma). Some
authors are enough to give testimony and to pronounce the shahada one (faith profession)
that is expressed when affirming "is no more God than Ala and Mahoma is its prophet".
The formula is exclusive. Since the own Coran mentions "the Muslim" followers of
Mahoma as (It has called you Muslim, Coran 22.78), these feel like victims when they are
denominated "mahometins", whereas this term would imply a personal cult that the Islam
prohibits.
Worldwide the Muslim population is considered next to billion people. The Islam has
bloomed in very diverse geographic, cultural and ethnic regions. The main ethnic groups
that compose the Muslim community include the Arabs (most of North Africa and Near
East), Turkish and Ottoman towns (Turkey, regions of the old Soviet Union and Central
Asia), Iranian, Afghan, Hindu-Muslims (Pakistan, India and Bangladesh), communities of
the Asian South-eastern (Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines) and a small percentage
of Chinese. In Europe, the Islam is the second professed religion more after the
Christianity.
The Coran
The Muslims consider the Coran like
the eternal word of revealed God to
Mahoma by means of Gabriel, arcangel
of the revelation. Think that his author
is the same God, and not the Prophet,
reason why the Coran is inimitable and
infallible. The word comes from the
Arab al-quran, ' recitation'. It gathers
the different revelations from Ala from
Mahoma during almost the 20 years of
its prophetic life (612-632). It is divided
in 114 suras (chapters) divided in little
more than 6,200 aleyas (versicles). The brief sura contains only 3 versicles and the
amplest 286 long versicles. The 114 suras appear ordered in decreasing order, with some
slight oscillation. As much nonIslamic Islamic investigators as agree in the integrity that
substantially has maintained the text of the Coran throughout history.
God
The monotheism is a central question for the Islam, that admits the existence of a unique
God (Ala). It rejects the polytheism, as well as the extension of the divinity of Ala to some
person. God created the man and the nature through a fundamental act of mercy,
otherwise the nothing would exist. In addition, it equipped to each element of his creation
of his own nature and laws that govern their conduct. The result is a harmonic set and
ordered, the cosmos in which each thing has its own place and its limitations, reason why
in the nature does not appear imbalances, upheavals or ruptures. God presides over and
governs the Universe, that his ordered operation is the sign and the main test of the
existence of God and its unit. In the past it could have alterations of the standard order, in
form of miracles, but although the Coran accepts the miracles of the previous prophets
(Noah, Abraham, Moises, Jesus Christ and others), declares decrepit; the miracle of
Mahoma is the Coran, prodigy who no human can make or repeat.
According to the Islam, God acts four fundamental as with respect to the Universe and to
the humanity in individual: creation, sustenance, direction and judgment. God, that created
the Universe by its absolute mercy, is also forced to maintain it; all the nature has been
subordinated to the humanity, that can operate it and benefit from her. Nevertheless, the
last objective of the humanity consists of existing to the "service of God", that is to say, to
adore only Him and to construct an ethical, and just free social order to him of corruptions.
The Prophet
God has sent prophets to the Earth because of the moral weakness of the humanity, to
teach so much to the individuals as to the states the correct moral and spiritual behavior.
After the creation and means of subsistence, the mercy of God is pronounced in these
acts of direction. Although or and badly they are printed in the human heart, the incapacity
or the rejection of many people to decipher that registry makes the prophetic direction
necessary. This guide is universal: nobody in the Earth
has been undressed of her. Adam was the first prophet;
after its expulsion of the Garden of the Eden, its lack
received the pardon of God (the Islam therefore does not
accept the doctrine of the original sin). The messages of
all the prophets emanate of a same divine source, the
tables of the revelation, the word of God from the
beginning of the times. Also it is known him like Celestial
book, transmited to Mahoma prophet by the intervention
of archangel Gabriel. The religions, therefore, are in
synthesis one, although they acquire different
institutionalised forms. The prophets constitute an
indivisible unit and she is due to believe in all of them,
since to accept to and rejecting to others she is
equivalent to deny the divine truth. All the prophets are human; they do not participate in
the divinity, but they are the highest and valuable models for the humanity. Nevertheless,
some prophets consider themselves superior to others, mainly by their certainty before the
suffering. Of this form, the Coran describes to Mahoma like "first of the humans" (39,12),
"sent" of Ala (4,62) or "seal of prophets" (33,40). To accept its lessons is to obey to the
own God. It is, in addition, an immense manifestation of the divine mercy with respect to
the men, because the last messenger of his will considers itself. The versicle of the Coran
where one interrogates the human prophets (93,7): "Perhaps you it did not find misled and
it guided to you" it raises primacy of Mahoma like maximum prophet of the Islam, even
though has triggered diverse theological conflicts, mainly between the shiies, that
paraphrase this aleya like: "misleading has found you and the sunies have guided you"
(read, however: "you it did not find misled in a trip and it guided to you"). From the Islamic
belief that comes here the prophets were extinguished and ended the Coran. The Islam is
the last and more perfect revelation of God, and it is dominated all the previous ones.
