Ayoub Flashcards
How does the author regard his “return to Islam”?
Not as a repudiation of Christianity, but as a deepening of my faith through the return to my cultural and spiritual roots
What does the Arabic word Islam mean? (two answers)
submission or surrender
The three letter root from which the word Islam is derived also means
peace, soundness, and safety
What is a Muslim?
A person who professes Islam
A person who is not born a Muslim may accept Islam by …
Repeating before two Muslim witnesses the shahadah, a profession of faith
What other ceremony is required?
none
Long before Islam, what two religious communities existed in Arabia?
Judaism and Christianity
What was the city of Makkah (Mecca), where Muhammad was born?
A caravan station on important trade routes, exposed to diverse foreign ideas/influences
What Arabs accepted ethical monotheism of Judaism and Christianity?
Makkan Arabs called hanifs
Before Islam, what three goddesses (daughters of Allah) did Arabs worship?
Al-lat, al-‘Uzza, and Manat
Name of mountain where Muhammad spent time in seclusion in a cave:
Mount Hira’
In Madinah, what Jewish practices did Muhammad adopt, and later abandon (name two)
Yom Kippur fast, faced Jerusalem during prayers
In struggle against Makkah, the Battle of ___ was the first Muslim victory
Badr
The battle at _____ was a defeat, and Muhammad was _______.
Uhlud, badly injured
What element of Muhammad’s farewell pilgrimage speech would be challenged in
modern society?
Beating women
For Muslims, with whom did the history of prophecy begin?
Adam
Satan is also called ________ in Islam.
Iblis
According to the Quran, the sin of Adam and Eve was ______ alone
theirs
According to Islamic tradition, how many prophets did God send after Adam?
124,000
How many prophets does the Quran mention by name?
25
What is the Islamic word for prophet (it is an Arabic term)?
nabi
Who are the five “prophets of power” in Islam?
Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad
Which prophet occupies more space in the Quran than all others, even Muhammad?
Moses
Prophets who followed Abraham were his sons through ____ and ____
Ishmael and Isaac
What does the Quran categorically deny about Jesus?
Divinity and divine sonship
The Quran portrays Jesus foretelling the coming of Muhammad by the name ___.
Ahmad
The Quran is both the primary source of moral and religious guidance as well as the
______, _____, and _____ constitution of the Muslim community.
Legal, political, and social
In modern times what is the most widely accepted edition of the Quran?
Royal Egyptian edition, produced in the 1930s
What is the Arabic word which means “one” and refers to the oneness of God?
ahad
On judgment day, ___ will intercede with God on behalf of those who recite it.
the Qur’an
What is the first of the five pillars of Islam? (Arabic term and meaning)
Shahadah: No god but, God, and Muhammad is his messenger
What is the long period of pre-Islamic Arab history called? (Arabic and English)
the age of jahiliyah (foolishness, ignorance)
What is its second declaration?
Muhammad is the messenger of God
What is the second of the five pillars of Islam? (Arabic term and meaning)
Salat (obligatory prayers)
Prayer must be preceded by ________. What are two terms for this?
Ritual washing; wudu (partial) or ghusl (whole body)
What is a rakah? What is al-fatihah?
A cycle/unit of spoken and enacted prayer; al-fatihah is a fundamental prayer (“The Opening”) recited at the beginning of each rakah
What is the Arabic term for and Islamic meeting house (English “mosque”)
masjid
What is the third pillar of Islam? (Arabic term and English meaning) What is the
percentage of this religious tax?
Zakat (obligatory alms)
What is the fourth pillar of Islam?
The Ramadan fast
What is the three day festival at the end of Ramadan called?
id al-fitr
What is the fifth (most public and popular) pillar of Islam?
The hajj (pilgrimage to the Ka’bah at Mecca)
Hajj takes place in the _______ (number) month of the Islamic calendar.
Twelfth
How many days does the id al-adha last?
Four
On his way from Arafat to Mina, what was Abraham commanded?
To sacrifice his son Ishmael
What may be regarded as a sixth fundamental obligation of Muslims?
Jihad; the struggle against evil
Who became the first caliph (khalifah) after the death of Muhammad?
Abu Bakr
Who did the Hashimites expect might be chosen as caliph?
Ali
After the death of Muhammad, what were the wars of apostasy called?
Riddah
What biblical king does the Quran refer to as a khalifah?
David
Whom did Abu Bakr appoint as his successor and second caliph?
‘Umar b. al-Khattab
When were Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Iraq, and Persia “conquered and incorporated into the
Islamic state”?
During Umar’s reign (the second Caliph)
Who became the third caliph? And how long did he rule?
Uthman, for 12 years
Of which family “clan” of the Quraysh tribe was this third caliph?
Uthman was Umayyad
Where and how did the third caliph pass away?
Uthman was besieged in his home in Medina for forty days by an Egyptian mob and then killed
Who proclaimed Ali as the fourth caliph of Islam?
The men of Medina
Who was the young widow of the Prophet Muhammad?
Aishah
Where did the Shiah (party of Ali) begin to develop as a distinct movement?
