Aqil
09-17-2001, 08:51 AM
When we speak of Islam we are concerned not only with a religion akin to the other monotheistic religions, Christianity and Judaism, but with A WAY OF LIFE...a system that encompasses the relationships of the adherents to each other and to their society from birth until death.
The religion of Islam provides a strong bond that brings together Muslims - regardless of race or nationality - in a fellowship constructed upon faith in the one God. When considered in this context, Islam has much in common with both Christianity and Judaism. To the extent, however, that Islam stresses communal solidarity, as measured in terms of successes encountered in this area, it has more in common with Christianity and Judaism.
In the fourteen centuries of its existence, Islam the religion fostered the growth of a political commonwealth and of a distinct culture. At one time it commanded the allegiance and following of diverse peoples incorporated into a vast fraternity which stretched from the Pyrenees in Western Europe to the Phillipines in the Western Pacific.
Within such wide territorial reaches, Muslims, formerly of varying creeds and cultural backgrounds, forged a common culture, drawing on the precepts of their religion and expressing itself through the medium of the Arabic language. Muslims evolved basic philosophical and religious concepts that shaped the fundamentals of Islam and added luster and richness to their way of life.
Unrestrained by dogmatism, Muslims readily engaged themselves in the pursuits of philosophy, literature, science, mathematics and astronomy, converting their chief cities from Spain to Central Asia into the foci of a brilliant civilization when Europe for the most part was experiencing a period of arrestation.
Hence in projecting a study of Islam one cannot achieve a meaningful understanding of the religion without giving some consideration to its institutional and cultural facets. All three aspects of Islam shaped what may be termed "the system of Islam," and assured the triumph and efflorescence of the faith.
The study also requires relating the forces that for many centuries had a molding effect on the religion as it evolved from a simple set of elementary beliefs to an all-encompassing complex framework of theological reference. It is equally necessary for us to draw attention to powerful forces of attraction that enabled Islamic society to cohere and withstand disruption under strong pressure. Pride in belonging to a unifying faith, coupled with the spirit engendered, thereby contributed to the social solidarity and cultural development of the believers in Islam.
But this commonly shared pride did not always succeed in safeguarding the socio-religious solidarity of the Muslims. Such breaches as disrupted the cohesiveness of Islam will be given the consideration as we follow the fluctuations in its historical career through alternating phases of accomplishment and decline.
For a number of centuries the Muslim East and the Christian West confronted each other across the length and breadth of the Mediterranean basin. Sometimes their relations were characterized by peaceful and fruitful exchanges; quite often both sides viewed each other with antipathy and indifference, punctured by frequent conflicts.
Generally, neither the Muslim nor the Christian world appeared to be aware of the fundamental religious precepts they shared in common, derived as they were from the common fount of Judaic and Hellenic beliefs. Not many Christians today, for instance, are aware of the fact that Prophet Muhammad (saw), the Messenger of Islam, believed Jesus and Moses to be the most important bearers of God's one hallowed message to His people, as enshrined in the Testaments and the Torah.
Indeed, to millions of Christians for hundreds of years Prophet Muhammad (saw) was an object of contempt; certainly in no way did he command the respect that his followers accorded Jesus, whose position of deference in the Qur'an (Muslim holy book) is permanently assured.
The term "Islam" in the Arabic lexicon means, "submission to God." The religion of Islam is the religion of submission to the Will of the Omnipotent and Omniscient Creator, the only God, who admits of no associates in the worship of Him. In the eyes if the believers, Muhammad, like Abraham, Moses and Jesus, is a prophet of God.
But unlike the Christian conception of Jesus, Muhammad is not regarded as divine; to the believers in him he is a mortal who was called upon by God to deliver His eternal message to the unbelieving Arabs, as Moses had delivered it to the unbelieving Jews, and Jesus to the rest of the unbelieving world.
Until recent scholarship began to strip Islam of the prejudicial views surrounding it, the Western world, at the very best, had contented itself witha distorted understanding of one of mankind's significant living religions. Geographical proximity and frequent exchanges notwithstanding, the Christian accused the Muslim of worshiping a "false prophet." To the follower of Christ the follower of Muhammad was a blasphemer who would not figure in God's great design, or in the salvation reserved for the faithful believers in Jesus.
Indeed, in the eyes of Christians Islam was synonymous with "Mohammedanism," with its false implication of being a system of belief founded upon the worship of the person "Mohammed" (a corrupt Western version of the name "Muhammad"). Yet nothing is more repugnant to the Muslim than to be called a "Mohammedan"; from the point of view of his religion, to accord devotional respect to any being other than Allah, God of the Worlds, of Christians and Jews, is to commit the major unpardonable sin.
