The Rise of Islam Flashcards
Tell about Jewish uprisings in the first and second century.
you may go back and remember in the year ad70 there was a major uprising in palestine against the roman authority and it was a jewish-led uprising the romans crushed it in a.d 135 there was a second jewish revolt the romans crushed that one as well and since the romans had to deal with the jewish uprising twice when they dealt with the second one they really spared nobody they were merciless in their crushing them and jewish people began leaving palestine fleeing in every conceivable direction just trying to save their lives and some of them went to arabia
What was the Quraysh tribe?
jewish people began leaving palestine fleeing in every conceivable direction just trying to save their lives and some of them went to arabia and when they went there they contacted the arabs who were there and in particular one tribe of arabs named the Quraysh tribe. The Quraysh tribe was the most powerful one in arabia it was in arabia they were the chief commercial and religious powers and they had their center in the city of mecca mecca which was going to become duly famous when muhammad appeared on the scene prior to that it was just a pagan trading post and all the pagan worship that was typical of those people took place in mecca the tribal conflicts were very common from time to time often worsened by what were called blood feuds the arabs had a philosophy that worked this way if you hurt one of my people i’ll hurt two of yours i’m simplifying it of course but it’s the idea revenge driven by revenge and we call it a blood feud there are a lot of tribal conflicts among the various tribes in arabia a lot of blood was shed a lot of blood feuds and there is no central government of any kind arabia was not a nation it was a geographic expression and this did not seem to be any basis for political unity until a new religion appeared
What was the Kaaba?
It was a temple of pagan worship and the quraysh tribe worshiped there and the principal deities of the quraysh tribe were three virgins three virgins who were extolled as divinities worthy of worship and one of the gods in addition to those three virgins was allah allah was just one more god often called a high god in that he had a prominence above the others but he was certainly not the dictatorial god that you might imagine.
What is the Muslim Black Stone?
There’s an old muslim tradition said the angel Gabriel brought a black stone from heaven well i don’t think gabriel had anything to do with it but there is a black stone from heaven well from the heavens black cells the meteorite and that meteorite is in this in the kaaba temple it was there at pagan times and it has remained there under muslim control according to the old tradition abraham and esau brought the black stone to the Kaaba in fact they were the architects of the Kaaba and the arab arabs believes that when god expelled adam and eve from the garden of eden adam landed on the island of ceylon now where is that has a different name today sri lanka south of india and very much an indian type culture so adam landed on ceylon and he went then looking for eve and he took it took him 100 years to find her and he found her at mecca that’s the story found her at mecca
Talk about the Jews in Muhammad’s day and before.
the jewish presence in arabia is more than interesting the koran appears to be the oldest exton piece of arabic literature so it is the primary source for the study of arabia in muhammad’s era this the quran shows that there was a substantial jewish presence in mecca but even more so in the city of Yatrib Yatrib would become known as medina after muhammad got control of it but the old word was yatrib y-a-t-r-i-b and the jews had a thriving commerce there and they exerted considerable political control because of their numbers and because of their wealth jews had been in arabia since the 4th century and by in Yathrib by muhammad’s day they may have accounted for 50% of the city’s population so the large number of jews and the jews were very advanced above the arabs and they exploited the arabs when they had the opportunity and that led to resentment and it may explain why as muslims the arabs would be more harsh toward jews than they were toward christians the jews dispersed by roman intervention in palestine caused them to flee to several countries as i indicated and jews established themselves along the caravan trades in arabia and yatrib seemed to be the site of their political structure whatever one they had and it was a place of their commercial combine as well a number of arabs were very impressed with the advancements the jews were making and they became jews so arabs converted to judaism and this had the effect of laying a monotheistic foundation on which islam could build with jews the absolute the absolute and necessary belief is the oneness of God if you were to attend a synagogue service any place in the world today you would hear this statement declared recited by the congregation hear o israel the lord is our god lord our god is one so the absolute oneness of god strict monotheism was the arch belief of the jews and the muslims who became jews then encouraged the development of judaism even further so there is now that monotheism which could compete effectively with the pagans when muhammad appeared in yatrib very few jews accepted his claims he was terribly disappointed he thought since he has become a monotheist they are the same and they have this cardinal principle in common which they did but that was not enough to make the arabs very receptive toward muhammad
The southern part of Arabia is now known as the kingdom of ________. It was a….
site of an early christian development in arabia probably has influences filtering over from ethiopia on the red sea this religion was modified but modif was monotheistic of course but and it claimed to be christian but it held to heretical views about the person and work of Christ then there was persian influence which brought further christian type beliefs but they too were tarnished with Arian christology
By the fourth century, numerous _________ had been established in Arabia and a _______ was functioning well and the Christians themselves were satisfied that….. The largest Christian group in Arabia committed the serious error of believing….
monasteries
bishopric
they could remain in arabia and perhaps win converts that proved to be a disappointed aspiration
in fact the largest christian group in arabia committed the serious error of believing the trinity was composed of the father the son and the mother virgin mary that is not the biblical trinity by any means father son and virgin mary that enjoyed quite a bit of popularity among those so-called christians there were a few christian a few tribes that claimed to be christian in in their totality at one time paintings of jesus and mary were hanging in the Kaaba in the temple
The Arab subscription to a heretical view of Christ led the imperial government and Constantinople to…
persecute arab christians the consequent resentment among those arabs made them very receptive to muhammad and his message and when islam provided an alternative to christianity many arabs regarded muhammad as a liberator and they turned to his teaching in opposition to any version of christianity
Talk about Muhammad’s family situation.
