The Dark Ages Marshall High School Mr. Cline Western Civilization I: Ancient Foundations Marshall High School Unit Five AF
* Mohammad and the Birth of Islam After Mohammed After the death of Mohammed in 632 AD, there was no clear line of succession for the leadership of Islam. None of his own sons had survived into adulthood; indeed, the actual number of children he had during his lifetime is disputed by scholars even today. As a result, Islam was split along two competing camps. On the one side, there were those who supported Abu Bakr, long-time friend and confidant of Mohammed, as the rightful leader of the Muslims. Others believed Ali ibn Abi Talib, a cousin and son-in-law of Mohammed, was the rightful successor. This split in allegiance would eventually lead to a larger schism in Islam, with those proponents of Abu Bakr becoming the Sunnis and those of Ali becoming the Shia.
* Mohammad and the Birth of Islam After Mohammed But that was many years away. For now, Islam would remain unified, its teachings codified, and the gains made by Mohammed and his followers solidified. A new religion now joined the ranks of Judaism and Christianity in the Middle East, and neither the region nor the world would ever be the same. * The Five Pillars of the Islamic Faith: The Rules of Religion In all major religions, there are elements of the faith that are seen as requirements usually found in the canon of the religion and often attributed to the founder, a prophet or God. In Judaism, one will find the Law of Moses, with not only the 10 Commandments but many rules and restrictions laid down in the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy that serve as a guide to morality, spirituality and even something as commonplace as dietary restrictions.
* The Five Pillars of the Islamic Faith: The Rules of Religion In Christianity, they share many of the same requirements as found in Judaism but expand on the teachings of Moses and adhere to other restrictions introduced through the teachings of Jesus and later added by the apostles and Church leaders over the centuries after the time of Jesus. These include the celebration of certain holidays (such as Christmas and Easter) as well as the tradition of pilgrimage to the Holy Land (modern-day Israel), although some of these traditions are not practiced with the same devotion as they once were. Pilgrimage, dietary restrictions and morality codes are also found in Hinduism, one of the largest faiths on Earth. Their rules and regulations are both a mix of tradition and godly advice just as in Judaism and Christianity and are found in such texts as the Bhagavad Gita and the Laws of Manu.
* The Five Pillars of the Islamic Faith: The Rules of Religion Buddhism also shares in the tradition of holy rites, rituals, and restrictions, and depending on the school of Buddhism, a follower can look to the priestly class, or the sangha, or to the teachings of the Buddha directly in the Tripitaka or Dharmapada. From Judaism to Buddhism, from Hinduism to Christianity, religion and rules go hand-in-hand, and Islam is no exception. As the world's second largest religion, Islam also has its own set of rules, regulations and restrictions, as well as requirements. And like other faiths who have holy texts to guide them in life, so too it is with Islam, where the faithful Muslim is called by God, Allah, to adhere to a set of rules that cover everything from prayers to almsgiving, morality and pilgrimage. Known as the Five Pillars of Islam, they are outlined in the Muslim holy texts, the Qur'an and the Hadiths, and are among the most concise of all religious guidelines in the world today.
noon, * The Five Pillars of the Islamic Faith: The Five Pillars of Islam What are the Five Pillars of Islam? The Five Pillars of Islam are the basic framework of the Muslim way of life and serve as a foundation for their faith, their community, and work. The first, known as the Shahada, is a formal declaration of faith, where the Muslim professes there is only one God, Allah, and that Mohammed was God's messenger or prophet. The statement is usually recited during the daily prayers and is a key part of a person's formal conversion to the Islamic faith. The second pillar of Islam is the necessity of prayer - prayer five times each day. These five times are: dawn before the sun rises,
* The Five Pillars of the Islamic Faith: The Five Pillars of Islam afternoon, evening, and at night. Muslims must wash themselves before prayer and recite their prayers while facing Mecca. The prayers are meant to remind Muslims of their submission to God's will and also their reliance on God's mercy. Almsgiving, or charity to those who need it, is the third pillar of Islam. It is considered to be the personal responsibility of all who have to give to those who have not and to ease economic hardships, inequality and suffering. If one is wealthy, money can be given; if not, other deeds and actions can take the place of monetary assistance.
* The Five Pillars of the Islamic Faith: The Five Pillars of Islam Like other faiths, Islam looks favorably on those who do good deeds and works within the community. The fourth pillar of Islam is ritual fasting, where the adherent to Islam denies himself food and water during certain times of the year and certain times of the day. The fasting is obligatory during the holy month of Ramadan, where from dawn until dusk, Muslims may not eat or drink anything. Fasting is meant to focus the mind on matters of spirituality and on Allah, and the pangs of hunger remind one of the true suffering that goes on in the world. The fasts are broken each day when the sun goes down, and obligatory fasting ends after Ramadan is complete. The final pillar of Islam is the Hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca.
