islamic

RELIGIONS
OF THE
WORLD
BUDDHISM
CHRISTIANITY
CONFUCIANISM
HINDUISM
ISLAM
JUDAISM

ISLAM
Masoud Kheirabadi
Professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern Issues
Portland State University
Series Consulting Editor Ann Marie B. Bahr
Professor of Religious Studies,
South Dakota State University
Foreword by Martin E. Marty
Professor Emeritus,
University of Chicago Divinity School
RELIGIONS
OF THE
WORLD
CHELSEA HOUSE PUBLISHERS
VP, NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT Sally Cheney
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Staff for ISLAM
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LAYOUT 21st Century Publishing and Communications, Inc.
©2004 by Chelsea House Publishers,
a subsidiary of Haights Cross Communications.
All rights reserved. Printed and bound in the United States of America.
www.chelseahouse.com
First Printing
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kheirabadi,Masoud, 1951–
Islam/by Masoud Kheirabadi.
v. cm.—(Religions of the world)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents: Muhammad—Qur’an—Worldview—Worship—Growing up
Muslim—Cultural expressions—Holidays—Memories—Islam in the
world today.
ISBN 0-7910-7859-0 HC 0-7910-8012-9 PB
1. Islam—Juvenile literature. [1. Islam.] I. Title. II. Series.
BP161.3.K48 2003
297—dc22
2003023919
FRONTIS This map of the Middle East shows Saudi Arabia, the country in
which Islam originated, along with many of the nations where it has become
the dominant faith.
CONTENTS
Foreword vi
Preface xi
Author’s Note xv
Introduction 2
Muhammad 18
Qur’an 31
Worldview 42
Worship 60
Growing up Muslim 74
Cultural Expressions 90
Holidays 107
Memories 120
Islam in the World Today 136
Chronology and Timeline 162
Notes 166
Bibliography 167
Further Reading 169
Index 171
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
O n this very day, like all other days, hundreds of millions
of people around the world will turn to religion for
various purposes.
On the one hand, there are purposes that believers in any or
all faiths, as well as unbelievers, might regard as positive and
benign. People turn to religion or, better, to their own particular
faith, for the experience of healing and to inspire acts of
peacemaking. They want to make sense of a world that can all
too easily overwhelm them because it so often seems to be
meaningless and even absurd. Religion then provides them
with beauty, inspires their souls, and impels them to engage in
acts of justice and mercy.
To be informed citizens of our world, readers have good
reason to learn about these features of religions that mean so
much to so many. Those who study the faiths do not have to
agree with any of them and could not agree with all of them,
different as they are. But they need basic knowledge of religions
to understand other people and to work out strategies for
living with them.
On the other hand—and religions always have an “other
hand”—believers in any of the faiths, and even unbelievers who
are against all of them, will find their fellow humans turning
to their religions for purposes that seem to contradict all those
positive features. Just as religious people can heal and be healed,
they can also kill or be killed in the name of faith. So it has been
through history.
vi
Foreword
This killing can be literal: Most armed conflicts and much
terrorism today are inspired by the stories, commands, and
promises that come along with various faiths. People can
and do read and act upon scriptures that can breed prejudice
and that lead them to reject other beliefs and believers. Or
the killing can be figurative, which means that faiths can be
deadening to the spirit. In the name of faith, many people are
repressed, oppressed, sometimes victimized and abused.
If religion can be dangerous and if it may then come with
“Handle with Care” labels, people who care for their own
security, who want to lessen tensions and inspire concord,
have to equip themselves by learning something about the
scriptures and stories of their own and other faiths. And if
they simply want to take delight in human varieties and
imaginings, they will find plenty to please them in lively and
reliable accounts of faiths.
A glance at television or at newspapers and magazines on
almost any day will reveal stories that display one or both sides of
religion. However, these stories usually have to share space with
so many competing accounts, for example, of sports and entertainment
or business and science, that writers and broadcasters
can rarely provide background while writing headlines.Without
such background, it is hard to make informed judgments.
The series RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD is designed to provide
not only background but also rich illustrative material about
the foreground, presenting the many features of faiths that are
close at hand.Whoever reads all six volumes will find that these
religions have some elements in common. Overall, one can
deduce that their followers take certain things with ultimate
seriousness: human dignity, devotion to the sacred, the impulse
to live a moral life. Yet few people are inspired by religions in
general. They draw strength from what they hold particularly.
These particulars of each faith are not always contradictory to
those of others, but they are different in important ways. It is
simply a fact that believers are informed and inspired by stories
told in separate and special ways.
Foreword vii
A picture might make all this vivid: Reading about a religion,
visiting a place of worship, or coming into the company of those
who believe in and belong to a particular faith, is like entering a
room. Religions are, in a sense, spiritual “furnished apartments.”
Their adherents have placed certain pictures on the wall and
moved in with their own kind of furnishings, having developed
their special ways of receiving or blocking out light from such
places. Some of their figurative apartments are airy, and some
stress strength and security.
Philosopher George Santayana once wrote that, just as we do
not speak language, we speak particular languages, so we have
religion not as a whole but as religions “in particular.” The
power of each living and healthy religion, he added, consists in
“its special and surprising message and in the bias which
that revelation gives to life.” Each creates “another world to
live in.”
The volumes in this series are introductions to several spiritual
furnished apartments, guides to the special and surprising
messages of these large and complex communities of faith, or
religions. These are not presented as a set of items in a cafeteria
line down which samplers walk, tasting this, rejecting that, and
moving on. They are not bids for window-shoppers or shoppers
of any sort, though it may be that a person without faith might
be drawn to one or another expression of the religions here
described. The real intention of the series is to educate.
Education could be dull and drab. Picture a boring professor
standing in front of a class and droning on about distant realities.
The authors in this series, however, were chosen because they
can bring readers up close to faiths and, sometimes better, to
people of faith; not to religion but to people who are religious
in particular ways.
As one walks the streets of a great metropolis, it is not easy
and may not even be possible to deduce what are the faithcommitments
of those one passes unless they wear a particular
costume, some garb or symbol prescribed by their faith. Therefore,
while passing them by, it is not likely that one can learn
viii Foreword
much about the dreams and hopes, the fears and intentions, of
those around them.
These books, in effect, stop the procession of passersby and bid
visitors to enter those sanctuaries where communities worship.
Each book could serve as a guide to worship. Several years ago,
a book called How to Be a Perfect Stranger offered brief counsel
on how to feel and to be at home among worshipers from other
traditions. This series recognizes that we are not strangers to
each other only in sanctuaries. We carry over our attachments
to conflicting faiths where we go to work or vote or serve in the
military or have fun. These “carryovers” tend to come from the
basic stories and messages of the several faiths.
The publishers have taken great pains to assign their work to
authors of a particular sort. Had these been anti-religious or
anti–the religion about which they write, they would have
done a disservice. They would, in effect, have been blocking
the figurative doors to the faiths or smashing the furniture in
the sanctuaries. On the other hand, it would be wearying and
distorting had the assignment gone to public relations agents,
advertisers who felt called to claim “We’re Number One!”
concerning the faith about which they write.
Fair-mindedness and accuracy are the two main marks
of these authors. In rather short compass, they reach a wide
range of subjects, focusing on everything one needs to advance
basic understanding. Their books are like mini-encyclopedias,
full of information. They introduce the holidays that draw
some neighbors to be absent from work or school for a day
or a season. They include galleries of notable figures in each
faith-community.
Since most religions in the course of history develop different
ways in the many diverse places where they thrive, or because they
attract intelligent, strong-willed leaders and writers, they come up
with different emphases. They divide and split off into numberless
smaller groups: Protestant and Catholic and Orthodox Christians,
Shiite and Sunni Muslims, Orthodox and Reform Jews, and many
kinds of Buddhists and Hindus. The writers in this series do
Foreword ix
justice to these variations, providing a kind of map without which
one will get lost in the effort to understand.
Some years ago, a rabbi friend, Samuel Sandmel, wrote a
book about his faith called The Enjoyment of Scriptures. What
an astonishing concept, some might think: After all, religious
scriptures deal with desperately urgent, life-and-death-andeternity
issues. They have to be grim and those who read them
likewise. Not so. Sandmel knew what the authors of this series
also know and impart: that the journeys of faith and the
encounter with the religions of others include pleasing and
challenging surprises. I picture many a reader coming across
something on these pages that at first looks obscure or forbidding,
but then, after a slightly longer look, makes sense and
inspires an “aha!” There are many occasions for “aha-ing!” in
these books. One can also wager that many a reader will come
away from the encounters thinking, “I never knew that!” or
“I never thought of that before.” And they will be more ready
than they had been to meet strangers of other faiths in a world
that so many faiths have to share, or that they get to share.
Martin E.Marty
The University of Chicago
x Foreword
The majority of people, both in the United States and around
the world, consider religion to be an important part of their
lives. Beyond its significance in individual lives, religion also plays
an important role in war and peace, politics, social policy, ethics,
and cultural expression. Yet few people feel well-prepared to
carry on a conversation about religion with friends, colleagues, or
their congressional delegation. The amount of knowledge people
have about their own faith varies, but very few can lay claim to a
solid understanding of a religion other than their own. As the
world is drawn closer together by modern communications, and
the religions of the world jostle each other in religiously plural
societies, the lack of our ability to dialogue about this aspect of
our lives results in intercultural conflict rather than cooperation.
It means that individuals of different religious persuasions
will either fight about their faiths or avoid the topic of religion
altogether. Neither of these responses aids in the building of
healthy, religiously plural societies. This gap in our knowledge is
therefore significant, and grows increasingly more significant as
religion plays a larger role in national and international politics.
The authors and editors of this series are dedicated to the task
of helping to prepare present and future decision-makers to deal
with religious pluralism in a healthy way. The objective scholarship
found in these volumes will blunt the persuasive power of
popular misinformation. The time is short, however. Even now,
nations are dividing along religious lines, and “neutral” states as
well as partisan religious organizations are precariously, if not
Preface
xi
always intentionally, tipping delicate balances of power in favor
of one religious group or another with doles of aid and support
for certain policies or political leaders. Intervention in the affairs
of other nations is always a risky business, but doing it without
understanding of the religious sensitivities of the populace
dramatically increases the chances that even well-intentioned
intervention will be perceived as political coercion or cultural
invasion.With such signs of ignorance already manifest, the day
of reckoning for educational policies that ignore the study of the
world’s religions cannot be far off.
This series is designed to bring religious studies scholarship to
the leaders of today and tomorrow. It aims to answer the questions
that students, educators, policymakers, parents, and citizens might
have about the new religious milieu in which we find ourselves.
For example, a person hearing about a religion that is foreign to
him or her might want answers to questions like these:
• How many people believe in this religion? What is its
geographic distribution? When, where, and how did
it originate?
• What are its beliefs and teachings? How do believers
worship or otherwise practice their faith?
• What are the primary means of social reinforcement?
How do believers educate their youth? What are their
most important communal celebrations?
• What are the cultural expressions of this religion? Has
it inspired certain styles of art, architecture, literature,
or music? Conversely, does it avoid art, literature,
or music for religious reasons? Is it associated with
elements of popular culture?
• How do the people who belong to this religion remember
the past? What have been the most significant moments
in their history?
• What are the most salient features of this religion today?
What is likely to be its future?
xii Preface
We have attempted to provide as broad coverage as possible of
the various religious forces currently shaping the planet. Judaism,
Christianity, Islam,Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism,
Sikhism, and Shinto have each been allocated an entire volume.
In recognition of the fact that many smaller ancient and new
traditions also exercise global influence, we present coverage of
some of these in two additional volumes titled “Tribal Religions”
and “New Religions.” Each volume in the series discusses
demographics and geography, founder or foundational period,
scriptures, worldview, worship or practice, growing up in the
religion, cultural expressions, calendar and holidays, history,
and the religion in the world today.
The books in this series are written by scholars. Their approach
to their subject matter is neutral and objective. They are not
trying to convert readers to the religion they are describing.
Most scholars, however, value the religion they have chosen to
study, so you can expect the general tone of these books to be
appreciative rather than critical.
Religious studies scholars are experts in their field, but they
are not critics in the same sense in which one might be an art,
film, or literary critic. Religious studies scholars feel obligated
to describe a tradition faithfully and accurately, and to interpret
it in a way that will allow nonbelievers as well as believers to
grasp its essential structure, but they do not feel compelled to
pass judgment on it. Their goal is to increase knowledge and
understanding.
Academic writing has a reputation for being dry and uninspiring.
If so, religious studies scholarship is an exception. Scholars of
religion have the happy task of describing the words and deeds of
some of the world’s most amazing people: founders, prophets,
sages, saints, martyrs, and bodhisattvas.
The power of religion moves us. Today, as in centuries past,
people thrill to the ethical vision of Confucianism, or the dancing
beauty of Hinduism’s images of the divine. They are challenged
by the one, holy God of the Jews, and comforted by the saving
promise of Christianity. They are inspired by the stark purity of
Preface xiii
Islam, by the resilience of tribal religions, by the energy and
innovation of the new religions. The religions have retained such
a strong hold on so many people’s lives over such a long period
of time largely because they are unforgettable.
Religious ideas, institutions, and professions are among the
oldest in humanity’s history. They have outlasted the world’s
great empires. Their authority and influence have endured far
beyond that of Earth’s greatest philosophers, military leaders,
social engineers, or politicians. It is this that makes them so
attractive to those who seek power and influence, whether such
people intend to use their power and influence for good or
evil. Unfortunately, in the hands of the wrong person, religious
ideas might as easily be responsible for the destruction of the
world as for its salvation. All that stands between us and that
outcome is the knowledge of the general populace. In this as in
any other field, people must be able to critically assess what
they are being told.
The authors and editors of this series hope that all who seek
to wield the tremendous powers of religion will do so with
unselfish and noble intent. Knowing how unlikely it is that that
will always be the case, we seek to provide the basic knowledge
necessary to critically assess the degree to which contemporary
religious claims are congruent with the history, scriptures, and
genius of the traditions they are supposed to represent.
Ann Marie B. Bahr
South Dakota State University
xiv Preface
The tragic events of September 11, 2001, created a significant
amount of interest in Islam and Muslims. Many concerned
people throughout the world suddenly wanted to know if
violence is an inherent part of Islam. Scholars and members of
the media raise the question of “fundamentalism”; talk-show
hosts discuss the connections between Islam and violence. Some
sensationalist and controversy-seeking members of the media
are attracted to Muslim radicals and extremists and often
present these groups as the true representatives of Islam.
This irresponsible journalism has smeared the image of Islam,
especially in the United States, and has led to further misunderstanding
of Islam and Muslims.
My main purpose for writing this book, however, is to introduce
the authentic Islam to seeking minds. It can be essential
reading for those with little or no knowledge of Islam; it can
also enhance the knowledge and entice the curiosity of more
advanced students of Islam and other religions. Readers will
become familiar with the foundations of the religion and its
similarities and differences with other monotheistic religions.
Islam is studied as a way of life that affects all aspects of Muslim
living, including the relationship with God, education, family
dynamics, societal rules, art, entertainment, politics, technology,
science, and civilization. The main focus of this book, however,
remains the study of Islam as a spiritual path and its influence
on an individual’s spiritual growth.
In order to keep the study authentic, I have relied mainly on
xv
Author’s Note
the Qur’an and ahadith (the prophet Muhammad’s sayings)
as my main sources of information. I have used a variety of
the Qur’an’s translations (Yusufali, Dawood, Pickthall, and
Ahmad Ali,) and whenever necessary I have used my own
judgment in interpretation of the words. For ahadith, I have
relied mainly on al-Bukhari and Muslim as my major sources,
though I have also utilized the wealth of information about the
ahadith that can be found through helpful Internet Websites.
For transliteration of Arabic terms, I have used those with the
most accurate spellings.
Today, we live in pluralistic societies in an interdependent
world. Our education should be based on facts rather than
sensationalism. Accurate information about diverse cultures leads
to better and more knowledgeable intercultural communication.
Intercultural communication based on mutual understanding
will make this world a better and much more peaceful place for
all of us. My hope is that this book will serve as a small step
toward that ideal goal.
August 21, 2003
Portland, Oregon
xvi Author’s Note

Introduction
1
By the bright morn, And by the night when all is still,
Thy Lord has not left thee, nor come to dislike thee. So the
latter situation will be better for thee than the former,
And thy Lord anon will assuredly give to thee that which
thou desirest, so that thou wilt be well content.
—The Qur’an 93:1–5
MEANING OF ISLAM
The term Islam is an Arabic word derived from the word
Salamah, which means “peace.” Salamah (or salam) shares
similar roots with shalom, the Hebrew word that also means
“peace.” Since Arabic and Hebrew are sister languages that
belong to the same Semitic language family, they share a
similar vocabulary.
Another meaning of the word Islam is “submission” or
“surrender.” This refers to submission to the will of God.
Muslims believe that submitting to the will of God and putting
oneself in God’s hands will lead to ultimate peace, which is
considered the greatest accomplishment for humanity in the
personal as well as societal domains.
Islam in another sense means “inner peace,” a real peace for
body and mind that is achieved through surrender and obedience
to God. Here, surrender or submission to God out of love rather
than fear is considered a positive act. It is an act of appreciation
for all the benevolence that God has bestowed upon humanity;
therefore, the word submission does not bear negative connotations
as it often does in popular contexts.
ISLAM, NOT “IZLAM”
Many English-speaking people often mispronounce the word
Islam as “Izlam,”with a “Z” sound rather than an “S” sound. This
mispronunciation can be considered very disrespectful to
Muslims, since the wrong pronunciation could actually change
the meaning of the word. To pronounce the word Islam
correctly, one needs to pronounce the “I” sound short as in
“itch”, the “s” as in “sit”, and the “a” as in “father” with the accent
upon the last syllable, “-lam”. Similar rules need to be followed
when pronouncing the word Muslim. Muslim means “one who
submits to God” and is used to describe an adherent of Islam.
Islam (like Christianity) is the name of a religion, whereas a
Muslim (like a Christian) is a follower of the religion of
Islam. To pronounce the word Muslim correctly, one needs to
Introduction 3
pronounce the “u” sound as in “put”, and “s” as in “sit”, with the
accent upon the first syllable,“Mus-”. The word Muslim may also
be spelled “Moslem;” however, the majority of Muslims prefer
the use of “u” instead of “o” when spelling the term, and so
“Muslim” is the form used here.
A MONOTHEISTIC RELIGION
The God of Islam is the same God who is worshiped by Christians
and Jews. This deity is called Allah in Arabic and Khoda in Persian.
However, the term Allah, which has been used frequently in the
sacred scripture of Islam, the Qur’an (Koran), is the preferable
name for God in Islam.
God (Allah), as mentioned in Qur’an, is the “Most Merciful,”
“the Most Compassionate.” According to Muslims, God is the
source of all existence. God is the creator and sustainer of the
universe and all that it encompasses. In Islam, everything comes
from God and everything eventually returns to God. God is
beyond duality, trinity, or any other kinds of partnership. God
has no body, no form, no gender, and no physical attributes. To
Muslims, God is the ultimate reality, and belief in the existence
of God is the first article of faith in Islam. The concept of God’s
oneness and the monotheism of Islam is called Tawhid. Tawhid
is the cornerstone of the Islamic theological belief system. The
following passage from the Qur’an will emphasize the concept of
monotheism in Islam:
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. God is
One, the Eternal God. He begot none, nor was He begotten.
None is equal to Him (Q. 112:1–4).
AN ETERNAL RELIGION
Unlike the term Christianity, which takes its name from the
person of Jesus Christ, or Judaism, which is the religion of
Jews, who originated from the tribe of Judah, the term Islam
is not related to any particular person or group. Although
4 ISLAM
the historical origins of Islam may be found in the seventh
century A.D., according to Muslims, Islam has always been
the natural religion of humankind. Throughout human history,
all those who have consciously submitted to the will of God
are considered Muslims. Muslims believe that Adam and
Eve were the first people to submit to the will of God, and
therefore, they were Muslims. According to Muslims, from
the descendants of Adam and Eve came the prophet Noah
(pronounced Nooh in Arabic), who had a son named Shem
(Saam in Arabic). The word Semitic (or Saami in Arabic) is
derived from Shem.
Abraham (called Ibrahim in Arabic) was a descendant of
Shem, and he was married to a woman named Sarah. Because Sarah
could not have a son, at her insistence, Abraham took a second
wife, an Egyptian maid named Hagar (Haajar in Arabic). Hagar
bore Abraham a son, who was named Ishmael (Ismaaeel in Arabic).
Later, by God’s command, Sarah conceived and had a son,
who was named Isaac (Ishaaq in Arabic).When Sarah had her
own son, she demanded that Abraham banish Ishmael and
Hagar from the tribe and send them somewhere remote so she
would not have to see them anymore. With Ishmael and Hagar
away, Sarah thought, Abraham would focus all his attention
upon the newborn Isaac. As indicated in the Qur’an, God
ordered Abraham to take Ishmael and Hagar to leave them
somewhere in the Arabian Peninsula, at a place where the city of
Mecca (Makkah in Arabic) was later founded.
Again by God’s decree, Ishmael and his mother survived in the
harsh desert and later reunited with Abraham. The descendants
of Ishmael flourished in Arabia and became the Arabs. Thus,
Ishmael was the forefather of the Arab people, and from his
generation appeared the prophet Muhammad, who, according
to Muslims, is the last of all the prophets.
The descendants of Isaac, on the other hand, remained in
Palestine and flourished as the Hebrews, who were later called
the Jews. From Isaac descended a number of prophets, including
Introduction 5
his son Jacob, his grandson Joseph, and others, such as Moses,
John the Baptist, and Jesus.While Jews and Christians trace their
history all the way back to Isaac, the son of Abraham and Sarah,
Muslims trace their roots to Ishmael, the son of Abraham and
Hagar, the Egyptian servant. Abraham is therefore considered
the forefather of all monotheistic people—Jews, Christians, and
Muslims. According to the Qur’an, Moses, David, and Jesus
were all given scriptures by God. This means that they are
all prophets of Islam. Islam recognizes all the prophets
mentioned in the Bible as prophets of Islam and does not
distinguish between them. The following verse in the Qur’an
clarifies this concept:
Say, O Muslims, we believe in Allah and in that which was
revealed unto us and that which was revealed unto Abraham
and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes, and that
which Moses and Jesus received, and that which the Prophet
received from the Lord.We make no distinction between any
of them and unto Him we have surrendered (Q. 2:136).
A UNIVERSALIZING RELIGION
Like Christianity and Buddhism, Islam is a universal religion,
meaning that the message of Islam is for the whole of humanity,
no matter where they live in the world. This is in contrast with
some religions, such as Judaism and Hinduism, which are
considered “ethnic” religions—that is, their message is not
intended for the whole of humanity but rather for a particular
people who are usually concentrated in a certain geographic
place in the world. Unlike Jews and Hindus, who do not
actively seek converts, Muslims, like Christians, proselytize to
spread their religion throughout the world. Like Christians
and Buddhists, Muslim missionaries may be found in many
different parts of the globe. Every Muslim is encouraged to
spread the word of God and to call others to embrace the
religion of Islam.
6 ISLAM
Due to its strict monotheistic approach to God, Islam is
considered an exclusive religion. Unlike, for example, a Buddhist,
who could be an adherent and practitioner of several religions at
the same time, a Muslim cannot practice more than one religion
at a time. In China, a person can be Buddhist, Confucian, and
Taoist at the same time, but a Muslim cannot be a Buddhist.
There are certain concepts unique to each religion that conflict
with one another.
Because Islam believes that the way to salvation can be found
only through monotheism, it accepts other monotheistic
religions, such as Christianity and Judaism, as valid religions
for humanity. In Islam, Christians and Jews are called “Peoples
of the Book” because they follow prophets who were recipients
of holy scriptures from God. Just as Muhammad received the
Qur’an, Moses and Jesus received the Torah and the Gospel
respectively, so they are also regarded as messengers of God by
Muslims. (While Jews generally believe Moses was the actual
author of the Torah, the Gospels contain the messages of Jesus
as recorded by his followers in the decades after his death.)
On the other hand, many Muslims view religions such as
Hinduism and Buddhism as polytheistic (worshiping more
than one god) in their approach to spirituality, and as a result,
Muslims do not consider these authentic religions that will
lead their followers to ultimate salvation.
A BOOK-BASED RELIGION
Historically speaking, Islam is the youngest of the world’s
monotheistic religions.Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, was
born 570 years after the birth of Jesus, in the city of Mecca
in the Arabian Peninsula, the region known today as Saudi
Arabia. Although Muhammad is considered the ideal man and
the perfect role model for Muslims to emulate, he does not
hold the same role in Islam that Jesus holds in Christianity.
In Islam, it is the Qur’an—the sacred word of God revealed
to Muhammad—and not Muhammad himself, that plays
Introduction 7
the central role. Thus, calling the religion of Islam “Muhammadanism”
after Muhammad (as Christianity is named after
Christ) as some Western writers have done erroneously assigns
to Muhammad, rather than the Qur’an, the major function
of Islam, a concept that would be considered blasphemous
by many Muslims. Whereas in Christianity, the person of
Jesus Christ is dominant, in Islam, God’s words, the Qur’an,
are the focus.
Recitation of the Qur’an as the precise words of God is
considered an act of worship and remembrance of God by
Muslims. Due to the strong emphasis on the Qur’an as the
best gift possible from God as a guide for humanity, this
scripture plays a fundamental part in Islam. The Qur’an
consists of 114 surah, or chapters, that are unequal in length.
Each chapter is divided into “verses” (although the Qur’an is
not poetry) of varying numbers and lengths; each verse is
called an ayah, or sign.
A RELIGION FOR ALL RACES
Islam originated in the Arabian Peninsula and from there spread
to the rest of the world. However, today, Islam is not considered
an exclusively Arab religion. Although the majority of Arabs are
Muslims, the majority of Muslims are not Arabs. As a matter of
fact, fewer than 20 percent of the world’s Muslims are Arabs. The
term Muslim does not carry any racial or ethnic connotations.
Muslims can be Arab, Persian, Turk, German, French, American,
or any other nationality.
Like Christians, Muslims are found all over the world,
including Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, and North and
South America. Today there are more than fifty countries
with a Muslim population majority. There are also millions
of Muslims who live as significant minorities in other
parts of the world. The most populous Muslim countries
are actually located outside of the Arabian Peninsula where
Islam originated. Among them are Indonesia, Bangladesh,
8 ISLAM
Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey. Egypt is the largest Arab
Muslim country.
As the Qur’an shows, Islam rejects any concept of racism,
sexism, nobility based upon descent, or hierarchy based upon
social or economic class. Everybody is equal in the sight of
God, and it is the degree of a person’s righteousness and right
conduct with which God is concerned:
O humankind, We have created you male and female, and
formed you into nations and tribes that you may recognize each
other.However, the noblest of you in the sight of God is the best
in conduct. God is all knowing and well informed (Q. 49:13).
POPULATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF MUSLIMS
The signs of Islam are seen all over the globe. There was once
a time that a person had to travel to the Middle East to see
mosques, minarets, and other symbols of Islam, but Muslims
can now be found in most major cities throughout the world. In
the United States, as in European countries where Muslims are
minorities,Muslims are our neighbors and colleagues. They may
dress in traditional or contemporary Islamic attire.Muslims also
dress in everyday attire that makes them unrecognizable from
non-Muslims. Like followers of Christianity, their approach
to religion varies from very liberal to very conservative. Like
many Christians who do not adhere strictly to principles of
Christianity, many people who call themselves Muslims do not
strictly follow the tenets of Islam.
Though the majority of Muslims are moderate in temperament
and are very accepting of other religions, there are radical
Muslims who are very exclusive in their approach to religion and
who have no tolerance for acceptance of non-Muslims or even
Muslims who do not think as they do. Unfortunately, these are
the Muslims who often capture the attention of the Western
media, and their behavior has resulted in a considerable amount
of misunderstanding in the West about Islam and Muslims. Some
Introduction 9
(Continued on page 13)
10 ISLAM
Muslims are found in literally every country of the world, and their
numbers are increasing. Although the Middle East and Asia,
where Islam originated, still have the largest Muslim populations,
Introduction 11
as this chart demonstrates, many other nations have substantial
numbers of Muslim residents. (Original chart is available online
at: http://www.geocities.com/zubairkhan_99/population.html.)
12 ISLAM
media professionals who seek controversy have misrepresented
extremist Muslims and their organizations as representative of
Islam in general. Such an approach has distorted Western views
of the religion of Islam.
Because not all Muslims visit Islamic mosques or other Islamic
centers on a regular basis, estimating mosque memberships does
not yield accurate statistical information about the number of
Introduction 13
Muslims who reside in different countries, particularly in the
United States. We can roughly estimate the number of people
who call themselves Muslim based upon the total population
of a country, but to state precisely how many practitioners of
Islam there are in any given country is not possible. Statistics
about different religious groups provide us only with an
estimate of those who claim to be adherents of different
religions, and these statistics do not indicate the degree of
religiosity and devotion to religious principles held by practitioners
of any faith.
THE SECOND-LARGEST WORLD RELIGION
Nonetheless, it is not inaccurate to assert that approximately
one out of every five persons alive is a Muslim. Islam claims at
least 1.2 billion adherents, making it the second-largest world
religion after Christianity. Muslims live in every corner of the
world. Asia is home to more than 800 million Muslims, about
67 percent of the world Muslim population. There are large and
concentrated populations of Muslims in Southeast, South, and
Southwest Asia. Almost half of the world’s Muslims live in the
four countries of Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India.
Muslims are the largest religious minority in Hindu-dominated
India, where they account for more than 135 million people,
or about 14 percent, of that country’s population. There are
significant populations of Muslim minorities living in China,
the Philippines, and Thailand. Other large Muslim countries of
Asia are Iran, Turkey, and Egypt, each of which contains more
than 60 million Muslims. There are also significantly large
populations of Muslims in the former Soviet central Asian
countries of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan,
and Kyrgyzstan.
There are more than 300 million Muslims living on
the continent of Africa. Islam is the main religion of the
North African countries of Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria,
and Morocco. Muslims are also found in sub-Saharan African
14 ISLAM
Introduction 15
This pie chart illustrates the approximate number of adherents in
each of the four major branches of Islam.
countries. The nation of Nigeria is home to more than
50 million Muslims.
In Europe, Islam is the second-largest religion after Christianity,
with more than 20 million adherents. Countries such
as Germany, France, Austria, and England contain large
Muslim minorities. The only European countries with
Muslim majorities are Albania and the nation of Bosnia
and Herzegovina.
Muslims have lived in North America for several centuries,
and today, there are about 6 million Muslims living in the
United States. Mosques and minarets have become familiar
cultural features in the landscapes of large American cities
such as Los Angeles, New York, Houston, and Detroit, which
are home to sizable Muslim populations.
BRANCHES OF ISLAM
Like Christianity, which divided into several branches after
its inception, Islam also divided into two major branches,
Sunni and Shiite Islam. Soon after the death of the prophet
Muhammad in 632, Muslims fell into a disagreement about
the legitimacy of his successors. Although a majority of
Muslims accepted the decision of the powerful clan elders
that Abu Bakr, the Prophet’s close friend and father-in-law,
would be his successor, another group of Muslims strongly
believed that the succession should continue within the
familial line of Muhammad. Because Muhammad did not
leave a living son, this party chose ‘Ali, Muhammad’s cousin
and son-in-law, as the legitimate successor to the Prophet
to lead the Islamic community (Ummah). Their allegiance
to Ali gave the members of this group the name Shiite
al-‘Ali, which means “partisans of Ali.” Over time, the word
al-‘Ali was dropped from the name and the term used became
simply Shiite.
Today, Shiites form approximately 15 percent of the total
Muslim population of the world. They are scattered throughout
16 ISLAM
the world. The two countries with Shiite majorities are Iran
and Iraq. There are also a considerable number of Shiites
living in Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab
Emirates, and Afghanistan. Iran is the largest Shiite country
in the world—over 90 percent of the Iranian population
belongs to the Shiite sect.
Introduction 17
Muhammad
2
I have always held the religion of Muhammad in high
estimation because of its wonderful vitality. It is the only
religion, which appears to me to possess that assimilating
capacity to the changing phase of existence, which can
make itself appeal to every age. I have studied him—the
wonderful man, and in my opinion far from being an
anti-Christ, he must be called the Savior of Humanity.
—Sir George Bernard Shaw
MUHAMMAD, THE MESSENGER OF GOD
About 570 years after the birth of Jesus, in the city of Mecca
(Makkah) on the Arabian Peninsula, a child was born who
later became the last Prophet of the three major Abrahamic
religions. The child was Muhammad and the religion that
he revealed to the world was Islam. Today, more than 1,400 years
after his birth, Muhammad remains the most respected religious,
political, and historical figure for more than one billion
Muslims throughout the world. He is known as the “perfect
man,” an ideal example of a father, husband, friend, judge,
statesman, devout Muslim, and in general, a wise, kind, and
generous human being.
Unlike many other prophets before him whose lives and works
were wrapped in mystery,Muhammad’s life is well documented.
He is an authentic historical figure, and almost every event of
his life was carefully recorded as he gradually developed from a
sheep-herding orphan into a well-known messenger of God.
For a better understanding of Muhammad and the impact of
his message we need to look at the Arabian Peninsula as it was
during the lifetime of Muhammad.
PRE-ISLAMIC ARABIA
Lying at the confluence of the three major continents of Asia,
Africa, and Europe, the land of Arabia consists of vast deserts,
some steppes, and oasis. A shortage of water has made a major
portion of the peninsula uninhabitable. However, wherever
water is available through surface or underground resources,
life persists. For most of the peninsula’s history, the inhabitants
of Arabia have survived mainly through animal husbandry,
small-scale agriculture, and some trade in major cities. The most
livable parts of the peninsula have been the southern and
western sections. In the south,Yemen, known as the Arabia Felix,
was once the seat of the flourishing civilization of Sheba that is
mentioned in the Bible.
The people of Arabia at the time of Muhammad practiced
both settled and nomadic lifestyles. Although animal husbandry
Muhammad 19
and agriculture were the primary sources of livelihood for many,
trade was the occupation of the wealthy classes. The economically
disenfranchised often resorted to raiding the many trade
caravans, which made trade a dangerous business. Trade caravans
traveled far beyond the Arabian Peninsula to distant lands, and
carried merchandise to potential customers in places such as
Syria, Egypt, Abyssinia (Ethiopia), Iraq, Iran, Sind (Pakistan),
and Hind (India). The city of Mecca, where Muhammad was
born, was the main trading center of Arabia.
Arabian society was tribal in nature. One’s identity as well as
one’s protection came from his or her membership in an
extended family. Several related families formed a clan, and a
collection of related clans comprised a tribe. One’s loyalty
therefore was first to the extended family, second to the clan,
and then finally, to the tribe.
The elders and leaders of powerful families and clans selected
from among their members a man to become their tribal chief.
The chief worked in close association with an advisory council
(majlis al-shura) that consisted of a group of respected elderly
tribal members. The main obligations of the chief and the advisory
council were to preserve tribal solidarity, secure the tribe’s financial
and social well-being, and protect the honor of tribal members.
Honor had to be defended at any cost.Codes of honor consisted of
manliness as demonstrated in military skills and acts of bravery,
nobility of character evidenced in expressions of hospitality and
generosity, and family pride and genealogical superiority displayed
through poetry, moral courage, and physical strength.
Kinship and tribal affiliations were indicators of unity and
loyalty. There was no large-scale political unity. It was not
unusual for different tribes to compete for power and control of
the meager resources of Arabia; thus, intertribal warfare was
common. The larger and more powerful tribes often raided the
smaller ones and attempted to weaken and eventually reduce
them to dependent client status. The most powerful tribe of
Arabia at the time of Muhammad was the Quraysh tribe, which
controlled the city of Mecca.
20 ISLAM
In terms of religion, most people of pre-Islamic Arabia were
idol worshipers. They prayed to idols of their own invention and
manufacture in various forms of gods and goddesses. These idols
were often associated with sacred natural objects or places such as
springs, wells, trees, and rock formations. Often these sanctuaries
contained the graves of tribal ancestors and were carefully
maintained and guarded by members of related tribes. The
most important idols or deity-figures were kept in the Kaaba,
a cube-shaped house or shrine in Mecca that, according to
Muslim legends, was built by the prophet Abraham for the
worship of God, the creator of the universe. By the time of
Muhammad, the monotheism espoused by Abraham had been
lost in Arabia and the shrine he established had become a sanctuary
for more than 360 idols that were objects of worship and were
considered the protectors of various tribes. The most important
of these idols was the god Hubel, known as a war god. Hubel,
along with Al-Lat, Manat, and Uzza, were the most-worshiped
gods in Mecca. The relationship between these idols and the
people of Arabia was based more upon fear than on love.
Due to the importance of the Kaaba, every year people from
different parts of Arabia and neighboring lands made a pilgrimage
to Mecca to circumambulate (walk around) the shrine. Based
upon a “gentlemen’s agreement” among the tribes of Arabia,
no warfare was allowed during the months of pilgrimage. This
allowed for peaceful periods that presented ideal opportunities
for trade and commerce. Thus, the interrelationship between
religion and commerce made Mecca the richest and most
powerful city of Arabia.
The idols of the Kaaba were not only objects of worship but
also valuable sources of income, especially for the powerful clans
of the Quraysh tribe that controlled the city. Not all clans affiliated
with the Quraysh tribe enjoyed the same levels of financial
prosperity and political power. The leading clan at the time of
Muhammad was the Banu Umayyah (“children of Umayyah”),
which enjoyed considerable wealth and political power within
the existing oligarchy.Muhammad belonged to the Banu Hashim
Muhammad 21
(“children of Hashim”), a less powerful but nonetheless highly
respected clan of the Quraysh tribe.
THE BIRTH OF MUHAMMAD
A few weeks before the birth of Muhammad, his father,
Abdullah, died. Muhammad was very young, too, when he
lost his mother, Aminah. Muhammad’s grandfather sent him
with a foster-mother to live among the desert Bedouins on
the outskirts of Mecca.
As an orphan, Muhammad learned the skills required for
traditional Arabian life, such as basic techniques of desert travel,
survival, and self-defense. He also learned the pure Arabic
language believed to be spoken and taught more properly by
Bedouins than by city dwellers.