Final Judgement
The divine actions of creation and direction conclude with the act of the Final Judgment. In
this day in which the humanity will be reunited and all the individuals will be judged only by
their facts. "chosen" they will go to the Garden (the paradise) and the "losers" will go to
hell, although God is merciful and will pardon to which they are deserving of it. In addition
to the Final Judgment, that affects the individuals, the Coran recognizes another class of
divine judgment that affects the history of nations, towns and communities. The nations,
like the individuals, can be corrupted by the wealth, the power and the pride, and if they do
not reform they will be punished with the destruction or subjugated by more virtuous
towns. (Coran 39,67-75 and 22, 1-24.)
Practics and institutions: the five pillars
The Islamic community considers the practice of five duties, known like the five pillars of
the Islam fundamental.
Profession of faith
In agreement with the absolute commitment of the Islam with the monotheism, the first
obligation is the profession of faith or testimony (shahada): "there is no more God than Ala
and Mahoma is its prophet". This profession, that must at least once be made public by
each Muslim in its life "of verbal form and with total assent of heart", indicates the entrance
of an individual in the Islamic community.
Oration
The second obligation is
salat, that consists of
making five daily orations.
The first oration takes place
before the exit of the sun;
second, at noon; third,
between the three and the
five of afternoon; fourth
after the putting of the sun
and villa before lying down
and the midnight. During
the oration, the Muslims
watch in the direction of the
Kaaba, a small structure of
cubical form located in
haram of the Great Mosque of Mecca. In order to pray it is necessary to remain in the
beginning of foot, immediately afterwards to make a genuflexion to which two prostrations
happen, and, finally, seat has to take itself. In each one of this positions certain orations
and fragments of the Coran are recited. Like previous step at the beginning of the oration,
the devotee one must make the ablutions pertinent. Before each oration communitarian,
almandine (of the Arab al-mullaiddin, who calls to oration ') or muezin make a public call
from minaret of the mosque. In recent times, the call becomes through systems of
megaphone so that it is possible to be heard at a distance. Friday is the day saint for the
Islam. In this day, to first hour of afternoon, special orations of communitarian character
are made in the mosques. They are preceded by a sermon from the pulpit pronounced by
the magnet, call also jatib. In both annual religious holidays, calls ids (one of them so soon
concludes the uninformed month of the Ramadan and the other after the peregrination to
Mecca), are in the morning celebrated followed special orations of sermons.
Alms
The third fundamental obligation of a Muslim is to pay
denominated zakat or alms (Coran 2, 263/64 to 275/74). This
one was at first the tax demanded by Mahoma (and later by the
Muslim states) to the accommodated members of the
community, mainly to help the poor men. Also it was used to
catch converses to the Islam, as well as for the redemption of
captives military, the aid of people with great debts, for the
financing of yihad (the war by the cause of the Islam or saint
war), that according to the commentators of the Coran includes
the well-being and the education. Only when zakat has been
given considers legitimate and purified the rest of the property
and fortune of a Muslim. In most of the Muslim states zakat the
government collects no longer it and one has become voluntary alms, although its
payment continues being considered like an essential obligation of all the Muslims.
Uninformed
The fourth obligation is the uninformed one, or saum, during the month of the Ramadan.