* The Five Pillars of the Islamic Faith: The Five Pillars of Islam As was the case during the life of Mohammed, Mecca remains the holiest city in the Islamic world, and it is the duty of every devout and able-bodied Muslim to travel to Mecca at least once in their lifetime. The act of pilgrimage is one of supreme devotion and provides the believer with a sense of spiritual satisfaction that few rites can.
* The Five Pillars of the Islamic Faith: Sharia Law Most of the world's faiths have some sort of religious law - from the Torah of Judaism to the Laws of Manu found in Hinduism - and they are practiced to varying degrees among the followers. And so too it is with Islam, where the divine law of Allah, known as Sharia, governs all aspects of a Muslim's life and has even become a part of the national law of many Islamic countries, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria and Oman, among many others. Sharia covers every aspect of human life, from the worship of Allah to commercial activities, marriage, divorce and even criminal law. It is the last category that Sharia is often associated with in the West, where many see the law as draconian and medieval in its approach to punishments. Indeed, while punishments such as the death penalty and amputation of limbs are part of Sharia, it is a far more complex system of justice than it seems at first glance.
Muslims believe the Qur'an was revealed to Mohammed over the course of his life starting at the age of 40 in the year 610 AD. * The Five Pillars of the Islamic Faith: Sharia Law There are many more benign rules established for behavior, regulating everything from education to eating and drinking and rules for what is acceptable sexual behavior. While criticized by outsiders, many within the Muslim world feel that the law and order maintained by Sharia is quite beneficial to their societies, giving them a level of peace and crime-free living that is not enjoyed in societies with more liberal legal systems. The Qur'an By far the most important source of Sharia law and most other Islamic teachings and traditions, including the Five Pillars of Islam, is the Qur'an, known as the Holy Qur'an to Islam. Like the Bible, the Qur'an is a collection of histories, teachings and supposed revelations from God to his prophet, Mohammed.
* The Five Pillars of the Islamic Faith: The Qur'an He then passed on these revelations to others around him via sermons, poems and other methods, teaching what he believed was the will of Allah to those who would listen. His followers would then memorize what they heard and pass it along to others again and again, a common method of transmitting knowledge at the time. Similar oral traditions kept alive the teachings of the Vedas and the Buddhist sutras for many centuries before they were written down and codified. The teachings of Islam did not have to wait so long, as the revelations of Islam were collected and organized partially during the life of Mohammed and continued after his death. There is dispute on when the Qur'an's final version took shape, but most likely it was during the time of the first Caliphate (632-634 AD), and the man given credit was Abu Bakr.
* The Five Pillars of the Islamic Faith: The Qur'an Regardless of when the Qur'an took shape, it has become the cornerstone of Islam, providing moral guidance, spiritual growth and a glimpse into the afterlife for the believer. It has also been the foundation on which great civilizations have been based and on which a great religion has seen its popularity swell over the centuries. Not all agree with its teachings, to be sure, but the Qur'an is certainly one of the most influential books ever written in human history. * Comparing the Three Great Monotheistic Religions World Religions Religions, or matters of faith, often engender disagreements. These disagreements keep communities and individuals apart, ending friendships, creating divisiveness, and even leading to violence.
* Comparing the Three Great Monotheistic Religions World Religions This is made more tragic by the fact that if one took a closer look at the various religions of the world, one would realize they share many things in common, including basic beliefs, morality, and even some key doctrines. And so it is with the religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - three of the world's most popular faiths and three that have engaged in centuries of bitterness, rivalry, and bloodshed while sharing many things in common. They are considered 'people of the Book' - a designation coming from the Islamic tradition denoting that the three religions share a common heritage and ultimately worship a common God. To the outsider giving a cursory glance, they do seem different - even dramatically so in their orientation and creeds. Yet a summary investigation into their basic tenets reveals they have much in common. Let's examine these similarities in greater detail.
* Comparing the Three Great Monotheistic Religions World Religions Judaism First, let us look at the religion of Judaism, the religion of the Jewish people. It's not the largest but certainly the oldest of the three traditions. The date of its founding is unknown - that's how old it is - and some believe it may be the world's oldest organized religious tradition. It emerges into known history around 5000 BC in the land of Palestine, with its main religious text being the Torah. The Torah is a collection of the books of Moses and the stories of Abraham, Noah, and many other prophets and men of great renown that are so familiar to Christians and Muslims. Both Christianity and Islam view the Torah as sacred and part of the revelation of God to humankind.
* Comparing the Three Great Monotheistic Religions World Religions Judaism What is more, Judaism teaches there is but one god, as well as angels, demons, and other supernatural forces at work in the world - all beliefs shared by Christians and Muslims. Judaism also teaches that humans need God due to our sinful nature, a nature that starts at the very beginning of our species in the Garden of Eden - a story also shared by Christianity and Islam. Moreover, in Judaism, God is the only source of forgiveness, as is the case in the other two faiths, and only those who follow the righteous path, those faithful to God and his laws, go to Heaven after death. Those who are not well, they end up in a place of punishment - once again, a set of beliefs shared by the adherents of Islam and Christianity.
