assignment
Part A
Each week, you will read all the assigned pages listed in this syllabus. You will also write a one-page journal in which you will discuss the main ideas discussed in the reading. A complete journal entry will answer the following three questions: 1) What are three (at least) key ideas discussed in the assigned pages? 2) What struck you the most in reading these pages? 3) How does the reading affect your understanding of the religions of the world?
Part B
Describe and discuss one thing that struck you in this week’s reading assignment.
ISLAM
FAINT TRACES OF DAWN light up the tops of tall coconut palms and
lush mango trees in a village in Zanzibar, an East African island in the
Indian Ocean . Amina, a woman in her early thirties and a devout Muslim,
rises from her bed. She was awakened by the sound of the call to prayer
from the local mosque. In the open-air courtyard of her house, she
begins her morning ablutions to prepare for the first of her daily prayers.
She takes cool water from the cistern in the courtyard and carefully
washes her face, hands, and feet, and rinses her mouth, nose, and ears .
She also wets her head and hair. Before each of the five daily prayers,
Amina performs similar ablutions. Although she occasionally wears eye
makeup and lipstick, she is careful to avoid nail polish. She explains that
all such adornment must be removed to purify herself for each prayer;
makeup is easily removed with water, but nail polish is not.
After her ablutions, Amina returns to the house, covers her head and
shoulders with a clean cotton wrap, and spreads a colorful woven prayer
mat on the floor next to her bed. She removes her sandals, steps onto the
mat, and begins the first of the five prescribed daily ritual prayers that are
expected of all devout Muslims. The prayers are called salat, and consist
of the recitation of verses from the Qur’an, the sacred text of Islam, ac-
compan ied by specific bodily movements . Together, the cycles of prayer
and movement are called raka. Amina has made her daily prayers since
Pilgrims circumambulate the Ka’ba in Mecca, Saudi
Arabia. The pilgrimage to Mecca, known as the hajj,
is a once-in-a-lifetime duty for devout Musli ms.
470 Chapter 13 ISLAM
LIBYA
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Significant sites in the
history of Islam.
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IRAN
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she was a young girl. As a child, her mother and elder sisters taught her how to pray;
eventually, she will do the same for her own children. She begins the prayer standing,
then kneels, bows her forehead to the ground, and kneels again in accordance with her
recitation . Hand movements accompany the bodily postures. Daily prayer is an essen-
tial part of Muslim worship. Through prayer, Amina is acknowledging to herself and her
community that she is submitting herself to the will of God-an important tenet of the
Islamic faith. In fact, the term Muslim means “one who submits” in Arabic.
Amina prays alone in her modest home, but men in her community typically gather
at the local mosque for each of the daily prayers, which are led by a prayer leader called
an imam. Like women, most Zanzibari men cover their heads when praying, most
often with a brimless, embroidered cap. Although in some parts of the Muslim world
women regularly pray in mosques, in Zanzibar, particularly in rural areas, it is uncom-
mon for women to do so. However, women often gather together at mosques for other
reasons, such as Qur’an study groups and sessions in religious instruction.
When she completes her prayers, Amina rolls up her prayer mat and sets it aside
for later. She reads a few verses from the Qur’an in the early morning light, and then
begins the first tasks of her day-making tea and sweeping the courtyard . ~£~
A
mina is one of about 1.6 billion Muslims
living in the world today; Islam is second
only to Christianity in numbers of adher-
ents. Amina lives in Africa, and most of the world’s
Muslims live in South and Southeast Asia, not in
the Arabic-speaking countries of the Middle East.
In fact, Arab Muslims make up less than 20 per-
cent of the total Muslim population worldwide.
The country with the largest Muslim population
in the world is the Southeast Asian nation of
Indonesia, followed closely by Pakistan, India, and
Bangladesh. Many countries in Africa also have
very large Muslim populations. Today, there are
nearly 3 million Muslims in the United States, 1
and the number of Muslims in North America is
increasing rapidly, mostly through immigration.
Muslims also make up significant minority popu-
lations in many parts ofWestern Europe, especially
in France, where they make up nearly 9 percent of
the population. 2
Islam developed in the Arabian Peninsula
and rapidly spread through the Middle East, Asia,
and Africa. Because of its global presence, Islam is
practiced, understood, and interpreted in diverse
ways in many different countries, cultures, and
communities. However, certain beliefs and prac-
tices can be considered universal parts of Muslim
religious life. Most important of these is the mono-
theistic belief in the oneness of Allah, which is the
Arabic term for God. Secondly, Muslims recognize
Muhammad, who received the message of the
Qur’an from God, as the final prophet in a long
line of prophets sent to humanity by God. The
TIMELINE
Islam
The Teachings of Islam 471
570 c.E. The birth
of Muhammad.
610 The first revelations of the Our’an to Muhammad.
622 The hijra (migration) from Mecca to Medina.
632 Th e death of Muhammad; issue of succession.
632-661 Period of the Rightly Guided Caliphs.
657 Battle of Siffin.
661 ‘Ali kill ed.
661-750 Umayyad period.
680 Battle at Karbala and martyrdom of Husayn.
750-1258 Abbasid period.
1095-1453 Crusades.
1207-1273
Jalalludin Rumi.
1281-1924 Ottoman Empire.
1483-1857 Mughal Empire.
1501-1722 Safavid Empire.
1703-1792 lbn Abd al-Wahhab.
1849-1905 Muhammad Abduh.
1881-1938 Mustafa Kemal Atatu rk.
1923 Huda Sha’rawi unveils at Egyptian train station.
1947 Partition of India and Pakistan.
1979 Iranian Revolution.
2004 France bans wearing of headscarves and other
religious identifiers in schools.
2006 Keith Ellison is fi rst Muslim elected to U.S. Congress.
2009 Green Movement, Iran .
2011 “Arab Spring” pro-democracy movements spread
across the Middle East.
Qur’ an is believed to be the word of God and is the holy text of Muslims. In addition,
Muslims around the world share the observance of the five pillars of worship practice.
The term “Islam” (Arabic, “submission”) reflects Muslim belief in the importance of
submitting to God’s will.
THE TEACHINGS OF ISLAM
Islam arose in the Arabian Peninsula in the seventh century, when Muslims believe
that a man called Muhammad began receiving communication from God. The pri-
mary source oflslamic teachings is the Qur’an, which Muslims believe is the word of
472 Chapter 13 ISLAM
0 km 2000
4000
0 miles 2000
World Muslim
population.
NORTH
AMERICA
4000
SOUTH
AMERICA
0-1 1-5
AUSTRALIA
World Muslim population (%)
5-25 25-50 50-75 75-90 90-100
God as revealed to Muhammad. According to Muslim belief, Islam was not intro-
duced as a new religion. Rather, the revelations of the Qur’an to Muhammad were
a reawakening or reintroduction of the original monotheistic faith of the prophet
Abraham, a figure who is also important to Jews (Chapter 11) and Christians (Chapter 12).
Islam is considered one of the Abrahamic religions, along with Judaism and Christianity,
and the three religions share a great deal. Although many people in pre-Islamic Arabia
were polytheists, significant numbers of Jews and Christians also lived in the region.
People in Arabia were therefore familiar with biblical stories and characters, and sev-
eral of these are mentioned in the Qur’an. In the Islamic view, Abraham (or Ibrahim,
as Muslims call him) was the original monotheist who received a revelation from
God, a revelation that taught him the true religion centering on the oneness of God.
Muslims believe that when Muhammad received the revelations of the Qur’an, he was
given a reminder for humanity of what God conveyed to Abraham. This section
explores what Muslims believe about the revelation of the Qur’an to Muhammad. In
a later section, we explore his life, his prophecy, and his leadership roles.
Muhammad and the Revelations
Muslims consider Muhammad (c. 570-632 C.E.) the final messenger in a series of
prophets sent by God to humanity. In addition to Abraham, these prophets include
many other figures important in the Jewish and Christian traditions, such as Noah,
Moses, and Jesus. In Muslim belief, all prophets are solely human-not divine.
However, the importance of Muhammad to Muslims should not be underestimated.
The Teachings of Islam 473
In addition to receiving the revelation of the Qur’an, Muhammad is considered an
extraordinary man in all respects. He was the religious and political leader of the early
Muslim community and, even today-fourteen centuries after his death-his life is
considered an example for all Muslims to follow.
Some of what we know about Muhammad and his life comes from the Qur’ an. We
also know something of his life from biographical writings and from what his close
friends, associates, and family (who are known together as his companions) observed
about him and passed on in reports. In addition, there are many stories and legends
about the Prophet. Because most of what we know about Muhammad comes from
sources that were compiled by Muslims after he became a prophet, we know very little
about his early life. Muslims do not believe that Muhammad was divine, but rather
consider him to be al-insan al-kamil, the ideal human. And although he was a prophet,
in many respects he lived the life of a normal man. He had a family, earned a living,
and was active in his community.
Most Muslims believe that Muhammad was a spiritual man and a religious seeker
even before he began receiving the revelation of the Qur’ an. He was considered a
devout monotheist even at a time in which many of his contemporaries were polythe-
ists, and it is said that he often meditated alone on the oneness of God. When he
reached the age of forty, in the year 610 C.E., the Angel Gabriel (known in Arabic as
Jibril) visited Muhammad while he was praying in an isolated cave outside Mecca.
Muhammad heard a voice that told him that he was the messenger of God and com-
manded him to “Recite!” Muhammad is said to have been awed and bewildered. He
is thought to have hesitated three times at Jibril’s command, because as an illiterate
man he did not feel he was able to recite. Eventually he repeated the words the angel
told him to recite, and these are considered to be the first revealed verses of the Qur’an.
The rest of the Qur’an was revealed to Muhammad over the next twenty-three years.
Muhammad confided in his wife, Khadija, a wealthy and successful business-
woman, about the revelations. She listened carefully and believed his message. Because
she was the first to believe the truth of the message received by Muhammad, Khadija
is considered to be the first convert to Islam. Other early followers were Muhammad’s
close friends and family members. Muhammad’s young cousin ‘Ali, who later became
his son-in-law when he married Muhammad’s daughter Fatima, was the first male
convert to Islam. A friend of Muhammad’s called Abu Bakr was also an early convert,
and he became Muhammad’s father-in-law much later in life when, after Khadija’s
death, Muhammad married Abu Bakr’s daughter.
After the first revelations, Muhammad began a life of preaching in Mecca. The
verses of the Qur’an that he received during this time emphasized the oneness of
God-the central tenet of the Islamic faith. Muhammad preached this idea to the
people of Mecca and also taught about morality, social justice for the poor and down-
trodden, and the inevitability of the Day of Judgment.
Muhammad was not the only prophet in the Islamic tradition. The Qur’an men-
tions several prophets by name and refers to the existence of many others. Muhammad,
474 Chapter 13 ISLAM
This ill uminated Qur’an
is from the thirteenth
century.
however, is known as the “seal of the prophets,” which means that the door of proph-
ecy was closed-or “sealed”-with him because he was the final prophet. Muslims
believe that the revelations to Muhammad came at a time when it was necessary to
reawaken understanding of God’s message to humanity.
The Holy Our’an
The Qur’ an is the sacred text of Islam, and it is considered the literal word of God. The
Arabic word qur’an means “recitation,” and the book is called such because Muham-
mad received the Qur’an orally and taught it to his followers in the same way. When
the Qur’an was eventually written down, the text was corrected by the oral knowledge
of those who had committed it to memory. Even today, printed copies of the Qur’an
bear the stamp of approval of a person known as hafidh or “keeper of the Qur’an.” This
is a person who knows the entire Qur’an by heart.
The Qur’ an was not revealed all at once to Muhammad, but rather gradually over
a period of more than twenty years until his death. The language of the Qur’ an is clas-
sical Arabic, and stylistically it resembles the beauty of the Arabic poetry of the time
in which it was revealed. However, it is important to note that Muslims do not regard
the Qur’an as poetry. This is because poetry is a human endeavor, and Muslims view
the Qur’an as solely the word of God. Reciting, reading, and studying the Qur’an are
an important part of daily life for devout Muslims today, in all parts of the world.
The Qur’an is not a narrative text, which means that it does not tell a story from
beginning to end (although there are some stories within the text). The Qur’an con-
sists of 114 chapters, each of which is called a surah. Each surah consists of several
verses. The surahs are not organized around specific topics or time periods, and they
are not arranged in the order of revelation, as one might expect. Rather, they are
arranged roughly from the longest to the shortest, with the exception
of the opening surah, which is quite short. Some surahs are only a few
verses long, and the longest has almost 300 verses. Each surah has a
title. The titles were not revealed to Muhammad but were, rather, based
on a distinctive element of the surah. For example, the third surah is
called “The Women” because of the many verses within it that refer-
ence the status of women.
At the time of Muhammad’s death, the revelations of the Qur’an
had not been collected into one book. The primary mode of teaching
and learning the Qur’an was oral. During the rule of the caliph
‘Uthman, however, the revelations were organized into a written text.
For centuries, Muslims have considered this text standard. Today,
however, some secular scholars think that a number of versions of
the Qur’an originally existed and that the written text of the Qur’an
emerged gradually in the seventh and eighth centuries.
The most well-known surah is the first one, which is called al-
fotihah, or the “the opening.” The fotihah is a common prayer used by
The Teachings of Islam 475
Muslims in many different contexts. It is the first surah that Muslims learn when they
begin studying the Qur’an as children or as adults. A devout Muslim will recite the
fotihah several times during the day’s many prayers. The surah evokes the oneness of
God, the all-powerful nature of God, the Day of Judgment, and God’s guidance for a
righteous life.
THE OPENING/AL-FAT/HAH
In the name of Allah, most benevolent, ever-merciful
All praise be to Allah ,
Lord of all the worlds,
Most beneficent, ever merciful,
King of the Day of Judgment.
You alone we worship, and to You
alone turn for help.
Guide us (0 Lord) to the path that is straight,
The path of those You have blessed,
Not of those who have earned Your anger,
Nor those who have gone astray.3
Today, most Muslims consider the Qur’an both inimitable and uncreated. This means
that Muslims regard the holy text as unique and eternal. Today and historically, Mus-
lims have believed that the Qur’an’s equal cannot be created by human effort, which
is considered proof of its divine origins. Most contemporary Muslims also believe that
the Qur’an is eternal-that it has always existed. This view has not always dominated,
however. The Mutazilites, a rationalist school of Islamic thought that was prominent
many centuries ago, argued that the Qur’an was not eternal but was rather created
by God. The Mutazilite scholars argued that the idea of an eternal Qur’an compro-
mised the unity of God because God alone was eternal and the creator of all things-
including the Qur’ an. This view had some support in the tenth century, but eventually
the idea of the eternal Qur’an became dominant in the Islamic tradition.4
The Teachings of the Our’an
The major teachings of the Qur’an are found throughout the text. In any number of
verses, we can find reference to the nature of God, the reality of the Day of Judgment,
and guidelines for moral behavior.
The Oneness of God Like the other Abrahamic religions, Islam is a monotheistic
religion, and the most important principle of Islamic belief is the oneness of God. The
Qur’an teaches that God, known in Arabic as ”Allah,” is eternal, uncreated, all-knowing,
and all-powerful, and it is God alone who created the universe and humankind. God
is also merciful, just, and good. God is transcendent but also present, or immanent, in
the lives of believers. A much-quoted verse of the Qur’an refers to God as closer to
476 Chapte r 13 ISLAM
humanity “than the jugular vein” (50:16). Muslims believe that it is impossible for
God to have a partner, consort, or family because no other being shares God’s divinity.
Muslims believe that God is the same God of the Jews and Christians. However, to
Muslims, the Christian doctrine of the Trinity compromises the unity of God. The
Qur’an specifically comments on the impossibility of God begetting a son, as in the
following verse:
He to whom belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth: who
has neither begotten a son, nor has He a partner in kingdom: (who)
created every thing, and determined its exact measure (25:2).5
The Qur’an also teaches that Muslims should strive to acknowledge the oneness of
God through acts of devotion. Because the unity of God is the central tenet oflslamic
belief, it follows that denying or compromising this oneness is the greatest sin. This sin
of associating anything or anyone else with God is called shirk. In the Qur’an, shirk is
noted as the only unforgivable sin in the eyes of Allah. This is because it denies the
existence of God and the true nature of God. For the believing Muslim, the worship
of God should be given to God alone, and human beings should worship nothing else.
Therefore, nature, idols, images, and human beings must not be worshipped.
In Muslim belief, Allah created the universe, the world, and everything in it, in-
cluding the sun and the moon, the mountains and oceans, and all living things. The
natural world is mentioned throughout the Qur’ an, and elements of nature are re-
ferred to as ayat, or signs of God: “We shall show them Our signs in every region of
the earth and in themselves, until it becomes clear to them that this is the truth”
(41:53). Muslims view the natural world and the entire cosmos as a type of revelation
from God. (The Qur’an itself, remember, is another type of revelation.) Therefore, in
Muslim belief, the natural world as a whole is evidence of the existence of God, and
human beings should be able to realize this simply by observing nature. Despite this,
human beings cannot truly know the ultimate essence of God, God’s ultimate pur-
pose, and ultimate reality. Thus Muslims may not be able to understand rationally why
bad things happen to good people. However, they should have faith in God’s purpose,
even though they cannot truly know it (2:216).
