Aspects of Islam

Question 1

What does the word Islam mean?

Answer 1

submission to the will of God

Question 2

What does the word Muslim mean?

Answer 2

The One who Submits

Question 3

How does the Muslim concept of god differ from the Jewish concept of god?

Answer 3

Jews see their god as a conversation partner and equal, while in Islam the god is not equal to its people. Instead of the covenant with the people Islam believes that their god has revealed himself to people.

Question 4

How do Jewish and Muslim concepts about life after death differ?

Answer 4

Jews do believe in life after death, but their main goal isn’t to be granted eternal life. It is to be a good role model and live a godly life. Belief in the Jewish god does not give eternal life. Then in Islam, there is a final judgement day where the god will praise the Muslims who submit and punish those who didn’t.

Question 5

How does the Muslim concept of god differ from the Christian concept of god?

Answer 5

The muslim god is not a saviour for all people like the Christian one, nor is he a trinity. Muslims also reject the concept of original sin. The one similarity is the day of judgment.

Question 6

How do Christian and Muslim concepts of a Judgment Day differ?

Answer 6

While both gods have a day of judgment, the Christian god judges all of mankind and will try to save the unfaithful and sinners. The muslim god is not a saviour and is not proactively trying to save sinners.

Question 7

Can you compare and contrast variant Muslim traditions about how the Qur’an was constructed?

Answer 7

Some believe that muhammad recited the entire Quran before he died to either one of his wives or a companion. The dominant belief is that is was complied a few years after the death of Muhammed by the Caliph Uthman and a council of companions of Muhammad that had memorized the Qur’an.

Question 8

What does the Qur’an mean when it says that a Muslim will be “guided”?

Answer 8

A Muslim will be guided if it follows the divine set of commandments that are the five pillars of Islam.

Question 9

What is the purpose of the Shahāda? How does it achieve this purpose?

Answer 9

Shahada is a confession of faith, There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the messenger
of God. The purpose it to prove that you are faithful to the only god and its The Muslim God. It is to exclude all other religions.

Question 10

Can you describe accurately each of the Five Pillars?

Answer 10

Shahada - confession of faith
Salat- prayer 5x a day
Zakat- Giving alms, donating a percentage of income
Ramadan- fasting during the month of Ramadan
Hajj- a pilgrimage to mecca, do it once in your life

Question 11

To what does the Arabic word imān (“faith”) refer?

Answer 11

It refers to required doctrine that each muslim must believe. They are God, Angels, Books, Messengers/Prophets, and Judgment Day

Question 12

What are the required doctrines of imān?

Answer 12

They are God, Angels, Books, Messengers/Prophets, and Judgment Day

Question 13

According to the doctrines of imān, what are the four activities of the Muslim god?

Answer 13

This god creates, sustains, reveals, and predestines four activities that, according to doctrine, humans are not able to fully understand.

Question 14

According to imān, what is the difference between a prophet and a messenger? How many of each have there been?

Answer 14

A prophet is a human sent by god to deliver a message.Then a messenger is prophet that has a book.124,000 prophets and of those 315 are messengers.

Question 15

How does the imān doctrine of god stand in tension with the imān doctrine of a Judgment Day?

Answer 15

Because the doctrine of God says that everyone’s behaviour is predestined but then the judgement day says that it will judge everyone’s behaviour. “divine judgment of our behavior and divine predestination of our behavior.”

Question 16

How do the Ḥadīth and the Sīra differ from one another?

Answer 16

The Hadith “the reports” are isolated stories who come from a source that knew Muhammad. The Sira is a continuous narrative that recounts the life of Muhammad.

Question 17

What two easy methods can be used to fake a list of authoritative sources for stories about Muhammad?

Answer 17

either by inventing a sequence of plausible names or by simply stealing an Isnād from a previous Ḥadīth and using it to invent a new Ḥadīth.

Question 18

In the sample Ḥadīth provided in this Moodle essay, are you able to explain in your own words why Muhammad forbade al-Miqdad to kill in this hypothetical situation?

