Islam: Origins

1. Islam:Origins By Nicole, Talina, Brodi, Kayla and Clare.

2. What is Islam… Islam is a religion founded in the Arabian Peninsula on 600s CE by Muhammad but seen as the true and final revelation of God following and superseding those profits before Muhammad e.g. Jesus. Islam means ‘submission’. Its sacred book is the Qur’an which was revealed to Muhammad, the prophet of Allah. There are two main sects: the Sunni and the Shi’ia. • Arabic Peoples: The Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world. 25% of the land is desert and while these are fertile areas, there are many areas that suffer badly from extremes in temperature, lack of water and poor soils. Arabs are said to be the descendants of Ishmael, one of the sons of the prophet Muhammad. The word Arab means ‘nomad’. There was no unified government during 7th Century CE in the region and no single tribe managed to dominate others. Instead, individual tribes held power in particular parts of the country and kept their positions by means of scheming and warfare. This created stresses on traditional tribal values.

3. Origins Early Arab Religion The Four Rightly Guided Caliphs Islamic Principal Beliefs The Prophet Muhammad

4. Early Arab Religion • Before the time of the prophet the Arab tribes by and large held animistic beliefs. They worshipped various local deities and nature spirits. Megaliths (sacred stones) as well as trees and springs were venerated and spirits were held to inhabit the desert sands. The Arabs also believe in jinn, or demon spirits. • Religious practices from these pre-Islamic times included forms of worship that were taken up and made characteristics of Islam itself. These practices included pilgrimage and certain rituals at sacred places, such as walking around megaliths. • During the early centuries of the Common Era small communities of both Jews and Christians could be found in Arabia, but they lacked social and political influence. Women were considered to be property. They could be brought or sold into marriage or slavery. They had no inheritance rights. Men however, could marry as many women as they wished or could afford. • Female infanticide was not uncommon. The ethical code was firmly based on tribal links and experiences rather than on communal responsibilities.

5. Mecca • Mecca and Medina are located in a mountainous region of Western Arabia, near the red sea. Mecca was more important and prosperous of the two centers because of its place at the crossroads of major caravan and pilgrimage routes. There towns became the staging ground for an entire new religion. • The people of Mecca worshipped a high god called Allah together with a large number of other lesser deities. The centre of the pilgrimage and worship in Mecca was a shrine called the Ka’aba. The shrine was said to be built by Ishmael and his father Abraham but as time passed it became a centre of idol worship. • Mecca was dominated by the powerful Quraish tribe which had guardianship of the Ka’aba shrine and its sacred megaliths. • The Quraish were not a tribe of pastoral nomads but an urban community which engaged in commerce and handicraft as well as religious stewardship. They had powerful interests in the activities of trade and the pagan religion that brought many visitors to Mecca.

6. Mecca Origins

7. The Prophet Muhammad The Prophet’s Early Life • Muhammad is the founded of Islam and he was born into the Quarish tribe at Mecca around the time of 570CE. He was the posthumous son of Abdulla, whose name means ‘slave of Allah’. The prophet’s own name means ‘highly praised’ and he was orphaned from a young age and was raised at first by his grandfather. • His grandfather, Abdul-Muttalib was a believer in God and it was because of this belief that Muhammad was introduced to the life of religion at a very early age. When Muhammad’s grandfather died when he was about eight years of age, he was transferred to the care of an uncle, Abu Talib who would eventually adopt him.

8. The Prophet’s Youth • From the age of twelve the Prophet took an active role in Abu Talib’s enterprises and in which Muhammad accompanied him on caravan journeys to Syria, this is where he came into contact with Jewish and Christian communities. • The communities knew him as a person of integrity, in his twenties he entered the employ of a wealthy and respected widow named Khadijah and he became the main overseer of her ever-growing caravan business. They both got married to each when Muhammad was twenty-five and she was forty, and together they had six children. It was only after she died did he take on other wives.

9. As the Prophet grew older, he became increasingly contemplative. Even as a young boy he had shown a deep reflective character and he frequently expressed dissatisfaction with the low moral tone of his time and lamenting on the absence of a coherent Arab faith. • He began to keep regular company with the hanifs, who are native Arabian monotheist who were neither Jew nor Christian. Muhammad would often withdraw into the solitude of the nearby hills for days on end to pray and contemplate the meaning of life.

10. The Prophet’s Practice • As time went on by, the Prophet would more and more visit a particular cave on Mount Hira, a huge and barren rock a few kilometers outside Mecca. • Frequently, he do all-night vigils, he’d meditate on deep religious matters. Finally, in 610 when he was forty years old, he had the first of a series of extraordinary experiences which would continue throughout his life.

11. The Prophet’s Revelations • One night when Muhammad was meditating in his favourite cave, the Prophet received an awe-inspiring revelation from a most powerful spiritual being that is later identified as the Archangel Gabriel. The angel announced that Muhammad was to be the messenger of Allah. For quite some time he received no further communication and he discussed with his wife and close associates the ideas which had already come to him about the unity and supremacy of Allah, the fear of hell and the reward of paradise. • Then the revelations from Gabriel suddenly resumed, when these mystical experiences were upon him, the Prophet sometimes felt they came with an unearthly weight. A story is told of how he received a revelation while riding atop a camel one day and on becoming once more aware of his surroundings he found his camel still underneath him with its legs splayed out and its belly pressed flat to the sand.

12. These revelations varied over frequency for the next twenty-three until the Prophet’s death in 632. On each occasion he’d remembered exactly what the angel revealed to him in phrases of the most exalted poetic language. • Later these verses were memorized and written down by the Prophet’s followers. After his death they were all collected to make up the Qur’an which is now a sacred scripture of Islam.

13. The Prophet Begins Preaching • The Prophet and his followers had little social impact as a religious movement. After some time he then began to speak more boldly about the ideas he held dear to himself. He encouraged those around him and the people to reject their tribal idols, to show charity to the poor and to free their slaves. Muhammad talked of equality and justice and he gradually gathered a significant following which met resistance from those who were strongly committed to their ancestral beliefs. • Eventually the authorities in Mecca perceived the Prophet as a political threat to their established order and he and his followers were subjected to violent persecution. They were smeared with filth, stoned, beaten, tortured and even killed. Only Muhammad was spared because of his wife.

14. Continued… The fight to Medina: • While the prophet had few followers in his own city his reputation had spread. He was secretly invited to preach his message in the town of Yathrib. In 622CE he fled the dangerous environment of Mecca and travelled 300km north. This event is known as the Hegira or emigration and Muslims believe this to be the point in the history of the world at which their religion was founded. This year was adopted as the first year on the calendar. He was well received at what is now known in English as Medina. The first Islamic city: • In medina the prophet took up religious duties and built the first mosque. He soon became the sole ruler of Medina and instigated new traditions such as Friday as the Muslim holy day.

15. The conquest of Mecca: • The prophet continued to live in Medina and in order to gain money, arms and supplies he organized raids on the commercial caravans. In 624 the cause of Islam and the prophets own reputation was boosted with the victory over superior Meccan forces in the battle of Badr. After this many Arab tribes converted to Islam. During the battle of Uhud Muhammad marched on Mecca itself and the city surrendered. He went to Ka’aba were he destroyed all idols of false gods and Mecca quickly converted to the Muslim faith. Soon after it became the spiritual centre of Islam although political power remained in Medina for some time. Arabia falls to Islam: • Muhammad set out to bring all feuding tribes together under the banner of Islam. He achieved this in less than two years and then died suddenly in 632. After a short period of consolidation known as the ‘Wars of Ridda’, when many tribes turned away from Islam and had to be coerced back into the fold, the Muslim community continued to expand and grow.

16. The prophet’s call: • The Koran is the culmination of the process whereby Allah, the one god of Abraham, reveals his full and final truth. Islam considers the prophets before Muhammad such as Jesus and Moses and to be equal in dignity but the prophet M is the final word, the complete authority. The prophet’s status: • Since there are no further revelations after the Koran Prophet M is called the ‘the seal of the prophets’ for none will come after him. Prophets are sinless and the highest model of correct behavior in Muslim life. The 2nd most authoritative Islamic text the Sunna covers the traditions and practices of prophet M and Muslims should emulate. The Attractions of Islam: • This basis of this faith is very simple with the message of ‘there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet’. The essential teachings of Islam were easy to understand and its devotional exercises were simple to perform. The concept of brotherhood and equality among all the races and classes of the faithful was also very enticing. Origins

17. The Four rightly guided caliphs Abu Bakr • The prophet Muhammad never appointed anyone to take his place. After his death, most followers turned to his friend Abu Bakr to be Caliph. He was called 'the truthful'. While he was in this position he brought Muslim tribes together, put bits of the Qur'an which had been written down together and launched Islamic armies against the Persian and Byzantine Roman empires.  Umar • The next Caliph after Abu Bakr and Muhammad's father-in-law. He was called 'the one who distinguishes'. He extended the Islamic empire into Palestine, Syria, Egypt and North Africa but unusually, he did not use force to convert other people to the Islam religion. Many of the inhabitants of these countries converted willingly. Umar established a council to select the next Caliph by a process of consultation. 

18. Uthman • The third Caliph, son-in-law of Muhammad. Uthman gathered all the available materials and produced the Qur'an in the Quraysh dialect of the Arabic, which was replicated by all the other copies which were produced since. Uthman extended Muslim rule into Libya and eastern Europe. There were rebellions in Iraq and Egypt against his policy of giving wealth and land that were won in war, to members of his family. Eventually he was murdered. Ali • The last Caliph, called 'the gate of learning'. He was son-in-law and cousin of the prophet. There has been much controversy over him being selected as some believed he should have been selected earlier and some believed he shouldn't because they thought he was responsible for Uthman's murder. During his time in the position there was a serious struggle for political power which led to a major schism which still exists in Islam today. After his death, a new dynasty began.

19. The great division between the Sunni and Shi'ite • This division (mentioned above) was created over an old argument about whether leadership should be given to those chosen by a council (what the Sunni believe) or whether it should have been given to relatives of the Prophet (what the Shi'ite believe). Some people said from the start that the Prophet himself had wanted Ali to inherit the position. When Ali was elected he was challenged by Mu'awiya, who came from the Umayyad family of the third Caliph. They met in battle. Ali allowed two arbiters to settle the dispute and though he was named as the fourth Caliph he was distressed to see he had been tricked into letting human judgment settle what should have been an issue of inheritance.

20. Sunni/ Shi'ite Islam • Ali's followers believe he should have been made Caliph first. A number among them were angry that he allowed arbitration and they split from the main body of Islam. When he was murdered , this consolidated the growth of this different branch of Islam which eventually became the sect of Shi'ite Muslims. • Shi'ites believe the community does not have authority, as only the direct descendant of the Prophet should. Shi'ite Muslims reject the first three of the Four Rightly Guided Caliphs, accepting only Ali as Imam (divinely ordained leader) and regarding he and his son Hussein as martyrs and as sinless. These are extremely controversial principles for non-Shi'ite Muslims.

21. Shi'ite sects vary in the number of Imams they recognise, with most believing in twelve, the last being a 'hidden' Imam, who disappeared in 878. They believe he will someday reappear as Imam Mahdi (Rightly Guided Imam) to initiate the events leading up to Judgment Day. In the meantime he is inspiration for the mujtahids (learned men) of the Shi'ite community who are responsible for interpreting Islamic law and guiding the community. 'TwelverShi'ism' has been the state religion of Iran since the sixteenth century. The Isma'ilis ('seveners') are the largest minority sect. They accept only up to the seventh Imam in line. The Zaidis of Yemen accept only up to the fifth. • The Umma (world Muslim community) is currently about one billion people, 15% of them Shi'ites. Origins

22. Islamic Principal Beliefs • Muslims display their Islamic beliefs through every day practices, guided chiefly by the teachings in the Qur'an. The Qur'an is the holy book that serves as the blueprint for the life that Muslims believe Allah prescribed. The Qur'an, along with the Sunnah, and the Hadith, practices and traditions of the prophet Muhammad, provides guidance and direction for daily living. the practicing Muslim must pray five times a day, fast yearly during Ramadan, contribute to the poor, and make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in his or her lifetime.

23. There are 6 main beliefs underlying the Islamic religion they are: • Belief in the Oneness of God (Allah). This view stems from the belief that God is one being, and there are no other creators but God. • Belief in the holy book this concept pertains to the Muslims belief in the qur’an • Belief in the angels. Muslims believe that angels are the messengers of god. • Belief in the Prophet. Muslims believe that Muhammad was the last prophet sent by Allah. • Belief in the Day of Judgment. This stems from the Islamic belief that there is life after death and that one's actions as an earthly being shall be judged by the Creator (Allah). • Belief in predestination. Muslims believe that Allah predestines one's life in reference to good versus evil.

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