Prophecy Prophecy is also an essential component of Islamic belief, and it is men-
tioned several times in the Qur’ an. The belief in prophecy is also important to Judaism
and Christianity, and the three Abrahamic faiths share many of the same prophets. In
Islam, it is through the messages revealed to prophets that humanity comes to know
the desires of God and the divine laws that govern the universe and creation. The belief
in revealed scripture goes hand in hand with the belief in prophecy, because Muslims
believe that it is through prophets that humanity obtains scripture.
Muslims recognize many prophets since the beginning of creation. Each prophet
received special words from God that were appropriate for humanity at the time in
The Teachings of Islam 477
which the particular prophet lived. The prophet Abraham is mentioned several times
in the Qur’an. The stories of his life resemble those told by Jews and Christians, and
they serve as an important basis for the annual pilgrimage to Mecca (discussed in the
next section). The Qur’an also names Jesus as an important prophet (and indeed says
that Jesus will return to herald the Day ofJudgment), and the Gospels are considered
part of God’s revelation to humanity. Muslims believe that Jesus was born of the
Virgin Mary, who is also mentioned in the Qur’an and is held in very high regard by
Muslims. However, Muslims do not believe that Jesus was divine or the son of God.
Verse 25:2, which you read earlier, reflects this idea.
Muslims believe that all prophets bring communication from God. The Qur’an
teaches that prophets fall into different classes based on the nature of that communi-
cation. Some are said to bring simply “news” from God. Others, like Muhammad,
bring a major message. In addition to Muhammad, prophets such as Moses and Jesus
also received major messages. Moses received the Torah as guidance for humankind,
and the teachings ofJesus are regarded as a major message from God. All scriptures,
including the Torah and the Gospels, are considered by Muslims to be the work of
God. Although the Qur’an refers to those peoples to whom scripture was revealed as
“Peoples of the Book,” the Qur’an also teaches that the earlier messages have been
misinterpreted or forgotten by the Christians and the Jews.
According to the Qur’an, Adam and his wife, Hawa (or Eve), are regarded as the
first two humans. Adam became the first prophet in the Islamic tradition. Adam and
Hawa were created separately by God from a single soul (4:1) and made of dust or clay
according to a divine model. Muslims believe that God blew spirit into humanity.
Therefore, as in nature, the signs of God are also in humanity. The Qur’an teaches that
human beings were created to worship God (51:56) and that the nature of humanity
is to obey God and to give thankfulness for God’s blessings.
You will recall that the meaning of the term Muslim is “one who submits.” How-
ever, as part of God’s creation on earth, Muslims believe that humans should also act
as responsible members of society and stewards of the natural world. The Qur’an con-
tains a story that is similar to the one in Genesis, in which the first humans disobeyed
God by tasting a forbidden fruit. In the Qur’anic story, Adam and Hawa are both to
blame for this disobedience, and they are immediately forgiven for their transgressions
by God (71:13-17). Most Muslims believe that, unlike other living creatures, all
human beings have free choice and thus must choose to submit to the will of God.
Each individual’s choices will be evaluated on the Day ofJudgment.
The Day of Judgment The coming of the Day of Judgment and the reality of the
afterlife is another central teaching of the Qu’ran. Many of the early surahs focus on
God’s judgment and can be read as warnings to humanity to live a righteous life or
suffer the consequences when facing God at the end of days. Despite the dire warning
of some of these verses, God’s justice is strongly emphasized, and the Qur’an gives
details about how to live a righteous life. Greed and hypocrisy are criticized, and
478 Chapte r 13 ISLAM
kindness and generosity are praised. The Qur’an teaches that all believers, men and
women alike, will stand alone in front of Allah and will be judged according to their
actions in life. The Qur’an teaches that after death, a person resides in the grave in a
sleeplike state until the end of days, at which time the judgment will take place. The
end of days is described in the Qur’ an as a time when the world turns upside down in
great calamity. Surah 99 dramatically describes Judgment Day:
When the world is shaken up by its cataclysm
And earth throws out its burdens,
And man enquires: “What has come over it?”
That day it will narrate its annals,
For your Lord will have commanded it.
That day people will proceed separately to be shown their deeds.
Whosoever has done even an atom’s weight of good will behold it;
And whosoever has done even an atom’s weight of evil will behold that.6
On Judgment Day, each person will have a book that details the deeds of his or her life.
The book held in the right hand indicates a righteous life, and the book held in the left
hand indicates a sinner. The Qur’an teaches that each individual stands alone before
God and that no one can intercede on his or her behalf. However, there is some debate
about this issue, and some traditions in Islam suggest that Muhammad will be able to
intercede on behalf of believers. Some Muslims believe that the Day of Judgment will
be ushered in by a person known as the Mahdi, whose just rule will come to the earth
at the end of days. The Mahdi is not mentioned in the Qur’an. Rather, the idea de-
veloped in Islamic thought in later centuries.
Those who are judged to be righteous will enter paradise. In the Qur’an, paradise
is described in much detail as a lush garden with bountiful blessings of food, drink,
and beautiful young men and women. Although some take this description to be
literal, other Muslims think that it is instead a metaphor for the beauties of
paradise.
Those who have led sinful lives will be cast into hell, which is often referred to simply
as “the fire.” Those who are doomed to hell include nonbelievers and Muslims who
have rejected their faith by failing to live up to prescribed duties and moral stan-
dards. Some Muslims believe that sinners will eventually be forgiven and taken to
paradise.
Angels and jinn The existence of angels is another component oflslamic belief, and
angels are mentioned throughout the Qur’an. Angels are part of God’s creation, with-
out body or gender. Humans are said to be made of clay, and angels from light. Angels
serve as important messengers and assistants to God. The most well known of the
angels in Islamic tradition is Gabriel, or Jibril. This angel is mentioned several times
in the Qur’an and was instrumental in bringing the revelation of the Qur’an to
The Teachings of Islam 479
Muhammad from God. Islamic tradition also recognizes supernatural beings called
jinn, which are said to be created from fire. They are also mentioned in several places in
the Qur’ an. Jinn can take various forms, and, like humans, they can be both good and
evil and Muslim or non-Muslim. Much folklore has developed surrounding the jinn,
and they are represented in tales like One Thousand and One Nights as both helping and
harming humans. The English term “genie” derives from the Arabic word jinn.
Commentary on the Our’an
The text of the Qur’an is ambiguous in some places and repetitive in others. This has
resulted in a long tradition of commentary upon and interpretation of the meaning
of the verses. The general Arabic term for commentary on the Qur’an is tafsir, which
is translated in English as ” interpretation.” Scholars have been engaging in tafiir for
centuries, and their commentary takes many forms. In the first few generations fol-
lowing Muhammad’s death, scholarly commentary on the Qur’an focused primarily
on grammar, language, and explanations of inconsistencies in the text. The goal of this
type of tafiir was to clarify the meaning of the words of the Qur’an.
Muslims have not always agreed on how the Qur’an should be interpreted and
understood. Some scholars have argued that the Qur’an must only be interpreted vis-
a-vis itself. In other words, verses of the Qur’an should only be explained by using
other passages of the text. Other scholars think that Muslims should use their own
reason and rationality as believers to interpret the meaning of the verses. This method
of tafiir is known as speculative tafiir.7 A famous eleventh-century Persian scholar
called Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058-1111) wrote that, as rational judgment is a gift
from God, people should always use it when considering the meaning of the Qur’an.
However, some scholars criticized his approach as preferring human reason over the
words of God. Ibn Taymiyya (1263-1328), an Arab scholar, argued that using human
reason was not necessary because the entire meaning of the Qur’an could be found
within the text. As we discuss later in this chapter, Ibn Taymiyya’s approach became
influential to some Islamic reformist movements in the modern era.
The Sunnah: The Example of the Prophet
After the Qur’an, the second most important source of Islamic teachings is in the
Sunnah, which refers to the “tradition” or way of life of the prophet Muhammad. The
Sunnah encompasses Muhammad’s actions and words. It includes the way he handled
disputes in the early community, the way he dealt with his wives, friends, and chil-
dren, and the way he went about the daily business of life. This extends even to such
seemingly mundane matters as how the Prophet cleaned his teeth. To Muslims, Mu-
hammad is considered the ideal human. He is therefore the model of the best way to
live. To this day, Muhammad is an inspiration to all Muslims, who strive to follow his
example of conduct in their own lives. Muhammad is discussed in more detail in the
section on the history oflslam.
480 Chapter 13 ISLAM
Explore the concept
of scripture in Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam.
What important
elements do these
religions share? How
do they differ?
The Hadith Literature How do Muslims know how Muhammad lived his life, how
he treated his family, and how he handled problems facing members of the early
Muslim community? Muslims have knowledge of Muhammad’s life through a literary
tradition known as the hadith. Hadith is a form of literature that records in brief re-
ports the details of the life of the prophet, including his sayings and his deeds. The
hadith reports come from the observations of Muhammad’s close friends and family,
known as his “companions.” His companions realized his importance as an example
of righteous behavior. They strove to remember his actions and words, and then passed
them on through the generations in hadith reports.
A hadith consists of two parts: the isnad, or the chain of transmission of the hadith;
and the matn, the report itself The matn relates Muhammad’s words or deeds, and the
isnad names those people who transmitted the hadith from the time of the prophet.
The isnad always originates with one of Muhammad’s close companions or a family
member. Muhammad’s wife Aisha was one of the most important transmitters of
hadith, as she passed on many reports about Muhammad ‘s life. Muslims do not con-
sider all hadith to be equally valid. A complex science of hadith developed in the cen-
turies following the death of the Prophet to evaluate their reliability as true reports
of Muhammad’s life. Scholars ranked hadith from “solid” to “weak” based on the like-
lihood of authenticity. The hadith are compiled into collections of several thousand.
Reports known as hadith qudsi, or sacred sayings, are also important in the Islamic
tradition. Although the name is similar, this is a very different sort ofliterary tradition from
the regular hadith. The hadith qudsi are not reports of Muhammad’s life but are believed to
be words of God. Muhammad is believed to have occasionally transmitted direct words of
God that were not intended to be part of the Qur’an. Many of the hadith qudsi are succinct
and beautiful. They focus on God’s love for humanity, God’s mercy, and the closeness of
God to creation. The following hadith qudsi illustrates the quality of God’s mercy:
God says: “If my Servant intends a good deed and does not do it,
I
write it down for him as a good deed. Then if he does it, I write it down
for him as ten good deeds, or up to seven hundred times that. And if
my servant intends an evil deed and does not do it, I do not write it
down against him. And if he does it, I write it down for him as [only
one] evil deed.”8
The Five Pillars
The essential teachings of Islam are closely related to Muslim worship practice. The
five pillars form the basis of practice. These pillars are
1. Shahadah: the declaration of faith
2. Salat: the daily prayer
3. Zakat: almsgiving
4 . Sawm: fasting during the month of Ramadan
5. Hajj: pilgrimage to Mecca
The Teachings of Islam 481
Muslims believe that the foundations for the five pillars were set during the lifetime
of Muhammad. The five pillars are carefully articulated in the hadith literature. All of
the pillars are equally important. However, they address different elements of religious
practice that must be performed at special times. For example, although prayer is a
daily requirement, the Ramadan fast happens once per year, and the hajj must be per-
formed only once in a lifetime. The pillars are generally required of all adult Muslims.
However, individuals are sometimes excused from performing the pillars. For example,
someone who is ill, pregnant, or nursing an infant would not be required to fast. Devout
Muslims generally aim to observe all of the pillars, but as with every religious tradition,
there are variations in levels of observance. Furthermore, there has been some historical
variation across communities and cultures in how much emphasis is placed on the pil-
lars. Some Muslim scholars have even debated the relative necessity of the observance
of the pillars, though these scholars have always been in the minority.
The Declaration of Faith The first pillar is the declaration of faith, called the sha-
hadah. This is the statement of belief: “There is no God but God and Muhammad is
the messenger of God.” The other four pillars all deal directly with religious practice,
but the shahadah is different in that it is much more a statement of belief than a ritual-
ized religious practice. To become a Muslim, all one must do is utter the shahadah
with utmost sincerity in the presence of witnesses. Most new Muslims will first declare
the shahadah, and then begin a lifetime’s journey oflearning the Qur’an, the Sunnah,
and other aspects of the faith. Many people in North America and elsewhere who have
converted to Islam note the simplicity of the faith as something that attracted them to
Islam. This simplicity is illustrated by the succinct nature of the shahadah.
Daily Prayer The salat, the mandatory daily prayers, is the second pillar. You en-
countered the careful preparations for the daily salat of Amina at the opening of this
chapter. Devout Muslims perform five daily prayers at specific times of the day. Mus-
lims cannot decide to perform all the prayers at once to get them over with for the day,
week, or month. Rather, they should do them at the required times. The first prayer
should be done at dawn every morning. The next prayer is performed at about noon.
The remaining prayers are the late afternoon prayer, the sunset prayer, and the final
prayer in the evening. Prayer is mentioned in several places in the Qur’an. However,
the number of prayers is established not in the Qur’an but rather in the hadith. The
hadith literature relates that during a miraculous journey to heaven, known as the
miraj, Muhammad came into the presence of God. God told Muhammad he should
instruct people to make fifty daily prayers. However, when Muhammad told the
prophet Moses about the prayers, Moses told him to go back to God to ask for a reduc-
tion, as fifty would be too many. Eventually, the number was settled at five, although
God said that every prayer would count for ten.
The salat are not individualized prayers requesting aid from God or giving thanks,
although those personal prayers, called dua, are also common among Muslims. Rather,
482 Chapter 13 ISLAM
Ablution fountains
outside of a mosque.
the salat prayers are formalized. For each prayer, specific verses of the Qur’an are re-
cited, and special body movements accompany the recitation.
Before beginning the prayers, a Muslim must enter a state of ritual purity. As you
learned from Amina at the beginning of this chapter, this purification consists of ab-
lutions, called wudu’, which involve cleansing the hands, head, face, and feet. The
body should be covered for prayer, and most women and men also cover their heads.
The prayer begins with the takbir, or the declaration Allahu Akbar, which means “God
is great.” Throughout the prayer, the believer faces the direction of Mecca, where an
important structure known as the Ka’ba is located (you will learn more about the
Ka’ba later in this section). This means that Muslims in America pray facing the east.
In prayer, a Muslim stands, kneels, and bows his
head to the floor. These cycles of
movements, along with the proper recitation, are called raka and vary in number ac-
cording to the prayer. In some parts of the world, such as regions of Indonesia, the
prayer opens with a declaration of intent to indicate that the Muslim is in the right
frame of mind for performing the prayer.9 Not all Muslims declare their intent to pray,
but most agree that proper intention is necessary. The intention of the believer is what
validates and legitimizes the action of prayer. Many Muslims believe that the intention
of the prayer is even more important than the prayer itself. After reciting verses of the
Qur’an, the prayer closes with a greeting of peace.
Prayers may be done anywhere-even in a park or airport. However, many Mus-
lims perform prayers at a mosque (this English word is taken from the Arabic term
masjid). A mosque is a place that is designated for prayer. Many people imagine elab-
orate feats of architectural workmanship when they think of mosques, but a mosque
can be as simple as an unadorned room in a commercial build-
ing or even a clearing in the woods. Although mosque architec-
ture and decoration varies from the very simple to the very
ornate, mosques tend to share some features. All mosques have
a prayer space, and most have a fountain so people can perform
the required ablutions. The direction of prayer, known as the
qibla, is marked inside a mosque by a niche called a mihrab,
which is sometimes beautifully decorated with botanical de-
signs or Qur’anic verses. The floors of a mosque are often com-
pletely covered with colorful rugs or woven mats. Because
Muslim prayer requires open space for bodily movement, there
are usually no seats or pews. Many mosques, particularly those
in the Middle East and North Africa, also have a tower called a
minaret. The minaret is often used to broadcast the calls to
prayer.
In much of the world, visitors of all faiths are welcome to
enter mosques. Normally, all those entering a mosque will be
asked to leave their shoes outside. Sometimes, shoes are placed
in a designated cabinet watched by someone who may receive a
The Teachings of Islam 483
tip and even clean the shoes. Leaving shoes outside ensures that no outside dirt will
enter the mosque to violate the ritual purity of those who have made the proper ablu-
tions for prayer. The prayer space in a mosque is open and peaceful, and people may
use the mosque as a place for contemplation and rest throughout the day. When walk-
ing through the hot and dusty streets of busy Cairo, one can see men-and sometimes
women-taking a break from the urban noise and bustle by resting in the serene in-
terior of a neighborhood mosque. In many parts of the world, mosques are also used
for teaching classes or for other community needs.
Friday is designated as the day for congregational prayer, known as salat al-jum’a.
It is incumbent upon Muslim men to attend the midday prayer together, and they may
also gather at a mosque for other prayers during the day. In some areas, women also
attend the communal prayer, though their attendance is not regarded as mandatory.
When Muslims pray in a group in a mosque or elsewhere, it is important that one
person acts as the imam, or prayer leader. The imam regulates the prayer session and
ensures that all believers are praying together. The Friday prayer often features a
sermon, which may be delivered by the imam or another preacher. Friday should not
be confused with the Christian or Jewish Sabbath. Rather than a day of rest, it is a day
for group prayer. In some Muslim countries, Friday is a work day, and businesses are
open. In others, businesses are closed.
The five daily prayers are announced in the words of the adhan, or the call to
prayer. The adhan is delivered by a person called a muezzin, who calls the faithful to
prayer from the door of the mosque or the minaret, sometimes using a loudspeaker.
The adhan is usually called in a rhythmic, recitational fashion. Hearing the adhan sev-
eral times a day from the wee hours of the morning to evening is very much a part of
The beautiful Shah Mosque, in Isfahan, Iran, was bu il t in the 1600s during
the Safavid period.
This sma ll mosque in rural Zanzibar,
Tanzania, is bu ilt in an architectura l style
that is similar to houses in the area.
484 Chapte r 13 ISLAM
Muslim men pray
together at a mosque
in Burma.
life in the Muslim world. Many residents and travelers miss it enormously when they
move away; non-Muslim travelers often remark that hearing the adhan is one of the
most memorable experiences of visiting a Muslim country.
ADHAN
God is most great (repeated four times)
I testify that there is no god but God (repeated twice)
I testify that Muhammad is the messenger of God (repeated twice)
Hurry to prayer (repeated twice)
Hurry to success (repeated twice)
Prayer is better than sleep (repeated twice before the morning prayer)
God is most great (repeated twice)
There is no god but God (once)’ 0
Like the other pillars, the salat is incumbent upon all Muslims, both male and female.
In much of the Muslim world, it is more common for men to pray in mosques
than women, although this is not always the case. In such places as urban Egypt and
Indonesia, women often pray in mosques. Although females may serve as imam for
other women, most Muslims believe that they may not do so for men. When women
and men both pray in mosques, usually the genders are separated-either in separate
prayer halls or with women praying in rows behind the men. Some Muslims reason
that this requirement is due to modesty and concentration. They argue that women
and men should not be distracted from their prayers by the presence of the opposite
sex. Others argue that men’s leadership in prayer is prescribed in the Qur’an. However,
some Muslim feminist scholars, such as the American professor Amina Wadud, are
challenging this tradition by arguing that women can lead men in prayer.
The daily prayers are important
for Muslims on both an individual
and a communal level. Many Muslims
feel closest to God during prayer.
Although praying five times a day may
sound very rigorous to non-Muslims,
many Muslims welcome the breaks
from mundane tasks to focus their at-
tention completely on God. A believer
must stop all activity to remember
God five times every day. This indi-
cates that submission to God is the
most important part of life for a devout
Muslim. On another level, praying the
same prayers at the same time every
day, and often in a group, draws the
The Teachings of Islam 485
community of Muslims together in worship of God. Many Muslims report that, in add-
ition to feeling an individual closeness to God during prayer, they also feel at one with
the umma, the global community of Muslims, in the common purpose of worship.
Almsgiving The third pillar, zakat, refers to required almsgiving, which is part of a
believer’s devotion to God and the Muslim community. The rules about zakatare very
specific, and the amount of zakat is figured as a percentage (about 2.5 percent) of the
value of certain types of property, including cash. Zakat is therefore something like a
tax. The wealth on which zakat has been paid is considered to be pure and clean.
Therefore, some Muslims describe zakat as a means of purifying their property. The
payment of zakat also expresses a Muslim’s commitment to improving his or her com-
munity in a real and concrete way. This is because the proceeds from zakat are nor-
mally distributed to the poor or are used to maintain public institutions such as
mosques and schools. In some countries today, such as Pakistan, the government col-
lects and redistributes zakat funds. 11 Elsewhere, it is up to individuals themselves to
make the zakat payments. All adults should pay zakat. However, adults who are men-
tally ill or unstable are exempt from the requirement.
Fasting during Ramadan The next pillar is sawm, which is the mandatory fast
during the month of Ramadan, the ninth month in the Islamic calendar. Ramadan is
considered a sacred month by Muslims because it was during Ramadan that the
Qur’an was first revealed to Muhammad. During Ramadan, all Muslims are required
to fast from dawn to sundown. When fasting, Muslims refrain from eating, drinking,
and sexual activity. Muslims also strive to avoid arguing and negative thoughts during
the hours of the fast.
All adult and adolescent Muslims are generally expected to fast. However, excep-
tions are made for those who are traveling, or women who are pregnant, nursing, or
menstruating. In Pakistan, curtained food stalls are set up at train stations during
Ramadan. The stalls allow travelers to eat in private, where they are respectfully out of
view of those who are fasting and do not wish to be tempted by the sight of someone
eating. Individuals who miss fasting days or break the fast are expected to make up the
days later. However, children, the sick, the mentally ill, and the very elderly are exempt
from fasting entirely. Children are usually encouraged to begin fasting when they
show interest, but they are only expected to fast when they are comfortable doing so.
The month of Ramadan is a special time. Although the fast can be challenging,
many Muslims find Ramadan to be filled with religious meaning, joy, and sociability.
In Muslim countries or communities, the rhythm of daily life changes significantly
during Ramadan. Daily activity lessens, and streets are quiet during daylight hours.
However, the world awakens at sunset, when the fast ends. Many people share the
evening meal with family and friends, and streets are filled late into the evening with
well-wishers. Many families eat again around midnight and also before dawn to gain
the strength to make it through the day.
486 Chapte r 13 ISLAM
Th is open-air market
in Sumbawa Besar,
Indonesia, is very
popular during
Ramadan, when people
buy special delicacies to
break the fast.
Muslims often break the fast with dates before performing
the evening prayer. This is because eating dates is Sunnah:
Muhammad broke the fast with dates, so many Muslims follow
his example. In many cultures, special treats are prepared during
Ramadan. Indonesian Muslims look forward to breaking the
fast with a delectable drink made with coconut milk and trop-
ical fruits. Some Indonesians say that the drink is so sweet
because it represents the beauty of a day of focusing solely on
God. In Iran and in Persian communities in the United States
and Canada, a rice pudding flavored with saffron and rosewater
is served during Ramadan.
During Ramadan, Muslims around the world may spend
time in the evenings reciting the Qur’an. Many try to achieve
the goal of reciting the entire Qur’an during this special month.
People may also stay up late into the night visiting friends and
enjoying the celebratory and devotional atmosphere of the month.
During the last few days of Ramadan, the Night of Power occurs.
This is the night when Muslims believe that the Qur’an was ori-
ginally revealed to Muhammad. Many Muslims believe that a wish
may be granted during this special night. The end of Ramadan
is marked by an important feast day called Id al-Fitr, the feast
of fast-breaking, which we discuss later in this chapter.
Like the preceding pillars, sawm is important on both personal and community
levels. Fasting demonstrates an individual’s dependence upon God, who provides for
humanity. Also, by refraining from food and drink, Muslims become more sympa-
thetic to the plight of the poor and the hungry and learn to appreciate the food that
they have. Like salat and zakat, fasting together also brings a sense of community to
Muslims worldwide. A Muslim observing the fast in Los Angeles, for example, will
know that his fellow believers thousands of miles away in Malaysia are keeping the
fast. In the United States, many mosques and Muslim organizations view Ramadan as
a time of outreach to non-Muslim friends and neighbors and a way of teaching people
about Islam. For example, at California State University in Sacramento, the Muslim
student organization holds a popular “fast for a day” event every year. Non-Muslims
are invited to try fasting for a day and then breaking the fast with a special meal pre-
pared for the entire community. These events often include guest speakers who talk
about the meaning of Ramadan and the basics of the Islamic tradition. Guests are also
sometimes invited to watch the evening prayer.
Pilgrimage to Mecca The final pillar is called the hajj, which is the holy pilgrimage
to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. The Qur’an specifies the pilgrimage as incumbent upon
humanity. Every year, millions of Muslims descend upon the city of Mecca in a spec-
tacular display of devotion. The hajj is generally understood to be required of all
The Teachings of Islam 487
Muslims who are physically and financially able to make it. A Muslim only needs to
perform the hajj once in his or her lifetime, but many Muslims who are able to do so
repeat it. Pilgrims describe the event as one of unparalleled spiritual significance, and
they experience intense feelings of connection to God and humanity during the hajj.
Muslims who return from the hajj often use the title hajj (for men) or hajja (for women)
before their name to indicate that they have made the journey.
The hajj must be undertaken at a particular time of year. This is during the second
week of the month Dhu al-Hajj, which is the final month in the Islamic calendar. A
person must be physically and financially able to make the trip, or else it is not valid.
One may not borrow money to make the pilgrimage, but it is appropriate to accept
financing for the trip as a gift. In addition, the money set aside for the hajj must be
purified by paying zakat on it. As a means of organizing the millions of travelers who
come for hajj, the government of Saudi Arabia today requires pilgrims to join a travel
group to make the hajj. Planned excursions depart from every corner of the world, and
tour companies arrange everything from air travel to bus transfers to accommoda-
tions. In Saudi Arabia, a great deal of planning is involved because of the sheer num-
bers of Muslims who arrive in Mecca and its environs during the week of hajj. Only
Muslims may make the journey; curious tourists are not allowed to partake in the
experience.
When making the hajj, pilgrims must leave behind indicators of their social and
economic status to properly enter a state of ritual purity. This state is called ihram. All
men must wear special clothing, also called ihram. This consists of two very simple
pieces of white cloth-one is worn above the waist and one is worn below. Women
may wear what they choose, and most dress in simple clothing
and avoid makeup, jewelry, and perfume. Pilgrims should also
refrain from sexual activity, arguing, and frivolous conversa-
tion while in a state of ihram. Ideally, these restrictions are
meant to ensure that the pilgrim’s mind is solely on God and
the hajj. The state of ihram also emphasizes the equality of all
Muslims before God because all status markers, such as expen-
sive jewelry, are removed.
The pilgrimage involves a number of highly specific, ritual-
ized acts. Muhammad determined the sequence of the events
of the hajj before his death, and some events reenact moments
from his life. Many of the rituals also recall the actions of
Abraham and his family. In this way, the rituals connect the
believer to the distant past and the origins of monotheism with
Abraham.
Perhaps the most important focus of the hajj is the struc-
ture known as the Ka’ba. The Ka’ba was a focus of pilgrimage
in Arabia even before the time of Muhammad. It is a cubical
building about thirty feet by thirty feet, and Muslims believe
Muslim pilgrims prepare
for prayer at the Haram
mosque in Mecca.
488 Chapte r 13 ISLAM
it was originally built and dedicated to Allah by Abraham and his son Ishmael. Today,
the Ka’ba is covered by a cloth embroidered with gold thread that is replaced every
year by the Saudi government. When a pilgrim first arrives in Mecca, he enters the
Great Mosque that encircles the Ka’ba while reciting verses of the Qur’an. The pilgrim
then circumambulates the Ka’ ba seven times in a counterclockwise direction. This is
known as the tawaf This ritual is an act of devotion that is believed to be in imitation
of the angels circling God’s throne. The tawaf is performed three times during the
course of the pilgrimage.
Another important rite of the hajj is called the sa’y. This rite commemorates the
story of Hagar, mother of Ishmael, who frantically searched for water in the desert by
rushing seven times between two hills. During Hagar’s search, God made a spring
appear, and Hagar and Ishmael were able to quench their thirst. Pilgrims visit this
spring to this day, many taking the special waters home as a symbol of Mecca. Today,
the route between the two hills is enclosed as part of the Great Mosque.
Another part of the hajj involves a journey to the plain of Arafat, where a tent city
is established every year to house millions of pilgrims from around the world. It is here
that Muslims recollect a story about Abraham that is also prominent in Jewish and
Christian traditions. In all three traditions, Abraham is believed to have been com-
manded by God to sacrifice his son. (Most Muslims believe he intended to sacrifice
Ishmael, but Jews and Christians usually regard Isaac as the object of sacrifice; the
Qur’an does not mention which son was the intended sacrifice.) As Abraham prepared
to make the sacrifice, the Angel Gabriel (Jibril) appeared at the last minute, and a ram
was substituted for the son. Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his beloved son is re-
garded as a model of faith in Islam, and this is a solemn, reflective time of the hajj. The
pilgrims perform the “standing ceremony,” in which they remain standing from noon
until sundown in praise of Allah. The hajj ends with the most important holiday of the
year, the Feast of Sacrifice, which we discuss later in the chapter.
Now that we have covered the major teachings of Islam, let us turn to the history
of the religious tradition, beginning with the birth of Muhammad.
THE HISTORY OF ISLAM
Muhammad ibn Abd Allah was born around the year 570 C.E. in the town of Mecca,
a city in the southern Arabian Peninsula. At the time of his birth, the peninsula was
not politically united, and much of the population were nomadic herders, known as
Bedouins, who lived in remote desert areas. Despite this lack of political centraliza-
tion, the region was by no means isolated. The peninsula was situated between the
Byzantine Empire to the northwest, the Persian Sassanian Empire to the northeast,
and the Christian Abyssinian kingdom across the Red Sea in Ethiopia. In addition,
the city of Mecca was a significant trading center and place of religious pilgrimage.
Although there were Christians and Jews in Arabia at the time, the majority of the
people living in Arabia were polytheists who worshiped several deities. Trade fairs
The History of Islam 489
regularly took place in Mecca, and people passing through often left representations
of deities at the temple called the Ka’ba, a large cube-shaped building in the center of
town; today, this is the site to which all Muslims turn as they pray, and toward which
they make a hajj at least once in their lives, as you learned in the preceding section.
Tradition holds that at the time of Muhammad, more than 300 deities and spirits were
represented by idols in the Ka’ba. Muslims call this period before the revelation of the
Qur’an thejahiliyya, or the “age of ignorance.”
Muhammad was born into a tribe called Quraysh, a powerful extended family
that was very influential in Mecca. His father died before he was born, and his mother
died when he was a young child. After her death, Muhammad went to live with his
grandfather, who was his appointed guardian. When his grandfather died, Muham-
mad was raised by his uncle, a man named Abu Talib. Although he spent most of his
early life in the city of Mecca, as a young boy Muhammad was sent out to the desert
to live with the Bedouin, who many considered to live the ideal Arab lifestyle. At the
time, sending children to the Bedouin was considered an important way to impart
Arab values and culture to young city dwellers.
Muhammad is known to have been a hard worker, and he was active in business
and trade. Indeed, he met his first wife, Khadija, while he was working for her in a
trading caravan. Khadija was a widow about fifteen years older than Muhammad, and
she was so taken with the integrity and dignity of the young man that she proposed to
him. They married when he was about twenty-five years old and she forty. Their mar-
riage was thought to be one of close companionship and deep love, and they had sev-
eral children together.
As was discussed earlier, Muhammad began preaching in Mecca after receiving
the first revelations. His preaching was not welcomed, however, and was even contro-
versial in some quarters of Mecca. The reason was that he criticized both the polythe-
istic beliefs held by many Meccans and the disregard that wealthy Meccans showed
toward the poor. The controversy led to persecution of the small but growing commu-
nity of Muslims. Because they held much power in Mecca, Muhammad’s own clan,
the Quraysh, stood to lose the most with the social change that Muhammad’s teach-
ings advocated. The Quraysh were thus particularly active in ridiculing and persecut-
ing Muhammad’s followers.
This persecution inspired some Muslims to flee to Abyssinia (Ethiopia), where
they were granted refuge by the Christian king. Others tried to resist. One well-known
Muslim who resisted persecution was Bilal, an Abyssinian slave who had converted to
Islam. The man who owned Bilal forced him to lie in the hot sun with a stone on his
chest and told him to renounce his Muslim beliefs by denying the oneness of God.
Bilal refused, crying out “One! One!” until he was rescued by Abu Bakr, who pur-
chased him from his tormentor and then freed him from slavery. Bilal is remembered
by Muslims to this day for his devotion and is also known as the first muezzin-the
person who calls the faithful to prayer.
What is the role of
prophecy in Islam,
Christianity, and
Judaism? Consider the
figures Abraham,
Moses, Jesus, and
Muhammad. How are
they understood in
each tradition?
490 Chapte r 13 ISLAM
The Hijra and the Growth of the Muslim Community
Because of the troubles in Mecca, Muhammad eventually encouraged his followers to
leave and make a new home elsewhere. The people of a little settlement north of Mecca
with a small Jewish population welcomed him, and he encouraged his followers to go
there. This town became known as Medina (from the term medinat al-nabi, which
means “the city of the prophet”). The Muslims moved from Mecca to Medina in the
year 622 C.E., and this migration is called the hijra. The hijra is a very important event
in Islamic history; as you have learned, the Islamic lunar calendar begins not with
Muhammad’s birth, but with the hijra. The reason is that the hijra marked the begin-
ning of a d istinct Muslim community, or umma, with Muhammad as its leader.
Muhammad did not travel with the first group to go to Medina. He and some of
his companions waited for a few weeks to make the trip. When they finally left for
Medina, angry Meccans from the Quraysh tribe pursued them. A popular story re-
counts that during Muhammad’s journey to Medina he hid from the Quraysh in a
cave for three days. When his pursuers reached the cave, they did not look inside be-
cause a kindly spider had spun a web to hide the entrance, thus saving Muhammad.
Even today, some Muslims will not kill spiders because of their appreciation for the
spider’s important role in protecting the Prophet from the Meccans. Stories about the
hijra and the foundational period of Islam are well known and inform the way many
Muslims live their lives. Today, Muslims around the world recall the hijra as a difficult
but very important time.
What happened to the Muslim community with the move to Medina? With the
move, the growing Muslim community took on a new political and social form. Ad-
ditionally, Muhammad’s role expanded over the years as he became the leader of the
new community. In Mecca, Muhammad had primarily preached and taught the rev-
elations to his followers. In Medina, however, he took on a wide variety of new roles
and oversaw political, social, and religious matters. In addition to his role as prophet
of God and religious leader, Muhammad became the political head of the community.
He continued to receive revelations from God for twenty more years, and reflecting these
changes, the verses of the Qur’an that Muslims believe were revealed to Muhammad in
Medina concern the regulation of community life.
The migration to Medina did not end the Muslim community’s problems with
Mecca. Muhammad and the Muslims lived a perilous existence for several years as
they suffered economic hardships in Medina and threats from Mecca. With the aim
of providing economically for the community, the Muslims had begun to raid trade
caravans bound for Mecca, though with limited success. Although it may sound sur-
prising to the modern reader, raiding was a common and even acceptable economic
practice in Arabia at that time, especially in times of hardship. Most often, raids did
not involve bloodshed.
Conflicts with the Meccans continued, primarily with the Quraysh tribe, who still
viewed the Muslims as a threat. Furthermore, the raids caused many economic prob-
lems for the Meccans and increased the tension between the two cities. This resulted
The History of Islam 491
in one of the most famous dashes in early Muslim history, the Battle ofBadr in the year
624 C.E. The Muslims had planned a raid on a Meccan caravan at a place called Badr.
The Meccans learned of the plan, and sent a force of more than 900 men to protect the
caravan. However, the Muslims, at only 300 strong, soundly defeated the Meccan forces,
even though they were outnumbered. The battle is mentioned in the Qur’ an, which
reports that angels helped the outnumbered Muslims win the battle (8:9). The Qur’an
also notes this as a critical moment in the development of the spirit and destiny of the
Muslims. After this dramatic battle, Muhammad’s reputation as a great leader grew.
A few years later, in 628 C.E., Muhammad attempted to lead the Muslims back to
Mecca for a pilgrimage. The people of Arabia had been making pilgrimages to the
Ka’ ba for centuries. The Meccans, expecting an attack, proposed a negotiation with
the now more powerful Muslims. Muhammad agreed, and the pilgrimage was post-
poned through the signing of a treaty between the Meccans and the Muslims. Two
years later, in 630 C.E. , the Muslims returned, and the Meccans surrendered when
they saw Muhammad’s even greater political and military strength. Muhammad ac-
cepted the surrender and allowed the Meccan people to go free if they would convert
to Islam. Muhammad and the Muslims entered Mecca. They destroyed the polytheis-
tic idols housed at the Ka’ba and rededicated the building to the one and only God
and the religion of Abraham.
Muhammad lived for only two more years after his victorious return to Mecca. At
the time of his death, he had a large family. Khadija had died several years earlier, and
after her death Muhammad married several more wives. Some of his marriages were
contracted for political alliances, and others to care for widowed and divorced women
who had no one else. The best known of his later wives was a woman called Aisha, who
was the daughter of Abu Bakr. She was much younger than Muhammad, which was
not unusual in marriages at the time. Aisha was a very important early figure in Is-
lamic history and is thought to be one of Muhammad’s most beloved wives. As men-
tioned earlier, she was the source of much information about Muhammad’s life and
was often consulted by other Muslims because of her vast knowledge of religious mat-
ters. In 632 C .E . , Muhammad is believed to have died peacefully in Aisha’s arms after
returning from a final journey to Mecca. He was buried under her home in Medina,
and to this day, some Muslims visit this site as a place of pilgrimage.
By the time of his death, Muhammad was the political and religious leader of
much of Arabia. After the move to Medina, Muslim rule had spread rapidly across the
Arabian Peninsula through both nonviolent political alliances and military conquests.
Many people of Arabia had converted to Islam. Some did so because they believed in
the truth of Muhammad’s message, and others converted for political reasons, namely
to form alliances with Muhammad and the powerful Muslim community.
Not all people living under Muslim rule converted to Islam, however. Significant
Christian, Jewish, and other religious minority populations remained. From this early
period, Muslims have considered Christians and Jews to be People of the Book, a des-
ignation that means that they are a people who have received scripture from God and
492 Chapte r 13 ISLAM
are thus close to the Muslim community. Later, Hindus and Buddhists were also con-
sidered People of the Book, as Muslim rule spread into South Asia. Under Muslim
rule, these minority communities were governed by what are termed dhimmi laws;
the term dhimmi refers to their status as protected peoples. These laws allowed non-
Muslims in Muslim territories to worship how they chose, provided they paid taxes
and submitted to Muslim authority. The dhimmis did not enjoy all the privileges of
Muslims-they were not allowed to bear arms, for example-but they were entitled
to the protection of the Islamic state.
The Crisis of Succession and the Rightly Guided Caliphs
At the time of Muhammad’s death, communities throughout Arabia were united
under Islam, but it was unclear to Muhammad’s followers who should succeed him to
lead the Muslims. When he died, most Muslims thought that Muhammad had not
designated a successor. The companions of the Prophet thus chose the highly respected
Abu Bakr to lead the Muslim community. Recall that Abu Bakr was one of the first
converts to Islam and was Muhammad’s father-in-law. A minority of Muslims, how-
ever, believed that Muhammad had designated his cousin ‘Ali to succeed him. ‘Ali was
also Muhammad’s son-in-law because he had married Fatima, Muhammad’s daughter
by Khadija. Although ‘Ali was highly regarded even by those who did not think
Muhammad had designated him to be his successor, he was much younger than Abu
Bakr. Therefore, many considered him too young to lead the community.
This controversy over leadership of the Muslim community is often known as the
crisis of succession, and it led to the development of the two major branches of Islam:
the Sunni and the Shi’a. The majority group became known as the Sunni, which
remains the larger of the two major branches. The minority group became known as
the Shi’a. The name comes from the term shi’at ‘Ali, which means the “party of ‘Ali.”
The Shi’a is the smaller of the two major branches oflslam. Later in the chapter, we
discuss how this dispute led to other differences between the Sunni and the Shi’a.
The leaders who came after Muhammad were not viewed as prophets. They were
known rather as caliphs, who ruled as the representatives of God and the prophet and
had both religious and political authority. This was a new form of government called
a caliphate, and it remained the model for Islamic society for several hundred years.
The designation of Abu Bakr as caliph started a historical period that came to be known
as the time of the Rightly Guided Caliphs, who were Abu Bakr and his successors:
‘Umar, ‘Uthman, and finally ‘Ali.
As caliph, Abu Bakr sought to strengthen relationships with the communities and
tribes of Arabia who had formed alliances with Muhammad. Abu Bakr faced the po-
tential breakdown of Muslim unity because some of these tribes, particularly those in
parts of Arabia far from Medina and Mecca, wanted to break their ties to the Muslim
community when Muhammad died. After the death of Abu Bakr, which was only two
years after he had been appointed caliph, the Muslims chose a man called ‘Umar to
lead. Like Abu Bakr, ‘Umar had been close to Muhammad. Also like Abu Bakr, he was
The History of Islam 493
confronted with the problem of some communities wanting to break away from
Islamic rule. However, he managed to preserve unity and expand Muslim rule, con-
quering the lands of Egypt, Syria, and Iraq. When ‘Umar died in 644 C.E., another of
the Prophet’s companions, a man called ‘Uthman, was selected as the new caliph.
‘Uthman led the Muslims for twelve years, from 644 to 656 c.E. He continued the
rapid political expansion that ‘Umar had begun, but also faced many problems.
Muslim rule now extended from the Mediterranean and North Africa into Central
Asia. Because the umma now reached beyond Arabic-speaking lands, there was a great
deal of cultural and linguistic diversity among the Muslims. This situation made lead-
ership a far more complex undertaking than it had been in the time of Muhammad
and Abu Bakr, when nearly all Muslims were Arabs. This eventually led to charges that
the caliphs discriminated against non-Arab Muslims. Furthermore, many accused
‘Uthman of nepotism when he appointed his nephew Mu’awiya as governor of Syria.
He also placed other relatives in key posts, and many of them grew rich as a result. A
few years into his rule, ‘Uthman faced a number of rebellions in outer provinces of the
empire, and in 656 c.E. he was killed by insurgents who had marched on Medina.
After ‘Uthman’s death, ‘Ali was named caliph. During the time of the first three
caliphs, ‘Ali’s supporters grew in numbers. Despite this growing support, ‘Ali’s time as
caliph saw many fractures in the Muslim community. Supporters of ‘Uthman were
upset that ‘Ali had never punished his murderers. This controversy resulted in the
Battle of the Camel. This was a traumatic moment in Islamic history because it was
the first to pit Muslims against Muslims. In the battle, ‘Ali defeated an army led by
Aisha and other prominent Meccans. Aisha directed the battle from her mount on a
camel, from which the battle took its name. ‘Ali’s forces took down her camel in order
to hinder her leadership, and his forces were victorious. Mu’awiya, ‘Uthman’s nephew,
also challenged ‘Ali’s authority. This conflict reached a peak in the Battle of Siffin in
657 c.E. When they met on the battlefield in Syria, Mu’awiya asked ‘Ali for an arbitra-
tion of their dispute, and he accepted. However, some of ‘Ali’s followers disapproved
of the arbitration, which they viewed as a surrender to Mu’awiya. This group formed a
splinter group known as the Kharijites, which means “those who seceded.” In 661 C . E. ,
‘Ali was murdered by a Kharijite.
The Umayyads and the Abbasids
After ‘Ali was killed, Mu’awiya claimed the caliphate. His leadership gave birth to
what is known as the Umayyad Dynasty. This marked the end of the period of the
Rightly Guided Caliphs. The institution of the caliphate survived, but the divisions in
the community of believers that had worsened under ‘Ali remained.
The Umayyad period lasted over a century, from 661 until 750 C.E. Umayyad lead-
ers ruled from the city of Damascus in Syria. Although they were considered fairly
effective leaders who expanded the Muslim Empire farther east to India and farther
west to Spain, the reign of the Umayyads was controversial. For example, many Muslims
thought that the Umayyads did not truly represent the diversity of the Muslim people,
494 Chapte r 13 ISLAM
favoring Arab Muslims over non-Arab Muslims. Such criticism arose in part because
Mu’awiya had designated his son Yazid as his successor instead ofletting the commu-
nity select a leader. This turned the caliphate into a dynasty.
Many Muslims who were opposed to the Umayyad Dynasty felt that the leader-
ship of the umma should come from the line of Muhammad through Fatima and ‘Ali.
They argued that, therefore, their sons, Hasan and Husayn, should lead the umma.
With the support of the Shi’a, Husayn eventually challenged the Umayyads for au-
thority. However, he was slain in 680 C.E. when Yazid’s armies ambushed him on the
plains of Karbala in what is now Iraq. This tragic event is referred to as the “martyr-
dom ofHusayn.” This is a moment in Shi’a history that is solemnly commemorated to
the present day as Husayn’s sacrifice for the Muslim people. With the death ofHusayn,
the number of Muslims who believed the leader of the umma should be from the
family of the Prophet grew. It was at this point that the Shi’a formally broke away from
the Sunnis and established a line of successors to the prophet that remained within
Muhammad’s family.
In the late seventh and early eighth centuries c.E., many more Muslims began to
criticize the Umayyad Dynasty. This group included those who were critical of the
Umayyads for their perceived discrimination against non-Arabs and also those who
supported the family of ‘Ali as rightful leaders of the umma. Muslims opposed to the
Umayyads became known as the Abbasids, taking the name of Muhammad’s uncle. In
750 c.E., the Abbasid Revolution succeeded in removing the Umayyads from power.
The first caliph of the Abbasids was a man named Abu al-Abbas, and during his
rule the Abbasids moved their capital from Damascus to Baghdad. Baghdad became
a cultural capital of the world. Islamic arts and sciences flowered in this time, which
became known as the classical period of Islamic civilization. One of the most well-
known pieces of literature from this period is the One Thousand and One Nights. These
colorful tales celebrate the reign of the most famous Abbasid caliph, Harun al-Rashid,
who ruled for twenty-five years in the late eighth century.
Many of these intellectual and artistic developments had an enormous impact on
world history and the cultures of Europe and Asia. Islamic scholarship in science, phil-
osophy, and medicine built on earlier knowledge from Greek and Persian sources and
was very influential in European schools and universities for many centuries. The time
of the Abbasids was also the period during which many Islamic religious doctrines
were developed into forms that are still accepted today. For example, it was in this
period that the Islamic legal schools of thought, which we discuss later in this chapter,
were formalized .
Abbasid rule continued for several centuries, but not all Muslims were united
under the Abbasid Caliphate. In 950 C .E., for example, rulers in Cairo and Spain also
claimed the title of caliph. Furthermore, the Abbasid period saw the influence of the
Crusades in Syria and Palestine, when European Christians sought to win control of the
Holy Land. Christian forces captured Jerusalem from Islamic control in 1099. The holy
city was later recaptured by Salah ad-Din (also known as Saladin), a famed Muslim
The History of Islam 495
military leader, in 1187. The rule of the Abbasids ended in 1258 C.E. when Baghdad was
sacked by a Mongol army from the east led by the grandson of Genghis Khan.
By the end of the Abbasid Caliphate and the beginning of the fourteenth century,
Islam was the majority religion in a vast region stretching from Spain and the western
edge of North Africa all the way to Iran in Central Asia. The religion was also gaining
converts in sub-Saharan Africa and South and Southeast Asia. Although military con-
quest expanded Muslim rule in some areas, it is incorrect to think that the historical
spread of Islam around the globe was solely by the sword. In the earliest years of the
umma, many tribes in Arabia joined the Muslims through political alliance. The
growth of Islam throughout much of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa was gradual and
peaceful. Often, Islam was introduced largely through traveling preachers, teachers,
and traders.
Later Islamic Empires: The Ottomans, the Mughals, and the Safavids
After the fall of the Abbasids, several powerful Islamic empires arose in the next few
centuries. These were the Ottoman Empire in the Mediterranean region, the Safavids
in Iran, and the Mughal Dynasty in India.
The Ottoman Empire spanned over 600 years, from the fourteenth to the twenti-
eth centuries. The early empire was marked by rapid expansion, and at the height of its
power, the Ottomans controlled much of the Middle East and Mediterranean, reach-
ing into southeastern Europe and Africa. The height of the empire was the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries, and in 1453 the
Turks took the city of Constantinople,
the former capital of the Byzantine
Empire. The city, now called Istanbul,
became the Ottoman capital and an
important seat of Islamic learning and
Islamic power. The Ottoman Empire
came to an end after World War I.
At the same time that the Ottoman
Empire reached its height, another
Muslim empire arose thousands of
miles away in South Asia. This dy-
nasty, known as the Mughals, ruled
much of India from the early six-
teenth to the eighteenth centuries,
even though the Muslim population
was in the minority. The Mughal Dy-
nasty, though not as long-lived as the
Ottomans, saw a growth of literary and
artistic development in South Asia, and
Mughal architecture is considered to
The Su ltan Ahmed
Mosque in Istanbul,
Turkey, was bu ilt in
the 1600s and is a fine
example of Ottoman
architecture. It is also
known as the Blue
Mosque because of blue
ti ling inside.
496 Chapter 13 ISLAM
The Taj Mahal, a
mausoleum in Agra,
India, was built in the
1600s by the Mughal
emperor Shah Jahan
as a memorial and
mausoleum for his
beloved wife,
Mumtaz Mahal.
have created some of the world’s most impressive buildings such as the Taj Mahal in
Agra, India. The stunningly beautiful Taj Mahal was built in the 1600s by the Mughal
emperor Shah Jahan as a memorial and mausoleum for his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal.
The Mughal Empire reached its peak in the eighteenth century, and although there was
a Mughal ruler until 1857 in India, Mughal power and territory saw a decline with the
advent of British occupation of South Asia.
To the west of the Mughals during the same period, the Safavid Empire flourished
in Iran. Perhaps the most notable aspect of the Safavid rule was the establishment
of Shi’a Islam as the religion of Iran; to the present day, the vast majority of Iran’s
Muslims are Shi’a. The Safavid period saw significant developments in Shi’a religious
and philosophical thought. As with the Mughals, the period saw the development of
great works of art and architecture.
Islam and Nationalism
In the twentieth century, the nation-state came to dominate the political organization
of the world. Muslim leaders took different positions on the ideal relationship between
religion and the nation-state. In many places, religion has served as a means to unify
people across ethnic, class, and social boundaries. Some Muslim nationalists and pol-
itical leaders envisioned a dose link between their ideals of new states and Islam. Their
vision involved a state government based on the principles oflslam and Islamic law as
the basis for the legal system. Other leaders sought to distance nationalist policy from
Islam and favored European secular states as political models.
When the Ottoman Empire collapsed at the end of World War I, Turkey moved
toward embracing European ideals of secular nationalism. A man called Mustafa
Kemal, better known as Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, embraced this ideal.
He argued that Turkey should follow the path of the Western European nations and
separate religion from politics. Ataturk disbanded the powerful religious brother-
hoods, which had been very important in Turkey, and em-
braced a secular legal system that did not incorporate Islamic
law at any level. He also required Turkish people to dress in a
European style, which meant that women had to abandon
headscarves and men had to stop wearing the traditional hat
called a fez.
Although these policies were far reaching, they did not
eradicate Islam from public life in Turkey. For example, al-
though Sufi religious brotherhoods had been made illegal,
many Turkish people still followed the mystical path known as
Sufism, which we discuss later in this chapter. Though Islamic
courts were no longer a part of the official legal system, Mus-
lims still took disputes to Islamic legal authorities, particularly
in rural areas. During the late twentieth and early twenty-first
centuries, many Turks have reembraced the Islamic heritage of
The History of Islam 497
Turkey. The Justice and Development Party, which has been supportive of reintroduc-
ing Islam into public life, has been the majority party in the governing coalition since
the early 2000s.
Other Muslim countries followed a very different path. For example, in the Indian
subcontinent, which was colonized by Great Britain, discussions of independence and
nationalism early in the twentieth century focused a great deal on religious divisions
in the region. With India’s independence from Great Britain in 1947, two countries
were formed: India and Pakistan. Pakistan was created as a Muslim homeland for the
millions of Muslims who lived in South Asia. An important thinker behind the cre-
ation of Pakistan, Muhammad Iqbal, argued that Muslims needed a separate country
to protect them from the majority Hindus in India. An organization called the Muslim
League was instrumental in the early twentieth century in launching the idea of a
separate state for the Muslim people of India. That ideal became a reality with inde-
pendence. At first, Pakistan was divided into East and West Pakistan. In the 1970s,
East Pakistan became the country that is now known as Bangladesh. Today, Pakistan
and Bangladesh are among the largest Muslim-majority countries in the world, and
India has a significant Muslim minority.
Iran is an important case study oflslam and nationalism in the twentieth century.
Throughout much of the century, the shah (or king) oflran was Reza Pahlavi. The shah
embraced the ideals of the Western world and looked to Europe and the United States
as models for development. However, Iran’s Shi’a religious scholars were critical of the
monarchy for marginalizing religious learning and religious authority in Iran. Iranian
liberals and Marxists also criticized the shah as a corrupt leader who was entranced
with the Western world and closely tied to Western governments, particularly the
United States. In 1978, a coalition of clerics, intellectuals, and women’s groups formed
with the goal of removing the shah and his family from power. The revolution they
staged in 1979 deposed the shah and ushered in the leadership of Islamic clerics. Not
surprisingly, after the revolution, many of those people who had supported the over-
throw of the shah felt neglected when the religious clerics took charge and formed an
Islamic Republic.
A religious scholar known as Ayatollah Khomeini (1902-1989) headed the new
government. The term ayatollah, which literally means “sign of God,” refers to Shi’a
religious scholars who have achieved a very high level of religious learning and scholar-
ship. Khomeini had been one of the most outspoken critics of the shah among the reli-
gious scholars, and he argued that it was the duty of the religious scholars to build an
Islamic state in Iran. This is precisely what happened in the aftermath of the revolution.
The new government instituted strict reforms, which they argued reflected Islamic rules
of behavior. Women were required to dress in a full-length black garment known as the
chador. Many Iranians, among them intellectuals and professionals, left the country
and made their homes abroad in places such as the United States and Canada.
Today, people in Iran are divided in terms of their views on how much authority
religious scholars should have in the government. In 2009, huge numbers oflranians
498 Chapte r 13 ISLAM
took to the streets to protest the disputed reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmedi-
nejad, and many have interpreted the protests as criticism of the Islamic Republic. The
protest has been called the Green Movement, or Green Revolution, after the color
adopted by the opposition presidential candidate, Mir-Hossein Mousavi.
Islamic Reform Movements
In the last two centuries, many movements have aimed to reform local Muslim com-
munities and the worldwide umma. As we discussed earlier in this chapter, in their
early history, the Muslims rapidly grew into an important world power. Various
Muslim empires remained powerful for many centuries, through the Abbasid period
and into the later Ottoman, Mughal, and Safavid sultanates. European powers were
generally eclipsed by the Islamic world during this time. However, in the eighteenth
century, European empires began to gain prominence as economic and political world
powers. European power continued to grow with the advent of industrialization.
Eventually the British, French, and Dutch empires colonized much of the Muslim
world. The British and French colonized much of Muslim Africa and the Middle East;
the British and the Dutch controlled Muslim lands in South and Southeast Asia.
Wahhabism During the eighteenth century, several Muslim reform movements de-
veloped. These movements were spearheaded by those who were concerned about what
they viewed as a decline in Muslim communities and in Muslim power worldwide.
One of the most well-known reforms was the Wahhabi movement. This was origi-
nated by a scholar named Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab (d. 1792), and it is still
influential today. Ibn Abd al-Wahhab disapproved of Muslim practices that he per-
ceived as falling outside of the Qur’an and Sunnah and that had developed after the
time of Muhammad. The Wahhabi movement was especially critical of saint venera-
tion and tomb visitation. Al-Wahhab argued that these practices and others were con-
sidered innovations and had contributed to the decline oflslam and the Muslim world.
As a result, al-Wahhab’s followers razed many saints’ tombs and shrines, including
those of Muhammad, his companions, and Husayn.
In the late eighteenth century, followers of al-Wahhab formed significant ties with
the ruling family of Arabia. To this day, the movement remains influential in Saudi
Arabia and in other parts of the Muslim world, where it has sent teachers and estab-
lished schools. Followers of the movement call themselves Muwahiddun, though they
are commonly called Wahhabis in the news media.
The Wahhabi movement is often characterized as very conservative and “funda-
mentalist.” However, we must be careful in using the latter term when discussing any
religious movement. This is because not all movements called “fundamentalist” are
the same. The reason the Wahhabi movement is often termed “fundamentalist” is its
emphasis on the primacy of the Qur’ an and the Sunnah and its criticism of later devel-
opments in Muslim thought and practice. The movement thus emphasizes the ” fun-
damentals” of Islam-the Qur’an and the model of the Prophet. Today, the Wahhabi
The History of Islam 499
movement is often portrayed very negatively in the Western media. This is due to the
influence of the movement on notorious extremists such as Osama bin Laden and
the emphasis some Wahhabis place on bringing their version oflslam to other parts of
the Muslim world. Although followers of Wahhabi Islam are generally more conserva-
tive than other Muslims, not all embrace a political version of Islam.
Resisting Colonialism During the nineteenth century, European powers increas-
ingly dominated Muslim lands. Many Muslim thinkers lamented the loss of a cohesive
and powerful umma and regretted the decline of several important Muslim empires.
The Mughals had dominated much of South Asia for several generations, but the
introduction of British rule in the nineteenth century saw the end of the Mughals. The
Ottoman Empire, too, had thrived in the eastern Mediterranean and North Africa,
but by the early nineteenth century it was threatened by increasing European power.
As a result, reformist movements developed that prioritized revitalizing the umma.
Some focused on trying to revive the lost glory and power of the umma. Other move-
ments directly resisted European imperialism and, later, American expansion and in-
fluence. And some reformers tried to deflect the criticism of the Islamic world that was
coming from powerful Western governments. European leaders and scholars were
often quick to criticize Islam and Muslim cultures as being “backward,” and some
Muslim reformers made concerted efforts to combat these developing stereotypes.
These movements took several forms. One reformer was Muhammad Ahmed ibn
Abdallah (1844-1885), more commonly known as the Sudanese Mahdi. The Suda-
nese Mahdi organized a powerful military uprising against the Egyptian and British
forces that occupied the Sudan in the nineteenth century. Many people have claimed
the title of Mahdi over the years, and Abdallah convinced people that he was indeed
the Mahdi heralding the end of days. In this way, he was able to recruit a large number
of followers. His movement emphasized social equality, and he entirely revamped the
five pillars. For example, he incorporated a declaration of himself as Mahdi in the
shahadah, and he dropped the hajj as a requirement. His revamping of the pillars was
highly controversial, and many Sudanese Muslims did not support his efforts. How-
ever, his aims were more political than religious, and he successfully took the city of
Khartoum in 1885 from the British and Egyptian armies.
Jamal al-din al-Afghani (1838-1897) was a reformer who sought to inspire Mus-
lims by convincing them that the roots of revitalization were within their own faith and
their own history. Born in Iran, al-Afghani traveled extensively in the Middle East and
Central Asia and advocated the idea that all Muslims worldwide should join together
with the goal of revitalizing the umma and defeating Western imperialism. He called
upon his fellow Muslims to unify against Western influence. Al-Afghani is often con-
sidered the originator of the anti-imperialist sentiment among many Muslim thinkers
of the time. In addition, he argued that Islam was the religion most amenable to scien-
tific knowledge. Al-Afghani was also well known as an activist for the poor and down-
trodden, and he called for social reform in Muslim countries to alleviate their plight.
500 Chapter 13 ISLAM
Through calling for unification of the umma, al-Afghani is often considered the
father of pan-Islamism, and he was a great inspiration to other reformers. Perhaps the
best known of his followers is Muhammad Abduh (1849-1905), who was born in
Egypt and achieved great renown as an advocate of Egyptian nationalism. Like al-
Afghani, Abduh saw no conflict between religion and science, and he asserted that
Islam had always embraced scientific methodologies. And like many reformers of his
time, Abduh thought that the Qur’an should be interpreted in light of social changes.
Abduh argued that although certain Islamic doctrines were absolute and unchange-
able, some teachings should change with the times. For example, he is well known for
his criticisms of polygamy, discussed in more detail later in this chapter.
A third reformer of the same period was the modernist thinker Sayyid Ahmed
Khan (1817-1898). Khan is best known for his educational reforms in South Asia and
his support of the British. Unlike reformers such as al-Afghani, Khan admired the
West, particularly the British, and attempted to bring Western ways of thought and
education to India. Although he did not advocate imperial rule, he believed that the
Muslims of South Asia could only move forward through embracing certain Western
ways. In light of these views, it is not surprising that he was criticized by other reform-
ers of his time as being too sympathetic with the British. He is also known for advocat-
ing interpretation of the Qur’an in a rational way in light of social changes. Like
Abduh and Afghani, he embraced developments in science and argued that there was
no conflict between Islam and science.
The Muslim Brotherhood The reformist spirit of the nineteenth century carried
over into the twentieth. Several important and wide-reaching twentieth-century
movements responded to and built on the developments of the nineteenth century.
A key goal for many twentieth-century reformers involved finding a path to economic
development for Muslim countries that did not follow Western models. More specif-
ically, many thinkers have sought a path that allows Muslim countries and cultures to
maintain their Muslim identities and still embrace certain ideas and technologies that
originated in the West. Even in the postcolonial world, Europe and the United States
are criticized for cultural imperialism because Western cultural models and products
are spread throughout the world, particularly through business and media.
One of the most influential contemporary movements has been the Muslim
Brotherhood. The Brotherhood has been in existence for several decades. It is based in
Egypt, though it has been influential all over the globe. The founder was Hassan al-
Banna, who organized the movement in 1928 to revitalize Islam from within by focus-
ing on a return to the Qur’an and the Sunnah. Like other reformers of his time,
al-Banna was opposed to Western imperialism. He argued that encroaching Western
values were contributing to the decline of Islamic societies.
Sayyid Qutb, one of the more influential members of the Brotherhood, was an out-
spoken critic of Western influence, and he aimed to revitalize the Islamic world solely
The History of Islam 501
through Islamic principles. Qutb was executed in 1966 by the Egyptian government
after being repeatedly accused of treason, terrorism, and a plot to kill President Gamal
Abdel Nasser. Qutb’s writings have continued to influence certain Islamic activists and
some extremists, including those who are highly critical of Western influence on the
Muslim world, such as Osama bin Laden and members of al-Qaeda. However, it is
important to note that many members of the Muslim Brotherhood have been very crit-
ical of Sayyid Qutb’s radical views.
Throughout its existence, the Brotherhood has had a fractured relationship with the
Egyptian government. It was banned in the 1950s, after members of the Brotherhood
attempted to assassinate Egyptian President Nasser. Despite this, the Brotherhood re-
mained active, and in later years it made attempts to reconcile with the government
under President Hosni Mubarak, who was deposed in 2011. In 2012, Muhammad
Morsi was the first member of the Brotherhood to be elected president in Egypt. He was
ousted in 2013, and the Brotherhood was again banned by the new government.
Varieties of Islam
As you learned earlier in this chapter, Islam has two major branches: the Sunni and the
Shi’a. Most of what we discuss in this chapter is applicable to both branches. Although
the essential beliefs of the Sunnis and Shi’a are the same-including the oneness of
God, the Qur’an as the word of God, and Muhammad as the messenger of God-the
two branches have some important differences.
Who Are the Sunni? Sunnis make up the majority of Muslims worldwide, about 80
percent, and the Shi’a make up about 20 percent. As you learned earlier, the Sunni and
Shi’a split began over the controversy surrounding leadership of the Muslim commu-
nity after the death of the Prophet Muhammad. The majority of Muhammad’s com-
panions thought that he had not chosen a successor, and they supported Abu Bakr as
the next leader. However, Sunnism did not develop into a distinct branch of Islam
until about 300 years later. At that point, certain scholars emphasized that Muslims
should primarily emphasize following the example of the Prophet Muhammad, the
Qur’an, and the opinions of earlier scholars over engaging in rationalist thought like
that of the Mutazilites, discussed earlier. The word “sunni” comes from this emphasis
on the Sunnah of the Prophet.
One of the differences between Sunni and Shi ‘a Islam concerns the sources ofls-
lamic law, which we discuss in more detail in a later section. In short, both branches
agree on the importance of the Qur’an and the Sunnah. In Sunni Islam, however, an
additional source is the consensus of the community. This became a source of law be-
cause of a hadith that reported the Prophet saying, “My community will never agree
upon an error.” Of course, it is impossible to solicit the opinion of every Muslim on a
particular legal question, so Sunnis have generally agreed that the community in ques-
tion consists of the ulama, or legal scholars.
502 Chapter 13 ISLAM
World Sunni and Shi’a
distribution.
0 km 1000 2000
0 mil~ 1000
Who Are the Shi’a? Shi’a Muslims are in the majority in Iran and Iraq, and they
form significant minorities in other countries, including Pakistan and India. In addition
to believing that Muhammad designated ‘Ali to be his successor, the Shi’a believe that
Muhammad passed on special religious knowledge to his relatives through ‘Ali. There-
fore, to the Shi’a, only Muhammad’s family and their descendants should lead the
Muslim community. This belief in a continuing spiritual leadership of the Muslim
community through the line of successors is the most significant contrast between
Sunni and Shi’a Islam. For the Shi’a, the rightful leaders of the Muslim community are
known as imams, the same term used for someone who leads prayer. In Shi’a Islam, the
imam is both the political and the religious leader of the community, and he possesses
the special religious knowledge that Muhammad passed on to the members of his
family. ‘Ali is regarded as the first imam. It is important to note that, although the
imam has a very prominent role in Shi’a Islam, he is not a prophet.
The authority of the Shi’a imams has a special role in Shi’a law that we do not see
in Sunni approaches to Islamic law. The Shi’a schools do not recognize consensus as a
source of law but focus instead on the infallibility of the imam. Islamic scholarship is
highly important in the Shi’a tradition. Also, although scholarship and learning are
valued among Sunni Muslims, there is a more formal religious authority structure in
Shi’ism that we do not find in Sunni Islam.
The Shi’a community itself has several branches. They differ in how they trace the
line of imams in descent from ‘Ali. The largest branch is known as the Twelvers, who
make up the majority of Muslims in Iran and Iraq. The Twelvers believe that the line
of imams went through several generations until the twelfth imam disappeared in the
-~
\•
I S’!nni distribution
‘—-‘ .
,. – Shi’a distribution
The History of Islam 503
ninth century. This twelfth imam is
considered to be in “occultation,” or
hiding. T welvers believe that he will
eventually return. In the meantime,
the Islamic scholars are considered
responsible for the leadership of the
Muslim community. This idea was im-
portant in the new government set up
in Iran after the 1979 revolution.
Another branch ofShi’ism, known
as the Ismailis, believes that there has
been an unbroken line of imams from
‘Ali until the present day. They take
their name from the seventh imam, a
man named Ismail, whom the Twelvers
do not recognize as an imam.
The month of the Islamic calendar known as Muharram is especially significant to
Shi’a Muslims. This is because the martyrdom of Muhammad’s grandson Husayn,
discussed earlier in this chapter, is recalled on the tenth of the month. This date is
called Ashura, and the entire month of Muharram is recognized as an important and
somber time. At this time of year, the death of Husayn is commemorated in many
ways by Shi’a Muslims in places such as Iran and Iraq. Husayn’s story is retold through
passion plays and street processions, called Ta’ziya, in which Muslims reenact the
events ofHusayn’s death.
For Shi’a Muslims, the tombs of the prophet’s family are sites of very important
pilgrimages. Making pilgrimages to the tombs is an important way to commemorate
and honor the Prophet’s family. Karbala, where Husayn was martyred and is said to be
buried, is an important pilgrimage site in Iraq.
Muslims in North America
Today, about 2.6 million Muslims live in the United States, and close to 1 million live
in Canada. Both populations are growing rapidly, primarily through immigration.
American Muslims are making inroads and social contributions in their home com-
munities and in regional and national politics. Many Muslims live in large urban
areas, but significant populations also live in smaller towns and more rural areas.
The Muslim population in the United States is not limited to one particular city or
even one particular region. Muslims live everywhere, from Los Angeles to Salt Lake
City to Dearborn, Michigan, the city that has the largest Muslim population in the
United States.
The African American Muslim population grew significantly in the twentieth cen-
tury. Scholars estimate that from 10 to 30 percent of the Africans who were enslaved
and brought to the United States from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries
An Iraqi soldier stands
guard as Shi’a pilgrims
approach the holy city
of Karba la.
504 Chapter 13 ISLAM
An American Muslim
soldier praying.
were Muslims. Once in the United States, however, many slaves were not permitted to
freely practice their religion, although some were literate in Arabic and tried to main-
tain their religious practice. Many slaves were also forced to convert to Christianity or
converted by choice.
In the twentieth century, African Americans were attracted to Islam and con-
verted for a variety of reasons. For example, many people regarded Islam as the likely
religion of their African ancestors. Thus Muslim religious leaders often stressed these
ties to Africa, and some claimed that Islam was a more “authentic” religion for African
Americans. The reason was that Islam was not the religion of the European American
slave owners. Today, perhaps half of the Muslims in the United States are African
Americans.12 The Nation oflslam has played an important role in the U.S. Muslim
community. However, the majority of African American Muslims are not members of
the organization. The Nation was founded by a man who was known by several differ-
ent names, among them Wallace Ford and Wali D . Fard. In the 1930s, Fard established
the Temple of Islam in Detroit, Michigan, and he preached that all black people were
originally Muslims. Eventually, a student of his named Elijah Muhammad succeeded
him as the leader of the Nation of Islam. The Nation differs significantly from main-
stream Islam on several key teachings. Most significantly, followers regard Fard as God
incarnate, and Elijah is considered his prophet. The Nation oflslam has been contro-
versial in the United States because of teachings that suggest the natural supremacy
of black people and encourage the rejection of white society. Despite its controversial
nature, the Nation has been active in improving the lives of
African Americans.
When Elijah Muhammad died in 1975, the Nation oflslam
split. One group, led by his son Warith Deen Muhammad,
moved away from the teachings of the Nation toward main-
stream Sunni Islam and became known as the American
Muslim Mission. This is the largest organized group of African
American Muslims today. Louis Farrakhan, a radical preacher
who is very controversial for his espousal of black supremacist
ideas and politics, has led the other group, which retained the
name Nation oflslam, for many years.
Malcolm X, a leader in the black power movement of the
1960s, was perhaps the most famous American Muslim and the
most famous member of the Nation of Islam. He was raised a
Christian with the name Malcolm Little and converted to Islam
while serving a prison sentence. He took the name X as a state-
ment decrying his “slave name” of Little, in reference to the
historical practice of slaves being given the surnames of their
masters. He eventually took the name Malik al-Shabazz.
Malcolm X was affiliated with the Nation of Islam for several
years and became an influential public figure. However, after he
The History of Islam 505
made the hajj to Mecca in the 1960s, he moved toward mainstream Islam and eventu-
ally separated himself from the N ation. In his autobiography, he movingly describes
the sense of harmony and unity he felt while on hajj with Muslims of all colors, eth-
nicities, and cultural backgrounds. 13
As noted earlier, most African American Muslims are not members of the Nation
but are rather Sunni Muslims whose beliefs and practices are like those of other Sunni
Muslims around the world. Many American Muslims today are either immigrants or
the descendants of immigrants. Like all immigrants to the United States, Muslims
have come in waves from many parts of the world; most are from the Middle East,
South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Iran, though others came from Eastern Europe,
Africa, and elsewhere. In the late nineteenth century, people migrated from the Middle
East, namely Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon, to the Americas for economic reasons. Most
of them were uneducated, and most were single men. This resulted in much intermar-
riage between these Muslim newcomers and people of varied cultural and religious
backgrounds.
In the middle of the twentieth century, Muslim immigrants began to come from
other areas of the Middle East, the Soviet Union, and Eastern Europe. Many in this
wave of immigrants were educated and from wealthy families, and many had a great
interest in assimilating to the wider American population. In later years, Muslim
peoples came to the United States from South Asia, Iran, and other parts of the world.
Many in this most recent wave have had less interest in assimilating to mainstream
American culture, instead hoping to preserve their cultural and religious heritage.
As the Muslim population grows in the United States and Canada, Muslims are
becoming an increasingly important religious minority. In 2006, the United States
saw the election of the first Muslim member of Congress, Representative Keith Ellison
of Minnesota. However, as with many immigrant groups before them, immigrants
from the Muslim world face challenges when moving to the United States. Not only
will they be in a religious and cultural minority, but they also face the added difficulty
of an American population that does not know much about Islam except for unflatter-
ing stereotypes.
The tragic events of September 11, 2001, brought Islam to the forefront of many
Americans’ minds. Although the attackers referenced religion to explain their actions,
American Muslims have joined other Muslims around the world in denouncing ter-
rorist attacks as antithetical to the teachings of Islam, which prohibit the killing of
innocents. Many cite the Qur’anic verse (5:32) that equates the killing of one person
to be as sinful as killing all of humanity. It is perhaps best to understand terrorism as
acts of political violence that perpetrators have attempted to justify with religion.
Understood this way, we can see many parallels in recent and more distant world his-
tory when individuals or nations have used various religions to justify warfare, coloni-
zation, and other forms of violence.
In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, North American Muslims faced suspi-
cion and hostility from their non-Muslim neighbors. Some non-Muslim Americans
506 Chapter 13 ISLAM
‘
mistakenly viewed the terrorist attacks as representative oflslam and Muslims, and in
turn targeted Muslim communities, breaking windows in mosques and threatening
teachers at Islamic elementary schools. In 2010, a controversy about the building of an
Islamic center in lower Manhattan turned especially heated. Many non-Muslim
Americans were vehemently opposed to the center because it was a few blocks away
from the site of the September 11 attacks on New York.
Despite these difficulties, however, many Americans have expressed increased in-
terest in understanding other faiths and cultures-particularly Islam. Also, many
American Muslim individuals and communities have made concerted efforts to edu-
cate other Americans about their faith, beliefs, and religious practices and to explain
that the vast majority of the world’s Muslims regard terrorist acts as distinctly un-
Islamic with no basis in the faith. With these efforts at outreach and the efforts of non-
Muslim Americans to understand Islam and Muslim peoples and cultures, we can
have great hope for meaningful religious diversity in the United States.
ISLAM AS A WAY OF LIFE
What does it mean to be a practicing Muslim? What does one do on a daily basis?
Now that we h ave covered the major teachings a nd history of the religion, we turn our
attention to Islam as a way of life. We discuss worship prac tice, the Islamic year and
important holidays, and Islamic law. We also explore gender roles and family life and
the complex concept of jihad.
VOICES: An Interview with Tunay Durmaz
Tunay Durmaz is a graduate student in physics at a university in the United States.
He was born in Bulgaria in a Turkish family and raised a Sunni Muslim. When he
was eleven years old , his family moved to Turkey. After getting his university
degree, he moved to the United States to study for a Ph .D. in a scientific field.
In your view, what is the essence of Islam?
The essence of Islam is to guide humanity along the right path and bring them
happiness in this world and the hereafter. It is also to teach humanity about their
Creator, the purpose of creation, where we came from, and where we are going.
What is humanity’s place in the world, and what does it mean to be a practicing
Muslim today and also a scientist?
Humanity and all creation are the manifestation of Creator’s Art. Humanity is the
best of the creation. Humans differ from most of the other creation with the con-
science given to them. This brings responsibility. Today, with the technology and
knowledge we have it is easy to get distracted and drawn away from spirituality.
This presents challenges to Muslims, because in Islam, faith (the spiritual part of
Islam as a Way of Life 507
religion) and worship (religious practice) go hand in hand. Fortunately, Islam
does not contradict with science; in contrast, science and scientific knowledge
is embraced in Islam …. Science is a human effort to understand Creation. And
as humans we can make mistakes-this is part of doing science. If scientific
knowledge seems to conflict with religion, we should think about how we have
interpreted this knowledge rather than assume it falsifies religion.
How does being a Muslim shape your worldview?
Islam is a very comprehensive religion. It draws our attention to the hereafter.
But . .. the rewards in the afterlife will depend on how we live this life . .. . So,
everything in this life becomes an opportunity to do good deeds and gain God’s
good pleasure . . . it becomes important to watch for evil and to abstain from it.
Thus, a Muslim lives a cautious life, and it brings him awareness. Islam offers
guidance in every aspect of life. Sometimes guidance is in the form of command-
ment, sometimes encouragement, sometimes a prohibition. So believers have
responsibilities towards themselves, their families, relatives, neighbors, friends
and all humanity. This is how Islam shapes my worldview. In the big picture,
I have permanent and eternal life as a goal, but I can reach that goal through this
temporary, short life. Islam offers all the guidance to achieve that goal. This
helps me to get through difficulties and hardship I face.
From your perspective, what is it like to be a Muslim in North America today?
What opportunities and challenges do you face?
I have had quite a good experience so far. Although we face the problems of
maintaining a sense of spirituality in the face of many distractions of modern life,
I haven’t experienced any difficulties regarding my faith or practice. I can freely
and comfortably perform my daily prayers anywhere. When it is time to pray
I can do it in my office, I can do it in the airport. When I attend conferences,
I ask the organizers for a place that I can use for a few minutes, and I have been
helped every time so far. Sometimes, due to the circumstances, I have to per-
form my prayers outside, and I look for silent and calm spots to pray. In these
circumstances, people see me but nobody has confronted me or threatened me
or anything like that. On the contrary, I have been invited to classes, and even to
church gatherings to talk about my religion and to share my faith. Those were
very good experiences. It gives me hope, because I can see that people can work
together regardless of their differences in faith, religion, race, or culture. Those
differences are not problems. We face other common problems, real problems
like poverty and warfare, which we all need to solve together.
The Our’an in Daily Life
The Qur’an is an important part of the daily life of all Muslims, and the text itself is
treated with great reverence and respect. To Muslims, the Qur’an is authentic only in
the original Arabic. This means that a translation, such as an English version of the
Qur’an, is not the holy book itself but merely an interpretation of the meaning. In
many Muslim countries, children are encouraged to attend Qur’an schools, where
they are often introduced to religious study through learning to memorize and recite
508 Chapte r 13 ISLAM
This building in Zanzibar,
Tanzania , houses both
Islamic and secular
primary courts, as well
as government offices.
sections of the Qur’an. In most communities, both boys and
girls study the Qur’an, and people will often continue to study
the Qur’an throughout adulthood. Indeed, Muhammad en-
couraged all Muslims to pursue a life of learning.
To Muslims, the true meaning of the Qur’an can only be
understood in the original Arabic. The beauty of the language is
said to lend itself to the spiritual nature of the words of God.
Because of this, Muslims around the world learn to recite the
Qur’ an in Arabic-even if they do not speak or understand the
language. (Often, a teacher will explain the meaning of the text
in the local language.) Verses of the Qur’an are recited during
the daily prayers, and the Qur’an is also recited at numerous
other occasions, including weddings, funerals, birth celebra-
tions, holidays, and political events.
Hearing the Qur’an recited by a talented person can be a
moving experience for people of all faiths, even if they do not
understand the words. Although people can achieve great fame
for their ability to recite beautifully, Muslims do not normally
regard recitation as entertainment or singing. In many places,
children and adults recite the Qur’an in highly organized com-
petitions that can resemble an American spelling bee. Amina,
the woman introduced at the beginning of the chapter, has
studied the Qur’an for years and has great skill in recitation. As a teenager, she once
won a sewing machine in a recitation contest.
What Is Jihad?
The term jihad comes from an Arabic verb meaning to “struggle” or “strive” and has
historically had complex meanings. The concept of jihad is often distorted in contem-
porary Western media. In general, the term jihad means exerting oneself in the name
of God. Jihad can refer to several types of struggle on both personal and social levels.
The term is used only rarely in the Qur’an, and nowhere is it explicitly linked to armed
struggle. Rather, it was early in Islamic history that the term became associated with
defensive military endeavors against the enemies of the growing Muslim community.
There have been some Muslim groups both today and throughout history that have
called for a military jihad against nonbelievers, even out of the context of defense of
the Muslim community. You can see how the term is used in different verses of the
Qur’an:
0 Believers, go out in the cause of God, (whether) light or heavy, and
strive (jihad) in the service of God, wealth and soul. This is better for
you if you understand.
And strive Uihad) in the way of God with a service worthy of Him. He
has chosen you and laid no hardship on you in the way of faith, the
faith of your forebear Abraham . He named you Muslim earlier, and in
this (Qur’an) in order that the Prophet be witness over you, and you be
witness over mankind . So be firm in devotion, pay the zakat, and hold
on firmly to God. He is your friend: How excellent a friend is He, how
excellent a helper!
So do not listen to unbelievers and strive Uihad) against them with
greater effort.
Islam as a Way of Life 509
Muslims often refer to the greater jihad as one’s struggle to become a better person by
striving against one’s own sinful tendencies and to live in accordance with the will
of God. Although we often see the term jihad translated into English as “holy war,”
Muslims regard the military connotations of the term as the lesser jihad. The idea of
“greater and lesser” jihad comes from the hadith literature. Muhammad is reported
to have said upon returning home from a battle, “We return from the little jihad to the
greater jihad.”
Now we turn our attention to other elements of Muslim life and practice.
The Islamic Year and Holidays
The Islamic calendar begins with the hijra, which as noted earlier in this chapter
was the migration of Muhammad and the early Muslim community from Mecca to
Medina in 622 c.E. The Islamic calendar is lunar because the Qur’an stipulates that
the moon should be the measure of time. However, in most of the Muslim world,
people use both the lunar and solar calendars. The Qur’ an also designates the names
of the twelve months of the year. Of these, four months are considered sacred.
Several important celebrations and feast days occur throughout the Islamic year,
and Muslims around the world celebrate these days in a variety of ways. The Feast of
Sacrifice, or Id al-Adha, is the primary holiday of the Muslim year. The feast takes
place at the end of the hajj season, and it is celebrated by all Muslims-not just those
who made the pilgrimage that year. The feast commemorates Abraham’s willingness
to sacrifice his son at God’s command. In many countries, offices and shops close for
two d ays, and people spend time with their families and friends. In commemoration
of the ram that was sacrificed instead oflshmael, Muslims are expected to slaughter an
animal to mark the holiday. However, because this is not always possible, Muslims
may make charitable donations as a substitute.
The second most significant holiday in the Muslim calendar is Id al-Fitr, the Feast
of Fast-Breaking. This holiday m a rks the end of the month of Ramadan. This feast is
a time of joy and forgiveness and is celebrated in many different ways around the
510 Chapter 13 ISLAM
world. Muslims mark the day by attending congregational prayers, visiting friends and
family, or celebrating in public festivals and carnivals. Often, Muslims will wear ele-
gant clothing for the holiday, and children are dressed in their finest new clothes. In
some places, children are also given special treats, money, or gifts.
The Prophet’s birth is also an occasion for celebration in many parts of the Muslim
world, such as North Africa, East Africa, and South Asia. This celebration is known as
Maw/id al-Nabi, and takes place around the twelfth day of the third month of the
Islamic calendar. The birth of the prophet may be marked by state-sponsored cere-
monies. Elsewhere, the birthday is marked by all-night recitation sessions, at which
participants recite the Qur’an and devotional poetry. Some Muslims criticize the cele-
bration of the Prophet’s birth. They argue that such celebration of Muhammad risks
elevating the prophet to the status of God. Muslims in Saudi Arabia, for example, do
not generally celebrate Maw/id al-Nabi. As you learned earlier in this chapter, the
month of Muharram is particularly important for Shi’a Muslims as a time to com-
memorate the martyrdom of the Prophet’s grandson Husayn.
The Shari’ah: Islamic Law
Muslims believe that God, as the creator of the universe and humanity, established a
wide-ranging set of guidelines for human beings to follow. These guidelines are known
as the shari’ah. The literal translation of the Arabic term shari’ah is the “road” or
“way.” In English, it is most often translated as “law.” However, the shari’ah encom-
passes a much broader range of law and legal activity than what is normally associated
with law in the Western world. The shari’ah regulates almost every aspect of daily life
for believers. Proper religious practice is included in the shari’ah, and so are areas of
law that North Americans find more familiar, such as marriage and divorce, inherit-
ance, commerce, and crime. However, very few countries actually apply Islamic law in
full, either today or in the past.