Answer 18

It is because by committing another violent act you simply reverse the positions. It does not solve anything.

Question 19

What does “Sunna” mean, and why is it significant?

Answer 19

Sunna means custom, and they have to follow this to be a muslim and it works to live to life that Muhammad lived. There are specific things you have to follow to be a sunni muslim.

Question 20

Why was it necessary to construct the Sunna?

Answer 20

For muslims to have evidence of how Muhammad lived.

Question 21

What features of the Qur’an render it impossible to use for constructing the Sunna?

Answer 21

Because the Qur’an was too contradictory to construct the sunna.

Question 22

What is the doctrine of Naskh? From what source was this doctrine constructed? How does Naskh work?

Answer 22

Doctrine of Naskh, which means the Doctrine of
Cancellation. it is constructed from the Qur’an and the sira and it is used to cancel out contradictory messages. But they have to directly come from Muhammad in the correct order.

Question 23

What are the Occasions of Revelation, and why is the Sīra essential for these?

Answer 23

The occasions for revelation are knowledge in the hadith or sira that give context to a verse in the Qur’an.

Question 24

What aspects of the Sīra create difficulties for the application of the doctrine of Naskh?

Answer 24

Because many people disagree on which verses are actually cancelled because they have to apply the sira to the Qur’an but some people have different interpretations than others.

Question 25

How does Sharī‘a differ from a secular legal system?

Answer 25

Sharī‘a is not a democracy, but a theocracy. Sharī‘a regulates almost all facets of life. And it is also unchanging.

Question 26

What is Sharī‘a’s four-step process of thought?

Answer 26

Step 1- If you have a question look through the Qur’an
Step 2- Consult the sunna (hadith)
Step 3- qiyās (“logical extension”)
Step 4- Ijmā‘ means “consensus. then it becomes a part of sharia

Question 27

What is Sharī‘a’s five-fold system of judgment?

Answer 27

every action can be placed in one of these categories
Commanded - actions that Islam demands be performed
Encouraged- actions that are encouraged but not needed
Permitted- neither moral or immoral
Discouraged- questionably immoral actions but are not forbidden
Prohibited- Actions that god demands you avoid

Question 28

Can you describe the Myth of Origin for the division between Sunni and Shia?

Answer 28

The Sunni branch believes that the first caliph after Muhammad was rightfully Abu Bakr but then the Shia branch believes that the first caliph should have been Muhammad’s cousin Ali who became the fifth caliph.

Question 29

Who were Ali and Husayn, and why are they significant for Shia Islam?’

Answer 29

Because they are believed to be the first rightful caliphs

Question 30

What is the foundational principle of the Asharite school, and how does this principle lead to the doctrine of predestination?

Answer 30

Human predestination results from the nature of the Islamic god. this means that the god is all knowing and knows exactly where you will end up.

Question 31

What is the foundational principle of the Shia? How did the Shia both adopt and modify Mutazilite theology?

Answer 31

Shia teaches that genuine divine guidance is possible
if, and only if, a blood descendant of the Messenger
Muhammad provides that guidance. It adopts that humans have free will and that human
reason can be a basis for moral judgment but they disagree with the Mutazilite tendency to permit human reason a greater role than divine revelation

Question 32

What is Ashura? What is Karbala? How are the two related?

Answer 32

Ashura is a date on the Muslim calendar to commemorate the death of Husayn which is called Karbala. This is only done by Shia Muslims.

Question 33

What is Sufism? Can you describe distinctive features of Sufism?

Answer 33

It is the largest minority sect of Islam. The Sufi sect of Islam stresses personal experience and piety to a greater extent than other sects.

Question 34

What is Baha’i? What is Ahmadiyyah? What is the Nation of Islam?

Answer 34

Bahai is another small sect of Islam that says all religions have a place and wants universal brotherhood. Ahmadiyyah is another small sect that Ahmad taught that he embodies the expectations of all religions. Then nations of Islam are a mix of Islam and Christianity and are said to be Orthodox Islam.