Since the Islamic calendar is lunar, the festivals are not fixed. During the warm summers
most of the Muslims it even observes with rigor the uninformed one. During the uninformed
month of the people they must abstain to eat, to drink, to smoke and to maintain sexual
relations from the dawn to the putting of the sun, and to avoid all sinful thought or act. Who
can allow to it must it, in addition, to give to eat like minimum a poor man. If a person
cannot fulfill it to be becomes ill or of trip, it is not necessary that ayune then, although will
have to do it in later days.
Peregrination
The fifth obligation of the Muslim is hach, the peregrination to the Kaaba, in Mecca. All
adult Muslim, enabled and physically equipped with sufficient goods must at least once
make this peregrination in his life. Celebrated during the first 10 days of the last month of
the lunar year, the rite demands that the travelling ones are in a state of absolute purity.
The main elements of this prolonged rite are to give seven returns to the Kaaba, to run to
each other by seven tumulus times to double time between both next to the sanctuary,
separated about 400 meters. With it
the denominated "greater
peregrination" is completed. The
"smaller peregrination" includes the
visit to the next places of Mine and
Arafat, and the accomplishment of
diverse rites like the lapidating with
seven rocks of three points that
evoke the three times that Abraham
was attempted by the demon. The
development of the aerial transport
in our days has allowed making the
peregrination to Muslims of all the
regions of the planet. In 1977 a
number of two million of travelling
was registered already. Through the
centuries, the Kaaba has played an important role like rallying point of Islamic investigators
who can interchange, discuss and spread their ideas. During the decades of 1980 and
1990 the peregrination has also served to promote political solidarity in the Muslim world.
Aside from these five basic institutions, the Islam prohibits the consumption of alcohol and
meat of pig. In addition to the Kaaba, the main Muslim sanctuary, the most important
centers of the Islamic life are the mosques, where orations to newspaper are made.
ISLAM AND SOCIETY
The Islamic concept of society is theocratic whereas the objective of all the Muslims is the
"government of God in the Earth". Nevertheless, it necessarily does not imply the
existence of a denominational political regime, although sometimes the religious
authorities have had and have a considerable political influence in certain Muslim
societies. The idea of a model of Islamic society is based on the belief that all the spheres
of the life -- spiritual, ritual, political and economic -- constitute an indivisible unit that must
be imbued completely of the Islamic values. This ideal Straight inspires concepts such as
Islamic and Islamic State, and explains the marked emphasis of the Islam in the life and
the social obligations. The established fundamental religious duties in the five pillars even
have clear implications in the life of the community.
Education
The base of the Islamic society is the community of the faithful, that is consolidated by the
fulfilment of the religious practices. Its mission is "to instil the good and to prohibit badly"
and, this way, to reform the Earth. Nevertheless, the community must be moderate and to
avoid all the ends. During the age it mediates the Islamic religious authorities vindicated a
degree of certainly for the set of the society, but the European colonial domination on the
Muslim countries limited this vision sometimes. In century XX some Islamic theoreticians
have presented/displayed diverse conceptions on the desirable Muslim society and
proposals of reform with respect to the traditional models.
On century IX the Abdullah caliph al-Mamun founded an academy in Bagdad for the study
of secular matters and the translation of Greek scientific and philosophical texts. In century
X, in the Cairo, the caliphs of the Fatimi dynasty also settled down an institution dedicated
to secular education, the University to al-Azhar, that continues being one of the most
important centers of education of the Islamic world. He is habitual that governing and
Muslim accommodated destines bottoms to these investigations. The medieval Islamic
scholars made important contributions to the philosophy, the natural medicine, astronomy,
mathematics and sciences. In fact, from century IX to century XIII the Islamic community
was the most fertile civilization of the world in the scope of the culture. It is very to
emphasize the paper that the Muslims of Al-Andalus carried out in the average age like
transmitters of classic science and culture and like creators of important contributions in all
the fields of the human knowledge. Al-Andalus was in those days the cultural center more
notable of all the civilized orb and from it radiated the culture to the rest of Europe here.
Among other famous Islamic universities, the Nizamiya, founded on Bagdad in 1067 by
Iranian statesman Nizam al-Mulk, distributed Theology, Right and Islamic Tradition, and
had between its collaborators famous Algazel philosopher; the Mustansiriyah, founded on
1234 in Bagdad, distributed Religious and other matters Straight.