Distortions prejudicing the Western conceptions of Islam may be dated to the earliest centuries, but particularly from the period of the Crusades, when Christian Europe's hostility for the people and their religion crystallized. The church fathers treated Islam as a heresy; Muslims were infidels; Muhammad a "renegade bishop," an "impostor" who rebelled against the central mission of Christ...
Dante ranked the prophet of Islam low among the ill-fated occupants of his "Inferno." Christian authors in subsequent times held him in no better regard. In his Vie de Mahomet (Life of Muhammad), published at the end of the 17th century, the French writer Prideaux held Muhammad up as a mirror to "unbelievers, atheists, deists and libertines." To the irreligiously inclined Voltaire, the prophet of Deism, Muhammad was the fount of fanaticism.
The more generous Abbe Marraci regarded Islam as a distorted extension of Christianity, while he begrudgingly conceded in his Latin translation of the Qur'an, the sacred book of Islam, that "this religion contains many elements of natural truth evidently borrowed from the Christian religion, which seems to be in accordance with the law and light of nature."
Early attempts to place Islam and its Messenger in a more objective framework of reference were few and far between. Late in the 18th century, a Dutch professor of theology at the University of Utrecht came to the conclusion that "no religion has been more calumniated than Islam."
The noted English scholar George Sale spent long arduous hours translating the Qur'an into English, seeking to obtain a deeper insight into the real meaning of the message of Islam. In the preliminary discourse he brought out the point that "there is no false doctrine that does not contain some truth."
With such scholars paving the way, systematic attempts aimed at casting light upon the falsities surrounding the Christian view of Islam were in full evidence by the late 1830s. Henceforth scholars, mostly German Orientalists, began to examine Islam from a detached point of view - shorn of preconceived notions and assumptions.
The inclination by these 19th-century scholars to view Islam in a more favorable light is evident in the testimony of Professor Weil: "Insofar as he brought the most beautiful teachings of the Old and New Testament to a people whom were not illuminated by one ray of faith, he may be regarded - even by those who are not Muslim - as a messenger of God."
Other reputable Orientalists - de Perceval, Lammens, Caetani, Muir, Nodelke - pioneered works on Prophet Muhammad and Islam that have, since their time, become classical for their authoritativeness. It was largely through their efforts that we witness the gradual lifting of the veil of tendentious fiction and emotional bias that had blurred the European's vision of Islam. This trend towards an objective understanding of the religion in its multiple facets has persisted - both in Europe and the U.S. - up to the present time.
The religion of Islam provides a strong bond that brings together Muslims - regardless of race or nationality - in a fellowship constructed upon faith in the one God. When considered in this context, Islam has much in common with both Christianity and Judaism. To the extent, however, that Islam stresses communal solidarity, as measured in terms of successes encountered in this area, it has more in common with Christianity and Judaism.
In the fourteen centuries of its existence, Islam the religion fostered the growth of a political commonwealth and of a distinct culture. At one time it commanded the allegiance and following of diverse peoples incorporated into a vast fraternity which stretched from the Pyrenees in Western Europe to the Phillipines in the Western Pacific.
Within such wide territorial reaches, Muslims, formerly of varying creeds and cultural backgrounds, forged a common culture, drawing on the precepts of their religion and expressing itself through the medium of the Arabic language. Muslims evolved basic philosophical and religious concepts that shaped the fundamentals of Islam and added luster and richness to their way of life.
Unrestrained by dogmatism, Muslims readily engaged themselves in the pursuits of philosophy, literature, science, mathematics and astronomy, converting their chief cities from Spain to Central Asia into the foci of a brilliant civilization when Europe for the most part was experiencing a period of arrestation.
Hence in projecting a study of Islam one cannot achieve a meaningful understanding of the religion without giving some consideration to its institutional and cultural facets. All three aspects of Islam shaped what may be termed "the system of Islam," and assured the triumph and efflorescence of the faith.
The study also requires relating the forces that for many centuries had a molding effect on the religion as it evolved from a simple set of elementary beliefs to an all-encompassing complex framework of theological reference. It is equally necessary for us to draw attention to powerful forces of attraction that enabled Islamic society to cohere and withstand disruption under strong pressure. Pride in belonging to a unifying faith, coupled with the spirit engendered, thereby contributed to the social solidarity and cultural development of the believers in Islam.
But this commonly shared pride did not always succeed in safeguarding the socio-religious solidarity of the Muslims. Such breaches as disrupted the cohesiveness of Islam will be given the consideration as we follow the fluctuations in its historical career through alternating phases of accomplishment and decline.
