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Mohammed and the Foundations of Islam I. Mohammed--Life and Times - 569-632

• A. Born in 569 to a Bedouin merchant family in Middle East (Arabia)
• B. Early spiritual conversion and teaching
  • 1.had his spiritual awakening around 40 years old
  • 2. received messages from a figure that came to be identified as the archangel Gabriel
  • 3. These revelations would eventually be written down in the Quran (Koran) - the "reciting" or "recitations"
  • 3.told that life had become too corrupt (with riches, cares of this life), filled with false gods
  • 4.therefore directed to go out to teach everyone to follow Allah
  • 5.thought of himself as a successor to Moses and Jesus
• C. Had little early success in the city of Mecca, where he lived
  • 1.Only a modest number of  converts in first 13 years ("companions of the Prophet")
    • a. questioned the emphasis on trade and wealth in Mecca
    • b. undermined traditional religion in Mecca
      • 1)earlier Arabs had believed that Allah was most important of many gods
      • 2)Arabs had worshiped a black meteorite as the symbol of Allah--housed in the Kabba shrine
      • 3)each tribe, though, had its own stone for worship, just none as important as at the Kabba
  • 2. The Hijrah - forced to flee to Medina (that's its name now) in 622 (Year 1 in the Islamic calander)
    • a. Here he had much more success, becoming both spiritual and political leaders
    • b. Preached largely unsuccessfully to the Jewish community there
      • a. they were uninterested in a non-Jewish teacher
      • b. they were uninterested in a new prophet--didn't want one.
  • 3. Becomes  a base for extending power over all Arabia
  • 4. when he returned to Mecca (the original pilgrimage) he incorporated aspects of traditional culture
    • 1)he accepted the Kabba as Allah's
    • 2)made it the chief shrine of his new religion
    • 3)very important--mixed his new ideas with accepted ones of Arabic culture
    • 4)this mix was vital to his new religion being accepted

II. Major ideas of Islam

• A. Related to the religious traditions of Judaism and Christianity
  • 1. Radically theocentric - social justice and obedient worship of the one God
  • 2. Warned against false gods and immorality, especially injustice to the weak and unfortunate
  • 3. universal, egalitarian, evangelical
  • 4. self-consciously based on other regional religions
    • a. Belief in progressive revelations -- all the Jewish prophets, Jesus (as a prophet)
    • b. Judaism with its understanding of Yahweh being the creator, the only God
    • c. day of judgment, belief in angels
    • d. therefore the Jews and Christians were "people of the book"
      • 1)would receive preferential treatment because they had "part" of the truth
      • 2)Islam would base itself loosely on the books of those religions
      • 3)symbol of the Dome of the Rock--one of Islam's most important shrines: it abuts both the wailing wall and (one of) the oldest Christian churches in Jerusalem
• B.The Five Pillars of Islam
  • 1.Complete acceptance, even just once, of the idea that "There is no God but God (Allah); Mohammed is the Messenger of God."
    • a. important as a single base of belief for all to hold in common
    • b. important because it got rid of other gods in Arabic culture and made all other possible gods submissive to Allah
  • 2.Prayer five times per day, facing East and Mecca
    • a. important that it is an action
    • b. keeps Allah in the minds of believers every day
    • c.u nites believers in prayer
  • 3.Muslims must give alms generously
    • a. also important as an action
    • b. shows piety
    • c. as an offering to Allah and to fellow people
  • 4.Muslims must fast for one month--Ramadan
    • a. again, shows piety
    • b. uninterest in the rest of the world
    • c. no eating from sunup to sundown
  • 5.Muslims must try, at least once, to make a pilgrimage to Mecca, called the hadj
    • a. unites Muslims of all cultures, races, and classes into one huge holy group
    • b. unites all to the origins of the religion
    • c. a crowning point--something to strive for
  • 6.If one would do this, one could achieve paradise after death--a very physical, pleasurable place
  • 7. Serve strongly to bind together the umma - the "submitters," the community of believers
    • Stavrianos, 191: "These rituals provided the believers with an extraordinarily powerful social cement. They prayed and fasted together, they assumed responsibility for less fortunate believers, they journeyed to Mecca together--rich and poor, yellow, white, brown, and black."

III. Islam as a political and social entity as well as a religion

• A. No obvious difference between politics and society and Islam
• B.  Islam should be part of all aspects of life
• C. Therefore Mohammed was a political leader of Muslims as well as religious one
• D. By the time of his death, Mohammed ruled Arabia as both political and spiritual leader - no distinction between the two roles,

IV. Importance of Islam as related to Judaism and Christianity

• A. All "People of the Book"
• B. All monotheistic, based on morality, ethics
• C. Islam was universal, like Christianity but not Judaism
• D. Islam more explicitly "political" than Christianity

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