well let’s take a look now at the life of this man we know him now as the prophet muhammad he came from the quraysh family born in mecca but born into one of the minor branches of that family and so he didn’t have any particular social standing or any rank of importance he had a sad family situation in fact his his father died before he was born before muhammad was born and his mother died six years after his grandfather and later an uncle raised reared him but they did not convert to islam his uncle enabled him to gain employment as a caravan driver conducting camel caravans back and forth between and among the cities he worked for a lady who happened to be a widow her name was khadijah k a d i j h a k k h a d i j a that she was his employer and she was very wealthy because her caravan business was thriving somehow romance blossomed between the two of them and they married even though she was 15 years older than muhammad they seemed to have a very happy union they had six children but only one of them survived the death of her father her name was fatima and some of the people in islam even to this day refer to themselves as fatimites or fatimites
Why do some people in Islam today refer to themselves as Fatimites?
they had six children but only one of them survived the death of her father her name was fatima and some of the people in islam even to this day refer to themselves as fatimites or fatimites
About the year 610, Muhammad began a religious practice of…
retreating to a remote place for prayer and meditation
Muhammad claimed that while he was meditating…
he had a visit from the angel gabriel at first he feared that gabriel was actually a demon and he was so frightened that he considered committing suicide khadijah however consoled him she introduced him to her cousin who was a professing christian and that cousin told muhammad that the visitor from the other world was actually gabriel the angel and that the revelation was genuine so his christianity was a little thin i believe khadijah was the first one to convert to the teachings of muhammad and an adopted son followed her and her father too became a disciple his name was abu bakr abu bakr a abu r abu bakr he was a merchant he accepted muhammad’s claim to be a prophet to be a prophet of allah
Allah had been worshipped as a high deity for a long time before Muhammad. Muhammad declared…
Who were most of his converts and why?
allah is the only god this is going to be a rigorous monotheistic movement in general though the people of mecca when they heard the teaching of it turned away from it with contempt after all he came from the lower class of people in mecca so why listen to him most of his converse came from his own lower class in general americans rejected islam and they clung to their traditional pagan beliefs and practices
Some opponents feared this new religion because
this new religion they feared that it would ruin the economy of mecca because if people rejected the traditional pagan gods that could hurt the economy very badly because the pilgrim trade pilgrims came from far and wide to worship at the kaaba and so there was a dreaded future fear that islam would take home and ruin the pilgrim trade and the economy might collapse and so there are a number of efforts now to kill muhammad his critics formed conspiracies and they plotted to take his life after the death of khadija muhammad decided to leave mecca because it is no longer safe to remain there
Muhammad decided to leave Mecca after the death of Khadija because it was no longer safe to remain there. Meanwhile, leaders in ______ invited Muhammad to…
meanwhile leaders in yatrib invited muhammad to become an arbitrator in the disputes to which which it were disrupting their community evidently muhammad impressed people with his sincerity and his reputation for honesty and so for that reason the yakuza people turned to him for advice and counsel he sent some of his followers to yatra to prepare the way for himself and soon he and his father-in-law abu bakr moved there in 622.
What is the jira agira?
It is a holy day remembering when Muhammad and his father-in-law moved to Yatrib.
it was a principle holy day in the practice of islam even now so a new day had dawned and the muslims went so far as to establish a new calendar the day of the date of the agira 622 became the year one in the muslim calendar since the jews and christians in yatrip were monotheists muhammad expected that they would join with him on that basis and muhammad was greatly disappointed when that did not happen oh there were some converts but not nearly as many as he expected
Soon Muhammad and his followers changed the name of Yatrib to ______ which means
to medina and medina means city of the prophet city of the prophet so muhammad expected a favorable reception
Muhammad expected a favorable reception in Yatrib/Medina, but…
jewish rejection led him to take severe reprisals against the jews once his power base was secured in medina he showed the jews no mercy
Talk about the treatment of Jews pre-Islam in Arabia as well as in early Muslim days.
mercy in pre-islamic times jews ruled some areas of arabia but the last of those states was conquered by the by the byzantine empire coming from constantinople even before muhammad appeared on the scene attacks upon the jews were often and they were vehement they refused to acknowledge muhammad as a prophet and the jewish arab woman insulted him and muslims for the muslim forces fresh from battle against their opponents besieged the jewish fortification but as you surrendered the muslims killed most of them and those jews who were not killed were banished and deprived of their homes and possessions
Muhammad very quickly gathered a substantial following in Medina and particularly he was a favorite among the _____
most wildlied radical tribesmen these bedouins as they’re called readily seem to move gravitate toward islam and they brought their love of violence with them they were at war most of the time and the blood feud was a social custom among the arab bedouins
The prophet regarded the stronghold of Mecca as a stronghold of _____ and therefore….
idolatry
mecca should be destroyed the jews were not idolaters but they opposed islam and they too had to be crushed after defeating them in medina the prophet ordered the execution of jewish males women and children were spared but sold into slavery because muhammad made no distinction between religion and civil authority he was actually the autocratic ruler of the muslims
One reason the Jews of Medina scorned him was…
was muhammad’s declaration that jesus christ is a true prophet and you find 25 references in the quran to jesus all of them very positive but jesus too appears there as a muslim prophet when each time his armies won a victory that enhanced the prophet’s claim to be the messenger of islam so it seemed that he was not making idle claims because he said divine forces were fighting on his side
What does the word jihad mean? What is a jihad?
it’s a harmless word in and of itself all it means literally is to exert oneself exert oneself that’s all nothing necessarily ugly or threatening about that but with the passage of time jihad acquired another significance in the early muslim period it did not call for holy war against unbelievers but after muhammad settled in medina shihan came to signify a violent struggle islam against the enemies and the enemies were people who refused to accept the religion this sometimes justified self-defense but eventually it meant the use of force forced conversions to destroy the remaining idolaters and and not only the idolatrous but the jews and christians as well muslims were to command the right and forbid the wrong that’s right out of the koran itself and jihad then became the war against the infidels the infidels were the unbelievers people who had not embraced islam loyal muslims then were just must strive to establish muslim sovereignty and thereby to propagate the faith to unbelievers current muslim leaders vary in their belief about conducted jihad there are some today who say that they have no warlike intentions at all but they want islam to spread and so they want to spread it by peaceful means not all of them say that there are some that are avowedly radical and more like there are passages in the quran which may be cited to support a militant view of jihad and the pacific view so one or the other the koran appears to be contradicting contradicting in that regard muhammad had a personal score to settle with the people of mecca who had scored him and driven him out and so therefore muhammad marshaled the bedouin forces and sent them to war against mecca
What is razzia?
the term for war is razia r-a-z-z-i-a-ratzy yeah and it means holy war it came to mean holy war give you an example in 624 a very large caravan came from mecca and while it was traveling a much smaller force of muslims attacked it and won the victory over it plundering its possessions took a lot of prisoners killing a large number of enemy warriors muslims beheaded the leader of the caravan and they presented his head to muhammad these were not nice guys and muhammad claimed that the battle of victories in battle validated his right to be condoned as a prophet when it came to dividing the spoil from the meccan caravan muhammad took one fifth of the proceeds for allah and himself how much allah i forgot i don’t know but mohammed got something this year although the muslim victories were impressive
Muhammad did not believe his forces were strong enough to conquer Mecca so…
he resorted to diplomacy he agreed to a 10-year truce with mecca but two years into the truce he changed his mind and launched an all-out assault and in short order his forces were triumphant in mecca and he was on on the way to becoming the dictator he did a remarkable thing he had a reputation now of being brutal brutal to captives especially but when he took possession of mecca his hometown he executed only four people 24 people they were the outspoken enemies of muhammad so he did not engage in a bloodbath but he did engage in some interesting religious reforms anybody who feared that the kaaba was going to collapse or be destroyed was mistaken he occupied the kaaba with the black stone and he declared that the Kaaba had now become a muslim temple he removed all the idols that were there and he dispatched soldiers to destroy other pagan shrines in other places in one case his soldiers can confronted a tribe that absolutely would not acknowledge the claims of muhammad so warfare blew out on the had
Muhammad had several women - all of them after khadijah died - he was faithful to her, but after she died he took many others and he claimed that…
It was 10 years since the hegera when he returned to Medina where he became seriously ill, he retired to the home of…
a divine revelation gave him the license to have as many wives as he wanted
one of his wife’s aisha a-y-i-s-h-a-hisham she was the daughter of abu bakr she was his favorite wife and he died in 632 she lived till 678 and she exerted considerable influence in the development of the religion aisha became known as the mother of believers and she claimed to receive revelations and the term for revelations is hadith h-a-d-i-t-h-hadit these are oral traditions put into writing to preserve the prophet’s teaching and later the collection of khadi is near the great mosque in medina
What is hadith?
Ayisha, Muhammad’s wife who lived on after him, became known as the mother of believers and she claimed to receive revelations and the term for revelations is hadith h-a-d-i-t-h-hadit these are oral traditions put into writing to preserve the prophet’s teaching and later the collection of khadi is near the great mosque in medina now
Talk about the formation of the Koran and what it contains.
of the koran now is the authority for islamic teaching muslims believe in mechanical dictation that is that allah dictated every word that appears in the quran and the angel gabriel brought the directions down to muhammad the collection of these so-called revelations most of them were were collected after the death of muhammad although some while he still lived the definitive edition of the koran appeared after he died and abu bakr his father-in-law was the one who did most of the work there were disputes about some of the documents taken into the quran the quran is a very unsystematic book but it’s not even chronological in nature and so it’s much more difficult to understand than is the bible and abu bakr and his associates argue among themselves about which documents to include a document is called a surah s-u-r-a and that has in effect become a chapter heading in the quran thesaurus
There are two major schools of Islamic thinking and practice….
one is the sunnah which is by far the largest group and the other is the shia that’s high a and one of the things that separates them is their different understanding of which surahs belong in the quran the shias have two more soras than the sunnis the sunnis are by far the majority probably 80 percent of the world’s muslims are sunnis the largest shia version belongs to iran that has a number of mystical features to it as well
The Quran contains not only religious statements about religious duty, but…
parts of it are to be frequently recited in public and in private prayer the quran contains laws comments about public events statements of policy and rebukes for people who reject the prophet’s teaching the quran mentions god and his apostle and the apostle is muhammad and sometimes the attributes of god are awarded to the apostle and here is something quite interesting to note in all the koran there are only two references to the love of god only two many many to the justice and power of god but only two to the love of god although much material in the quran comes from the bible there are generous remarks about jews and christians within the quran too sometimes the jews and christians are cited as people of the book and the book involved is the bible they are people of the bible and that’s to their credit but they need to understand that christians and jews have tampered with the bible and it’s necessary to revise the bible and republish it in its true form and that is how the koran developed the koran is different from the bible but it’s very similar to the bible in many ways like the bible there are chapter and verse numbers in the quran the quran as i said refers to jews and christians as people of the book but then in another surah it denounces them as pagans and they say that the the term mushrik belongs to christians and jews
What is mushrik?
m-u-s-h-r-i-k mushrik bushrig means polytheists mainly get brought against christians because of their doctrine of the trinity please excuse me here’s one admonition that leaks off the page those who have been given the bible but believe not in allah and follow not the religion of truth until they paid the tribute readily being brought low now break bringing them low is of course enslaving them and in server 9 verse 30 there’s an accusation that christians are perverse people who deny allah and the surah declares and i’ll quote it allah fight against them fights against them allah told the prophet to give jews and christians here it is tidings of a painful doom
In the early years of the movement, Muhammad told his followers to bear insults in opposition patiently, but…
once he gave sufficient power he urged them to take the sword and defend themselves and their beliefs against infidels
All the major teachings of Muhammad appear in the Quran, but then there are the…
oral traditions as well i mentioned them in past in the hadith are oral traditions which were put into writing collected and saved and many of the hadith are written by people who have the honor of being known as companions of the prophet companions of the prophet are trustworthy and authentic transmitters of the of the prophet’s teaching
Although monotheism is the fundamental tenet of Islam, early in his dealings with Gabriel, Muhammad himself reveled…
a belief in three exalted virgins that was an old pagan idea but he can’t do it for a while and the angel gabriel came down from heaven to rebuke the prophet and he dismissed those figures the three virgins as just a mere expressions without reality when he did that some meccans restored it in anger but thereafter islam denied there were any mediators at all between allah and his human followers the quran lists several old testament prophets by name among them are elijah elisha job and jonah but in its event in places but the koran places elijah with zachariah and john the baptist even though they were several centuries apart in time king david too appears as a prophet to whom allah gave the book of psalms although the quran portrays muhammad as the greatest prophet but nothing more than that a tradition holds that he acts as an intercessor who will appear on the day of judgment to plead for all muslims
Muhammad is assumed to be qualified as an intercessor because…
he is without sin now that’s not official teaching but some of the divisions and subdivisions of islam do hold to the sinlessness of the prophet but in the quran there is a call for muhammad himself to repent like all other mortals
The Jewish elements in Islam are interesting. According to Islamic beliefs…
muhammad is the greatest and last of the inspired prophets he stands at the end of a succession beginning with adam and extending through the old testament into the new testament where zacharias john the baptist and jesus are cited as muslim prophets the muslims find predictions of muhammad’s advent in the bible they contend that such predictions were obscured by jews and christians who corrupted the biblical text the quran contains ambivalent and even contradictory declarations about the jews some ambivalence continues has continued into modern times today in palestine especially which is always it seems in turmoil between jews and arabs and the the palestinians there for take a very hard and uncompromising view against christians and jews muhammad claimed that abraham and ishmael his son built the kaaba that at first mohammed designated jerusalem as the major holy city for islam but after it became evident that he could not establish his firm control in jerusalem he changed his position and said mecca is to be the principal holy city followed by medina and then jerusalem number three in the quran there are prescriptions for abstinence from unclean foods like judaism muhammad forbade the use of all visual images of a religious nature and that’s why some muslims and even some jews avoid being photographed they think that that would be a sinful thing to do allow oneself to be photographed muslims regard the site of a temple in jerusalem as what they call the naval of the universe the naval of the universe and according to this legend this is where abraham attempted to sacrifice ishmael not isaac but ishmael that’s the site from which the prophet ascended to heaven for a visit he did that more than once and momentary visions in which he ascended into heaven moses like abraham is a prominent prophet in the quran and there’s a stinging critique of the hebrews moses came to you with clear proofs of allah’s sovereignty yet while he was away you chose the calf for worship and you were wrong doers that’s surah 2 9 21. muhammad was directed to tell the muslims we follow the religion of abraham the upright and he was not of the idolaters muslims accuse jews of polytheism because jews sometimes refer to ezra as a son of god that’s his surah 9 30.
Talk about the Christian elements in Islam.
jesus is the most prominent figure in the quran there are 25 references to him as i mentioned it hails him as the messiah it affirms that he worked miracles when he was on earth and that his return will occur at the end of time muhammad seems to have learned about christianity when he visited syria on one of his camel caravans he may have met christians who were visiting in mecca as well his wife khadijah had christian relatives and she became a monotheist before muhammad did in 628 some christians from southern arabia appeared in medina to discuss religion with muhammad statements of the prophet concerning christianity like those pertaining to judaism appear quite inconsistent he called the the jews and christians both of them people of the book his reference to christians vary from tolerance to hostility depending on the christians attitude toward muhammad and his claims the quran purports to be a transcript of a heavenly tablet a tablet that relates all that has happened and all that will happen it contains statements of the prophet while he was in a state of ecstasy there is no chronological sequence and some of the later passages in the quran contradict earlier ones allah is an arbitrary sovereign entitled to change his mind at any time so the immutability of allah is not a feature of islam it is a feature of judaism and christianity but not of islam the quran portrays god in very favorable terms as the compassionate and merciful one the compassionate and merciful one is allah but stern is very stern toward unbelievers here’s another statement from this one from surah 112. one god is one the eternal god begetting not and unbegotten none is his equal god is not anybody’s father god does not have any children and it’s an outrageous lie to claim he does some contend that surah 9 5 here it is slay the polytheists wherever you find them some claim it just canceled earlier verses which call for toleration others say this applies only to enemies who try to destroy islam so muslims themselves are divided about such matters according to the quran adam’s offense was very serious but he did repent and regain god’s favor there is no doctrine of transmitted original sin nothing like christianity adam’s sin sinful nature no there’s none of that in islam when other people sin they may obtain forgiveness by obeying god’s commands and adhering to god’s revelation in the quran islam does not have a developed concept of a redeemer one hadith explains asura to mean that god opened the heart of muhammad and removed a black speck and that’s why muhammad relied upon because the black speck was taken out of his heart this is not a belief common to all muslims by any means the koran is not a revelation of god’s being but more it is a declaration of god’s will muslims maintain that no one can know god personally this contrasts with christian christian belief in a personal god who has revealed himself for human benefit the muslims claim to know god’s will without knowing god their definition emphasizes that what god is not rather than what god is god is not a human god is not a redeemer god is not a father when the muslims speak about god’s love which is rarely they mean allah rewards obedience with his love but god made it maintains no universal love for his creatures his lone futures are rather elaborate eschatology somewhat comparable to christianity this includes a final judgment a resurrection from the dead an eternal heaven and eternal hell the quran describes the afterlife in material terms of comfort splendor or or else in hell suffering and despair heaven is for the faithful muslims who will enjoy cool shade exotic food and the tireless service of scantily clad beautiful maidens that’s the concept of heaven you always see the influence of geography upon that cool shade lots of cool water arabia doesn’t offer that at all all right the quran says very little about life after death as far as details are concerned it does say that angels escort souls of the faithful to heaven but ah gives fuller description this uh features peaceful separation of the soul from the body followed by a brief time in the presence of god to receive a test a taste of eternity when that has occurred the angels returned their souls to the bodies to await the resurrection and judgment unbelievers experience painful separation of souls from their bodies angel of death conducts unbelievers to the vicinity of heaven but does not allow them to enter they can get a glimpse of it because this is what’s going they’re going to miss but they are not entitled to enter it of course next angels escort the souls of their to their bodies and they await the resurrection and eternal damnation so it’s similar to christianity in some ways as you can see residence in the grave is not a state of unconsciousness angels continue to visit to death today either to console them who are faithful or to distress those who are unbelievers but while in the grave the dead have glimpses of heaven or hell the time spent in the grave is a foretaste of eternity this corresponds roughly to the roman catholic concept of purgatory rather similar wisdoms are not uniform in their belief shia shia or shiites reject this teaching while the majority of muslims affirm it the details of post-mortem experience do not receive much attention from ordinary muslims one feature of eschatology which does receive great attention among muslims is their belief in the end times while muslims maintain the exact time of the last hour is known only to god they have organized the events pertaining to the end in a systematic sequence hence they cite signs of times which will hurl the end of the world this is taken from sora 82 just a paragraph we’ll read when the heaven is cleft asunder when the plants are dispersed when the seas are poured forth when the sepulchers are overturned a soul will know what it has been know what it has been said before before it and what is left behind without the quranic support a tradition is declared universal a tradition declared universal disintegration of natural the actual order to be preceded by vast moral decadence you know it seems to me here again some correspondence with christian teaching where christians look for a great tribulation time of uh great corruption and and a great amount of suffering muhammad divided time into three great eras first the time of moses when he received the torah so that was the first great portion of time moses divided when moses received the torah secondly when jesus brought the gospel moses received the torah jesus brought the gospel and then number three allah revealed the quran so instead of doing this we do ancient medieval and modern history it’s a religious point of view entirely the torah the gospel and the koran muhammad is the last of the prophets so history is now in its final phase how long it will last but nobody knows but it’s in its final phase i think that too could be related to christian thinking i rather believe that don’t you that we’re in the last days don’t know how many last days there are could be trillions i don’t know but i think that the period between the ascension of jesus into heaven and his personal return and glory at his the last days and the apostles in the new testament were aware of living in the last days so it’s a similarity there muslim eschatology predicts though that the muslim movement itself will fragment due to apostasy this is the main reason why the sects of muslims hate one another and attack one another viciously allah will eventually send a savior who is called the body m-a-d-h-i the marty will go to jerusalem and reign there with justice until the antichrist appears from iraq and persecutes true muslims thereby reducing the true muslims to a remnant at the point of desperation jesus will return and lead the faithful to victory by killing the antichrist jesus will then reign until the end of time that seems to be a millennial position according to islam jesus did not die on the cross and muhammad rather than jesus is the ideal man true religion requires people to imitate the prophet rather than imitating christ islam stresses muhammad’s visit to heaven when he was escorted by gabriel and while he was there he’s got a glimpse of hell as well and he described hell very much the way dante would later describe his inferno here’s a remark in surah 17. muhammad went from the sacred mosque to the farther mosque which could be heaven well in heaven the prophet met abraham moses and other prophets this experience is called his night journey because gabriel awoke muhammad while he was sleeping and escorted him to jerusalem and then from the tip of the temple the pole at the top of the temple from there he ascended to heaven for a brief stay and then would return to earth islamic eschatology features the claim that muhammad will lead people at the end to the day of judgment and there will be a bridge a very narrow bridge and it would be so narrow it could be like this the blade of a sword and it passes over hell and it’s and infidels who walk on that bridge fall off of it into hell and they’re spent there’s they’re dispatched to eternal suffering in hell the wicked endures scorching wind black smoke and the only thing to drink is boiling water angels keep humans under surveillance and they make mighty reports of making nightly reports about their behavior they that appreciate to allah the idolaters including christians are called pagans that aren’t formally applied only to vegans but now the christians too hell awaits all of them christians are polytheists judgment day will feature a scale on which good knee deeds will be balanced against evil ones and so islam then features salvation by works the muslims picture of hell is a place of torment through which all humans must pass muslims will not remain there not very long but they will soon gain paradise others will remain there forever one level of hell is reserved for christians muslim most muslim scholars hold that the quranic references to the holy spirit really mean gabriel the angel and as i think i said correct a correct conclusion now we come to the role of jesus in korah in islam he is known as jesus or isu bin miriam jesus son of mary he is never but never son of god son of mary the koran affirms the miracles of jesus including his own miraculous birth according to surah 19 shortly after his birth under a palm tree jesus declared i am a servant of allah he has given me the book and has made me a prophet he has made me blessed whenever i will be blessed wherever i may be and he has enjoined me to prayer and i can’t read my own answer all right the worship of allah this is another quranic statement worship allah my lord and your lord i am a witness says quran says muhammad speaking muslim traditions cite jesus as the seal of the israelite prophets because he was the last prophet allah sent to the hebrews he was a precursor to muhammad one who predicted the coming of the greatest prophet who of course is muhammad all though his conception in mary’s womb was miraculous jesus is a human creature jesus came to preach monotheism and submissiveness to islam to allah some references in the quran attribute to jesus miracles which do not appear in the new testament one and for example one tale has it that jesus once formed a bird out of clay and gave it breath and enabled it to fly another miracle tale says jesus spoke from his cradle to protect mary from accusations about her morality among the miracles recorded in the new testament the koran includes the resurrection of lazarus like saltwise the resurrection of the son of name and the daughter of gyrus one bizarre report says that jesus when challenged by his critics raised shem who had been dead for centuries what good shepherd is going to do i don’t know and the muslim belief jesus is not the redeemer he did not die on the cross but divine by divine action jesus was elevated to heaven well who do you think appeared on the cross would you believe simon of cyrene who has different he carried the cross for jesus but he was not crucified but according to the quran simon of cyrene was crucified by mistake jesus remains in heaven and will be there until the day time for the second advent his death and resurrection will occur his his power of death and resurrection will occur when he leads the struggle against all the forces of antichrist and he prevails over them all dr mcgovern yes so why is it that they see muhammad as kind of the ultimate the highest prophet and yet they see jesus as the one who’s going to reign and bring resurrection and all these things i can’t answer that question dogmatically but muhammad himself was a really dynamic personality he could be and was indeed often very persuasive and people looked up often people who were downtrodden and poor looked to him for help and they sometimes got it jesus was a remote figure jesus had been gone for hundreds of years and the bible is not a reliable account of the divine revelation because christians and jews have tampered with it so i think his dynamic leadership ability was really impressive that people listen to him because he made promises and he got results so it’s easy to establish the credibility of such a person in those terms i think that’s what happened so did muhammad himself uh kind of exalt himself as the highest prophet or did he make their doctrines this is a divine designation that the angel gabriel informed him that he was the greatest and the last of the prophets and so he was fulfilling a divine commission that help you you still look like you’re not sure i mean it’s just weird to me that they exalt muhammad so highly and yet don’t attribute the second coming and all that stuff to muhammad instead of jesus if jesus was just kind of one of the nice prophets but jesus was exalted to heaven muhammad died of normal death that’s right yeah but see they they would probably say that the death of jesus as it appears to scribe in the bible is not accurate he was not crucifix crucified he didn’t really die but instead gabriel escorted him to heaven so he didn’t die at all muhammad did that’s for sure so i can’t answer you any better than that i think but that’s my supposition it does seem curious to me that a lot of the miracles the things sound more like gnostic miracles like miracles like miracles that uh are recorded in gnostic gospels i mean yeah that’s right the gospel gospels are full of tales they’re story books in your opinion
Talk about the staying power of Islam.