After a few years, Muhammad’s grandfather died, and at the
age of eight,Muhammad was given over to the care of his uncle
Abu Talib. Because he was a poor child, Muhammad worked as
a shepherd during his youth. Under the guardianship of his
uncle, Muhammad started traveling with trade caravans, and
soon learned essential trade skills.
By the time he was in his twenties,Muhammad had developed
a reputation for integrity and honesty. He was well liked and
respected by the people of Mecca, to the extent that many
entrusted their valuable property to him for safekeeping. Due
to his impeccable character, people referred to Muhammad as
al-Amin (“the trustworthy”) and al-Sadiq (“the truthful”).
His reputation reached the ears of Khadijah, a wealthy
merchant and a widow, who decided to hire him to be her
business manager. Khadijah was delighted with the unusually
large profit that he brought her after each caravan trip, and
she was enchanted by his charm and personality as well. She
proposed marriage to Muhammad. The twenty-five-year-old
Muhammad was likewise attracted to Khadijah and accepted the
proposal. According to legend, Khadijah was forty years old at
the time of the marriage.
During their fifteen years of marriage, Muhammad and
22 ISLAM
Khadijah had a close and loving relationship. Khadijah was
Muhammad’s most significant supporter, especially during his
early years of prophethood. They had several children together.
The most famous of Muhammad’s surviving children was
Fatimah, who later married ‘Ali, Muhammad’s cousin. These
two became among the most important personalities of early
Islamic history.
PROPHETHOOD
Although idolatry was the prevailing religious belief in Mecca,
there were a few people who had preserved the Abrahamic
tradition of monotheism. These individuals were known as
hanifs (or hanafi), meaning “rightly inclined.” According to
the Qur’an 3:67, “Neither was Abraham a Jew nor a Christian,
but a hanif and a Muslim, and not an idolater.”
Abraham, according to Muslims, had established the original
ethical monotheism in Arabia, but gradually the monotheism
of Abraham had been replaced by the polytheistic practices
that prevailed in Mecca at the time of Muhammad. We have
mentioned that Arabs of Arabia believed themselves to be
descendants of Abraham’s older son, Ishmael. Muhammad was
considered the fortieth descendant of the house of Ishmael. Like
his forefather Abraham,Muhammad was among the hanifs who
were submissive to God.
Unhappy with the polytheistic and corrupt Meccan society,
Muhammad often retreated to a cave in Mount Hira outside
Mecca, where he meditated for many hours. In his pursuit of
spirituality he pondered the prevailing cruelty, lustfulness, and
materialism in society, brought about by ignorance. He was, in
fact, in search of insight and the real meaning of life. In the
lunar month of Ramadan of the year A.D. 610, during one of his
regular meditations, Muhammad heard an angelic voice that
commanded him to read. Muhammad, who had no formal
education, replied that he could not read. The mighty voice,
which Muhammad later identified as that of the archangel
Gabriel, repeated, “Read in the name of your Lord Who created,
Muhammad 23
created man from an embryo. Read, for your Lord is most
beneficent,Who taught by the pen, taught man what he did not
know” (Q. 96:1–5).
According to Islamic tradition, on this night, known as “The
Night of Power and Excellence,” Muhammad, who was forty
years old at the time, was chosen to become a messenger of God
(Q. 97:1–5). This was the first of many revelations Muhammad
received from God; he continued to experience revelations until
his death in 632. Muhammad’s compiled revelations are known
as the Qur’an, a word that means “recitation.” The reason for
the name is that the texts were first revealed to Muhammad in
recited form, and they were often recited by Muhammad and
early Muslims. They continue to be recited by millions of
Muslims throughout the world today.
Perplexed by his experience in the cave,Muhammad returned
home to his wife, Khadijah, to tell her what had happened.
Khadijah consoled him and asked for advice from her Christian
cousin,Waraqah. After he heard about Muhammad’s experience,
Waraqah reassured Muhammad that he, like Moses and Jesus,
had been called by the archangel Gabriel to become the new
messenger of God.
Khadijah accepted Muhammad as a messenger of God and was
the first convert to believe in God’s revelations to Muhammad.
Among Muhammad’s other initial converts were the young ‘Ali
(his cousin), and Abu Bakr, who later became the first successor,
or caliph, of Muhammad.
During the ensuing years,Muhammad found more followers.
He preached submission to the one true God (Allah) and
warned the people of Mecca against the practice of idolatry.
Muhammad and his followers worshiped God at the Kaaba,
which they considered the shrine of monotheism built by
Abraham. They were, however, disturbed by the great number of
idols kept there. As the first Muslims’ message against idolatry
and intention to remove the idols from the Kaaba became more
aggressive, leaders of the Quraysh began to see Muhammad and
his followers as a significant threat to the established economic,
24 ISLAM
Muhammad 25
AHADITH, OR SAYINGS OF THE PROPHET
The prophet Muhammad is a role model for devout Muslims. After
the Qur’an, the Prophet’s sayings are the most important source of
moral guidance for the faithful. The following is a collection of sayings
attributed to the Prophet:
“The first thing created by God was the intellect.”
“The most excellent Jihad is that for the conquest of self.”
“The ink of the scholar is more holy than the blood of the martyr.”
“One learned man is harder on the devil then a thousand ignorant
worshipers.”
“Search for knowledge even if it takes you to China.”
“Searching for knowledge is obligatory for every Muslim man and
Muslim woman.”
“Riches are not from an abundance of worldly goods, but from a
contented mind.”
“Reflect upon God’s creation but not upon His nature or else you
will perish.”
“He who wishes to enter Paradise at the best door must please his
mother and father.”
“No man is a true believer unless he desires for his brother that
which he desires for himself.”
“Heaven lies at the feet of mother.”
“The most perfect in faith amongst believers is he who is best in
manner and kindest to his wife.”
“Women are the twin-halves of men.”
“The thing which is lawful, but disliked by God, is divorce.”
“Actions will be judged according to intentions.”
“Yield obedience to my successor, although he may be an Abyssinian
[Ethiopian] slave.”
“Assist any person oppressed, whether Muslim or non-Muslim.”
“The creation is like God’s family, the most beloved unto God is
the person who does good to God’s family.”
“Modesty and chastity are parts of the Faith.”
Source: These and other sayings of the prophet Muhammad are available online at “Sayings
of the Prophet,” The Wisdom Fund, http://www.twf.org/Sayings.html.
religious, and social order.When Muhammad and his followers
announced their call to Islam publicly, they became subjects
of persecution, torture, isolation, and boycotts by the leading
Meccan oligarchy.
When the persecution of Muslims became overwhelming,
Muhammad sent some of his disciples to the Christian kingdom
of Ethiopia. The Ethiopian king, after allowing the Muslim
refugees to explain their faith, decided the basic beliefs of Islam
were similar to those of Christianity, and welcomed the Muslims
as new immigrants. His refusal to hand over the early Muslim
refugees to the Meccan leaders infuriated the Meccan oligarchy
and resulted in the further persecution of Muslims in Mecca.
The worst years came when Muhammad lost his beloved wife,
Khadijah, and his affectionate protector uncle Abu Talib. With
the loss of these two loved ones and the increasing persecution
he and his followers faced,Muhammad felt it necessary to find a
more secure city. In his attempt to negotiate with the leaders of
the nearby city of Ta’if (in present-day western Saudi Arabia), he
was stoned and driven away by Ta’if residents.
In 622, when the situation looked hopeless for Muhammad and
his disciples, a delegation from the city of Yathrib, located over
two hundred miles north of Mecca, approached Muhammad and
asked him to act as an arbiter and counselor between two warring
tribes of their city. Muhammad understood the significance of
such an opportunity and announced his agreement—only upon
the conditions that his followers be permitted to immigrate to
Yathrib and that the people of Yathrib accept Islam as their
religion and Muhammad himself as the messenger of God.
The delegation, aware of Muhammad’s wisdom and skills in
arbitration, accepted these conditions. Muhammad’s followers
began moving to Yathrib in small groups in order to avoid harassment
by the Meccan leaders. Muhammad was the last to go to
Yathrib. There, he received a warm reception from his followers
who had been awaiting his arrival.
The year 622 in Islamic history became known as the year of
hijrah, or “migration.” It was in this year that the first true
26 ISLAM
Islamic community (ummah) was formed in Yathrib, and, due to
the importance of this event, this year marks the beginning of
the Islamic calendar. The name of Yathrib was later changed to
Medinat al-Nabi, which means “the city of Prophet.” Today, the
city is known as Medina; it is the second most sacred city in
Islam after Mecca.
Medina held the first ummah, or “Islamic community,” a
community that was religio-political in nature. Muhammad was
the political as well as spiritual leader of this community. He
was a messenger of God as well as a statesman. Religion and
politics were intertwined from the very beginning of Islam, and
Muhammad, and Medina exemplified this interconnection.
Medina offered a union of church and state without significant
distinctions between religious and secular domains.Muhammad
implemented the rules of God based upon a combination of
received revelations, his own wisdom, and Arabian traditions.
One of the most significant changes brought by Muhammad
was to change the notion of community identity from kinship
and tribal ties to common religious faith and commitment. He
taught that human actions were not supposed to serve primarily
one’s self or tribal interests but to satisfy the will of God. Unlike
pre-Islamic Arabia, in which familial nobility was a sign of
prestige and superiority, in the new Islamic community it was
the integrity and piety of a person that gave the individual
significance. Tribal societies with their human-made laws were
replaced by a religion-based society governed by divine law.
Although the new Muslim community flourished in Medina,
Mecca was still alive in the hearts of the immigrants. New revelations
in Medina increased the religious significance of Mecca by
designating it as the new qiblah (direction of daily prayers) and
place of hajj (pilgrimage) for Muslims. Before this,Muslims faced
Jerusalem during their daily prayers.
The conflict between Muslims and the Meccan oligarchy soon
led to several full-scale battles. In the first battle, although the
Muslims of Yathrib were significantly outnumbered, they
defeated the Meccan Army. This decisive victory against all odds
Muhammad 27
energized the Muslim community and made the people believe
God was on their side. They lost the second battle, however,
and Muhammad himself suffered some wounds in the fight.
The following battles were not decisive.
By the year 630, the Muslims put together a ten-thousand-man
army and marched toward Mecca. By this time, many Meccan
leaders had already joined Muhammad’s community, and the
existing military force in Mecca had neither the willingness nor
the strength to resist Muhammad and his followers.
Many Meccans feared that the Muslims would be vengeful and
unforgiving when they reached Mecca, but under the guidance
of Muhammad, the conquest of Mecca was peaceful and no
blood was shed.Meccans were offered amnesty and were invited
to accept Islam as their religion and to submit to the will of God.
After years of preaching against idolatry, Muhammad entered
the Kaaba, the Abrahamic shrine to the one God, in victory,
and then destroyed the idols with his own hands.
The people of Mecca gradually accepted Islam as their religion
and joined the growing ummah. A Qur’anic verse mentions this
mass conversion: “When the help of God and victory come, you
will see people enter the religion of God in crowds, so glorify the
Name of your Lord and beg His forgiveness. He, verily accepts
repentance” (Q. 110:1–3).
The peaceful conquest of Mecca and the tolerance and generosity
demonstrated by Muslims encouraged the other hostile
tribes of Arabia to accept Islam as their faith and Muhammad
as their prophet. Muhammad lived to see all of Arabia become
a land of Islam.
In the spring of 632, Muhammad made his last pilgrimage to
Mecca and gave a farewell sermon, which contains the fundamental
concepts of Islam:
O People, lend me an attentive ear, for I know not whether
after this year I shall ever be amongst you again. Therefore
listen to what I am saying very carefully and take these words
to those who could not be present here today.
28 ISLAM
O People, just as you regard this month, this day, this city
as Sacred, so regard the life and property of every Muslim as
a sacred trust. Return the goods entrusted to you to their
rightful owners. Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you.
Remember that you will indeed meet your Lord, and that he
will indeed reckon your deeds. Allah has forbidden you to
take usury [interest], therefore all interest obligation shall
henceforth be waived. . . .
Beware of Satan, for the safety of your religion. He has lost
all hopes that he will be able to lead you astray in big things,
so beware of following him in small things.
O People, it is true that you have certain rights with regard
to your women, but they also have rights over you. If they
abide by your right then to them belongs the right to be fed
and clothed in mildness. Do treat your women well and be
kind to them for they are your partners and committed
helpers. And it is your right that they do not make friends
with anyone of whom you do not approve, as well as never to
be unchaste. O People, listen to me in earnest, worship Allah,
say your five daily prayers, fast during the month of Ramadhan,
and give your wealth in Zakat [almsgiving]. Perform Hajj
[pilgrimage] if you can afford.
Learn that every Muslim is a brother to every Muslim and
that the Muslims constitute one brotherhood. Remember one
day you will meet Allah and answer your deeds. So beware: do
not stray from the path of righteousness after I am gone.
O People, no prophet or apostle will come after me, and no
new faith will be born. Reason well, therefore, O People, and
understand my words, which I convey to you. I leave behind
me two things: the Qur’an and my Sunnah [example] and if
you follow these you will never go astray.
All those who listen to me shall pass on my words to others
and those to others again; and may the last ones understand
my words better than those who listen to me directly. Be
my witness, O Allah, that I have conveyed Your message to
Your people.1
Muhammad 29
A few months after his return from Mecca, in June 632,
Muhammad died in Medina. Many of his followers did not
believe that such a man could die, but Abu Bakr, Muhammad’s
close friend and father-in-law, appeared in public and declared,
“For those who worshiped Muhammad, Muhammad was dead,
but if they worship God, God lives forever.” He then reminded
them of the Qur’anic verse that states, “Muhammad is only a
messenger; and many a messenger has gone before him. So if he
dies or is killed will you recant? He that recants will do no harm
to God, but God will reward the thankful” (Q. 3:144).
30 ISLAM
Qur’an
3
. . . indeed, it is a reminder,
So whoever will remembers it.
It is in honoured scrolls, Exalted, purified,
Written by the hands of scribes Honoured, pious.
—The Qur’an 80:11–16
A t the core of Islam stands the Qur’an, the holy book of
Muslims. For Muslims, the Qur’an is the word of God
revealed to the prophet Muhammad through the archangel
Gabriel (Jibril). It is the eternal heavenly book authored by no
one but God. Although it had been revealed to other prophets
in the past, it was revealed for the last time to Muhammad
in its original form, as a source of guidance for humankind.
The Qur’an was revealed over a period of twenty-three years
of Muhammad’s life as a prophet. Some of the verses were
revealed in his hometown of Mecca, and some were revealed
in Medina, where he established the first Islamic community
and built the first mosque.
Qur’an means “recital” or “reading” in Arabic. Arabic, the
language of the Qur’an, belongs to the Semitic family of
languages, and it is the only language of ancient scriptures that
still functions as a thriving language spoken by millions of
people throughout the world. Because God revealed his message
to humankind in Arabic, it is considered the sacred language of
Islam. The Qur’an has been instrumental in the preservation of
the classical Arabic language for over 1,400 years. Throughout
the history of the evolution of the Arabic language, the Qur’an
has been preserved in its original form as revealed to the prophet
Muhammad. Today, Arab Muslims are as familiar with the
language of the Qur’an as were the early Muslims.
The language of the Qur’an is considered flawless. Due to its
style and elegance, as well as its sacredness, the language of the
Qur’an has had an enduring literary influence in addition to its
religious impact. It has kept the Arabic language uniform so that
Arabs from different parts of the Arab world who speak different
dialects still consider the linguistic style of the Qur’an the
ideal, and apply it to their writings. Today in the Arab world, the
classic style of the Qur’an is studied as a masterpiece of immense
literary value along with modern Arabic in major educational
institutions. In fact, the modern Arabic language has remained
very close to its classical ancestor. This is mainly attributed to the
significance of the Qur’an’s language as the eternal word of God,
32 ISLAM
which needs to be preserved by generations of Muslims during
different periods of Islamic history.
The language and style of the Qur’an provide its readers with an
uplifting sense of fulfillment in this life and desire for a lasting
peace in heaven. The Qur’an evokes profound emotions and
thoughtfulness by constantly referring the reader to the living
signs of nature as indications of divine force and gratitude. It
also contains analogies, symbolism, and stories that articulately
demonstrate the gentle values of virtuous life by providing
examples from the lives of individuals whose actions and beliefs
brought significant changes to their lives and the lives of their
communities. The Qur’an provides believers with a sense of moral
destiny and meaning of existence as exemplified by narrations
of historical accounts of nations as well as of individuals.
Although the Arabian Peninsula had a long tradition of affection
for prose and poetry of all types before Muhammad, the
elegance and wisdom of the Qur’an made it an exceptional work
of literature as well as of sacred scripture. The quality of the
Qur’anic verses recorded by Muhammad left no doubt in
the minds of his followers that they were divinely inspired,
especially because they were conveyed by a man who was known
to be illiterate. Muhammad’s honest and trustworthy character
also helped convince his followers of his truthfulness with regard
to his communication with the divine. In this way, the Qur’an
became known as the miracle of Islam and made a significant
contribution in attracting spiritually minded people to the
message of Islam.
Qur’an was revealed to Muhammad through wahy, or
“revelation.” Wahy in Arabic also means “inspiration.” According
to the Qur’an, God does not speak to any human except
through wahy, from behind a veil, or through a messenger sent
and authorized by him (Q. 42: 51–52). The Qur’an was brought
down by a trusted spirit (Gabriel) to inspire the heart, mind,
and memory of Muhammad, from where it was promulgated
in human speech and propagated throughout the world (Q. 2: 97
and 26:192–193).
Qur’an 33
To the Muslim faithful, Qur’anic verses are not the words
of Muhammad but the very words of God. Once a verse was
revealed to Muhammad through the archangel Gabriel, he
memorized the verse and recited it to his companions, who in
turn recorded it in writing. The recorded writings then were
recited back to Muhammad to ensure that they had been written
correctly. During Muhammad’s time, paper had not yet been
introduced to Arabia, so the verses were written on palm-leaves,
stones, clay tablets, or other available materials. Many early
Muslims, both literate and illiterate, memorized verses of the
Qur’an and recited them to each other and in their prayers.
As the Qur’an was revealed to Muhammad part by part, it
was written down and its passages collected and preserved. The
organization and sequence of the current Qur’an is believed
to be the same as that the prophet Muhammad used during
prayers, especially during the holy month of Ramadan, when he
recited the entire Qur’an and shared it with other worshipers.
A year after the death of the prophet Muhammad, his close
companion Zaid ibn Thaabit, who was present during Muhammad’s
final and complete recitation of the Qur’an, was assigned
to record the entire book, to preserve it for future Muslim
generations. Zaid, a well-known scribe who was famous for
having learned the entire Qur’an by heart, worked rigorously
to collect the authentic recorded verses. The completed Qur’an
as we know it today was then given to Abu Bakr, Muhammad’s
successor and the first caliph (head) of the Islamic community.
After the death of Abu Bakr, the original copy of the Qur’an
was given to his successor ‘Umar, who in turn left it to ‘Uthman,
the third caliph of Islam. By the time of ‘Uthman’s reign
(644–656), the Islamic domain had expanded far beyond
Arabia, and there was a great need for authentic copies of the
Qur’an. ‘Uthman had four copies made, which were then sent to
the major centers of the Islamic world. These copies became the
standard Qur’an. No other version or compilation was considered
authoritative, and that still holds true. Unlike the Bible,
which has been passed down in different versions, there is only
34 ISLAM
one authentic version of the Qur’an written in Arabic. However,
because the original Qur’an was written in a special script that
did not include vowels or diacritical points, slight variations
arose based upon the pronunciations of some of the words.
As a result, there is more than one possible reading that may
change the meaning of a sentence slightly; however, these
differences in meaning are not significant enough to create
problems, and these types of variant readings are recognized
as authentic by Muslims.
The Qur’an contains 114 chapters (suras) of unequal lengths.
Each surah contains a number of ayat (plural of ayah), or verses.
There are more than six thousand verses in the Qur’an. Some
suras, including the 103rd, 108th, and 110th, consist of only three
verses. Others, like the second, are over two hundred verses long.
Although the Qur’an was revealed over a twenty-three-year time
span, its organization does not follow any chronological sequence.
Apart from the beginning chapter, the Qur’an’s chapters are
arranged approximately according to their lengths, with the
longest first and the shortest last. This order has made it difficult
for non-Muslims to follow the theme of each chapter.With the
exceptions of the short chapters, each of the Qur’an chapters
follows no clear theme. The chapters frequently shift from one
theme to another. This, in a way, forces the reader constantly to
ponder the ideas communicated by each individual passage.
The Qur’an is about four-fifths the length of the Christian New
Testament. It contains many stories from the Judeo-Christian
biblical heritage, especially those about Moses. However,
unlike the Book of Exodus, which offers a sustained narrative,
the Qur’an does not offer such detailed stories. Instead, it
contains rules and regulations regarding the moral and legal
duties of Muslims. However, it has nothing in it comparable to
the law code that is the centerpiece of the biblical Book of
Deuteronomy. Many verses of the Qur’an sound like sermons,
but unlike the voice of the preacher heard in the Gospels, which
is supposed to be that of Jesus during his ministry on Earth,
the Qur’an is phrased directly in the voice of God.
Qur’an 35
Although the sacredness of the Bible for Christians is usually
due to its text and content alone, for Muslims, the physical
books themselves are sacred as well, and they are treated as
such.Muslims do not touch the book with dirty hands or impure
intentions: “This is indeed the honorable Qur’an, in a book
well-guarded, which none shall touch but those who are clean, a
revelation from the Lord of the worlds” (Q. 56: 77–80).Observant
Muslims complete the ritual of ablution (washing of the body),
which is required prior to performing daily prayers, before
handling the book. Also, the book is not treated like any other
ordinary book when stored or shelved: It is considered disrespectful
to place a copy of the Qur’an under other books, and if space
is limited, it is preferable for the Qur’an to be placed on top of or
above all other books. Usually, the Qur’an is stored in a clean and
elevated place that is inaccessible to house pets. The book should
not be stored or read in places such as bathrooms, which are
considered impure by many Muslims.
The revelation of the Qur’an was not a new event, although it
was, of course, new in Arabia.According to Islamic tradition, God
had revealed his book in the past to other prophets, including
Moses and Jesus. Here, one might ask why, if God had already
revealed his scripture to earlier prophets, was it necessary to reveal
it again to Muhammad? Muslims respond to this by saying that,
although there were other revelations, they were not sustained in
their pure form. There was an unfilled need for an original and
unaltered revelation. Muslims believe that the scriptures of the
Jewish community (the Torah) and of the Christians (the Gospel
or the Evangel) had been partially corrupted by human interpolations
and alterations. Jews, Muslims believe, corrupted the
message of God when they separated themselves from the rest of
humanity by propagating their doctrine of divine election by
God as “the chosen people.”Muslims also believe that Christians
deviated from the true path of monotheism by turning Jesus, the
messenger of God, into a god himself (Q. 5:20, 9:30–33). Out
of mercy for humanity, God once again revealed the original
heavenly tablet, in the form of the Qur’an, to Muhammad and the
36 ISLAM
people of Arabia. This divine text has been preserved unaltered
and in its pure form by Muslims for over 1,400 years, and it will
continue to be a source of guidance for generations to come.
TEACHINGS OF THE QUR’AN
As its central theme, the Qur’an emphasizes two principles:
monotheism (tawhid) and social justice. Without adherence to
these two principles, the Qur’an asserts, individuals and societies
will fail to fulfill their religious and moral obligations. A person
who submits to God (in other words, a Muslim) should observe
these two major obligations to the creator God by proper acts of
worship (ibadat) and by just interactions with fellow human
beings (mu ’amilat). A Muslim is also responsible for being
compassionate toward other living creatures and caring for his
or her natural surroundings. Throughout the Qur’an, Muslims
are encouraged to ponder and become careful observers of
their own behavior and occurrences around them. The Qur’an
steadfastly admonishes the early generations of Muslims to
reflect upon their traditional ways of conduct and to reevaluate
their unjust customs and traditions. The Qur’an provides the
faithful with a code of proper conduct, which, as we will see,
later became the foundation of Islamic law, or shari’ah.
Many Muslims cannot properly understand the intended
meanings of the Qur’anic verses without using accompanied
interpretations. In fact, the text has been interpreted since the
time of the prophet Muhammad. Today, the science of interpreting
Qur’an is an important part of Islamic scholarship.
Scholars who interpret the Qur’an must have a sound knowledge
of the classical Arabic language, culture, and the early
history of Islam.
Although Muslims believe that the Qur’an is the word of God
and that Muhammad was only a conveyor of that word, one can
still see connections between Muhammad’s life events and the
Qur’anic verses. The verses revealed to Muhammad in Mecca are
different in content and tone from those revealed in Medina. As
Muhammad became more settled in his role as the messenger of
Qur’an 37
God and leader of the Islamic community, the short, powerful,
and warning revelations of Mecca gradually gave way to the
longer, calmer, more community-oriented revelations of the
Medinan period.
Due to the importance of the chronology of revelations in
understanding the Qur’an, the order of suras as they were
revealed and the place where each revelation was received
(Mecca or Medina) are usually included in the heading of each
chapter.During his twenty-three years as a prophet,Muhammad
managed the Islamic community in a way that became a model
for future leaders of Islamic communities. Because of his own
pious manner of living, he came to be viewed as the paragon
who could demonstrate the way life should be lived. His life and
conduct were inspiration for compiling and codifying books of
ahadith (plural of hadith), which were narrations of the sunnah,
or life of Muhammad. The Qur’an advises the believer to seek
God’s and the prophet Muhammad’s guidance by stating,
“O you who believe, obey God and the Messenger and those
charged with authority among you. If you differ in anything
among yourselves, refer to God and his Messenger if you do
believe in God and the Last Day. That is the best and most
suitable for final determination” (Q. 4:59).
SUNNAH AND HADITH
As Islam continued to spread throughout the world, various
Muslim rulers and jurists felt the necessity to develop an established
set of laws by which they could rule according to Islamic
principles. Although the Qur’an was the most important source
of jurisprudence they could use, they also wanted to emulate the
leadership of the prophet Muhammad, whom they considered
the ideal ruler and administrator. There was a need for an
authentic collection of Muhammad’s deeds and sayings for the
purposes of moral and judicial reference.
Hadith, an Arabic term meaning “narration,” refers to any
narration of events that occurred under the leadership of the
prophet Muhammad. This includes his deeds, sayings, and
38 ISLAM
things that were approved by him. Since God’s revelations to
humanity ended with the death ofMuhammad in 632, knowledge
of hadith became extremely useful in answering questions about
moral, legal, and religious issues.During his lifetime,Muhammad
was known for his conflict resolution skills. Solutions that he
articulated under different circumstances needed to be collected
so they could be utilized for future conflict resolutions. Hadith
literature that accurately reported the Prophet’s life, sayings, and
deeds became considerably important. Because of the practical
nature of hadith literature, in addition to uncovering the life of
Muhammad, some scholars included the sayings and deeds of
his companions and successors as well. Thus, the term hadith
in its broader sense applies to narrations of lives, sayings, and
the conduct of Muhammad and his early Muslim companions
and successors.
Sunnah is an Arabic term that means “tradition” or “example.”
It denotes the way Muhammad lived his life. Although sunnah
and hadith are very close in their definitions (many scholars, in
fact, do not differentiate them), the terms are not really identical
in meaning. A hadith is a narration about the life of the Prophet
and what he approved, whereas the sunnah refers to his lifestyle
or example. For faithful Muslims, knowing about the Prophet’s
lifestyle and knowing what he did, said, and approved are equally
important. The Qur’an speaks of the prophet Muhammad as
the ideal example to follow by stating, “You have indeed a fine
model [of conduct] for anyone whose hope is in God and
the Final Day and who engages much in the praise of God”
(Q. 33:21). Books of ahadith that portray Muhammad and his life
are, therefore, the second most important religious scriptures of
Islam after the Qur’an.
While there is only one authentic version of the Qur’an, there
are several collections of ahadith. About two centuries after the
death of the Prophet, the collection of ahadith became a systematic
science administrated by scholars who were often appointed
by the courts of the caliphs. There were numerous stories about
Muhammad and his companions’ deeds and sayings, not all of
Qur’an 39
which were necessarily authentic. To judge the authenticity of
these narrations, a system was designed by which the factual
ahadith were distinguished from the fabricated ones. By using
certain criteria, ahadith were evaluated and their degree of authenticity
graded as sound (sahih), acceptable (hasan), or weak (daif ).
To do this, two methods were used. The first method was to
study the authenticity of a hadith by examining the narrator’s
biography. A narrator’s character, integrity, trustworthiness,
reputation for piety, intelligence, and possible biases about the
reported topic were carefully examined. Then, if the narrator had
not heard the report from the original source (i.e., the Prophet),
then the chronological continuity of involved narrators all the
way back to the original source was considered. This was done in
order to confirm that there was an unbroken chronological
chain connecting all narrators to one another without any interruptions
or discrepancies. For example, we might read that a
narration came from A, who said that he heard it from B, who
heard it from C, who was in the presence of Muhammad when
the Prophet said or did the thing in question. Thus, the job of
a researcher was first to examine the biographies and trustworthiness
of the A, B, and C narrators, and then to establish
a working chronological chain (sanad, plural asnad) among
these narrators that would be deemed acceptable. For further
example, if research showed that the transmitters B and C did
not live at the same time or that they had never met during
their lifetimes, then the chain that purportedly connected these
people would be considered broken. The hadith would be
declared unreliable and therefore unacceptable.
In the second method of verification, a hadith or narration
about a particular event or incident in the life of the Prophet
was compared with the content of the Qur’an and other likely
narrations about the same event. If any discrepancies between
the hadith and the Qur’an were found, due to the sacred nature
of Qur’an, the hadith had to be rejected. If the hadith conformed
with the Qur’an, then it was carefully compared and contrasted
with other narrations about the same topic. The researchers
40 ISLAM
looked for existing similarities and discrepancies. If the hadith fit
in well with other narrations about the same event or topic, then
the hadith would be considered reliable and, therefore, authentic.
One reason for this peculiar sensitivity about ahadith was
that, by the ninth century, there were hundreds of thousands of
narrations about Muhammad and his life, many of which were
at odds with each other. These included a large body of false
ahadith. Some of these were pious fabrications by those who
thought of themselves as good Muslims and rationalized their
made-up stories as being in conformity with Islam and therefore
good for Muslims. Some Muslims, though, created spurious
ahadith for various reasons that ranged from self-aggrandizement
to achieving certain theological, judicial, or political objectives.
After years of hard work sifting through the large volume of
attributed narrations, those determined to be authentic were
compiled into books of ahadith. Six collections in all were
accepted as authoritative and valid for use in official affairs such
as judicial cases. These were the collections made by al-Bukhari
(d. 870), Muslim (d. 875), Abu Dawud (d. 888), al-Tirmidhi
(d. 892), Ibn Maja (d. 896), and al-Nisai (d. 915). The collections
of al-Bukhari and Muslim are considered by many the most
authentic of the six. The compilation of ahadith ended by
the middle of the tenth century, and no other collection dated
afterward has been deemed authentic.
Qur’an 41
Worldview
4
So commemorate the name of thy Lord,
and devote thyself to Him with complete devotion.
Lord of the East and of the West,
there is no other deity save Him. . . .
—The Qur’an 73:8–9
THE CENTRALITY OF THE
INTELLECT AND REASONING
The archangel Gabriel appeared to Adam and said, “O Adam, I
have been instructed to have you choose among three things;
select one and leave the other two.”When Adam inquired about
his choices, Gabriel said: “Intellect, modesty, and religion.”
After a brief contemplation, Adam replied: “I choose intellect.”
When he heard Adam’s response, Gabriel instantly commanded
“modesty” and “religion” to depart. Refusing to obey, the two
stood next to “intellect” and remarked that they were under
instructions to remain with “intellect” wherever it might be.
“So be it,” Gabriel agreed, as he ascended to the heavens.
This imagery is a metaphoric hadith narrated by ‘Ali ibn
Abu Talib, as he heard it from his cousin and father-in-law,
the prophet Muhammad. Islam, as hinted in ahadith, does
not recognize any separation between religion, morality, and
intellect. Indeed, to accept religion without using the intellect
is not encouraged. The Qur’an constantly invites humans to
utilize their intellects as their guiding light in the search for
God: “We shall show them our signs in all the regions of the
earth and in their own souls, until they clearly see that this is
the Truth. Does it not suffice that your Lord is the witness of
all things?” (Q. 41:53)
Although the Qur’an is God’s revelation through scripture,
God also reveals himself to us through nature and history, but
it takes an active intellect to discern those revelations. God’s
providential signs, as the Qur’an reveals, are everywhere in the
natural world, in the seasonal round of planetary and animal
life, in the regular courses of constellations, and in history.
However, to decipher these signs, we need to open our hearts
and minds and ponder about the order of our universe and
reflect within our own inner spiritual reality (Q. 30:8). The
prophet Muhammad made it clear that, by knowing one’s self,
one can arrive at knowledge of God. The Prophet advised us
that we should seek knowledge throughout our lives, and that
seeking will eventually lead us to the truth.
Worldview 43
Nowhere in the Qur’an does God ask for people to blindly
accept his message. On the contrary, the Qur’an clearly indicates
that there is no compulsion in religion (Q. 2:256). Human
beings, according to Islam, have been created and endowed with
a sound nature (fitrah), which is a reflection of divine nature.
Our fitrah is the essence of goodness and our internal guidance
system; it functions as our personal conduit to God. If we use
our intellect properly and reflect upon our fitrah, as God and his
prophets directed, our “Inner Light” will guide us to our source
and our creator, God.What disturbs our relationship with God
is when we do not acknowledge our fitrah, ignore our intellect,
and void our reason. The Qur’an refers to those who do not use
their intellect as the worst of all beings: “The worst of beasts in
the sight of God are the deaf and the dumb, those who do not
understand” (Q. 8:22).
THE ANATOMY OF INTELLECT
In an article titled “Intellect and Reason in the Islamic Worldview,”
Babak Ayazifar reminds us of a hadith that illustrates the
noble station of the intellect and reason in Islamic cosmology
and worldview.2 In this fascinating metaphor, Muhammad
speaks of a brilliant oratory between God and the intellect. It is
reported that Muhammad said,
Verily,Allah (God) created the intellect from a treasured light,
a light concealed within His primordial knowledge—one that
neither a commissioned prophet nor an angel of proximity
[to the Divine Throne] was aware of. He then ascribed to the
intellect knowledge as its essence, cognition as its soul,
abstemiousness as its head, modesty as its eye, wisdom as its
tongue, kindliness as its purpose, and mercy as its heart. Allah
then bestowed upon, and strengthened, the intellect with ten
qualities: certainty, faith, truthfulness, tranquility, sincerity,
gentleness, benevolence, contentment, submission, and gratitude.
Then Allah (Exalted and Majestic) said to it: “Retreat!”
Thereupon the intellect retreated. Then Allah said to it:
44 ISLAM
“Come nigh!” Thereupon the intellect drew near. Then Allah
said to it: “Speak!” Thereupon the intellect said: “Praise
belongs to Allah, the one who has neither a foe nor a rival,
neither a likeness nor an equal, neither a tantamount nor a
similitude—the one before whose splendor every creature is
submissive, humbled.”
Then the Lord (Praised and Exalted) said: “By My
grandeur and majesty, no creature have I originated more
splendid than you, more obedient to Me than you, loftier in
station than you, more eminent than you, or more exalted
than you. It is through you that My oneness is acknowledged;
it is through you that I am worshiped; it is through you that
I am supplicated; it is through you that I am implored [by
My yearning servant]; it is through you that I am desired;
it is through you that I am feared; it is through you that
My bondsman exercises reverent discretion toward Me; it is
through you that I bestow reward; and it is through you that
I apportion punishment.”
Upon hearing this, the intellect sank to the ground prostrate,
and remained in that state for a thousand years. Then
Allah (Praised and Exalted) said: “Raise your head! And ask,
so it shall be granted. Seek intercession, so it shall be
accorded.” Thereupon the intellect raised its head and said:
“O my Lord, I beseech you to appoint me as an intercessor for
whomsoever you have created me in.”Then Allah (Majestic in
His Might) said to His angels: “I summon you forth to bear
witness that I have indeed appointed the intellect as an intercessor
for whomsoever I have created it in.”
This narration, as Ayazifar notes, exemplifies the high status
of the intellect in the Islamic worldview. It is through intellect
that one may reach the creator and it is intellect that acts as an
intercessor between God and human beings. The appointment
of the intellect as an intercessor is particularly significant, since
Islam does not admit the possibility of intercession through any
being other than God, save by God’s leave. Even the prophets,
Worldview 45
according to Islamic literature, cannot intercede between God
and humanity. Intellect, therefore, in the sight of God, occupies
a position even higher than the positions enjoyed by prophets.
HUMANKIND AS GOD’S VICEGERENT
After the creation of the human from dust, God breathed
his spirit into him and raised him above all other creatures
(Q. 15:26–50). By breathing his spirit into the human, God
provided him with God-like faculties and knowledge of creation
that non-humans did not possess. If the human utilizes these
faculties judiciously, then he can serve as God’s vicegerent
(administrative deputy) on Earth (Q. 2:30; 17:70). Of course,
according to the Qur’an, God gave human beings a choice as to
whether to accept the responsibility of becoming his caliph or
vicegerent on Earth. When offered the challenge, the human
accepted a task that all other created beings refused to take upon
themselves: “We did indeed offer the Trust [of divine responsibilities]
to the Heavens and the Earth and the Mountains, but
they refrained from bearing the burden, and were afraid of
it. But Man undertook it, he was indeed unjust and foolish”
(Q. 33:72). Here we see that the Qur’an is ironic about the
human’s courage, free will, and amazing confidence to accept
such a gigantic task by referring to him as a fool. To be God’s
true representative and vicegerent requires God-like qualities,
and God is well aware of our shortcomings, especially when it
comes to justice; therefore, he refers to the human as unjust.
The “Trust” was betrayed by a portion of the human race who
became hypocrites and unbelievers and treated the earth and
one another unjustly. There are frequent references in the Qur’an
to nations that went astray and brought God’s punishment upon
them, contrasted with those who followed the path of God,
remained faithful to their covenant, and received God’s grace
(Q. 30:2–10).
God gives human beings plenty of help in succeeding as his
vicegerent by providing them with advice about managing the
environment based upon moderation, balance, and preservation.
46 ISLAM
The Qur’an calls Muslims the Middle Path community, the path
between extremes (Q. 2:143). Within the balance of creation,
every being has inherent values as a spiritual and/or material
resource. It is the human’s duty as God’s vicegerent to preserve
this sense of balance by using the earth’s resources sustainably
Worldview 47
KINDNESS TO ANIMALS
As vicegerents of God, humans are responsible for the well-being of
all creatures. Muslims have many traditional stories about kindness to
animals, of which the following are a sampling:
• The prophet Muhammad said: A man walking along a
path saw a dog with its tongue hanging out, trying to lick
up mud to quench its thirst. He filled his shoe with water
and gave the dog a drink. Because of this compassionate
act, God forgave the man’s sins. The Prophet was asked:
“. . . Are we rewarded for kindness towards animals?”
He said, “There is a reward for kindness to every living
being.”
• A cruel woman was not giving her cat food or water, and
shut the cat out of the house. A neighbor who felt sorry for
the cat took the cat and would not give it back to the cruel
woman. They took their argument to the Prophet to be
settled. After promising to look after the cat properly, the
cruel woman was allowed to take back the cat. It soon
became clear, however, that she had lied. Her cruelty toward
the cat continued until one of Muhammad’s companions
cried, “What a terrible thing to do,” and “What a very cruel
and wicked woman!” Muhammad told his companions that
“a great sin had been committed because one of Allah’s
creatures had been ill-treated; the woman who had treated
her cat so cruelly will not be forgiven for her sins; she will
be sent to Hell for her wrongdoing.”
• Muhammad is quoted as saying, “He who takes pity on a
sparrow and spares his life, God will be merciful to him on
the day of judgment.”
and avoiding greed, affluence, extravagance, and waste that will
disturb the balance.
THE CONCEPT OF SATAN
Although humans are created initially by God in the best shape or
stature, we can easily fall to the lowest depths if we allow temptations
to undermine our fitrah, or divine nature (Q. 95:4–6). From
the dawn of creation, human beings have faced an archenemy
known as Satan, or Iblis, as he is called in the Qur’an.When God
appointed human beings as his vicegerent and commanded the
angels to prostrate themselves before them, all obeyed except for
Lucifer (who became known as Satan). Satan failed to realize the
human’s God-given faculties, and saw only the lower nature of
humans, seeing humans as potentially wicked and sinful, since
they are made of humble clay.When asked by God why he refused
to honor the human, Satan replied that he who was made of fire
would not prostrate himself before a being that was made of clay.
God was outraged by Satan’s arrogance, jealousy, and disobedience,
and expelled him from paradise and inflicted a curse upon
him until the Day of Judgment. Disappointed about his fall from
grace, Satan vowed that he would use all his abilities to tempt the
weak among humans into disobeying God as long as the human
lives on Earth. God intervened, saying that Satan could have
authority only over those who would follow him. God was
confident that his faithful servants with good judgment would
not succumb to Satan’s temptations (Q. 15:30–42). Satan’s
refusal to accept the human’s higher status led to a constant
challenge for humanity, a challenge of not allowing ourselves to
be tempted by Satan and the forces of evil.
NO ORIGINAL SIN
Satan put his energy to work, and, as is demonstrated in another
Qur’anic allegory, he tempted Adam and Eve to disobey God
and to eat the fruit of a forbidden tree. When God expressed
his disappointment about Adam and Eve’s disobedience, they
repented. God, “the Compassionate and the Most Merciful,”
48 ISLAM
accepted their repentance and guided them to the straight path
(Q. 20:116–122). It is at this point in the story common to both
Christian and Jewish traditions that we see that the Islamic
explanation of humanity’s fall from grace is different from that
of the religions that preceded Islam. There is no original sin
in Islam. Adam and Eve alone disobeyed God, and that act of
disobedience was their own sin; therefore, they alone were
responsible for their actions. God considered what they did a
normal act of disobedience, and when he heard their sincere
repentance, he forgave them. In sharp contrast, in the Judeo-
Christian version of the events, the whole of humanity suffers for
the sinful actions of Adam and Eve. All humans are born with
Adam and Eve’s sin—original sin—on their souls. In Islam, there
is no concept of original sin. Muslims believe sin is not a state of
being, and that humans have the free will to avoid sin by following
the right path of religion. According to Islam, every child is
born innocent and has no need to be saved or born again.
WOMEN ARE NOT AT FAULT
Another difference in the Qur’anic account of the creation is that
Eve—and women in general—are not blamed for the fall. In the
Qur’an, Adam and Eve are both blamed for their disobedience.
Subsequent generations of women do not face shame, disgrace,
and hardship because of Eve’s temptations. The pains of childbearing
and monthly menstruation are not women’s punishment
for the fall (as described in Genesis 3:16–18). They are simply
facts of life, the condition of humanity.
In Islam, the greatest sins are refusal to submit to God and
associating another being as a divine partner, which is known
as shirk. It is arrogance and ingratitude that causes people to
turn away from their creator and sustainer and to become
mushrik (those who commit the sin of shirk). Shirk is a refusal
to recognize one’s higher spiritual being or fitrah, the guiding
light toward ultimate truth. In the absence of a struggle to realize
God as one and only and one’s spiritual ultimate, a person
becomes idolatrous (mushrik) by worshiping false icons such as
Worldview 49
power, fame, wealth, greed, and carnal pleasure—icons that
degrade our natural desires. The Qur’an warns those who are
succumbing to their lower, selfish desires: “You are obsessed by
greed for more and more until you go down to your graves. Nay,
in time you will come to understand when you behold hell-fire,
and on that day you will most surely be called to account for
seeking pleasure [in piling up things]” (Q. 102:1–8).
FOUNDATIONS OF ISLAM
“O you who believe! Believe in God and His Messenger and the
Book which He has revealed to His Messenger and the Books
which He has revealed before.Whoever denies God, His angels,
His Books, His messengers and the Last Day has gone far, far
astray” (Q. 4:136).
According to this Qur’anic verse, the core beliefs of Islam are
believing in one God, in God’s angels, in books of revelations, in
the prophets, and in the Day of Judgment. These articles of
Islamic faith are described briefly below.
Monotheism (Tawhid )
The centermost creed of Islam is tawhid, or the oneness and
uniqueness of God. Tawhid is the first doctrine of Islam, and it
is an indication of divine unity. According to this doctrine, there
is no god but the one true God, a declaration of monotheism
that is repeatedly recited during Muslims’ daily prayers. The
phrase La ilaha illa’llah (“There is no deity but God”) forms the
essence of Islam. In Arabic, ilah means any deity or god, whereas
Allah (or al-ilah) refers to the “One and Only God.” Although
different Muslim nations may have their own terms for God
(e.g., God is called Khoda in Persian), Allah, the Arabic term, is
the most preferred name used by Muslims because in the
Qur’an, God refers to himself as Allah.
Allah is the same God worshiped by Jews and Christians. He
is the God of Adam,Noah, Abraham,Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad.
He is also the one and only God and the eternal God. He
did not beget another, nor was he begotten by another being,
50 ISLAM
and nothing is equal to him. God has no partner or associates
(Q. 4:48) and is not a Trinity (Q. 5:75–76). He is transcendent,
omnipotent, omniscient, and has supreme authority over all
that exists. He possesses limitless power and is the creator and
controller of the universe. Eyes cannot see him but he can see
all eyes, and he is aware of all secrets. Although humans cannot
see him, God is nearer to them than they can possibly imagine:
“We created man, and surely know what dark suggestions his
soul makes to him, for We are nearer him than (his) jugular
vein” (Q. 50:16).
According to the Qur’an, mercy and compassion are God’s
principal qualities. God is characterized this way frequently
in the Qur’an, and, in fact, every chapter in the Qur’an except
the ninth begins with the phrase “In the name of God, Most
Compassionate, Most Merciful.” This is a widely used phrase
throughout the Islamic world, and many faithful Muslims begin
their letters, articles, and public speeches with this phrase. By
doing so, they remind themselves and their audiences that all
things are in the hands of God and that it is his mercy and grace
that allows them to do well in whatever they are pursuing.Many
Muslims also recite the phrase when they start the activities of
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THE STORY OF NOAH
Noah is an important prophet whose story appears in both the
Qur’an and the Bible. Some time after creating humans, God became
so dismayed at their corruption that he decided he had to destroy
them. However, Noah was so righteous and devoted to God that God
warned him of the coming disaster. He told him to build an ark to save
his family and certain animals from the floods he would soon send to
destroy every other living thing. Noah tried to warn the people to
repent and return to God, but they called Noah a liar and ridiculed
him while continuing to scorn God. As God promised, the floods came
and Noah was safe while every thing else on Earth was swallowed by
water. After the destruction was complete, the waters receded and the
ark rested on a mountain. Noah lived and prospered for many more
years in God’s favor.
their daily routine, including eating, driving, and especially,
activities that involve some degree of risk. They ask for God’s
compassion and mercy to finish the tasks they start.
While being forgiving and merciful, however, God does not
forgive those who shirk or negate his existence and oneness
unless they sincerely repent (Q. 4:48, 3:13). Nonetheless, even
in these cases, God’s mercy is limitless, as indicated by this
humorous hadith: A man accused of denying God’s existence
was brought to the prophet Muhammad for trial. When the
Prophet inquired about the case, he was told that the man, who
had become despondent over a personal tragedy, was found in
the desert throwing his spear into the sky while screaming that
he wanted to kill God for unjustly inflicting a great tragedy
upon him. After hearing the case, the Prophet stated, “Is it not
enough that he acknowledged the existence of God by wanting
to kill him?” The man was then set free.
Perhaps the most telling phrase Muslims use to indicate God’s
greatness and absolute power is Allah-hu Akbar, or “God is the
Most Great.” This phrase emphasizes the absolute power of God
over all things. It is regularly used as a preface to daily calls to
prayers. It was (and still is) shouted by Islamic soldiers during
military exercises and combats. It is also used as a response
to someone’s expression of arrogance and egoism as well as a
reaction to viewing an amazing phenomenon. In all cases, it is a
reminder of God’s complete power over all living beings.
Application of Tawhid to Everyday Life
A Muslim who submits to the will of Allah releases himself from
all other obligations, except those that are conditioned to the
terms of submission. His or her obligations are defined within
the context of the faith and the things that will please (or at
least not disappoint) God. He or she derives all his strength,
energy, and inspiration from his or her willfully chosen master,
God. By becoming devoted to only one benevolent master, the
Muslim is liberated from all possible false masters. His or her
aspirations and fears are directed toward pleasing God. The
52 ISLAM
belief in a true master frees the Muslim from becoming a slave
to others either out of fear or in the hope of gaining favor.
On the other hand, a person who does not submit to God
often becomes a slave to false masters, or, as often happens in a
spiritually challenged world, a slave to his or her own ego.When
this happens, a person wrongfully strives for worldly pleasures
such as power, fame, fortune, and desires of the flesh. A society
full of people like this eventually turns chaotic and amoral.
The concept of tawhid also inculcates in the believer a realization
of the unity of humankind. A believing Muslim rejects any
notion of discrimination based upon racial and ethnic differences.
All human beings, according to Islam, are children of God
and they all stand equal in his sight, regardless of their ethnic
background, gender, age, or color of skin (Q. 49:13). The unity
of God also encompasses the unity of all of creation, the entire
universe. There is absolute harmony in God’s creation, and the
perfect symmetry of nature and the complete order of planetary
systems leave the believer with an impression that God has to
be a mighty creator and governor (Q. 67:1–4). In the believer’s
mind, the concept of tawhid therefore comprises the unity of
God, humankind, and the universe.
God, the universe, and humankind are all interrelated. Islam
prescribes guidelines that regulate these intertwining relationships.
A series of accepted codes of conduct decreed by Islamic
law governs these relationships and establishes principles of
justice and a basis for accountability to God. Islamic laws also
formulate the framework for permissible economic, social, and
political systems. As a law-oriented religion, Islam provides legal
standards as well as spiritual incentives to guarantee fairness and
justice for all involved in these relationships.
Angels
According to Islamic tradition, angels are imperceptible spiritual
beings who are guided by God to administer to the universe and
its intricate system of laws. Unlike humans, angels are free of sin
because they lack the free will to be tempted by Satan. They are
Worldview 53
totally subject to the will of God and carry out his commands
without the slightest deviation from their duties. Angels are
created out of light but they are neither divine nor worthy of
worship. In the hierarchy of the universe, the human was given
a higher status than that of the angels when God commanded
the angels to prostrate themselves before the human, prior to the
divine appointment of the human as his vicegerent on Earth.
According to Islamic tradition, invisible angels surround and
protect us. As our guardians, they are with us and attached to us,
and they carefully observe our behavior (Q. 82:10–12). Angels
are immortal and sexless, and they function as guardians,
recorders of our deeds, and messengers from God to chosen
individuals. According to tradition, each of us has two angels
assigned to record our actions—good deeds and misdeeds
(Q. 50:17). On the Day of Judgment, they will present these
records when we go on trial before God. In the Qur’an, some
angels, such as Jibril (Gabriel), Mikhail (Michael), Israfil, and
Israel, are mentioned as archangels, each of whom governs a
host of other angels. Jibril is the angel who revealed the Qur’an
to the prophet Muhammad.
With God’s will, angels can appear in the form of a human.
According to a hadith, once, when the prophet Muhammad was
sitting with his companions discussing religious issues, a freshlooking
stranger in immaculately clean clothing entered the
mosque, gently approached the assembly, and started to ask
thoughtful questions about the nature of Islam. When he
finished his questions, he quietly departed. The companions
of Muhammad were amazed by the sudden appearance and
disappearance of a complete stranger who must have traveled
a long distance to reach the mosque. When he noticed his
companions’ amazement, the Prophet informed them that the
man was the archangel Gabriel, who had come to observe their
session. Some of Muhammad’s companions immediately ran
after the stranger, but could find no trace of him. After an
inquiry, it became clear that no one in the town had seen the
person who had visited the mosque.
54 ISLAM
Jinns
In addition to humanity and angels, another being, known as a
jinn, inhabits the Islamic universe. Jinns are intelligent, invisible
spirits made of fire (Q. 55:15). Like humans, they enjoy free will,
and therefore, they can be either good or bad. They have the
capacity to take on human or animal forms and can help or hurt
human beings as well as each other, depending on their whim.
According to one Qur’anic passage, a group of jinns, after listening
to a Qur’an recitation by the Prophet, converted to Islam
(Q. 46:29–31). Like humans, jinns will be judged based on their
sinful or righteous acts. Perhaps the image in Western culture or
in English that would most closely describe a jinn is the genie
portrayed in English translations of tales from the popular book
The Thousand and One Nights.
Prophets, Messengers, and Scriptures
Belief in God’s scriptures and messengers are the third and
fourth articles of Islamic faith. After appointing humans as his
vicegerent on Earth, God promised humanity that he would
send guidance through prophets and messengers (Q. 2:38).
Prophets guide people to worship God and to live righteous
lives. According to Islamic tradition, the first human, Adam,
was the primordial father of humankind, and also the first
prophet. Adam is also considered the first Muslim because he
deliberately submitted to the will of God. All other prophets
who came after Adam were also Muslim prophets, and they,
too, submitted to the one and only God and obeyed his
commands. The Islamic tradition states that 124,000 prophets
were chosen by God to lead the Muslim community to salvation
at various times between the lives of Adam and Muhammad.
According to the Qur’an, “There is not a nation but that a
Warner [someone who gives warnings; i.e., a prophet] was
sent to it” (Q. 26:208).
According to Islamic primary sources, the Qur’an and the
ahadith, God had revealed his message to other prophets
before to Muhammad, and some of these prophets had their
Worldview 55
own books of revelations. Among the books of the prophets
that the Qur’an mentions by name as sacred literature are the
Books of Abraham, the Torah of Moses, the Zabur (Psalms) of
David, and the Injil (Gospel) of Jesus Christ. Although there
is no known trace of the Books of Abraham in extant world
religious literature, the other books have survived in Judeo-
Christian scripture. However, the Qur’an states that the
content of these books was gradually changed since their first
revelations. By the seventh century A.D., according to Muslims,
there was a compelling need for an intact copy of God’s original
revelation, which was revealed to the prophet Muhammad in
the form of the Qur’an.
In Islam, there is a distinction between a prophet and a
messenger. A prophet (nabi in Arabic) is someone who conveys
the message of God to the people, encourages them to do good
deeds, and discourages them from misdeeds. The prophetic
message does not contain a sacred universal law, and it is
presented to a limited group of people during a particular
time in history. Jonah, Elijah, and John the Baptist were examples
of prophets. A messenger (rasul in Arabic), on the other
hand, is a prophet whose message contains sacred universal
laws that are collected in the form of a sacred scripture.Moses
and Muhammad are two examples of messengers. Every
messenger is also a prophet, but any given prophet is not
necessarily a messenger.
The Qur’an mentions twenty-six prophets by name, twentythree
of whom are well-known biblical figures. Five prophets
(Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad) are considered
the main prophets of Islam, and they are referred to as ulu al-’azm,
or “the steadfast prophets of firm resolve” (Q. 46:35).Noah’s tale in
the Qur’an is very similar to the account found in the Old Testament
of the Bible (Q. 11:25–49, 29:14).Abraham, as mentioned,
is considered the forefather of Arabs, including Muhammad,
the Prophet of Islam. He is also the first prophet who actively
preached monotheism. The life and deeds of Moses were similar
to Muhammad’s in many ways. Moses is mentioned more than
56 ISLAM
two hundred times in the Qur’an, and his sacred scripture, the
Torah, is comparable to the Qur’an (Q. 10:90, 79:15–25).
Jesus is another major prophet of Islam, and is considered
a Muslim who submitted to the will of God. His birth to the
Virgin Mary is fully described in chapter nineteen of the
Qur’an, under the title of Maryam, or “Mary.” His miracles of
speaking in his cradle and healing the sick, his deep passion for
helping the dispossessed, and his endeavor to feed the hungry
makes Jesus a very amiable prophet in the Qur’an (Q. 3:45–47,
57:27, 61:14). The Qur’an speaks of Jesus as a messenger of
God who invited his followers to worship God rather than
worshiping him: “God is my Lord and your Lord, so worship
him, therefore, this is the straight path” (Q. 3:51).
In Islam, any type of anthropomorphism (assigning humanlike
qualities to the nonhuman, such as God), including the
Christian concept of the Trinity, in which God the father, Jesus
the son, and the Holy Spirit are all aspects of the same god, is
considered a deviation from the true path of monotheism.
Jesus is considered neither divine nor a son of God by Muslims
(Q. 5:116, 19:34–35, 5:17 and 72). According to the Qur’an,
Jesus did not die on the cross, but was lifted up by God to
heaven, and he will return to establish true justice on Earth
(Q. 4:157–158, 43:61).
According to the following Qur’anic verse, Jesus heralded
the coming of Muhammad (whose name literally means “The
Praised One”) to his followers: “And remember Jesus the son of
Mary said ‘O children of Israel, I am the messenger of God to
you, sent to confirm the Torah that was before me, and I give
you the good news of a messenger who will come after me
whose name is Ahmad [the praised one]’ ” (Q. 61:6).
The Day of Judgment
The fifth article of Islamic faith is belief in the Day of Judgment.
Like Christians, Muslims believe in life after death and the
existence of heaven and hell. According to Islamic traditions,
the life of this world and all that it contains will come to an
Worldview 57
end as a result of a cosmic cataclysmic event known as the Last
Day (Q. 81:1–14). Only God knows when this day will come.
All people and jinns who have lived on Earth since its inception
will be restored to life to face their creator God and to answer
for their deeds in this world. Those whose good deeds prevail
will be rewarded and allowed to live happily forever in
paradise (heaven), and those whose evil deeds prevail will
be punished and subjected to live in hell, an abode of fire
and torture.
This system of reward and punishment constantly reminds
Muslims that life on Earth is transitory and always a preparation
for the Day of Judgment. The ultimate responsibility and
accountability of each person for his or her own actions is
emphasized. On the Day of Judgment, each person’s destination
will be the outcome of his or her worldly actions. No redemption,
atonement, or intercession through intermediaries will
be accepted.
The Qur’an vividly describes the human’s accountability on
the Day of Judgment:
Say it is God who gives you life and later causes you to die.
It is He Who will gather you all on the Day of Resurrection.
Of this there is no doubt, yet most men do not know it. It is
God Who has sovereignty over the heavens and the earth.
On the day when the Hour of Judgment strikes, those who
have denied His revelations will assuredly lose all. You
will see every nation on its knees. Every nation will be
summoned to its Book, and a voice will say: “You will this
day be rewarded for your deeds. This book of Ours speaks
with truth against you. We have recorded all your actions”
(Q. 45:26–29).
The Qur’anic description of the afterlife portrays a life
characterized by spiritual as well as material rewards and
punishments. Bodies resurrected to face judgment will clearly
feel pleasures in heaven and pains in hell after they are consigned
to their final destinations. The garden of paradise is described as
58 ISLAM
a delightful place of perpetual peace and tranquillity with
flowing streams, shaded trees, and exquisite gardens, a place
where one can enjoy the company of his or her beloved ones
(Q. 56:12–37). Hell, in contrast, is characterized as a torturous
place of fierce blasts of fire, boiling water, and an everlasting
canopy of black smoke (Q. 56:42–44).
Worldview 59
Worship
5
O Allah! This House is Thy House,
and this Sanctuary is Thy Sanctuary,
and this Security is Thy Security,
and this slave is Thy slave.
—The Hajj Ritual Prayer
THE CONCEPT OF WORSHIP IN ISLAM
The term for “worship” in Arabic is ibadah. Ibadah is derived
from the root abd, meaning “slave.” According to Islam, God
is the master and the human is the slave; ibadah, therefore,
means “submission to the will of the master,”who, in this case, is
God. This is the same definition used for the term Islam, so we
can conclude that worshiping God is the same as following the
path of Islam.
For devout Muslims who submit themselves totally to the
will of God, living on Earth is just a transitory stage. This life is
a time for preparation for the Day of Judgment, to do what is
necessary to pass God’s judgment, after which we will enjoy
eternal life in paradise.
God is constantly present in the minds and hearts of the
faithful, and for them, worshiping and pleasing God are the
main objectives of life. Worshiping God gives the lives of the
faithful meaning. They consider this worldly life a testing stage,
and they look forward to eternal life in which they can have
lives of true peace and tranquillity. However, to reach that
everlasting life, they have to work for it by worshiping God and
following his commands as explained by shari’ah, or Islamic
law. The faithful know they are responsible for all their actions,
whether public or private, and they are well aware of the fact
that God is omniscient.
WORSHIP IS LIVING A RIGHTEOUS LIFE
In Islam, worship is more than just the observance of certain
rituals through prayer and participation in congregational events.
Worship depends on how a person lives his or her life. Anytime a
Muslim does something that pleases God, it is an act of worship.
Worship is obedience to God. This obedience involves recognizing
God’s unity, and believing in angels, his prophets, the books
of revelations, and the Last Day. It also entails a commitment
to the Five Pillars of Islam—the five basic requirements for
one to be considered a Muslim: the declaration of faith, daily
prayers, almsgiving, fasting, and the pilgrimage to Mecca.
Worship 61
Belief alone is not enough to please God. Someone who truly
submits to God needs to put his or her belief into practice by
becoming a concerned member of his or her own community.
A person’s religious and social performances also need to be
sincere, rather than mechanical. When Muhammad conveyed a
revelation that commanded Muslims to turn in the direction of
the shrine of the Kaaba in Mecca during daily prayers instead of
toward Jerusalem, as the Muslims had been doing in the past, a
group of Muslims took issue with the change. Another Qur’anic
revelation then criticized the attitudes of those who performed
the act of worship as a mere mechanical ritual:
Righteousness does not consist in whether you face towards
the East or the West. Righteousness lies in believing in God
and the Last Day and the angels and in the scriptures and the
prophets, and in disbursing your wealth out of love for God
among your kin and the orphans and to travelers in need and
to beggars, and in freeing slaves, attending to your prayers,
and giving charity, and in keeping your promises, and in
being steadfast in hardship and adversity and in times of
peril. These are the ones who are true believers, and these are
the ones who follow the straight path (Q. 2:177).
As the above verse indicates, in Islam, righteousness goes far
beyond turning one’s head toward Mecca or Jerusalem while
praying. It is a person’s compassion for the poor and steadfastness
upon the straight path guided by the Qur’an and teachings
of the Prophet that please God.
Since Islam is a way of life for believers, worship is living in
accordance with God’s will, in true submission to God. Every
right act of a Muslim is considered an act of worship. For example,
Muhammad stated that work may be considered a type of
worship: “Whoever finds himself at nightfall tired of his work,
God will forgive his sins.”Muhammad also mentioned that seeking
knowledge is one of the highest forms of worship: “Seeking
knowledge for one hour is better than praying for seventy years.”
Simple daily activities, when they are done for the sake of
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God rather than to please oneself, are acts of worship as well:
“Receiving your friend with a smile is a type of charity, helping
a person to load his animal is a charity, and putting some water
in your neighbor’s bucket is a charity.” Even indulging in business
activities and making money to feed one’s family as far as it is
done within the context of Islam is ibadah, or “worship.”
The fulfillment of one’s personal obligations, if done with
God’s satisfaction in mind, is an act of worship. According to
Muhammad, the time that a man spends with his family is
counted as an act of worship and he will be rewarded later for
his kindness and attention toward his family. Even pleasurable
activities, if done lawfully and with God in mind, are acts of
worship. Muhammad’s male companions were surprised to
hear the Prophet say that having sexual intercourse with their
wives was an act of worship.When he noticed their amazement,
Muhammad continued by explaining that God wants believers
to satisfy their desires; however, those desires have to be fulfilled
within the framework of Islamic law.
The all-encompassing nature of Islam allows for a comprehensive
definition of worship. Worship includes all constructive
engagements by believers, so long as they are done for the sake of
God. These activities may be either ritualistic, like prayers, or nonritualistic,
like removing a harmful object from a public road.
RITUALISTIC WORSHIP
Emphasizing nonritualistic worship does not negate the importance
of ritual worship in Islam. In Islam, as in other major
religions, worship is conducted through a series of ritualistic acts
performed at times individually and at other times communally.
The most significant of these ritualistic acts of Islamic worship
are the daily prayers, the fast of the month of Ramadan, and the
pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj). These acts, in addition to the declaration
of faith and almsgiving, form the Five Pillars of Islam, which
will be discussed in the next chapter. Here we will discuss prayer
as the most visible act of worship and the mosque as the primary
place of ritualistic worship.
Worship 63
Prayers (Salat )
Among all rituals, daily prayers were the first to be instituted by
the prophet Muhammad himself. Muhammad was known for
saying that the one thing he cherished most in his life was the
time he spent performing his prayers. Today, for true believers,
prayer time is still a time of spiritual awakening and a moment
to break away from everyday busy life to face God. It is a time
for the rejuvenation of the soul, for reflection on one’s life,
and for remembrance of God as a beloved friend and guide.
Adult Muslims are required to pray five times: at dawn, noon,
mid-afternoon, sunset, and in the evening after dark.
Salat (prayer) is a highly formulized ritual and a very devotional
act. It consists of a series of prescribed bodily postures that
include standing, bowing (ruku’ ), kneeling, prostration (sujud),
and sitting. Throughout the prayer ritual, the faithful must face
qiblah, the direction of the Kaaba or the holy house of God in
Mecca, the birthplace of Islam on the Arabian Peninsula. Each
prayer contains cycles or units known as ra’kats. All daily prayers
combined include seventeen ra’kats—dawn prayers have two
ra’kats, noon and afternoon have four each, after sunset three,
and the evening prayers four. Shiite Muslims combine the two
noon and afternoon prayer rituals into one session and the two
sunset and evening prayers into another session; thus, they pray
three times daily instead of five times. Even so, they still perform
seventeen ra’kats, just as Sunnis do.
Salat must always be preceded by a ritual of purification
through washing, known as wudu (“making pure or radiant”).
Wudu, or the ritual of ablution, involves washing one’s hands
and forearms to the elbows, washing the face, ears, mouth, and
nostrils, and passing wet hands over the head and feet, or
washing both feet to the heels.While performing the ritual of
washing, one utters certain invocations for assertion of right
intentions, purity, and guidance. In the absence of water, suncleaned
sand may be used. The use of sand is allowed only
when water is not available, and the ritual of using sand is
known as tayammum.
64 ISLAM
If an individual has experienced severe impurities, such as
sexual intercourse, menstruation, or direct contact with blood,
dead bodies, or foul substances such as dog or pig saliva, then
he or she must perform the ritual of ghusl, a complete ablution
involving a ritualized washing of the entire body.Acts of ablution
are very important aspects of worship in Islam. The Qur’an and
sayings of the Prophet associate cleanliness with godliness.
Prayers contain fixed verses from the Qur’an as well as
optional prayers. The heart and soul of the daily ritual prayers,
however, is the opening chapter of the Qur’an, which is recited
during all five required sessions. The sura (chapter) titled
al-Fatihah, or “the Opening,” contains the essence of Islam and
clearly defines the relationship between humankind and God,
and God and his creation:
In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Praise be to God, the Lord of the Worlds,
The Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
Master of the Day of Judgment.
You alone we worship, and to You alone we turn for help
Guide us toward the straight path
The path of those whom You favored
Not of those who have incurred Your wrath
Nor of those who have gone astray (Q. 1:1–7).
Salat is both an individual and a communal act of ritual. It can
be performed anywhere, but it is recommended to be performed
in the mosque, especially at Friday noon. While in a mosque,
believers line up behind the imam (prayer leader) and perform a
communal prayer. Perhaps during the history of Islam nothing
has bound Muslims together as effectively as the ritual of
communal prayer. It is a soulful expression of unity by numerous
believers who gather together, assemble in organized lines,
follow a single imam, and recite the same Qur’anic verses while
bowing and prostrating harmoniously.
Friday is the time for communal prayers. On this day,Muslims
gather in mosques to perform congregational prayers. The
Worship 65
Qur’an emphasizes the importance of Friday congregations:
“Believers, when you are summoned to Friday prayers hasten to
the remembrance of God and cease your trading. That would be
best for you, if you but knew it. Then when the prayers are ended,
disperse and go your ways in quest of God’s bounty. Remember
God always, so that you may prosper” (Q. 62:9–10). Friday noon
communal prayers are usually accompanied by formal sermons
that deal with religious, moral, and political issues.
In addition to the required prayers, some very pious Muslims
perform voluntary prayers. The very devout wake up hours
before sunrise and, in the quiet of the night, offer prayers to
their creator. These prayers are known as nawafil. Those who
follow a spiritual path (tariqah) in addition to required prayers
perform their own private prayers (dhikr), both in private and
in communal forms.
The Mosque (Masjid )
The word mosque is a distorted version of the Arabic word
masjid, which means “place of prostration.”Mosques are houses
of worship in Islam, and they symbolically represent the divine
presence on Earth.Unlike Western cathedrals, whose architecture
generally emphasizes verticality, mosques are usually built
horizontally in a way that hugs the earth rather than ascends
toward the sky. With the exception of a few features such as
minarets, mosques usually are not very tall buildings. The architecture
of Islamic mosques, however, is not uniform throughout
the Muslim world, and designs are to a great extent influenced
by the artistic taste of particular Muslims from various cultural
regions as well as the availability of desired building materials.
As the main place of communal worship and prayer, the
mosque is the religious symbol of any Muslim city. During the
first few centuries of Islam’s existence, a settlement without a
major mosque was not considered a true city.
Mosques are usually located where they are accessible to city
dwellers. The main community mosque is called the Friday
mosque, or the congregational mosque. It is normally a relatively
66 ISLAM
large building, often at the center of the city, and situated either
along the city’s main thoroughfare or very close to it. It is called
the Friday mosque (Masjid al-Jum’ah) because the most important
weekly community prayer is performed there on Friday at
noon. It is also called congregational mosque (Masjid al-Jame’)
because it is the main gathering place for believers. In traditional
Muslim cities, before the advent of skyscrapers, the Friday
mosque was the tallest structure in town and was easily visible—
especially its tall minarets—from different parts of the city.
Friday mosques today are usually within easy walking distance of
where the majority of the population resides, and particularly is
close to the shopkeepers in the bazaar.
Ideally, the mosque is the center of the city’s spiritual life and
blends well into the physical texture of the city.Unlike cathedrals
that stand tall and separate from surrounding buildings,
mosques are continuations of the crowded structures of the
town and are often so contiguous with neighboring buildings
that one cannot walk completely around the mosque. With the
exception of especially distinct features, such as portal domes
and minarets, mosques easily merge into their surroundings.
In some countries, such as Iran, the Friday mosque is often
one of the main structures of the bazaar complex and, in many
cases, is actually the focus of the bazaar, the center of large
crowds and bustling activity. It is conveniently located at the
center of the bazaar complex, where the majority of shopkeepers
as well as their customers have easy access to it. Since Islam
requires adult Muslims to pray five times daily, the shopkeepers
and visitors need a mosque nearby at which to perform their
prayers. Believers prefer to pray in a mosque because, according
to a prophetic saying, prayers said in a mosque are twenty-five
times more effective than those said elsewhere. Also, certain
economic activities are deliberately carried on near the mosque
to fulfill the needs of the house of worship’s religious rituals
and educational programs. Often, shops selling goods such as
sandals, rosaries, perfume, candles, books, papers, and pencils
are found near the mosque.3
Worship 67
In addition to its role as a place of worship, a mosque serves
as a complex institution for educational, social, and political
affairs. Mosques have also traditionally been favorite lodging
places for poor travelers. Mosques are places where religious
teachers meet with their students. Usually between prayer
times, religious teachers give lessons either in sanctuaries or in
the courtyard (if the weather permits). Religious teachers are
also available to the common people of the community who
come for spiritual counsel. Some religious teachers reside in
mosques and teach the Qur’an and basic reading and writing
to children who cannot afford regular schooling. Mosques
usually have their own libraries, which, in many cases, include
secular as well as religious collections. Formal religious
education, however, is provided in institutions known as
madrasahs (religious schools). Madrasahs are usually attached
to great mosques or located very close to them, sometimes
within the bazaar complex.
Mosques are also places where social and political occasions
happen. From the early history of Islam, religion and politics
have gone hand in hand, and mosques have functioned as
places where people received news about events such as the
distribution of government-subsidized goods, recruitment
of soldiers for wars, taxation, leadership changes, and
demonstrations.
A good example of mosques serving as political institutions
can be found in Iran. The gathering of huge crowds at large
mosques in Iran provides the potential for mass demonstrations,
especially after emotional speeches by popular religious
leaders during Shiite holy days, and makes the mosques a
major factor in the unification of people who demand political
changes. The role played by mosques in the 1979 revolution,
which resulted in the fall of the monarchy and the establishment
of the present Islamic Republic of Iran, is testament to
the power of these institutions.
Great mosques have been constructed by royal families
of different dynasties who ruled over various parts of the
68 ISLAM
Muslim world throughout history. The great mosques of
Egypt, Turkey, Iran, and India are good examples of these
royal buildings.
Today, some governments in Muslim countries, especially
in the Middle East, are creating mosques with breathtaking
architectural beauty. The building of mosques is also a sign of
social prestige and an indication of the material wealth and
Worship 69
THE ISLAMIC CENTER OF GREATER TOLEDO
The first Muslim immigrants to Toledo, Ohio, came at the turn of the
twentieth century from Syria and Lebanon. In the 1930s, a few of
these early families established the Syrian American Muslim Society. It
was not until 1954, though, that Toledo’s first Islamic Center was
built on East Bancroft Street, near downtown, to fulfill the needs of
the Muslim community.
Over time, as many more Muslims came to the Greater Toledo
area in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Bancroft Street Center
could no longer meet the religious and social needs of its members.
After much deliberation and soul searching, it was decided to build
a bigger, better facility.
In 1978, forty-eight acres of land were purchased in Perrysburg
Township. The center’s foundation was laid in October 1980, though
actual construction did not begin until September 1982. The present
center in Perrysburg was in planning for over a decade. Its classic
Islamic architecture was the first of its kind in North America. The
building officially opened on October 22, 1983. Two wings were
added in 1991 to accommodate increased enrollment in the weekend
school and to expand the social hall facility.
The present center is the culmination of the dreams and aspirations
of the handful of Muslims who first migrated to this part of the United
States some seventy-five years ago, and the many others who followed
in their footsteps. Today, more than twenty nationalities are represented
in the center. In addition to fulfilling the religious and cultural
needs of its members, the center provides an important bridge of
understanding between its members and the community at large. As
a result, the scope and purpose of the Islamic Center goes well beyond
the typical objectives of a religious organization.
Source: Islamic Center of Greater Toledo, available online at http://www.icgt.org/.
religious piety of their builders. Small mosques, however, are
constructed by average people, using money collected from a
particular neighborhood, guild, or private donors. There is a
hadith that states, “For him who builds a mosque, God will
build a house in Paradise.” This is a powerful encouragement
for the building of new mosques.
Many mosques are built in residential areas. Political and
community leaders, by building mosques, display their degree
of religiosity. Neighborhood mosques are located at the center
of each residential district, often along the bazaar route and
next to a few other public structures. People of the neighborhood
usually meet at the local mosque on a regular basis,
and after performing the scheduled worship rituals, they may
discuss problems related to their area, such as security, water,
garbage disposal, loitering youth. Social and family affairs,
including marriages, divorces, mourning, and celebrations are
also discussed at local mosque gatherings.
Architecture of a Typical Mosque
The early mosques of Arabia at the time of the Prophet were
plain-looking structures. As Islam spread throughout the
world, though, mosques became more sophisticated in design.
Today, there are mosques all over the world with various
architectures and designs.Whatever the design of the mosque,
however, there are certain features that are usually shared. Some
of these features—such as minarets (towers) and domes—
are visible from outside, while some are internal features, like
the mihrab (prayer niche facing Mecca) and the minbar (raised
pulpit seat).
Domes and minarets have become the symbols of the Islamic
cultural landscape. The high dome-shaped structure of mosques
with their numerous illuminated apertures is representative of
the sky shining at night. In a way, mosques are supposed to be
miniature representations of the universe, with a round blue sky
embracing the earth.