Kufah (in southern Iraq)
What was the name of the governor of Syria who opposed Ali as caliph?
Mu’awiyah
What was the group that opposed both Muawiyah and Ali as caliph?
Kharijites
How did Ali pass away?
By a Kharijite assassin with a poisoned sword during morning prayers
What ruling dynasty is Muawiyah named as the founder of?
Umayyad
As caliph where did Muawiyah move the “capital” of Islam to?
Damascus
Who was the sixth caliph of Islam (son of Muawiyah) and when did he rule?
Yazid, 680-683
Who was the son of Ali that opposed the son of Muawiyah?
Husayn
How had Hasan, son of Ali, died? Who was suspected?
Poisoned, likely at Mu’awiyah’s instigation
Where (near Kufah) did the forces of Yazid battle with the forces of Husayn?
A spot on the banks of the Euphrates
What happened to Husayn in this battle?
He was massacred
What does the day of Ashura commemorate?
Husayn’s martyrdom
After the Umayyad dynasty, what group took over in 750, establishing a new dynasty?
The Abbasids
What shrine in Jerusalem was built during the Umayyad dynasty rule?
Dome of the Rock
If the Umayyad dynasty was an “Arab state,” where were the Abbasids based?
Iraq and Persia, centered at Baghdad
Who built Baghdad as the capital?
Al-Mansur
Which Islamic dynasty ruled from Cairo, starting about when?
Fatimid, starting about 971
As the caliphate split (into competing caliphs) who proclaimed himself Umayyad caliph
of Spain?
‘Abd al-Rahman III
The invasion of the _____________ brought an end to the Abbasid empire.
the Mongols (under Hulagu)
Like Christianity, Islam is a __________________ religion.
universalist and therefore a missionary
Outside dar al-islam, into what two “spheres” is the world divided? (English & Arabic)
sulh (peace or truce) and harb (war)
Who aided the Arab invaders of Spain, seeing them as liberators?
Jews
How long was the history of Arab Spain?
900 years
By 1492, only the Spanish city of _____ remained under Muslim control.
Granada
Who was expelled from Spain in 1492? When were the Muslims expelled from Spain?
The Jews; 1609
How did sub-Saharan Africa become Islamic – conquest or migration?
Migration
How much of the Swahili language vocabulary is Arabic?
One third
In what century did Muslim communities spring up all over China?
13th century
About how many Muslims now live in China?
50 million
What was the dynasty of Muslim rulers in India called?
Mughal
What local society in India developed as bitter opponents of the Muslims in India?
Sikhs
About how many Muslims live in modern India?
100-130 million
In what three countries of southeast Asia is Islam the majority religion?
Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei
What southeast Asian country is the most populist Islamic country in the world?
Indonesia
Muslims believe all prophets are protected by God from ___ and ____.
sin and error
Of what three things does the Prophet’s sunna consist? Of these three, which of the
sunna are hadith?
His actions, tacit consent, and sayings; his speech is hadith
A hadith consists of a ______ of transmission
chain
What Muslim jurist was the sixth Shi’ite Imam? Who had been the third Imam in
Shi’te understanding?
Ja’far al-Sadiq; Husayn b. Ali
The chief judges or legal jurisconsults called ________ issue opinions called fatwas.
muftis
Shi’i tradition asserts that Muhammad designated ____ as Imam of the Muslim
community. Where did Muhammad do this, and during what important occasion?
Ali; at Ghadir Khumm during the hajj
Shi’ites who are “Seveners” believe the seventh Imam (as a descendant of Ali) should
have been a son of Jafar al-Sadiq’s older son ______, and so they are called _________
Isma’il, Isma’ilis
In Egypt, these people founded the _____ dynasty, named after Ali’s wife _______.
Fatimid; Fatimah
What city in Egypt did the third caliph of this dynasty found and build?
Cairo
Which caliph in Egypt was a “highly idiosyncratic Fatimid Imam” (c.996-1021).
Hakim
What sect (now found in Syria, Lebanon, and Israel) believed this imam (Muhammad ibn Isma’il) was “divine”?
Druzes
What famous Muslim warrior overthrew the Fatimid caliphate in Egypt?
Saladin
The Nizari sect of Ismailis are led by a leader known as the ______ ______
Agha Khan
The majority Shi’ites today are Twelver (or Imami) Shi’ites who believe the seventh
Imam was rightfully Jafar’s younger son _________.
Musa al-Kazim
The Twelver/Imamis believe that the twelfth Imam was a boy named
___________________.
Muhammad b. al-Hasan
[Read these pages on the Twelver/Imamis very carefully, to understand Shi’ism today.]
okay
At the last day, the Twelfth Imam is supposed to return to earth with ____
Jesus
According to Twelver/Imami Shi’ism, from the “occultation” (becoming hidden) of the
Twelfth Imam in 941 until his future return, who was to fulfill his role?
Scholars of the community
Whom do the Alawis (Alawites) of Syria (a Shi’ite sect) regard as an incarnation of God?