what gives it staying power versus other cults that have come and gone so well for a long time islam was in decay after mukama died and the initial movement began to run out of energy and zeal and some muslims adjusted to be living a very comfortable life and they became less conspicuously lacking in zeal they were the arabs the arabs were the first muslims but it wasn’t long before islam spread to non-arab areas such as iran or north africa morocco asia and so forth and wherever the expansion occurred it pumped new energy into it so while as long as it appears to be lapsing it looked like it would just take its place as another religion without much to speak for itself but when the muslims expanded into say egypt for example there in egypt they encountered a christian church which was terribly decadent one of the so-called eastern orthodox churches connecting with constantinople but christianity was in a decadent condition there and the people who lived there now looked upon islam as a liberator the muslims had come in and driven out their the oppressors and as a consequence that gave credibility to the islamic religion then you go across north africa by the 8th century muslims crossed into spain once again they encountered a decadent form of christianity and they began the military conquest of most of spain not all of it but three quarters of it anyhow and for a long time they would be in control of spain although they fought among themselves that weakened their their ability to control and after a while islam began to recede and the last muslim whole stronghold was in granada in the extreme southern part of spain and when they when they left there they went back to north africa and in north africa they had comrades but it’s a i don’t know this is any any way of explaining it more graphically tonight and today islam is enjoying a great resurgence and particularly because of the issue about palestine the muslims are furious with the israelis for their occupation of palestine they said palestine belongs to them and whenever they take action against the israelis israelis of course launched reprisals and the israelis are so well equipped and so well trained that the local palestinians are not really any match for them but there are other muslim countries which could be providing major military assistance to the palestinians but divisions among them keep them apart if the arabs of the muslims of the world all could get together they could launch a horrendous blow against the state of israel but they’re always divided among themselves i think this is the hand of god as they work there do you think there’s anything to the idea of the description that god gives of ishmael that he will be over against his brothers yeah that has sort of characterized that um descendancy you might say yeah i’m sure that’s possible
According to Islamic claims, Jesus was not crucified, He did not die, He did not rise from the dead and so there’s not much gospel left. Give 5 assertions of Muslims regarding these points.
- one influential muslim commentator said “allah cast the likeness of Judas of jesus upon him who had betrayed him so that the person who was crucified was judas a fitting punishment for betraying jesus
- the quran asserts that jesus brought the gospel but it does not explain the contents of the gospel
- muslim scholars in denying the crucifixion and resurrection often resort to citing scholars who are of a rationalistic mind-bend and who therefore use their learning against christianity
- some argue that the new testament records are not reliable and they contend that the new testament narratives are in a corrupted condition and who’s the one principally to blame the apostle paul paul is responsible for misrepresenting the teachings of jesus by connecting his death with the forgiveness of sins some muslim apologists cited european scholars who denied the resurrection because they denied all things miraculous
- muslims argue that the best non-muslim scholars in the world support the koran’s view that christ is not the son of god he did not was not crucified he is not anybody’s savior and therefore he is altogether different than that christians portray him
Looking at the Muslim concept of salvation, what three things do Muslims believe/teach?
- muslims deny the doctrine of original sin and this really negates any working view of redemption
- in muslim belief humans are inherently good although they are subject to the limitations of their nature they have weaknesses but they are not by nature in a state of rebellion against god
- islam teaches that violations of god’s law occur because human beings are forgetful and negligent but not because their nature is depraved
Muslims recite memorized pasages of the Quran to…
…remind them of their duties to Islam and to Allah in particular
When the Muslims sin, they may obtain forgiveness though…
repentance, but there is no redeeming sacrifice required for human beings to obtain forgiveness
Muslim use the term conversion, but they actually mean
restoration. There is no regeneration since the human beings are not dead in trespasses and sins as the Scripture says they are so there’s no need for regeneration in Muslim thinking.
The means of salvation are…
belief and good works
Belief in Allah as the one and only god
Good works pleasing to Allah are good deads of righteousness. And forgiveness is promised to those who seek to be rightneous. IF they are faithful Muslims they will receive a great reward.
the believers according to the the balance of scale will indicate the good deeds are sufficient and if they are sufficient then that person will get eternal life
The concept of faith in Islam requires belief in what three things
- the oneness of god
- the prophetic teachings of Muhammad himself
- life after death
Such muslim belief entails the performance of duties specified as the…
…five pillars of Islam. So if you now the five pillars you have a summary of Islamic belief at your fingertips anytime you want it. In fact they are elaborate manuals of instruction that Muslim leaders use to educate their people in the doctrines of Islam.
What does the koran declare about martyrs?
martyrs always earn salvation and they can claim the assurance of salvation
ordinary muslims cannot
What does the koran say about suice and terrorism?
islam regards suicide as an unforgivable sin and it prescribes a death penalty for people engaging in terrorist activities
now this is interesting consider the condition today we are not at all surprised when muslim terrorists launch an attack any place they they like and they’re likely to do it again and again but the quran itself at least in one place specifies that the death penalty should be imposed upon anybody engaging in terrorist activities
What is indispensable for all believers in Islam?
proper worship
What does the Koran say about Jews and Christians as far as salvation is concerned?
the koran is therefore inconsistent in describing the position of jews and christians as far as the prospects for salvation are concerned one sora number two to be exact promises christians and jews if they believe in god and in the coming of the last day and do what is right then there is a possibility that they will be saved even though they are not islam islamists or muslims
but those who say god is christ or christ is god for them there is a harsh eternal damnation
muhammad said this any jew or christian who heard about me and did not believe in me and what was revealed to me of the holy quran and any traditions his ultimate destination is the hell of fire so as faithful intelligent learned christians who willfully reject the teachings of islam will suffer eternal damnation
What are the five pillars of Islam?
