Islam

Islam Today
• Fastest growing religion in the world
• 1.3 Billion worldwide
 Indonesia (200 M) > India (180 M) > Pakistan (160 M) >
Bangladesh (120 M) > China (80 M) > Egypt (70 M)
Asian > African > Arab > Anglo-Saxon/Caucasian

• 7 M Muslims in the USA, 3M are Arabs (roughly half of the Arab

Americans are Christians)

• 10,000 Muslims in the Lehigh Valley

• Yet Islam remains the most misunderstood religion

 Intro
• Islam means submission to One God

• root word slm same root for peace.

• Peace is attained through complete

obedience/submission to God.

• Muslims believe in one God and in

Muhammad as the final Prophet of God.
Byzantine
Empire *
Persian
Empire

• An Arabian
dynasty
An Arabian
dynasty *
 Timeline

• 570 Muhammad born in Mecca.

• 610 First revelation (27 Ramadan).
• 622 “Hijra” Muhammad & followers escape prosecution
and go to madinah (Yathrib).
 Year 1 in the Islamic calendar
 ‘Missionaries’ sent all over Arabia
– building peaceful coalition
(Wars imposed on fledgling Muslim community by Meccan
• 629 Muhammad re-enters Mecca peacefully (NO REVENGE)
 Forgives all enemies
 destroys idols in the Qaaba.
 single-handedly, brings peace to war-torn Arabia
• 632 Muhammad dies in Madinah.
Islam by the death of Mohammed 632
Islam at 644
732, 100 Yrs after Mohammed
 Beliefs
• Tawhid: Unity (Oneness) of God

• Adalah: Justice of God

• Nubuwwah: Prophethood

• Imamah: Shiite Belief

• Qiyamah: (day of resurrection)

 Tawhid
• Monotheism (central tenet of Islam)

• Shahadah: “None worthy of worship but God”

• Allah = God (same word used by Christian Arabs)

Allah (Arabic) = Eluhim (Hebrew) = El (Aramaic)
 Justice of God
• God can not be unjust because he is
independent and above need

• Islamic Philosophical thought (falasafa)

(Free will/Predestination)
 Prophets

• Acknowledges Adam, Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac,

Jacob, Joseph, Moses,David, Solomon, Zacharia, Jesus,
John the Baptist, and others as prophets

• A special place for Jesus and Mary (e.g., 3:45,46; 4:156-

158; 19:1-98) (entire chapter dedicated to and titled Mary)

• Accepts Miraculous birth of Jesus.

• Rejects the divinity of Jesus (no trinity).

 Jesus in Islam
• "Behold! the angel said: 'God has chosen
you and purified you and has chosen you
above the women of all nations. O Mary!
God gives you the good news of a word
from Him, whose name shall be Messiah,
Jesus son of Mary, honored in this world
and the hereafter, and one of those
brought near to God" (3:42).
 Abraham

Ismail

Adnan

Quraiysh

Qussaiy

Abdmanaf

Abdshams Hashem

Adbelmuttalib

(Amneh+) Abdallah Abutalib Hamzeh Alabbas Abulahab Alhareth

Muhammad Ali

Ummayah Dynasty Abbbassides Dynasty

(661-750) (750-1258)
 Relation with other Faiths

• Quran is the only holy book that mentions other

religions/faith (Judeo-Christian and others as well)

• Jews and Christians are respectfully addressed as People

of the Book

• Islam sees itself as a continuation of the Judeo-Christian

tradition (Abrahamic faith)

• Muslim Law (sharia) resembles the Halaga

 Other Faiths
• Islam sees itself as a continuation of the Judeo-
Christian Tradition:

• "Say, we believe in God, and that which was

revealed unto us and that which was revealed
unto Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and
Jacob, and the tribes and that which was
entrusted unto Moses and Jesus and the
Prophets from their Lord. We make no
distinction between any of them, and unto Him
we have submitted" (3:84).
 Relation with other Faiths

• Islam did not impose itself by the sword.

 "There must be no compulsion/coercion in religion" (2: 256)
• Muslims have to respect Jews and Christians, the "People of the Book,"
who worship the same God (e.g., 2:62; 29:46).
 "And dispute ye not with the People of the Book, except with means better,
unless it be with those of them who inflict wrong: but say, 'We believe in
the revelation which has come down to us and in that which came down
to you; Our Allah and your Allah is one; and it is to Him we bow.”
• In one of his last public sermons Muhammad said
 “God tells all human beings, "O people! We have formed you into nations
and tribes so that you may know one another" (49: 13). Do not conquer,
convert, subjugate, revile or slaughter but to reach out toward others with
intelligence and understanding”

• The Levant remained mainly Christian for almost 200 Yrs.