For a number of centuries the Muslim East and the Christian West confronted each other across the length and breadth of the Mediterranean basin. Sometimes their relations were characterized by peaceful and fruitful exchanges; quite often both sides viewed each other with antipathy and indifference, punctured by frequent conflicts.
Generally, neither the Muslim nor the Christian world appeared to be aware of the fundamental religious precepts they shared in common, derived as they were from the common fount of Judaic and Hellenic beliefs. Not many Christians today, for instance, are aware of the fact that Prophet Muhammad (saw), the Messenger of Islam, believed Jesus and Moses to be the most important bearers of God's one hallowed message to His people, as enshrined in the Testaments and the Torah.
Indeed, to millions of Christians for hundreds of years Prophet Muhammad (saw) was an object of contempt; certainly in no way did he command the respect that his followers accorded Jesus, whose position of deference in the Qur'an (Muslim holy book) is permanently assured.
The term "Islam" in the Arabic lexicon means, "submission to God." The religion of Islam is the religion of submission to the Will of the Omnipotent and Omniscient Creator, the only God, who admits of no associates in the worship of Him. In the eyes if the believers, Muhammad, like Abraham, Moses and Jesus, is a prophet of God.
But unlike the Christian conception of Jesus, Muhammad is not regarded as divine; to the believers in him he is a mortal who was called upon by God to deliver His eternal message to the unbelieving Arabs, as Moses had delivered it to the unbelieving Jews, and Jesus to the rest of the unbelieving world.
Until recent scholarship began to strip Islam of the prejudicial views surrounding it, the Western world, at the very best, had contented itself witha distorted understanding of one of mankind's significant living religions. Geographical proximity and frequent exchanges notwithstanding, the Christian accused the Muslim of worshiping a "false prophet." To the follower of Christ the follower of Muhammad was a blasphemer who would not figure in God's great design, or in the salvation reserved for the faithful believers in Jesus.
Indeed, in the eyes of Christians Islam was synonymous with "Mohammedanism," with its false implication of being a system of belief founded upon the worship of the person "Mohammed" (a corrupt Western version of the name "Muhammad"). Yet nothing is more repugnant to the Muslim than to be called a "Mohammedan"; from the point of view of his religion, to accord devotional respect to any being other than Allah, God of the Worlds, of Christians and Jews, is to commit the major unpardonable sin.
Distortions prejudicing the Western conceptions of Islam may be dated to the earliest centuries, but particularly from the period of the Crusades, when Christian Europe's hostility for the people and their religion crystallized. The church fathers treated Islam as a heresy; Muslims were infidels; Muhammad a "renegade bishop," an "impostor" who rebelled against the central mission of Christ...
Dante ranked the prophet of Islam low among the ill-fated occupants of his "Inferno." Christian authors in subsequent times held him in no better regard. In his Vie de Mahomet (Life of Muhammad), published at the end of the 17th century, the French writer Prideaux held Muhammad up as a mirror to "unbelievers, atheists, deists and libertines." To the irreligiously inclined Voltaire, the prophet of Deism, Muhammad was the fount of fanaticism.
The more generous Abbe Marraci regarded Islam as a distorted extension of Christianity, while he begrudgingly conceded in his Latin translation of the Qur'an, the sacred book of Islam, that "this religion contains many elements of natural truth evidently borrowed from the Christian religion, which seems to be in accordance with the law and light of nature."
Early attempts to place Islam and its Messenger in a more objective framework of reference were few and far between. Late in the 18th century, a Dutch professor of theology at the University of Utrecht came to the conclusion that "no religion has been more calumniated than Islam."
The noted English scholar George Sale spent long arduous hours translating the Qur'an into English, seeking to obtain a deeper insight into the real meaning of the message of Islam. In the preliminary discourse he brought out the point that "there is no false doctrine that does not contain some truth."
With such scholars paving the way, systematic attempts aimed at casting light upon the falsities surrounding the Christian view of Islam were in full evidence by the late 1830s. Henceforth scholars, mostly German Orientalists, began to examine Islam from a detached point of view - shorn of preconceived notions and assumptions.
The inclination by these 19th-century scholars to view Islam in a more favorable light is evident in the testimony of Professor Weil: "Insofar as he brought the most beautiful teachings of the Old and New Testament to a people whom were not illuminated by one ray of faith, he may be regarded - even by those who are not Muslim - as a messenger of God."
Other reputable Orientalists - de Perceval, Lammens, Caetani, Muir, Nodelke - pioneered works on Prophet Muhammad and Islam that have, since their time, become classical for their authoritativeness. It was largely through their efforts that we witness the gradual lifting of the veil of tendentious fiction and emotional bias that had blurred the European's vision of Islam. This trend towards an objective understanding of the religion in its multiple facets has persisted - both in Europe and the U.S. - up to the present time.