Download Chapter 10: Islam

Ways to the Center, D.Carmody and T. Brink
Questions on chapter 10 : Islam
Identify the following individuals or spirit beings. Know when and where they lived.
Abu Bakhr
Baha Ullah
Louis Farrakhan
Abu Dharr al-Ghifari
Charles Martel
Lyusi
Fard
Al-Ghazzali
Malcolm X
Guru Nanak
al-Hakim
marabout
Hagar
Ali
Muhammad
Hasan
and
Husain
Al-Razi
Nation of Islam
Ishmail
Ayatollah Khomeini
Rabia
Kalidjaga
Khadijah
Kufic and Naskhi
Locate and identify the significance following places
Hunayn
Mecca
Medina
Yathrib
Know the meaning of the following terms
“Islam” as a word
Hajj
Hejira
Alhambra
hidden imam
Baha’i
imamah
baraka
caliph
infinite pattern
Dar al-Islam
jihad
dhikr
jinn
Dhimmi
Kaaba
Druse
madrasa
Five Pillars
minaret
hadith
Mutazilites
Know the following dates and time periods
Muhammad’s life:
birth
marriage
beginning of Qur’anic revelations
Muhammad begins to preach publicly
Muhammad’s crisis: death of wife and uncle.
the Hejira: move from Mecca to Medina
the conquest of Mecca
Muhammad’s death
Night Journey
polydemonism
Qur’an
Ramadan
Sharia
sheikh
sherif
Shia
shirk
Sikkhism
Sufism
Sunni
sura
Taj Mahal
ulama
ummah
Wahabis
whirling dervish
zakat
Date the expansion of Islam from Arabia to:
Damascus and Jerusalem
Egypt
Tripoli
Persia
Afghanistan
Spain
the Indian subcontinent
Southern France
conversion of Turks
capture of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks
expulsion of the Shah from Iran and takeover by Islamic authorities
Date and locate the following caliphates.
Ummayad
Abbasids
Date the setbacks to Arabic Islam in terms of
defeat by Charles Martel in Poitiers, France
Normans push Muslims out of France and Italy
the capture of Jerusalem by Catholic Crusaders
sack of Baghdad by the Mongols
final expulsion of Muslims from Spain
defeat of Ottomans by Napoleon
the establishment of a secular Muslim state in Turkey
Be able to answer the following questions
List several non-Muslim Arab-speaking groups. What is the relative preponderance of Islam
and Judaism in the U.S.A.
What was the economic base of Mecca at the time of Muhammad’s birth? What was the
political base of Mecca at the time of Muhammad’s birth? What was the major source of
protection of an individual What was the religious situation of Mecca at the time of
Muhammad’s birth.
What is the Kaaba? What was the holiest object in the Kaaba? How was it believed to have
gotten there? What is the origin of the Mecca’s status as a pilgrimage site even before Islam?
What was its economic importance to Mecca, and who was interested in preserving the status
quo?
What is believed by Muslims about the origin and nature of the Qur’an? How did the Qur’an
get written down? Was it revealed all at once? What contradictory images of God are given in
the Qur’an?
What types of economic interests in Mecca were threatened by Muhammad’s denial of the
traditional lesser spirits in favor of Allah?
What did Muhammad teach about the end of the world?
Did Muhammad have any contact with Jews and Christians in his pre-Medina days, when the
Qur’anic revelations were still new?
What sociopolitical changes were implicit in Muhammad’s teaching? What types of individuals
would this shift attract?
Why did Muhammad abandon Mecca? What city did he become the ruler of, and how did this
happen? He was able to combine several formerly unconnected or hostile warrior clans into
a single group? Which? What type of new society did he design?
Were there Jews in Medina, and what happened to them after Muhammad’s arrival?
What were the military antecedents to Muhammad’s conquest of Mecca? What did he do to
the Kaaba after capturing Mecca? Was there further resistance? What was the response of
the remaining autonomous Arab-speaking tribes to Muhammad’s conquest of Mecca? Did
Muhammad ever move against the Christian world?
Characterize Muhammad’s personality. What characteristics did Muhammad attribute to
himself? What miraculous powers did he claim? From where did Muhammad ascend to
Paradise? Do Muslims believe that Muhammad ever spoke with Jesus and Moses? What role
will Muhammad have for the faithful at the end of the world?
When did a canonically accepted official version of the Qur’an emerge? What do Muslims
believe about the Arabic of the Qur’an? How do the feel about translations. How is the
Qur’an organized. What two periods do scholars subdivide the Qur’anic revelations into?
Give examples of themes that may reflect early rather than later revelations.
What are the Five Pillars of Islam?