 No one was forced to convert to Islam
• The right of all faiths to worship was respected
• Sites of worship, holy places and shrines of all faiths were protected
 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
“....I became more than ever convinced that it was not the
sword that won a place for Islam in those days in the
scheme of life. It was the rigid simplicity, the utter self-
effacement of the prophet, the scrupulous regard for his
pledges, his intense devotion to his friends and followers,
his intrepidity, his fearlessness, his absolute trust in God
and in his own mission. These, and not the sword carried
everything before them and surmounted every trouble.”

[Young India (periodical), 1928, Volume X]

Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) Considered the greatest
British historian of his time.

"The greatest success of Mohammad's life

was effected by sheer moral force without
the stroke of a sword."

[History Of The Saracen Empire, London,

1870]
 Resurrection (Afterlife)
• Notion of responsibility for Human action

• Good rewarded and Evil Punished

 Practice
• Salah: 5 times daily prayer

• Saum: Fasting

• Hajj: Pilgrimage to Meccah

• Zakat: Religious Tax

• Jihad: Striving for the Good

 Salah: Prayer
• Shade from the “storm” of daily life

• Can be offered individually or in congregation (sense of

community/unity and equality of all people)

• “In the mosque when the call for prayer is sounded and
worshippers are gathered together, the democracy of Islam
is embodied five times a day when the peasant and king
kneel side by side and proclaim: "God Alone is Great." I
have been struck over and over again by this indivisible
unity of Islam that makes man instinctively a brother.”

Sarojini Naidu (1879-1949) the first woman governor of

free India
 Saum: Fasting
• Refrain from food and drink during the day
• Struggle to refrain from all sins
(spirituality)
• Nights spent in prayer/contemplation
• Inculcates Discipline, appreciation for
God’s bounties, understanding the plight of
the poor
 Hajj: Pilgrimage
• Once in a Lifetime: Meccah

• Re-enactment of the story of Hagar and Ishmael

• Unity of all mankind

• Intense spirituality (Plains of Arafat)

• Malcolm X: “white, black, brown, red, and yellow people,

blue eyes and blond hair…all together, brothers! All
honoring the same God…all in turn giving equal honor to
each other." (Malcolm X, 323)
 Zakah: Tax
• Mandatory tax on wealth to benefit poor

• In addition to voluntary charity/sadaqah

• Social Justice
 Jihad: Struggle
• Jihad = Struggle (primarily against oneself) and NOT Holy
War. Jihad is a virtue.

• The "greater jihad” in the Quran is that of the soul, of the

tongue, of the pen, of faith, of morality, etc. The "smaller
jihad" is that of arms.

• Hadith: "We are returning from the lesser jihad [battle] to

the greater jihad"

• "The best jihad is the speaking of truth in the face of a

tyrant“

Physical: Combat waged in defense against oppression

 Jihad and the Conduct of War

• Quran revealed in the context of an all-out war imposed on early

Muslims by Meccans, and many passages deal with the conduct
of armed struggle.
 While one finds "slay [enemies] wherever you find them!" (e.g., 4: 89),
in almost every case it is followed by something like "if they let you be,
and do not make war on you, and offer you peace, God does not allow you
to harm them" (2:90; 4: 90; 5: 2; 8: 61; 22: 39)
➣ Since good and evil cannot be equal, repel thou evil with something that is
better, and love he between whom and thy self was enmity may then become
as though he had always been close unto thee, a true friend" (41:34)
• God does not allow harm of civilian, and requests the protection of women,
children and the elderly during war (4:96; 9: 91; 48: 16,17)
 “If any one slew a person--unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief
in the land--it would be as if he slew the whole people; and if anyone saved
a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people.” (5:32)
• You shall feed and protect prisoners of war, and you shall not expect a
reward (4: 25,36; 5:24)
Thus, the only permissible war in the Quran is one of self-defense, you
cannot kill unarmed (civilians), and you have to protect prisoners of war
 Jihad and the Conduct of War

• Warfare is always evil. But sometimes you have to fight to avoid

persecution. e.g., the one Mecca inflicted on early Muslims (2: 191; 2:
217, 4: 75; 22: 40)

• Muslims may not begin hostilities

 "Fight in the cause of Allah those who fight you, but do not
transgress limits; for Allah loves not transgressors." (2: 190).

• Hostilities must end quickly and cease if enemy seeks peace (2:192-3;
41:34)

• Suicide forbidden and condemned (6:151, 17:33, 25:68)

• Hadith: 'Do not attack a temple, a church, a synagogue. Do not bring a

tree or a plant down. Do not harm a horse or a camel’
 Social Justice and Human Rights
• Charity, Charity, Charity ….
 On top of the Zakat. Help the orphan, the poor, the ill, the lost, the homeless,
the elderly
 Endless times in the Quran (16 times in Chapters 2-5 alone)

• Freedom, Integrity, Equality, Justice ….

 Endless commands for justice in the Quran (e.g., 2: 282; 6; 152)
– “O mankind, We’ve created you from a male and a female and have made
you nations and tribes that you may know and interact with each other.
The noblest of you in the sight of God is the best in conduct” (49:13).
– No Arab is privileged over non-Arab but by his or her conduct (Hadith)
– All people are equal like the teeth of a comb (Hadith)
– “You are not considered faithful in the sight of God unless you like for
your brother (read, others) what you like for yourself” (Hadith)
– when you are greeted with a greeting of peace, answer with an even
better greeting, or at least the like thereof" (4: 86).
 Social Justice
Sarojini Naidu
(1879-1949) the first woman governor of freeIndia.

“Sense of justice is one of the most wonderful ideals

of Islam...”

“It was the first religion that preached and practiced

democracy…”
[Speeches And Writings Of Sarojini Naidu, Madras,
1918, pp. 167-9]
 Social Justice
Arnold J. Toynbee
(1889-1975) British historian, Lecturer at Oxford
University.
"The extinction of race consciousness as between
Muslims is one of the outstanding achievements of
Islam, and in the contemporary world there is, as it
happens, a crying need for the propagation of this
Islamic virtue."
[Civilization On Trial, New York, 1948, p. 205]
 Women in Islam
• The Quran is the only Holy book to explicitly state that women have equal rights as
men (2:228)
• Eliminated pre-Islamic discriminatory practices (e.g. burying daughters)

• Gave women rights (marriage, education, hijab, divorce, inheritance) 1400 yrs ago.

• Limited the number of wives a man can marry (only book to say “marry only one”)

• Treat women with kindness and respect their rights as equal to men

• All commands/promises of rewards addressed explicitly to both men and women

The hijab or head scarf
• Modest dress apply to women and men equally (Quran and Hadith).

• Most Muslim women wear Hijab voluntarily (a liberating experience)

• Women are not required to cover their faces.

 Annie Besant
(1847-1933) British theosophist and nationalist leader in India. President
of the Indian
National Congress in 1917.

“I often think that woman is more free in Islam

than in Christianity. Woman is more protected by
Islam than by the faith which preaches
monogamy. In Al-Quran the law about woman is
more just and liberal. It is only in the last twenty
years that Christian England, has recognized the
right of woman to property, while Islam has
allowed this right from all times.”

[The Life and Teachings of Muhammad, Madras,

1932, pp. 25, 26]
 Hamilton Alexander Roskeen Gibb
(1895-1971) A leading orientalist scholar of his time

“That his (Muhammad's) reforms enhanced

the status of women in general is
universally admitted.”

[Mohammedanism, London, 1953, p. 33]

Science and Civilization
 Bertrand Russell
(1872-1970) British philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel laureate,
whose emphasis on logical analysis greatly influenced the course of 20th-
century philosophy.

"Our use of the phrase 'the Dark Ages' to cover the

period from 699 to 1,000 marks our undue
concentration on Western Europe… From India to
Spain, the brilliant civilization of Islam flourished.
What was lost to Christendom at this time was not
lost to civilization, but quite the contrary… To us
it seems that West-European civilization is
civilization; but this is a narrow view."
 Jared Diamond
Professor of Physiology at the UCLA School of Medicine; recipient of the
Pulitzer Prize
for General Non-Fiction in 1998.

“Medieval Islam was technologically advanced and open

to innovation. It achieved far higher literacy rates than
in contemporary Europe; it assimilated the legacy of
classical Greek civilization to such a degree that many
classical books are now known to us only through Arabic
copies. It invented windmills, trigonometry, lateen sails
and made major advances in metallurgy, mechanical and
chemical engineering and irrigation methods. In the
middle-ages the flow of technology was overwhelmingly
from Islam to Europe rather from Europe to Islam. Only
after the 1500's did the net direction of flow begin to
reverse.”