In Islamic belief, God is the sole legislator. In theory, this means that while hu-
manity can interpret law, humans cannot legislate or make new laws. The shari’ah is
drawn from several sources. The Qur’an is the primary legal source. In the early
Meccan surahs, general legal principles are introduced. These include the importance
of generosity, of obeying God’s command, and of performing prayer and religious
duties with sincerity. In the later Medinan surahs, many technical legal matters are
presented in great detail. Some of these surahs contain very specific laws governing
community relations, marriage and family, and inheritance and commerce.
Although the Qur’an is the primary source of law, Islamic scholars throughout
history have recognized that it does not address every legal situation. As a result, there
are also other sources of Islamic law. Different branches of Islam, such as the Sunni
and Shi’a traditions, and different schools of thought within them have recognized
different sources as more or less important. For example, in Sunni Islam, many schol-
ars have referenced the Sunnah as a very important additional legal source, which is
second only to the Qur’an in importance. For centuries and up to the present day,
Islam as a Way of Life 511
Islamic jurists have consulted the Sunnah for answers to legal questions that are not
explicitly addressed by the Qur’an. The Sunnah is important because Muhammad is
considered the ideal human, the person closest to God, and the recipient of the revela-
tion of the Qur’an. For that reason, his words and actions became an important legal
source as a model for human behavior. Furthermore, Muhammad acted as a judge and
a mediator of disputes in Medina, and the way he resolved legal conflicts is recorded
in the hadith.
There are also other sources of Islamic law. In the sections on Sunni and Shi’a
Islam, we discussed sources of law that are distinct to each. For example, many Sunni
scholars agree that if a legal matter is not addressed by the Qur’an or the Sunnah, then
it is appropriate to use human reason to find an analogous situation; this reasoning by
analogy is known as qiyas. In addition, Sunni Muslims recognize the consensus of the
Muslim community as a source of law; this is known as ijma and is recognized as a
source of law because a hadith reports that Muhammad said, “my community will
never agree upon an error.” Law for Shi’a Muslims is somewhat different. For example,
Shi’a legal traditions do not recognize consensus as a source of law but do recognize
the imams as a very important source of law, as they are considered infallible.
Because Islamic legal scholars have not always agreed on the merit of sources of law
such as reasoning by analogy and consensus, several schools of Islamic law developed
in the centuries following the death of Muhammad. Among the Sunni, there are four
schools, each named after the legal scholar who founded it. The schools were formal-
ized by the tenth century, and all the schools recognize the validity of the others.
Both historically and today, studying shari’ah is an important part of Islamic edu-
cation. Those who gain expertise in the law may have a special status in the commu-
nity. The term ulama refers to Islamic legal scholars. Among these are legal practitioners
known as qadis, who are court judges who issue rulings on various matters. A mufti
is an expert in Islamic law who is qualified to give nonbinding legal opinions, known
as fatwas.
Today, many Muslim-majority states include Islamic law and courts in the state
legal systems. However, in most countries in which Islamic law is applied, Islamic
courts handle only matters of family law, and only for Muslims. Family law includes
issues such as marriage, divorce, child custody, and inheritance. It is only
in a very few countries, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, that Islamic crimi-
nal and commercial law are recognized in the state legal system. One
reason for this is that many countries that were colonized by European
powers adopted European legal codes for criminal matters. Also, some
countries have determined that centuries-old laws are not appropriate for
modern contexts.
Many Muslims live in accordance with Islamic law in their personal
lives, even if they do not live in a country with Islamic courts. As noted
earlier, Islamic law informs the daily life of the believer and regulates how
a Muslim worships God. In addition, much like Jewish law, Islamic law
Case files from an
Islamic cou rt in
East Africa.
512 Chapte r 13 ISLAM
regulates what a believer should eat and drink. For example, Muslims are prohibited
from consuming pork and alcohol. Much of the legal basis for the prohibition on pork
comes from the Qur’an. The prohibition on alcohol, although mentioned in the
Qur’an, is more thoroughly developed in the hadith literature.
Sufism
Muslims have sometimes described the shari’ah, or Islamic law, as the “outer” way to
God because it regulates a person’s “outer” existence: how he or she should handle re-
lationships with other people, how he or she should live in a community, and how he
or she should worship. For many Muslims, however, there is also an “inner” way to
God. This is the mystical tradition oflslam, which is known as Sufism. Like traditions
of mysticism in other religions, the goal of a follow of Sufism, a Sufi, is to draw close
to and personally experience God. However, unlike mystics of other religions, Sufis
base this spiritual quest on the sources of Islam, namely the Qur’an and the example
of Muhammad.
It is likely that Sufism arose in the years after the death of Muhammad as a response
to the worldly excesses and materialism of the Umayyad Dynasty. Many early Sufis
were ascetics who taught that a simple way of life was in keeping with the way Muham-
mad lived. One famous eighth-century Sufi was Hasan of Basra (Basra is a city in Iraq).
He was known for preaching asceticism and for his constant weeping out of fear of
God. A renowned early female Sufi was Rabi’a al-Adawiyya, also of Basra. Rabi’a was
known for her almost giddy happiness in the love of God. There are many wonderful
stories about Rabi’a. In one, she criticized Hasan of Basra by telling him that his con-
stant weeping and fear of God drew the focus to himself rather than God. This theme
is echoed in another story, in which she walks through the streets of Basra carrying a
pitcher of water and a flaming torch. When asked why she was doing this, she explained
that she wanted to set paradise ablaze and put out the fires of hell so people would love
God solely for the sake of God-not out of hope of paradise or fear of hell.
After Rabi’a’s time, this ideal of intense love for God became a primary focus for
Sufis. Love is often expressed in Sufi poetry, which is one of the premier art forms in
Islamic history. The following poem, by the great thirteenth-century Sufi poet Jalal-
ludin Rumi, describes the beauty of submitting to God. Those who love and submit to
God are compared to a moth who is drawn to a candle’s flame.
Love wh ispers in my ear,
“Better to be a prey than a hunter,
Make yourself My fool.
Stop trying to be the sun and become a speck!
Dwell at My door and be homeless.
Don’t pretend to be a candle, be a moth,
so you may taste the savor of Life
and know the power hidden in serving.”14
Islam as a Way of Life 513
Sufis ground their belief and worship practice in the teachings of the Qur’an. Sufi
readings of the Qur’an have often searched for the inner, or hidden, meaning. This
approach to interpreting the Qur’an often focuses on God’s love for creation and
God’s closeness to humanity. Sufis often emphasize the teachings of the hadith qudsi,
which focus on these themes.
Like all Muslims, Sufis consider Muhammad the ideal human, and they strive to
emulate the way he lived his life. Sufis emphasize the story of the miraculous night
when Muhammad journeyed from Mecca to Jerusalem and from there ascended to
heaven to meet God. The ascension to heaven is known as the miraj. Muslims believe
that the Angel Gabriel came to Muhammad one night while he was sleeping and took
him to Jerusalem. From there, Muhammad ascended upward through the many levels
of heaven. He met earlier prophets like Jesus and Moses. Eventually, Muhammad
came into the presence of God. God gave him significant blessings and special spiri-
tual knowledge that he later passed on to his companions, particularly ‘Ali. Because
Muhammad is believed to have personally experienced the presence of God, Sufis
consider him to be the first Sufi and the source of the special spiritual knowledge they
seek. In East Africa and the Middle East, Muslims learn of the miraj through epic
poems, which are recited on special occasions like mawlid al-nabi. Because Muham-
mad ascended to heaven from Jerusalem, it is recognized as a holy city for Muslims,
along with Mecca and Medina.
The night journey is mentioned in the Qur’an (17:1) and the hadith literature and
is considered by many Muslims to be the greatest of all Muhammad’s spiritual experi- The Dome of the Rock
ences. Because Muhammad ascended to heaven from Jerusalem, the city holds a special in Jerusalem.
place in Islam, and it is one of the three Muslim holy cities,
along with Mecca and Medina. In the year 691 C.E., the beauti-
ful shrine known as the Dome of the Rock was built over the
spot from which Muhammad ascended to heaven. The Dome of
the Rock is located on the place known as the Temple Mount,
where the ancient Jewish temples were located. It is therefore
easy to understand why this place in the center of Jerusalem is
special to both Muslims and Jews. This is one of the primary
reasons that the status of Jerusalem is so central to the Arab-
Israeli conflict today: practitioners of both faiths (as well as
Christians) consider the city to be holy and long to have unfet-
tered access to it.
Most Sufis agree that an individual needs guidance along
the spiritual path to God. As a result, a master-disciple relation-
ship is very important in Sufism. The shaykh, or master, directs
the spiritual training of the novices. In the early centuries of
Islam, respected shaykhs would guide several pupils, and as
a result a number of Sufi orders, tariqas, developed around
particular Sufi masters. Each order traces a spiritual lineage of
I
514 Chapter 13 ISLAM
Mevlevi dh ikr; Mevlevis
are sometimes known as
Whirli ng Dervishes.
learned leaders back to Muhammad and from Muhammad to
God. Muhammad is believed to have passed on his special reli-
gious knowledge to his companions, who then passed it down
through the generations from master to disciple.
Although members of all the orders have the same goal-
personally experiencing God-they emphasize different medita-
tion techniques and spiritual practices. Some orders are widespread
and have members all over the world. Others are limited to a par-
ticular region. The most well-known order in the Western world
is perhaps the Mevlevi order, which is based on the teachings of
Jalalludin Rumi.
Sufi orders emphasize the necessity of some type of dhikr.
The term means “recollection” and refers to Sufi meditation in
which the believer strives to “recollect” God so completely that
he forgets himself. Dhikr can take many forms and varies from
order to order. Sometimes dhikr is as simple as the recitation of
the shahadah, and sometimes it is much more elaborate. The
Mevlevis have an elaborate dhikr. In the West, they are often
called the “Whirling Dervishes” because their dhikr involves
controlled whirling. For all Sufis, the goal of dhikr is to lose the
sense of self entirely in complete remembrance of God.
Not all Sufi practice takes place in the formal context of the
orders. In many parts of the world, Muslims may participate in Sufi practice without
affiliation to an order. A good example of this is the practice of saint veneration. Many
Sufis venerate shaykhs, or saints, who were well-known and respected for their religious
learning and spirituality. In some areas, such as Pakistan and northern India, the
tombs of deceased shaykhs become places of pilgrimage. At the tombs, people seek
blessings from the saints. Tomb visitation is very common in South Asia, when the
celebration of the saints’ death date can draw thousands of pilgrims. Many pilgrims
are not affiliated with a Sufi order, and some are not even Muslim; people of all faiths
may recognize the power of a saint.
Throughout Islamic history, occasional tension has arisen between Sufis and other
Muslims. For example, the practice of saint veneration has drawn criticism from some,
who argue that the celebration of saints compromises the oneness of God by raising
mere mortals to the level of the divine; you read earlier about al-Wahhab’s criticism of
saint veneration. Of course, those involved in saint veneration do not view saints as
divine. Rather, t h ey view saints more as close friends of God, who are filled with bless-
ings that can be transferred to others. Historically, Sufis have sometimes been criti-
cized by other Muslims for neglecting the five pillars in favor of more esoteric religious
knowledge and practice. Some early Sufis rejected adherence to the shari ‘ah on the
grounds that the technical laws merely served to veil God from the believer, not draw
him or her closer. However, this was not a majority opinion among Sufism. Indeed,
Islam as a Way of Life 515
some Sufis have made a specific effort to reconcile the shari’ah
and Sufism. The eleventh century scholar al-Ghazali was one
of these. In his writings, he established Sufism as a branch of
formal learning in the Islamic sciences.
Marriage and Family
Marriage and family life are the cornerstones of Muslim com-
munities. Devout Muslims, who strive to follow the example
of the Prophet in their daily lives, consider Muhammad to
have set the example of marriage and to have been the ideal
husband and father. As a result, marriage is generally regarded
as incumbent upon all Muslim men and women when they reach adulthood. Celibacy
is not normally encouraged, and sexual pleasure is considered a gift from God to be
enjoyed within a marriage.
Much variation exists throughout the Muslim world concerning marriage arrange-
ments, weddings, and the organization of the family life. In some areas, marriages for
young people are arranged by their parents, whereas in others, women and men select
their own marriage partners. However, in most Muslim communities, dating is not an
acceptable practice-even among Muslims living in North America. Furthermore,
adult children in many Muslim families live with their parents until they marry, even
if they are financially able to live on their own. Regardless of the method of arranging
marriages, according to the shari’ah, young men and women may reject a marriage
partner they deem unsuitable; the consent of both the bride and the groom is necessary
for the marriage to take place. However, this legal right does not always coincide with
community or cultural norms. In some cultures, a bride’s silence about her parents’
choice of a marriage partner is considered to indicate acceptance of the proposal.
In Islam, a marriage is considered a con-
tractual relationship. For the marriage to be
valid, the bride, the groom, and witnesses
must sign a marriage contract. The contract
designates the mahr, which is the gift a bride
will receive from the groom and his family.
The gift may be cash or other property. The
marriage contract may be considered invalid
without the mahr, though the amount may
vary greatly from family to family and culture
to culture. The amount depends not only on
the family’s wealth but also on community
norms. For example, urban Muslims in the
Middle East might give a mahr of thousands of
dollars, whereas the normal amount in a small
African village might be only fifty dollars.
Pilgrims at the shrine
of Hazrat Mu’in ud-Din
Chishti in Ajmer
(Rajasthan), India.
A Muslim bride signs
her marriage contract.
/
516 Chapte r 13 ISLAM
According to shari ‘ah, the mahr is solely the property of the bride. However, in many
cultures, a bride’s parents may take some of the mahr.
On the wedding day, the bride and groom may be separated for most of the festivi-
ties. The groom usually signs the marriage contract in a mosque in the company of his
male friends and relatives. The marriage official, often an imam, then takes the con-
tract to the bride in her family’s home, where she is accompanied by her female rela-
tives and friends. Wedding celebrations are often large affairs, and feasting, Qur’an
recitation, and sometimes music and dancing may accompany the signing of the con-
tract. In many communities, men and women celebrate entirely separately. This is
because some Muslims do not consider it acceptable for men and women to socialize
together. In some cultures, the bride is taken to the groom’s home in a big procession
at the end of the day. There, the new couple shares a special meal and begins their life
together.
According to most interpretations of Islamic law, Muslim men are allowed to
marry up to four wives. However, this is only under certain conditions, and only if he
can support all his wives and treat them equally. For example, the verses in the Qur’an
concerning polygamy suggest that the practice is appropriate in times of warfare when
there may be many unmarried women. Furthermore, the Qur’an states, “Marry such
women as seem good to you, two, three, four; but if you fear you will not be equitable,
then marry only one” (4:3). A later verse says that “You will not be equitable between
your wives, even if you try” (4:129). Some thinkers, such as the Egyptian reformer
Muhammad Abduh (about whom you read earlier in this chapter), argued that these
two verses actually prohibited polygamy because the latter stated that no man could
possibly treat multiple wives equitably, which is a necessary condition of polygamy.
Abduh also argued that although polygamy may have been necessary in the time of the
prophet to protect women who had no one to care for them, it was destructive in the
modern context. However, most Muslims have considered polygamy legal, though
the occurrence of the practice varies tremendously around the world, and some coun-
tries, like Tunisia, have banned it entirely.
Several types of divorce are permitted in Islam. Guidelines for divorce come from
both the Qur’an and hadith literature. One type is divorce by male unilateral repudia-
tion. In this type of divorce, a man writes or pronounces the formula “I, (the man’s
name), divorce you, (the wife’s name).” In classical Islamic law, this type of divorce
does not need the approval of the wife or a legal authority. However, in many countries
today, unilateral divorce is no longer permissible, and men and women must both file
for divorce in court. According to shari ‘ah, women may seek divorce from Islamic
judges on a variety of grounds. Stipulations for divorce are occasionally written into
the marriage contract. For example, a woman may specify that she can divorce her
husband if he marries another wife. Divorce is common in some Muslim countries
and uncommon in others. In some places, a divorced man or woman is dishonored
and finds it difficult to remarry, whereas in others there is little or no stigma attached
to a divorced man or woman.
Islam as a Way of Life 517
Women and Islam
There is much variation in the way in which gender roles are perceived and interpreted
throughout Muslim cultures. As in other religious traditions, such as Judaism, Chris-
tianity, and Hinduism, patriarchal cultural norms are sometimes justified in terms of
religion. When we consider the historical context in which it was revealed, the Qur’an
introduced many legal rights and privileges to women that they had not previously
enjoyed. For example, women were given the right to divorce their husbands on a var-
iety of grounds; they were allowed to inherit and hold property that remained theirs
even in marriage (women in England did not gain this right until the late nineteenth
century); and they were given the right to refuse arranged marriages. The Qur’an also
prohibited female infanticide.
According to Islamic belief, women and men are viewed as equals in the eyes of
God and will be judged on their own accord. In the Qur’an, verse 35 of surah 33 ad-
dresses this:
Verily for all men and women who have come to submission,
Men and women who are believers,
Men and women who are devout,
Truthful men and truthful women.
Men and women with endurance,
Men and women who are modest,
Men and women who give alms,
Men and women who observe fasting,
Men and women who guard their private parts,
And those men and women who remember God a great deal,
For them God has forgiveness and a great reward.1s
The Qur’an requires all Muslims, women and men, to live a righteous life and to seek
education. Women may work outside the home, though this is still uncommon in some
areas. According to religious law, all of a woman’s earnings remain her property. Thus
women are not required to use their earnings to support the family and maintain the
home; it is a man’s legal duty to provide for his family, even if his wife is wealthier than
he. Of course, in practice, many women contribute their earnings to the household.
Despite this, the place of women in Islam has occasionally been interpreted in very
strict fashion. One need only consider the case of the Taliban in Afghanistan, who
deny women the right to work outside the home, the right to be educated, and even
the right to walk freely in the street. However, this strict interpretation of religious
texts and traditions is far from mainstream. Most Muslims view the Taliban’s orders
as radical and even religiously unlawful.
Along these same lines, much cultural variation exists in the practices regarding
interaction between Muslim men and women. In some parts of the world, men and
women live very separate lives. The seclusion of women is called purdah in South Asia
518 Chapter 13 ISLAM
Three young Palestinian
students in modest
dress.
Compare the role of
women in the Islamic
tradit ion with that
of women in other
re ligions. How are t he
ro les of women similar
or different?
and is practiced by some Hindus and Sikhs, as
well as some Muslims. Elsewhere, as in many
parts of Southeast Asia and Africa, Muslim men
and women intermingle freely.
The Qur’ an encourages both men and women
to dress and behave modestly. The verses con-
cerning dress-particularly that of women-are
interpreted in many ways. Modest women’s dress
takes many different cultural forms . In some cul-
tures, modest dress is interpreted as long pants
and a modest top. In other contexts, Muslim
women wear a type of cloak over their clothing
when they leave the home. And some Muslim
women choose to cover their heads and hair with
a scarf. But this is not solely a Muslim practice: in
the Middle East and Mediterranean, women covered their heads long before the time
of Muhammad. 16 Covering the head has also been common practice among many
Christian, Jewish, Hindu, and Sikh women.
Many Muslim women dress modestly strictly out of religious commitment. For
others, wearing modest dress is an important move toward gender equality in the work-
place and the public sphere. Such women believe that when they are dressed modestly,
they are valued by others on their merit alone, not on their appearance. To others,
maintaining modest dress makes a statement of resistance to Western scholars and ac-
tivists by demonstrating that feminism can be defined in myriad ways in different cul-
tural and religious contexts. Some Muslim women say they pity Western women, who they
believe must dress in a way that serves men’s pleasure in viewing the female form.
We should not consider the status of women in any religious tradition without also
considering historical change, and this is particularly true of Islam because of the
many negative stereotypes Muslim women have faced in recent years.
Reform and Women’s Status Several important reformers in the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries sought to improve women’s status in Muslim countries and cul-
tures. Many of these reformers have focused on proper understanding of religious
sources and Islamic law concerning women.
In much of the twentieth century, particularly in the first half, Muslim feminists
were upper-class women who had the time and leisure to deliberate these issues, not
working-class women whose labor was necessary to support their families. One of
the most famous of these early Muslim feminists was Huda Sha’rawi (1879-1947), an
educated upper-class Egyptian woman who symbolically removed her face veil in an
Alexandria train station in 1923. Sha’rawi was president and founder of the Egyptian
Feminist Union and did not believe that veiling was an Islamic requirement. When
she removed her veil, she h ad just returned from a women’s conference in Rome. She
encouraged women to cast off their headscarves in
a quest for liberation. Many Egyptian women,
particularly educated and elite women, were in-
spired by her example and ceased wearing face
veils and headscarves. Sha’rawi remained an activ-
ist and femini st leader throughout her life. She
founded schools and medical facilities in Egypt
and also advocated for women’s rights throughout
the Arab world.
In the later years of the twentieth century,
many Muslim feminists have sought paths to
equality that diverge from Western models. In
their view, Islam itself provides the necessary
means for women to achieve their rights. Many
argue that the Qur’an must be reinterpreted in an
attempt to eradicate cultural practices that are det-
rimental to women but have been justified as ap-
propriate Islamic p ractice. Some have argued that
women’s status would be much improved only if
Islamic laws were properly followed. As discussed
earlier, many women in recent decades have, in a
sense, reembraced modest dress as a feminist state-
ment. In Egypt, this idea became prominent in the
1980s, and many mothers and grandmothers who
had consciously decided against wearing veils or
headscarves were dismayed that their daughters
were wearing them, ironically with the same ratio-
nale their grandmothers used to discard it.
It is important to note that Muslim feminists
differ in their approaches to Islam. Zaynab al-
Ghazali (b. 1917) is an Egyptian feminist who ad-
vocates increasing women’s rights and improving
women’s status through Islam. Nawal al-Sa’ dawi
(b. 1931), also Egyptian, is a woman who advo-
cates that women can only achieve equality by re-
jecting what she views as the pa triarchal tendencies
of religion. Al-Sa’ dawi is both a m edical doctor
and a w riter, and her novels a nd stories h ave been
both influential and controversial in the Arab
world for her foc us on feminist issues and prob-
VISUAL GUIDE
Islam
Islam as a Way of Life 519
Calligraphy developed as a very
important art form in Islam. This is
because of a widespread under-
standing that imagery is prohibited
by the sacred sources of Islam. This
example is the word Allah. Beautiful
calligraphy decorates pages of the
Qur’an, mosques, and other items.
Throughout the daily prayer, the
believer faces the Ka’ba in Mecca
and stands, kneels, and bows his
head to the floor. These cycles of
movements, along with the proper
recitation, are called raka and vary
in number according to the prayer.
The direction of prayer, known as
the qibla, is marked in a mosque by
a niche called a mihrab, which is
sometimes highly decorated with
designs or Qur’anic verses, like this
mihrab at a mosque in Cairo, Egypt.
The Ka’ba, a cubical building in
Mecca that measures about thirty
feet by thirty feet. Many Muslims
believe it was bui lt and dedicated
to the one God by Abraham and
Ishmael.
lems facing Arab women . Recently, al-Sa’ daw i was active in the 2011 Egyptian revolu-
tion that overthrew the thirty-year presidency of H osni Mubarak.
520 Chapter 13 ISLAM
CONCLUSION
In this chapter, you have learned about the historical development, the beliefs, and the
practices oflslam and Muslims. Islam is truly a global religion and is perhaps the fastest
growing religion in the world. Many Muslim-majority counties are experiencing rapid
population growth, but numbers are also increasing because of conversions. One of the
most marked characteristics of the Muslim world today-its diversity-is unlikely to
change. In fact, the ethnic diversity of the Muslim world is likely to increase. Muslims
live in nearly every country in the world and on every inhabited continent.
Muslims everywhere, however, are responding to a rapidly changing world and
increased globalization. Today, Muslims are facing questions about the role of religion
in private and public life, the relationships with other religious communities in plural
environments, and what it means to be a person of faith in the modern world. Some of
these issues are common to many religions. Others, such as the role of Islamic law in
modern governments, are specific to Muslims. How will Muslims address these issues
in years to come? One issue that has had much attention in the press lately is the ques-
tion oflslamic dress in Western Europe. In France in 2004, schoolgirls were prohibited
from wearing headscarves because officials argued it violated France’s commitment
to secularism. (Other religious symbols, like the yarmulke worn by Jewish boys, were
also banned.) Many Muslims, however, thought this was a violation of their freedom
to practice religion. In Britain, a recent controversy focused on whether or not a Muslim
teacher should be allowed to wear a scarf that covered her face while teaching.
A related challenge Muslims face is the negative perceptions some Westerners hold
about the nature of Islam and Muslim life. How will Muslims living in religiously plural
societies grapple with this sort of challenge? In the United States, some Muslim Americans
who have been invited or have volunteered visit churches, synagogues, schools, and com-
munity centers with the aim of teaching people about Islam and increasing their familiar-
ity with Muslim ways of life. Muslim communities around the world struggle with
competing interpretations oflslam’s teachings. Sometimes, young Muslims who go abroad
to study in places such as Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, or Egypt come back to their home com-
munities with different ideas about the way in which Islam should be practiced and taught.
In many countries, as exemplified recently by some participants in the ”Arab Spring” dem-
onstrations of early 2011, Muslims are considering the relationship between Islam and
democracy. Although some argue that Islam is inherently compatible with democracy be-
cause of examples such as the historical emphasis on consensus, others argue that democ-
racy is a Western concept that is not compatible with an Islamic system of government.
As you have learned, Islam is a unique religious tradition, but it also shares a great
deal with Christianity and Judaism. Will these similarities lead to greater communica-
tion and cooperation between Muslim and other religious communities? Although it is
difficult to predict what the future will bring, it is clear that Islam will remain a dynamic
and diverse religious tradition. Throughout history, Muslim thinkers, artists, and practi-
tioners have contributed a great deal to global human culture, and they will continue to
do so in the future.
Review Questions 521
SEEKING ANSWERS
What Is Ultimate Reality?
Muslims believe that God is the creator and sustainer of the universe, the world, and all that
is in it. Muslims believe that elements of the beautiful natural world are signs of God.
Humans can learn something about ultimate reality through God’s revelations, which are
communicated to humanity through prophets. The Qur’an is the source of God’s teachings
about the nature of ultimate reality and the nature of the world.
How Should We Live in This World?
Muslims believe that human beings are part of God’s creation. The Islamic tradition offers
many guidelines concerning the right way for human beings to live. People should worship
God, be generous to the needy, and live righteously. The life of the prophet Muhammad,
especially as related in the Sunnah, serves as an example for Muslims of how to live. The
“five pillars” of Muslim worship practice are the foundation for how Muslims live their faith.
What Is Our Ultimate Purpose?
Muslims believe in an afterlife and a Day of Judgment, when all humans will be judged on
their actions and deeds in this life. Those who have lived righteously will enter paradise, and
those who have led sinful lives will be cast into the fire. Some Muslims think that human
beings have free choice and must choose to submit to the will of God . The choices that in-
dividuals make will be evaluated on the Day of Judgment, when God will judge each person
independently. Other Muslims do not adhere to an idea of free will. Devout Muslims aim to
live righteous lives by submitting to the will of God, adhering to the “five pillars,” and fol-
lowing the example of the Prophet Muhammad.
REVIEW QUESTIONS
For Review
,. What are the essential principles of belief
in the Islamic religion?
2. What are the key religious practices in
Islam? How do beliefs relate to religious
practice and expression?
3. What are the most important sources of
spirituality for Muslims?
4. What is a prophet in the Islamic tradition?
What role does Muhammad play in Islam
and in the life of Muslims today? How do
Muslims know about the life of Muham-
mad, and how does he differ from other
prophets?
5. What is Sufism, and how is it rooted in the
Islamic tradition?
For Further Reflection
,. How do the teachings of Islam inform reli-
gious practice? How might the daily life of
522 Chapte r 13 ISLAM
Muslims reflect their commitment to Islamic
ideals? How do Islamic teachings about God
compare with those of other monotheistic
traditions?
GLOSSARY
Abbasids An important Muslim empire from
750 to 1258 C.E.
adhan (a-than; Arabic) The call to prayer.
Aisha A beloved wife of Muhammad who is known
for transmitting many hadith.
Allah (a-lah; Arabic) The Arabic term for God.
Ashura The tenth day of the month of Muharram,
recognized by Shi’a Muslims as the anniver-
sary of the martyrdom ofHusayn.
caliph (ka-lif; Arabic) Leader of the Muslim com-
munity after the death of Muhammad.
hadith (ha-deeth; Arabic) Literary tradition recording
the sayings and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad.
hajj (hahj; Arabic) The annual pilgrimage to Mecca,
one of the five pillars oflslam.
hijra (hij-rah; Arabic) The migration of the early
Muslim community from Mecca to Medina in
622 c.E.; the Islamic calendar dates from this year.
Husayn Grandson of Muhammad who was killed
while challenging the Umayyads.
imam (ee-mam; Arabic) Prayer leader; in the Shi’a tra-
dition, one of the leaders of the Muslim community
following the death of the Prophet Muhammad.
Islam (is-lahm; Arabic) Lit. “submission”; specifi-
cally, the religious tradition based on the revealed
Qur’an as Word of God.
jahiliyya (ja-hil-ee-ah; Arabic) The “age of ignor-
ance,” which refers to the time before the revela-
tion of the Qur’an.
jihad (jee-had; Arabic) Lit. “striving”; sometimes,
the greater jihad is the struggle with one’s self to
become a better person; the lesser jihad is associ-
ated with military conflict in defense of the faith.
Khadija Muhammad’s beloved first wife.
2. What important challenges do Muslims face
in the modern world? Why do you think
Islam has been so stereotyped in North
America and the West?
Mecca The city in which Muhammad was born;
place of pilgrimage for Muslims.
Medina The city to which Muhammad and his
early followers migrated to escape persecution in
Mecca.
miraj (mir-aj; Arabic) Muhammad’s Night Journey
from Mecca to Jerusalem and from there to
heaven, where he met with God.
mosque (mask) Place of prayer, from the Arabic
term “masjid.”
muezzin (mu-ez-in; Arabic) The p erson who calls
the adhan.
Muhammad The prophet who received the revela-
tion of the Qur’ an from God. The final prophet in
a long line of prophets sent by God to humanity.
Qur’an (kur-an; Arabic) The holy text of Muslims;
the Word of God as revealed to Muhammad.
Ramadan (rah-mah-clan; Arabic) The month in
which Muslims must fast daily from dawn until
dusk; the fast is one of the five pillars oflslam, the
month in which the Qur’an is believed to have
been revealed to Muhammad.
salat (sa-laht; Arabic) The daily prayers, which are
one of the pillars of Islam.
sawm (som; Arabic) The mandatory fast during the
month of Ramadan; one of the pillars of Islam.
shahadah (sha-ha-dah; Arabic) The declaration of
faith: “There is no God but God and Muhammad is
the Messenger of God”; the first of the five pillars.
shari’ah (sha-ree-ah; Arabic) Lit. “the way to the
water hole”; specifically, Islamic law.
Shi’a (shee-ah; Arabic) One of the two major
branches of Islam. The Shi’a believed that ‘Ali
(continued)
GLOSSARY (continued)
should have succeeded as leader of the Muslim
community after the death of Muhammad.
shirk (sherk; Arabic) The sin of idolatry, of worship-
ping anything other than God, the one unforgiv-
able sin in Islam.
Sufi (soof-i) A follower of the mystical tradition of
Islam, Sufism, which focuses on the believer’s per-
sonal experience of God and goal of union with God.
Sunnah (sun-na; Arabic) Lit. “way oflife” or “custom”;
specifically refers to example of the life of the prophet
Muhammad; important religious source for Muslims.
Sunni (soon-e; Arabic) One of the two main
branches of Islam. The Sunnis believed that the
Online Resources 523
Muslim community should decide on a successor
to lead after the death of Muhammad.
surah (soor-ah; Arabic) Chapter of the Qur’an;
there are 114 surahs in the Qur’ an.
tafiir (taf-seer; Arabic) Interpretation of or commen-
tary on the Qur’an. There are several types of tafiir,
which aim to explain the meaning of the Qur’an.
Umayyad Dynasty Controversial Muslim dynasty
from 661 to 750 c .E.
umma (um-mah; Arabic) The worldwide Muslim
community.
zakat (za-kaht; Arabic) Regulated almsgiving; one
of the five pillars of Islam.
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING
Armstrong, Karen. Muhammad: A Biography of the
Prophet. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco,
1993. A detailed and readable account of Mu-
hammad’s life.
Denny, Frederick M. An Introduction to Mam. Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2010. A very thorough
introduction to Islam aimed at college students.
Ernst, Carl W . Following Muhammad: Rethinking
Islam in the Contemporary World. Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 2003.
A readable introduction to Islam for the gen-
eral public, focusing on Islam in the modern
world.
Netton, Ian Richard. A Popuhr Dictionary of Ishm.
Chicago: NTC Publishing Group, 1997. A useful
ONLINE RESOURCES
Oxford Islamic Studies Online
www.oxfordislamicstudies .com
A very comprehensive source with contribu-
tions from top scholars on all topics related
to Islam.
dictionary of key terms, people, and places in the
Islamic tradition.
Renard, John, ed. Windows on the House of Ishm .
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.
A collection of primary source materials from
early Islamic history until the present; includes
poetry, essays, philosophical writings, and more.
Schimmel, Annemarie. Mystical Dimension of Islam .
Chapel Hill: Universiry of North Carolina Press,
1975. A classic and comprehensive overview of
Sufism.
Sells, Michael. Approaching the Qur’an: The Early
Revelations. Ashland, OR: White Cloud Press,
2002. Translation and explanation of the earli-
est surahs of the Qur’an.
Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement
usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/engagement/resources/
texts/muslim
Useful site from the University of Southern Cali-
fornia with databases for searching English trans-
lations of the Qur’an and hadith collections.