The family
The primitive Islamic community aspired to consolidate the family in exchange for leaving
the old tribal fidelities, although he was not able to eliminate them. The Coran insists on
the filial mercy and the "love and mercy" that must exist between husband and woman.
One declares equal to men and women, "unless the men are in a superior category"
because they run with the expenses of the house. The sexual fidelity is required
absolutely.
The Coran pleads for measures destined to improve the condition of the woman. The
infanticide of children, frequent practice between certain tribes, is prohibited; the daughters
receive a part of the inheritance, although only half of the assigned thing to the children.
Also she insists repeated times on the respectful treatment to the women and grants to the
spouses the right to the divorce in case of bad treatments. The Coran approves the
polygamy, allowing to the man to have up to four spouses, but also it says that "if you fear
not to be able to make justice between your spouses, then married with a single one". The
abuse of the polygamy and the right of the husband in the traditional Islam to repudiate the
wife when its conduct is faultless has even lead in the last years to the promulgation of
directed laws to avoid it in almost all the Muslim countries.
The Islamic Law
The Islamic law, or sharia, defines the moral objectives of the community. In the Islamic
society, the Right term has a meaning ampler than in the western space, because it
includes as much imperative moral as legal. For the same reason, all the Islamic Right
cannot be formulated like legal norm or to be imposed by the courts. To a large extent it
depends exclusively on the conscience.
The four sources
The Islamic law is based on four sources or foundations of the Right. The two first are the
documentary sources, the Coran and the tradition represented by the Sunna and the
Hadit. The third source is the call ijtihad (responsible individual opinion and is used when a
problem is not treated in the Coran or the Sunna; in this case a jurist can solve the
problem by means of a reasoning (qiyas) analogical. These reasons were used for the first
time when the Islamic theologians and jurists in conquered countries had to face the
necessity to integrate local laws and customs with the Coran and the Sunna. Later the
Islamic authorities considered that this original thought was a threat for the Coran and the
Sunna and imposed strict norms limiting their use. But as a result of the deep changes
operated in world-wide the Muslim community in the last decades, a renewed emphasis in
the innovating thought of ijtihad has been put. The fourth source is the consensus of the
community (ijma), that is obtained discarding certain opinions gradually and accepting
others. Since the Islam does not have an official dogmatic authority, this it is an informal
process that generally requires a long period of time.
Legal Schools
In the Islam five legal schools arose, four suníes and one shii. The four sunies schools
appeared both in first centuries of the Islam: the shafi, the hanafi, the maliki and the
hanbali. All uses of systematic form the reasoning to clarify legal questions not solved by
the Coran or the Sunna. They differ first of all by the emphasis that puts in the textual
authority or the analogical reasoning, but each school recognizes the conclusions of the
legitimate others as and within the frame of orthodox Islamic. Each school tends to be the
hegemonic one in certain regions of the world: the hanafi in the Indian subcontinent,
Central Asia, Turkey and to a certain extent in Egypt, Jordan, Iran and Iraq; the maliki in
North Africa; the shafí in the Asian South-eastern; and the hanbali in Saudi Arabia. The
shii school (called jafari) dominates in Iran.
Yihad
The term yihad, habitually translated like “saint war “,
designates the fight by the Islamic objective "to reform the
Earth" that can include the use of the violence and the use of
armies if outside necessary. In any case, one is a concept
badly assimilated outside the Muslim world. The purpose
prescribed by yihad is not the territorial expansion nor the
unavoidable conversion from the towns to the Islam, but the
taking of the political power to apply the Islamic principles
through the public institutions of the community. The concept of
yihad nevertheless was used by some medieval Muslim
governors to justify wars motivated only by political ambitions.
According to the classic Islamic Right, the world is divided in
three great zones: the House of the Islam (where the Muslims have the dominion), the
House of La Paz (where they maintain treaties and agreements) and the House of the War
(the rest of the world). But of a progressive form yihad has been interpreted more in
defensive terms than offensive. In century XX this it was the concept that inspired to the
Muslims by its fight against the western colonialism.
Bibliography:
Spanish-English Collins Dictionary
Informatic Sources:
http://www.culturalianet.com
http://www.artehistoria.com
Micronet Universal Enciclopaedia