Minarets are now regular features of mosque architecture,
70 ISLAM
although they were not part of the earliest mosques. As Islam
spread into Syria,Muslims may have borrowed the idea of a tower
from the Byzantine churches there. Minarets (the word means
“light-giving”) have several functions, including increasing
visibility to make it easier to locate a mosque. They are also
used for calling believers to prayers. In earlier times, before loudspeakers
were invented, the muezzin (muadhdhin) (“crier”)
stood in the room at the top of the minaret and recited the azzan
(adhan) to call people to prayers.
Every mosque has to provide a clear indication of the
qiblah—the direction toward the Kaaba, the holy house of
God in Mecca. The architectural feature in a mosque that
points toward the qiblah is the mihrab; it is usually a niche
in the wall. Here, the imam faces the qiblah wall while the
members of congregation line up behind him in an organized
fashion. Because it represents the direction of the Kaaba, the
house of God, the mihrab is considered the holiest feature of
the mosque. A mihrab is usually made out of masonry with
pillars at the sides, and is often highly decorated. In many
mosques, like those in Iranian cities, an elaborately decorated
roof area made up of geometric shapes usually stands above
the qiblah wall. The mihrab is also a later addition (from the
ninth century) to the mosque, and was perhaps borrowed from
Christian churches or Zoroastrian temples.
Minbars are pulpits usually located next to the mihrab.
Those who give sermons or other speakers during Muslim
services use them. The minbar of the prophet Muhammad had
no more than two steps and a seat. Later on, the number of
steps was increased to six, the number minbars have today.
Alongside the minbar and mihrab in a modern mosque, one
can see copies of the Qur’an and other books of prayers. Inside
Shiite mosques are pieces of clay stamps (muhr) made from the
soil of sacred places (such as Mecca); the faithful place their
foreheads against these during prostration.
The floor of a mosque is usually covered with carpets. Due
to strict Islamic opposition to idolatry, any representation of
Worship 71
human or animal life is forbidden inside the mosque. As a
result, geometric and flowery designs and especially calligraphy
have been employed to decorate the walls and other parts of the
mosque. Walls of traditional mosques are usually decorated
with verses from the Qur’an or sayings of the prophet Muhammad
written in exquisite calligraphy.
Administration of Mosques
Traditionally, mosques in Islamic countries have been financed
by revenue received from endowments (waqf ). Endowments are
often agricultural lands, which are administered by the donor
or the donor’s family. For the large mosques, there has often
been more than one endowment. Sometimes, in the absence of
a donor, a judge or a representative of a judge oversees the
financial affairs of a mosque. The imam may also sometimes
serve as an administrator.
Rules of the Mosque
Before entering a mosque, a visitor should remove his or her
shoes and leave them in designated shoe racks. In smaller
neighborhood mosques that have no shoe racks, people leave
their shoes by the entrance door. Also prior to entering the
mosque, one needs to perform the ritual of ablution (cleansing),
or wudu. Traditionally, there are pools with fountains in the
courtyard of the mosque or a building attached to it to facilitate
the ablution process. In modern mosques, one often finds hot
and cold water faucets, along with stacks of towels.
Once inside the mosque, one should speak softly without
disturbing the people who are praying. Performing two
ra’kats of prayers upon entering is recommended. For Friday
prayers with high participation, it is recommended that
visitors wear nice clothing and perfume.
Women may come to the mosque, but they sit apart from
the men. Often there are separate rooms that segregate men
and women. If there is only one room available, women are
supposed to sit behind the men in the room during prayers.
72 ISLAM
The reason for segregation is to avoid distraction. That is, it
is believed that a woman worshiper can better concentrate
on her prayers when she is not worried about attracting
attention, for example, because the hem of her skirt may rise
as she kneels.
Worship 73
Growing up
Muslim
6
The Messenger of Allaah
(peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him)
said: “Fear Allaah and be fair to your children.”
—Saheeh al-Bukhari
F or a believer, Islam is more than a religion, it is a way of
life. Islam is not confined simply to doctrines concerned
with the sacred but recommends specific individual and societal
acts, such as almsgiving, fasting, and pilgrimage, that bind a
community together. Islam provides criteria for human interactions
as well as interactions with God and natural surroundings.
For a devout Muslim, therefore, Islam can be regarded as a
religion of orthopraxy, meaning that Muslims act in specified
matters in ways defined by religion. This is not to be confused
with orthodoxy, that is, conformation to intricate doctrines set
forth in texts formulated by scholars.
From childhood onward, Islamic values are instilled in the
mind and heart of a believer, so he or she can have a sound grasp
of good and bad within the Islamic context. A Muslim’s religious
training falls into two categories: acts of worship (ibadat) and
human interrelations (mu’amalat), or transactions. While
attending to prayers is an act of worship or ibadat, helping
the poor and being honest in one’s business affairs fall in
the category of mu’amalat. Worshiping God without being
concerned about the well-being of fellow humans is not enough
to achieve salvation, as indicated in the verse:“Have you thought
of him who denies the Last Judgment? It is he who turns away
the orphan and has no urge to feed the poor.Woe to those who
pray but are heedless in their prayer, and who make a show of
piety yet refuse small kindnesses” (Q. 107:1–7).
EVERYDAY CULTURAL CEREMONIES
Birth Celebrations
Babies are considered gifts from God, and so their birthdays are
a time for rejoicing and celebration. One of the first things
Muslims do after a child is born is to recite the shihadah
(“There is no deity but God, Muhammad is the Messenger of
God”) and some Qur’anic verses directly into the child’s ears.
Usually, a religiously respected person who is known for his or
her piety performs this ritual.
Next, a proper name must be chosen for the baby. If the
Growing up Muslim 75
parents are devout Muslims, the names chosen normally have
some Islamic significance. For example, a child might be named
after one of the prophets mentioned in the Qur’an or members
of Muhammad’s family and associates. In some countries,
parents wait until the seventh day after the child’s birth to
announce the name. On the seventh day, family and friends
gather in the home of the new baby’s parents, where the name
is formally proclaimed. Announcement of the name is usually
followed by a feast, and later, by singing and rejoicing. Usually,
the parents make charitable donations to the poor as a way of
thanking God for the birth of the new child.
The Marriage Contract (Aqd Nikah)
According to the prophet Muhammad, “when a servant of God
marries he fulfills half of his religious duty, to fulfill the other
half he has to follow the path of Islam.” Because of its obvious
importance in a Muslim’s life, a wedding is seen as a blessed act,
and Islam wants young people to find their mate and marry as
soon as they can afford to support a family and enjoy mutual
love, harmony, and respect.Married Muslims are encouraged to
have children and raise them as observant Muslims.
In Islam, marriage is viewed as a civil contract—not a religious
rite. A wedding ceremony requires the consent of both parties
and the presence of two adult witnesses in order for the marriage
to be official. Since there is no priesthood in Islam, the wedding
may be conducted by anyone who knows enough about Islamic
law in regard to marriage. Usually, however, the presence of a
religious teacher or preacher is desirable.
The man and woman being married verbally exchange the
necessary vows indicating their commitment to one another and
their total satisfaction with the terms of the marriage in the
presence of their witnesses. It is customary (and religiously
required) that the man provide his new wife with a marriage gift
(such as money or the deed to a piece of property). This gift,
known as mehr, becomes the property of the wife, and she may
use it as she pleases. Of course, in happy marriages, the gift is
76 ISLAM
used for the well-being of the entire family. After these required
steps, the couple then signs the marriage contract and they are
officially considered husband and wife.
This process outlines the minimum requirements based on
Islamic law. However, for those who can afford it, a wedding is a
lavish ceremony at which many friends and relatives are present
when the couple exchanges vows. If the couple’s families are
strict about the gender segregation rules of Islam, then there will
Growing up Muslim 77
WHAT IS HIJAB (VEILING)?
Faithful Muslim women are often seen in public wearing hijab in the
form of a headscarf or a loose-fitting garment that covers their body’s
curves. Hijab is also called burqah or chador. The main reason for this
veiling is modesty, as indicated in the Qur’an:
Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and
guard their modesty; that will make for greater purity for
them; and God is well acquainted with all that they do. And
say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze
and guard their modesty; and that they should not display
their beauty and ornaments except what must ordinarily
appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their
bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands
. . . (Q. 24:30–31).
Proponents of hijab argue that the veiling protects women from the
gaze of men and prevents them from being treated as sex objects.
Instead of focusing on their physical beauty, men search instead for
their intellect and inner qualities.
There is no clear instruction about hijab in the Qur’an; however, there
is a verse that some opponents of hijab argue is meant to be applied
only to the wives of the Prophet, and not to all Muslims: “O Prophet,
tell your wives and daughters and the believing women to draw their
outer garments around them (when they go out or are among men).
That is better in order that they may be known (to be Muslims) and not
annoyed . . .” (Q. 33:59). Many modern Muslims believe that hijab
should be the choice of women themselves, not something imposed on
them by law as is done in Iran and Saudi Arabia.
be separate ceremonies for men and women. In fact, governments
like those in Iran and Saudi Arabia impose gender segregation in
all public ceremony halls. This has caused protest from members
of the population who are not as observant of religious rules
and prefer to have mixed ceremonies in which both male and
female family and friends may participate.
Death Rituals
For faithful Muslims, death is not the end of existence; it is the continuation
of the journey that will take them to meet their creator
God. According to Islam, all human beings belong to God and
to him they shall return. Muslims believe they will rejoin their
loved ones in paradise if they follow the right religious path.
Since death is not seen as a finality, there is no need to remain
in the state of grief for a long time after losing a loved one.
Usually, family and friends gather in the home of the deceased
or close relatives, where they express their sorrow and give
consolation and comfort to the deceased’s immediate family
members. They recite verses from the Qur’an and pray for the
soul of the deceased. Tea, coffee, and some sweets, such as dates,
are often served.
The body of the deceased has to be washed carefully, wrapped
in a white sheet of cloth, and carried to a mosque or other
burial place for funeral prayers. A congregation made up of close
relatives, led by a pious individual, conducts a short funeral
service, and then the body is buried. The body is placed in the
grave so that the deceased faces the qiblah, the direction of the
holy house of God in Mecca.
LEARNING RELIGIOUS RESPONSIBILITIES
For a Muslim, moral conduct is a religious duty.When Muhammad
was asked to define the faith, he replied, “Faith is a tree with
over seventy branches, the highest of which is believing in the
oneness of God, and the lowest of which is a simple act of
removing a harmful object from the road.” Removing a harmful
object from the road is an act of ihsan, or a virtuous act (an act
78 ISLAM
of doing good). Muhammad defined ihsan as “worshiping God
as if you see Him, because even if you do not see him, He surely
sees you.” God is observant of all our deeds and aware of our
intentions.Doing ihsan, therefore, pleases God and is considered
the highest form of devotion to God.
Five Pillars of Islam
When Muhammad was asked to define the concept of surrendering
to God (Islam), he responded by saying that surrender is:
1. To testify that there is no god but God and that
Muhammad is the messenger of God (shahadah);
2. To perform the prayers (salat);
3. To give alms (zakat);
4. To fast during the month of Ramadan (saum); and
5. To make the pilgrimage to the holy house of God in
Mecca (hajj).
Throughout the history of Islam, the five religious requirements
prescribed by God through the prophet Muhammad have been
known as the Five Pillars of Islam. They are among the first
tenets of Islam that are taught to young people growing up in the
Muslim tradition.
Performing these duties sincerely, out of love for God, assures
the believer of a place in paradise. These are every Muslim’s
personal as well as communal obligations, and are taken as an
expression of faith and devotion.
Declaration of Faith (shahadah)
The first pillar of Islam is shahadah, or “declaration of faith.”
Shahadah contains two declarations:
First: “I bear witness that there is no god but God.”
Second: “I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger
of God.”
Growing up Muslim 79
The first declaration is an affirmation of God’s oneness and is
the primary principle of monotheism, which is shared with
Judaism and Christianity. According to Islam, belief in the
oneness of God and submission to God’s will (i.e., Islam) is
the primordial state of faith in which every child is born (in
previous chapters we referred to this stage as fitrah). The second
declaration is the affirmation of acceptance of Muhammad as
the last messenger (rasul) of God.
Throughout Islamic history, declaration of these two principles
has been the primary precondition of accepting Islam as one’s
religion. Non-Muslims who are inclined toward converting to
Islam need to recite these declarations aloud in order to be
accepted into the community of Muslims as a fellow believer.
Although public declaration of these principles officially protects
a person’s rights as a Muslim, it will not lead to salvation if these
concepts are not sincerely internalized. Shahadah has to be supported
by deep personal faith (iman) and righteous act (ihsan).
Prayer (salat)
The second pillar of Islam is salat, or “prayers.”We covered this
pillar in Chapter 5, when we discussed the concept of worship
in Islam.
Almsgiving (zakat)
The third pillar of Islam is zakat, or “almsgiving.” Zakat literally
means to purify or increase; it is believed that when one renders
zakat, his or her remaining property is purified. Zakat is an obligatory
annual taxation paid by adult Muslims for the good of their
community. It amounts to 2.5 percent of one’s accumulated
wealth, including savings earned through business transactions,
inheritance, or any other sources. It is given at the end of each
year to help the poor and to improve the community. During
the early centuries of Islam’s existence, when governments
functioned within the context of religion, the revenue earned by
collected zakat was kept in a treasury house. The money then was
used to satisfy the collective needs of the society, such as public
80 ISLAM
education, civic projects, public security, protection of orphans
and the dispossessed, and to help travelers in need and released
war captives, or for other similar needs (Q. 9:60).
Today, Muslims are scattered in many different countries in
which laws are based on Western secular principles rather than
shari’ah (Islamic law). In the majority of these countries, governments
have their own taxation programs, part of the revenues of
which are used for the common good, so rendering zakat would
place an extra financial burden upon many Muslims. Therefore,
this obligatory pillar of Islam has become mostly voluntarily for
Muslims in such situations. Believers who want to pay their
zakat either find their own needy recipients or render it through
religious and charitable organizations.
In addition to the obligatory zakat, a form of voluntary almsgiving
known as sadaqah (charity) is also encouraged by the
Qur’an. The Qur’an considers sadaqah similar to a loan given to
God: “Who will give a generous loan to God? He will pay him
back tenfold and he will receive a rich reward” (Q. 57:11).
Fasting (saum)
Saum, or “fasting,” is the fourth pillar of Islam. Every year,
during the entire month of Ramadan, which is the ninth month
of the Islamic lunar calendar, adult Muslims are obligated to fast
from dawn to dusk. Fasting involves abstinence from food,
drink, medicine, smoking, sex, and any other sensual pleasure.
Nothing external can enter the body through the mouth, injection,
or other means. The fast is broken after sunset prayers, and
those who fasted the whole day are then permitted to eat, drink,
and enjoy marital relations if they so desire.
During Ramadan, families generally awake and eat just before
dawn so that their bodies will have sufficient nutritional strength
to get through a day of fasting. Since the Islamic calendar is
lunar-based, the month of Ramadan changes within the seasons
as time progresses. When it occurs in summer, fasting becomes
more difficult during the long and hot days, especially for Muslims
who live in arid regions of the Middle East and Africa.
Growing up Muslim 81
Fasting is not required for everyone. Children, the elderly,
the infirm, travelers, and pregnant and menstruating women are
exempted from fasting.However, adults who miss days of fasting
for any reason are required to make up for the missed days
whenever they can. Every religion has practitioners who try to
escape the more difficult observances, and Islam is no exception:
Some procrastinating Muslims schedule their vacations for
Ramadan in order to—at least temporarily—escape fasting.
If they fail to make up every day of fasting that they missed,
however, they postpone the fulfillment of this obligation and
accrue a spiritual deficit with God.
The Qur’an prescribes fasting during the month of Ramadan:
O believers, fasting is prescribed to you as it was upon those
before you, so that you might (learn) self-restraint. Fast a
fixed number of days, but if any one among you is ill or on a
journey, let him fast a similar number of days later, and for
those who cannot endure it, it can be expiated by the feeding
of a poor man. He that does good of his own accord shall be
rewarded, but to fast is better for you if you knew. In the
month of Ramadan the Qur’an was revealed, a book of guidance
with signs of guidance distinguishing right from wrong.
Therefore, whoever of you is present [in his home], in that
month let him fast. But he who is ill or on a journey shall fast
a similar number of days later, as God wishes you well-being
and not hardship. He desires you to fast the whole month
so that you may glorify Him and render thanks to Him for
giving you His guidance (Q. 2:183–185).
Because the Qur’an was revealed to Muhammad during the
month of Ramadan, this is considered a holy time in the Islamic
year.During this sacred month, believers often reflect upon their
spiritual and ethical lives, perform their missed prayers, and
recite the Qur’an. Also, fasting allows the faithful to experience
the hardship of being deprived of food and water, so they
develop better sympathy for the poor and dispossessed, who
may not have the luxuries, or even the basic necessities, of life.
82 ISLAM
Ramadan is a joyous month, especially throughout Arab
countries, and families often gather in each other’s homes or
congregate in mosques and other religious places. In the
evenings, restaurants and shops are crowded with people and one
can hear the sound of music being played throughout the city.
Pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj)
The fifth and final pillar of Islam is the hajj, or pilgrimage to
Mecca. Hajj is a requirement for all Muslims who have the physical,
mental, and financial ability to make the journey. If a person
is financially able but physically unable to make the trip, he or
she can finance the trip of another person who is physically able
but financially unable, and thus fulfill this religious obligation.
The main purpose of hajj is to provide Muslims from all walks
of life and from various parts of the world with an opportunity
to gather in one place and experience the unity of Islamic
community (ummah) both spiritually and socially. The pilgrimage
is performed during the lunar month of Dhul Hijjah, the
twelfth month of the Islamic calendar.
The destination for hajj is the Kaaba, the house of God in
Mecca, in present-day Saudi Arabia. According to Islamic tradition,
this fifteen-meter-high cubic structure was originally built by
Abraham and his son Ishmael and was dedicated to the worship
of the one God (Q. 22:25–27). It is a symbol of monotheism and
an emblem linking Muhammad to earlier prophets and Islam
to earlier monotheistic religions. At the time of Muhammad,
pilgrimage to the Kaaba was an ancient pagan rite; however, after
conquering the city of Mecca, Muhammad once again dedicated
the house to the worship of the one God. Today’s rituals of hajj
are a reenactment of the experiences of Abraham, the father of
monotheism and forefather of the Arabs, and of his Egyptian wife
Hagar. They also provide an opportunity for remembering the life
and times ofMuhammad and the challenge he faced in setting out
to make Islam a universal religion.
The pilgrimage is an experience that a Muslim never forgets. It
is an opportunity to be among millions ofMuslims from all racial,
Growing up Muslim 83
linguistic, and ethnic backgrounds. Due to the ever-increasing
ease of modern transportation, each year, more than 2 million
Muslims make the pilgrimage during the required days. They
come from all over the world.
Before reaching the sacred city ofMecca, male pilgrims exchange
their regular clothes for a two-piece white seamless garment that
symbolizes the shrouds in which people are wrapped for burial.
This is considered a way to reunite with their creator God. In their
white clean garment, they enter the ritually pure and consecrated
state known as ihram. Women can wear either a white garment
that covers the entire body and head or they may simply choose
clean and modest clothing. When in Mecca and in the state
of ihram, pilgrims abstain from sexual relations, from shaving
their beards or cutting any bodily hair, from wearing perfume
or expensive jewelry, and from hunting animals or cutting trees.
The rituals of hajj include circumambulation (tawaf) of the
Kaaba in a counterclockwise direction, and running between the
two hills of al-Safa and al-Marwa. According to Islamic tradition,
when Abraham left Hagar, his Egyptian wife, and their son,
Ishmael, in the deserts ofMecca as God commanded him to,Hagar
ran worriedly between these two hills to find water for her thirsty
infant son, Ishmael. After the seventh lap, by God’s command,
water gushed out from where the thirsty Ishmael lay kicking the
ground. The spot from which that water emerged is known as the
well of Zamzam today. The water of Zamzam is considered holy, so
upon their return home, pilgrims bring with them containers of
Zamzam water as blessed gifts for their family and friends.
The formal pilgrimage begins on the eighth day of the month
Dhul Hijjah when the pilgrims go to Mina, east of Mecca, to
stand in the plain of ‘Arafat, which contains the Mount of Mercy.
On the ninth of Dhul Hijjah, pilgrims stand on this plain from
noon until dark in wuquf, or “the Standing State.” This is the
pinnacle of the whole ritual because this symbolizes the Last
Day, when all humanity will stand before God, awaiting his
judgment. These are the hours when pilgrims contemplate and
reflect upon their lives and ask forgiveness through their prayers.
84 ISLAM
Standing on the plain of ‘Arafat is also significant because,
according to Islamic tradition, it is the place where Adam and
Eve stood after their expulsion from paradise, where Abraham
and his son Ishmael performed the first pilgrimage, and where
Muhammad gave his final sermon, which announced the last
revelation from God and affirmed the completion of Islam as a
religion for all of humankind.
On the tenth day of Dhul Hijjah, the pilgrimage officially
reaches its end and the four-day festival of sacrifice starts. This
festival is a commemoration of Abraham’s sacrifice of an animal
after God showed his mercy by sparing his son Ishmael, who was
supposed to have been sacrificed by divine command. (Jews and
Christians believe Abraham was told to sacrifice his other son,
Isaac.) In thankfulness to God for his generosity and benevolence,
Muslims sacrifice an animal such as a sheep, goat, cattle,
or camel and share the meat with the poor.
After the formal pilgrimage is completed, many Muslims visit
the tomb of Muhammad and the shrine of his mosque, the first
Muslim mosque, in Medina. Upon their return home, pilgrims
acquire the title of hajji, meaning “one who has completed the
hajj.” Muslims attain some prestige by fulfilling the demanding
requirements of hajj, and they are proud to attach the title of
hajji to their names.
The experience of hajj usually has a profound impact upon
the life of the believer. Perhaps the life of Malcolm X, the wellknown
African-American Muslim and militant civil rights
leader exemplifies this transformation. Prior to his trip to
Mecca, Malcolm X preached racism in the name of Islam and
called whites the “blue-eyed devil.” While in Mecca, however,
he observed many devoted white Muslims standing shoulder
to shoulder with him, and people of all other races doing the
pilgrimage. The spiritual impact of hajj and the egalitarian
participation of all pilgrims completely changed Malcolm X.
Upon his return to the United States, he began to preach the
all-inclusive universal nature of Islam, which does not recognize
ethnic differences or the superiority of one race over another.
Growing up Muslim 85
THE ISLAMIC COMMUNITY (UMMAH)
From childhood, Muslims learn that belief unsupported by right
behavior is almost without value, and that they need to enact their
belief in regular practice. Islam envisions a community based
upon morality and justice, and it is the duty of each Muslim to
do his or her part to attain such a just and moral community.
The Qur’an states, “You are the best community evolved for
humankind by enjoining what is right and forbidding what is
wrong . . .” (Q. 3:110). This passage has been interpreted by many
Muslims as a command to justify social, political, and moral
activism within their own communities. Thus, spreading God’s
rule becomes an individual as well as community obligation.
Governments such as those of Iran and Saudi Arabia that try
to control the moral behavior of their populations contend that
the activities of their so-called “moral police” are upholding
Islam’s divine command to promote good and prevent evil. In
this imperfect world, when fallible or misguided or opportunistic
people are placed in charge of implementing the word of God,
the simple notion of proscribing behavior deemed evil quickly
becomes the subjective harassment of lawful and even devout
citizens. Such bands of government-sanctioned religious vigilantes
are not unlike the punitive religious zealots of early American
history. Such groups often provoke hostility toward religious
observance, the opposite of their stated reason for existing.
The Qur’an emphasizes the equality of humankind in the
sight of God: “O humankind, We have created you from a male
and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you
might know one another. The noblest of you in God’s sight is the
most righteous among you. God is the All-knowing and the Wise”
(Q. 49:13). Islam replaced kinship status with right conduct as
the arbiter of nobility. Therefore, the Muslim community overall
is more strongly bonded by common belief than by kinship. This
basic bond of the early Islamic community matured into the
concept of an ummah, or “nation,” that embraces the entire
worldwide Islamic community.
The cornerstones of the Islamic community are justice and
86 ISLAM
equality: “O believers, feel your duties to God and bear true
witness. Do not allow your hatred for other men to turn you
away from justice. Deal justly, that is nearer to true piety. Be
aware of God, God is cognizant of all your actions” (Q. 5:8).
Muhammad himself was a major reformer of his time.His social
reform was based upon individual transformation and obligations
as well as collective moral and social responsibility. The
Qur’an envisions a sense of community based upon equality,
justice, fairness, brotherhood, mercy, compassion, solidarity, and
free will for all its participants. Striving for this was the lifelong
effort of the prophet Muhammad. In Islam, community leaders
are responsible for the application of the principles of Islam, and
they are held accountable to God and to their people for the
quality of their performance. A genuine Islamic community is
governed by the Islamic law, or shari’ah.
ISLAMIC LAW (SHARI’AH)
Shari’ah literally means “a path to a source of water,” and the
term is understood to refer to the divinely mandated path
of Islam, which, if rightly followed, will lead the Muslim
community to salvation in this life and after death. Like
Judaism, Islam emphasizes observance of law over theology
and orthodoxy, and the Islamic notion of shari’ah can be
compared with the Torah (i.e., law or instructions) that governs
Jewish life and transactions. Shari’ah contains laws that are
based mainly upon the teachings of the Qur’an and the
example of the prophet Muhammad. Shari’ah is also a source
of moral guidance. In Islam, there is no separation between
legality and morality, because of the absoluteness of God’s
sovereignty. Therefore, God’s guidance through his revelations
and the examples of his prophets is the main source for
the best way to conduct everyday life, including moral, legal,
social, and political affairs.
As Islam spread throughout the world, a need grew for a more
uniform shari’ah, so scholars and jurists worked hard to
develop a comprehensive law applicable to different parts of the
Growing up Muslim 87
Islamic Empire. Most of the body of Islamic law was written
during the early centuries of the Abbasid Empire, a dynasty that
reigned from 750 to 1258. The four early scholars who were
instrumental in developing the shari’ah were Abu Hanifa
(d. 767), the founder of the Hanafi school of law in Baghdad;
Malik ibn Anas (d. 796), who was a judge in Medina and
founded the Maleki school; Muhammad al-Shafii (d. 819), who
was a disciple of Malik ibn Anas and founded the Shafii school;
and Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 855), who founded the Hanbali
school. The Hanafi school allowed more personal reasoning
(ijtihad) than the other three did. All four schools, however,
recognize the systems of the others as equally orthodox. The
Hanbali school is the strictest in its interpretation of the Qur’an
and ahadith. It was actually established as a reaction to what
ibn Hanbal considered speculative innovations by the other
three schools. The school of law most popular among Shiites is
the Ja‘fari school, which was founded by the sixth Shiite imam,
Ja‘far al-Sadiiq (d. 765).
Of all these scholars, al-Shafii is the one considered the father
of Islamic jurisprudence. Al-Shafii recognized four sources of
Islamic law, which are still recognized today. They are:
1. the Qur’an,
2. the sunnah (examples and teachings of the Prophet),
3. qiyas: analogical reasoning or deduction, and
4. ijma: consensus of the community.
The first two are divinely inspired and, as such, are considered
the most important sources of law. Qiyas is analogical reasoning
with reference to the Qur’an and Sunnah. For example,
juridical investigators might try to determine whether women
are legally allowed to drive (in Saudi Arabia, for example,
women are not permitted to drive). First, they would examine
the Qur’an, but, since it was revealed in the seventh century, it
contains no references to automobiles or driving. Next, they
88 ISLAM
would resort to a secondary source, the sunnah of the Prophet,
but again, the collection of narrations about the Prophet’s
sunnah closed in the ninth century, and likewise contain no
references to either cars or driving. Here, qiyas comes to the
rescue. The investigators might construct an analogy based
upon the general function of vehicles (such as carts) and
extrapolate that to include modern vehicles. The function of a
car is to transfer people from one place to another, and as such,
replaces horses, camels, carriages, and other modes of transportation.
The next and necessary question would be to
inquire if there existed any laws that prevented women from
riding such animals or operating such transports. The answer,
of course, is no. Thus, by analogy and the use of the qiyas
element of shari’ah, the investigators would conclude that
women are indeed allowed to drive automobiles.
Growing up Muslim 89
FEMALE CIRCUMCISION
Although the practice of circumcision has no basis in the Qur’an,
according to Muhammad, “circumcision is a law for men and a
preservation of honor for women,” and it remains an important
obligation for some Muslims. These Muslims see circumcision as
an introduction into and sign of belonging to their religion. Male
circumcision is performed primarily for cleanliness and is officially
embraced by the Islamic community. Female circumcision, however, is
more of a cultural than a religious practice, and it has come under
scrutiny because many people, both inside and outside the Muslim
community, see it as a form of mutilation and a violation of women’s
rights. In this procedure, the main goal is to curb the woman’s
sexual desire, and depending upon the customs of those performing
the circumcision, part or, in some instances, all of the female genitalia
is removed. This cultural tradition is now practiced almost exclusively
in Islamic Africa and among some non-Muslim populations of
sub-Saharan Africa. It can result in hemorrhaging, infection, chronic
pain, infertility, and death in extreme cases. In recent decades, organizations
such as the United Nations, the World Health Organization,
and Amnesty International have begun campaigns against this
practice, although there is little indication of its decline.
FROM THE
ISLAMIC
TRADITION
B
A view of Haram (al-Masjid al-Haram) where the Kaaba is
located. Every year, more than 2 million faithful Muslims
from all over the world visit this holiest Muslim site in Mecca,
Saudi Arabia, during the month of Hajj (Dhul Hijjah.)
C
Carpets and rugs cover the floors of mosques, particularly
the praying sanctuaries. This picture depicts a prayer rug
with mihrab motif.
D
Although the majority of pilgrims to Mecca these days
come via airplane, in earlier times, the pilgrimage was
often made on foot or on animals’ backs. This painting
depicts a group of nineteenth-century pilgrims en route
to Mecca.
E
The Dome of the Rock is one the holiest Muslim shrines. It
was from here that the prophet Muhammad, according to
Islamic tradition, ascended to heaven to meet with God.
F
This image from the Dome of the Rock illustrates the use
of calligraphy and geometric design. Because illustration
of human and animal images is forbidden in Islamic
mosques, Muslim artists have traditionally made creative
use of calligraphy and geometric and flowery designs in
Islamic architecture.
G
This view of the Jameh Mosque in Isfahan, Iran, highlights
the mosaic decoration of the interior dome.
H
This picture depicts the Third Rightly Guided caliph, ‘Uthman.
During the reign of ‘Uthman (644 – 656) the Qur’an
(as we know it today) was written in its final form.
Cultural
Expressions
7
One of the hallmarks of civilized man is knowledge of the
past—[including] the past of others with whom one's
own culture has had repeated and fruitful contact; or the
past of any group that has contributed to the ascent of
man. The Arabs fit profoundly into both of the latter two
categories. But in the West the Arabs are not well known.
Victims of ignorance as well as misinformation, they and
their culture have often been stigmatized from afar.
—John Hayes, The Genius of Arab Civilization:
Source of the Renaissance
MULTICULTURAL CIVILIZATION
One of the greatest achievements of Islam during its golden
age (the ninth to thirteenth centuries) was uniting the great
economic regions of the Mediterranean basin and Asia, and
creating a peaceful setting for the mingling of people from a
variety of cultural backgrounds. The political stability achieved
by powerful Muslim rulers secured the major international
roads, which in turn allowed an incredible volume of trade
throughout the Islamic Empire. Along with agriculture and
industry, trade (both regional and international) was a major
source of income for the Islamic state. Trade brought material
prosperity, especially to urban areas, and as is always the case,
allowed for a free flow of ideas and information that helped
knowledge flourish. Trade brought an opportunity for culturally
diverse peoples to meet and exchange ideas and discuss religion,
art, science, and all kinds of topics relevant to everyday life.
Some of the conquered peoples of the Islamic Empire had inherited
rich and sophisticated cultures and civilizations from their
ancestors. The new empire, therefore, became a conglomeration
of Semitic, Hellenistic (Greek), Spanish, Iranian, and Indian
cultures; it was truly multinational in nature. The knowledge
acquired from all these contacts became the backbone of Islamic
civilization in the Middle Ages.
Besides political stability, trade, and material prosperity, there
were other factors that also contributed to the advancement of
Islamic science, technology, art, architecture, jurisprudence, and
philosophy. These included an inherent thirst for knowledge
within the Islamic worldview, Muslim rulers’ encouragement
and patronage, and a wealth of information available through
access to the rich heritage of ancient civilizations.
Both the Qur’an and the Prophet stressed the value of knowledge
and education. The Qur’an calls believers to look at the
universe as an open book and to study its patterns. This religious
instruction made Muslim scholars particularly interested in
natural science, and they left a substantial record of their observations
(Q. 20:114).Muhammad also constantly emphasized the
Cultural Expressions 91
value of education and the search for knowledge. He is known
for statements such as: “Searching for knowledge is a religious
duty of any Muslim man and Muslim woman”; “Seek knowledge
from cradle to grave”; “Seek knowledge even if it will take you to
China” (China being considered the farthest place from Arabia
in his time); and “The reward for studying is the same as the
reward for fasting and the reward for teaching is the same as the
reward for prayers.” Encouragement from religious sources and
authorities had a great impact on Muslims’ determination on
striving for knowledge.
Many Muslim rulers, both out of piety and self-desire,
promoted knowledge during their reigns by building educational
institutions and helping promising scholars through generous
grants and scholarships.Major rulers made supporting scientists
and engineers a priority. The rulers of smaller states later adopted
this policy as well. Financial assistance was given to scientists
to allow them to devote all their time to study and research.
Scientists who worked for established educational institutions
were paid a regular salary and granted pensions. Some caliphs,
such as al-Mu‘tadid (d. 902), set aside places for scholars to teach
and live within their own palaces.
There was a wealth of knowledge left from Greek, Persian, and
other earlier sophisticated civilizations that was ready to be
tapped. There was a large body of literature in Syriac, Greek,
Latin, Persian, and Sanskrit languages, which could be useful to
scholars. For example, because of Egypt’s pre-Islamic contact
with Greece, Egypt had become a conduit for the development
and spread of Greek culture through the Mediterranean region.
Trade relations with Greece gave Egyptian scientists knowledge
of Greek science and philosophy. So, when Egypt became part
of the Islamic Empire in 641, Muslims, too, began to utilize
Greek-developed science and philosophy.
The great heritage of knowledge available in science, technology,
the humanities, and government administration was drawn
into the emerging Islamic civilization. There was, for instance,
a large body of literature available in the Pahlawi language of
92 ISLAM
Persia dealing with the art of government, office administration,
and royal etiquette. Some of the best indirect advice to rulers
came from a Persian book of literature called Kalilah wa Dimnah,
a brilliant work that communicates its message to the reader
thorough moralistic fables of animal life in a way that might
remind modern readers of George Orwell’s celebrated book
Animal Farm.
There was also available technical literature tied to various
fields, ranging from military tactics to agriculture and irrigation.
Perhaps the most useful knowledge available was in the disciplines
of medicine, astronomy, and mathematics, which were
brought to scholars through the Jundishapur educational center,
a sophisticated facility in southern Persia that included large
and impressive libraries.
Greek culture had perhaps the greatest impact on the development
of Islamic civilization, particularly in the field of
philosophy. Islamic culture followed the Greek emphasis on
reason, logic, and the laws of nature. Muslim intellectuals
wanted to understand concepts such as God and revelation
through reason. They wanted to equip themselves with reasonable
arguments to help them prove the absolute oneness of
God and the concept of transcendence that was so important
to them, as well as to argue against any anthropomorphism
presented by other religions.
They wanted to know if the attributes of God outlined in the
Qur’an actually identify God as a being with a body like that of
a human or are such descriptions merely metaphorical? Was the
concept of the Trinity in Christianity a form of polytheism or
it was another legitimate metaphorical way of understanding
God? Was the Qur’an (the last revelation of God, as Muslims
perceived it) eternal or created? Did God predetermine the
destinies of human beings or could people change the direction
of their own fate? If God is truly compassionate about his
favorite creature, the human being, then why did he create Satan
to tempt humans?
Influenced by Greek thinkers such as Socrates, Plato, and
Cultural Expressions 93
Aristotle, some Muslim intellectuals devoted their whole careers
to writing about the interaction between faith and reason. Some
Muslim scholars found the relationship between humans and
God as dictated by Islamic law and explained by the ‘ulama
(learned men) too rigid, too formal, and too impersonal for
their taste. On the other hand, they did not want to rationalize
God or follow him based on blind faith; rather, they wanted to
experience God within their hearts. The people who followed
this line of reasoning became known as Sufis.
EXPRESSION OF GOD THROUGH LOVE:
THE SUFI PATH (TARIQAH)
O Lord,
If I worship You
From fear of Hell, burn me in Hell.
O Lord,
If I worship You
From hope of Paradise, bar me from its gates.
But if I worship You for Yourself alone
Then grace me forever the splendor of Your Face.4
This lovely poem by Rabi‘ah (d. 801) illustrates the essence of
Sufism: unconditional love.
An anecdote further explains Sufi beliefs: A flute-playing slave
child was gradually introduced to teachings of Islam. Her master
noticed her exceptional spiritual devotion and realized that she
had already chosen her real master (God). So, he set her free.
That slave child was Rabi‘ah. She was passionate about her
love for God and demonstrated her admiration for her creator in
enchanting poetry. Though she was a very attractive woman
who received many offers of marriage, she refused them all and
instead chose a life of asceticism, remaining unwed for the rest
of her life.When asked about her decision to reject married life,
she responded that her heart was so fully devoted to God that
she could not possibly share it with any other being. Her simple
life and joyful love for God attracted many followers for whom
94 ISLAM
she served as an example and guide. Her life and poetry greatly
influenced the development of a passion-oriented Sufism.
Sufism is the compassionate heart of Islam. It provides the
necessary nourishment for the body and is also the spirit that
can see beyond the physical limitations of the body. In searching
for truth, it can detach itself from its confinement and fly above
it with bird’s-eye vision, a holistic view of God and the universe
that is not possible from within the confinement of the body.
