The Rise of Islam WHAP/Napp
“Born in 570 to parents eminent in the Quraysh tribe, Muhammad was orphaned at an early age, and he was raised by his grandfather and later his uncle. He became a merchant, employed by a wealthy widow named Khadija. When he was twenty-five years old, he married her and they had four children together.
Muhammad was a deeply meditative person, retreating regularly to a nearby hill to pray and reflect. In 610, when he was forty years old, his reflections were interrupted, according to Islamic teachings, by the voice of the angel Gabriel, who instructed him: ‘Recite: In the name of the Lord who created Man of a blood-clot.’ Over the next two decades, according to Islamic theology, God continued to reveal his messages to Muhammad through Gabriel. Muhammad transmitted these revelations to professionals whose task it was to commit them to memory…Soon after Muhammad’s death, during the rule of Umar I, the second leader of the Islamic community (r. 634-644), scribes and editors compiled the entire collection of written and oral recitations into the Quran, which in Arabic means recitations…Approximately the length of the Christian New Testament, the Quran is considered by Muslims to be the absolute, uncorrupted, word of God. Composed in poetic form, the Quran helped to define the literary standards of the Arabic language. Muslims chant and study its text in Arabic, considering each syllable sacred. Even today many Muslims reject translations of the Quran into other languages as inadequate…
The Quran reveals the ‘five pillars’ of Islam, the five ritual expressions that define orthodox Muslim religious belief and practice:
· Declaring the creed, ‘There is no god but God, and Muhammad is his Prophet.’
· Praying five times daily while facing Mecca (2:144) and, if possible, praying also in public assembly at midday each Friday.
· Giving alms to the poor in the community, especially to widows and orphans (2:212 ff.), later recommended at 2 ½ percent of income.
· Fasting each day during the month of Ramadan, the ninth month of the lunar year, although eating is permitted at night, with a major feast marking the month’s end (2:179-84)
· Making the hajj, a pilgrimage to Mecca, at least once in a lifetime, if possible (2:185 ff.).”
~ The World’s History
1. The hajj(A) Is one of the Five Pillars of Islam.
(B) Helped to unite Muslims from disparate parts of the world.
(C) Ends at the Ka'ba in Mecca.
(D) Contributed to the spread of Islamic beliefs and values.
(E) All of the answers are correct. / 2. The Five Pillars are to Muslims as
(A) The hadith is to Muslims.
(B) The Noble Eightfold Path is to Buddhists.
(C) The four Vedas are to the Aryans.
(D) The book of Genesis is to Christians.
(E) None of the answers are correct.
Key Words/
Questions / I. The Birth of Islam: Arabian Peninsula Inhabited by Nomadic Bedouins
A. Arabia was located on trade routes which gave rise to commercial cities
1. Mecca was the site of the Kaaba, a significant shrine in Arabia,
housed representations of some 360 deities and center of pilgrimage
2. Mecca’s dominant tribe, Quraysh, controlled access to the Kaaba
B. Muhammad Ibn Abdullah (570-632 CE) was born in Mecca
1. Orphaned but eventually married a wealthy widow, Khadija
2. Deeply troubled by religious corruption and social inequalities
3. Had an overwhelming religious experience
4. Revelations began in 610 and continued over next twenty-two years
a) Revelations recorded in the Quran (the holy book of Islam)
C. Muhammad’s Message
1. Radically monotheistic
2. “Seal of the Prophets”: final prophet of Jewish/Christian prophets
3. Submission to Allah (“Muslim” means “one who submits to God”)
D. Five Pillars of the Faith
1. Absolute monotheism
2. Prayer, preferably five times a day facing Mecca
3. Give generously to help community (Charity/Alms)
4. Month of fasting from sunrise to sunset during the month of Ramadan
5. Pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj)
a) Further requirement, known as sixth pillar, “struggle” or jihad
1) “Greater jihad”: personal effort against greed and selfishness
2) The “lesser jihad”: the sword or holy war
E. Muhammad’s Flight
1. By 622, Muhammad and followers emigrated to the more welcoming
town of Yathrib, soon to be called Medina, the city of the Prophet
a) Known as hijra marked the beginning of a new Islamic calendar
F. The Umma or Community
1. Membership: matter of belief not birth, allowing it to expand rapidly
2. All authority, political and religious, concentrated in Muhammad
