FINAL EXAM STUDY GUIDE I ISLAM What does Islam mean Islam is one of the three monotheistic religions that arose in the Middle East Its name means submission in Arabic and signifies the commitment of its people to live in total submission to God Allah A person who practices Islam is a Muslim which means one who submits to God The Quran presents Islam as the universal and primitive faith of ALL the prophets and of all those who have faith in the one sovereign god the creator and sustainer of all things All intimate things plants animals angels are by nature Muslims to god Only human Islam is an Islam of choice Accordingly humans will be judged on the Day of Judgment based on whether they accept or reject the faith It is possible to become Muslim by repeating with sincerity before two Muslim witnesses the profession of faith called the Shahadah see term below Story of Muhammad s call During Ramadan he spent many days in seclusion in a cave on Mount Hira a short distance from Mecca It was here he received the call to prophethood and the first revelation of the Quran It was delivered to him by the angel Gabriel over a period of 23 years The Meccans were polytheistic and Muhammed preached the new faith in one god with little success His message was moral social and religious The instructions were to give alms take care of orphans nurse the hungry etc The people are supposed to go on a mi rage night journey at least once in their lifetime This is a journey from Mecca to Jerusalem that is supposed to be completed in one night You then supposedly ascend to heaven Eventually Muhammed became the single greatest power in the Peninsula Muslims win Battle of Badr Meccans revolt Battle of Uhud Battle of Trench leads to truce Shi a vs Sunni Muslims After Muhammed s death there were 2 conflicting views over who his successor was Sunni means those who follow the sunnah traditions of the Prophet They believed that Muhammed did not designate a successor or specify how one should be known majority view A caliph is a successor of the prophet who was a religious leader A caliph played the role of administrative head of the community and commander of Muslims during peace and war Shi a means partisans those who believed that Muhammed appointed his son in law Ali to succeed him After Muhammed s death Abu Bakr was appointed the khalifah or successor to the Messenger of God Prophets and Messengers The Quran teaches that God operates through prophets and messengers A prophet nabi is sent by God to a particular society at a certain time A messenger rasul is a prophet who is sent to deliver a message that is universally binding sacred law shari ah Every messenger is a prophet but not every prophet is a messenger The 5 messenger prophets are Noah Abraham Moses Jesus and Muhammed Sources of Islamic Law Includes the Quran and the Sunnah The Quran and the Shari ah are concerned with the relationship between individuals themselves and individuals and God There is no class of specialists priests rabbis and everyone is responsible for his her own morality It is concerned with moral issues and is not a legal manual The Sunnah states that the implicit word of Muhammed is important It helped greatly develop Islamic law Hadiths or sayings are the most important component of Sunnah To qualify as a hadith a text must be accompanied by chain of transmission There are 6 collections of hadiths and all of them are legal manuals about social political religious and economic life of the community The Scope of Islamic Law Shari ah is sacred law It is believed by Muslims to be God s plan for the ordering of human society It is a collection of opinions Human actions are classified into 5 categories with the best actions being considered lawful obligatory halal and the worst actions being considered unlawful or forbidden haram Jurisprudence Fiqh The theoretical systematic aspect of Islamic law It is the way that people go about formulating their opinion Fiqh is based on 4 sources the Quran Sunnah personal reasoning and general consensus Consensus is the final arbiter of truth and error The 5 Pillars of Islam 1 The Shahada the profession of faith through which one becomes a Muslim It consists of 2 statements affirming the oneness of God and Muhammed s role as a messenger 2 Regular worship including participation in all 5 of the obligatory daily prayers 3 Almsgiving service to the poor and needy 4 Ramadan a month long fast It occurs on the 9th month on the lunar calendar Fasting requires complete abstention from food drink smoking and sex until sunset Ramadan ends with a festival called Id al fitr a 3 day celebration during which people exchange presents and well wishing visits 5 Participation in the annual pilgrimage to Mecca known as the hajj pilgrimage It was instituted by Abraham at God s command after he and his son Ishmael were ordered to build the Ka ba holiest place in Islam Most of its ritual elements are understood as re enacting the experiences of Abraham Jihad Arabic for struggle has 2 components Inner jihad is the struggle to make oneself more Islamic outer jihad is the struggle to make one s society more Islamic Sufi Sufi is from the Arabic word meaning wool Early Muslim mystics became known as Sufis because they were said to have worn a garment of coarse wool over their bare skin in emulation of Jesus who is represented in Islamic hagiography as a model of ascetic piety Ascetics were also known as weepers because of the tears they shed in fear of God s punishment and in yearning for God s reward It was frowned upon by many advocates of mystical piety who believed that God should be worshipped out of humble gratitude instead of fear Dhikr means the remembrance of God the most characteristic Sufi practice it was performed in public or private It consists of the repetition of the name of God Allah or the shahdah there is no God except God It is often accompanied by special body movements and elaborate breathing techniques Rumi the most creative poet of the Persian language His greatest masterpiece is his Couplets a collection of nearly 30 000 verses II HINDUISM What does Hindu mean Where does it originate The word Hinduism like the word India itself is derived from Sind the name of the region now in Pakistan of the river Sindhu Indus The term was given to them by the British colonizers of India in the 18th 19th centuries To them Hinduism essentially meant the religion of those Indians the majority of the population who
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