The observant spirit becomes a bridge between the body and the
outside world and acts as a peacemaker. The loving heart avoids
rigidity and conflicts and solicits instead cooperation, inclusiveness,
and understanding. Perhaps no one can better explain the
heart of a Sufi than the great Sufi Ibn al-Arabi (d. 1240):
O Marvel! a garden amidst the flames.
My heart has become capable of every form:
it is a pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks,
and a temple for idols and the pilgrim’s Kaaba,
and the tables of the Torah and the book of the Qur’an.
I follow the religion of Love: whatever way Love’s camels take,
that is my religion and my faith.5
Ibn al-Arabi, a great Sufi poet and scholar, developed the
doctrine of “The Unity of Being.” In it, he states that, since all
creation is a manifestation of the transcendent God, all forms
of creation are, in essence, identical to him. Ibn al-Arabi continued
by saying that, although God is necessary for humanity to exist,
it may also be true that humanity is necessary for God to be
manifested. He defended his doctrine by referring to a hadith
that conveyed a message from God that declared: “I was a hidden
treasure and wanted to be known, thus I created the world that I
might be known.”6 This verse does not exist in the Qur’an; it is one
of Muhammad’s own inspirations by God; but there are other
verses in the Qur’an that contain similar messages: “The seven
heavens, the earth, and all who dwell in them give glory to
him. All creatures celebrate his praises.Yet you cannot understand
their praises. Forbearing is he and forgiving” (Q. 17:44, 51:56).
Cultural Expressions 95
Ibn al-Arabi’s doctrine, that the universe is a reflection of God,
established a dialogue among Muslim scholars. His views were
attractive to Sufis and many followed his lead.
Like Ibn al-Arabi, other Sufis were inspired by the life of
the prophet Muhammad and made him their prototype. Sufis
understood Muhammad as a man who passed no one without
a smile on his face. For Sufis, Muhammad’s generosity and
compassion were his most important qualities to emulate. Sufis
often recall an incident related to the Prophet that happened
during the early years of Islam when the pagans of Mecca
were constantly harassing Muhammad. One day, as Muhammad
was walking along his usual path, he was surprised when a man
who usually threw garbage on his head was not around to bother
him.Muhammad asked after the man and was informed that the
man was sick. Muhammad visited the ailing man at his house.
The man was stunned that Muhammad was paying him a
visit, despite the way he had treated the Prophet in the past.
Muhammad greeted him with smile, expressed his worries about
the man’s condition, and wished him good health. The man was
so moved by Muhammad’s generosity and kindness that he
decided to accept Muhammad’s message of Islam. For Sufis, this
example of Muhammad’s compassion is a path to God.
Sufism is called tasawwuf in Arabic, meaning “purification.”
The name refers to the fact that the Sufi is known as someone
who purifies his or her mind and body. Sufis are also called
faqir (“poor”) or darwish, a Persian term meaning “poor” or
“mendicant.” According to popular tradition, the term Sufi is
derived from the Arabic term suf, meaning “wool,” which refers
to a simple woolen garment worn by Sufi mystics. The attire of
Sufis who symbolically shun the material world contrasts
sharply with the rich apparel of those who are attached to
worldly things. Since the selection of the clothing that one wears
is, to some degree, an ego-oriented process, by wearing simple
dress, Sufis plainly express their lack of egoism. In the eyes of
Sufis, the biggest hurdle standing in the way of reaching God is
the ego. To them, ego is like a hernia; the more it swells, the more
96 ISLAM
it hurts. The great Sufi Abu Saeed Abil Kheir expresses his views
on the containment of ego and the expression of generosity as a
necessary path to God:
Suppose you can recite a thousand holy verses from memory.
What are you going to do with your ego self, the true mark of
the heretic? Every time your head touches the ground in
prayers, remember, this was to teach you to put down that
load of ego which bars you from entering the chamber of
the Beloved.
To your mind feed understanding, to your heart, tolerance
and compassion. The simpler your life, the more meaningful.
The less you desire of the world, the more room you will have
in it to fill with the Beloved.
The best use of your tongue is to repeat the Beloved’s Name
in devotion. The best prayers are those in the solitude of
the night. The shortest way to the Friend is through selfless
service and generosity to His creatures.7
Historically speaking, Sufism was also a social reaction to the
moral laxity, worldliness, and extravagance of the Umayyad
caliphs who took over the leadership of Islamic state after
the death of Muhammad and his immediate successors. Many
Muslims saw a clear deviation from the egalitarian teachings
of Islam in the selfish leadership of the Umayyad caliphs. The
alienation from the ummah (Islamic community) that began in
the Umayyads’ time continued under the Abbasid caliphs, and
Sufis again took an issue with the style in which the ummah
was governed. One of the early critics of caliphs’ excesses was the
Sufi Master Hassan al-Basri (d. 728), who had many students,
including the poet Rabi‘ah.He considered the material world the
“lower world,” a trap for those who seek spiritual liberation. The
Sufis who followed Hassan al-Basri shared his views warned their
followers against the temptations of money, fame, and power.
The path that Sufis choose to reach God is known as tariqah.
Like the term shari’ah, it literally means “a path.”However, Sufis
consider shari’ah an external path and tariqah the internal path
Cultural Expressions 97
to God. Sufis believe both paths are needed in order to reach
God: The external path based on shari’ah defines individual and
community rights and duties, while the internal way based on
tariqah is a path that helps develop discipline toward God.
Between these external and internal dimensions of Islam,
Muslims enjoy a balanced and spiritual life.
Though al-Basri was among the early ‘ulama (the hadith
scholars, jurists, and theologians), he saw it as his religious duty
to speak out against what he saw as the wasteful life of the political
elite. In the eyes of Sufis, those members of the ‘ulama who
observed the misbehavior of political and social rulers and
remained indifferent were hypocrites. The desire to correct the
ills of society encouraged some popular Sufi masters to turn to
politics and actively work for the public. In their view, serving
their fellow human beings was the same as serving God, since
the universe—including humanity—is a reflection of God.
The mainstream or traditional ‘ulama and the Sufis did not
always acknowledge each other. Some ‘ulama saw the religious
practice of Sufis as too liberal and, in some cases, blasphemous.
They were sometimes hostile to Sufis and used their political
power against them. For example, when Sufi thinker Mansour
al-Hallaj, in manifesting his union with God, declared, “I am the
Truth,” some of the more fanatic ‘ulama took his statement as
a statement of polytheism and labeled him an apostate and
heretic. Based on their advice, al-Hallaj was brutally executed
in Baghdad in 922. According to Mansour al-Hallaj’s devout
students, he died smiling and heralding the approach of his
meeting with God. This can clearly be depicted from his poetic
words at the time of his death:
I am He whom I love, and He whom I love is I,
We are two spirits dwelling in one body.
If thou seest me, thou seest Him,
And if thou seest Him, thou seest us both.8
The gap between Sufis and the stern religious leaders
continued to grow over time, and each side was critical of
98 ISLAM
the other. Sufis wanted to move beyond the religious formalities
propagated by the ‘ulama and criticized the legal
moral Islam imposed on people by the often hypocritical
‘ulama who aligned themselves with the government.
Although some ‘ulama were moderate in their approach to the
Sufis (some ‘ulama were even Sufis themselves), the majority
considered Sufis a threat to their power and dismissed
Sufi doctrines as heretical deviations from orthodox Islam.
This is the view presently held by the Wahabbis in modern
Saudi Arabia.
The tension between Sufis and ‘ulama was reduced significantly
when one of the most celebrated scholars among
the ‘ulama, Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 1111) became a Sufi.
Al-Ghazali wrote about his transition in his autobiography:
“I probed the motives of my teaching and found that, in place
of being sincerely consecrated to God, it was only actuated by
a vain desire of honor and reputation.” 9 Disappointed with his
lack of sincerity and his fall for worldly temptations, he left his
very highly respected position and chose to live as a Sufi. He
traveled to different regions, met with scholars and ascetics
from all walks of life, and wrote about his spiritual metamorphosis
in his masterpiece, Revivification of the Religious Science,
one of the greatest works of all time for seekers of God and
students of religion.
According to a saying of the Prophet, “there are as many paths
to God as there are children of Adam.” So today, there are many
Sufis with many different paths. The Sufi spiritual master defines
his path (tariqah) and, after his death, one of his protégés will
take over the responsibility, and then, he, too, will eventually
pass it on to the next qualified person.
The Sufi master is usually referred to as Shaykh (pir in Persian),
meaning “master.” Usually, the Sufi master tries to establish a
line of spiritual guides for his pupils, which is traceable all the
way to the prophet Muhammad or his cousin ‘Ali. Sufis gather
in a place called zawiyyah or khanqah, both kinds of Sufi
hospices. Al-Ghazali established one of the first official Sufi
Cultural Expressions 99
centers. Some well-established Sufi orders have a khanqah
where the master and his family reside, along with rooms set
aside for disciples. Followers are usually formally initiated
after a certain period of time and then become regular members.
Centers are usually built with the income from pious
endowments. The larger centers have sleeping rooms and
soup kitchens for the poor. Many of the great Sufis were also
great scientists and studied under accomplished masters in
educational institutions.
Sufi gatherings are marked by dhikr (zikr), or remembrance of
God in the form of chanting. The chants are usually verses from
the Qur’an or pieces of uplifting religious poetry. Some Sufi
orders, such as the Whirling Dervishes, who are inspired by the
famous Persian poet and philosopher Jalal al-Di Rumi (d. 1273),
perform a ritual turning dance along with their dhikr.
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
Many scientific academies, schools, libraries, and observatories
were established during the golden age of Islamic civilization.
One of the most important scientific centers was the Bayt
al-Hikmah (House of Wisdom) in Baghdad, built by the
Abbasid caliph al-Ma‘mun in 820. This academy was an
improvement over the Khizanat al-Hikma (Library ofWisdom)
established by Ma‘mun’s father Harun al-Rashid in 809. A
major task of the Bayt al-Hikma was to translate works of
science and humanities from Greek, Latin, Syriac, Pahlavi
(Persian), and Sanskrit (Indian) into Arabic, so they could
be used by Muslim scholars. The academy included a staff of
eminent scientists and translators and was known for publishing
accurate and reliable editions; it also included many experienced
copyists and bookbinders.
Scientists and translators worked in a tolerant atmosphere
where people from many nationalities and religions cooperated.
For example, the academy was supervised by the well-known
Nestorian Christian Hunain ibn Ishaq, and included staff
members from other ethnic and religious backgrounds as well.
100 ISLAM
By the eleventh century, numerous books had already been
translated by the academy, including the works of eighty Greek
thinkers—scholars such as Aristotle, Plato, Galen, and Euclid.
The topics of translated works included philosophy, literature,
religion, government, medicine, mathematics, physics, astronomy,
astrology, alchemy, and even magic. In addition to translation, the
academy staff was involved in independent scientific research and
experiments.
Science Centers
Scholars such as the Banu Musa brothers made significant
progress in advancing the field of astronomy. There were two
observatory centers attached to the academy for practical
experiments. Observatories carried out both research and
teaching. The most important Muslim observatory was the one
in Maraghah in northwestern Iran, where Naser al-Din Tusi, the
well-known astronomer and mathematician, worked. Many
international scientists cooperated on major projects in this
institution. Some other later Muslim observatories, such as
Ulugh Beg in Samarqand and Taqi al-Din in Istanbul, served as
models for early European observatories such as that built by
astronomer Tycho Brahe on the island of Hven in the Sont near
Copenhagen (it closed down in 1597).
Other Muslim rulers also adopted the policy of implementing
science by building scientific centers. For example,
in 998, Fatamid ruler al-Hakim established the Dar al-Ilm
(Abode of Science) inside his huge palace in Cairo. The facility
contained a library and reading room, and served as a meeting
place for religious scholars, jurists, linguists, physicians,
astronomers, and mathematicians. The center was directed
by a well-known scholar who held regular seminars dealing
with different scientific topics and invited specialists from
various parts of the world to share their findings with their
fellow scientists. Lectures were open to the public and the
interested audience was provided with ink, pens, and paper
for note-taking.10
Cultural Expressions 101
Libraries and Educational Facilities
In addition to major centers, there were many smaller places
of learning established by public funds. Libraries were very
popular. All major mosques had their own libraries. Usually,
people donated books to these libraries. It was also customary
for notable people with substantial financial means to build
mosques and libraries.
During the hours between official prayers, religious or even
secular teachers held classes at mosques and any interested
students participated. A widespread desire for education led to
the creation of madrasahs (schools) near or attached to major
mosques where students could receive formal religious training
or other types of education. Madrasahs became major institutions
that still survive in many traditional Muslim cities. A large
number of the Afghan Taliban were trained in madrasahs in the
city of Peshawar, near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.
Some madrasahs expanded and became universities. Among
the early Islamic universities were the al-Azhar in Cairo, Egypt;
Zaytuniya in Tunis,Tunisia; and Qarawiyyin in Fez,Morocco.Many
of the medical schools associated with these universities had their
own hospitals. These institutions taught medicine, had research
facilities, and required students to work with actual patients.
Al-Azhar, established in Cairo in 969, remains a well-rounded
university in Cairo and is the oldest surviving university in the
world. It was established long before the first universities emerged
in Europe, starting in the eleventh century. (A university opened in
Bologna around 1088, followed by one in Paris around 1155.)
GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF ISLAMIC SCIENCE
The great Islamic thinkers of the golden age were true
Renaissance men (although they preceded the coining of the
term by several centuries). They were philosophers, theologians,
physicians, mathematicians, and poets, and they were very skillful
in all the fields at which they tried their hand. Of course, one
reason for this is the requirements of the time.During the Islamic
golden age, disciplinary divisions were not established as they are
102 ISLAM
today. Scholars were known for the breadth of their knowledge,
and did not usually specialize in a particular science. Also, when
scholars were hired by a caliph or other ruler to work on a task,
they often had to accept the offer, regardless of whether they were
trained in the discipline required, due to financial needs, respect,
or simply fear of the leader involved. In his book Introduction
to History of Science, George Sarton, in explaining the great
contribution of Muslim scholars to the development of science,
makes references to some of these towering figures:
It will suffice here to evoke a few glorious names without
contemporary equivalents in the West: Jabir ibn Haiyan,
al-Kindi, al-Khwarizmi, al-Fargani, al-Razi, Thabit ibn Qurra,
al-Battani, Hunain ibn Ishaq, al-Farabi, Ibrahim ibn Sinan, al-
Masudi, al-Tabari, Abul Wafa, ‘Ali ibn Abbas, Abul Qasim,
Ibn al-Jazzar, al-Biruni, Ibn Sina, Ibn Yunus, al-Kashi, Ibn
al-Haitham, ‘Ali Ibn ‘Isa al-Ghazali, al-zarqab, Omar Khayyam.
A magnificent array of names which it would not be difficult
to extend. If anyone tells you that the Middle Ages were scientifically
sterile, just quote these men to him, all of whom
flourished within a short period, 750 to 1100 A.D.11
A good example of these Islamic “Renaissance men” was the
famous Ibn Sina Avicenna (d. 1037), who is known in the West
as the Avicenna.
Ibn Sina (or Avicenna)
Ibn Sina was the son of a small administrator who lived near the
city of Bukhara in Central Asia (now in the nation of Uzbekistan.)
He is best known for his works in medicine and philosophy.
His encyclopedic manual of medicine al-Qanun fil-Tib (Canon in
Medicine) is often considered the most influential work in the
history of medicine. Along with his philosophical encyclopedia
al-Shifa (The Book of Healing), it was taught in major European
universities until the sixteenth century.
By age ten, Avicenna had memorized the entire Qur’an and
mastered the religious sciences of his time. At age thirteen, he
Cultural Expressions 103
began reading about medicine, and by the age of sixteen, he had
mastered the field and began to practice as a physician.
Next, he started taking lessons on logic and metaphysics, and
became a major expert in Greek, Persian, and Islamic philosophy.
By age eighteen, he was a leading physician, philosopher, and
astronomer. During the fifty-seven years of his life, he wrote
numerous books, of which 240 have survived. Of these, one
hundred fifty are on philosophy and forty are devoted to medicine,
and the rest deal with subjects as varied as psychology, geology,
mathematics, astronomy, and logic.
Muhamad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi
Muhamad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (d. 846) was another name
on George Sarton’s list of great thinkers. He is known as the
founder of algebra.
The term algebra is derived from the name of Muhamad ibn
Musa al-Khwarizmi’s famous book of algebra, Kitab a-Jabr wal-
Muqabalah (literally meaning “the Book of Compulsion and
Comparison”). The term algorithm comes from the European
mispronunciation of his name. In Kitab a-Jabr wal-Muqabalah,
written in the first quarter of the ninth century, Muhamad ibn
Musa al-Khwarizmi for the first time brought all geometric
and arithmetic problems into the form of algebraic operations,
normal equations with standard solutions.
The mathematical theories of al-Khwarizmi were brought
to their peak by another Renaissance man, the famous Persian
poet, philosopher, and mathematician Umar (Omar) Khayyám.
Though he is better known in the West for his ravishing
book of poetry, Rubaiyat, he actually spent most of his
life studying the sciences and he mastered many fields,
particularly mathematics. He studied third-degree equations
and elaborated on a workable universal geometric theory.
His solutions, as well as his method of using auxiliary curves
and geometric figures to solve third-degree operations, are often
mistakenly attributed to French mathematician and philosopher
René Descartes.
104 ISLAM
Cultural Expressions 105
OMAR KHAYYÁM (c. 1048 –1122)
Omar Khayyám was born at Nishapur, Iran. Early in his life,
he developed interests in science and math—particularly algebra.
Unlike many scientists of his time, he did not accept the patronage
of a king; instead, he lived a quiet life searching for knowledge
and traveling to great centers of learning, exchanging views with
other scholars.
He made an attempt to classify most algebraic equations, including
the third-degree equations and, in fact, offered solutions for a
number of them. His book Maqalat fi al-Jabr wa al-Muqabila (Articles
on Algebra and Comparatives) is a masterpiece that marked a major
advancement in the development of algebra.
Omar Khayyám was the first to find the binomial theorem
and to determine binomial coefficients. In geometry, he studied
the generalities of the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid and
contributed to the theory of parallel lines. At the request of
a king, he produced a remarkably accurate solar calendar
(Al-Tarikh-al-Jalali ), which had an error of only one day in 3770 years,
thus making it superior to the Gregorian calendar, which had an
error of one day in 3330 years.
His other accomplishments include the development of methods
for the accurate determination of specific gravity. In metaphysics,
he wrote three books, and he also became a renowned astronomer
and a physician. In the West, however, he is best known for his
enchanting book of poetry, Rubaiyat (quatrains), translated into
English by Edward Fitzgerald. Among his verses are these:
Some for the Glories of This World;
and some Sigh for the Prophet’s Paradise to come;
Ah, take the Cash, and let the Credit go,
Nor heed the rumble of a distant Drum! . . .
I sometimes think that never blows so red
The Rose as where some buried Caesar bled;
That every Hyacinth the Garden wears Dropt
in her Lap from some once lovely Head.*
* Source: Available online at http://www.poets.org/poems/poems.cfm?prmID=2490.
Other Muslim Scientists
Muslim scientists were particularly interested in the field of
astronomy and mathematical geography for practical reasons.
The need for this knowledge stemmed from the requirements of
worship rituals, such as prayers and fasting. Scientists had to
determine the exact time prayers should be said; the times of
sunrise, noon, and sunset for both prayers and fasting. They
also had to find the direction of qiblah and the crescent moon
visibility in order to determine the beginning and end of each
lunar month.
Muslim scientists’ calculation of the latitude and longitude of
the earth for any given location was remarkably accurate; their
results were comparable to results that would be reached today
using modern advanced instruments.
106 ISLAM
Holidays
8
O ye who believe! Fasting is prescribed for you as it was
prescribed for those who preceded you, Maybe ye will
show piety. It is for a calculated number of days . . .
It is for the month of Ramadan. . . .
—The Qur’an 2:183
DIVERSITY OF HOLIDAYS
Holidays and festivals are important parts of any culture, and
since Islam is a way of life for Muslim populations, many
Muslim countries’ holidays and festivals are religious in nature.
Due to cultural differences between Muslim countries, however,
the celebration of these religious holidays and festivals may
not be uniform throughout the Muslim world.Muslim holidays
celebrated in, say, Malaysia, will have a Malay flavor that distinguishes
them from the same holidays celebrated in Iran, which
will have a Persian flavor. Even among Arab Muslims, who share
the same ethnicity and language, the national culture of each
country has impacted the performance of religious rituals. The
celebration of the same holiday may vary considerably from
Morocco to Egypt to Saudi Arabia.
Besides cultural variations, different understandings of Islam
have also had an influence on the celebration of major holidays.
For example, whereas Egyptians, Turks, and Iranians lavishly
celebrate the birthday of the prophet Muhammad, this event is
often frowned upon by the more conservative Muslims of Saudi
Arabia, the birthplace of the Prophet, who view the holiday as
secular in origin. According to conservative Sunnis, putting too
much emphasis on individuals prevents people from giving their
full attention to God, and may even be perceived as a path
toward idolatry. In addition to the Prophet’s birthday, there
are other festivals celebrated by Shiite Muslims that are not
considered holidays by the Sunni majority. Examples are the
birthdays and death days of the Prophet’s family members and
Shiite Muslim imams, and the day that Muhammad, according
to Shiites, announced ‘Ali as his successor, something Sunnis
do not believe occurred. Since Islam follows a lunar calendar,
Muslim holiday dates vary each year, as opposed to the Gregorian
calendar used in the Western world.
ISLAMIC HIJRI CALENDAR
The Islamic calendar is based on lunar year. A lunar year generally
follows the monthly cycles of the moon. A lunar month is
108 ISLAM
determined by the period required for the moon to complete a
full circle around the Earth, which takes about 29½ days. Twelve
months of 29½ days each combine to make 354 days, the
number of days in a lunar year. Based on these calculations, the
Islamic lunar calendar is about eleven days shorter than the
solar-based Gregorian calendar, which counts 365 days (366 in
a leap year) because it is based on the movement of the Earth
around the sun.
This eleven-day deficit causes each lunar month to move with
the seasons, which are based on solar cycles. This means that
important Muslim festivals, which always fall in the same month
on the Islamic lunar calendar, may occur in different seasons
based on the solar cycle. For instance, the fasting month of
Ramadan could come in either winter or summer. Because of
the eleven-day deficit of the lunar year, any given date on the
Islamic calendar moves eleven days backward each year when
measured on the solar-based Gregorian calendar. So, it takes
about thirty-three years for a particular event on the Islamic
calendar to complete its variations within seasons and occur
again at approximately the same time on the solar calendar. For
example, if the month of Ramadan occurred in October 2004
(on the Gregorian calendar), ten years later it will happen in July,
and thirty-three years later it will be in October once again.
The Islamic Hijri calendar was introduced to the Muslim
community in Medina in 638, during the caliphate of Umar ibn
al-Khattab, the second caliph and a close companion of the
prophet Muhammad. The dates of Islamic Hijri calendar in
Western languages are usually abbreviated as “A.H.” from the
Latinized “Anno Hegirae.” This term meant “Year of the Hegira,”
with the word Hegira referring to Muhammad’s flight from
Mecca to Medina.
The Beginning of the Islamic Hijri Calendar
Interestingly, the Islamic calendar is not based on the birth of the
Prophet, the major conquests of the Islamic Army, or even the
day of the Prophet’s first revelation. Instead, it starts on the day
Holidays 109
that the prophet Muhammad emigrated from Mecca to Medina,
a major historical event and turning point in Islamic history that
led to the formation of the first genuine Islamic community and
city-state in Medina. The calendar, therefore, is based on the day
that Muhammad decided to bring a new beginning to his
mission by moving to a more sympathetic city, hoping to establish
the community he envisioned based on God’s guidance in the
Qur’an and just principles.
As a result of its starting point, the calendar is called Hijri,
a term derived from the word hijrah, meaning “emigration.”
The Islamic Hijri year starts at the first day of the month of
Muharram (the first month of the year), which is roughly
the equivalent of July 16, 622. The Muslim New Year 1425
started around February 22, 2004. Because the Islamic lunar
calendar is eleven days shorter, it will eventually catch up to the
Gregorian calendar. According to calculations done by specialists
in the field, the fifth month of the year 20,874 on the Hijri
calendar will also be the fifth month of the year 20,874 on the
Gregorian calendar.12
Months of the Islamic Calendar
The Islamic months begin at the first sight of the new moon.
Since the moon is seen at different times in different Muslim
regions, there is no uniform beginning for months and years
throughout the entire Islamic world. Most Muslims use the
sighting of the new moon in their own location to determine the
beginning of the new month. However, some Muslims consider
the sighting of the new moon in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the official
beginning of each month, since Mecca is Islam’s holiest city.
The correct sighting is particularly important for performing
religious rituals, such as the beginning and ending of fasting
days during the month of Ramadan. The Qur’an refers to the
significance of the phases of the moon for conducting religious
rituals: “They ask you (Muhammad) of the new moons. Say:
they are but signs to mark fixed periods of time in (the affairs of)
mankind and for the pilgrimage . . .” (Q: 2:189).With regard to
110 ISLAM
months of the year, the Qur’an states: “The number of months
in the sight of God is twelve, so ordained by Him the day He
created the heavens and the earth; of them four are sacred . . .”
(Q. 9:36). For orthodox Muslims, a new month is considered to
have begun only when it is announced by religious authorities
who have seen the thin crescent moon with their own eyes.
This makes marking the new month difficult when there is very
low visibility.
The Islamic Hijri calendar contains twelve months that alternate
between 29 and 30 days; the last month has 30 days only
during leap years. A thirtieth day is added to the last month in
eleven years out of every thirty-year cycle. Those years are the
second, fifth, seventh, tenth, thirteenth, sixteenth, eighteenth,
twenty-first, twenty-fourth, twenty-sixth, and twenty-ninth. The
months of Islamic calendars are:
MONTH (DAYS)
1 Muharram (30)
2 Safar (29)
3 Rabi’-ul awwal I (30)
4 Rabi’-ul thani II (29)
5 Jumada-ul awwal I (30)
6 Jumada-ul thani II (29)
7 Rajab (30)
8 Sha’ban (29)
9 Ramadan (30)
10 Shawwal (29)
11 Dhul Qa’da (30)
12 Dhul Hijjah (29; 30 days in leap years)
Holidays 111
MUSLIM HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
There are many holidays and festivals celebrated by Muslim
communities throughout the world. Each one of these religious
events has its own special spiritual significance for believers.
The holidays are celebrated in various ways, depending on the
cultural background of the Muslims who recognize them. The
most common celebrations involve events such as street processions
led by local religious and social leaders, the use of perfumes
and burning scents, gathering in mosques or private houses to
recite the Qur’an, and listening to religious music, stories, prose,
and poetry about the particular event being celebrated.
Among all the holidays and festivals, there are two that are
celebrated by all observing Muslims. They are referred to as
id (eid), which simply means “festival,” “feast,” or literally, a
“recurring happy occasion.” These two major festivals are the
Id al-Adha, or “Festival of Sacrifice,” and Id al-Fitr, or “Festival
of Breaking the Fast.”
Id al-Adha (Festival of Sacrifice)
Id al-Adha is the most important Muslim festival. It is referred
to as the Id al-Kabir, or “Great Festival.” It starts on the tenth day
of Dhul Hijjah, the last month of the Islamic calendar, and lasts
four days. It marks the official end of the hajj (pilgrimage to
Mecca). Those who are lucky enough to be in Mecca at the
proper time celebrate the festival with their fellow pilgrims;
those who could not make the trip join their local Muslim
community members to celebrate the event.
Id al-Adha is called the Festival of Sacrifice because those who
can afford to do so are supposed to sacrifice an animal. The
animal can be chosen from any that is allowed by Islamic law; it
should be a healthy, full-grown animal. If a sheep or goat is used,
one animal should be sacrificed on behalf of a household; a larger
animal such as a cow or camel, however, may fulfill the sacrificial
obligations of up to seven households.
The sacrifice ceremony involves communal prayers at a
mosque or a musallah (a prayer house usually located outside of
112 ISLAM
the city), or at any other place designed for the occasion. Believers
say prayers containing at least two ra’kats.
After prayers, there is a sermon by the imam, in which he
explains the roots of the festival. He narrates the story of how
Abraham was commanded by God to sacrifice his beloved son
Ishmael. As Abraham was about to carry out God’s orders, God
showed mercy and sent the archangel Gabriel to stop Abraham,
bringing a white lamb to be sacrificed instead. So, like Abraham,
who sacrificed the lamb in place of his son, devout Muslims who
have the financial means should sacrifice an animal to demonstrate
their appreciation of God’s mercy and generosity.
After the sermon is over, participants begin to chant and
sing, praising God. They chant: “God is Great, God is Great;
There is no deity but God; God is Great, God is Great; all
praise belongs to God.” Then they return home to sacrifice their
prepared animals.
Holidays 113
HOLIDAY ISLAMIC MONTH 2004 2005 2006 2007
IN WHICH
HOLIDAY FALLS
Id Dhul Sunday Friday Sunday Thursday
al-Adha Hijjah February 1 January 21 December 31 December 20
Islamic Muharram Sunday Thursday Tuesday Saturday
New Year February 22 February 10 January 31 January 20
Prophet’s Rabi’ ul Sunday Thursday Tuesday Saturday
Birthday awwal May 2 April 21 April 11 March 31
Isra & Rajab Saturday Thursday Monday Friday
Miraj September 11 September 1 August 21 August 10
Ramadan Ramadan Saturday Wednesday Sunday Thursday
October 16 October 5 September 24 September 13
Id Shawwal Sunday Friday Tuesday Saturday
al-Fitr November 14 November 4 October 24 October 14
Families usually sacrifice the animal in front of their own
houses. They water the animal, then, while praising God, they
use a sharp knife to kill the animal. The meat is then divided
into three equal shares. The person who physically offered the
sacrifice is allowed to take one-third. The other two shares go
to relatives, friends, and the poor. Millions of animals are
slaughtered throughout the Muslim world during this four-day
festival. This is the time that the wealthy share some of their
good fortune with the poor.
During the hajj season, more than 2 million faithful Muslims
gather in Mecca each year and, as part of the required hajj
rituals, they are supposed to offer the traditional sacrifice.
Having so many animals sacrificed becomes a very difficult task,
however, so to make the festival’s requirements more workable,
many pilgrims give the monetary equivalent of the sacrificial
animals to charitable organizations that will reach the poor,
which is the main intention of the sacrifice.
Some Sufis contend that the sacrificial animal represents the
animal nature within human beings that should be sacrificed so
that the faithful can reach the state of purity, required in their
path toward God. The Qur’an speaks of the motives behind the
sacrifice: “Neither the flesh nor the blood of your sacrifices
reaches God, but it is the righteous motive underlying them that
reaches Him. He has made them subject to you that you may
glorify God for His guidance to you. So give the good news to
those who are doers of good” (Q. 22:37).
Id al-Fitr (Festival of Breaking the Fast)
Id al-Fitr is celebrated at the end of the Ramadan. The festival
marks the end of a full month of fasting. The festival starts when
the new moon has been officially sighted, and the celebration
continues for three days. It is a joyous occasion to pay tribute to
God’s bounty and benevolence. It is an occasion to celebrate life,
eat good food, wear nice clothing, decorate the home, prepare
special foods and sweets, and entertain guests. Children in
particular are dressed well, and they traditionally receive money and
114 ISLAM
gifts from their parents and relatives. Id al-Fitr is also a period
for visiting relatives and friends, and especially those who are
sick or in need. It is a time to exchange gifts and feed the poor.
Although Id al-Fitr is a merry occasion, it is not a time for
believers to indulge in fickleness or overindulgence. Instead, Id
al-Fitr is a time to reflect on one’s spiritual needs and relations
with God. And more importantly, it is a time to remember one’s
duties to the community and obligations toward the poor.
Custom requires that each head of household should carefully
calculate the family’s income and revenue for the previous year
and allocate part as Sadaqat-ul-Fitr or Fitrana (“Id-al-Fitr charity”)
for the benefit of the poor. This contribution is made on behalf
of the family as a way of showing gratitude to God for his support
during the last year. Usually, the donation will reach the poor
before Id al-Fitr begins, which allows them to participate in this
happy event without being empty-handed. 13
Laylat al-Qadr (“Night of the Power”)
The Qur’an equates this night with a thousand months: “We
have indeed revealed this (Qur’an) in the Night of Power. And
what will explain what the Night of Power is? The Night of
Power is better than a thousand months. Therein come down
the angels and the Spirit (Gabriel) by God’s permission, on every
errand: Peace! until the appearance of dawn” (Q. 97:1–5).
The Night of Power is celebrated on the twenty-seventh night
of Ramadan. However, according to the Prophet himself, any of
the odd-numbered nights of the last ten days of Ramadan may
have been the Night of Power.
Ramadan
Ramadan is sacred for Muslims throughout the world. It is the
month of fasting, the month for purification of the soul, for
remembrance of God through sincere prayers, and a time
for repentance. During Ramadan, Muslims recite the Qur’an
regularly, and it is recommended that the entire Qur’an be
read at least once during the month.
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Many devout Muslims who can afford to take the time away
from work and other obligations retreat to a mosque for the last
ten days and nights of Ramadan and devote all of their attention to
God, just as Muhammad himself was known to do. During these
times of retreat (i‘tikaf), Muslims fast during the day and occupy
themselves with venerating God through voluntary prayers and
reflection on the words of the Qur’an, both day and night. Many
people do not leave the mosque except in cases of urgent need.
The faithful are supplied with food and other possible needs by
family members or the custodians of the mosque.
Ramadan is also a month of sharing one’s resources with the
poor, as in the festival of Id al-Fitr. For many Muslims, it is also
a time to celebrate life and its amenities as God-given gifts.
Not everybody retreats to a mosque on the nights of Ramadan.
For many people, the nights of Ramadan, after fasting the whole
day, are an occasion to enjoy life, visit relatives and friends, eat
in restaurants, see plays with religious themes, listen to music,
and watch television. In Egypt, it is customary for television
stations to reserve some of their best programming for the
nights of Ramadan when people usually stay up later and watch
television with friends and relatives.
Milad al-Nabi (The Birthday of the Prophet)
Milad al-Nabi, or Mawlid al-Nabi, is the commemoration of the
prophet Muhammad’s birthday, which takes place on the twelfth
day of Rabi’ ul-awwal, the third month of the Islamic calendar. In the
eyes of many Muslims around the world, Muhammad is the ideal
man, the perfect human being who should be emulated for his
God-like qualities. Muhammad was both a religious and political
leader.He was also a revolutionary for his time—the man who stood
against age-old inhumane pagan practices and preached justice
and equality for all people regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, or
family connections.Most important of all, he was the one chosen
by God to be the last great prophet on Earth. Through him,
the message of Islam was announced to all of humanity.
Many Muslims celebrate this holiday by decorating the streets
116 ISLAM
and public places and organizing speeches and lectures about the
life and sayings of the Prophet. They also recite the Qur’an and
read prose and poetry praising the Prophet. Following recitation
of the Qur’an and poetry readings, sweets are distributed, and
perfume is offered or sprinkled on worshipers.Music is played all
over the city.
Since the death of the Prophet is also believed to have taken
place on the same date,Muslims are careful not to go too far with
their music and joy on the occasion of Milad al-Nabi. They strive
to keep a balance in their celebrations and always remember the
Prophet’s wise saying, “Live in this life like if you live for ever; live
in this life like if you die tomorrow; the balance to this is Islam.”
Muhammad had offered his followers a religion of balance
between deen (religious life) and donya (secular life). He advised
them to enjoy life on Earth but never to forget about the life to
come (and for which they must prepare) after death.
Though all Muslims are thankful for the birth of the prophet
Muhammad, not all Muslims celebrate his birthday. Some conservative
Muslims, such as the Wahhabis of Saudi Arabia, consider
the celebration of birthdays a modern innovation, which has
no precedent in the early history of Islam and therefore is not
condoned by the Qur’an or hadith. To make their case, they refer
to the Prophet’s advising the faithful to avoid innovations for fear
of misguidance. Despite their attitude, there have been many
scholars who did not think all innovations were unworthy or
harmful. They considered the good innovations—those that do
not contradict the Qur’an—praiseworthy. So, in their view, the
celebration of Muhammad’s birthday uplifts believers and pleases
God. The Qur’an states: “God and his angels send blessings on the
Prophet. You who believe send your blessing on him as well, and
salute him with respect” (Q. 33:56).
Lailat al-Isra wa al-Mi’raj
(The Night of the Journey and the Ascension)
Muslims commemorate the night that, according to Islamic
tradition, the prophet Muhammad, through a journey guided by
Holidays 117
the archangel Gabriel, ascended to heaven to meet with God.
The tradition continues that, on the way to see God, the Prophet
met Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and some other prophets.
When he was about to approach God, Gabriel faced the Prophet
and remarked that, as an angel, he was not allowed to go any
further, but Muhammad could continue his ascendance.
Muhammad reached God and drank from the fountain of
spiritual knowledge. Upon his return to Earth, he brought with
him the divinely inspired wisdom that made him such a
great teacher and inspiration. It was during this journey that
he was given God’s instructions for the five daily prayers.
The event of Mi’raj, according to Muslim scholars, was a spiritual
journey, a journey that signifies the origin of the Prophet’s
incredible insight and wisdom. The ascent took place in Mecca on
the twenty-seventh day of Rajab, the seventh month of Islamic
calendar, two years before Muhammad’s emigration to Medina.
Mi’raj is a joyful occasion. Houses, streets, and religious
buildings are decorated with colorful flags and signs and, at
night, bright lights illuminate them. Toward evening, believers
assemble in mosques to listen to speeches about the life of the
Prophet and to participate in group prayers, chanting and
singing in praise of Muhammad. After the speeches, religious
songs, and prayers are over, sweets are distributed and perfume
is sprinkled on participants. Money is also collected to be
distributed among the poor.
Other Festivals
There are several other festivals and observances that are
celebrated by Muslims. Some of them are actually pre-Islamic
holidays, but they have gained an Islamic flavor as a result of
contact with the ever-growing Muslim population. For example,
the Norooz, or Iranian New Year, which happens at the spring
equinox, is a major festival celebrated for thirteen days in Iran,
Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, and other areas that are under
the influence of Iranian culture. Although this is a national, not
a religious, holiday, even during the Norooz celebration at the
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moment the year is changing, many devout Iranians recite the
holy Qur’an and remember God as their sustainer.
Events commemorated by the Shiite Muslim population
include Ashrah, the tenth day in the month of Muharram, which
recalls the day in 680 when Husayn (Hussein), the grandson of
the Prophet, and members of his family were massacred on the
orders of Yazid, the second Umayyad caliph. A happier occasion
is the day that Muhammad, according to Shiite tradition,
proclaimed ‘Ali, his cousin and son-in-law, as his successor. This
event is known as Id al-Ghadir, which, according to Shiites,
happened on the eighteenth of Dhul Hijjah, three months before
the death of the Prophet in 632.
Holidays 119
Memories
9
Being upright does not consist in turning your
faces to the East or to the West, but being upright
is to believe in Allah, and the Last Day, and the
angels, and the Books, and the Prophets. . . .
—The Qur’an 2:177
THE SPREAD OF ISLAM
Within a century of the prophet Muhammad’s death, Islam
had become a world empire that stretched from North
Africa to Southeast Asia. Mosques, Islam’s main religious and
cultural landmarks, could be seen all over the world from Asia to
Africa to Europe. The Islamic Empire reached a scope that
rivaled that of the Roman Empire at its peak. It spanned 3,000
miles from east to west, covering areas from the Pyrenees on the
border of France to the Pamirs in Central Asia, from North
Africa and Egypt to the Byzantine territory south of the Taurus
Mountains, and the Persian Empire in the East.
For many people, especially those from Western cultures, it
was hard to understand (and still is) how an ideology that
emerged among a small group of Arab tribes, within less than a
century, could become a world ideology adopted by people from
sophisticated cultures. Faithful Muslims, however, interpreted
this rapid expansion of Islam as divine intervention. The idea
that God was behind them inspired many Muslim caliphs and
rulers to take additional risks and spread the word of God
(which they viewed as their mission) to faraway places. They
called their military conquest fath, an Arabic term meaning
“opening” or “victory” for the transfer of Islam. They sincerely
believed that humanity would benefit from being exposed to the
ideals of Islam. At the same time, they believed they would
reserve a place for themselves in paradise by spreading God’s
word as it was revealed to the Prophet.
To these early military rulers, spreading the worldview of
Islam was a good deed, especially when they were dealing with
territories that either lacked a sound spiritual ideology or had a
religious tradition that was very corrupt. For example, political
corruption and moral bankruptcy within the two major empires
of the time, the Sassanid (Persian Zoroastrian Empire) the
Byzantine (the Christian Eastern Roman Empire), made them
too weak to resist the advancing Islamic armies. In addition,
hundreds of years of power struggles and bloody battles between
the two empires of Sassanids and Byzantines left the people on
Memories 121
both sides exhausted and eager for change. Dissatisfaction with
their political rulers, extreme poverty, and the stratified societies
sanctioned by the law did not give the people of these empires
enough incentive to defend their territories against the Muslim
invaders. For many, it was simply a matter of exchanging one
master for another, with the hope that the new master would be
more benevolent. Many people, of course, had heard about the
new Islamic religion of Arabia that called for the oneness of
humanity and equality of all races in the sight of God; those who
had heard the news generally welcomed the idea of being ruled
by Muslims.Many, in fact, quickly accepted the new religion.
It is interesting to note that neither of the religions practiced
by these empires—the Christianity of the Byzantines or the
Zoroastrianism of Persia—was inherently corrupt. However,
the way these two religions had been exploited by a group of
opportunistic leaders over time made them appear corrupt to
the populace. Power-hungry religious leaders had alienated
themselves from the public by aligning themselves with the
overtly corrupt kings and emperors and sanctioning their cruel
rule over their subjects. This behavior stood in sharp contrast
with that of the early Islamic leaders, who considered themselves
the servants of God and protectors of the faithful.
The fall of the Sassanid and Byzantine empires brought vast
new territories under Muslim rule. Soon, Iraq, Syria, Palestine,
Persia, and Egypt had become Islamic territories. The Western
borders of the empire reached Spain and Morocco and
expanded across Central Asia all the way to India.
The defeated population was given two choices: to accept
Islam as their religion and enjoy the full membership of Islamic
community, or to continue to observe their own religion and pay
a poll tax (jizyah) to the conquerors. By paying jizyah, the new
subjects became part of the protected people (dhimmi). The
dhimmi were exempt from military service and were protected
against potential outside aggressors. They also were not responsible
for paying zakat, the religious tax that Muslims were
required to pay. Although some of the conquered population
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converted to Islam solely to escape paying the jizyah, it is not
correct to assume that economic reasons were the only motives
behind the rapid conversions of conquered peoples to Islam.
Many were very sincere in their acceptance of Islam; in fact,
quite a few converts later became major scholars of Islamic law
and theology.
Christian and Jews were considered “People of the Book” and
were respected as monotheistic fellows who had their own sacred
revelations. They were therefore given full protection and liberty
to practice their religious rituals in their churches and synagogues.
Many sects—including Nestorians, Jacobites, and Copts—that
had been labeled heretic by the Christian Orthodoxy under
the rule of Byzantium welcomed the Muslim rulers as their
saviors. Because Muslims saw Islam as a continuation of the
Judeo-Christian tradition, they had great respect for Jewish and
Christian cultures. However, this did not mean that Jews and
Christians were never mistreated under Muslim rulers. Some
closed-minded rulers who had little understanding of other
religions made life very difficult for their non-Muslim subjects.
Generally speaking, though, the majority of Muslim rulers acted
according to the Qur’anic passage, “there is no compulsion in
religion,” and treated their non-Muslim subjects fairly, allowing
them to establish flourishing communities within the Islamic
Empire. Some members of these religious minorities became
important scientists, philosophers, and political administrators
under the patronage of Muslim rulers.
Although military conquests helped the growth of Islam, it
was not by any means the only reason for Islamic expansion. In
fact, regions that today contain the largest Muslim countries,
such as Southeast Asia (where the largest Islamic country,
Indonesia, is located), never faced an Islamic army. The spread
of Islam to these regions and to most of Africa, which today
contains a significant number of Muslims, occurred through
trade and the efforts of Sufi masters. As early as the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries, Islamic merchants and mystics introduced
people throughout the Malay-Indonesian archipelago to Islam,
Memories 123
mainly through peaceful means. Today, there is a sizable Muslim
population in Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, and the southern
parts of Philippines and Thailand.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF ISLAMIC SOCIETY
From the time of the Prophet, religion and politics were intertwined.
In addition to being recognized as the Messenger of
God, Muhammad was known for his political shrewdness,
administrative wisdom, and military strategy.He was a diplomat
who set an example as a good statesman for his successors to
follow. His community-state in Medina, which he based on faith
124 ISLAM
WHAT IS JIHAD?
In the West, the term jihad usually carries with it a negative connotation.
It is used to describe the violent side of Islam. However, contrary
to this popular Western opinion, jihad actually means to strive to be a
good Muslim and to follow the path of God.
According to Islam, temptation to do evil is the strongest of a
person’s enemies, so the “greater jihad” is the struggle to overcome
immoral temptations and conquer one’s ego. Jihad also means to do
good and prevent evil, and to spread the word of God, mainly through
peaceful means. It is the “lesser jihad” by which God commands
Muslims to defend their faith, home, and community, even if they have
to use arms. Even then, however, God does not like the aggressors:
“And fight with them until there is no oppression, and there prevail
justice and faith in God; but if they cease, let there be no hostility
except to those who practise oppression” (Q. 2:193).
When the Prophet and his army returned victorious from the Battle
of Badr in A.D. 624, Muhammad faced his followers and declared:
“today you have won the ‘lesser jihad,’ but now you have your main
task ahead of you, the ‘greater jihad’, following the straight path.”
Some Muslim political activists, in order to justify their terrorist
acts and gain sympathy from their fellow Muslims, have recently
exploited the concept of jihad. Those who understand the true
meaning of jihad know it cannot be expanded to justify the murder of
innocent people in an offensive act, as happened in the terrorist
attacks of September 11, 2001.
and governmental order, was a success. Politics, law, education,
social service, and the whole fabric of society were based on
teachings of the Qur’an and consideration of the common
good. Under Muhammad’s guidance, the community learned
how to function as a unit. Circumstances such as early feuds
with opponents in Mecca taught the people that if they wanted
to survive as a community, they would have to function as a
united body. This idea of making the community the first
priority helped the Muslims to prosper as a successful city-state
and, later, as a world empire.
THE PRISTINE ISLAM: THE FOUR
RIGHTLY GUIDED CALIPHS
The idea of Muhammad’s being the seal of the prophets brought
an end to the tradition of prophethood after his death in 632.
Since Muhammad’s political authority was believed to have been
bestowed upon him by God, whoever became the next leader
would inherit his divine mandate, but would not enjoy the same
authority. Since, according to popular view,Muhammad did not
clearly delineate a successor before he died, his death brought
confusion about who should follow in the footsteps of such a
great leader. This confusion gradually led to a crisis, which split
the community into Shiite and Sunni divisions—a separation
that exists to the present day. In accordance with Arab custom of
the time, after the death of the Prophet, a group of tribal elders
gathered and selected Abu Bakr, Muhammad’s close friend and
father-in-law to be the next Muslim leader. The leader was to be
called caliph (khalifah), meaning the “deputy,” or, in this case,
“deputy of the Prophet.”
Abu Bakr, known as the first adult male who converted to
Islam, was a respectable man and was liked by many. However, a
group of Muslims expressed dissatisfaction with his selection
and believed that ‘Ali, Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law,
should be the first caliph after Muhammad. They claimed that
Muhammad, in his last pilgrimage on the way from Medina to
Mecca, stopped by a place called Ghadir Khumm and introduced
Memories 125
‘Ali to the community there as his successor. This claim was not
accepted by a majority, however, and Abu Bakr became the first
official caliph.
Abu Bakr was an old man, so his reign, which began in 632,
was brief; he died after two and a half years in office. During his
reign, Abu Bakr managed to put down insurgencies by local
tribes, consolidated the tribes of Arabia, and established the rule
of Islam over the entire Arabian Peninsula. Before his death,Abu
Bakr, to avoid the same confusion that had occurred when
Muhammad died, named ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab as his successor.
During the reign of ‘Umar (634–644), the Muslim Army
defeated the Persian Sassanid and Eastern Roman Byzantine
empires, and Islam spread to Persia, Iraq, Syria, and North
Africa. ‘Umar was generous with conquered people and showed
great respect for Christians and Jews and their places of worship
when his army captured the city of Jerusalem. He also institutionalized
the Hijri Islamic calendar throughout territories
ruled by the Islamic Empire. ‘Umar was known for his personal
integrity, frugality, and sense of justice. He called himself “the
Commander of Faithful” (Amir ul Mu‘minin). In 644, his life
came to an abrupt end when his servant, who had a personal
grudge against ‘Umar, stabbed him to death.
Following ‘Umar, the two main candidates for caliph were
‘Uthman ibn Affan and ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib; the elders chose
‘Uthman to be the next leader. Unlike his predecessors, ‘Uthman
belonged to the influential Umayyad clan that had once
challenged the prophet Muhammad in Mecca. Though ‘Uthman
was a pious man, he was prone to nepotism. When he
appointed a close relative as the governor of Egypt, he caused a
controversy. People who were unhappy with the governor of
Egypt complained about him and asked for his resignation.When
‘Uthman ignored their demands, an angry mob surrounded
his house and killed him. The greatest accomplishment of
‘Uthman’s reign (644–656) was his appointment of a group of
experts to collect all existing copies of the Qur’an and establish
the standard text for future Muslim generations.
126 ISLAM
After ‘Uthman’s death, ‘Ali was finally selected by the elders to
be the fourth and last caliph. As might have been expected, ‘Ali’s
reign (656–661) was turbulent. The community was already
divided into Shiite and Sunni communities, with southern Iraq
and Iran being heavily influenced by Shiism. After overcoming
some rebellious movements against his rule, ‘Ali moved his capital
to Kufah, a garrison city in southern Iraq where he had many
supporters. ‘Ali was a devoutly religious man but he was not a
politician.He was too rigid and idealistic in his beliefs to compromise
when he thought he was right. He was not equipped to be
a good diplomat, which is sometimes key to political survival.
The death of ‘Uthman still remained a problem. ‘Uthman’s
nephew Mu‘awiya, who had been appointed governor of Syria,
wanted ‘Ali to punish the assassins of his uncle. When ‘Ali
refused, Mu‘awiya started a war against him. The two armies
met at Saffin on the upper Euphrates River, on the frontier
between Iraq and Syria. Just as the battle was turning in ‘Ali’s
favor,Mu‘awiya’s soldiers raised the pages of the Qur’an on their
spears and called for God to judge among people through a
mutually agreed arbitration. Against the advice of some of his
associates and staunch supporters, ‘Ali agreed to the arbitration,
in which he lost his claim to the caliphate. The arbitration ruled
against him and wanted Mu‘awiya to be the legitimate caliph.
Although ‘Ali refused to accept the result, the armies retreated.
The conflict between the two sides continued until a member of
an opposing group assassinated ‘Ali when he was leading prayers
in the mosque of Kufah.
THE KHARIJIS (KHAWARIJ) OR “DISSENTERS”
Khawarij (single form is Khariji), known as Kharijis (Kharijites)
in the West, were the first radical, or “fundamentalist,”14 group
within Islam. Understanding this group will help us to better
understand the contemporary radical groups such as Takfir wa
Hijiah, Jihad al-Islami, and al-Qaeda.
When Mu‘awiya’s army lifted copies of the Qur’an during
the Battle of Saffin and asked for arbitration to decide whether
Memories 127
‘Ali or Mu‘awiya should be caliph, some of ‘Ali’s followers considered
this action deceitful. They declared that God would
select the legitimate ruler by helping the righteous group win
the battle. In this faction’s view, ‘Ali was the inheritor of
Muhammad’s divine mandate and should not compromise
with those who challenged his rule. When ‘Ali accepted the
arbitration against their wishes, they took it as an act of unbelief
(kufr) and turned against ‘Ali, declaring his caliphate illegitimate.
Their slogan was, “No judgment but God’s judgment.”
They chose to withdraw from the rest of the Muslim world as
Muhammad had withdrawn from the godless Meccan community.
They became known as Khawarij, meaning “seceders” or
“dissenters.”They banded together as an armed group and began
a program of sabotage and assassination against those they
regarded as unbelievers.
Khawarij, like some of today’s radical fundamentalists, were
extremists. They were very pious and they killed in the name of
God. They called themselves shurat, or “those who give their
lives for God.” They believed that killing in God’s name would
reserve a place for them in paradise (Q. 9:111). They criticized
the popular belief of the time that the caliph should come from
the Quraysh tribe; they claimed this was a deviation from teachings
of the Qur’an. In their opinion, anyone could become a
caliph—even a black African slave. They believed that Muslims
who committed major sins were unbelievers and that their
blood should be shed and their properties, wives, and children
taken as war booty (the former Taliban in Afghanistan sometimes
used this same practice).
Khawarij saw the world in terms of black and white; the world
was strictly divided between believers and unbelievers, Muslims
and non-Muslims, peace and warfare. They had no patience for
compromise. Their interpretation of the Qur’an was very literal
and showed no understanding of the dynamics and circumstances
under which some of the verses were originally revealed.
Basing their actions on this erroneous view of Islam, they killed
indiscriminately and justified their deeds in the name of God.
128 ISLAM
They had no concept of a merciful God who loves compassion
and declared that “there is no compulsion in religion.”
‘Ali made repeated attempts to bring back the Khawarij back
to the regular community of Muslims, but he was unsuccessful.
So, he had to fight them in the Battle of Nahrawan (658). The
Khawarij were defeated in this battle, but that only made their
urge and desire for martyrdom stronger. Three years later, one
of the Khawarij murdered ‘Ali with a poisoned sword as he was
about to lead morning prayers. There were Khawarij plots to
kill both Mu‘awiya and Amr ibn As on the same day, but the
men in charge of them were arrested and executed before they
could carry out their plans. Despite this setback, the Khawarij
continued their guerrilla warfare against the Umayyad and
Abbasid caliphs.
THE UMAYYAD EMPIRE (661 – 750)
With ‘Ali out of the picture, Mu‘awiya proclaimed himself the
next caliph. There was some opposition to his announcement
from Hasan, ‘Ali’s older son, who also claimed the caliphate.After
he realized that Mu‘awiya’s followers were more powerful than
his own, Hasan signed a peace agreement and prevented unnecessary
bloodshed. Mu‘awiya moved the capital to Damascus,
where he had been stationed when he was governor of Syria.
A competent politician, he managed to neutralize his opposition
and established a peace that lasted for most of his reign
(661–680). The shift of the Islamic seat of political power to
Damascus, a major Greco-Roman city, changed the aim and
reality of the caliphate. Mu‘awiya, the son of Abu Sufiyan, who
had once been an archenemy of the Prophet, was now in charge
of the Islamic state that would soon become an empire. He
managed to change the system of caliphate to a sultanate,
meaning that leadership became hereditary, based on blood
connections—a tradition that the prophet Muhammad had
struggled to prevent.
Mu‘awiya turned the caliphate into a dynasty, a monopoly of
Bani Umayyad (his children), and excluded non-Arabs from
Memories 129
high offices, to the extent that the state became known as the
Arab Kingdom. This was all against the concept of egalitarianism
advocated by Islam. So, by 680, when Yazid replaced his father,
Mu‘awiya, as sultan, there was a large degree of dissatisfaction
against Umayyad rule, and especially against Yazid himself, who
was known as a drunk by the Shiites of southern Iraq.
A group of disgruntled Muslims from Kufah in southern
Iraq invited Husayn (Hussein), the younger son of ‘Ali and the
grandson of Prophet, to lead them in a resistance movement
against Yazid. After some hesitation, Husayn accepted the invitation
and left Medina for Kufah to join his supporters. On his
way to Kufah, he and more than seventy of his family members
and supporters were stopped on the plain of Karbala on the
bank of the Euphrates River by an army dispatched by the Yazid’s
governor in Kufah.Yazid’s representative offered Husayn powerful
governmental positions in exchange for his loyalty. Husayn was
an idealist, however; he did not accept. Even though he knew his
people could not win the battle, he still chose to fight Yazid’s army.
He chose death over compromise with what he considered the
immoral and corrupt government of Yazid.
On the tenth day of the Muharram of 680, a day known as
Ashura, Husayn and the male members of his family were
massacred. The women and one of his sons (Zain al-Abidin),
who was sick at the time, were taken as captives. This event in
Shiite history is remembered as the “Tragedy of Karbala,” or
“Husayn’s Ashura.” For Shiites, Husayn’s battle against Yazid
symbolizes the struggle of good versus evil, innocent versus
tyrant. Since the event, Shiite Muslims have commemorated the
massacre every year during the month of Muharram, which
they consider the month of mourning.
Despite problems that arose during the early caliphates, the
Umayyads are known for their military, political, administrative,
and cultural achievements. The Islamic Empire flourished and
became stable under reign of later caliphs, such as Abd al-Malik
ibn Marvan and Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz. The Umayyads managed
to build the first Islamic fleet and to become a maritime power.
130 ISLAM
They dominated the Mediterranean and sailed east to India and
west to Spain. They secured the waterways throughout their territories
so that seafarers and other merchants could move safely
and easily within the empire. Thanks to this freedom in transportation,
seafarers carried Islam all the way to India and China.
Among the Umayyads’ cultural achievements were the building
of monuments such as the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and
the great Umayyad Mosque of Damascus. The Arabic writing
of the Qur’an was standardized for educational purposes.
The administration systems inherited from the conquered
subjects were changed to fit the Islamic method of government,
while Arab coins became the standard monetary unit of the
entire empire.
The Umayyads gradually began to lose support, especially
among the non-Arab population. Due to their dynastic nature
and emphasis on “Arabness,” many considered them Arab rather
than Islamic rulers. Those non-Arabs who had accepted Islam as
their religion had to attach themselves to an Arab tribe in order
to be recognized and protected, but they were still treated as
second-class citizens and were subject to higher taxes than the
Arab Muslims. Many people found these rules unjust and
believed that they went against the ideals of Islam, so they began
to resist the later Umayyad caliphs. Opposition was particularly
fierce in the regions most remote from Damascus and in areas
populated by non-Arabs and Shiites. In the province of Khorasan
in eastern Iran, a major resistance movement grew under the
leadership of a charismatic Persian general known as Abu Muslim.
Abu Muslim and his followers, who were called Seyah Jamegan
Memories 131
THE DOME OF THE ROCK
One of the best-known holy Muslim structures is the Dome of the
Rock in Jerusalem. The oldest surviving Muslim building that is
still intact in its original form, it holds a large rock from which
Muhammad is said to have ascended to heaven at the end of his
legendary night journey.
(meaning “men in black cloth”), were Shiites who wanted to
shift political power back to the family of Muhammad. They
supported one of the descendants of Abbas,Muhammad’s uncle,
giving them the name “Abbasids.” In 750, with the help of Abu
Muslim, the opposition drove the Umayyads from power and the
Abbasids took over.
THE ABBASIDS (750–1258)
Since the Abbasids rose to power with the help of sympathizers
in Iraq and Iran (Persia), it was natural for them to move their
capital to where they had the most support. Al-Mansur, the
second Abbasid caliph built the city of Baghdad (located in
present-day Iraq) in 762 on the Tigris River near Ctesiphon, the
ancient capital of the Sassanid (Persian) Empire. He called the
city Madinat a-Salam, meaning “the City of Peace.” A roundshaped
fortified city, Baghdad was built at a central point
between Syria in the west, Arabia in the south, and Persia in the
east. During the next caliphate, Baghdad grew significantly, and
by the ninth and tenth centuries, it had become the jewel of the
Islamic Empire. At that time, it was the greatest commercial,
educational, and cultural center in the world.
By the time the Abbasids came to power, the Islamic
community was ethnically and linguistically diverse. The
Abbasids used this diversity to their advantage and built an
empire based on the experience of many varied cultures. They
employed bright individuals from different ethnic backgrounds.
They utilized the services of experienced Persian and
Greek bureaucrats and intellectuals and reformed their court
and administration systems. Abbasid caliphs—especially
Harun al-Rashid and his son Ma‘mun—became patrons of art,
literature, and science, and gave generous grants to qualified
scholars. With the help of their Persian chief ministers, they
emulated the administrative systems that had brought success
in earlier times to Persian rulers. Caliph al-Ma‘mun (who
reigned 813–833) built the official educational institution in
Baghdad, the Bayt al-Hikma (House of Wisdom). It became a
132 ISLAM
haven for scholars from all over the world who wanted a suitable
place to pursue their studies.
The class of religious scholars known as ‘ulama also emerged
during the Abbasid period. Since Islam does not recognize any
official clergy or priesthood, ‘ulama are the people most qualified
to interpret Islamic texts. As a professional elite who could
interpret the Qur’an, ahadith, and the shari’ah, ‘ulama became
an influential and respected social class. Abbasids (who called
themselves the preservers of Prophet’s tradition) supported the
development of Islamic scholarship and became patrons of
scholars who worked on developing the shari’ah. Under their
patronage, the early law schools that began to develop during the
late Umayyad period flourished and, with the help of ‘ulama,
they codified major laws, making rules applicable everywhere
throughout the Islamic Empire.
Gradually, the Abbasid caliphate started to show signs of
disintegration. Turkish groups who were originally brought
from Central Asia to guard the caliphs against Persian and Arab
rivals became too powerful and began to dominate the caliphate.
The empire was growing too large and had too many ambitious
generals who had an eye on gaining power for themselves in
Baghdad. As the Abbasids became weaker, some of the caliphs
became pawns in the hands of their generals. Ethnic rivalry and
disobedience of the orders of caliphs became the norm. The
Abbasids were no longer able to hold their subjects together, and
territories began to break away from the empire. Non-Arab
Muslims began to demand a voice in the administration of state
and society.Non-Arab Muslims in the West, Spain,North Africa,
and eventually Egypt, rebelled against imperial control and went
their own way. In the East, Persia grew strong enough to become
master of its own lands. The empire became fragmented, and
by 945, a Shiite Persian dynasty, the Buyids, captured Baghdad
and forced the Abbasid caliph to endorse their rule. The Buyids
ruled for over a century (945–1055), during which time they
patronized the study of Shiism and helped develop Shiite hadith
tradition, theology, and jurisprudence.
Memories 133
With the fragmentation of the empire, new centers of power
began to emerge. Other cultural centers in Persia, Central Asia,
Spain, and North Africa emerged as rivals to Baghdad. In each of
these places, scholars were supported by the rulers of various
dynasties. The Arabic language lost its grip as the official
language of scholarship; other tongues began to flourish under
the patronage of nationalistic rulers. A large body of Islamic
literature, for instance, was written in Persian.
Though they had lost control over the empire, the Abbasid
caliphs, as descendants of the Prophet, remained as nominal
leadership figures. They were used as a source of legitimacy for
the various regional rulers who controlled different parts of the
former empire.
THE MONGOLS AND THEIR AFTERMATH
The eastern lands of Islam, including Persia, Iraq, Syria, and
Palestine, were devastated by Changiz (Genghis) Khan and his
descendants. They poured out of Central Asia and sacked cities
wherever they passed. In 1258, the grandson of Changiz Khan,
Hulagu Khan, reached Baghdad.Historian Sir John Bagot Glubb
explained, “For five hundred years, Baghdad had been a city of
palaces, mosques, libraries and colleges. Its universities and
hospitals were the most up-to-date in the world. Nothing now
remained but heaps of rubble and a stench of decaying human
flesh.”15 After destroying the city completely, Hulagu Khan
massacred its Muslim population and murdered the last Abbasid
caliph and his family.
The Mongols continued their pillage, going west until the
Mamluks of Egypt in the Sinai Peninsula finally stopped them.
Although the Mongol invasion was at first devastating to Islam
and the Muslims, gradually, the Mongols’ later descendants
accepted Islam as their religion and became generous patrons of
Islamic art, science, and shari’ah.
By the middle of sixteenth century, once again there were
three major Muslim empires emerging in the Islamic world.
Their combined domain of influence stretched from North
134 ISLAM
Africa to the eastern borders of the Indian subcontinent. The
Turkish Ottoman Empire (1517–1923), stationed in Istanbul,
controlled a vast area including the Anatolian Peninsula, a good
portion of the Arab Middle East and North Africa, and the
Balkan Peninsula. The Persian Safavid Empire (1501–1723) was
stationed in Esfaha¯n (Isfahan), Iran, and controlled what are
today Iran, southern Iraq, Afghanistan, and parts of Central
Asia. Finally, the Indian Mughal Empire (1483–1857), which
was centered in Delhi, India, controlled most of the Indian
subcontinent, including what is today India, Pakistan, and
Bangladesh. Under these great empires, peace and tranquillity
once again returned to Islamic lands, and art, science, and
literature thrived.
Memories 135
Islam in the
World Today
10
The doctrine of brotherhood of Islam extends to all
human beings, no matter what color, race or creed. Islam
is the only religion which has been able to realize this
doctrine in practice. Muslims wherever on the world
they are will recognize each other as brothers
—R.L.Mellema, Dutch anthropologist,
writer, and scholar
ISLAM AND THE CHRISTIAN WEST
Although Islam and Christianity are both considered Abrahamic
religions and share common roots, their history has nevertheless
been described primarily in terms of their conflicts. The
Christian West never accepted the defeat of the Byzantine forces
in 636 that led to the loss of Jerusalem and neighboring territories
to Muslims. To many European Christians, this ongoing conflict
was not merely over territorial expansion but over religious
supremacy. They saw Christianity as being challenged by Islam, a
religion whose followers believed it was the culmination of the
Judeo-Christian tradition, and who believed that their sacred
scripture, the Qur’an, was God’s final revelation to humanity.
Islam claimed to have a divine mandate to spread the word of
God throughout the world, a claim that many Christians also
considered their right.
By the eleventh century, at the request of Byzantine Emperor
Alexis I and in response to a call by Pope Urban II, a huge army
of Europeans started a drive ostensibly intended to end Muslim
rule of Jerusalem. This campaign became known as the Crusades,
a long-lasting series of bloody conflicts between Islamic and
Christian European armies that took place between 1095 and
1453. The Christian forces were comprised of Roman Catholics,
who actually considered the Byzantine Christians heretics and
sacked Constantinople during the fourth major Crusade rather
than proceeding on to Jerusalem.
The Christian armies captured Jerusalem from the Muslims
in 1099 and held it for about ninety years, until 1187, when
the Muslims regained control. Although the Christians never
successfully retook Jerusalem, they made several additional
attempts in further Crusades over the following centuries. The
Crusades officially ended when the city of Constantinople, the
capital of the Byzantine Empire, fell to the army of an Ottoman king
during the mid-fifteenth century. The city was later renamed
“Istanbul,” and remained the seat of the Ottoman sultans until
1923. Muslims maintained a strong cultural presence on the
Iberian Peninsula (present-day Spain and Portugal) from their
Islam in the World Today 137
first incursions in the early eighth century until the fall of the
last Muslim kingdoms in 1492, the year the Spanish Inquisition
began. Modern historical analyses of the Crusades indicate that
these were primarily economic and strategic battles for control
of trade routes and natural resources rather than strictly
religious wars.
By the eighteenth century, when the Industrial Revolution
provided an impetus for the expansion of European colonialism,
the Islamic Middle East was long past its years of glory and
had grown too weak to resist Western colonial ambitions. The
Europeans’ search for raw material and other economic resources
enticed them to send armies all over the world, including into
Islamic domains. Superior weapons and technology shifted
the balance of power toward the European side. The Islamic
world nearly succumbed to a Western power when Napoleon
Bonaparte, then a young French general, successfully invaded
Egypt in 1798. Later, the Ottoman sultans, who were the
strongest remaining Islamic rulers, proved no match for the
emerging Western powers. They lost their East European territories
and most of their holdings in North Africa to various European
forces. Similarly, the Mughal Empire that had ruled India for
about four hundred years fell to the British in 1857. The Dutch
colonized formerly Muslim-held regions of Southeast Asia. From
Morocco to Malaysia, Muslims became the subjects of colonial
powers. Faced with this turn of events, some pious Muslims felt
that their destiny had been seized by foreigners and that God had
abandoned them as punishment for their deviations from the
true path of Islam.
Under the supervision of colonial powers (France, England,
Holland, and Italy), the caliphates and sultanates that symbolically
represented the Islamic system of authority were dismantled
and replaced by new secular governments. European overlords
created new countries and defined their borders, in many cases
without any regard for physical or cultural criteria that had once
shaped the territories. Often, they handpicked rulers for these
countries from among their own loyal subjects and actively
138 ISLAM
supported them throughout their reigns. The stability of these
colonial governments depended upon foreign backing and a
strong, loyal military rather than popular support won through
elections or other democratic means.
The elite of these governments, along with some foreigneducated
upper-class urbanites, promoted Western ideas, values,
and culture in the newly colonized Muslim lands.Many Muslims
gradually began to develop an appetite for the ways of the
West, and the Westernization of Muslim societies soon became a
widespread phenomenon. People developed a taste for Western
clothing, art, architecture, literature, and particularly, forms of
entertainment such as music and movies. To be modern it was
considered necessary to adopt a European-American lifestyle.
In some countries, Westernization was imposed on Muslims
by their government, not spontaneously chosen by the people.
Kemal Ataturk of Turkey and Reza Shah of Iran during the first
half of the twentieth century forced their subjects to follow the
Western way of life by banning the wearing of traditional Islamic
attire in public and by closing many Islamic madrasahs and
replacing them with secular schools. Ataturk actually forced
publishers and schools to use a modified Latin alphabet instead
of the usual Turkish alphabet based on Arabic letterforms that
had a strong symbolic link with the sacred language of the
Qur’an.He dissolved the status of Islam as the official religion of
Turkey, and replaced the shari’ah law courts with a new model
based on European legal systems.
Most Islamic countries, including Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan,
Malaysia, and Indonesia, adopted Western-style government,
education, banking, and other institutions but attempted to
retain their Islamic culture by preserving Muslim family law and
supporting religious schools and institutions. The most heavily
Westernized Islamic countries are those whose populations have
had a high level of contact with the West, such as Turkey, Iran,
Egypt, Lebanon, and Tunisia. The most traditional Muslim
countries have been Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Afghanistan,
and Pakistan.
Islam in the World Today 139
THE ISLAMIC RESPONSE TO THE WEST
While the diffusion ofWestern science and technology into Muslim
countries significantly improved physical infrastructures, it
also introduced an ever-increasing appetite for material goods.
Western reliance upon science and technology as the ultimate
solutions to human problems began to undermine the prevailing
Islamic worldview of the sovereignty of God and the need to
observe ethical-religious codes of behavior as defined by shari’ah.
For some people, materialism came to be seen as a way to satisfy
sensual desires, regardless of the virtues recommended by Islam.
Western music, television, and movies, as well as social mixing
between the sexes, became widespread, and behaviors not
traditionally common in Islamic societies, such as usury, alcohol
consumption, prostitution, and pornography, also became more
prevalent. Although these vices are universal problems, and not
something strictly introduced by the West, for some religious
groups in particular, contact with Europeans has been blamed as
their cause. Western nations and Westernized rulers were held
responsible for the breakdown of traditional family, religious,
and social values; an increase in the divorce rate; and the overall
moral decline of Islamic society.
Religious activists in many Muslim countries would like their
governments to control the spread of Western values by being
more selective in what is communicated through mass media.
For example, they believe that the broadcasting of certain
American television series, such as Days of Our Lives, Dallas, and
Dynasty, contributes to the spread of promiscuous behavior and
adultery among people whose faith is weak. Although these
opposition groups may appreciate Western technology, they do
not care for some aspects of Western culture. In other words,
it might be said that they appreciate television, but not the
apparent lack of values in the shows that are often broadcast.
Some religious and social activists even believe that materialism
and consumerism constitute a form of idolatry and have taught
people to worship things instead of worshiping God.
The corruption of moral values through crass popular
140 ISLAM
entertainment has not occurred in Islamic cultures alone, nor
has it been the sole factor contributing to the changes that have
disturbed Islamic societies since the influx of Westernization.
The colonial rulers failed to provide their subject populations
with basic necessities such as employment opportunities, housing,
food, and social-support systems. As a result, many Muslims
believed that Western-style governments were incapable of
responding adequately to the needs of Muslims.
Since the end of colonial rule in the twentieth century, Islamic
countries, such as Egypt and Indonesia, have experimented with
a variety of Western economic and governmental systems,
including socialism, capitalism, and other secular forms; none
has seemed to work. Under all of these systems, the gap between
the wealthy few and the economically disenfranchised increased
to the point where many people were reduced to living below the
poverty line. Ironically, improvements such as better health care
led to a significant reduction in death rates, but also caused
rapid population increases (especially in rural regions). That
population growth resulted in increased migrations to urban
areas, where former rural residents added to the numbers of
unemployed and dispossessed urban dwellers. In many cases,
mass migrations from rural to urban regions led to the growth
of vast shantytowns on the edge of major cities. In some cities,
such as Cairo, the homeless have occupied cemeteries, calling
them “Cities of Death.”
In many former Muslim-ruled countries, the failure of
governments to bring prosperity and stability to their nations
has called the value of all Western systems into question. The
legitimacy of these rulers and their dependency upon foreign
aid and protection raised questions about national and cultural
identity, sovereignty, and independence from superpowers.
When capitalist and Communist nations were the staunchest
of world rivals, some Muslim rulers took advantage of Western
(especially American) opposition to communism in order to
destroy legitimate dissent within their countries; they would
foster opposition against dissenting groups by labeling them
Islam in the World Today 141
Communists or Communist sympathizers. Muslim rulers used
these tactics to dismantle political parties and organizations that
were legitimately and democratically challenged their authoritarian
rule. Throughout Muslim countries, an atmosphere of fear
and mistrust of Western-supported, nondemocratic regimes
empowered religious activists to organize their activities through
mosques and religious centers where governmental forces could
not stop them. Religious groups came to embody the main opposition
to unpopular governments, and they recruited their
members from among educated professionals and intellectuals
and the economically disadvantaged. Many dissatisfied citizens,
who were not religious but were concerned about a better future
for their country, joined religious organizations in the struggle for
political change. The power of these religious groups was clearly
demonstrated in the process that led to the fall of the Shah of
Iran and the emergence of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979.
THE ISLAMIC ALTERNATIVE
Western models of development have not worked well in
Islamic countries. Modernization has become synonymous
with Westernization, and Western cultural encroachments
have resulted in disillusionment and an identity crisis for many
Muslims. Once-independent Muslims with rich histories and
strong cultural identities began to feel like the playthings of
foreigners. Western models of development have tended to
discount indigenous innovations that are not based on Western
interests, and often, locally developed plans have tended to
imitate Western models without respect for native cultural and
natural circumstances. These trends have encouraged dependence
on outsiders, and left the governments of Islamic nations
serving outside interests instead of their own.
Many Muslim intellectuals have begun to notice that regional
problems are more easily solved through local solutions. In a
search to rediscover their unique identities and to reclaim their
societies, many have felt that a return to Islamic ideals would
be the best plan. They want to raise Muslims’ shattered morale
142 ISLAM
as individuals and as a community. They have begun to think of
Islam not just as a religion but as an alternative to the seemingly
relentless process of Europeanization or Americanization.
These people seek to return to an Islamic lifestyle, as a replacement
for what they perceive is the decadent Western lifestyle.
They believe that the Qur’an and the sunnah of the Prophet
should once again become the criteria for managing society, as
they were during the time of Muhammad. Islam is again being
perceived as a political force that is capable of correcting the
wrongs of society.
The reemerging power of Islam caught the attention of some
Muslim rulers and their Western allies during the second half of
the twentieth century. They used this power to their advantage.
Rulers such as Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Zia al-Haqq of Pakistan
used Islam to legitimize their power among the populace.
Western powers like the United States used religion-based groups
such as the mujahideen of Afghanistan to fight the Soviet Union.
The idea of building a “Green Belt” (green is the color most
strongly identified with Islam) against communism became
popular in the West, and served as a reason to support religiousminded
people such as Zia al-Haqq against his socialist predecessor,
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in Pakistan.
The Islamic revival in many societies resulted in the establishment
of many Islamic-inspired institutions, including mosques,
schools, clinics, hospitals, day-care centers, youth centers, legal
aid centers for the poor and for abused women, and financial
institutions, such as interest-free Islamic banks. People from
traditionally “nonreligious” sectors—businesspeople, lawyers,
engineers, doctors, teachers, professors, bankers, military officers,
and politicians—became Muslim activists. During the 1990s,
Muslim political parties became very active and won seats in
parliaments and other government offices in Egypt, Turkey,
Algeria, Jordan,Malaysia, and Indonesia. In Turkey and Algeria,
they even managed to defeat their opponents in national
elections, and became majority political parties. The majority
of Muslim activists are peaceful citizens who work within the
Islam in the World Today 143
context of legal political processes to attain their social and
political goals. For example, Muslim activists have served as the
prime minister of Turkey (arguably the most secular of Muslim
countries) and as the president and speaker of the National
Assembly in Indonesia, the largest Muslim nation.
ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISM
The term fundamentalism technically refers to a twentiethcentury
conservative American Protestant movement advocating a
return to the basic beliefs and practices of Christianity, such as
the virgin birth of Jesus, his physical resurrection, the infallibility of
the Bible, Jesus’s atonement for humanity’s sins, and the expected
second coming of Jesus. The movement also demanded, among
other things, continued restrictions on women’s reproductive
choices, the disenfranchisement of homosexuals, and closer ties
between the institutions of government and churches.Gradually,
the term fundamentalism found a wider usage, being applied to
any type of militant religious activity found in the world.
In Islamic societies where Islamic resurgence has become
common, these movements are known as “revivalist” and
“assertionist.” In the West, the word fundamentalist, when
referring to Muslims, is used loosely to describe a wide variety
of Muslim activists who often have little in common, from the
rulers of Iran to the members of al-Qaeda (the religio-political
organization responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attack).
One of the early revivalists of modern times was Muhammad
ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1791), who launched a movement
named after him (the “Wahhabis”) on the Arabian Peninsula.
The Wahhabi movement’s fanatical approach to monotheism
and its rejection of all religious symbols earned the Wahhabis
the pejorative label “puritans,” after the seventeenth-century
group of Christians that originated in England but eventually
immigrated to America to avoid religious persecution.
Abd al-Wahhab advocated what he called a “return” to an
absolute form of Islam based upon the Qur’an and the sunnah
of the Prophet that would theoretically purify Islam of all
144 ISLAM
innovations (bid‘ah) that had accrued since the death of
Muhammad. Abd al-Wahhab enforced his “puritanical Islam”
with the help of his collaborator and protector, the tribal chief
ibn Sa‘ud, whose children now rule Saudi Arabia, a country
that was actually named after him. Abd al-Wahhab’s early
followers destroyed the shrines of Muhammad’s familial
descendants, the Shiite imams. They even removed the Prophet’s
tombstone, declaring it a sign of idolatry and intercession
between God and humanity. (It is interesting to note that, in
recent years, Mulla ‘Umar, the head of the former Taliban
government in Afghanistan, destroyed precious Buddhist
monuments in Bamiyan based on the same argument.)
Today,Wahhabi Islam is the official form of Islam practiced in
Saudi Arabia. One result of this is that Saudi Arabia has become
the strictest Muslim country in regard to segregation of the sexes.
According to the Wahhabis, Islam is the only way to salvation.
Wahhabis are not known for their tolerance of other religions,
and they regard even their fellow Muslims, if they are Shiites, as
heretics and have actively persecuted them. The Saudi Arabian
government has spent a generous amount of money to spread
Wahhabi Islam throughout Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Central
Asian republics, Southeast Asia, and even China, Europe, and the
United States. There are also other movements that are similar to
the Wahhabis, including the Salafiyyah of Syria and Egypt and
the Muhammadiyyah of Indonesia.
Like the Wahhabis, the twentieth-century Islamic revolutionaries
of Iran also wanted to create a Muhammadan Society
(Jame‘eh Muhammadi), returning the nation to the pristine Islam
practiced at the time of the Prophet and applying shari’ah to all
societal affairs. Although prior to the 1979 Iranian Revolution it
was one of the most modern and Westernized Islamic countries,
Iran now has a government that is as close as possible to a theocracy,
a nation governed by religious leaders. Iran, in fact, may be
the world’s only theocracy. If theocracy means that religious clerics
who claim to represent God’s will rule a country, then Iran is without
any doubt a theocracy.According to the founder of the Islamic
Islam in the World Today 145
Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, sovereignty lies in the
hands of God; rulers are merely instruments who implement the
will of God through the application of shari’ah.
What makes the Iranian system interesting is that democratic
governmental institutions, such as the office of president and a
parliament, function alongside theocratic institutions such as
the office of the Supreme Religious Leader (Wali e Faqih), the
Assembly of Experts, and the Guardian Council. Although Iran
is, in a sense, a limited democracy (the president and members of
parliament are elected by popular vote), the democratic process
provides no real power to elected officials. Actual political
authority is wielded by the Supreme Religious Leader and
members of the Guardian Council, who are not elected.
Obviously, despite any claims to the contrary, it would be
extraordinarily difficult for any government to embody the
absolute will of God, and it is especially telling that the theocracy
of Iran has fallen as far short of its declared ambitions, as have
most other extreme religious movements.16
ISLAM AND TERRORISM
It is not difficult to understand the thinking of radical militant
fundamentalists. Their worldview is often rooted in fears or
suspicions that others want to destroy their preferred way of life.
They often see the world in black-and-white terms, as a battle of
good versus evil. They gather like-minded people around themselves
to create a special enclave that segregates them from those
they perceive as evildoers. Their laws are based upon fear and are
strictly enforced by harsh punishments.
The Taliban of Afghanistan are a typical example of radical
militant fundamentalists. They were brutally repressive toward
their female population and those they considered their enemies.
Unlike the average Muslim, who views God as merciful and
compassionate, through the Qur’an and Islamic tradition, radical
militant fundamentalists imagine God to be ferociously punitive
and merciless. They tend to take on these cruel traits themselves.
These groups are often as dangerous to their own members as they
146 ISLAM
are to others, and are as capable of maintaining harsh interior
discipline as they are of terrorizing those outsiders they consider
their enemies. According to these radicals, the ends justify the
means, and they insist on pursuing their political goals, even if
innocent people are slaughtered in the process.
This attitude, fortunately, is not the norm. An average observant
Muslim would prefer to effect social change by promoting
religious ideals in a manner similar to the liberation theologies
that are typically encountered in oppressed countries of the
world. A tradition found in three books of ahadith defines a
Muslim as “one from whose hands and tongue people are secure.”
According to another tradition, a mu’min (believer) is “One from
whom people are secure concerning their lives and properties.”
The first verse revealed to Muhammad about war called for
Muslims to defend themselves only under certain circumstances:
“Permission to take up arms is hereby given to those who are
attacked, because they have been wronged. God has power to
grant victory to those who have been unjustly driven from
their homes, only because they said ‘Our Lord is God’ . . .”
(Q. 22:39–40). In another passage, God makes certain that
Muslims should not be aggressive in war: “And fight in the way of
God against those who fight against you, but be not aggressive,
surely God loves not the aggressors” (Q. 2:190).
Individuals and groups who seek to accomplish their various
goals have politicized Islam. Some political groups seeking to
resist oppression and domination by internal or external sources
find it easy to recruit sympathizers under the banner of
religion, as the Christian Crusaders did in Europe during the
Middle Ages. They are well aware of the power of religious
sentiments and they tend to harness it to advance their own
interests. Any observer of recent international political events
might well ask if Islam encourages hatred of the wealthiest and
most powerful Western nation, the United States. The answer is
no—nothing in the religion of Islam does so. Neither the
estimated 6 million Muslims who are loyal U.S. citizens nor most
other Muslims around the world hate America. So, it is worth
Islam in the World Today 147
pondering why exactly the United States has become such a
desirable target for terrorism, as in the case of the September 11,
2001, attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.
Most Muslims—the vast majority—throughout the world
were appalled by the murder of innocents and asserted that there
could be no legitimate justification within Islam for such a
hideous act. At the same time, however, Muslims in the Middle
East understood the attack as a political expression in response
to what many see as an ill-conceived American foreign policy of
fierce and uncompromising support for Israel that has been
imposed upon the eastern Mediterranean region. Terrorism
is usually the most extreme of the responses employed by
those who have endured injustice and oppression, and who
are frustrated because they see few ways to attract attention to
their genuine grievances.
The terrorists of the eastern Mediterranean would doubtless
prefer that the American government reevaluate its policies
concerning the region, for example, by showing fairer treatment
to the Muslim and Christian natives of Israel-Palestine. Terrorism
is best viewed not as an unreasonable exercise of force but
as a symptom of a larger “disease”whose roots deserve profound
examination and reasoned treatment. Common sense should
inform average Americans that they, like some Muslims in the
Middle East, would be outraged if a wealthy powerful country
on the other side of the world imposed its own political will
upon them. Still, it is often difficult to understand the use of
terror to achieve political goals.
Perhaps the most poorly understood tactics of “terrorism”
have been the use of suicide bombers. Nothing in Islam encourages
or justifies suicide for any reason; in fact, suicide is held to
be among the gravest of sins. Suicide in Islam is the equivalent
of murder, or perhaps even worse, because it denies the reality
that God’s will should prevail. In Islam, it is God alone who gives
life and takes it away. A passage in the Qur’an indicates that
killing an innocent person is like killing all of humanity, an
enormous sin (Q. 5:32).
148 ISLAM
It is not Islam that inspires an individual to waste his or her
precious life to prove a point. Suicide bombing is the last of all
possible resorts and constitutes an act of extreme desperation. It
may confirm the prejudices of one religious bigot to assert that
another’s religion advocates even suicide in pursuit of a religious
cause. But to examine the matter with even a modicum of
gravity, one must admit that others can be pushed to such an
extreme expression of despair only by repeated and prolonged
intense oppression, by which they are made to feel no alternative
is possible except death. The causes of such frustration are
obvious. It is worth examining other instances of suicide bombing
and self-destruction, including the Tamils (Hindus) who
wanted independence from the Sinhalese (Buddhists) on the
island of Sri Lanka, or the Buddhist monks who immolated
themselves in protest against the Nhu regime of Vietnam.
MUSLIMS IN THE WEST
One might ask, if Muslims in Islamic countries are so critical of
Western culture and way of life, then why are so many Muslims
living in Europe and the United States, and why are so many
more willing or even eager to immigrate to the West? The issue
can be addressed from several perspectives.
First, not every Muslim is an observant Muslim, just as every
Christian is not an observant Christian. Interiorization and
personalization of religion and even secularism are now a way of
life for many people throughout the Islamic world, as elsewhere,
and Islam has become for many Muslims a ritualistic observance
instead of a valid religion. For example, many people of Persian
heritage use their Qur’an only once a year during the celebration
of the Iranian New Year (Norooz). Even then, it is often little more
than a decorative item to fulfill the required rituals of the holiday.
Westerners demonstrate wisdom by acknowledging that not every
action taken by a so-called Muslim is actually Islamic. By parallel
example, Muslims do not blame the criminal behavior of an
American convict who happens to call him- or herself a Christian
on the teachings of Christianity. Muslims would appreciate
Islam in the World Today 149
application of a similar attitude by Westerners that criminal acts
committed by self-labeled Muslims are not representative of Islam.
A terrorist who calls himself or herself a Muslim is just a terrorist,
not an “Islamic” terrorist, even if he or she presents some clouded
misunderstanding of his or her religion to justify an aberrant
act. The mass media often sensationalize events by inflaming
prejudices. These days in America, one does not usually read in a
newspaper or see in a news report the religious identities of those
who commit crimes unless they are self-proclaimed Muslims.
Second, Muslims do not oppose everything that the West
stands for.Muslims appreciate the rule of law, respect for human
rights, democracy, adequate social services, freedom of religious
expression and the other freedoms guaranteed by the U.S.
Constitution, a relatively low degree of corruption among
government officials, and more sophisticated technology and
science. They appreciate the respect for cultural diversity found
in America and enjoy being able to practice their religion
without harassment (at least most of the time).
To speak practically, the third and most important reason that
Muslims immigrate to the West is probably increased access to
economic opportunities compared to their home countries,
which may be limited unless they belong to the ruling elite of
their nation of origin.
Muslims have been in Europe since the eighth century when
they established their rule in Spain, making Córdoba their
capital. However, in modern times, the largest wave of Muslim
immigration occurred during the post–World War II period,
and again after the decolonization of Muslim countries in the
later twentieth century. Many people from former European
colonies immigrated to the countries of their colonizers. For
example, there was a huge migration of Muslims from the South
Asian subcontinent (Pakistan, India, Kashmir, and Bangladesh)
to England, while a sizable number of North Africans moved to
their former colonizer, France. Germany has also attracted a large
number of Turkish immigrants due to long-standing relationships
between Turkey and Germany. There are also Muslim
150 ISLAM
immigrants in Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden,
Denmark, Norway, Austria, Bosnia, and Albania. Because of
economic recessions and—to some extent—recent violent events
in the Middle East, European countries today do not accept as
many Muslim immigrants as they have done in the past.
MUSLIMS IN THE UNITED STATES
Although Canada has accepted many Muslims during the last
decade, the majority of Muslims in North America live in the
United States. There are many estimates of the number of
Muslims in America, ranging anywhere from 4 to 12 million.
The number upon which most scholars agree is 6 million.
Muslims are found in all major American cities; the largest
Muslim communities are in New York City, Boston, Detroit,
Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, and Dearborn, Michigan. No
other country in the world holds as diverse a Muslim population
as that of the United States. America’s Muslims come from
Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan,
Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine,
Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Trinidad, Venezuela, and other parts
of the world. The Friday noon communal prayer at the
Muslim Community Center of Portland, Oregon, is a truly
international experience in which Muslims from many different
racial and ethnic backgrounds all take part.
The first Muslims to come to America were probably the
Mudejars (Muslims living under Christian rule) and Moriscos
(Spanish Muslims who converted to Christianity) among the
Spanish explorers who sailed to the Western Hemisphere.
However, a good portion (14 to 20 percent) of black slaves
brought to America between the sixteenth and nineteenth
centuries were Muslims, too. Since they were not allowed to
practice their religion under the authority of their Christian
masters, many of them were not able to transmit their religion to
their descendants. Today, however, Muslims of African descent
form about one-third of the Muslim population of the United
States, with the other two-thirds being Muslim immigrants and
Islam in the World Today 151
(continued on page 156 )
152 ISLAM
THE ISLAMIC COMMUNITY CENTER
OF PORTLAND OREGON (www.metpdx.org)
Known as the Muslim Educational Trust (MET), the Islamic Community
Center of Portland is located in a serene southwest neighborhood
surrounded by tall trees. As a nonprofit organization, it was established
in 1993 to serve the educational and social needs of Portland’s growing
Muslim community. MET’s mission is to provide information about
Islam to both Muslims and non-Muslims, to enrich the public’s understanding
of Islam, and to dispel common myths and stereotypes about
Islam. It seeks to serve the Muslim community’s educational needs and
help develop new generations of well-adjusted, committed Muslims who
are capable of facing the challenges of modern life with pride, dignity,
and confidence in the Islamic path. MET is focused on Islam as a faith,
a moral code, and a way of life. As the voice of Portland’s Muslim
community, MET is very active with the Islamic Social Service of Oregon
State (ISOS) www.i-sos.org in helping Muslim immigrants and refugees
settle in Portland area, and serves as an official local resource for
Muslim visitors to the city. MET maintains a large library of books,
A non-pretentious building, the Islamic Community Center of
Portland is located in a quiet neighborhood surrounded by
tall trees.
Islam in the World Today 153
pamphlets, audiotapes, and videos on Islam and the Muslim world and
makes these available to the Muslim community, schools, and the
public at large.
The center’s outreach efforts include:
• Advocacy among local news organizations for non-biased
news coverage.
• Workshops for teachers in the public school system.
.• Establishing links with other faiths that are opening
channels for communication.
Islamic Community Center of Portland also serves as an educational
institution. Here, at the request of the author, a group of students
and teachers posed for a picture in the courtyard of the center.
154 ISLAM
• Presenting public lectures featuring prominent national
and international scholars who are of relevance to both
Muslims and non-Muslims.
• Presenting the loving and open face of Islam to a fearful
American public.
• Cooperating with other organizations that serve the interests
of Islam and Muslims.
Educating the children about Islam and Muslim rituals is one
of the main goals of the center. Here, a teacher is teaching the
ritual of Muslim daily prayers (salat) to a group of students.
The calligraphy on the wall is a gift from Chinese Muslims to the
center; it illustrates the declaration of faith (shahadah) in Islam in
both Chinese and Arabic: “There is no deity but God; Muhammad
is the Messenger of God.”
Islam in the World Today 155
• Serving as a liaison between Muslim organizations, Islamic
centers, and the community.
• Operating an informal speaker’s bureau of Muslims to
speak at public schools and other interested groups,
including churches.
• Publishing a quarterly newsletter, Al-Hewar (The Dialogue).
• Operating a full-time school, Islamic school of MET
(ISMET), Pre-K, grades K–8 (a grade is added every year).
• Operating a weekend Islamic school. MET’s Weekend
School offers classes in Qur’an reading and memorization,
Arabic and Islamic studies and history.
• Operating a summer day camp.
The center currently has more than seventy students enrolled. The
diversity of students in this classroom exemplifies the overall
ethnic diversity of Portland’s Muslim population.
their children, along with Americans of European descent who
have embraced Islam.Muslims occupy all kinds of positions in the
United States. Many Muslim immigrants are professionals who
either received their academic degrees from American universities
and decided to remain, or, like many Indians and Pakistanis, came
to the United States to work as physicians, computer scientists,
and in other professions.
Like Muslims in Europe, American Muslims are profoundly
disturbed by the events of the Middle East, and they have occasionally
faced mistreatment at the hands of overzealous and
ignorant individuals. In response to harassment, many Muslims
in America have adopted a strategy of keeping a low profile. Just
as many, however, have decided to stand up as proud examples
of the finest characteristics of their religion: It is not unusual to
encounter Muslims who were not especially observant of their
religion when they lived in their country of origin, but who have
decided that America’s climate of relative religious freedom
enables them to practice their religion openly.
AFRICAN-AMERICAN ISLAM
African-American Islam has gone through many changes since
its inception in the early twentieth century. The 1930s were a
decade of economic hardship and depression for just about
everyone, and doubtless were even harder to endure for descendants
of African slaves, who were treated as second-class citizens
in the United States.
Into this environment, a man who called himself Wallace D.
Fard Muhammad appeared. He may have been a follower of an
earlier African-American neo-Muslim named Noble Drew Ali,
and he called himself the Mahdi, or “messiah,” in the ghettos of
Detroit. He started to promote Islam among the economically
disenfranchised black population. The Islam he espoused was
remote from orthodox Islam. Using both the Bible and the
Qur’an for his preaching, he called his version of Islam the
“religion of the black man” and emphasized the need to form a
“Nation of Islam” that would separate blacks from prejudiced
156 ISLAM
(continued from page 151)
white Americans. He called for the self-removal of blacks from
the economic system of a country that, in his view, was run by
what he called the “blue-eyed devil.”
Wallace Fard Muhammad’s message of solidarity among
blacks and avoidance of Christianity, which was seen as the
religion of their oppressors, attracted some followers. Fard
mysteriously disappeared, but in 1934, a man by the name of
Elijah Muhammad (1897–1975), formerly known as Elihah
Poole, appeared and took over the so-called Nation of Islam
based on the teachings of Fard Muhammad. He called himself a
prophet and taught that Fard had been divine. Both of these
claims are considered forms of the worst possible sin (shirk) in
Islam, since they assign a partner to God and call someone
besides Muhammad the last messenger of God.
Elijah Muhammad was more of a Black Nationalist than an
Islamic scholar. He contended that poverty, dependency, and
self-hatred among African Americans were the consequences of
oppression at the hands of whites. He heralded the fall of white
racist America and the restoration of blacks as “chosen people.”
Through his teachings, he significantly elevated the self-esteem
of his followers. He emphasized the “do it yourself” concept and
focused on black pride and identity,which he believed were lacking
among blacks. He also advocated other characteristics such as
self-sufficiency, strong family values, hard work, discipline, physical
strength, and the avoidance of alcohol, gambling, and drugs.
The Nation of Islam had a membership of about 100,000 by
the 1970s, and it became financially self-sufficient. It owned a
substantial amount of real estate, including hundreds of temples
and businesses.
After the death of Elijah in 1975, his son Wallace implemented
major reforms in conformity with orthodox Sunni Islam.He opened
membership to people of all races, and stopped calling whites the
“blue-eyed devil.” Under his influence, Wallace Fard came to be
considered the founder of the Nation of Islam rather than a god, and
Elijah was viewed as the first leader of the Nation instead of a
prophet. As in traditional Islam, temples were called mosques and
Islam in the World Today 157
ministers were called imams.Members observed the Five Pillars, and
the push for separation from the rest of the country ended.Members
were encouraged instead to become responsible U.S. citizens. In
the mid-1980s, Wallace chose an Islamic name, calling himself
Warith Deen Muhammad. He also renamed his spiritual organization
the American Muslim Mission, which was well-integrated
with other Muslim groups throughout the world.
After the death of Elijah, in 1977, a faction under the leadership
of Louis Farrakhan split from the main community (then
headed by Wallace) and decided to preserve the Nation of Islam
as it had been under Elijah. Farrakhan, a charismatic figure, has
since attracted a lot of attention from the mass media—to
the extent that many Americans do not realize that his group
represents only a very small portion of black Muslims in the
158 ISLAM
MALCOLM X AND THE NATION OF ISLAM
Elijah Muhammad recruited new members from black ghettos and
prisons. One of his greatest recruits was Malcolm X (formerly Malcolm
Little), who accepted Islam while imprisoned for burglary and, when
released, became the first minister of the Nation. Malcolm X was a
gifted speaker and organizer. During his ministry, membership grew
significantly. He managed to recruit people to the Nation of Islam,
including the famous boxer Cassius Clay, who later became known as
Muhammad Ali. Malcolm X was an intelligent man, and over time, he
began to question the teachings of the Nation of Islam organization.
Then, he made his life-changing pilgrimage to Mecca, where he met
blue-eyed and blond-haired Muslims, pious people who were far from
being “devils,” as the Nation referred to whites. Upon his return to
the United States, he changed his name to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, a
traditional Muslim name. He began preaching authentic Islam instead
of the creed he had learned from Elijah Muhammad. He had a major
influence on Elijah’s son Wallace D. Muhammad, who is now the
spiritual leader of the Black Muslims, a separate group from the
Nation of Islam, and which follows orthodox Islam, unlike the Nation
of Islam, which is considered heretical by worldwide Islam. Malcolm X
was assassinated in a temple in New York City in 1965.
Source: Malcolm X and Alex Haley, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, New York: Ballantine
Books, 1992.
United States. Farrakhan, however, has recently mellowed his
rhetoric and has brought the Nation closer to traditional Islam.
ISLAM AND THE CHALLENGES OF GLOBALIZATION
If globalization means finding common ground through a free
flow of goods and the exchange of economic, social, scientific,
technological, and political benefits, as well as narrowing the
gaps that separate diverse world communities, then Islam is not
alien to the concept. For centuries, people from different regions
of the world with widely varied ethnic and religious backgrounds
have worked together to build a flourishing Islamic
community. For example, in the years after the prophet
Muhammad’s death, the emerging Islamic powers borrowed
ideas from the Persians to construct their governing system
and utilized ideas from the Romans to build their defense and
security system. They also employed the philosophical knowledge
of legendary Greek figures such as Plato and Aristotle to
build a bridge between faith and reason. Today, the majority of
Muslims would like to establish such a common ground by
which less-developed nations can benefit and prosper from
contact with more advanced nations without fear of being
politically, economically, or culturally dominated.
Today’s Muslim response to globalization is expressed by
different voices with distinct concerns. This is because Islam is not
monolithic. More than 1.2 billion Muslims inhabit this Earth, and
it is unrealistic to expect all of them to react to changing global
conditions in the same way. One thing is obvious: The extremists
and radicals whose response to increasing globalization is isolationism
are not the Muslim majority. They are a small group of people
who are unhappy with the current direction of the world political
economy, and are reacting to what they perceive as a massive
injustice. These extremists perceive globalization as nothing less than
Western domination of the world; they see the trend as a continuation
of what they once called colonialism and imperialism.
Unlike these people, the bulk of the world’s Muslim population
has no interest in isolationism. Rather, they would like to
Islam in the World Today 159
participate actively in world affairs. Their approach to politics
is not very different from that of Christians. They believe that
Islam should not be politicized because a politicized Islam
would overshadow the religion’s spiritual dimension, in which a
majority of Muslims are much more interested.
With a higher literacy rate and increased levels of education,
Muslims today study their religion more critically than ever before.
They tend to look for aspects of the message of Islam that help them
with their personal life and spiritual maturity. Intellectual Muslims
are critical of reading narrations related to Muhammad and they
study shari’ah, the Islamic law, more carefully and analytically
than did Muslims of past days. Currently, Muslim scholars are
debating whether all shari’ah laws (which were put into effect
during the early centuries of Islam) are still applicable today.
Some even question the relevance of certain Qur’anic verses from
Muhammad’s period in Medina, since they were revealed at a time
when Muhammad was building the first Muslim community.
They were appropriate in the sociopolitical conditions of
Medina, but may perhaps be less so in the situations Muslims
face in modern life. In contrast,Muslim intellectuals emphasize the
universal applicability of the Meccan verses, due to their religious,
rather than politically oriented, nature.
Muslim nations also have been criticized for the treatment of
their female populations. Although Islamic countries during
recent decades have had several female heads of states (i.e., Tanzu
Ciller in Turkey, Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan, and Khaleda Zia in
Bangladesh) and many women ministers, judges, and members of
parliament, the treatment of women in some Muslim countries
still needs improvement. Perhaps the area that needs the most
modernization is family law,with regard to marriage, divorce, and
inheritance. Employment and educational opportunities outside
the home for women who are willing to learn and work must
also be expanded. Of course, a vast body of literature has been
published about the status of women in Islam,much of it written
by Muslim female scholars. Analysts often argue that the position
of women as advocated by the Qur’an is much more humane in
160 ISLAM
theory than it is in practice, and that cultural practices have
obscured the authentic intention of Islam, with one result being
that women have been relegated to second-class status.
Fortunately, Islam does provide a solution for fixing many
emerging legal problems through thoughtful utilization of ijtihad,
or critical individual reasoning. Ijtihad is an important component
of Islamic law. If Islam intends to serve humanity for another
millennium, it needs to make proper use of ijtihad and apply
ijtihad wisely and productively to changing circumstances that
arise in different times and places. It took a group of brilliant
scholars nearly a hundred years between the ninth and tenth
centuries to write the current laws.What is needed now is another
major project in which students of Islamic jurisprudence would
use their knowledge of Islam, combined with the application of
common sense, to make shari’ah more applicable to this modern
age without compromising the principal ideals of Islam.
Another challenge to Muslim communities in this age of
globalization is to uphold the human rights of non-Muslims
who live in Muslim countries. Now that all world nations have
become more multicultural, Muslim countries cannot continue
to regard their non-Muslim populations as second-class
citizens. Just as Muslims living in non-Muslim countries
demand equal treatment, likewise, Muslim countries need to
provide a social environment in which people who uphold right
conduct regardless of their religious practices are appreciated
and accepted as equals. People should not be punished simply
because their understanding of monotheism differs from that of
the Islamic community. Monotheism, after all, does not mean
monolithic. Now more than ever, Muslims need to remember
that God, Most Merciful and Most Compassionate, does not
discriminate between members of the human race:
O Humankind,We have created you from a male and female, and
formed you into nations and tribes that you may know each
other. The noblest of you in the sight of God is the best in
conduct. God is All-knowing and Well-informed (Q. 49:13).
Islam in the World Today 161
570 Muhammad, the son of Abdullah and Aminah, is
born in Mecca
610 Muhammad receives the first revelation through
the archangel Gabriel while meditating in a cave
outside Mecca
622 Muhammad leaves Mecca for Medina
630 Muhammad’s followers capture Mecca and destroy
the idols in the Kaaba
632 Muhammad dies in Medina
632–661 Orthodox caliphate of the Four Rightly Guided
Caliphs (in Mecca and Medina)
632–634 Abu Bakr serves as the first caliph
162
CHRONOLOGY & TIMELINE
500 1000 1400 622
The Year of Hijrah;
Islamic lunar
calendar begins
765
School of medicine
established in Baghdad
570
Muhammad born
in Mecca
1099
Crusaders take
Jerusalem
632
Muhammad dies
in Medina
1389
Ottomans defeat
Serbs at Kosovo
1258
Mongols sack
Baghdad
691
Abd al-Malik builds
the Dome of the Rock
in Jerusalem
BC AD 500 1000 1400
1800 1900 2000
634–644 Umar serves as second caliph
636 Muslims defeat the Byzantine Empire and take
control of Syria
637 Muslims defeat the Persian Sassanid Empire
638 Muslims annex Jerusalem as an Islamic city
641 Muslims conquer Alexandria, Egypt
644–656 ‘Uthman serves as third caliph; the official text
of the Qur’an is compiled
656–661 ‘Ali serves as fourth caliph; in a civil war, the
Umayyads challenge the caliphate of ‘Ali
661 ‘Ali dies
163
CHRONOLOGY & TIMELINE
1798–1799
Napoleon Bonaparte
tries to conquer Egypt
1948
The state of Israel created;
Arab armies defeated
in a war with Israel
1924
Office of
caliph abolished
1979
Iran becomes an
Islamic republic
1914
Ottoman Empire
enters World War I as
one of the Central Powers
11880000 11990000 22000000
661–750 Mu‘awiya establishes the Umayyad Caliphate; the
capital is transferred from Medina to Damascus
680 Mu‘awiya dies and his son Yazid succeeds him;
Husayn Ali’s son and his followers rebel against Yazid
and are massacred in Karbala in present-day Iraq
685–687 Shiite revolt takes place in Iraq
711 Muslims expand their rule to Spain
750–1258 Abbasid Caliphate replaces Umayyads with the help
of Shiite Persian General Abu Muslim; capital is
transferred to Baghdad
756–1031 Umayyad emirate in Spain, with the capital at
Córdoba
910–1171 Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt, with the capital at Cairo
1095–1099 First Crusade
1147–1149 Second Crusade
1187 Saladin recaptures Jerusalem from the Crusaders
and civilians are spared
1189–1192 Third Crusade
1350–1918 The Ottoman Empire
1379–1401 Tamerlane establishes an empire in Persia, Iraq,
and Syria
1453 Constantinople is conquered; city renamed Istanbul
1483–1857 Mughal Empire in India
1501–1723 Safavid Empire in Persia
1501 Ismail becomes shah of Persia, founding the Safavid
Empire; Shiism becomes the official religion
1520–1566 Suleiman II the Magnificent
164
CHRONOLOGY
1587–1629 Reign of Shah Abbas I
1703 Muhammad Abd al-Wahhab, the founder of
Wahhabi Islam, is born
1811 Ali Muhammad Bab, the founder of Babi movement
that leads to the formation of the Baha’i movement,
is born
1882 Egypt comes under British military occupation
1905 The revivalist Salafiyyah movement starts in Paris
with its main influence in Egypt
1912 The revivalist Muhammadiyyah movement starts
in Indonesia
1914 The Ottoman Empire enters World War I as one of
the Central Powers
1919–1924 End of the Ottoman Empire
1928 Turkey is declared a secular state; Hasan al-Banna
founds the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt
1935 Iran becomes the official name of Persia
1948 The state of Israel is created; Arab armies are
defeated in a war with Israel
1968 The enlargement plan of Kaaba the mosque in
Mecca is completed
1975 Wallace (Warith Deen) Muhammad assumes leadership
of Nation of Islam in the United States and shifts
movement toward Islamic orthodoxy, renaming it
American Muslim Mission
1979 Iran becomes an Islamic republic
165
CHRONOLOGY
Chapter 2: Muhammad
1 This sermon can be viewed online at
Islamic Server of MSA-USC:
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/.
Chapter 4:Worldview
2 Babak Ayazifar, “Intellect and Reason in
the Islamic Worldview,” The Tech, Vol.
121, No. 51, 2001. Available online at
http://www-tech.mit.edu/V121/N51/
col51babak.51c.html.
Chapter 5:Worship
3 For a more detailed description of
mosques and other religious structures
of Muslim Iranian cities, see my discussion
of religion and sociopolitical
structures in Iranian Cities: Formation
and Development, Syracuse University
Press, 2000.
Chapter 7: Cultural Expressions
4 Rabi’ah al-Adawiyya, trans. Andrew
Harvey and Eryk Hanut, Perfume of
the Desert, Quest Books, 1999.
5 Ibn al-‘Arabi, “Tarjuman al-Ashwaq,”
The Mystics of Islam, trans. Reynold A.
Nicholson,World Wisdom Books, 2002.
6 Shaikh Abu Saeed Abil Kheir, Nobody,
Son of Nobody, Hohm Press, 2001.
7 Ibn al-‘Arabi, “Tarjuman al-Ashwaq,”
The Mystics of Islam, trans. Reynold A.
Nicholson,World Wisdom Books, 2002.
8 Available online at University of North
Carolina at Wilmington, “Samples of
Sufi Writings,” http://people.uncw.edu/
bergh/par230/L39RSufi.htm.
9 Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, “Munkidh min
al-Dalal (Confessions, or Deliverance from
Error),” Internet Medieval Sourcebook.
Available online at http://www.fordham.
edu/halsall/basis/1100ghazali-truth.html.
10 For a detailed study of science and technology
in Islam, see Al-Hassan Ahmad
and Donald Hill, Islamic Technology:
An Illustrated History, Cambridge
University Press, 1994.
11 George Sarton, “Introduction to the
History of Science, Vol. I–IV,” Carnegie
Institute of Washington, Baltimore,
1927–1931.
Chapter 8: Holidays
12 For date conversions between the
two calendars, visit the Gregorian-
Hijri date converter online at
http://www.rabiah.com/convert/
convert.php3.
13 For a lively discussion of this and
other Muslim holidays, see Ann Marie
Bahr’s articles published in The
Brookings Register (March 25, 1999;
December 9, 1999; April 6, 2000; May
11, 2000; June 15, 2000; December 13,
2001; and March 7, 2002).
Chapter 9: Memories
14 The term fundamentalism is used very
loosely here, since there is no such
concept as “fundamentalism” in Islam.
15 Sir John Bagot Glubb, A Short History
of the Arab Peoples. Quotation available
online at http://cyberistan.org/islamic/
quote2.html.
Chapter 10:
Islam in the World Today
16 For more information about the structure
of the post-revolutionary Iranian
government, see Masoud Kheirabadi,
Modern World Nations: Iran, Chelsea
House Publishers, 2003.
166
NOTES
BOOKS
Al-Hassan, Ahmad, and Donald Hill. Islamic Technology: An Illustrated
History. Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Ali, Ahmad. Al-Qur’an: A Contemporary Translation. Princeton University
Press, 1993.
Dawood, N.J. The Koran. Penguin Books, 1990.
Denny, Frederick. Islam. Harper San Francisco, 1987.
Esposito, John. Islam: The Straight Path. Oxford University Press, 1998.
Kheirabadi,Masoud. Iranian Cities: Formation and Development.
Syracuse University Press, 2000.
———.Modern World Nations: Iran. Chelsea House Publishers,
2003.
Maududi, Sayyid Abul A‘la. Towards Understanding Islam, trans. and ed.
Khurshid Ahmad. 8th ed. Islamic Teaching Center, 1988.
Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. Islam: Religion, History, and Civilization. Harper
San Francisco, 2003.
Oxtoby,Williard G.World Religions: Western Traditions. 2nd ed. Oxford
University Press, 2002.
Robinson, Francis, ed. Cambridge Illustrated History: Islamic World.
Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Yusufali, Abdullah. The Holy Qur’an: Text, Translation and Commentary.
Tahrike Tarsile Qur’an, Inc., 1988.
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Amnesty International
http://www.bartleby.com/65/ir/Iran.html
Columbia Encyclopedia
http://www.bartleby.com/65/ir/Iran.html
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http://cyberiran.com/history/
Nuradeen
http://www.nuradeen.com/nuradeen.htm
“Recent Changes and Future of Fertility in Iran”
by Mohammad Jalal Abbasi Shavazi
http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/
completingfertility/ABBASIpaper.PDF
Statistical Center of Iran
http://www.unescap.org/pop/popin/profiles/iran/popin2.htm
Statistical, economic and social research and training center
for Islamic countries
http://www.sesrtcic.org/defaulteng.shtml
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Cleaey, Thomas, et al. The Wisdom of the Prophet: The Sayings of
Muhammad. Shambhala Publications, 2001.
Dawood, N.J. The Koran. Penguin Books, 1990.
Yusufali, Abdullah. The Holy Qur’an: Text, Translation and
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SECONDARY SOURCES
Armstrong, Karen. The Battle for God. Knopf, 2000.
Esposito, John, and Natana J. DeLong-Bas.Women in Muslim
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Gragg, Kenneth. Jesus and the Muslim: An Exploration. Oneworld
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Hodgson,Marshall. Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a
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Leaman, Oliver. An Introduction to Classical Islamic Philosophy.
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Nasr, S.H. Sufi Essays. Library of Islam Ltd., 1999.
Wadud, Amina. Qur’an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text
from a Woman’s Perspective. Oxford University Press, 1999.
Watt, Montgomery. A Short History of Islam. Oneworld
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169
FURTHER READING
WEBSITES
Internet History Sourcebooks Project
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/
An extensive collection of primary and secondary sources on all aspects of
world history from ancient times through the modern day.
Islamic Center of Greater Toledo
http://www.icgt.org/
A local institution in the Toledo area, it offers general information on Islam
in the interests of helping to educate the American public.
Islamic Civilization
http://www.cyberistan.org/
Provides a wide variety of information on Islamic history, including extensive
biographical data about Muhammad.
