Sociology of Religion: Outline 13
II. Karen Armstrong: Islam
A. Chapter One: "Beginnings" (see also Armstrong's biography of Muhammad)
1. 610 CE, month of Ramadan: Muhammad Ibn Abdallah awakened by a "devastating presence, which squeezed him tightly until he heard the first words of a new Arab's scripture pouring from his lips."
2. Began to preach two years later ...saw himself as bringing the old faith in the one God (which is the way he saw the religion of the Jews and the Christians) to the Arabs... "Qu-ran" (recitation) revealed verse by verse over the next 21 years, often in response to crisis or questions that had arisen in the community of the faithful
Islam=surrender
muslim= "man or woman who had made this submission of their entire being to Allah and his demand that humans behave to one another with justice, equity, and compassion."
"first duty to build a community (ummah) characterized by practical compassion, in which there was a fair distribution of wealth"
B. Context (Armstrong: Muhammad: A Prophet for our Time)
1. Difficulty of life on the Arabian peninsula: largely desert, life of raiding among tribes
a. Code called muruwah: courage, patience, endurance, and generosity, but also an emphasis on tradition, honor to the point of arrogance, and whatever helped the tribe: "Help your brother whether he is wronged or is wronging others." (a popular maxim)
b. 6th century: a "transport revolution," the invention of a new saddle for camels that allowed much larger loads
c. Growth of Mecca as a trading center (and eventually the most important one)... built on solid rock (no agriculture possible), with a permanent well, and the kabah (a cube-shaped granite building of granite, viewed as very old)
Held consecutively by several tribes, but beginning in the 6th century by the Quraysh, Muhammed's tribe, who developed it as a religious center (stone effigies for each tribe, surrounding the kabah)) and a place where violence was forbidden ...these religious rituals, along with monopoly on supplying the North-South caravans, made Mecca the key city in Arabia
d. Persian and Byzantine empires fought a series of wars, weakening both empires, and making some of the traditional trade routes too dangerous, making Mecca even more important
2. Muhamad's background
a. Important clan that had fallen on hard times, with death of Muhammad's father and failure of his uncle's business
b. Despite orphaned status, by age 25 had developed a reputation as al-Amin, the reliable one... distant female relative (Khadijah) from more powerful clan asked him to take a caravan into Syria... after successful return, she asked Muhammad to marry her, which set him up to be a successful merchant himself
c. Spiritual concerns: Like some other young people in his tribe, concerned that the worst aspects of muruwah were becoming dominant--recklessness, arrogance, egotism... some of these folks had withdrawn from the religious life that centered on the Kabah and the idols, seeking hanifiyyah (the "pure religion")
d. Influence of Christianity and Judaism... Jews had lived in Arabia for a millenium, retaining their religion and their own tribes, but intermarrying with local people, speaking Arabic, taking Arab names... some Arabs had also become Christians... Christian communities in Yemen and along the frontier with Byzantium... Meccan merchants like Muhammad had met Christians and Jews and were familiar with their stories. Referred to them as "people of the Book" but otherwise didn't see them as fundamentally different groups...just different tribes
3. The revelation
a. For several years, accompanied by Khadijah, Muhammad had been making an annual retreat to a cave on Mount Hira during the month of Ramadan, distributing alms and performing devotions... experiencing radiant dreams
b. On retreat in 610, the dramatic "attack" which he thought was the work of a jinni, but his wife convinced him otherwise, especially after they consulted her cousin, Waraqah, who had studied the scriptures of the people of the Book...Waraqah also warned that they would eventually be expelled from Mecca
c. Content of the revelation... see pp. 34-35... no more revelations for two years, then more visions and revelations (37-38) and a command to proclaim this message to the Quraysh.
4. Converts and opponents
a. Who listened and believed... women more than men, young more than old, lower status clans more than higher status clans... splits within famiies
b. Continued to have revelations: "Never once did I have a revelation without thinking that my soul had been torn away from me."
c. Recitations and early message: Many people converted by the sheer beauty of Muhammad's recitations (48-49, 51)
5. Requirements of the muslim
a. Ritual actions: prostration of daily prayers
b. alms to the poor, not as big, showy contributions but regularly and routinely
C. 615 CE: Instructed to expand his teaching to the whole community.
1. Attacks on muslims began the next year... leaders of the opposition included some of the most powerful clan chiefs
2. Watering down his message, trying to make it compatible with old beliefs
3. Proposal that the old gods be worshipped one year, the next gods the next: 74
4. Jahiliyyah and kafir as opposed to kiln: 66-66
D. Driven out of Mecca to Medina
1. Head of highest clan imposed a boycott on the two clans with the most converts... no trading, no marriage, couldn't even sell them food... these two clans moved together, including both converts and nonconverts
2. Ban lifted after three years...but attack on muslims continued... leader of his own clan who had supported Muhammad died and was replaced by leader who opposed him (though he still had a duty to protect members of his clan).
