Transcript Islam: Its Arrival and History

Islam:
Its Arrival and History
Stop and Think………
• What preconceived
notions do you have
about the religion on
Islam?
• How did you develop
those preconceived
notions?
Monotheism
• As we have seen, the Middle
East was subject to several
monotheistic beliefs.
• Traces religion back to
Abraham and Ishmael
• Important prophets – Adam,
Moses, Abraham, Jesus
• Muhammad is the last of the
prophets
• Jews and Christians respected
as “People of the Book.”
Bedouins of Arabia
• Nomadic tribes and clans moving from oases to
oases (governed by shaykhs – elders)
• Use of the camel for long distance travel
• Conducted raids on rival tribes and caravans
• Governed by code of muruwwa – bravery in
battle, patience in misfortune, persistence in
revenge, protection of the weak, defiance toward
the strong, and hospitality toward the visitor
• Love of poetry – annual time of peace for poetry
festivals – important to the development of Arabic
John Singer
Sargent’s
“Bedouins”
Early Islam
• As we have noted, at age 40 Mohammed receives
the word of Allah from the Angel Gabriel on Mt.
Hira.
• This word will take several years to receive.
• These divine revelations will become the
Quran/Koran.
• Once he receives that word, he will take to the city
of Mecca to teach what he is told is the final word
of Allah.
• How is he treated by the Meccans?
Early Converts to Islam
• Khadija – Muhammad’s wife (she passed away
before he did); he would take as many as 10 other
wives (widows of his soldiers to support them)
• Ali – Muhammad’s cousin (son of Abu-Talib)
• Abu-Bakr – close friend of Muhammad
(Muhammad would marry Abu-Bakr’s daughter
Aisha, who was regarded as his favorite wife)
• Umar – an imposing figure from a weak clan
• Uthman – elegant but quiet youth of the Umayyad
family (powerful)
Meccan Opposition
• Mecca – pilgrimage site, home of the Ka’ba –
large stone structure that houses 360 idols
• Arabs were polytheists and visited Mecca annually
(hajj – pilgrimage) to pay respects to gods
• Muhammad’s message of only one god did not
match with previous religious beliefs; would
interfere with lucrative pilgrim/tourism industry
• Muhammad shielded by uncle Abu-Talib
(influential) of Hashimite Clan
• After uncles death, rival clan and angry merchants
plot to kill Muhammad
Kaaba
Hijra – Leaving for Medina
• Muhammad, known for honesty, invited to
Medina to mediate between its two pagan
tribes
• Muhammad and followers leave Mecca and
relocate to Medina
• Muhammad’s following grows in Medina;
eventually his original Meccan followers
want to go back
Review of Mohammed
• Muhammad returns
with an army to Mecca.
The Meccans surrender
without a fight.
• Ka’ba purged of its
idols
Principles of Islam
5 Pillars: What they are and who
must complete them.
Worshipping Only One God
• Allah – God; same God of Jews and
Christians
• Must love Allah more than anything even
family
• Similar to Judaism and Christianity (“Love
the Lord your God with all your heart, soul,
mind, and strength”)
Witnessing/Profession of Faith
(Shahadah)
• This means, "I bear witness that
there is no God other than Allah,
and I bear witness that
Mohammed is His messenger."
• This profession of faith is part of the daily
prayers.
Prayer
• Is required 5 times per day:
1.Fajr-Before sunrise.
2.Zuhr-After the sun begins to decline
from its zenith.
3.Asr-Mid-afternoon.
4.Magrib-Just after sunset.
5.Isha-night.
Charity- Almsgiving
• Obligatory charity giving is an act of worship
and spiritual investment
• The recipients of charity are:
- the poor, the needy,
- the new Muslim converts,
- the Muslim prisoners of war (to liberate
them),
- Muslims in debt,
- employees appointed to collect Zakah,
- Muslims in service of research or study or
propagation of Islam,
- wayfarers who are foreigners in need of help.
Almsgiving – Similar to Judaism and
Christianity
• Psalms – “The Lord loves a cheerful giver”
• Jews were supposed to leave extra grain after the
harvest for the poor and foreigners
• Every seventh year was a Year of Jubilee in which
Jews were supposed to forgive debtors
• Jesus chastised the rich for ignoring the poor and
gave parables about how the poor would see God
and the rich that ignored them would burn in hell
• Paul commanded Christian churches to provide for
widows
Fasting
• Fasting is abstaining
completely from eating,
drinking, and intimate
sexual contacts from the
break of dawn till sunset.