* Comparing the Three Great Monotheistic Religions World Religions Judaism The places of worship in Judaism are known as synagogues and sometimes commonly referred to as temples. Christianity Here, men and women often worship separately, and the synagogue maintains a cultural and political leadership in more conservative and traditional Jewish communities. This role is matched by churches in the Christian world and mosques in Islam. Christianity is the largest of the three faiths, with over 2 billion followers, and builds upon the traditions already established in Judaism. It originates out of the city of Jerusalem, again in the land of Palestine.
* Comparing the Three Great Monotheistic Religions World Religions Christianity First and foremost, Christianity considers itself monotheistic, just as the other two, with a religion built upon the revelation of God to his creation. They believe the Torah to be the word of God. What is more, the central figure in Christianity, Jesus Christ, was a Jew whose name was Yeshua ben Yosef, or Joshua, son of Joseph. It was only later, when Christianity spread to the Greek-speaking world, that the name Yeshua became Iesous and found its way to the English-speaking world as Jesus. As a Jew, Christianity's central figure would have been well-versed in Judaic customs, laws, and stories from the Torah, and we can see from the teachings and stories of Jesus, compiled in what Christians call the Gospels and other books that make up the New Testament, that the basic elements of the Jewish faith remain intact, with some modifications.
* Comparing the Three Great Monotheistic Religions World Religions Christianity The one major modification, that of Jesus being the Messiah (God incarnate) still builds upon earlier traditions in the Torah. Throughout the Torah, the idea of a redemptive figure who will come to save the Jewish nation and uplift the populace is a frequent theme. They believe this messiah will be a strong religious and political as well as social figure. So it's written in the Torah that the messiah will come - it's just that the Jewish faith does not accept Jesus to be that promised figure. Christians, on the other hand, took Jesus to be this Messiah and went a step further, assigning him the qualities of a deity.
* Comparing the Three Great Monotheistic Religions World Religions Christianity This includes considering him the son of God and a savior of all humankind. The essence of the faith is found in the Book of John 3:16. Such a notion is unacceptable to Jews as well as Muslims, who view the concept of God as inviolate, one that could never include God becoming man. However, this is not to say they condemn Jesus or his teachings. Quite the contrary, Muslims believe Jesus was a prophet of God, in the same way Moses, Elijah, and others were prophets.
* Comparing the Three Great Monotheistic Religions World Religions Christianity They simply believe Christians have ascribed qualities to Jesus that he himself did not possess or even promote and view the New Testament as a misinterpretation of God's true message to humanity. Islam Islam is the youngest of the three faiths but is second only to Christianity in the number of followers, with over 1.3 billion. Like Christianity and Judaism, Islam is a monotheistic faith with origins in the Middle East - in fact, just East of Palestine in what is now Saudi Arabia. Islam holds the teachings of Judaism and Christianity in high esteem and respects what these religions teach but feels the revelations in the Torah and the Gospels are incomplete.
* Comparing the Three Great Monotheistic Religions World Religions Islam To Muslims, their prophet Mohammed provided the last and most complete set of revelatory expositions from God, all collected in their holy text known as the Quran. What might surprise many non-muslims is that the teachings in the Quran are not so different from those found in the other holy texts. There is an emphasis on charity, prayer, submission to God's will, and on the golden rule of doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. Jesus and Mary are also featured in the Quran, both held in high esteem, though not given divine status.
* Comparing the Three Great Monotheistic Religions World Religions Islam Their holy places are found right alongside the holy places of Judaism and Christianity, and while this does cause conflict among the more orthodox and conservative elements in all three religions, when the blinders of racism, ethnocentrism, and religious bigotry are removed, one can see the beauty and symmetry of the commonality shared. Ahl al-kitāb. Ultimately, it is the individual who takes the teachings of any faith and makes them a reality. They can either focus on the good and the common elements that make all people better - those qualities that bring more love into the world - or regrettably focus on those elements that separate humanity into competing camps, bringing more discord, restlessness, and ill will.
* Comparing the Three Great Monotheistic Religions World Religions Ahl al-kitāb. The religious truths found in the Torah, the Gospels, and the Quran are all to be respected for the uniqueness of their language and perspective but also for the common morality that they express. There is a universal comfort to be found in that part of our humanity that seeks answers to life's toughest questions when we realize that we may find solace equally in a synagogue, mosque, or church. Three great religious traditions of humanity - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - share so much in common geographically, morally, and spiritually, that should all believers pause just for a moment to consider the source of each, it may be that the world would grow a bit closer, a bit more peaceful, and a great deal more Godly.