- Shahadah - bear witness daily that there is no god but allah and muhammad is his prophet
- Prayer 5 times a day facing the Kaaba in Mecca
- Zakat - requirement to give alms to the mosque (1/40th)
- Fasting during the month of Ramadan
- The Haj - or pilgramage to visit Mecca and participate there at the Kaaba during the holy season
What is the first pillar of Islam?
now the first of the five pillars of Islam is known as the shahadah - it means literally to bear witness as repeated publicly in the services of islam because it declares the oneness of god to be the bedrock for the religion and every muslim is is required to recite the pillars of islam every day and in this case it would be to assert the oneness of god allah is the one and only god
11 points on the second pillar of Islam - prayer
the second pillar is prayer and this this is prayer of a ritualistic nature a very tightly described usage of the term prayers written in advance and recited in public and
a) when they pray they have the duty to pray facing mecca facing the kaaba to be exact and
b) to do that five times a day so no matter where they happen to be when the hour for prayer arises they should drop everything else and go to their knees in prayer and
c) there’s an official whose duty it is to call the people to prayer so in muslim countries you’ll see towers called minarets and the mutsan are the heralds who stand in the tower and they call the people below to the prayer five times a day prayers are prescribed
d) friday is the holy day rather than saturday or sunday it’s friday and public prayer is always part of a formal worship service men and women convened separately for prayer if
e) if they have one mosque there’ll be a division in the mosque so that on one side are women on the other side are men and
f) before people engage in worship they must perform a ceremony in which they wash their hands their face and their feet hands face and feet
g) there’s a popular muslim belief that prayer cancels lesser sins and
h) prayers recited in the kaaba itself expediate even major transgressions
i) all muslims must participate in daily prayers at specified hours and all must attend services at the mosque on fridays now once they are finished their services on friday then they treat the rest of friday as an ordinary day so it’s not an entire holy day many muslims perform this duty mechanically of course but don’t miss the point there are some muslims who are completely earnest devoutly pious they really believe this teaching and they performed their duties with zeal muslim
j) prayers are not heavily weighted toward personal needs but rather weighted towards declaring the praise of allah and asking for favors for the movement as a whole
k) worship services in mosques are quite different from churches of the christian persuasion very different indeed for example a muslim gathering for worship is a very somber experience it does not include any form of music it is a sharp contrast then with christianity christians love to sing and they often sing beautifully but muslims do not think music is an appropriate part of worship
What is the third pillar of Islam?
the third of the pillars is called zakat in arabic z-a-k-a-t zakat this is the requirement to give alms to the mosque to make financial contributions now you’ve heard probably heard of people who complained when somebody to church that says it’s time to re give our tithes well that’s nothing compared to what the muslims do they have no problem with that at all because giving of alms amounts to 1 40th of a person’s income not one-tenth but one-fortieth of his income and then there are other offerings which people may make voluntarily but the 1/40th is a requirement
What is the fourth pillar of Islam?
the fourth of the pillars is fasting fasting during the month of ramadan ramadan is the ninth month in the muslim calendar and everyone is required to fast during the daylight hours in ramadan once the sun goes down they may eat and drink as usual but fasting is prescribed for the earlier part of the day fasting is believed to remove sins committed during the previous year
What is the fifth pillar of Islam?
and then finally the fifth and last of the pillars of islam is the haj we usually spell this h-a-j h-a-j the translate that as pilgrimage one of the solemn duties of every faithful muslim is to visit mecca and participate there at the kaaba during the holy season and if a person cannot do so because he can’t afford to go then he will be excused but if he can’t afford to go he must go to mecca and each year during the holy season over two million people from all over the world arrive in mecca and participate in the hajj while they’re in mecca they listen to sermons they pray and they perform animal sacrifices which is quite interesting they perform the sacrifice of animals and in so doing they are commemorating abrahams who slaughtered a ram as a substitute for his son ishmael not isaac but ishmael the hajj occurs during the final month in the lunar calendar sacrifices then are rather i i find it rather bizarre that they resort to their sacrifices since they don’t believe that jesus made a sacrifice and they don’t think there’s any redemption connected with this blood sacrifice but they perform them just the same
In addition to the five pillars of Islam, there are the laws of Islam and these are known as _____.
Sharia laws
How did Sharia come into being?
soon after muhammad died disputes arose about issues that could not be settled by a simple appeal to the koran many issues pertain to matters of conduct and ethical implications of the faith sharia came into being as scholars who were expert in the quran and the sunnah issued pronouncements which then caused reactions that led to a proliferation of sects so that disputes among muslims have led to sectarian divisions i told you about the two major divisions but a lot of smaller divisions as well i suspect that in some circumstances muslims are every bit as contentious as presbyterians you think so presbyterians can be contentious it’s not always to our credit
The scholars of sharia law are known as the ______
ulema
The ____ is roughly comparable to the Jewish Torah.
they use the term sharia about the same way that art that jews use the term torah and so that is roughly the equivalent of torah now since muhammad had not established any central authority for the religion disputes were inevitable and like the jewish rabbis the ulema quarreled among themselves and thereby contributed to divisions among the muslims
a large minority sect in Islam is known as the shia. Shiites…..
developed an authority structure of their own in which they placed the leadership responsibility in people called muftis muftis and the muftis acquired the status of legal experts and so their pronouncements were held in high regard
Why do such a wide spectrum of issues need to be settled in Islam?
since islam recognizes no separation of civil and religious authority a wide spectrum of issues needed to be settled and efforts to adjust traditional law to accommodate conditions in a changing world provoked a lot of reaction from orthodox muslims who regarded
Give 2 examples of Saudi Arabia being extremely strict in applying the penalties of sharia.
saudi arabia is a country with which is up until very recently been extremely strict in applying the penalties of sharia there’s been some relaxation lately but for until about two or three years ago women in arabia were not allowed to drive automobiles they finally got that permission just quite recently
the saudis once executed a religious leader and broke diplomatic relations with iran because that leader disagreed with their interpretation of sharia