Islamic Republic of Iran
http://www.mideastinfo.com/iran.htm
An Iran-based site, offers historical, political, and cultural information about
Iran, as well as links to Iranian newspapers and other sites of interest.
Islamic Server of MSA-USC
http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/
The official site of the Muslim Students Association at the University of
Southern California; provides pertinent information for both Muslim and
non-Muslim readers seeking to research the history and culture of Islam.
170
FURTHER READING
Abbas, 132
Abbasids, 88, 97, 100, 129, 132-134
Abd al-Malik ibn Marvan, 130
Abd al-Wahhab,Muhammad ibn,
144-145
Abdullah, 22
ablution. See wudu
Abraham, 56, 118
Books of, 56
and Hagar, 5, 6, 83, 84
and Isaac, 5-6
and Ishmael, 5-6, 23, 83, 84, 85,
113
and Kaaba, 21, 83
and monotheism, 6, 21, 23, 24, 28,
56, 83
Abu Bakr, 16, 24, 30, 34, 125-126
Abu Dawud, 41
Abu Hanifa, 88
Abu Muslim, 131-132
Abu Saeed Abil Kheir, 97
Abu Sufiyan, 129
Abu Talib, 22, 26, 43
Adam, 5, 48-49, 55, 85, 118
advisory council (majlis al-shura),
20
Afghanistan
Islam in, 17, 118-119, 128, 135, 139
and mujahideen, 143
and Taliban, 145, 146
Africa, Islam in, 8, 14, 16, 121, 122,
123, 126, 134, 135, 143
African-American Islam, 151, 156-
159
afterlife. See Day of Judgment
A.H. (Anno Hegirae), 109
ahadith. See hadith
al-Amin (the trustworthy),
Muhammad as, 22
Al-Azhar, 102
Albania, Islam in, 16, 151
Al-Basri, Hassan, 97
Al-Bukhari, 41
Al-Din Tusi, Naser, 101
Al-Di Rumi, Jalal, 100
Alexis I, 137
Al-Fatihah (the Opening), 65
algebra, 104
Algeria, Islam in, 14, 143
Al-Ghazali, Abu Hamid, 99-100
Al-Hakim, 101
Al-Hallaj,Mansour, 98
‘Ali, 16, 23, 24, 99, 108, 119, 125-126,
127, 128, 129, 130
‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, 126
Ali, Noble Drew, 156
Al-Khattab, Umar ibn, 109
Al-Khwarizmi,Muhamad ibn Musa,
104
Allah. See God (Allah)
Allah-hu Akbar, 52
Al-Lat, 21
Al-Mansur, 132
al-Marwa, 84
almsgiving. See zakat
Al-Mu‘tadid, 92
Al-Nisai, 41
al-Qaeda, 127, 144
Al-Qanun fil-Tib (Canon in Medicine)
(Ibn Sina), 103
Al-Rashid, Harun, 100
al-Sadiq (the truthful),Muhammad
as, 22
al-Safa, 84
Al-Shafii,Muhammad, 88
Al-Shifa (The Book of Healing)
(Ibn Sina), 103
Al-Tirmidhi, 41
American Muslim Mission, 158
Aminah, 22
Amr ibn As, 129
Anatolian Peninsula, 135
angels, 48, 50, 53-54.
See also Gabriel
aqd nikah (marriage contract),
76, 77
Arabian Peninsula
Islam in, 126
during lifetime of Muhammad,
19-22
171
INDEX
Arabic language
and derivation of Islam as term, 3
and Qur’an, 32-33
Arab Kingdom, 130
Arabs, as descendants of Ishmael, 5
‘Arafat, plain of, 84-85
archangels, 54
Aristotle, 94
art, 132, 134
Ashrah, 119
Ashura, 130
Asia, Islam in, 8, 14, 122, 123-124,
134, 135, 138, 143
astronomy, 101, 106
Ataturk, Kemal, 139
Austria, Islam in, 16, 151
Avicenna. See Ibn Sina
ayah, 8
ayat (verses), 35
Ayazifar, Babak, 44-45
azzan (adhan), 71
Baghdad, Iraq, 132, 133, 134
Balkan Peninsula, Islam in, 135
Bangladesh, Islam in, 8, 14, 160
Bani Umayyad, 129
Banu Hashim (children of Hashim),
21-22
Banu Musa brothers, 101
Banu Umayyah (children of
Umayyah), 21
Bayt al-Hikma (House of Wisdom),
100-101, 132-133
bazaar, and mosques, 67, 70
Bedouins, 22
Belgium, Islam in, 151
Bhutto, Benazir, 160
Bhutto, Zulfikar Ali, 143
bid‘ah (innovations), 144-145
birth celebrations, 75-76
Birthday of the Prophet. See Milad
al-Nabi
Black Nationalism, 157
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Islam in,
16, 151
bowing. See ruku’
Brahe, Tycho, 101
Brunei, Islam in, 124
Buddhism, 6-7, 145
Buyids, 133
Byzantines, 121-122, 126, 137
calendar, 26-27, 108-111, 126
caliph (khalifah), 24
Abu Bakr as first, 34
and Four Rightly Guided Caliphs,
125-127
Canada, Islam in, 151
chants. See dhikr
chapters. See suras
charity. See sadaqah
China, Islam in, 14, 131
Christianity
and Abraham, 6
and Crusades, 137
and Gospel, 7, 35, 36, 56
and Islam, 7, 123, 126, 137-138
and Jesus Christ, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 35,
36, 56, 57, 118
and original sin, 49
origins of, 4, 5-6
as People of the Book, 7, 123
as universalizing religion, 6.
See alsoWest
Ciller, Tanzu, 160
circumambulation. See tawaf
clan, and pre-Islamic Arabia, 20,
21
coins, and Umayyads, 131
colonialism, 138-139, 141
communal prayer, 65-67, 68
communism, 141-142, 143
conduct, code of. See shari’ah
congregational mosque (Masjid
al-Jame), 66-67
Constantinople, Turkey, 137
contemporary Islam, 136-161
and African-American Islam,
151, 156-159
and globalization, 159-165
172
INDEX
and Islamic response to West,
142-144
and Islamic revival, 143-144
and terrorism, 146-149
in United States, 147, 149, 150,
151, 156
in West, 137-142, 149-151.
See also Islamic fundamentalism
conversion, 6
and Arabian Peninsula, 28
and declaration of faith, 79, 80
and Mecca, 28
and Muhammad, 24, 26
and Qur’an, 33
Copts, 123
crier. See muezzin
Crusades, 137-138
cultural expressions, 90-106
and Abbasids, 132-133
and art, 132, 134
and diversity, 159
and education, 68, 91-92, 100-102,
132-133, 160
and fragmentation of Islamic
Empire, 134
and Greek culture, 92-94
and literature, 92-93, 132, 134
and mathematics, 104
and Mongols, 134
and monuments, 131
and multicultural civilization,
91-94
and philosophy, 93-94, 103, 104
and science, 91, 92, 93, 100-101,
102-104, 106, 132, 134
and Sufism, 94-100, 114, 123-124
and Umayyads, 131
and Westernization, 139, 140-141,
142
and writing of Qur’an, 131
daif (weak), 40
Damascus, Syria, 129, 131
Dar al-Ilm (Abode of Science),
101
darwish, 96.
See also Sufism
David, 6
Zabur (Psalms of), 56
Day of Judgment, 48, 54, 57-59, 61,
79
death rituals, 78.
See also Day of Judgment
declaration of faith. See shahadah
deen (religious life), 117
Delhi, India, 135
Denmark, Islam in, 151
deputy. See caliph
dhikr (private prayers/chants), 66,
100
dhimmi (protected people), 122
Dhul Hijjah, 112, 119
and pilgrimage to Mecca, 83, 84
Dissenters. See Kharijis
Dome of the Rock, 131
domes, of mosques, 70
donya (secular life), 117
dress, 9
and pilgrimage to Mecca, 84
and Sufism, 96
education, 68, 91-92, 100-102, 132-
133, 160
ego, and Sufis, 96-97
Egypt
and Greek culture, 92
Islam in, 8, 14, 69, 121, 122, 134,
139, 141, 143, 145
mosques of, 69
and Napoleon, 138
and Ramadan, 116
and Sadat, 143
and West, 141
Elijah, 56
endowments. See waqf
equality, and Islam, 8-9, 53, 85, 86-
87
Esfah-an (Isfahan), Iran, 135
Ethiopia, and acceptance of Muslims,
26
173
INDEX
Europe
and colonialism, 138-139, 141
Islam in, 8, 16, 149-151.
See alsoWest
Eve, 5, 48-49, 85
extremist Islam. See Islamic fundamentalism
faith
declaration of. See shahadah
deep personal, 80
and Muhammad, 78-79
and reason, 93-94
family, and pre-Islamic Arabia, 20
faqir (poor), 96.
See also Sufism
Fard,Wallace, 157-158
Farrakhan, Louis, 158-159
fasting during Ramadan. See saum
Fatamid, 101
fath (military conquest), 121-124
Fatimah, 23
Festival of Breaking the Fast. See
Id al-Fitr
Festival of Sacrifice. See Id al-Adha
festivals. See holidays; id (eid)
fitrah (sound nature), 44, 48, 49, 80
Five Pillars of Islam, 61, 63, 79-85
almsgiving, 29, 61, 63, 75, 76, 79,
80-81, 122
declaration of faith, 61, 63, 79-80
fasting during Ramadan, 29, 61,
63, 79, 81-83, 115-116
pilgrimage to Mecca, 21, 27, 29, 61,
63, 79, 83-85
prayers. See salat
Four Rightly Guided Caliphs, 125-127
France, Islam in, 16, 150
Friday, and communal prayers,
65-67, 68
Friday mosque (Masjid al-Jum’ah),
66-67, 68
fundamentalism, 144.
See also Islamic fundamentalism
funerals, 78
Gabriel (Jibril), 23-24, 32, 33, 34, 43,
54, 113, 115, 118
gender
and Saudi Arabia, 145
and weddings, 77-78.
See also women
geography, 106
Germany, Islam in, 16, 150
Ghadir Khumm, 125-126
ghusl (complete ablution), 65
globalization, and Islam, 159-165
God (Allah), 50
as forgiving and merciful, 51-52
and humankind as vicegerent,
46-48
and human rights of non-Muslims,
161
and monotheism, 4, 6, 50-53, 57
Muhammad as messenger of,
23-24, 27, 30, 37-38, 79, 80
and Qur’an, 4, 7, 33-34, 35, 36-38,
39, 51
and revelations to Muhammad,
23-24
and spread of Islam, 121
submission to, 3, 37, 49, 52-53,
61, 62-63, 79, 80. See also Five
Pillars of Islam
golden age. See cultural expressions
Gospel, 7, 35, 36, 56
government
and Abbasids, 132
and almsgiving, 80-81
and Iran, 142, 145-146
and Islamic community, 124-125
and mosques, 68
and Muslim activists, 143-144
and Persian literature, 93
and religious vigilantes, 86
and Umayyads, 131
union of church and state, 27
and West, 141-142
Great Britain
and colonialism, 138
Islam in, 16, 150
174
INDEX
Great Festival (Id al-Kabir). See Id
al-Adha
Greek culture, 92-94
Green Belt, 143
growing up Muslim, 74-89
and birth celebrations, 75-76
and death rituals, 78
and Islamic community, 86-87
and Islamic law, 77, 81, 87-89
and marriage contract, 76-78
and religious responsibilities,
78-79. See also Five Pillars of
Islam
hadith, 38-41, 55
Hagar, 5, 6, 83, 84
hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca), 21, 27,
29, 61, 63, 79, 83-85
and Festival of Sacrifice, 112-114
hajji, 85
Hanafi school of law, 88
Hanbali school, 88
hanifs (rightly inclined), 23
Harun al-Rashid, 132
Hasan, 129
hasan (acceptable), 40
heaven. See paradise
Hebrew, and derivation of Islam as
term, 3
Hebrews, 5.
See also Jews/Judaism
hell, 57, 58
Hijri calendar, 26-27, 108-111, 126
hijrah (migration), and 622, 26-27
Hinduism, 6, 7
Hira,Mount, 23-24
history, 121-135
and origins of Islam, 4-6, 8
holidays, 107-119
Ashrah, 119
and calendar, 108-111, 126
diversity of, 108, 112, 117
Id al-Adha (Festival of Sacrifice),
112-114
Id al-Ghadir, 119
Id d-Fitr (Festival of Breaking the
Fast), 112, 114-115
Lailat al-Isra wa al-Miraj (Night of
the Journey and the Ascension),
117-118
Laylat al-Qadr (Night of the Power),
115
Milad al Nabi (Birthday of the
Prophet), 108, 116-117
New Year, 110, 118-119
Ramadan, 115-116
honor, and pre-Islamic Arabia, 20
hospitals, 102
Hubel, 21
human interrelations. See mu’amalat
humankind
as God’s vicegerent, 46-48
unity of, 53
human rights, of non-Muslims,
161
Hunain ibn Ishaq, 100
Husayn (Hussein), 119, 130
Husayn’s Ashura, 130
ibadat (worship), 37, 61, 75
definition of, 61-63
as living righteous life, 61-63
nonritualistic, 62-63
ritualistic, 63-66. See also mosques.
See also prayers
Iblis, 48.
See also Satan
Ibn al-Arabi, 95
Ibn Anas,Malik, 88
Ibn Hanbal, Ahmad, 88
Ibn Maja, 41
Ibn Sa‘ud, 145
Ibn Sina (or Avicenna), 103-104
id (eid) (festivals), 112.
See also holidays
Id al-Adha (Festival of Sacrifice),
112-114
Id al-Fitr (Festival of Breaking the
Fast), 112, 114-115
Id al-Ghadir, 119
175
INDEX
Id al-Kabir (Great Festival). See Id
al-Adha
idolatry, 21, 23, 24, 28, 49-50, 71-72,
140
ihram, 84
ihsan (righteous/virtuous act), 78-79,
80
ijma, and Islamic law, 88, 89
ijtihad (reasoning), 88
centrality of, 43-46
and faith, 93-94
and Islamic law, 88
and Islam today, 160, 161
imam (prayer leader), 65, 71, 72, 76
iman (deep personal faith), 80
India
Islam in, 14, 69, 122, 131, 135, 138
mosques of, 69
Indonesia
Islam in, 8, 14, 123, 124, 139, 141,
143, 144, 145
and West, 141
Industrial Revolution, 138
“Inner Light,” 44
innovations. See bid‘ah
intellect
centrality of, 43-46
and Islam today, 160, 161
Iran
and Abbasids, 132-134
and Islamic Republic, 142, 145-146
Islam in, 8, 14, 16-17, 66, 67, 69,
71, 118-119, 127, 131-132, 139
and moral police, 86
mosques in, 66, 67, 69, 71
Muslim observatory in, 101
Norooz (New Year) in, 118-119
Shah of, 142
weddings in, 78
and Westernization, 139.
See also Persia
Iraq
and Abbasids, 132-134
Islam in, 16-17, 122, 126, 127, 130,
134, 139
Isaac, 5-6
Ishmael, 5-6, 23, 83, 84, 85, 113
Islam
as book-based religion, 7-8
branches of, 16-17. See also Shiite
Islam; Sunni Islam
core beliefs of, 50-59
early persecution of, 96
as eternal religion, 4-6
as exclusive religion, 6
fundamental concepts of, 28-29
meaning of, 3
and monotheism, 4, 6, 7, 37, 50-
53, 57, 79-80, 83
origins of, 4-6, 8
and orthopraxy, 75
population and distribution of,
8-9, 14, 16-17, 123-124, 149-
151
pronunciation of, 3-4
as religion for all races, 8-9, 53,
85, 86-87
as second-largest world religion,
14, 16
spread of, 121-124, 126, 131, 134-
135, 137-138
symbols of, 9. See also minarets;
mosques
as universalizing religion, 6-7, 83,
123, 126.
See also Muslims
Islamic community. See ummah
Islamic Empire, 91, 92-93, 121-134.
See also cultural expressions
Islamic fundamentalism, 9, 144-146,
159
and Kharijis (Dissenters), 127-129
and terrorism, 146-149, 150, 156
Islamic law. See shari’ah
isolationism, and Islamic fundamentalists,
159
Israel (angel), 54
Israfil, 54
Istanbul, Turkey, 135, 137
i‘tikaf (retreat), and Ramadan, 116
176
INDEX
Jacob, 5
Jacobites, 123
Ja‘far al-Sadiiq, 88
Ja‘fari school, 88
Jerusalem
and Crusades, 137-138
as direction of prayer, 27, 62
and Dome of the Rock, 131
Islam in, 126
Jesus Christ, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 35, 36, 56,
57, 118
Gospel of, 7, 35, 36, 56
Jews/Judaism, 4, 5
and Abraham, 5-6, 56
as ethnic religion, 6
and Islam, 7, 123, 126
Islam on as chosen people, 36
and Moses, 5, 6, 7, 35, 36, 56-57,
87, 118
and original sin, 49
origins of, 4, 5-6
as People of the Book, 7, 123
and Torah, 7, 36, 56-57, 87
Jibril. See Gabriel
Jihad al-Islami, 127
jinn, 55, 58
jizyah (poll tax), 121-122
John the Baptist, 5, 56
Jonah, 56
Jordan, Islam in, 143
Joseph, 5
Judah, 4
Judaism. See Jews/Judaism
Jundishapur educational center, 93
Kaaba, 21, 24, 28, 62, 64, 71, 79,
83-85
Kalilah wa Dimnah, 93
Karbala
plain of, 130
Tragedy of, 130
Kazakhstan, Islam in, 14
Khadijah, 22-23, 24, 26
Khan, Changiz (Genghis), 134
Khan, Hulagu, 134
khanqah, 99-100
Kharijis (Khawarij) (Dissenters),
127-129
Khayyám, Umar (Omar), 104
Khizanat al-Hikma (Library of
Wisdom), 100
Khoda, 4
Khoda, 4, 50.
See also God (Allah)
Khomeini, Ayatollah Ruhollah, 146
Khorasan, Iran, 131
Kitab a-Jabr wal-Muqabalah
(al-Khwarizmi), 104
Kufah, Iraq, 127, 130
kufr (act of unbelief), 128
Kuwait, Islam in, 17
Kyrgyzstan, Islam in, 14
Lailat al-Isra wa al-Mi’raj (The Night
of the Journey and the Ascension),
117-118
Last Day, 58, 84
law. See shari’ah
Laylat al-Qadr (Night of the Power),
115
Lebanon, Islam in, 17, 139
libraries, 102
Libya, Islam in, 14
literature, 92-93, 132, 134
love, and Sufism, 94-100
lunar year, and Hijiri calendar, 26-27,
108-111, 126
madrasahs (religious schools), 68,
102
majlis al-shura. See advisory council
Malaysia, Islam in, 124, 138, 139, 143
Malcolm X, 85
Maleki school, 88
Mamluks, 134
Ma‘mun, al-, 100, 132
Manat, 21
Maraghah,Muslim observatory in,
101
marriage, 76-78
177
INDEX
marriage contract. See aqd nikah
marriage gift. See mehr
Mary, 57
masjid. See mosques
mass media, and West, 140-141
materialism, and West, 140
mathematics, 104
Mecca
and Abraham and Ishmael and
Hagar, 5
burials facing, 78
as direction of prayer, 26, 27, 62,
64, 70, 71
and early persecution of Muslims,
26, 27-28
Islamic community in, 28
and Kaaba, 21, 24, 28, 62, 64, 71,
79, 83-85
months and new moon in, 110
and Muhammad, 7, 19, 27-29, 32,
37-38, 83, 96
and opposition to Muhammad,
96
peaceful conquest of, 28
pilgrimage to, 21, 27, 29, 61, 63,
79, 83-85, 112-114
and pre-Islamic Arabia, 20, 21-22,
23, 24, 26
and revelations of Qur’an, 37-38
medical schools, 102
medicine, 102, 103-104
Medina
first mosque in, 32
and Hijri calendar, 109
Islamic community in, 26-27, 32,
110, 124-125
mosque in, 85
Muhammad dying in, 30
Muhammad’s migration to,
26-27
and revelations of Qur’an, 37, 38
Medinat al-Nabi, 27
mehr (marriage gift), 76-77
memories, 121-135
Mercy,Mount of, 84
messenger (rasul), 55, 56
Muhammad as, 23-24, 27, 30, 37-
38, 79, 80
Middle Ages. See cultural expressions
Middle Path community, Muslims
as, 47
mihrab (prayer niche facing Mecca),
70, 71
Mikhail (Michael), 54
Milad al-Nabi (The Birthday of the
Prophet), 108, 116-117
Mina, and pilgrimage to Mecca, 84
minarets, 9, 66, 67, 70-71
minbar (raised pulpit seat), 70, 71
missionaries, 6
Mongols, 134
monotheism. See tawhid
months
of Islamic calendar, 110-111
and Night of Power, 115
morality, and West, 140-141
moral police, 86
Moriscos, 151
Morocco, Islam in, 14, 122, 138
Moses, 5, 6, 7, 35, 36, 56-57, 87,
118
mosques (masjid), 9, 14, 63, 65,
66-73, 121
and ablution, 72
administration of, 72
architecture of, 66, 67, 69-72
definition of, 66
and domes, 70
Friday/congregational, 66-67
libraries in, 102
location of, 66-67, 70
in Medina, 32
and minarets, 66, 67, 70-71
as political institution, 68
and Ramadan, 116
role of, 67-68, 70
and royal dynasties, 68-69
rules of, 72-73
and shoes, 72
and women, 72-73
178
INDEX
mu‘amalat (human interrelations),
75
mu ‘amilt (just interactions with
human beings), 37
Mu‘awiya, 127-128, 129-130
Mudejars, 151
muezzin (muadhdhin) (crier), 71
Mughals, 135, 138
Muhammad, 18-29
and angels, 54
Arabian Peninsula during lifetime
of, 19-22
birthday of as holiday, 108, 116-
117
birth of, 7, 19, 22-23, 116-117
character of, 19, 22, 38, 39
children of, 23
and cleanliness, 65
and converts, 24, 26, 28
death of, 16, 24, 30, 39, 97, 117,
125
early years of, 22
and education, 91-92
and faith, 78-79
and farewell sermon, 28-29, 85
and flight from Mecca to Medina,
109-110
and hadith, 38-41
and ihsan, 78-79
and intellect, 43, 44-45
and Islamic community, 87, 124-
125
and Islamic law, 87
as last of all prophets, 5
and marriage, 22-23, 24, 26
on marriage, 76
and Mecca, 7, 19, 26, 27-29, 32,
37-38, 83, 96
and Mecca as direction of prayer,
62
and Medina, 26-27, 32, 38, 85,
124-125
as messenger of God, 23-24, 27,
30, 37-38, 79, 80
and mosque in Medina, 85
and Night of the Journey and the
Ascension, 117-118
opposition to, 24, 26, 27-28, 96
and prayers, 64
as Prophet, 19, 23-24, 26-30, 55,
56, 116, 125
Qur’an received by, 7, 24, 32, 33-
34, 35, 36-38, 39, 54, 82
and Ramadan, 23-24, 34
revelations of, 23-24. See also
Qur’an
role of, 7-8
and submission, 79
and succession, 16, 24, 34, 108,
119, 125-126, 129
and Sufis, 96
and sunnah, 37, 38
tomb of, 85
and tribes, 27
and Unity of Being, 95
and worship, 62-63.
See also Five Pillars of Islam
Muhammadan Society (Jame‘eh
Muhammadi), and Iran, 142,
145-146
Muhammad, Elijah, 157, 158
Muhammadiyyah, 145
Muhammad, Wallace D. Fard,
156-157
Muhammad,Warith Deen, 158
Muharram, 110, 119, 130
muhr (pieces of clay stamps), 71
mujahideen, of Afghanistan, 143
multicultural civilization, 91-94
musallah (prayer house), 112-113
mushrik, 49-50
Muslim(s)
as activists, 143-144
definition of, 3, 147
early persecution of, 24, 26,
27-28
pronunciation of, 3-4
spelling of, 4.
See also Islam
Muslim (compilar of ahadith), 41
179
INDEX
Nahrawan, Battle of, 129
names, for babies, 75-76
Napoleon Bonaparte, 138
Nation of Islam, 156-157, 158-159
nawafil (voluntary prayers), 66
Nestorians, 123
Netherlands, Islam in, 151
New Year, 110. See Norooz
Nigeria, Islam in, 16
Night of Power. See Laylat al-Qadr
“Night of Power and Excellence,
The,” 24
Night of the Journey and the Ascension.
See Lailat al-Isra wa al-Mi’raj
Noah, 5, 56
non-Muslims, human rights of, 161
Norooz (Iranian New Year), 118-119
Norway, Islam in, 151
Oman, Islam in, 139
Oregon, Islam in, 151
original sin, 48-49
orthopraxy, Islam as religion of, 75
Ottoman Empire, 135, 137, 138
Pahlawi language, 92-93
Pakistan
Islam in, 8, 14, 139, 160
and Zia al-Haqq, 143
Palestine
Islam in, 122, 134
Jews in, 5
paradise (heaven), 57, 58-59, 61, 79,
85, 121, 128
People of the Book, Christians and
Jews as, 7, 123
Persia, 121-122, 133, 134, 135, 159
Islam in, 122, 126
literature from, 92-93.
See also Ira
Philippines, Islam in, 14, 124
philosophy, 93-94, 103, 104
pilgrimage. See hajj
pir (Sufi master), 99
Plato, 93
poll tax. See jizyah
Portland, Oregon, Islam in, 151
Portugal, Islam in, 137-138
prayer house. See musallah
prayer leader. See imam
prayers. See salat
private prayers. See dhikr
prophets, 5, 6, 19, 44, 45-46, 55-57,
87, 118, 125.
See also Muhammad
prostration. See sujud
protected people. See dhimmi
purification. See tasawwuf; wudu
Qarawiyyin, 102
qiblah (direction of daily prayers), 71
and burials, 78
and Jerusalem, 27, 62
Jerusalem as, 27, 62
and Mecca, 27, 62, 64
Mecca as, 26, 27, 62, 64, 70, 71
qiyas, and Islamic law, 88, 89
Qur’an, 31-41, 55
and Abraham and Ishmael and
Hagar, 5, 23
and Adam and Eve, 49
Arabic writing of, 131
authentic version of, 34-35, 39,
56, 126
and birthday of Muhammad, 117
central role of, 7-8, 32, 36-37
and charity, 81
and cleanliness, 65
composition of, 8, 36, 38
and conversion in Mecca, 28
and conversions to Islam, 33
and Day of Judgment, 58-59
and education, 91
and equality, 8-9
and fasting during month of
Ramadan, 82
God in, 4, 7, 33-34, 35, 36-37, 51,
54
and God’s final revelation to
humanity, 137
180
INDEX
and hadith, 38-41
and humankind as God’s
vicegerent, 46, 47
and intellect, 43-44
interpretation of, 37
and Islamic community, 86-87
and Islamic law, 87, 88
and Islam today, 160
and Kharijis, 128
language of, 32-33
and meaning of term, 24, 32
and months of year, 110-111
and mosques, 71, 72
and Muhammad as messenger,
30
Muhammad receiving, 7, 24, 32,
33-34, 35, 36-38, 39, 54, 82
and New Year, 119
and Night of Power, 115
and phases of moon, 110
and prayers, 65
and prophets, 6, 55, 56-57
and Ramadan, 115
recitation of, 8, 24, 34
as response to West, 143
as sacred, 36
and sacrifice, 114
and Satan, 48
and selfish desires, 50
style of, 33
and suicide bombers, 148
and sunnah, 38, 39
teachings of, 37-38
and Unity of Being, 95
and warfare, 147
and women, 160-161
Quraysh tribe, 20, 21-22, 24, 26,
128
Rabi‘ah, 94-95, 97
Rabi’ ul-awwal, 116
radical fundamentalists. See Islamic
fundamentalism
Rajab, 118
ra’kats, 64, 72
Ramadan, 114
and calendar, 109
fasting during. See saum
and Muhammad, 23-24, 34
and Night of Power, 115
as sacred month, 115-116
rasul. See messenger
reasoning. See ijtihad
religious life. See deen
religious responsibilities, 78-79.
See also Five Pillars of Islam
religious scholars. See ‘ulama
religious schools. See madrasahs
religious teachers, 68
retreat. See i‘tikaf
revelation. See wahy
revelations, books of, 55-56.
See also Qur’an
Revivification of the Religious Science
(Abu Hamid al-Ghazali), 99
Reza Shah, 139
righteous act. See ihsan
righteous life, worship as living,
61-63
ritualistic worship, 63-66.
See also mosques
roads, and trade, 91
Rubaiyat (Umar Khayyám), 104
ruku’ (bowing), 64
sacrifice, and Festival of Sacrifice,
112-114
sadaqah (charity), 81
and Id al-Fitr, 115
and Night of the Journey and the
Ascension, 118
and Ramadan, 116
Sadaqat-ul-Fitr or Fitrana (Id-al-
Fitr charity), 115
Sadat, Anwar, 143
Safavid Empire, 135
Saffin, Battle of, 127-128
sahih (sound), 40
Salafiyyah, 145
Salamah (peace), 3
181
INDEX
salat (prayers), 61, 62, 63, 64-66, 67,
72, 79, 80
and ablution, 36
Jerusalem as direction of, 27, 62
Mecca as direction of, 26, 27, 62,
64, 70, 71
and minaret, 71
Muhammad on, 29
and Night of the Journey and the
Ascension, 117-118.
See also mosques
Sarah, 5, 6
Sassanids, 121-122, 126
Satan, 29, 48
Saudi Arabia
and holidays, 108
Islam in, 17, 99, 117, 139, 144-145
and moral police, 86
weddings in, 78
women in, 88.
See also Mecca; Medina
saum (fasting during Ramadan), 29,
61, 63, 79, 81-83, 115-116
and Id al-Fitr, 112, 114-115
schools. See madrasahs
science, 91, 92, 93, 100-101, 102-104,
106, 132, 134
scriptures, 55.
See also Qur’an
secular life. See donya
Semitic, and Shem, 5
sermons, and Friday noon communal
prayers, 66
Seyah Jamegan (men in black cloth),
131-132
Shafii school, 88
shahadah (declaration of faith), 61,
63, 79-80
shalom (peace), 3
shari’ah (Islamic law), 37, 53, 61, 77,
81, 87-89, 94, 97, 98, 133, 134,
140, 160, 161
Shaykh (Sufi master), 99
Sheba, 19
Shem, 5
shihadah, 75
Shiite al-‘Ali, 16
Shiite Islam, 16-17, 64, 66, 67, 71,
88, 108, 118-119, 125, 127, 130,
131-132, 133, 145
shirk, 49, 157
shurat (those who give their lives
for God), 128
sin, 49-50
original, 48-49
slaves, as Muslims, 151
social justice, and Islam, 37, 86-87
Socrates, 93
sound nature. See fitrah
Soviet Union, 143
Spain, Islam in, 122, 134, 137-138,
150, 151
spiritual path. See tariqah
Standing State. See wuquf
submission to God (Allah), 3, 37, 49,
52-53, 61, 62-63, 79, 80.
See also Five Pillars of Islam
Sufism, 94-100, 114, 123-124
suicide bombers, and terrorism,
148-149
sujud (prostration), 64
sunnah (example), 29, 38, 39, 88, 89
Sunni Islam, 64, 108, 125, 127
suras (chapters), 8, 35, 38
Sweden, Islam in, 151
symbols, 9.
See also minarets; mosques
Syria, Islam in, 17, 71, 122, 126, 129,
131, 134, 139, 145
Ta’if, 26
Tajikistan, Islam in, 14, 118-119
Takfir wa Hijiah, 127
Taliban, 102, 128, 145, 146
Taqi al-Din, 101
tariqah (spiritual path), 66, 97-98
tasawwuf (purification), 96.
See also Sufism
tawaf (circumambulation), and
pilgrimage to Mecca, 84
182
INDEX
tawhid (monotheism)
and Abraham, 6, 21, 23, 24, 28,
56, 83
and Islam, 4, 6, 7, 37, 50-53, 57,
79-80, 83
taxation
and almsgiving, 80-81, 122
and poll tax, 122-123
tayammum, 64
terrorism, and Islam, 146-149, 150,
156
Thailand, Islam in, 14, 124
theocracy, Iran as, 142, 145-146
Torah, 7, 36, 56-57, 87
trade
and culture, 91
and pre-Islamic Arabia, 20, 22
and spread of Islam, 123-124,
131
Tragedy of Karbala, 130
translations, and Bayt al-Hikmah,
100-101
tribal chief, and pre-Islamic Arabia,
20
tribes
and Abu Bakr, 126
and pre-Islamic Arabia, 20, 21,
27
Tunisia, Islam in, 14, 139
Turkey, 133, 135, 137, 138, 139
Islam in, 8, 14, 69, 118-119, 139,
143, 144, 160
mosques in, 69
and Westernization, 139
Turkmenistan, Islam in, 14
‘ulama (learned men), 94, 98, 99,
133
Ulugh Beg, 101
‘Umar, 34
Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, 130
‘Umar ibn al-Khattab, 126
‘Umar,Mulla, 145
Umayyad Mosque, 131
Umayyads, 97, 119, 126, 129-132
ummah (Islamic community), 16,
86-87
and Abbasids, 132
development of, 124-125
and Islamic law, 77, 81, 87-89
in Mecca, 28
in Medina (Yathrib), 26-27, 32,
110, 124-125
and pilgrimage to Mecca, 83
and Sufis, 97
United Arab Emirates, Islam in, 17
United States
Islam in, 16, 147, 149, 150, 151, 156
and Soviet Union, 143
and terrorism, 148
“Unity of Being, The,” 95-96
universities, 102
Urban II, 137
usury (interest),Muhammad on, 29
‘Uthman, 34
‘Uthman ibn Affan, 126-127
Uzbekistan, Islam in, 14
Uzza, 21
verses. See ayat
vicegerent, humanity as, 46-48
virtuous act. See ihsan
voluntary prayers. See nawafil
Wahabbis, 99, 117, 144-145
wahy (revelation), and Qur’an, 7,
24, 32, 33-34, 35, 36-38, 39, 54, 82
waqf (endowments), 72
Waraqah, 24
warfare
and Kharijis, 128-129
and Muhammad, 27-28
and pre-Islamic Arabia, 20, 21
and spread of Islam, 121-123
and terrorism, 146-149
weddings, 76-78
West
and Islam, 137-142
Islamic response to, 142-144
Islam in, 149-151
183
INDEX
Whirling Dervishes, 100
women
driving by, 88-89
and Islam today, 160-161
and mosques, 72-73
Muhammad on, 29
and original sin, 49
and pilgrimage to Mecca, 84.
See also gender
worldview, 42-59
and angels, 48, 50, 53-54
and books of revelation, 55-56.
See also Qur’an
and Day of Judgment, 48, 54, 57-
59, 61, 79
and humankind as God’s
vicegerent, 46-48
and idolatry, 49-50
and intellect and reasoning, 43-46
and jinns, 55
and messengers, 55, 56
and monotheism, 50-53, 57
and original sin, 48-49
and prayers, 67, 72
and prophets, 44, 45-46, 55-57.
See also Muhammad
and Satan, 48
spread of, 121-124
and woman and creation, 49
worship. See ibadat
wudu (ablution), 36, 64-65, 72
wuquf (the Standing State), 84
Yathrib, 26-28, 110.
See also Medina
Yazid, 119, 130
Yemen, 19
Islam in, 139
Zaid ibn Thaabit, 34
zakat (almsgiving), 29, 61, 63, 75,
76, 79, 80-81, 122
Zamzam, well of, 84
zawiyyah, 99-100
Zaytuniya, 102
Zia al-Haqq, 143
Zia, Khaleda, 160
Zoroastrianism, 121-122
184
INDEX
B: BAZUKI MUHAMMAD/
Reuters/Landov
C: © Art Resource, NY
D: © Erich Lessing/Art Resource,
NY
E: © Aaron Horowitz/CORBIS
F: © Carmen Redondo/CORBIS
G: © SEF/Art Resource, NY
H: © Victoria & Albert Museum,
London/Art Resource, NY
10 to 13: Gary Koellhoffer,
reproduced based on
data available online at
http://www.islamicweb.com/.
15: Chart adapted by the
International Bulletin
of Missionary Research,
January 2003
185
PICTURE CREDITS
152, 153, 154, 155: From the author’s collection.
Cover: © Archivo Iconografico, S.A./CORBIS
Frontis: Courtesy of the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division
Page:
MASOUD KHEIRABADI is an Iranian American who immigrated to
the United States in 1976. He lived for three years in Texas, where he
received his M.S. in Agricultural Mechanization from Texas A&I
University (later joined with Texas A&M). In 1979, he moved to
Eugene, Oregon, and studied at the University of Oregon, where he
received his M.A. and later Ph.D. in cultural geography. He has taught
at the University of Oregon, Lewis & Clark College, and Marylhurst
University. He currently teaches for the Humanities and International
Studies Program at Portland State University.
Professor Kheirabadi’s research interests deal with the Middle East
and Islamic issues. He is particularly interested in the relationship
between religion, politics, and development. He has published books
and articles on these topics. Among his recent publications are Iranian
Cities: Formation and Development and Modern World Nations: Iran.
ANN MARIE B.BAHR is Professor of Religious Studies at South Dakota
State University. Her areas of teaching, research and writing include
World Religions, New Testament, Religion in American Culture, and
the Middle East. Her articles have appeared in Annual Editions: World
Religions 03/04 (Guilford, CT: McGraw-Hill, 2003), The Journal of
Ecumenical Studies, and Covenant for a New Creation: Ethics, Religion
and Public Policy (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1991). Since 1999, she has
authored a weekly newspaper column which analyzes the cultural
significance of religious holidays. She has served as President of the
Upper Midwest Region of the American Academy of Religion.
MARTIN E. MARTY, an ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America, is the Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service
Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago Divinity School, where
he taught for thirty-five years. Marty has served as president of the
American Academy of Religion, the American Society of Church
History, and the American Catholic Historical Association, and was also
a member of two U.S. presidential commissions. He is currently Senior
Regent at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. Marty has written
more than fifty books, including the three-volume Modern American
Religion (University of Chicago Press). His book Righteous Empire was
a recipient of the National Book Award.
186
CONTRIBUTORS