Exam 1

Question 1

Bahira

Answer 1

Christian monk who predicted Muhammad would become a prophet

Question 2

Ramadan

Answer 2

A month of fasting to commemorate the first revelation of the Quran to Muhammad

Question 3

Madina

Answer 3

City in present day Saudi Arabia. Muhammad led the migration from the Mecca to Madina to escape prosecution. They built a mosk and made it the foundation of the new muslim religion

Question 4

Hijra

Answer 4

the immigration of muslims from maca to madina

Question 5

ka’ba

Answer 5

The sacred shrines of pagans in maca. It is filled with idols and Muhammad destroyed them

Question 6

shari’a

Answer 6

islamic law. 4 sources: Quran, Hadid, ijma, qiyas

Question 7

al- bukhari

Answer 7

best know collection of sound hadiths

Question 8

hadith

Answer 8

narration of traditions of Muhammad

Question 9

ijma

Answer 9

consensus of muslim scholars on what Muhammad would do in a situation

Question 10

qiyas

Answer 10

applied analogy of drawn from behaviors of Muhammad

Question 11

Mufti

Answer 11

A person who makes a Fatwa

Question 12

fatwa

Answer 12

A legal judgement in islamic law, backed by religious text

Question 13

wasil ibn ata

Answer 13

leader of the Mu’tazilites

Question 14

mu’tazalites

Answer 14

followers of wasil. believed in the intermediate state. God is one and has no attributes. Once you reach rational capacity, you will know everything there is to know about everything.

Question 15

Abu al-Hasan al-Ash’ari

Answer 15

Opposed the mu’tazilites. Contacted Al-Jubba’I to debate against Mu’tazilite views

Question 16

Ash’arites

Answer 16

Human reason is limited. Believed in theory of acquisition

Question 17

Al-Jubba’i

Answer 17

A mu’tazalite professor

Question 18

theory of acquision

Answer 18

When you fufill your capacity determined by God you become responsible for your actions and acquire your freedom so you are subject to judgement from God.

Question 19

story of the 3 brothers

Answer 19

One brother was a bad guy and died, another was a good guy and died. Al-Jubbai said the bad one went to hell and the good one went to heaven. The third brother was a child and AL-Jubbai said he would go to the intermediate state because he was not old enough to be rational. The child asked God why he wouldn’t let him grow up and do good and AL-Jubbai said God wanted him to die as a child because he was hell bound. Then the child in hell asked God why he couldn’t die as a child and dodge hell. Al-Jubbai had no response and therefore Ash’ari felt that this was proof that human reason is not capable of knowing everything

Question 20

Abbasid

Answer 20

Highest intellectual time, known for house of wisdom. where many philosophical works were translated and debated in the capital Baghdad, Iraq. The decline of Islam began when the libraries were destroyed and the empire was overthrown.

Question 21

Al-Ma’mun

Answer 21

Leader of Abbasid dynasty. known for believing God has no attributes, therefore has no speech, so the Quran is not the speech of God. Led the inquisition

Question 22

Plotinus

Answer 22

He was a Greek philosopher who is known for his theory that God is the One, responsible for all things. He is a supreme being that is the first step in the chain of causality.

Question 23

Sufism

Answer 23

Led by Al- Ghazali - Ultimate objective is to have an experience with God, during this experience you are unaware of the world around you. Sufis do not get married because they believe it will distract them from God. They put life into two stages, the human stage and the divine stage. The divine stage is when God bestows everything he knows upon you, but can only be achieved by working hard in the human stage.

Question 24

Rabi’a

Answer 24

Most influential woman in Sufi history

Question 25

Maqamat

Answer 25

Sufi idea of working hard in the human stage in order to reach the divine stage

Question 26

Ahwal

Answer 26

the Sufi divine stage

Question 27

Dhikr

Answer 27

Repeated devotional acts of prayer in Islam

Question 28

Al-Ghazali

Answer 28

Professor that preached the acceptance of Sufism

Question 29

Al-Kindi

Answer 29

Introduced philosophy to the Islamic language and said knowledge is the reality of things according to human capacity

Question 30

Al-Farabi

Answer 30

Claimed to speak 70 languages and was known as the logician of his day as he tried to reconcile the thought of Greek philosophers. He believed people needed prophets to guide them and wrote about “The Virtuous City” where virtuous people are said to live. He also invented a number of musical instruments. He was known as the second teacher (first= Aristotle).

Question 31

Ibn Sina (Avicenna)

Answer 31

Memorized the Quran by age 10 and got rid of his teachers because he felt he was smarter than them. He became a doctor for the prince and after healing him, Sina was rewarded with access to the library where he read and then destroyed all the books. Believed Evil is the absence of good, therefore God is not responsible for Evil because it is just the deprivation of good.

Question 32

Ibn Tufayl

Answer 32

Arab philosopher who lived in Spain and was known for his book, Hayy

Question 33

Hayy

Answer 33

a human baby who grew up by himself on an island and still discovered God. Hayy is eventually visited by Absal who helps conclude that they both believed in God even though Hayy did not have human influence. this worked to prove that both religion and philosophy lead to the same truth and are necessary in society.

Question 34

Absal

Answer 34

Religious scholar who visits Hayy and helps him conclude that God can be discovered naturally without human teaching.

Question 35

Ibn Rushd (Averroes)

Answer 35

Disciple of Ibn Tufayl, known for his commentaries on Aristotle. He wrote a book on the harmony between religion and philosophy.