Ali
Which two faiths in Iran arose in the 1800s from the influence of the Shaykhis?
Babi and Bahai
According to the title, Sufi is a _________ tradition.
mystical
What kind of garment did early Sufis wear?
of coarse undyed wool
This was in emulation of ____________.
Jesus
When was the formative period of Sufism?
9th-11th centuries
When did the crystallization of Sufism occur?
c. 1091
Who was a primary personality in this crystallization?
al-Ghazali
What is the dhikr devotional practice of Sufis?
“Remembrance” ceremony before certain prayers; repetition of God’s name, accompanied by movements
What art is the sama devotional practice of the Mevlevi?
Music, chanting, and dance
What are the people who practice this Mevlemi art devotional called?
“Whirling Dervish”
What was a major external cause for the decline of Sufism?
Religious reform movements and Western secularist/rationalist influences; it was seen as irrational and unislamic
In Islam, what are the two primary sources of theology?
Qur’an and prophetic tradition
What were two indirect sources of that theology?
Christian theology; Iranian Manichean or Mazdakian dualism
What was the question at issue concerning the Quran?
Whether it is co-eternal with God or created in time
Other than prophethood, what did Shi’ites consider Ali and his descendants to be
The sole legitimate heirs of the Prophet in all things
So whom did Shi’tes consider usurpers?
Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, and ‘Uthman (the caliphs before Ali)
What is the gravest of sins for a Shi’te?
To die not knowing the Imam of his time
What is the general Sunni belief about the Quran (regarding question #3 above)?
It is the eternal word of God
Mutazili theology regards the Quran to have been
created as it was being sent down to Muhammad
What does the Mutazili view require concerning anthropomorphic references to God?
They must be taken metaphorically
What contributed to the decline of Mutazilism?
Sunnis vehemently opposed it
Mutazilism insisted on absolute _______________________.
free will for human beings
Predestination was the preferred view of Asharites like __________
al Ghazali
Who were the first two major philosophers of Islam?
al-Kindi and al-Razi
Razi (a Platonist) rejected the Quranic view of ________. He was considered a _____.
Creation out of nothing; heretic
Al-Farabi, a later Muslim philosopher, felt society would realize its full potential if …
it were ruled by a prophet-philosopher
In jahiliyya times polygyny (marriage with plural wives) was ________________.
Unregulated
In the Quran and Islamic law, the basic assumption of the law is that a child belongs to …
the man who is in a legal sexual relation with the mother
The Quran forbade all forms of polyandry (marriage with plural husbands), and woman
were required to abstain from ____________.
zina (adultery)
Marriage is a contract between ___________ based on ___________.
husband and wife; mutual consent
What did the Prophet say about divorce? _______________________
It is “the lawful act most hateful to God”
Who has the exclusive and free right to divorce?
The man
The Quran allows polygyny (plural wives) but limits it to …
four wives at a time; equal care for all wives
Marriage in Islam – The duties of the wife include _______, _______, and ________
Maintaining the home, caring for the children, obeying her husband
The husband’s duties are to …
Provide food, lodging, and clothing, and live amicably with his wife
Obedience to the husband, meant above all, …
total restriction of the wife’s movement outside the home without her husband’s permission
Until modern times the debate on the hijab centered on …
the seclusion of women
An irrevocable divorce mandated in shariah is when either spouse renounces _______
Islam
The Quran calls upon both women and men to behave ___________
modestly in both dress and decorum
What element of Quranic verse Q 4.34 might seem problematic in the west?
Beating women
The Quran instituted marriage for the sake of _______________
the family
Who founded the Wahhabi movement? When and where?
al-Wahhab; 18th century, in the highlands of Arabia
What did they attack and destroy, or try to destroy?
Muhammad’s tomb, and other sacred cities, tombs, and shrines
After Ottoman defeat, who led revolution that resulted in the modern Turkish republic?
Mustafa Ataturk
What did Ataturk ban? What did he dissolve? What was his aim?
Banned Sufi orders, dissolved Islamic religious institutions; to westernize Turkey and cut it off from its Islamic past
Who founded the Muslim Brotherhood (Society of Muslim Brothers)? When and where?
Hasan al-Banna; in Egypt, in 1929
Who banned the Brotherhood?
Nasser
In Iran, the leader of scholars and jurists who were believed to have the Twelfth Imam’s
authority was called ________.
ayat allah (sign of God)
Who was the ayatollah who led the Islamic revolution in Iran? When?
Khomeini, February 1979
Muslims migrated to Europe as ___________, _________, and _________.
Students, visitors, and merchants
Beginning in the nineteenth century __________ have been making conscious efforts to
recover their Islamic heritage
African Americans
What did Elijah Muhammad found? _____________
Nation of Islam
Current numbers of Muslims in the United States range from ______________
3 to 14 million
What specific date does the author say a new era of Muslim and world history began?
September 11, 2001
What does the author believe the contemporary resurgence of Islam is a
reaction to?
The creation of Israel
How does the author suggest Muslims deal with the modern world?
Not through confrontation and conflict, but through diplomacy and patient dialogue.
