Arabia is a dry, hot, desert; a peninsula bounded in the north by Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia and on the other sides by the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Persian Gulf. At the time of Muhammad, there were three cities and commercial centers of importance in the northwest--Taif, Mecca, and Yathrib (Medina). The people of Arabia were primarily nomadic Bedouins who spent their lives roaming about the desert, supporting themselves by herding and raiding caravans or settlements.  The cities supported an active merchant class. There were several kingdoms in the fertile southern highlands. Further north, Mecca was a center of caravan trade. 

The religion of Arabia was a combination of polytheism and animism--a mixed cult of sacred stones, trees, springs, planets and stars, earthly as well as heavenly gods. At the top was Allah (the High God; the "AL" in Allah is a cognate of the Hebrew "EL" which means God; hence GabriEL is the "Strong One of God"); subsidiary deities included goddesses of the Moon, Fate, and the planet Venus. Mecca was considered the holy city with the Ka'ba (Kaaba), a large building containing a sacred black stone and walls covered with carved images of several hundred deities sacred to a number of Arabic tribes. The Ka'ba provided for a lucrative tourist trade for local merchants. There were both Jews and Christians in Arabia.

Islam began in the 6th century C.E. , but its roots go deep into the traditions of Judaism, Hellenism, and Christianity.  The founder of Islam was Muhammad.

Muhammad (ca. 570-632) was born around 570, a member of the tribe of Quraysh. Orphaned early, he was raised by an uncle and subsequently employed by Khadija, a wealthy widow and business woman, to manage her camel caravans on the way to and from Damascus. When he was twenty-four or twenty-five and she was forty, they were married, and over the years, she bore him six children.  All except Fatima, a daughter, preceded him in death; hence he would leave no clear male heir.

Muhammad was disturbed by the moral laxity and lack of social conscience among his contemporaries. He had a habit of withdrawing into the mountains to fast, meditate, and pray for days at a time. 

When he was forty, the angel Gabriel appeared to him in the mountains of Hira and commanded him to recite or proclaim something written in a heavenly text. Muhammad protested that he didn't know how to read, but the angel insisted, and lo and behold: Muhammad was able to make sense of what he saw.  He didn't only "read"--he remembered every word.  After he came out of the trance, he recited the divine message which had been directly imprinted on his consciousness, and those words would become the beginning of the holy book of Islam, the Qur'an (Koran; literally the "reciting").  This revelatory experience is referred to as the "night of power" in the month of Ramadan of 610.  Obviously Muhammad was profoundly affected by an experience of the Holy. This kind of mystical experience is typical of prophets and founders of religions in general.  The visions continued. His first followers were his wife and other close relatives (settled city-folk not desert nomads!).  He taught that there was only one God, the light of the world, the absolute cosmic energy source. He strongly opposed the kind of polytheism and idolatry practiced by the tribes of his age and symbolized by the Ka'aba. In the process, he infuriated the religious functionaries, city officials and entrepreneurs of Mecca who had profited in various ways from the city's status as tourist center and pilgrim shrine. Life for Muhammad and his group became difficult and dangerous.  When he visited Taif, his enemies pelted him with rocks. In 619 Khadija died, and in 622 Muhammad and a small band of followers migrated to Yathrib, subsequently known as Medina ("the City [of the Prophet]").  This is called the Hijra (Hegira), and constitutes the beginning of the Islamic calendar, (A.H. 1=Anno Hegirae 1). In 632, when Muhammad died, there were a few thousand Muslims in Arabia. Exactly a century later Islamic forces had conquered Spain and were marching toward central France.  By then they had reduced Byzantine power by half and might have taken over the rest of Europe if they had not been stopped by Charles Martel in the battle of Tours and Potiers (732). Today, there are more than 500 million Muslims, and the faith is expanding rapidly.  Obviously Muhammad's noble vision was able to unite a disparate people and attract a massive following of converts.

Three of the chief symbols of Islam are the Minaret, the Mosque, and the Hajj (pilgrimage). 

The minaret is a slender tower built in several stories with a platform or balcony at each level from which the Muslim official calls the faithful to prayer five times a day.  Here is the call: "Allah is Great. Allah is great. There is no God but Allah. Muhammad is our prophet. To your prayers. To your devotion. Allah is great. There is no God  but Allah." 

The mosque is a place of meeting, the Muslims call it a "place of prostration before Allah." In addition to serving public worship it is dedicated to scholarship, and may function as a university. The interior of the mosque is plain. There are no idols, images, icons, chairs, or pews. There is a reading rack. The mosque gets its spiritual splendor from clear lines, curves, space, and light. Friday is a special day of prayer at the mosque but there is no requirement to attend services in the Christian sense. 

The hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca is a journey all faithful Muslims should make at least once in a life time. If they can't make it in person they can make it by proxy. The pilgrimage to Mecca is the crowning religious rite. It is taken in the 12th month of the year.

The Muslim faith is simple. First and foremost is faith in God, Allah, the One Who is Absolutely Powerful. He is the one and only God, the supreme majesty who will judge all souls at the end of time. Next is faith in angels and prophets, above all in Muhammad, the greatest messengers of God.  Muslims do God's will when they follow the "Five Pillars of Islam" also known as the "five pillars of the House of Allah."

These are the duties of the pious Muslim. They figuratively hold up the house of Allah. They are the five duties of the tradition: 

(1) Creed: the confession of the faith. The Muslim calls it the witness. This is the witness: "I testify that there is no God but Allah. I testify that Muhammad is the prophet of Allah. I testify that there is no God but Allah. I testify that Muhammad is the Apostle (or Prophet) of Allah. " 

(2) Prayer: This is formal prayer five times a day. If possible, the faithful prostrates himself on a prayer rug which faces Mecca.  The rug is portable and makes any profane area into sacred space.  The first surah (verse) of the Qur'an is prayed often: "In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. Praise be to God, Lord of the Universe, the Compassionate, the Merciful, Sovereign of the Day of Judgment!  You alone we worship, and to You alone we turn for help.  Guide us to the straight path, the path of those whom You have favoured, not of those against who have incurred Your wrath, nor of those who have gone astray." 

(3) Charity: There are two types of alms giving. One is called the zakat, which translates literally into English as purification, and resembles our income tax. The other is the sadaqa, which translates literally as righteousness. This is what we think of as charity.  In surah 107 of the Qur'an alms-giving is clearly demanded: "In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful, Have you thought of him that denies the Last Judgement?  It is he who turned away the orphan and has no urge to feed the poor. Woe to those who are heedless in their prayer; who make a show of piety and give no alms to the destitute." 

(4) Fasting: Fasting is beneficial at any time. But it is particularly appropriate during the holy month of Ramadan. It involves refraining from all eating and drinking from sun-up to sun-down. 

(5) Pilgrimage (Hadjj): The pilgrimage to Mecca should be made at least once in a lifetime in the 12th month of the year, if possible each year. 

Sometimes a sixth pillar is added, the Holy War, a war fought against unbelievers to serve Allah and spread the faith. Its importance depends on the situation.  Those who die in the Holy War are killed as a result of divine predestination and go directly to paradise.  The Islamic image of paradise is considerably more substantial than the Christian version.  The Muslim heaven is a lush, green oasis filled with streams and fountains where beautiful, almond-eyed maidens serve delicious food and drink to dead warriors.  Hell is similar to ours--a place of eternal fiery torment.

There are two distinctive bodies of Islamic religious literature. One is the Qur'an. The other is the Hadith. The Qur'an is the scripture. It is "reading" from Allah. It contains Muhammad's recitation of what he read from Allah's heavenly "book." The Qur'an is the only authentic book. It is the revelation. The other, the Hadith, contains the sayings of Muhammad the prophet. It can also be called the commentary on the Qur'an, the elaboration of the Qur'anic verses. In addition it is a comment on whatever else came to Muhammad's mind.  Those two branches of religious teachings are equivalent to the Jewish Bible (Torah [law], Nebiim [prophets], Ketubim [wisdom]) and the Talmud (interpretations of the Torah). 

First, the Qur'an is a statement of Muhammad's concept of God. Muhammad says you only have to believe two things: God is omnipotence and God is providence. No further questions should be asked.  Faith must be unconditional. Because of God's omnipotence, everything we do and everything which happens to us is the direct result of God's will.  We are predestined.  In a sense God saves the blessed and leads astray the sinners. 

Second, the Qur'an is the source of the Islamic creed. There are four items to the creed: (1) Belief in Allah and giving witness to such belief. You have the belief; you affirm the belief; You witness to the belief. (2) Belief in angels, especially Gabriel, the angel of revelation. He was the angel who allowed Muhammad to read Allah's word. (3) Belief in the Qur'an as the word of God, without question. (4) Belief in the prophets, especially Muhammad. There are 28 prophets in Islam of whom six that are especially important. They are, Adam the chosen of God, Noah the preacher of God, Abraham the friend of God, Moses the converser of God, Jesus the spirit of God, and Muhammad the apostle of God.

Third, the Qur'an is the foundation for social reform and the law of the land. In this function, the book demands certain social reforms, such as the redistribution of wealth, the reduction of poverty, the restriction of murder, the prohibition of killing female babies, and the regulation of polygamy.  Muhammad did not rule out polygamy (he had nine wives after Khadija died), but insisted that women be treated fairly. He vigorously opposed alcohol and drunkenness, and banned gambling.  The body of Islamic moral laws is called the Shariah, while the more specific legal applications are known as the fiqh.

The muslim has faith in one God alone, Allah. Muhammad is the one worthy of continued praise and of hope. Muhammad is a warner, an apostle, but only a man. So, the faith is to be called Islam, submission to the one God Allah, peace of mind won by submission. This is the final revelation: human beings gain peace through submission to the one God Allah.

There are two major subdivisions in Islam,  the Sunna and the Shi'a. Both Sunna and Shi'a contain numerous denominations. Among the sub-groups within the Sunna are the Ibadites, the remnants of the early Muslim Kharijite sect, made up of Muhammad's original followers in Medina and Mecca. For centuries the Ibadites tried to live in isolation by the rules of primitive pre-Caliphate Islam. They suffered  severe persecution by other Muslims until they were almost extinct.  Then,  about two centuries ago, Ibadite missionaries began to succeed in attracting converts in Muslim countries.

The Sunna tradition is the orthodox tradition. Within the Sunna there are four major subdivisions, or schools of interpretation as the learned doctors call them. These schools range all the way from the ultra-conservative to the liberal. 

(1) The Hanafite school of interpretation, founded by the Persian abu Hanifah (d. 767 C.E.) who wrote in Arabic. He accepted the Qur'an. He didn't have much interest in the Hadith, the tradition. He didn't think we had to take the tradition too seriously and taught that the Qur'an could be extended through analogy and opinion. If the Qur'an establishes no exact precedent we can rely on analogy or opinion. Our opinion may vary with the local circumstances. In fact, he says if the ruling on opinion "seems better" for the locality, then we should rely on it even if it goes counter to the Qur'an. This position is viewed as the most liberal tradition of the Sunna sect. 

(2) The Malikite school was founded by Malik-ibn-Anas (ca. 715-795). He was an Arab judge in Mecca. He relied on both on the Qur'an and the Hadith. He thought that judgements could be made in the light of either one. He said we can rely to some extent on agreement and consensus of opinion if they seem to have clear basis in both the Qur'an and the Hadith. This group might be called the liberal conservatives. 

(3) The Shafi'ite school was founded by Muhammad ibn-Idris al-Shafii who died in 819 A.D. after devising the classic theory of fiqh. He was an Arab of Persian descent, and he claimed to hold something of a middle position between the Malikites and the Hanafites. He thought that the Hadith and the Qur'an were equally valid.  He used agreement but rejected opinion. He said that we can't rely on opinion in any form. His position is often referred to as that of the liberal traditionalist. 

(4) The Hanbalide school was founded by Ahmad ibn-Hanbal (d. 855 C.E.). He was an Arab of Baghdad and an archconservative. He thought there was only one thing we should do, and that was to counteract both the liberality of thought and the moral laxity of the other traditions and of people in general. 

The other main Islamic tradition is that of the Shi'a. From the Sunnites' perspective, the Shi'ites are heretics. They live primarily in Iran, Iraq, India, and East Africa. They honor Muhammad, but they also revere Ali, Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, and particularly Ali's younger son, Husayn. They referred to Ali as the friend of God and as "the paradigm" or "pattern" of the faithful.  They teach that we can rely on the teachings of Ali as much as on the teachings of Muhammad himself. The Sunnites slaughtered Husayn at Karbala, and carried his severed head into Damascus. Later, his followers buried the head with the body at Karbala, now a Shi'ite shrine in honor of their martyr.  Generally, the Shi'ites tended to be thoughtful and liberal, both in philosophy and theology.  There is a wide spread between the ultra-conservative and the liberal poles. And this spread persists even today.

In addition to the Sunna and the Shi'a, there is Sufism, a mystical and ascetic form of Islam which also started out as a Sunni sect.  Sufism had its beginnings in Muslim imitation of Christian monks and their manner of dress in coarse wool garments (suf) as well as their habit of withdrawal from the world. Sufis themselves, trace their origins to Muhammad and his mystic experiences in the hills around Mecca. In opposition to the Qur'an, some Sufis even advocate celibacy. By the eighth and ninth centuries, the Sufis sought to elevate themselves from the destructive bondage to the material world through love of the only inherently lovable Being: God.  Some Sufis compared the human soul to a mirror which reflects the divine light and must be polished to perfection through ascetic practices. Unlike mystics in India and like mystics among Christians, Muslim mystics reject any suggestion that God and humans can ever become one. Expecting full union of the divine and human would be considered blasphemy. Sufis have always been subjected to harsh suppression, but today their missionary activities have won a large number of converts, both from among other Muslims and Christians throughout the world.

Like Judaism and Christianity, Islam is a world religion. It is also a religion which bridges eastern and western traditions.

Muslims are close to the Orient in the way they interpret experience and the way they see relations among religion and the world. There are no sharp lines of distinction, and there are fewer dichotomies between religion and science, between religion and economics, and between religion and politics than in the western tradition. On the other hand, Muslims are western in their tendency to be exclusive and be disturbed by polytheism and idolatry.  Hence, traditionally, they respected Jews and Christians as "people of the book" (Scripture) but found Hinduism loathsome.

One of the earliest and most significant architectural monuments of Sunnite Islam is the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. When he conquered the city in 638, Caliph ("successor" to Muhammad) Omar was horrified to discover that the ancient site of the temple was the city dump. He immediately ordered the area cleaned up, and had what would be called the Mosque of Omar built above the rock which according to tradition had been the center of Jewish temple sacrifice.  After the Christians conquered Jerusalem in the eleventh century, the mosque served as a church. Today, the Dome of the Rock is again a mosque, and is located close to the Western Wall portion of the foundations of Herod's temple.  This wall (popularly known as "Wailing Wall") is one of the most sacred places for Jews on earth. Since the Muslims consider themselves descendants of Abraham through Hagar and Ishmael, the Dome of the Rock is sacred to them.  Christians worship in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Obviously, Jerusalem is sacred to all three of the faiths which originated in the Near East. Alas, this holiness has tended to lead to hatred, violence, and killing instead of mutual respect.
 
 

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Acknowledgments: Part of this material is based on a lecture given by Professor Clayton Feaver in September 1990.

The citations from the Koran are taken from the Penguin edition, N.J. Dawood, trans. (London: Penguin, 1956). Note that in a sense this translation violates Islamic doctrine, since the Koran must only be presented and read in its original Arabic to avoid the kind of textual squabbles which have divided readers of the Bible.

©  1997 Ingrid H. Shafer
Last revised 6 January 2002