What pantheistic beliefs made their way into certain mystical variants of Islam? What parallel
exists between mystical beliefs concerning the age of the Islamic Qur’an and the Jewish
Torah? What did Muhammad believe about angels and demons?
What are the fasting rules of Ramadan? What joyful events mitigate its severity? What is the
Hajj obligation? What is the zakat obligation. What individuals and institutions are the typical
beneficiaries of zakat.
According to the Qur’an, where did Mary receive the news that she was to be the mother of a
holy man? Does the Qur’an refer to a miraculous conception or an ordinary conception of
Jesus? Where was Jesus born? What were the first words which Jesus spoke in the crib?
What is the major difference between Christian and Muslim teachings about Jesus? What is
the name which the Qur’an gives to Heaven? How does the Qur’an describe hell?
Who was the first ruler after Muhammad’s death? What two empires were targeted immediately
for attack? How did Arabs capitalize on their desert skills as they expanded? What did the
Arabs do to the populations which they conquered? Describe the evolution of their
administrative strategy. What local pre-existing political factors aided their expansion? In what
way were non-Arab converts to Islam treated differently from Arab Muslims?
Who was Ali and on what fact did he base his claim of the right to rule? How does the theme
of suffering and persecution express itself in Shiite Islam,and why? What is the one country
in which Shiite Muslims are the majority?
When and where was the Umayyad dynasty founded? Who replaced it and when and where did
they transfer their capital? What was the one region where the Umayyad continued to rule? How
did the Umayyad and the Abbasid differ in terms of cultural affinities. What were the sciences
most prominent in Persia? Give an instance of book-burning in Islam
There was a Spanish city in which a famous Muslim scholar lived close to a famous Jewish
scholar. Give the city, the century, and the people.
Which Muslim group conquered China and spread Islam to China? When? When did they
conquer the Abbasids in Baghdad.
On what did Muslim artistic creativity focus? Name four items that were decorated. How did
Muslim architecture try to prefigure Paradise. How did it try to portray an image of
sumptuousness? How does the external archtecture of mosques differ from that of secular
buildings? How does the decorative motif of endless repetition of geometric or floral shapes
possibly reflect Muslim theology?
What professional group is most responsible for formulating Sharia? What are the domains
on which traditional law tends to focus? What are the five categories into which Sharia
subdivides human acts? What are the four sources of Sharia?
To what do the terms Hanafite, Hanbalite, Shafite, and Malikite refer? What were the two
political centers of the classic Islamic world?
What is Sufism and why has it caused so much internal conflict in Islam? What two
tendencies in the Islamic world did Sufism arise to combat? What is the core image of
Muhammad which moves Sufism? What new organizational form did Sufism introduce?
What new religious authority did Sufism introduce? What new holy site emerged as an object
of pilgrimage.
Identify five externally generated themes in Sufism. With what Jewish movement can Hasidism
be compared? What is the organizational basis of Sufism? What is the core skill taught by the
sheikh? What is the core objective of Sufi ritual?
In a later imperial period of Islam, the Arab speaking sector became subordinate to another
Muslim power. Which? What geographical transfer occurred in the seat of Islamic authority?
What city was conquered by the Ottomans in 1453 and how did they rename it? Who finally
conquered the Ottomans and put an end to Islamic imperial power?
What is the Wahabi movement? When and where did it originate? Who were their major
targets? What religious practices did they particularly combat. What practical measures did
they advocate? What 19th century reform was triggered off through Wahabi influence? What
happened to Sufism as a result of this movement? What other roles did Sufism play in spreading
Islam? What new organizations have arisen as a surrogate for the defunct Sufi brotherhoods?
When did Western secular ideas start entering into Islamic and what led to that introduction?
What two Quranic ideas were most in conflict with Western ideas of individual personal
freedom and responsibility.
What was the first Islamic country to publicly break with Islamic religious law? How have
modernizing legal reforms been achieved in countries which still pay tribute to religious law?
How have Islamic countries differed from Christian and Jewish counterparts with respect to the
“sacred vs. secular” distinction?
Examine the case study of the declarations by the Islamic students of Cairo concerning
Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran. What is their view of Islam’s role in the non-Islamic world? What
is their stance toward the separation between secular law and religious law? Who is best
qualified to govern society? What is the major accusation hurled at secular rulers, and how will
Islam rectify that? What do they say about those who oppose movements to create true Islamic
states?
To what natural force is God compared in Sura 24? What is Islam’s stance on the belief that
God can become physically present in natural objects such as bread or wine? Does Arab poetry
focus on nature?
What role does Islam believe that sexual pleasure will play in the afterlife? Is it true for both
sexes? According to Islam, on what will people be judged after death? Will they be judged on
their treatment of nature?
Into which three types of people does Islam divide the world? What are covenanters? Five
examples. What is taught about the conversion of covenanters to Islam? If Muslims are being
oppressed in a far-away land, what is your duty?
What are the three crimes for which the most serious punishments are prescribed in Islam?
What animal is forbidden to Muslims as food? What restriction applies even to the eating of
permitted animals? What is the Islamic teaching on alcohol. On gambling? What “natural”
explanation is given in the text for the possible cause of the alcohol prohibition.
What distinction does Islam make between Arab Muslims and non-Arab Muslims. What
legends exist about the relationship between Muhammad and Africans?
What is Islam’s teaching on slavery? What restrictions were there on enslaving prisoners of
war?
Are men and women judged differently in terms of their place in the afterlife? Why are
women believed to be less free for prayer and fasting? How did Islam improve lot of women
in Arabia?
What gender inequalities are legalized by Islamic law?
What is jihad? How can a war which outsiders view as aggressive be viewed as defensive by
promoters of jihad? What do most Islamic scholars teach about treatment of non-combatants
during jihad?
After World War II India split into three countries. What are the three countries, and what is the
religious orientation of each?
Be able to identify four religions that have sprung from (and deviated from) Islam. Who founded
the Nation of Islam. How does the Nation of Islam adhere to classic Islam? In what way does it
differ? What is the origin of whites acc. to the Black Muslims? What is the solution? Discuss
the trajectory of Malcolm X? Who proably killed him?
Describe the relationship between angels and humans in Islamic creation accounts. What is
the Islamic theory concerning the four elements in the structure of the human soul?
How does the Islamic view of Muhammad’s basic role differ from Christian views of Jesus’
basic role? Around what theological point does the conflict between the Jabriya and the Qasriya
revolve? What are the two most fundamental images of God in Islam?
Discuss the roles of six different Angels in Islam. What two angels are believed to be
imprisoned in a well in modern-day Iraq?
What was the position of the Mutazilites that generated controversy among the Orthodox? What
was probably responsible for their attitude in this regard? How did their understanding of the
origin of the Quran differ from that of the orthodox?
How did the Sufi’s differ from the Orthodox in terms of the basis of relationship with God?
Study the passages on Islam among the Yoruba.
What ritual permits an adult to convert to Islam? What ritual takes place eight days after the
birth of a Muslim child? What additional rituals may take place in West African settings. When
does circumcision take place? Does Islam permit traditional bodily scarification?
What economic exchanges precede African Islamic marriage ceremonies?
In African Islamic funerals how is the body prepared for burial? What is the role of the cleric?
Is he recompensed?
In African Islam what is the major festive activity on the New Year? Which figure from the
Hebrew Bible is recalled on New Year’s day.
What are the two events in Muhammad’s life celebrated during the year?
What is the major ritual activity during Ramadan? What is special about the last Friday in
Ramaadan? On the feast of the Breaking of the Fast, what special objects do people
purchase? What two special activities are mandated on the feast of the Breaking of the Fast?
What does the Feast of the Immolation celebrate? What types of sacrifices are generally
done?
Which Nigerians generally go on the Hajj? How is the trip financed? How does one’s local
status change after making the Hajj?
What are the two “luckiest” days of the Yoruba Islamic week, in popular view? What types of
activities will people try to schedule for those special weekdays? Are specialists called in? Do
the highly orthodox participate in these events?
How is traditional Yoruba concern for the dead incorporated into Yoruba Islam? What tension
is there between traditional Yoruba views of the afterlife and orthodox Muslim views?
When does Friday public prayer begin? Are both men and women present? After the call to
prayer, what is the next activity. What are the three essential ritual acts performed in the public
prayer ceremony that occurs five times a day.
Read the passage comparing the Islamic saints of Indonesia and those of Morocco.
What were the dominant religions of Indonesia before Islam?
Who founded Indonesian Islam? What was his profession before his conversion? Who
converted him? What converted him into a holy man? How long it take? How did the
conversion process incorporate elements of Buddhism?
Who started the tradition of Islamic sainthood in Morocco? What were his proabable origins?
How did he become a holy man? What caused him to enter into conflict with the local Sultan?
What act of power gave him victory over the warrior-Sultan? What did he demand from the
Sultan in order to spare his life?
What is the Quranic justification for belief in magic in folk-Islam? What was the most
important power that permitted one to practice magic.
Name three ways to protect yourself and your children against the evil eye?
Give three ways of predicting the future.
What type of animal sacrifice is officially sanctioned? What popular sacrifices are made and
where? On what kinds of occasions may people make voluntary animal sacrifices? What is
one supposed to do with the meat?