3. Gathered his followers and left Mecca... blasphemy to leave one's tribe this way, and also very dangerous to depend on the protection of strangers... henceforth known as the Muhajirah, the emigrants...settled in Medina, where they were a small minority and very vulnerable but had sponsorship and protection from one of the big Arab clans... also a couple of important Jewish clans in the city... Muhammad preaching a return to the religion of Abraham, who had lived before either the Torah or the Gospel ... "When Abraham and Ishmael had rebuilt the Kabah together, they had not developed an exclusive theology but had simply wanted to give their lives entirely to Allah."*p. 109)... supported themselves by organizing the traditional raiding parties (with a strong injunction against killing)
4. Quraysh sent army against Muhammad in the battle of Badr.. Muslims had a disciplined plan and were victorious, but Muhammad ordered his army not to slay or mutilate prisoners ... subsequent army from Mecca that outnumbered Muslims 3-1 and routed them, knocking Muhammad unconscious, but didn't follow up on their initial charge... each of the Muslim dead left wives and orphans, and a revelation came to Muhammad giving Muslims permission to take four wives... polygamy as a way to protect widows, orphans, and other female dependents... Muhammad led the way (136) and a few years later, added another wife, when her husband died leaving four children to support...this wife was a strong minded woman, and it ultimately led to a new surah, emphasizing the equality of men and women, when she questioned him about why there wasn't more mention of women in the Koran(p. 143-144)
5. 627 CE: Battle fo the Trench. Quraysh army of 10,000 against 3,000 from Medina... Mohammad directed the digging of a deep trench around Medina, which thwarted the Quraysh cavalry... month-long siege, with one of the Jewish tribes turning against Mohammad... but the Quraysh had inadequate provisions and abandoned the siege... Mohammad had to deal with the "renegade" Jewish tribe (149-151)... not against Jews in general
6. March 628 Peace initiative of Hudaybiyyah. Muhammad recruited volunteers (1000 emigrants) for an unarmed pilgrimage to Mecca... evaded Quraysh army and reached the 20 mile sanctuary where they were stalled by an armed force... loss of prestige for the Quraysh and negotiations, leading to agreement by Muhammad to return to Medina without carrying out the rituals of the shrine, with the provision that the next year the Quraysh would temporarily withdraw from the parts of the city surrounding the shrine and that the Muslims could do the rituals at the kabah... intense disappointment and even dissension by many of Muhammad's followers, who had expected a miraculous victory.
Surah to Mohammed on the way back to Medina (pp. 176-77)... soon apparent that Hudaybiyyah was a watershed event... Muslim numbers grew very rapidly thereafter
7. March 629 in the month of hajj, another pilgrimage to mecca, this time with 2600 followers... afterwards, more and more of the younger Quraysh became Muslims
8. Ramadan, 630... Muhammad set out for Mecca with the largest force he had ever assembled, more than 10,000... attacked by a small force on the outskirts of Mecca, that was readily vanquished, and after that Muhammad's army entered Mecca and reached the kabah without striking another blow... p. 188-189
C. Back to Islam: A Short History... the first chapter an essential overview: read it carefully.... see map, p. 9
1. The Four "Rightly Guided Caliphs." After the prophet's death, some support for the very pious (but young) Ali ibn Abi Talib, Mohammad's closst male relative, but an older follower, Abu Bakr elected khalifah of the prophet
a. Abu Bakr (632-34)... the wars of apostasy, as some tribes tried to break away from the ummah with their own prophets and revelations... defeated, with no reprisals against those who returned
b. Umar ibn al-Khattab (634-44): a series of raids into a larger and larger geographic area, eventually defeating the Persian army at the Battle of Qudisiyyah in 637... conquered Jerusalem in 638 and controlled all of Syria, Palestine, and Egypt by 641 (within a century of the prophet's death, Islamic empire from the Pyrenees to the Himalayas) ... not religious wars--no forced conversions... "Once the Jews, Christians, and Zoroasters in their new empire became dhimmis (protected subjects), they could not be raided or attacked..."
c. Uthman ibn Affan (644-656)... continued geographic expansion but alienated many by giving most prestigious posts to members of his own Ummayad family, eventually leading to mutiny and assassination in Medina
5-year war of succession within the ummah, know as the first fitnah (time of temptation), leading to election of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the prophet's cousin and closest male relative, who was opposed by the Ummayads and their candidate, Muawiyyah...
d. Muawiyyah, 661-680) Neutral arbitration led to choice of Muawiyyah, but many of Ali's followers withdrew... Ali himself murdered in 661, leaving a very long-term split between the Shiah i-Ali (followers of Ali, in Iraq) and the Sunni (followers of Muawiyahh)... the capital of Islam moved to Umayyad Damascus
The second fitnah: At the time of Muawiyyah's death, a second succession battle, between supporters of Muawiyyah's son, Yazid I(680-83) and Ali's second son, Husain, who set out from Medinah with a small band of followers, who were massacred at Kerbala by Umayyad troops... hese two murders (of Ali and of Husain) became an enduring symbol for the Shiah Muslims.
Summing up: pp. 45-47
The development of Shariah: Muhammad Idris ibn al-Shafii
(pp. 60-61)...
If you wish, learn the names and dates of all Muslim rulers that came after the four "rightly guided caliphs," and some of the religious issues of each period, but if not, learn the five pillars of Islam:
Profession of faith
Prayer
Giving of alms
Fasting during the month of Ramadan
Pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj)