Michael L. Satlow

Then and Now

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Judaism, Christianity, Islam: Module 5: Islam

We conclude with an academic survey of Islam.

I have created a Discussion Board, where you can also jot down your thoughts (organized by Module) and read the thoughts of others.  The Topic for this Module is here.

 Outcomes

By the end of this Module you should:

  • Better understand the historical relationship between Muslims, Jews and Christians;
  • Understand the role that political power has played in the development of Islam;
  • Be able to know the difference between and trace the historical split between Sunnis, Shi’ites, and Sufis;
  • Have a sense of the diversity of Islam, especially today, and the shape of political Islam;
  • Know what the Quran, haddith, tafsir, and fatwa are, and the authority that they each play in Islamic communities;
  • Have a sense of the Islamic legal system (shariah, fiqh)
  • Know the role that belief plays in Islam;
  • Know the Islamic understanding of “monotheism”;
  • Understand the role that Muhammad plays in Islam;
  • Know the basic concepts of Islamic belief, especially eschatology;
  • Know the different meanings of the term “jihad”;
  • Have a better sense of the role that women play in Islam
  • Know the basic structure of the Islamic calendar;
  • Know the basic structure of, and rituals around, salat;
  • Know the most important Islamic holidays, especially Ramadan and Eid;
  • Be familiar with the hajj;
  • Know some Islamic life-cycle rituals, particularly circumcision;
  • Know the basic rules and practice of zakat;
  • Know the most important things that are haram

1.  Watch the following short history of Islam

2.  Islam draws on both Jewish and Christian traditions.  We  do not know exactly how the earliest Muslims knew these traditions.  We do know that they interacted with Jewish and Christian communities (and both the nature of those interactions and their warmth – or hostility – vacillated) but we do not know whether they had access, for example, to Jewish and Christian Scriptures.

For a short introduction to the Islamic view of Judaism and Christianity, watch this short lecture video:

3.  Read Book 2 of the Quran (“The Cow”).  What does it say, whether explicitly or implicitly, about the relationship between Muslims, Jews, and Christians?

4.  The two major branches within Islam are Sunni and Shi’a, with about 80% of the Muslim population identifying as Sunni.  This distinction has important modern political ramifications as well, as the tension between Iran and Saudi Arabia today is in part due to the fact that Iran is Shi’ite and Saudi Arabia is Sunni.  For an introduction to Shi’a Islam, see:

 

5. Sufism is a blanket term covering (mostly Sunni) groups of Muslims who emphasized the interior and “mystical” dimensions of Islam.  For an overview, read this article.

6.  Muslims have responded both to Western colonialism and to their own increasing presence in Western, “secular” (although also Christian, even if nominally) communities, in a variety of ways.  Read the following two primary documents by Muslim thinkers grappling with what Islam “should be” in the twentieth century.  Ramadan is writing within a Western context, while Qutb –  known as one of the founding ideologues of the Muslim Brotherhood – lived in Egypt.

  • Tariq Ramadan, Radical Reform: Islam, Ethics, and Liberation, available here
  • Sayyid Qutb, Milestones, available here

[Note that both of these authors are controversial, as are their ideas.  I do not endorse either.]

7.  The Quran might be said to play a more important role in Islam than Jewish Scriptures or the New Testament do in their respective traditions.

Recitation of the Quran in Arabic, known as tajweed, often memorized and in a special melody, is considered a praiseworthy act.  Watch the video below.  Note that it was produced and aired on Islamic television:

8.  The hadith are traditions relating to the Prophet (Muhammad).  There are many of them, and many collections of them that begin to date from the Middle Ages.  For an introduction to this kind of literature, watch this short lecture video:

9.  Shariah, or Islamic law, plays an important role within Islam.  Fiqh is the legal elaboration of and engagement in the shariah, especially as conducted by specialized religious authorities (the ulama).  For a short introduction, watch the short video below:

And for an opinion piece on the use of ijtihad today, and its ramifications, read the article here.

10.  To extend your knowledge, go to http://www.fatwa-online.com and find about three fatwas on more or less the same topic.  Compare and contrast their answers and their method of arriving at those answers.

11. Belief may be downplayed in Islam as it is in Judaism, but it is not irrelevant.  Watch the following short lecture video:

For more on the five pillars of Islam, read this.

12. Tawhid denotes the Muslim belief in a single God, Allah.  It is a concept linked both to the shahada and to one of the major Muslim polemics against Christianity.

To see how the shahada is recited, watch the following video:

Today it has become popular for those converting to Islam to record their recitation of the shahada and post them online (scores of such homemade recitations can be found on YouTube).

13.  Both Judaism and Islam have traditions that discourage or prohibit figural representation.  Islamic cultures have thus developed distinctive decorative and artistic styles that avoid the representation of humans and even animals.  For an overview of Islamic art, you can read this short essay and explore the related essays there.  An interesting video from an Islamic perspective can be found here:

14.  Jihad has taken on great relevance today, as Islamists have promoted its meaning of “holy war.”  The word, however, denotes a much more complex concept.  For a nuanced discussion, read this article.

15. According to tradition, a Muslim should pray five times a day.  This is the salat.

Read:

And you can watch this video of a salat:

16.  The Muslim calendar is lunar (but not luni-solar, like the Jewish calendar).  For a short introduction, read this.

17. Different Muslim groups observe somewhat different holidays.  Common to almost all, though, are Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, and Ramadan.  Eid al-Adha is connected to the hajj and will be dealt with there.  Read:

Those of you with interest in biology and medicine might be interested to know that there have been a huge number of studies of the effect of fasting during Ramadan on all kinds of biological processes, especially diabetes and blood sugar.

18. The hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca that each Muslim is supposed to make at least once in his or her life.  It is highly ritualized, from the timing to the choreography.  For a brief, step-by-step guide to making the hajj, read this article

19.  There is wide variation among Muslims in life-cycle rituals.  For one entry into funerary practices, watch:

20. Zakat is the prescribed minimum amount that a Muslim is supposed to give to the poor, and is one of the “Five Pillars.”  Read:

21.  Haram refers to a range of forbidden things in Islam.  These especially include alcohol, the charging of interest, and certain food taboos.  For a guide to halal, the food laws, read this.

22.  Finally, an interview with a mufti: