Woden’s Day, March 5: Introduction to Islam

EQ1: What are some important features and kinds of Islam?

EQ2: How are the Bible and Koran similar and different?

  • Welcome! Gather BROWN BOOK, paper,pen/cil, wits!
  • Student Reading: Intro to Islam; Selections from the Koran
  • Freewrite: Connections

ELACC12RL-RI2: Analyze two or more themes or central ideas of text

ELACC12RL3: Analyze impact of author’s choices regarding elements of a story

ELACC12RI3: Analyze and explain how individuals, ideas, events interact, develop

ELACC12RI6: Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text

ELACC12RI8: Delineate and evaluate the reasoning in seminal British texts

ELACC12RL-RI9: Analyze for theme, purpose rhetoric, and how texts treat similar themes or topics

ELACC12RL10: Read and comprehend complex literature independently and proficiently.

ELACC12W2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas

ELACC12W4: Produce clear and coherent writing appropriate to task, purpose, and audience

ELACC12W5: Develop and strengthen writing by planning, revising, editing, rewriting

ELACC12W10: Write routinely over extended and shorter time frames

ELACC12SL1: Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions

ELACC12SL3: Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, evidence and rhetoric

ELACC12L1: Demonstrate standard English grammar and usage in speaking and writing.

Introduction to Islam

Remember: Islam is one of the three Abrahamic monotheisms.

Judaism and Christianity trace through Isaac, Abraham’s son by his wife Sarah.

Islam traces through Ishmael,Abraham’s son by his wife’s maid Hagar. Sarah expelled both Ishmael and Hagar.

Muhammed is an ordinary man – not the divine Son of God. The Koran is regarded by Muslims as more holy than any man.

Since Mesopotamia, the Crescent and Star has been a Middle Eastern symbol for the connection between God and an earthly King. Muhammed did not use this symbol; it came to be associated with Islam with the 19th century rise of the Ottoman Empire in Turkey.

There are three major branches of Islam.

  • For Sunni Muslims – the largest group – the life and teachings of Mohammed himselfarethe most sacred authority. Sunnis to oral tradition and the authority of scholars for guidance more than directly to the Koran itself. Sunnis tend to be more “orthodox,” more strict (Sharia Law).
  • For Shia Muslims – called “Shiites” (SHEE-ites) – the Koran itself is the most sacred guide and authority. Shiites tend to be more open to change and diversity than Sunnis.
  • Sufi Muslims emphasizeone’sspiritual experience of Allah more than either the Koran or the life of Mohammed.

At some point each Muslim must undertake a hajj – a pilgrimage (journey of prayer) to Mecca, Islam’s holiest city.

Above, pilgrims pray at the Kaaba, or “Cube,” said to have been built by Abraham. Into the Kaaba Mohammed placed parts of The Black Stone, a meteorite Muslims believe fell in Eden. Adam used it as the first altar to God. Originally white, the stone turned black as it absorbed humanity’s sins.

CLOZE: Introduction to Islam

  1. Judaism traces roots to Abraham’s son ______, Islam to Abraham’s other son, ______.
  2. Whereas Christianity regards Jesus as divine, Islam regards Muhammed as an ______man.
  3. Where did the Crescent and Star originate, and how did it come to be associated with Islam?
  1. ______Muslims regard ______as the most important guide to behavior.
  2. ______Muslims regard ______as the most important guide to behavior.
  3. ______Muslims regard ______as the most important guide to behavior.
  4. Define: hajj
  1. Define: Kaaba

Reading Guide: Introduction to Islam

From “Preparing to Read – The Koran” (Textbook pp. 576 - 577)

  1. In about the year ______AD/CE, the prophet Muhammed was ______years old.
  2. He was visited by the archangel ______, who revealed the ______of ______.
  3. The word “Islam” means, literally, ______.
  4. At first, Muhammed spread news of these revelations how?
  5. Later these revelations were written down in a book called ______, also spelled ______, which means “______.”
  6. Muslims believe that this book is simply a ______of an ______found in ______.
  7. Besides the Koran, Muslims must follow the Five ______of Islam:

1)______

2)______

3)______

4)______

5)______

  1. A “chapter” of the Koran is called a ______. The opening chapter is called “The ______.”

Reading Guide: Selections from The Koran

From The Koran, translated by N. J. Dawood (Textbook pp. 578 - 580)

  1. Every chapter of the Koran begins with this introductory phrase: “In the ______of ______, the ______, the ______”.
  2. The opening chapter of the Koran, called “The ______,” has three parts.
  3. First, praise is given “to God, Lord of the ______, The ______, the ______, Sovereign of the Day of ______.”
  4. What does sovereign mean?______
  5. Next comes a statement of faith: “You alone we ______, and to You alone we ______.”
  6. Last comes a request: “______us to the ______path, The path of those You have ______, Not of those who have ______Your ______, Nor of those who have ______.
  7. The next chapter in your textbook is a detailed statement of Faith in God. According to it:
  8. What “gives glory to God”?
  9. “He is the ______and the ______, the ______and the ______.”
  10. After God “created the heavens and the earth in ______days,” what did He do?
  11. “God is ______of all your ______…. He has ______of the inmost ______of man.”
  12. God has made a covenant with us if we are “true ______.”

CLOSING FREEWRITE – 100 wds; quote to use in Reading Journal:

Discuss a specific way in which this excerpt from The Koran seems similar to or different from a prayer, scripture, or other religious statement with which you are familiar.

The Taj Mahal in India houses a famous Islamic temple and tomb.