G. Rise of Empire
1. In 630, Mecca surrendered and Muhammad purged Kaaba of idols
2. Islamic law or sharia (a path to water) regulated every aspect of life
3. Within a few years of Muhammad’s death in 632, Arab armies engaged the Byzantine and Persian Sassanid empires
4. An Islamic/Arab empire stretching from Spain to India
H. Changes
1. Mass conversion of Middle Eastern peoples to Islam
2. Converts to Islam could avoid the jizya, tax imposed on non-Muslims
3. First four caliphs (successors to Muhammad), Rightly Guided Caliphs
a) But third and fourth caliphs, ‘Uthman and Ali, were assassinated
b) Sunni Muslims believed any pious Muslim man could lead community and ulama or religious scholars interpreted religion
c) Shia Muslims (meaning “party” or “faction”) believed that
leadership derived from the line of Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet
Questions 1 and 2 are based on the following photograph
1. The scene represents a central event of a
(A) Muslim hijra
(B) Commemoration of the Byzantine Empire in the Hagia Sophia
(C) Muslim hajj
(D) Celebration of the Christian victories of the First Crusade
2. The center of attention in the scene is
(A) a holy book
(B) the sharia
(C) the Well of ZamZam
(D) the Ka’ba
3. All of the following are part of the Five Pillars of the Islamic Faith EXCEPT:
(A) Observation of fasting during the month of Ramadan
(B) Right thought and right action
(C) The pilgrimage, or hajj, to Mecca
(D) Prayer five times a day
4. Which of the following Arabic terms refers to the “community of the faithful”?
(A) Hijab
(B) Hajj
(C) Hadith
(D) Zakat
(E) Umma
5. Prior to Muhammad’s revelations, the religion of the Bedouin was
(A) Primarily Christian.
(B) Primarily Jewish.
(C) Based upon ancient poems.
(D) A mixture of animism and polytheism. / 6. Which religious schism stemmed from disputes over legitimate succession of leadership after the death of its key or founding figure?
(A) Eastern Orthodox and Catholic
(B) Catholic and Protestant
(C) Mahayana and Theravada
(D) Sunni and Shia
(E) Mahayana and Zen
7. The Islamic umma was
(A) The name given to the clergy of the new faith.
(B) The name given to Muhammad’s flight from Mecca to Medina.
(C) The holy book into which Muhammad’s revelations were recorded.
(D) The concept of the community of the faithful that transcended clan boundaries.
8. The word Islam means
(A) Submission.
(B) One who has submitted.
(C) the god.
(D) Arabia.
(E) None of the answers are correct.
9. The nature of the society into which the prophet Muhammad was born was
(A) An urban-based culture with small manufacturing.
(B) A pastoral society with many camels.
(C) An agricultural society dominated by warriors.
(D) A society made up largely of nomads and merchants.
(E) A society based on maritime trade.
10. Under pressure from authorities in Mecca, Muhammad and his followers fled to Medina in 622. Muslims call this move
(A) The hijra.
(B) The umma.
(C) Yathrib.
(D) The hajj.
(E) None of the answers are correct.
Thesis Practice:
Analyze similarities and differences in the religion of ISLAM with ONE of the following belief systems: Buddhism OR Christianity. ______
Critical Thinking Questions:
1- Islam spread more rapidly than any other major world religion. Why do you think this was? What aspects of the religion made it appealing? How was the cultural climate conducive to the rapid expansion of Islam?
______
2- Compare and contrast the beliefs (including the treatment of women) of the major world religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.
______
1. Who was Khadija?(A) A modern Egyptian woman who took off her headscarf
(B) The first wife of the prophet Muhammad
(C) The first Abbasid caliph
(D) A twentieth-century reformer
2. The word jihad means
(A) Pilgrimage
(B) To strive or struggle
(C) Fasting
(D) Prophecy
3. The hadith reports
(A) Tell about what Muhammad said and did
(B) Were collected by those closest to Muhammad
(C) Were compiled in several authoritative collections
(D) All of the above / 4. The hijra is
(A) The emigration of the early Muslim community from Mecca to Medina
(B) The annual pilgrimage to Mecca
(C) The written reports of how Muhammad lived his life
(D) The term for Islamic law
5. Sunnis and Shias split due to a
(A) Disagreement about the chapters of the Qur’an
(B) Disagreement about what kind of clothing women should wear
(C) Difference in opinion over who should lead the Muslim community following Muhammad’s death
(D) Difference of opinion about where the early Muslim community should make its home