• Obligatory fasting is
done once a year for the
period of the month of
Ramadan.
• The month when
Muhammad began to
receive visions
The Hajj
• Each Muslim is required (if
financially and physically able) to
make a Hajj.
• This is a journey to Mecca
• It is to commemorate the Divine
rituals observed by the Prophet
Abraham and his son Ishmael, who
were the first pilgrims to the house
of Allah on earth: the Ka'bah.
• It is also to remember the great
assembly of the Day of Judgement
when people will stand equal before
Allah.
Other Rules – Ways of Pleasing God
• No eating pork – It is a filthy creature
• No sexual immorality – No sex outside of
marriage (men and women worshipped separately
at the mosque; women kept hair covered and wore
veils – although this was common in pre-Islamic
Arabia too)
• No drinking intoxicating substances or using drugs
• All similar to Judaism and Christianity
Day of Judgment
• All living people will die; all souls will be judged
• Only the righteous will go to heaven – meeting
Allah, beautiful, good food and plenty to drink,
beautiful maidens for the righteous men; righteous
women will be transformed to the age at which
they were most beautiful
• Hell – scorching, torment by demons, boiling
water to drink, noxious food; separation from
Allah
• Heaven or hell for eternity
Christianity and Hell
• Jesus is the only way to God the Father – only
way to heaven
• All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of
God, perfect and holy
• Must accept that Jesus is Son of God, who died for
sins and ask for forgiveness/repent
• Anyone who does not do this cannot go to heaven;
therefore hell
• Last Judgment – separates the people who are
forgiven (by following Jesus) from those who are
not
Muslims’ Issues with Judaism and
Christianity
• Torah – written over time; made the Jews God’s
Chosen People (Muslims disagree)
• Gospels – written some time after Jesus’ death;
made Jesus the Son of God (Muslims disagree –
Jesus was a great prophet and divinely inspired,
but Allah has no children)
• Jews and Christians are People of the Book but
misguided
• Quran was given to Muhammad directly; final
authority on God/Allah; corrected mistakes (ex.
Ishmael was the favored son of Abraham not Isaac
as Jews and Christians believe)
Muhammad’s Visit to Jerusalem
• Muhammad said that in vision one night it was if he was
carried from the Ka’ba to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount
• He ascended through seven levels of heaven
• He met great biblical figures – Moses, Aaron, Enoch,
Jesus, John the Baptist, and Abraham and then entered the
presence of God
• Muhammad originally had Muslims face Jerusalem to do
their prayers
• Problems with Jews in Mecca and Medina – conspiracies
to challenge his power; joining up with rival Arab armies;
Muhammad begins to take hard line against Jews
• Mecca becomes new qibla
Dome of the Rock
Dome of the Rock, Temple Mount in
Jerusalem
• Dome is over the Foundation Stone, from
which Muhammad ascended to heaven
• The crevices are from the hand of Gabriel,
who held down the rock from ascending
with Muhammad
• Built in 691 at the order of Arabian
Umayyad caliph (head follower of Islam;
political leader) Abd al-Malik
Dome of the Rock
Exterior Wall
Islamic Spread
• As you will notice from the previous slide,
Islam will spread throughout Europe.
• It will go as far as the the Western parts of
Spain.
• Islam was and is the fastest growing
religion on the planet.
• Currently estimated to have over 1 billion
followers
Islam Spread
• How did the religion grow into an empire of
the Middle Ages?
• Who led after Muhammad? How would this
be decided?
• What were these leaders called? How were
they connected to the Prophet?
Battle of Badr: Background
• Muhammad’s forces had been raiding
caravans travelling to Mecca
• Early failures then success
• Even attacked during holy month when
pagan Arabs would visit Mecca, which was
forbidden
Battle of Badr: Background
• How did Muhammand justify this?
• Quranic revelation: “They will question you
about the holy month and fighting in it, Say
“Fighting in it is wrong, but to bar from
God’s way, and disbelief in Him, and the
sacred Ka’ba, and to expel its people from it
--- that is more wicked in God’s sight; and
persecution is more wicked than killing.”
(QURAN, 2:213)
Battle of Badr
• Muslims were preparing to raid a rich
Umayyad caravan returning from Syria
• Mecca sent an army of 1,000 against
Muslims in mean time
• Muhammad’s forces = 86 emigrants, 238
ansars (citizen/helpers of the Prophet)
• Battle at oasis called Badr
• Muslim victory – clever tactics, belief that
God was behind them
Battles Between Mecca and Muslims
• Meccans retaliated – won Battle of Uhud
625
• 627 - Meccans sent invasion force against
Medina; Muslims dug wide trench around
city that horses and camels could not cross;
returned home demoralized
• Arab tribes began severing ties with Mecca
and establishing treaties with Muhammad
Muhammad, Islam, and Jews
• Muhammad’s relations with Jews in Medina began to
deteriorate (Jews did not accept totality of his visions)
• Expelled a tribe of Jews for conspiring with Meccans
at Battle of Badr
• Expelled a tribe after the Muslims defeat at Uhud
• Last tribe of Jews in Mecca – accused of conspiring
with Meccans when they tried to seize Medina
• All men killed; property confiscated; women and
children sold into slavery
Jews: People of the Book?
• Why did Muhammad treat the Jews this way?
• They were armed; they could have undermined
Muhammad’s precarious control of Medina.
• An advisor actually coveted Jewish property and
put Muhammad against that last group (the one
that was punished most harshly)
• Muhammad’s prestige grew – Arabs trusted him;
knew that he was not afraid to get revenge against
betrayers
Death of the Prophet
• Muhammad never planned for a successor;
he was the last Prophet.
• His last speech: “O ye men, listen to my
words and take them to heart: Every
Muslim is a brother to every other Muslim
and you are now one brotherhood.”
• Appointed Abu-Bakr, father of Aisha and
his best friend to lead prayers
• Retired to Aisha’s room; died June 8, 632
Caliphs: Followers of the Prophet
• Caliph – title for the leaders who followed
after Muhammad
• The Four Righteous Caliphs
–
–
–
–
Abu-Bakr
Umar
Uthman
Ali
Abu-Bakr (632 – 634)
• Led prayers while the Prophet was sick; father-inlaw and best friend; an early believer; Umar – an
outspoken follower pushed for Abu-Bakr to be
chosen
• Took the title khalifat rasul Allah (successor of the
messenger of God) – origins of the word caliph
• Also known as amir al-muminin – commander of
the believers
• Arabs tribes tried to break away – ridda (apostasy)
– didn’t want to pay zakat
• Ridda Wars – costly, but Muslims reconquered
every rebel tribe and then forgave them
Umar (632-644)
• Sends out the Arab tribes (uses their cultural
combative energies and trend toward
conquest/raiding) to conquer territories
• Umar pronounces a jihad to expand the
umma’s (Muslim community) lands
• Captures Rome’s (Byzantine Empire)
Middle Eastern Possessions (Palestine –
Jerusalem, Syria, Egypt, and Cyrenaica –
part of modern-day Libya)
Umar’s Achievements
• Expanded the territories of the umma
• Enriched the umma
• Held the umma together by utilizing the
fighting spirit of the Arab tribes and
enriching them
• Established military bases with soldiers
stationed throughout the Middle East
• Created shura – electoral committee to
choose third caliph – Islam democratic?
Umar
• Slept on a bed of palm leaves
• Wore the same wool shirt until it had holes
and patches in it
• Known to govern with a whip if people
behaved impiously
Uthman (644-656)
• From Umayyad clan of Mecca – defied his
clan and became one Muhammad’s
(Muhammad was from the Hashimite clan)
early followers; recall that the powerful
Umayyads did not want to convert right
away because they would lose power over
Mecca
• Amassed estates worth over $100 million
Uthman
• Built Islam’s first navy to conquer Cyprus
• Established one definitive version of Quran; order
all variations burnt
• Troubled caliphate – garrison towns began to plot
against him (not quite as forceful personality as
Umar)
• Appointed relatives to govern territories (some
lusted after power, others lacked ability to rule)
• Complex time in the empire (more money than
Muhammad ever envisioned; greed and vice with so
many people)
• Revolt in Kufa; spread to Medina; rebels from
Egypt broke in and killed him and his wife as they
recited prayers
Ali (656-661)
• Muhammad’s cousin (son of Abu-Talib,
Muhammad’s uncle in Mecca who protected him);
first male convert
• Husband of the Prophet’s daughter, Fatima
• Father of Muhammad’s only grandsons, Hasan
and Husayn
• Went with the Prophet on early expeditions;
advised the caliphs
• A rival who others proclaimed caliph – Mu-awiya
• Murdered by Kharjite (seceder)
After the Surrender of Mecca
Put a bow on the box
• What about Islam have
we learned?
• What has made it the
most rapidly growing
religion in the history
of the face of the
earth?
• Predict where Islam is
heading……..