ISLAM ON BACKGROUND

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ISLAM ON BACKGROUND

• Prof. Waleed el-AnsaryUniversity of South
  CarolinaDepartment of Religious Studies

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GABRIEL

• Hadith of Gabriel
• Link to pdf file

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3 ASPECTS
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TAWHID

• Tawhid as doctrine of unity (also sometimes
  transliterated Tauhid)

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RELIGIONS

• Aspects of religions profession of faith
• Theistic
• Non-Theistic
• Atheistic

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PROPHETS

• Islamic concepts of prophets somewhat broader
  than in Christianity
• Rasul or prophet bringing tawhid and sacred law
• Nabi as messenger of news

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ALLAH

• Islamic Concept of God
• Personal divinity (referred to in masculine)
• Impersonal divinity (referred to in feminine)

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MESSAGER

• Islamic as theocentric
• Christianity as logocentric

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KNOWING GOD

• Problems of knowing God
• Divine names versus essence
• Formula of transcendence

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GODS WILL

• What does God will?
• InshaAllah

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5 PILLARS

• The five pillars of Islam
• 1. Profession of faith (shahadah)
• 2. Prayer (shalat)
• 3. Fasting (sawm, at Ramadhan)
• 4. Alms (zakat)
• 5. Pilgrimage (hajj umroh)

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I WITNESS

• Shahadah as profession of faith
• Normally translated along the lines of there
  is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet.

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II PRAYER

• Shalat (prayer), remembering attachment to God
• Morning (midpoint dawn sunrise)
• Noon (midpoint sunrise sunset)
• Afternoon (midpoint noon sunset)
• Sunset
• Night
• Astronomical observation as reflection of
  necessity of fixing prayer times, beginning of
  Ramadhan, etc.

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MOSQUE

• Mosque from mesjid meaning place of prostration,
  as opposed to sanctified place as such
• World as mosque, and nature as a place of worship

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LANGUAGE

• al Quran (aka Koran) as sacred word
• Arabic as direct language of revelation is sacred
• Thus, prayers are supposed to be in Arabic
• Embarassment currently with airport cases, etc.
• Concept of canonical prayer largely lost in West,
  still alive in Islamic world

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III FASTING

• Fasting (sawm) normally but not exclusively
  during Ramadhan is intended as third pillar and
  to separate one from ones body

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IV ALMS

• Alms (zakat as tax) to achieve detachment from
  goods
• Perhaps 2.5 wealth tax as tradition, but modern
  variation

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V HAJJ

• Pilgrimage or hajj to Mecca as Abrahamic
  exercise, so pre-islamic practice reconstituted
• Umroh or minor pilgrimage (often times thought
  desireable, but not required as pillar)

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SUNNI SHIA

• Sunni versus Shiite thought
• Most striking differences on political side in
  rulers qualifications
• Sunni-gt caliph as prophets representative
  consults with religious scholars, but need not be
  a technical expert on religion himself
• Shia-gt imam as religious expert necessary to be
  political leader, and so religious expert
  dimension makes popular selection problematic

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JIHAD

• Typical jihad as Holy War translation concept
  wrong
• Correct interpretation is rather inner battle
  against passions (actual battle or fighting is
  different concept)
• Hierarchy of Jihad
• Inner battle
• Moral applications
• Actual battle ( justified under Islamic thought
  if
• (1) Islamic borderlands threatened,
• (2) Moslems being slaughtered, or
• (3) fighting threates within the Islamic world
  (Napoleon earlier, later colonialism)

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ISLAMIC WORLD

• What is the Islamic world?
• Spread of Islam requires distinguishing between
  Islams political versus religious expansion
  (debate within Islamic law over political
  expansion)
• Arabian zone, Persian zone, Turkic zone, South
  Asia Malay Indonesian zones

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ANTI ELEMENTS

• Much of what is called jihad is simply opposition
  to western influences within the Islamic world
• But distinguish jihad (struggle) vs heraba
  (impermissible terrorism)
• In Islamic law, much of what is referred to in
  the West as Islamic terrorism is actually
  extremism as arbitrary interpretations leading to
  deviation judged as heraba

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ISLAMIC LAW

• Spectrum really, interpreted locally in terms of
  Quran haddiths, concept of fiqh as Islamic
  jurisprudence
• Some elements very specific (e.g., just war
  doctrine)
• Some matters more interpretation locally (e.g.,
  veiling or hijab, not literally required under
  Quran or traditional practice, not to mention
  cultural influences like burkas as full body
  cover except eye slit, etc.)

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GOD CAESAR

• Religion and the State different concepts in part
  as result of differing Sunni and Shia political
  philosophies re rulers qualifications
• Sunni-gt caliph as prophets representative
  consults with religious scholars, but need not be
  a technical expert on religion himself
• Shia-gt imam as religious expert necessary to be
  political leader, and so religious expert
  dimension makes popular selection problematic

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SHARIAH

• Islamic law as embodiment of divine will, but
  issues then of secular law in Islamic countries,
  who controls law (government vs clergy), and many
  more complication visible later in the course