[Guns, Germs, and Steel - The Fates of Human Societies,

1997, p. 253]
• A dedicated quest for knowledge and a burst of scientific innovation
in a multi-ethnic and multi-faith society
• Lasted for over 8 centuries, producing a plethora of knowledge and
discoveries in all disciplines
• Induced the later European renaissance

• Repeated requests in both the Quran and the Hadith for seeking
knowledge, and application of rational thinking
 Seek knowledge even in China
 Seek knowledge from crib to grave
 The ink of a scholar is superior to the blood of a martyr
 Were people aware of what lies in the acquisition of knowledge, they
would endanger their lives to obtain it (grandson of the Prophet)

• Initially, massive translation of Greek and Indian writings

 preserved all literary and scientific works, advanced on them, and transmitted
them to Europe
 Medicine and Pharmacy
• Institutionalized and regulated the practice of Medicine and Pharmacy
 The modern concept of clinics
 Board exams and license to practice. Regulatory boards (FDA's)
 Classification of plants and Algae for their medical use, and outlined
possible side effects (PDR’s)
Hospitals:
• Tens, including specialized, in each of Baghdad, Qurtoba, and Damascus.
• Mobile hospitals for emergency.
• Departments and University Hospitals.
• Patients records and vital signs, urine tests, family history.
Surgery:
• Threads from animals intestine.
• Opium and Hashish for Anesthesia.
• Alcohol as disinfectant.
• Treatment of cataract, and removal of kidney and gallbladder stones
Autopsy
• Students training (Anatomy)
• Cause of death
 Known Physicians
• Abu-bakr Elrazzy; 9th Century
• Father of Physicians, great clinician and experimentalist
• Many books including “Smallpox and Measles”
• Ibn-Elhaytham: 10th Century
• Multidisciplinary scientist. Ophthalmologist
• Mechanism of sight. Function of the eye
• Over 100 books in Med. and Math.
• Ibn-Seena (Avicenna): 10th Century
• The “Qannun”, the medical text book in Europe till 19th Cen.
• Described the medical use of over 2700 plants
• Light has a finite speed, which is much faster than the speed of sound
• Ibn-Rushd (Averroes): 13th Century
• Philosopher and Physician. Many books
• Ibn-Elnafees:
• Blood circulation and the role of lungs
• Abulkassim Alzahrawi (Abulcasis or Albucasis): 11th Century
• One of the greatest surgeons. A good dentist and GP.
• Removal of breast cancer.
• Hemophilia and its hereditary transmission (female to male)
 Chemistry and Physics

• Arabic terms and methods of preparation for Alkali, Alcohol, Tartarate

• Discovered and prepared in pure form 28 elements (Ibn Elhaytham)

• The processes of crystallization, fermentation, distillation, sublimation,

Preparation of acids (H2SO4, HCl, HNO3) and bases (NaOH)

• Light travels in straight lines. Laws of refraction, reflection and illusion of light.

• Eluded to the Magnetic properties of some objects

 Mathematics

• Arabic numeral and the decimal system of numbers.

 Right ⇔ Left. English. But 1000
• Arithmetic. Roots and powers
• Algorithm = Alkhawarismi
• The mathematical ZERO
• Algebra (combining fractions).
• The Use of (x, y, z) to solve complex arithmetic/geometric problems
• Trigonometry (Albairuni and Albuzjani), differential and Integral.
• π = 3.141596535898732.

Some known Mathematicians:

• Abu-bakr Alkhawarismi (Logarithms)
• Thabit Ibn Qarra (9th Century). Calculus.
• Ibn-elhaytham
• Albairuni (10th Century)
• Albuzjani
• Omar Elkhayam (2° & 3° equations)
 Astronomy

• Astrology (myth) ⇒ Astronomy (science)

• Movement, path, and location of planets and stars
• The Asturlab
• Earth is spherical and rotates along its axis and around the sun.
• Calculated earth circumference (Albairuni)
• Calculated the time needed for one rotation around the sun (solar year), with
an error of 2’ 22” only (Albattani)
• Calculated the equinoxes
• Current names of most constellations, and many stars are from Arabic
Some known astronomists:
• Alkindy (9th Century)
• Albattani (9th Century)
• Ibn-elhaytham (11th Century)
• Thabit Ibn Qarra
• Almajreeti
 Important Holidays

Eid Al-adhaa (the sacrifice)

• Symbolizes Abraham attempt to sacrifice his son Ishmael by God’s request.
• Should sacrifice an animal and give the food to the poor.
• The pilgrimage to Mecca
Eid al Fitr
• Observed at the end of the holy month of Ramadan (the fasting month)
Al-israa/ meraj
• Symbolizes the ascending, in Jerusalem, of Mohammed's soul to heaven
The Birthday of Muhammad
Ashuraa (Shia)
 Spectrum of Islam
• Sunni
• Shia
• Sufi
 Suggested Reading

• Authors: Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Karen Armstrong,

William Chittick, Sachiko Murata, John Esposito
• Abdallah Yusuf Ali (Translation of Quran)
• “Islam, An Empire of Faith”, PBS Video, 2001
• Websites: www.al-islam.org
• http://www.quran.org.uk
• http://it-is-truth.org/
• www.uga.edu/islam
• www.islamway.com

• www.islamicity.com