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ISLAM, IMAN, IHSAN

According to a hadith report preserved in Bukhari’s famous collection of the sayings of the Prophet, Muhammad once said: “The religion of God has three parts: islam, iman, and ihsan (or islah), and the first of these has given name to the religion.”  Islam means “submission” and indicates what a Muslim must do to submit his/her life to God’s will.  The Arabic word islam means surrender or submission and denotes the active surrender of one’s life to God.  A Muslim is a person who submits one’s life to God.

When Muslims say the religion of Islam has three parts, they mean three essential aspects:

1) islam: deeds, actions, what a Muslim must do,

2) iman (faith): the more interior concept believing what God has taught,

3) ihsan (goodness) or islah (uprightness), the process of interiorizing the divine commands so that they give shape and expression to an upright, good life that reflects God’s own goodness.  Ihsan is thus the fruit of carrying out the pillars of islam and accepting the pillars of iman, and goes beyond the basic minimum to integrate all that God has revealed and commanded into every aspect of one’s daily behavior.

Islamic belief and practice has two sources: the Qur’an and the hadith.  The Qur’an is the scripture, the revealed book of Islam.  The hadith are the sayings, deeds, and decisions of Muhammad and, together with the Qur’an, form the basis of Islamic belief and practice.  The practice of islam rests on five “pillars,” or basic acts which are obligatory for all Muslims.

THE FIVE PILLARS OF ISLAM

1. SHAHADA

The first of these pillars, the shahada is different from the other four.  It is more accurate to say that the practice of Islam rests on a central affirmation and upon four cornerstones of Islamic religiosity.  The central affirmation, the “witness” or profession of faith, is brief, consisting of two phrases: 1) “There is no god but The God,” 2) “and Muhammad is the messenger of God.”

The first phrase indicates the universal aspect of Islamic witness, which Muslims profess together with other monotheists.  God is one.  Nothing else exists that is worthy of worship; there is no being other than God to whom adoration and obedience is owed. Muslims not only forbid worshiping other gods, but also reject devoting one’s life to (that is, making false idols out of) wealth, power, beauty, sex, nation, etc. This affirmation Muslims share with other monotheists, such as Jews and Christians.

This first phrase of the shahada is so important that those who profess the unity of God form a broad monotheistic community.  More than once, the Qur’an says that Muslims, as well as Jews, Christians, and Sabaeans (an ancient monotheist religion in the Middle East) - all those who believe in God and the Last Day - will have nothing to fear from God’s judgment, nor will they come to harm.  Muslims cannot wage jihad against those who profess the first half of the shahada, unless they (Muslim, Jewish, Christian etc.) be guilty of injustice and oppression.

The second phrase of the shahada indicates what is distinctive, unique, and particular to the Islamic community.  “Muhammad is the messenger of God.”  In one sense, Muhammad is one of a series of messengers, all sent by God with a divine message for humans.  However, the phrase implies that Muhammad is more than simply one among many. He is preeminently the messenger, the one who brought the final, complete, perfect expression of God’s Message contained in the Qur’an.  This second phrase of the shahada is not professed by Jews, Christians, or the followers of other religions.  Thus, profession of the two phrases of the shahada makes a person member of the Islamic umma (community of faith.)

Muslims believe that Muhammad is the final prophet who completed the religion.  This distinguishes them from later religious traditions, such as the Bahai faith, which accept the prophethood of Muhammad, but deny that he was the final, definitive prophet.  Whether or not followers of the Ahmadiyya movement should be considered Muslims is a debated issue.

Profession of the shahada, with interior assent, makes a person a member of the umma.  When one converts to Islam, the simple ceremony consists solely of his or her making the profession of faith in the presence of witnesses.  When a child is born, Muslim parents immediately pronounce the shahada in the child’s ears so that these be the first human words which it hears.

When one enters Islam by professing the unity of God and the messengership of Muhammad, the practice of submitting one’s life to God rests on four pillars: prayer, aid to the poor, fasting, and pilgrimage.  Muslim legal scholars spell out what is demanded of Muslims in each of these aspects of religious life.

2. SALAT

The second pillar of Islam is salat, the ritual prayer.  Salat is ritual prayer in that every detail of the prayer is carefully prescribed and Muslims are not free to deviate in any particular.  The purpose of salat is to reaffirm one’s submission to God at critical moments of daily life.  In Turkey, Iran, and the countries of South Asia, the Persian term namaz is more commonly used than the Arabic salat.

The first significant moment is the beginning of each new day.  The day’s actions begin with the prayer at dawn, which must be completed before sunrise.  In the morning prayer, the Muslim turns to God anew in repentance and seeks God’s mercy and forgiveness.  The morning continues, filled with activities of homemaking, rearing children, work and business affairs.  At noon, when daily cares and demands reach their peak, Muslims pause from these activities to reaffirm their submission to God’s will in the second time for prayer.  After the midday meal and, where local custom and climate favor the practice, a period of rest, the day’s activities begin anew in mid-afternoon.  Muslims begin their daily activity anew, between 15.30 and 16.00, with the afternoon prayer.  After sunset and at night, before they retire, Muslims make their final two periods of ritual prayer.

The morning prayer includes a petition seeking God’s forgiveness, and at close of the day, at the sunset prayer, is the petition for forgiveness repeated.  One could say that the daily rhythm of life in Muslim societies is shaped by the periods of prayer.

The salat is not a lengthy prayer, requiring but 5-10 minutes for its performance.  It is designed to be performed in the midst of one’s daily life, and may be done at home, office, construction site, or school.  Once a week, at noontime on Fridays, Muslims males are required to perform the prayer in congregation, at the mosque, when a sermon is preached.  Women usually perform the Friday prayer at home, although many mosques have special areas reserved for female worshipers.

The periods of prayer are preceded by a call to worship, a fixed text chanted from minarets by the muezzin.  Like the prayer itself, the call to prayer is always made in Arabic.  The call to prayer (azan) has three sections: an introduction, the actual call, and a conclusion.

(Introduction)

1. God is greater! (4X)

2. I bear witness that there is no god but God! (2X)

3. I bear witness that Muhammad is messenger of God! (2X)

(Call)

4. Come to prayer! (2X)

5. Come to the sowing (the seeds of salvation)! (2X)

6. Prayer is better than sleep (2X)   [Only at morning prayer.]

(Conclusion)

7. God is greater! (2X)

8. There is no god but God! (1X)

The introduction (#1-3) consists of praise to God (Allahu akbar! God is greater!, i.e., God is greater than all else) and a profession of the shahada.  Then, (#4-6), after summoning the believers to prayer (Hayy ‘ala-s salat), the muezzin calls them to “the sowing” (Hayy ‘ala-l falah).  This unusual phrase, taken from agriculture, is an allusion to prayer as sowing the seed in this present world which will bear fruit in the world to come.  To these, at the morning prayer, is added the affirmation that prayer is better than sleep, a reminder that in many parts of the Islamic world until today the call to prayer is the signal to rise from sleep.  The conclusion (#7-8) is brief, a repetition of the phrase Allahu akbar, and a single repetition of the first part of the shahada, “There is no god but God.”  The call to prayer begins and ends with the name of God, ALLAH.  After each phrase of the call to prayer there is a period of silence, during which pious Muslims are to repeat silently the phrase proclaimed by the muezzin, thus becoming not passive listeners, but making the call their own.

Upon hearing the call to prayer, Muslims prepare themselves with a ritual ablution.  They wash their hands and arms to the elbow; faces, with special attention to eyes, nose, ears, and mouth; and feet and legs to the knees.  When they have incurred ritual impurity, eg., through sexual relations or by touching an unclean animal, they perform “the complete ablution” by bathing.  The ablution is symbolic, indicating the importance of interior purity and the exalted nature of prayer.

Muslims begin the prayer by facing Mecca and making the essential act of intention, called the niyya.  This prayer, a time to pause and affirm to God that one is going to make, for example, the morning prayer, is so important that if a Muslim omits the niyya , the prayer is not valid and the obligation not fulfilled.  The prayer continues with the recitation of the Fatiha, the short prayer that makes up the first chapter of the Qur’an, followed by other Qur’anic verses.  The stages of the prayer are marked by a repetition of Allahu akbar.  The most dramatic moment of the prayer occurs in the repeated prostrations, with forehead, hands and knees touching the ground.  For Muslims, this “body prayer” symbolizes the submission of one’s life to God.  The prayer is concluded with the greeting of peace offered to fellow worshipers on the right and left: “Al-salamu alaykum! Wa-alaykum al-salam!” (“Peace be with you.  And with you peace”)

The Friday noon prayer is the weekly congregational prayer.  It is obligatory for men, but not for women, to perform this prayer in a mosque.  Every mosque, no matter how simple, has two features: the mihrab marking the direction of Mecca (the qibla), and the minbar, the pulpit for the Friday sermon.  Shoes are not worn in the mosque, and the floor is usually covered with carpets or mats.  No pictures or statues are permitted in Islam, so the walls are usually decorated with verses of the Qur’an and geometrical designs.

3. ZAKAT

The third pillar of Islam is zakat, the poor tax.  Zakat is different from almsgiving (in Arabic, sadaqa), because zakat is a fixed obligation, a percentage of  income to be used for the poor of the community.  The purpose is to ensure that all members of the community are provided for.  The point is that each Muslim must realize that the poor of the community are his or her responsibility, a sacred obligation.

The manner collecting and distributing zakât varies widely.  It is common, especially during Ramadan, to see a bread truck pull up at a mosque in a poor neighborhood, and loaves of bread distributed to all who ask.  In Pakistan, zakat is collected and distributed by the government.  In Indonesian and Malaysian villages, zakât is paid in rice.  Elsewhere, families conscientiously prepare extra food at noon on Fridays so that they can feed the needy after Friday prayers.

The spiritual implications of zakât are that caring for the poor of the community is not a matter of choice, mood, or feelings of sympathy.  It is a required duty for every obedient Muslim.  The term zakat is taken from the Arabic word meaning “to purify.”  By paying a certain percentage of their income for the poor, Muslims “purify” the wealth they have.  Any relationship to God or life of prayer, fasting, and other acts of worship that does not include this element of concrete assistance to the poor of the community is not a full response to the Qur’anic message.

4. SAUM: THE RAMADAN FAST

The key elements in the Ramadan fast are remembrance, celebration, communal solidarity, renewal, forgiveness, and exposure to the experience of hunger.

In Ramadan, Muslims commemorate the revelation of the Qur’an.  It is a time for Muslims to thank God for the gift of the Qur’an with Qur’an study groups, academic congresses and public Qur’an recitations.  During the last week of Ramadan, on the Night of Destiny (Lailat al-Qadr) when the Qur’an is believed to have been sent down from heaven, and when the Day of Judgment is expected, many Muslims spend the entire night in the mosque, reading the Qur’an, listening to its recitation, and performing recommended prayers. When the Last Judgment arrives, they hope to be found in prayer.

A second element is celebration and social solidarity.  Ramadan is not a sad time, but the happiest month of the Islamic year and eagerly awaited.  The ordinary rhythm of life is replaced by a “sacred” schedule, with families rising in the early hours of the day to prepare a light meal to be consumed before dawn.  The work day is often shortened and schoolchildren given their annual vacation.  The mosques are crowded with worshipers, visitors, sermons and recitations of the Qur’an.  At the popular level, Muslims visit shrines and tombs of holy persons and Sufis hold sessions of dhikr.

Sunset is announced by the call to prayer from the minarets, and in many places by cannons, gunshots, or fireworks.  At the iftar, Muslims break their fast with traditional foods.  Families, neighbors, friends, and colleagues gather at one another’s homes or, in modern cities, restaurants, to break the fast.  After the meal, they return to the mosque for night prayer and the long tarâwîh prayers.  After the tarâwîh, shops and markets are again open, social calls are made, and special musical programs are aired on television.  The socializing goes on until the early hours.

The communal performance of a long and difficult fast, with many periods of prayer, followed by communal celebration, creates a strong sense of social solidarity.  The disruption of the normal daily schedule, with ordinary activities - rising, eating, praying, shopping - performed at extraordinary hours, results in the creation of a sacred time.  Business affairs and work schedules are held to a minimum so that the main “business” of Ramadan is the celebration of the fast.

Renewal and forgiveness are important features of the fast.  Muslims share a human tendency to get slack in their duties.  Ramadan is a time for repentance and starting anew, and the tarâwîh prayers are directed towards asking forgiveness for the wrongs committed during the previous year.  Muslims believe that God’s mercy is boundless and immediate towards one who repents, but during Ramadan God’s forgiveness is superabundant.

They believe that through the faithful practice of Ramadan, all their sins are forgiven, and so the Id al-Fitr, the Feast of Breaking the Fast, is celebrated with joy.  Having been forgiven by God, Muslims are taught to forgive one another.  Thus, the vertical and horizontal dimensions of forgiveness are joined.  In the practice of halal bi-halal, Muslims visit parents and friends to ask forgiveness for any wrongs they might have committed towards the others during the previous year in order to prevent grievances from going on and on and poisoning human relations.

Finally, in Ramadan Muslims experience hunger.  They are asked to recall the multitudes who go hungry.  Ramadan is thus a time of conscientization towards the plight of the hungry.

5. THE HAJJ: THE PILGRIMAGE TO MECCA

For pious Muslims, the pilgrimage to Mecca is the dream of a lifetime, but due to factors of health, responsibilities, expense and logistics, most Muslims are never able to fulfill this desire.  Because of the ease of travel, the applications to make the annual pilgrimage exceed  what can be accommodated by the extensive but still limited facilities in Arabia.  The norm laid down by the Saudi authorities is one pilgrim for every 1000 Muslims in each country.  Although for most Muslims the hajj remains a dream , the pilgrimage has an important place in the Islamic life.  Like the other pillars of Islam, the form and content is fixed.  The pilgrimage must be made at the proper time (during the Month of the Pilgrimage) and prescribed actions must be performed on the proper days.

The pilgrimage is a reliving of Islamic roots.  Mecca is the scene of Muhammad’s birth and early mission and the site of the Ka’ba, towards which all Muslims pray.  The Ka’ba symbolizes both the unity of the Islamic umma and also the ancient, God-given nature of Islam.  Muslims believe that the Ka’ba was built by the prophet Abraham, the first structure on earth dedicated to the worship of the One God.  Praying in the direction of the Ka’ba is a reminder of the unity of the Islamic community.

During the pilgrimage, Muslims enter a sacred state, a time dedicated totally to God.  Normal clothing is replaced by two white sheets.  It is forbidden to cut the hair or nails.  Sexual abstinence is required.  The preliminary rites are in Mecca, particularly the walking around the Ka’ba, as Muhammad and his Companions had done and reenactment of the faith of Hagar, Abraham, Hagar, and the baby Ismail.  The central act of the pilgrimage takes place 30 km. from Mecca on the slopes of Mt. Arafat.  Here Abraham was ordered to sacrifice his son Ismail.  If the Day of Witness is omitted, one has not performed the pilgrimage and the obligation to do so remains.

Muslims ascend the mountain in time for noon prayers and remain there until after the sunset prayer.  To understand the meaning of the rite, one should know that Arafat, in the midst of the Arabian desert, is one of the world’s most arid, hot, and inhospitable locations.  But that God has commanded it, no one would go there.  Standing in the sun on Arafat, the pilgrims profess that the human person finds true fulfillment and identity in obedience to God, that the ultimate purpose and reason for human existence is found in accepting willingly and joyfully one’s creaturehood before God.  A whole lifetime of Islamic experience is summed up in this one act.

After the return from Arafat, a final moment of the pilgrimage is worth noting.  On the road to Mecca, in the village of Mina, the pilgrims sacrifice a goat or sheep to commemorate the faith of Abraham who was prepared to sacrifice his son, Isma’il, in obedience to God.  At this point, the pilgrims become united with Muslims around the world who celebrate the second great Islamic feast, Id al-Adha, Feast of the Sacrifice.  Just as the Day of Arafat sums up in one act the Islamic understanding of the meaning and purpose of human life, so the Sacrifice expresses their continuity with the faith of Abraham.  At that moment, Muslims around the world vicariously participate in the pilgrimage, performing at their own homes or mosques the same rite performed in Mina.

Just as, in addition to required salat, devotional prayer (du’a) is recommended, besides the obligatory zakat Muslims are urged to give alms (sadaqa), and along with the Ramadan fast pious Muslims voluntarily fast on other days (e.g., Mondays and Thursdays), so also, the informal pilgrimage to Mecca called the ‘umra is considered highly meritorious.  Every month outside the hajj season, over 200,000 Muslims make the ‘umra.  These recommended but non-obligatory practices will be treated more fully in speaking of the third part of the religion of Islam, islah.

THE FIVE PILLARS OF IMAN

If islam can be described as obedience to what God has commanded, iman refers to faith, internal assent, to what God has revealed.  Salvation (najat) in the sense of eternal reward with God is the result of obedience and faith.  Both are necessary.  Like the concept of islam, iman has five pillars.

1. Belief in the oneness of God

The first pillar of faith is very similar to the first pillar of Islam (bearing witness that there is no god but God).  As the shahada means that Muslims obey nothing other than God, the first pillar of faith indicates that Muslims believe nothing but what God has revealed.  It is not sufficient to witness to God’s uniqueness in the shahada; a Muslim must also believe all that God has taught.  God is called Al-Haqq, “the Truth,” and has revealed His Word to humankind through the prophets.  All human efforts at truth (theology, philosophy, science etc.) may be correct or incorrect, but only in God’s Word can humans be sure of arriving at the truth and finding true guidance.

2. Belief in God’s Prophets

Muslims believe in all the prophets that God has sent.  God has sent many prophets (122,000/ 144,000).  There is no nation or ethnic group that has not been sent a prophet at some point in their history.  In the Qur’an, 26 prophets are named, some of whom are the same as the patriarchs of the Old Testament, some are unique to the Arab tradition (Shuaib, Hud, Salih, Dhu’l Kifl, etc.), and from the New Testament, Yahya (John the Baptist) and Isa ibn Maryam (Jesus son of Mary).

Of these, Muslims believe that before the time of Muhammad, there were five great prophets who advanced “the history of salvation” of humanity.

1. Adam.  The first man was the first prophet to receive God’s revelation.  This means that there was never a time in history when humans were left without Guidance.  Adam sinned but repented and was forgiven; his sin was personal and Islam has no concept of “original sin.”    

2. Nuh (Noah).  Adam’s descendants abandoned God and divine teaching, so that God sent Noah to warn them.  They did not listen to Noah and God sent the flood, after warning Noah to build the ark.  After the flood, Noah became the “second father” of humanity.

3. Ibrahim (Abraham). After Noah, men once again took to sinning and worshiping idols.  God sent Abraham to break the idols of his father’s house and started on his wandering.   After Sarah expelled Hagar and her baby Ismail, Abraham traced her to the region of Mecca, where he built the Ka’ba, the first structure on earth dedicated to the worship of God.  With Abraham came the introduction of formal worship of God.  Abraham was especially beloved to God (called Khalil, that is, “the close friend” of God) and is for Islam the model of faith.

4. Musa (Moses).  Moses represents a new stage of God’s guidance.  He received the Torah, formed a religious community, the Jews, and gave them a law.  But the Jews committed a serious error, believing that God had done all that for them alone, not realizing that God’s mercy was for all people.

5. Isa (Jesus).  God sent Jesus to correct the mistakes of the Jews, proclaiming God’s will for all peoples.  God sent Jesus with the Injil (Gospel) and through him worked many signs of His favor.  His followers understood well the universal nature of Jesus’ prophetic message, but they too committed a serious error.  They began to worship the messenger, equating Jesus with God.

Muhammad, the final Messenger.

Finally, God sent Muhammad with the perfect, complete message of the Qur’an and formed a community that would live according to its teachings.  After Muhammad, God’s revelation was complete, so Muhammad is called “the Seal of the Prophets.”  There can be no other prophets/messengers after Muhammad.

The teaching of the Qur’an about Jesus.

The Qur’an makes claims about Jesus that are not even alleged of Muhammad.  Jesus was born of a Virgin, his birth foretold by the angel.  He spoke as an infant and worked miracles as a child (paralleling stories in apocryphal gospels), worked miracles, giving sight to the blind, making the lame walk, and raising the dead by God’s grace.  He formed a community of disciples (hawariyyun) and left them a communion meal as a memorial.  He predicted that another prophet (Ahmad, the Most Highly Praised One) would come after him.  He did not die on the cross, but was assumed directly into heaven, where he awaits the end of time.  His return will mark the beginning of the Last Days.

Jesus is called ‘abdu’llah (Servant of God), the Word of God, and the Spirit of God.  He is the model of holiness and the only person in the Qur’an called min al-muqarrabin (someone brought near to God).  Muhammad said, affirming Jesus’ sinlessness: “Of all children born since Adam, all have been touched by sin except Jesus and his mother.”

Jesus is not called “Son of God,” as this is always understood in a physical way, and the Qur’an affirms that God is far beyond begetting children.  The traditional Semitic trinity - Allah, Allat, and their son Baal - had been erroneously interpreted by some poorly-informed Arab Christians to indicate God, Mary (his wife), and Jesus (their son).  This is strongly rejected by the Qur’an.

The teaching of the Qur’an about Mary.

Mary is mentioned in the Qur’an 34 times (19 times in the New Testament).  She is the only woman mentioned by name in the Qur’an, the only woman to have a Qur’anic sura named after her.  Mary is said to have received wahy (revelation), leading some Muslims to classify her among the prophets.  The Qur’an recounts her Presentation in the Temple, the Annunciation, and the Birth of Jesus with stories that parallel the apocryphal gospels.  She was without sin, strongly preserved her virginity and is said to be the “greatest of all women.”  One obscure passage in the Qur’an may be an allusion to her Assumption into heaven.  In popular piety, Mary is revered as a model for women, her shrines are visited by Muslims (Damascus, Jerusalem, Ephesus), and a “Marian fast” is undertaken by women expecting their first child.

3. Belief in God’s Revealed Books

Islam teaches that some of the prophets were sent with Scriptures.  The “scrolls” of Abraham are lost, but the Torah given to Moses, the Psalms to David, the Wisdom to Solomon, and the Gospel to Jesus still exist.  The Qur’an says that the Jews misinterpreted the Torah.  In the polemics that ensued between Christians and Muslims, some Muslim scholars claimed that the original texts of the Torah and Injil were corrupted, so that the scriptures that Jews and Christians now have are no longer original.  More cautious scholars claim that some corruption may have occurred or that the corrupted passages were minor.  Others hold that Christians, led by St. Paul, virtually rewrote the original message given to Jesus, so that it is impossible today to recreate the revealed Book.  Since Jews and Christians were recipients of revealed Books, even if they later may have corrupted them, they are called “the People of the Book” and have special privileges in Islamic law.

The Qur’an

According to Islamic teaching, the Qur’an was revealed word-for-word to Muhammad.  God, not Muhammad, is considered the author of the Qur’an.  The name is taken from the Arabic verb qara’a, meaning “to recite, to read”; hence Qur’an means “Recitation,” i.e., the recitation of God’s revelations.  The Qur’an is shorter than the Christian New Testament and is divided into 114 suras or chapters.

Muslims believe that God revealed His Word to Muhammad in the course of 22 years by mediation of the Angel Gabriel.  Muhammad memorized each revelation and taught these verses orally to his early disciples, who would recite them together during the night.  According to Islamic tradition, Muhammad was illiterate, which would not have been unusual in Arabia at that time.  The revelations were not written down until the final years before Muhammad’s death, when some disciples began to record verses on smooth stones, leaves, camel hide, tree bark, papyrus etc.  Shortly after Muhammad’s death, in the time of the Calif Uthman, all these fragments of the Qur’an were collected and a committee of scholars and huffaz (those who memorized the Qur’an) studied any variations and determined a definitive text.  The earlier fragments were then destroyed.  The “’Uthmanic edition” is that used by Muslims today.

The Qur’an is not arranged chronologically or thematically.  The longest suras, which were among the last to be revealed, are found at the front of the book, while the shortest suras, chronologically the earliest, are at the end.  The result is that non-Muslims often find the Qur’an difficult to follow.  The Qur’anic message exists only in Arabic, which is always used in prayer and recitation, but translations of the “meaning” of the Qur’an are permitted for those who do not know Arabic.

Among all religions, Islam is perhaps the most “Scripturally oriented.”  Much of Islamic religiosity centers on reading, reciting, listening to, studying and reflecting on the Qur’an.  Believing that the Qur’an is God’s own speech, reading and hearing the Qur’an are for Muslims encounters with God who reveals, teaches, and forms believers in faith and obedience.

Islamic education of children begins with children learning to read the Qur’an, despite the fact that for over 80% of Muslims Arabic is a foreign language.  Because of its archaic language and the allusive, associative style of the Qur’an, it is not easy for modern persons to understand without careful study and instruction.  Thus, the focus of religious education among Muslims is on study groups, sermons and lectures aimed at explaining the Qur’anic text and its application to daily life.

Muslims place great value on memorizing the Qur’an.  All Muslims are expected memorize some portions, and special honor is given to a person (hâfiz/hâfiza) who has memorized the entire Qur’an.  It is considered sinful to allow this competence to lapse through negligence; thus the hâfiz takes on a lifetime responsibility.  Qur’an recitation is an important part of Islamic devotional life.  Reciting the Qur’an is a sacred act, demanding careful attention and preparation, beginning, like all Islamic duties, with an act of intention (niyya), by which Muslims consecrate their efforts to God’s service and praise.

Recitation of the Qur’an is complemented by private reading and study.  The Qur’an is divided into 30 approximately equal parts so that a Muslim can conveniently read the whole Qur’an in the course of a month.  Especially in Ramadan, Muslims are encouraged to read the entire Qur’an.

4. Belief in the Angels

Islam teaches that there are good angels, whom God has given particular tasks.  The Qur’an gives special attention to Jibril (Gabriel), the angel of inspiration who brings revelation to the prophets.  In Islam, Gabriel is identified with the Holy Spirit.  As in the Jewish and Christian traditions, some angels rebelled and were cast out of heaven. Led by Iblis (or Shaytan), they tempt humans to disbelieve and disobey God. The Qur’an acknowledges lesser spirits, (jinn), some of whom are good, while others are evil.  The spirit world, a widespread phenomenon of traditional Asian religiosity, is identified by Muslims with the jinn.

5. Belief in the Final Judgment

Muslims await a Day of Final Judgment at which God will judge people according to their deeds. This doctrine emphasizes human responsibility for one’s actions; one day, God will ask each to account for the way they lived.  The Qur’an teaches that Jews, Christians, and Sabaeans, along with Muslims, who believe in God and the Last Day, will have nothing to fear nor will they lose their reward.  At the Final Judgment, the prophets will intercede for their respective communities (Moses for Jews, Jesus for Christians, Muhammad for Muslims).  On the Last Day, humanity will consist of three groups:

1) The damned, who disbelieved and disobeyed, will be consigned to the fires of Hell.

2) The saved, who believed and obeyed, will be rewarded with Paradise (janna, the Garden).

3) The holy ones, min al muqarrabin, whom God has graciously brought near to Himself.

ISLAH (UPRIGHTNESS), IHSAN (GOODNESS)

The third part of the Islamic religion emphasizes that a good, upright Muslim must not be satisfied with doing the minimum, but must make one’s whole life conform to God’s will. The “pillars” of islam and iman indicate the basic minimum that Muslims must fulfill in order to be saved on the Last Day.  The good Muslim is urged to go far beyond that.

To this end, they are encouraged to perform voluntary religious acts in addition to the obligatory pillars.  Besides the obligatory salât, there are recommended times of salât, such as during the night and on special occasions; further prostrations may be added to those required; many forms of informal prayer, du’a, are considered meritorious but not required.  In addition to zakât, Muslims are urged to give alms (sadaqa) spontaneously to the poor.  To the fast of Ramadan, many pious Muslims add recommended fasts, (e.g., every Monday and Thursday, or they extend the Ramadan fast by beginning two months early, making it a three month fast).  In addition to the hajj, Muslims perform the umra, an informal pilgrimage to Mecca outside the hajj season.

The Sunna

Recommended acts by which the Muslim can conform every aspect of life to God’s will comprise the sunna.  The sunna includes both ritual acts (prayer, fasting etc.) and instructions on the proper way to carry out worldly affairs like receiving guests, eating, travel, dress, doing business, family relations, even the performance of bodily functions.  For example, it is sunna to greet a guest with Al-salamu ‘alaykum.  Circumcision of boys is sunna.  It is sunna to call people to prayer from the minaret.  The sunna is derived from the practice of Muhammad found in the collections of hadîth reports of his sayings, deeds and decisions. Islamic life can be called an “imitation of Muhammad,” who, as the first hearer of the Qur’an, lived perfectly in response to its teachings.  Muhammad is seen as the model Muslim who lived, to the smallest detail, in accord with the Qur’anic message.

Information about the life and deeds of Muhammad is found in the early biographies and in the collections of hadîth reports.  Of over 100,000 hadîths, about 2000 are soundly authenticated and form the basis of Islamic faith and practice.  With the Qur’an, sound hadîths are the source of the sunna.  The hadîth reports elaborate the teachings of the Qur’an and also counsel Muslims on the interior attitude that should accompany Islamic practices.  For example, a hadîth regarding almsgiving recalls Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount: “If you give alms openly, that is good, but if you give them to the needy in secret, it is even better, and will atone for some of your bad deeds.”

The Shari’a

The Qur’an and sunna form the main bases of the sharî’a, the Islamic way of life.  Containing elements of law, but going far beyond the notion of law, the sharî’a indicates the totality of actions and attitudes that characterize Islamic life and society.  Elaborated by the science of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), the sharî’a covers every aspect of human life, from personal affairs and family relations to the social, economic, and political organization of the community.

Muslim scholars speak of four sources of the shari’a: 1) the divine source, the Qur’an; 2) the prophetic source, the sound hadith from the prophet Muhammad; 3) the communitarian, called ijma’, the consensus of the community; 4) the effort of the individual believer, ijtihad, to apply the shari’a in the context of place, time, and culture.  Far from being embarrassed by having a religion of law, Muslims believe that the sharî’a is one of God’s greatest gifts.

Although the word shari’a does not appear in the Qur’an, all Muslims agree that the concept can be found there.  In the Qur’an there are many regulations and legal decisions aimed at giving guidance to the Islamic community in matters related to the ordering of life in society.  In the first centuries after the time of Muhammad, Muslim scholars undertook the task of gathering, organizing, and giving a theoretical framework, basic principles, and systematic method of development to these regulations.  Many legal systems, (madhhab, pl. madhâhib) appeared in the Islamic community and, in the course of time, four systems were eventually recognized among Sunni Muslims.  Shi’a have their own Ja’fari madhhab.

Each madhhab is considered acceptable, and theoretically every Muslim is free to choose and follow any madhhab.  The practical demands of living together have required that, in every region, one or another madhhab is dominant.  In North and West Africa, Maliki law is followed.  In Southeast Asia, Gujarat in India, southern Arabia, East Africa, and the city of Cairo in Egypt, it is the Shafi’i madhhab which dominates.  The Hanafi system is the most widespread, covering most of the Arab countries of the Middle East, Turkey, Central Asia, and the nations of the Indian subcontinent.  Since the main regions of Muslim  immigration to Europe and North America were those of Hanafi tradition, the Hanafi madhhab is also the main legal system followed there.  The Hanbali madhhab is the most restricted geographically, followed only in Saudi Arabia.

The function of the shari’a in Islam is to enable the believer to know the will of God in every aspect of life.  Since the revelation of  the Qur’an, humans can no longer claim ignorance or use the pretext that they “do not know.”  The shari’a is meant to make the will of God clear in all situations and hence covers the personal, familial, social, economic, and governmental spheres of life.  Being able to know the will of God focuses the attention of the believer on the question of obedience, to obey and submit one’s life to God or knowingly choose to disobey God’s commands.  The shari’a has many parts dealing with distinct areas of life.  There are sections on faith and what to believe (aqîdah); ritual, the correct way to pray, fast, pay the poor tax, go on pilgrimage etc. (ibâdât; economic affairs (mu’amalât); principles of government (siyâsah); punishments (hudûd); family law (al-ahwâl al-shakhsiyya); and moral instruction (akhlâq).

According to the principles of fiqh, every human act falls into one of five categories.  These categories are flexible, and circumstances can and do influence the moral nature of the act.  The study of fiqh determines the relative weight that is to be given to often conflicting circumstances.

1) obligatory: the omission of which, without serious reason, is a serious sin,

2) recommended: these acts, forming the important category of sunna, are highly encouraged, but no sin is attached to their omission,

3) indifferent: one can perform or omit.

4) reprehensible: acts that should be avoided, although they are not strictly forbidden,

5) forbidden: serious sins that demand repentance and forgiveness from God.

The shari’a is personal law, applying to members of a specific religious community.  Muslims also recognize the shari’a of Christians, brought by Jesus, and the shari’a of Jews, brought by Moses.  This is in contrast to the Western territorial concept of law.  Western law codes apply to all persons living within a certain territory, irrespective of religion, race, or social class.

In pre-colonial Muslim society, each religious community was governed by its own laws in matters of personal law and each had its own recognized status, rights, and duties.  The state intervened in cases of conflict between the communities.  During the colonial period, most Muslim regions became subject to territorial law imposed by the colonial powers.  After independence, most Muslim states simply updated and modified colonial law, although some movements today advocate a return to the shari’a system that predated the colonial era.  This often means application of the shari’a as a kind of territorial law of the state.

Modern debate over the nature of the shari’a

Until the 20th century, the shari’a was assumed to have found its final, complete form codified in the four madhhabs.  Fiqh was limited to the study of differences between the four systems and to the application of principles that had already been determined.  The door of ijtihad, the principle of personal effort, was said to be closed.  Ordinary Muslims were not expected to do ijtihad, but rather to obey the legal opinions of the legal scholars.

This concept is challenged today by Muslim scholars.  They stress the necessity for each Muslim to engage in ijtihad, to the extent they are able, in order to arrive at personal moral decisions.  The shari’a has to be adapted and modified to express the will of God in every social situation and culture in which Muslims live, and rethought at each new period of history.  This can only happen if Muslims see ijtihad not as an activity limited to highly educated legal scholars, but the duty of each Muslim, to the extent that their knowledge and abilities permit.  The debate about the nature of the shari’a, and specifically the use of ijtihad, is heatedly discussed by Muslims today.

Jihâd

The word jihâd means “struggle” and is a duty of every Muslim.  Jihad implies that it is not easy to live completely in accord with God’s will.  It takes effort, personal sacrifice, and deep motivation to let God’s will be sovereign in a person’s life.  Simply pronouncing the shahada does not mean that someone has fully submitted every aspect of his/her life to the will of God.  This is a lifetime effort, one that is never finished, one that allows no complacency or self-satisfaction.

Muslims distinguish between three facets of jihad:

1) The first, called “the greatest struggle” (al-jihad al-akbar) is the interior jihad, the continual, ongoing effort to make every area of personal life conform to God’s will.  It is an effort that ceases only with death.  Most people find it easy to submit to God’s will in some areas of life, but hold back in others (e.g., a man will be faithful in prayer but find honesty very difficult; a woman will be a loving wife and mother but hate her in-laws.)  The “greatest struggle” is to bring every area of life under God’s reign.

2) The second aspect, which  may be called “social jihad,” involves building society according to God’s will.  It is a struggle to be people of faith in modern, secular societies.  Parents who raise children to be God-fearing people, teachers who conscientiously impart education, those who work for the development of their people are engaged in this type of jihad.

3) Muslims must oppose all forms of injustice and oppression.  When force is the only way this can be accomplished, Muslims can use force and, when necessary, engage in military action.  This third facet of jihad, which is quite rare in real life, has given rise among non-Muslims to the idea that Islam has a concept of “Holy War.”  The concept of jihad, which generally has little to do with fighting and killing, can be exploited by unscrupulous rulers, ethnic nationalist movements, and fiery preachers to mobilize Muslims for particular causes.  Christians, aware of their own frequently bloody history, despite the non-violent teaching and example of Jesus, will not be surprised that religious concepts can sometimes be manipulated and coopted for worldly ends.

The Sufi tradition in Islam

It is not possible to speak of islah without referring to the Sufi tradition.  Sufism is not a separate religion nor a “parallel path “ opposed to Islam as practiced according to the shari’a.  Sufism is rather an Islamic movement that intends to discover and elaborate on the spiritual elements already found in the pillars of islam and iman in order to lead people to a union of love with God.  Sufis see their efforts as an expression of the “interior struggle,” al-jihad al-akbar, to attain a union of love and will with God.  The Sufis drew up a practical program of inner growth and spiritual direction so that ordinary Muslim “laity” - manual laborers, craftsmen, housewives, farmers - could live united with God in the midst of their daily activities.

From the first generations, some Muslims stressed the potential of the Qur’anic message to transform a believer inwardly.  They protested against the worldly power and wealth that entered the community soon after the death of Muhammad.  They stressed the need for a simple, prayer-centered life and adopted many ascetical practices.  Starting from Qur’anic teaching, they stressed the transforming power of God’s love.  Their early leader and hero, Hasan al-Basri, criticized rulers for luxury and nepotism.

By the second century there was already a community of ascetics in Abbadan (modern Iraq) who wrote treatises about the love of God.  About this time, they began to be called “Sufis,” although the origin of the word is disputed (suf, wool; ahlu saffa, people of the bench; safa’, purity.)

Spiritual teachers attracted disciples and wrote down instructions for their students.  Chains of initiation grew up, so that a student on the path identified, through his spiritual teacher and teacher’s teacher, with one of the great spiritual masters of the past.  In the early centuries, Sufi life was informal, disciples gathered around a spiritual guide (Arabic, shaykh, Persian, pir, with the Hindi word guru often used in the Indian subcontinent and the Javanese kiai in Indonesia).

The Sufi Orders

In 1258, the Mongol armies destroyed Baghdad, killed the Calif and his family, and burned the great educational institutions and mosques.  The “old order” in Islam was dead, and new movements and forms of Islam took its place.  Prominent among these were the Sufi Orders.  Noted Sufis wrote a Rule by which their disciples should live.  Each Sufi Order (tariqa) was distinguished by particular dress, and each had its own system of initiation and novitiate, its own lodges or convents, and was characterized by distinctive forms of prayer and patterns of spiritual exercises.

Between the 14th and 18th centuries, most Muslims were inscribed in one or more Sufi Orders.  Some were made up of mainly intellectuals and scholars, others drew from one or another craft guild, from soldiers, the urban poor, or peasant farmers.  Many of the Sufis were missionary-minded and accompanied traders on their business trips to Asia.  As the merchants conducted business, the Sufis preached Islam to the masses, and it was primarily through their activity that, in the 14-15th centuries, the mass conversions to Islam came about in South and Southeast Asia.

The Sufi Path

The Sufis saw Islam as a path leading progressively to union with God.  God was called “the Beloved” and mystical poetry used the human experience of passionate love as a symbol of the relationship between the mystic and God.  Many longed for death in order to be united forever with the Beloved.

The pir prescribed a program of spiritual exercises tailored to the seeker’s personality, needs and state of life.  Under the guidance of the director, the seeker passed through a series of stations (maqâmât) to overcome the human obstacles to God’s grace.  Sufi convents had special rooms set aside for retreatants who would retire in silence for prayer for 3-7-30 days  The Sufi would have to learn humility, obedience, poverty, patience, diligence, temperance in matters of food and sex, etc.  After progressing to a certain point, the Sufi would be blessed with special states (hal, pl. ahwâl), when God would enlighten the heart with strong experiences of love, trust, joy, fear of the Lord, etc., intervening directly by grace to carry the believer farther along the Path.  These states were not always uplifting.  The Sufis knew the Dark Nights (qabd) described by Christian mystics, when they had to trust in God despite the lack of sensible or emotional evidence.

The final state is that of fanâ’ when all else passes away and what remains (baqâ’) is God’s loving presence.  With this, the Sufi arrives at the Truth (Al-Haqq), the ultimate goal of life, a union with God where the believer no longer has an independent will, but desired only the will of God.  Those acquainted with Christian spiritual traditions will find parallels between the stages of the Sufi path and the purgative, illuminative and unitive ways described by Christian mystics.           

Dhikr

A distinctive characteristic of Sufi spirituality is the way they developed the Qur’anic injunction to “Remember God often” (33:40).  Dhikr means “remembrance” and refers to many forms of repetitive prayer whose purpose is to center one’s attention on God’s immanent  presence in the heart of the believer.  Dhikr may be done alone and silently recited aloud in groups, often accompanied by bodily movements, musical chanting and instruments.  A popular form of dhikr is the rosary (tasbîh), which the Muslim uses to recite the Beautiful Names of God.  99 Divine Names are mentioned in the Qur’an, hence Muslim rosary beads usually have 99, 66, or 33 beads.  Each name corresponds to one of God’s qualities, hence the prayer becomes a meditation on God’s nature and characteristics.  The most common form of praying the tasbih is to recite Subhan Allah (Glory be to God), Al-hamdu li’lillah (Praise God), and Allahu akbar (God is greater) each 33 times.

Wahdat al-wujud (the Oneness of Reality)

Sufi emphasis on unity with God led some to elaborate a kind of pantheism.  God is the only true reality, and all other beings are imperfect manifestations of the One Reality.  To unenlightened persons, reality appears multiple, but to the mystic who has discovered “the secret,” the creatures of this world are seen to have no existence other than God.  The proponents of wahdat al-wujud used images such as the sun and its rays, shadows on a wall, a coconut - hard, ugly, and inedible on the outside, but once one has cracked its secret, full of sweet meat and drink.  This view was strongly rejected by other Muslims, who believed that wahdat al-wujud made God wholly immanent and destroyed God’s essential differentness and transcendence. The resulting controversy resulted in some of the earliest Muslim literature in South and Southeast Asia.

In this century, the influence of Sufism has declined, but in many parts of the Islamic world Sufism is still very much alive and active.  South Asia (Bangladesh, India, Pakistan), West Africa, the Maghrib, Egypt, Sudan, and the Central Asian former Soviet republics are outstanding examples.

MUHAMMAD: THE PROPHET OF ISLAM

Muhammad’s early life before his prophetic call

Muhammad was born about the year 570 in Mecca, near the west coast of central Arabia.  Due to continuing wars between the Byzantine and Persian empires, the normal trade routes between India and the Mediterranean were disrupted, which proved to be a boon for towns like Mecca along the Arabian caravan route.  Mecca was more prosperous than its neighbors because of the presence of the Ka’ba, a pagan shrine for all Arabian tribes, and hence a haram where killing was not permitted.

Although Muhammad came from the dominant tribe, Quraysh, his early life was hard.  His father, ‘Abdullah, died before he was born, and his mother, Amina, died when he was two.  He went to live with his grandfather, who died a few years later and Muhammad was raised by his uncle.  The insecurity of Muhammad’s orphaned youth is reflected in some Qur’anic passages.

At about the age of 12, Muhammad went to work on the caravans bearing goods to Damascus and Jerusalem, which brought him into contact with new cultures and religions.  At the age of 19 he was hired by a wealthy widow, Khadija, to manage her caravans, and a few years later, they married.  It was apparently a happy marriage, although Khadija was 16 years older than Muhammad, and Muhammad never took a second wife while Khadija was alive.  With his marriage, Muhammad’s fortunes changed.  He became a respected member of the community with no financial problems, and had four daughters but no surviving sons.  Muhammad might well have spent the rest of his days as a successful businessman, but at the age of 40, he underwent a religious crisis.

The religious situation in Arabia at the time of Muhammad

1. The Peoples of the Book.

The religious options in Arabia were limited.  There were many Jews and Christians in various parts of Arabia, but few, if any, in Mecca, the pagan stronghold.  Some tribes in northern Arabia (present-day Jordan) had converted to Christianity and there were several important Jewish tribes in the region of Madina (300 km to the north of Mecca).  A significant presence of Christians in the Arabian wasteland was the desert monasteries, Christian monks who believed that life in the cities was morally corrupt and fled to the desert to lead lives of prayer and penance.  The monasteries also performed a social function, for they were centers of hospitality for travelers stranded in the desert and harams where the ancient Arab practice of vengeance could not be carried out - in short, oases of peace and safety in a harsh, unforgiving environment.

The Jewish Scriptures and those of the Christians were not translated into Arabic, which made them inaccessible to most Arabs.  As religious communities that possessed Sacred Scriptures, they were known as the People of the Book.  Politically, the Christians tended to be allied with the Byzantine Empire, while the Jews were supporters of the Persian Shah.

2. Traditional Arabian religion.

Each tribe had its own male and female deities.  Every Arabian tribe had the right to worship its gods at the Ka’ba and to keep there the necessary instruments of worship - statues, texts, musical instruments, potions etc.  Every year the tribes had the right to safe passage to Mecca to make pilgrimage.  So that the tribes could feel free to come and worship, Mecca was declared a haram where killing and vengeance were taboo.  Merchants, happy to know that their business affairs would not be disturbed by tribal conflicts, found Mecca an attractive site for their shops and storerooms.  Thus, the financial prosperity of Mecca was bound up with the presence of the pagan cult in Mecca.

3. The hanif community.

These were Arabs who rejected the pagan polytheism centered about the Ka’ba.  They believed in One God and felt themselves akin to Jews and Christians, although they were unable to read their Scriptures.  They were ummi, that is, people who knew no language other than Arabic.  They were native Arab monotheists who traced their faith to that of Abraham, and they awaited an Arab prophet who would bring to them “a Book in clear Arabic” containing the same message found in the Books of Jews and Christians.  Hanif  poets wrote long poems in praise of Allah, and the hanifs met for informal worship of the one God.

The first revelations to Muhammad

In the year 610, when he was about 40 years old, Muhammad could no longer accept the pagan cult at the Ka’ba.  The multiplicity of gods and the myths of gods having sexual relations and begetting children seemed to him unworthy of the deity.  More serious still was the lack of any social consciousness in the pagan religion.  Although Mecca was enjoying a period of prosperity, many people had few or no rights.  Women, slaves, outcasts, and foreigners especially suffered.  Women were sold from father to husband, who could divorce his wives at will, and female infanticide was a common practice.  There was no mechanism by which slaves could buy or earn their freedom.  Since people were protected by their tribes, outcasts and travelers had no protection in law.  The pagan religion gave no moral guidance in these matters; there was no concept of a person’s being held accountable for one’s actions.

Muhammad was attracted by the superior moral sense of Jews and Christians and by their understanding of the One God who had a moral will for humans.  But like many Arabs, he felt a perpetual outsider to the communities of the Book, whose language he did not know.  Thus, Muhammad began to associate with the hanifs, where he learned of their identification with the faith of Abraham and their longing for a prophet of their own who would bring a book in Arabic.

Muhammad began to withdraw more and more from his business affairs and to seclude himself for days at a time in the small cave of Hira near Mecca, where he would pray and reflect about the social and religious situation in Arabia.  On one of these occasions, he had a kind of mystical experience in which he heard a voice say, “Recite, in the name of your Lord who created...” (Qr 96:2-6).  Muslims accept these as the first verses of the Qur’an to be revealed.  At first, Muhammad was frightened by the experience and told no one but his wife, Khadija.  Khadija took him to see her uncle, Waraqa ibn Nawfal, who knew a bit about Judaism and Christianity.  Waraqa reassured Muhammad that the message he received issued from the same source as the books of the Jews and Christians.

Muhammad in Mecca

Some time later, Muhammad received a message to preach and warn.  He began preaching to the Meccans, warning them to repent and believe in the one God or else they would meet destruction.  The Meccan leaders refused to accept the preaching of Muhammad, for they felt that the pagan worship centered on the Ka’ba was an important factor in Mecca’s prosperity.  They claimed that Muhammad was lying about the revelations, that he was inspired by one of the jinn, that he had gone mad, or that he was learning things from a secret informant.

Some people in Mecca believed in the message that Muhammad was preaching.  Most were from disadvantaged social groups - slaves, women, outcasts, but a few men of better families (e.g., Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and the boy Ali), believed in him.  Muhammad taught the Qur’anic verses to his followers, who memorized and recited them at night.  The Meccan leaders tried to ostracize the  Muslims and to persecute the weaker among them.  At one point, a group of Muslims took refuge in Christian Ethiopia, where they were received well by the local ruler.

Muhammad in Madina (Yathrib)

After about 11 years of struggle, Muhammad was invited to Yathrib, a city on the caravan route north of Mecca.  Learning of a plot by the Meccans to kill him, Muhammad and Abu Bakr fled to Yathrib, which later came to be called “Madina,” that is, “the City [of the Prophet].”  The year of the Hijra, the Emigration to Madina, 622 A.D., is the beginning of the Islamic era, that is, year 0 from which all later years would be counted.

Madina was a city divided between several Jewish and pagan tribes.  They were looking for an impartial judge to decide matters of conflict between rival tribes.  With the emigration of Muslims from Mecca, Muhammad gradually became the ruler of Madina in every sense.  There he sought to build a society according to the principles of the Qur’an.  At this point, Muhammad received a revelation to fight against the pagans in Mecca and began to raid the Meccan caravans.  Civil war ensued, with the various Arab tribes taking one or another side.  As the Muslims gradually gained in strength against their Meccan opponents, Muhammad announced that they would make the hajj to Mecca.  The Meccan leaders found it difficult to oppose this plan, since all Arabs had the right to safe passage in order to make the pilgrimage.  A compromise was reached by which the Muslims would be permitted to make the pilgrimage the following year.  During that year, so many Arab tribes pledged allegiance to Muhammad, that when the Muslims came to Mecca, the Meccan leaders surrendered the city to them without a battle.

Muhammad’s life was nearly over.  After retiring to Madina, he announced a final pilgrimage to Mecca.  Every detail of that pilgrimage was remembered and recorded.  On the Day of Witness at Mt. Arafat, he preached his final sermon, “Today, your religion is completed.”  A short time later, after returning to Madina, he died.

The period of the Rightly-Guided Califs

It is disputed as to whether or not Muhammad left any instructions concerning his successor.  Most Sunni scholars claim that he did not, while Shi’i scholars claim that he had verbally appointed Ali.  In any case, on the day of his death, Muslims gathered in Madina to determine his successor.  The majority chose as khalifa (calif) Abu Bakr, one of the first Muslims, a close friend and associate of Muhammad.  A minority felt that Ali, the son-in-law of Muhammad, was the  proper choice.  The fact that Ali was still very young probably influenced the majority to choose the elderly, highly respected Abu Bakr.  Abu Bakr governed the community for less than two years before he also died.  In the election that followed his death, the majority chose Umar to be the second calif, again passing over Ali against the wishes of his supporters.  The “faction” or party supporting Ali was called “the faction of Ali (shi’at Ali), or simply, Shi’a.

Under the dynamic leadership of Umar, the Arabs left Arabia and conquered Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Iran.  The conquests brought the Muslims power and wealth and made them rulers of ancient centers of Middle Eastern civilization.  During the time of Umar, Islam evolved from becoming a religion of local Arabs to a truly international religion, extending from Morocco to Sind (in modern Pakistan.)  After Umar was killed by an unhappy slave, Muslim leaders again met to choose a khalifa.  Although Ali was by then an adult and supported by a greater number of Muslims, the choice fell to Uthman, another early Companion and member of the wealthiest and most powerful clan of the Quraysh.  Uthman seems to have been a basically good Muslim, but did not have the strength of character of Abu Bakr and Umar.  Corruption and nepotism set in, with Uthman appointing his cousins as governors of Egypt, Syria, and Iraq.

A delegation from Egypt came to Mecca to complain about what they considered excessive taxation. A brief battle occurred and Uthman was killed.  In the following election, Ali was elected the Fourth Calif.  Muawiya, Uthman’s cousin and governor of Syria, accused Ali of being the mastermind behind the death of Uthman.  According to Arab tradition, he claimed vengeance upon his cousin’s murderer.  (Historians find no evidence of Ali’s involvement in a plot to kill Uthman and suspect that Muawiya was driven more by ambition than righteous vengeance.)  Muawiya raised a powerful army and eventually Ali was defeated.  Muawiya governed the Muslim world from Damascus and inaugurated Islam’s first dynasty, the Umayyad.  Muslim historians tend to picture the Umayyads in a harsh light, as being greedy and repressive, but also lax Muslims given to luxury, wine, and promiscuity.  The notable exception is Umar II, a pious and effective ruler.

The Growth of Shi’i Islam

From the time of the death of Muhammad, the Shi’a had always regarded Ali as the only proper successor to Muhammad.  To them, Muawiya was a godless usurper who replaced Islamic theocracy with a traditional Middle Eastern state.  They considered Ali a martyr and recounted many stories of his sanctity.  Of Ali’s two sons, Hasan and Hussein, it was Hussein who opposed the Umayyad ruler, Yazid, the son of Muawiya.  At the Battle of Karbela (in modern Iraq), Hussein and many of his supporters were killed.  In the eyes of the Shi’a, Hussein was the preeminent martyr, the innocent upholder of justice, killed by the tyrant Yazid.  A concept of redemption evolved in which Hussein bearing the sins of all, in his death brought reconciliation for wrongs committed by men.  Hussein’s martyrdom is commemorated annually by Shi’a on 10 Muharram.

Most Shi’a accept 12 Imams in the direct line of Muhammad (through Ali and Fatima), while a minority, called Ismailis, accept 7 Imams.  The Imams are considered infallible teachers and their words, with the Qur’an and hadith, are the basis for Islamic practice.  They await the return of the final Imam, the Mahdi, who is invisibly present in the world and will, at the correct moment, return to establish a reign of justice and truth on earth. Most Iranian Muslims are “Twelver” Shi’a, as are many Muslims in Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, and Bahrain.  Ismailis (“Sevener” Shi’a) are especially prominent in Pakistan and northern India.

SPREAD OF ISLAM TO ASIA

Early period: the spread of Islam to Asia (800-1300)

Muslims arrived in Asia in the first century after the death of Muhammad.  In some cases, it was Arab armies who brought Islamic rule through military conquest.  This was the case among the Turkic peoples of Central Asia, in Sind in Pakistan and later on generally in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent.  More often, Islam was introduced to Asia peacefully by Arab and Persian merchants.  Following established pre-Islamic commercial routes, these traders set up foreign merchant communities of Muslims in the port cities of the Indian Ocean and along the famous “Silk Road” between China and the Mediterranean.

Because the sea voyage in the Indian Ocean and the land trip across the Silk Road took between 1½-2 years, Muslim firms set up local offices to handle affairs.  Some Muslims married local women and raised families, who were expected to adopt the Islamic faith.  Local employees also frequently accepted Islam and in this way the local foreign communities began to include a limited number of local Muslims.  In some places, these mixed communities of Muslim traders left the port cities to travel inland in small boats, along the canals of Burma and Thailand, and up the river system of modern-day Bangladesh.

Not all foreign Muslims remained in Asia by choice.  Bankruptcies, confiscated vessels, shipwrecks, and the changeable policies of local rulers prevented some merchants and sailors from returning to the Middle East.  Thus in the port cities of the Indian Ocean, the caravan stops along the overland routes, and along the inland waterways, small communities of local Muslims began to arise.  In this early period, the instances of mass conversions of local inhabitants to Islam were few, although there were some notable exceptions, such as in Sind in modern Pakistan and among the Champa people of Cambodia.

The age of expansion: conversion of Asians to Islam (1300-1500)

In 1258, Baghdad, the religious, cultural, and political center of the Islamic world, was conquered and destroyed by the Mongol armies.  Although the Calif and his whole family were killed, a distant relative escaped to Cairo and was set up as calif.  However, never again did the calif wield any real power.  He remained a figurehead until Ataturk’s suppression of the califate in the 1920s.

To fill the vacuum created by the destruction of the key political and educational institutions in Islam, new movements arose.  The most important were the Sufi Orders.  Mystically-inclined Muslims had been present in the Islamic community since its beginnings, but in the 14th Century, they gathered into brotherhoods and became the most dynamic force in Islam.  Dedicated to achieving a union of love and will with God and driven by great missionary zeal, the Sufis began to accompany the merchants on their commercial trips to Asia.  Through their preaching, many were attracted to Islam.  The fact that most Asian peoples accepted Islam strongly marked by the mystical, inner-oriented interpretation of the Sufi preachers had important consequences on its subsequent development and history in Asia.

Islam in the colonial period: the Sufi revival (1550-1800)

The early Sufis did not place great emphasis on doctrinal formulation or political questions, but emphasized interior piety and submission to God’s will.  Instead of a confrontative approach to traditional Asian spirituality, a pantheistic nature religiosity centered on cosmic and interiorharmony, the Sufis focused on a few basic principles of Islam - the oneness of God, the necessity of prayer and fasting, and prohibitions against pork and alcohol - and accommodated many traditional practices related to the spirit world and the cult of holy persons and places.

Islam was implanted in Asian societies for a relatively short time when most predominantly Muslim regions came to be conquered and governed by non-Muslim powers.  In South and Southeast Asia it was European Christian powers - first the Portuguese, then Dutch, British, Spaniards, Americans, and Russians who came to dominate Muslim regions.  In the same period, Buddhist Chinese, Thai, and Burmese incorporated Muslim regions into their domains.

During the 17-18th centuries, the early colonial period saw a reformist trend initiated by international Sufi brotherhoods, particularly the Naqshbandiyya and the Qadiriyya, who sought to bring about a deeper Islamic awareness based on better religious education.  While not forbidding the traditional rites centered on cemeteries, local shrines of holy persons, healing practices, and the spirit world dwelling in caves, mountains, the sea, and banyan trees, the Sufi reformers worked to instill authentic Islamic practice among Muslims.

Islamic revival and the struggle for independence (1800-1945)

When Muslims looked around the world at the beginning of the 19th Century, many asked, “What went wrong?”  From having, in previous centuries, the world’s most powerful, advanced, and prosperous states in the Ottoman, Safavid and Moghul empires, they had almost everywhere succumbed to the rule of others.  A radical response was provided by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab in Arabia, who held that it was because they deviated from the true Islamic path that Muslim peoples arrived at their low state.  He felt that nothing less than a return to the pure, original Islam would permit Muslims to achieve their past glory.

Those who took up these views were called Wahhabis.  They wanted not only to purify Islam of all accretions and novelties that had wrongly been accepted as Islamic in the course of time, but they held that the Sufi preoccupation with Islam as a personal, spiritual path to God was in itself a distortion of the original intent of the religion.  They claimed that Islam was meant to be a program for building a human society whose every aspect was to be lived in accord with the will of God.  Islam was not simply, or even primarily, to be seen as a set of pious practices leading to mystical union.  Many hajjis making the pilgrimage to Mecca encountered Wahhabi ideas in Arabia and brought these views back with them to their homelands in Asia.

The Wahhabi understanding of Islam had political implications.  If God intended the Islamization of society in all its social, economic, and political aspects, it was felt that this could only be done if Muslims themselves were in control of the political systems.  Their political theory held that the state existed to permit Muslims to foster the Islamization process and to forbid and punish wrongdoing.  They felt that the Sufis, with their spiritual programs, ignored political realities and held Muslims back from the task of reforming society according to God’s will.

The Muslim revival linked religious and political concerns.  To pursue their societal ends, they sought to create a state that would favor and implement these goals.  The first objective was to achieve liberation from non-Muslim rule. Revivalists began to work actively toward the overthrow of colonial regimes in order to create Islamic states that would support the Islamization of society.

Islamic revival in the modern nation states (1945-1995)

In the years after World War II, when most Muslim regions achieved independence, two organizations emerged to articulate the concept of the Islamic state.  In Egypt and other Arab countries, the Muslim Brotherhood, insisting that rule by Muslims did not ensure the creation of an Islamic state, worked to counter nationalist feelings that, in their view, divided rather than united the Islamic umma.  The harsh repression of the Brotherhood in Egypt and Syria convinced many that the new Arab regimes were as opposed to the creation of an Islamic state as the colonial regimes had been.

On the Indian subcontinent, the Jamiati Islami held that Islam offered the world an Islamic solution to every modern problem.  There was already an Islamic science, economics, politics, legal system, and educational program.  Muslims had only to search in their own early tradition to rediscover the ingredients necessary to develop Islamic alternatives to these secular fields.

As one predominately Muslim nation after another achieved independence after 1945, the revivalists hoped that Islamic states would be set up.  The actual Muslim rule that replaced the colonial regimes was, however, far from their ideals of the Islamic state.  The new ruling class throughout the Muslim world generally adopted the principles of nationalism and created nation states on a European model.  Legal codes were based on those of Western nations and were usually mere revisions of colonial law.  On the grounds that it was more egalitarian and would prevent the abuses of uncontrolled capitalism, many of the ruling elites adopted socialist policies of a one-party state, state ownership of industries, and centrally planned economies.  Cultural mores as well as development concepts were taken from the West.

The creation of Pakistan

In the first decades after World War II, many Muslims were enthusiastic about the creation of Pakistan, which they considered a model for the modern Islamic democracy.  However, as the years passed, it became clear that Pakistan’s Islamic identity did not enable the country to overcome ethnic clashes, economic mismanagement and corruption, military takeovers, and equitable distribution of wealth.  Many Muslims claimed that the Pakistan model was a failed experiment and that a truly Islamic state would have to undergo a more revolutionary societal restructuring.

The Palestinian struggle

Shortly after the creation of Pakistan, in 1949, the emergence of the state of Israel had great influence on the thinking of militant Muslims.  Seen as a state for European Jews created in the Arab heartland by the Western powers to assuage their guilt for Europe’s treatment of its Jews, Israel was felt to be a continuation of colonial policies of forced implantation and lawless landgrabbing.  The Palestinian struggle became the symbol of oppressed Muslims striving to achieve, against all odds, liberation through armed rebellion .  The Palestinian cause engendered a conviction that the West, despite its professed concern for the development of Muslim nations, was in fact opposed to Islam and that Muslims were victims of injustice perpetrated by Western powers.

The disastrous defeat of the Arab alliance by Israel in 1967 was a watershed.  Egypt, the most populous and powerful Arab nation and its cultural capital, led by the charismatic Gamal Abd al-Nasser, with the financial support of other Arab countries, went down to quick and humiliating defeat by tiny Israel.  It was not only Nasser and the rhetoric of  pan-Arab nationalism that was discredited.  The military, on which millions of dollars had been spent, showed itself inept and corrupt.  Ineffective in its role of defending the nation, the military was often seen as existing primarily to preserve the internal status quo, enabling the ruling elites to govern by force, often against the will of the people.  Hopes that the Western powers would provide necessary assistance were dashed when those states supported Israel both financially and in international diplomatic fora such as the United Nations.  Many Muslims began to question the efficacy of nationalist thought and turned to religion to furnish more effective means to govern Muslim peoples.

The Iranian revolution

The 1979 Iranian revolution gave concrete shape to these grievances.  The world was amazed when religious solidarity enabled Iranian Muslims to overthrow with apparent ease a wealthy but unpopular Muslim regime, one which had been presumed to be the model of strength and stability.  The fact that the Shah’s regime strongly promoted secularization in the name of modernization and was closely allied to the West was not lost on revivalist Muslims.  The Islamic Republic of Iran replaced, in the minds of many, the failed Pakistan model of an Islamic state.  All observers, whether sympathetic or not, agree that the government of Ayatollah Khomeini was truly revolutionary in rethinking and reorganizing every aspect of social life according to Islamic principles.

Later events in the Muslim world encouraged the growth and spread of revivalist ideals.  The 1991 Gulf War and the continuing blockade against Iraq, along with economic and diplomatic measures taken against other outspoken Muslim nations, confirmed for many that the West, particularly the U.S.A., intended to isolate Muslim countries much as communist states had previously been  isolated.  The electoral victory of the Front Islamique du Salut in Algeria in 1992 showed that a grass-roots Islamic political movement could succeed through democratic processes.  The uncritical welcome granted by Western powers to the establishment of a repressive military dictatorship in Algeria, confirmed to many Muslims the shallowness of European rhetoric about democracy as well as its implacable enmity towards Islam.

Revivalist critique of modernity

There are many factors underlying Muslim revival movements in Asia today.  There is a criticism of the Sufi roots and a desire to reorient the inner-directed thrust of Sufism towards an activist program of social reform.  Muslim revivalists propose a political philosophy that holds that the state should be an instrument to promote Islamic values and way of life.  In many countries, revivalist Islam is an attractive alternative that promises to resolve the crises in existing institutions: the lack of effective and representative government, the wasteful yet ambiguous role of the military, the failure of socialist central planning and management of the economy, and the institutionalization of the traditional ulama which turned them into government servants rather than being spokespersons for the people.

This is accompanied by a harsh critique of modernity.  By modernity is not meant technological advances in communications, transportation and consumer goods.  Muslims are ready to accept and use all these to promote their cause.  What they object to are the philosophical presuppositions of the modern way of life, its understanding of humankind and its place in the universe, and the values that derive from this philosophy of life.  This comprehensive philosophy, growing historically out of the European ideals of the Enlightenment, is often referred to as liberalism.

A conflict of values

Muslims see a fundamental conflict of values in today’s world.  The liberal value system is anthropocentric, with the individual at the center of the universe.  This philosophy of life exalts human dignity, freedom, and rights.  Fulfilling to the utmost one’s potential, capabilities, and legitimate desires is considered the highest human goal, and modern people must be free to achieve these aspirations.  The only limitation on human freedom is that in pursuing one’s objectives, the individual must not violate the rights of others to pursue and achieve their own goals.

While liberalism does not deny the existence of God or reject religion, it is skeptical of the ability of any religious system to attain truth and is opposed to the role of religion in public life.  Religion is admissible as the personal choice of some individuals who feel they need to give moral direction to their private and familial lives, but it has no place in public affairs.  The marketplace, social interaction and, above all, government, are spheres that must exist and operate outside the influence of religious thought.

Against liberal values, Muslim revivalists propose a theocentric system.  For them, God has revealed how humans should live and has laid down the principles on which society is to be built.  They feel that Western values lay so much stress on the individual person that the rights of society are ignored or denied.  They hold that the humanistic approach to morality espoused by Western modernity leads to dehumanization, where the person is viewed primarily as a consumer of goods, a prospective buyer to be reached by effective advertising, rather than as a creature of God called to live a simple, God-fearing, non-materialist life.

The emphasis on the individual divides the world into winners and losers.  The winners are those who obtain the best university education, achieve good, steady jobs, and the privileges that come with wealth and status.  The losers are driven to destructive activities such as crime, or self-destructive activities related to drugs, alcohol, gambling and sexual promiscuity.  What people need, Muslim critics claim, are not new and better consumer goods, but a clear sense that human life finds meaning in the context of an obedient and joyful response to the demands of God.

One of the most important arenas for Christian-Muslim dialogue today is a critical evaluation of modernity to distinguish the obvious benefits that modernization brings to humanity from the anti-religious and ultimately destructive attitudes that can often accompany it.