Islam; understanding a religion of peace
According to the Islamic Circle of North America, the official definition of the word Islam is “commitment to submit and surrender to God so that one can live in peace,” and a Muslim is “one who submits to God’s teachings and commandments, which leads to peace.” The Arabic root “-s-l-m,” from which Muslim and Islam are derived, is also the basis of salam, the Arabic word for peace. Peace is the underlying feeling behind the Islamic religion founded by the Prophet Muhammad.
Muhammad: Beginnings of the Faith
The man who would come to be known as the Prophet Muhammad was born around A.D. 570 in the Arabian town of Mecca according to “Oxford History of Islam.” At the time, many of the people of the Arabian peninsula were Monotheists (people who only worship one god) of Jewish, Christian or Zoroastrian faiths, according to the book. However, Mecca was home to the Kaaba, a polytheistic (those who worship multiple gods) shrine holding over 360 idols and gods, similar to the Pantheon of Rome. Muhammad’s tribe, the Quraysh, were the keepers of the Kaaba.
The book states in the Arabic month of Ramadan, at the age of 40, Muhammad was in a cave and received a vision from the Angel Gabriel (the same angel said to have told of the birth of John the Baptist in the New Testament) to, according to the Quran, “Proclaim! (or read!) in the name of thy Lord and Cherisher, Who created- Created man, out of a (mere) clot of congealed blood: Proclaim! And thy Lord is Most Bountiful,- He Who taught (the use of) the pen,- Taught man that which he knew not.” The main point of the message was, according to the Logan Islamic Center, is what Muslims call Tawheed, or the “oneness of God.”
From that point until the end of his life, Muhammad was a changed man. According to a booklet put out by the World Assembly of Muslim Youth, “Up to the age of 40, Muhammad was not known as a statesman, a preacher or an orator. He was never seen discussing the principles of metaphysics, ethics, law, politics, economics or sociology. Yet there was nothing so deeply striking or radically extraordinary in him that would make men expect something great and revolutionary from him in the future. But when he came out of the cave with a new message, he was completely transformed.” He became a prophet, and the revelations he received became the Quran, the holy book of Islam.
Islam: The balance between Faith and Practice
The new religion Muhammad received, beginning in that cave, was a religion of both faith and practice. This is reflected in the two sets of “pillars” that make up the basis of the Islamic religion, according to the Logan Islamic Center. First there are the practices, called the Pillars of Islam. According to the ICNA, this first is Declaration of Belief (Shahada) in God’s oneness and in the Prophet Muhammad. The second pillar is Prayer (Salat), which is offered five times a day toward the city of Mecca and the Kaaba, which Muhammad cleared of the other gods and dedicated to Allah (Arabic for God). Fasting (Sawm), the third pillar, which occurs during the Arabic month of Ramadan. The fast of Ramadan, according to Ibrahim Mohammed, graduate student at USU and president of the Logan Islamic Center, said this is the month where all Muslims fast, by order of Allah in the Quran.
“It helps us to remember the needy,” Mohammed said.
The fourth pillar, Purification of Wealth (Zakat), is similar to the Judeo-Christian notion of tithing, where a portion of money is given by Muslims to help the poor. And the fifth pillar is a Pilgrimage (Hajj) to the Kaaba in Mecca.
The other set of pillars are the “Pillars of Faith.” According to the Logan Islamic Center, these are, first, belief in God and second, God’s angels. Third, Muslims believe in God’s prophets, which include all prophets from the Bible, such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses, as well as, by some accounts, the Book of Mormon prophet Lehi and also the New Testament apostles and Jesus Christ, who Muslims regard as a mortal prophet. Fourth, they believe in God’s predestination of events. Fifth, Islam accepts God’s books including the Christian Bible, the Jewish Torah (similar to the Christian Old Testament) and the Quran. Finally, Muslims believe in the Hereafter and Judgment. Together, the Pillars of Islam and the Pillars of Faith, hold up the structure of Islam.
Islam and Judeo-Christianity
Muslims recognize the Judeo-Christian prophets and apostles as well as the Bible and Torah as the revealed words of God, according to the INCA.
“We are Jewish, Christian and Muslim,” Mohammed said. “Islam is a culmination of God’s word, and Muhammad and the Quran sealed the prophets.”
The ICNA states, “The message of Islam is in essence the same as that which God revealed to all His prophets and messengers.”
Much of the tension between Muslims and Jews/Christians comes from the prejudices of the medieval Crusades, colonization of the Middle East by European powers during the Era of Discovery, and by the more recent creation of the Jewish nation of Israel in formerly Muslim Palestine, according to the INCA.
Modern Misconceptions
Tension between Christians/Jews and Muslims has led to many misconceptions about Islam by westerners, according to the “Oxford History of Islam.”
“The easy misconception about Muslims is that Muslim equals terrorist. This simply isn’t true,” said Jay Burton, senior majoring in history and religious studies and undergraduate teaching fellow for Debra Baldwin’s Intro to Islamic Civilization class. “Another is that Muslim women are repressed for having to wear veils. Dr. Baldwin goes over this time and time again in class. Wearing veils is a symbol of liberation for Muslim women, not repression.”
Burton said Islamic scientists and mathematicians were making huge discoveries while Europe was in the Dark Ages.
“The Islamic culture really picked up the ball from Europe during the medieval period,” Burton said.
-michael.buhler@aggiemail.usu.edu