We now turn to Islamic history, from the life of the founder of the faith, Muhammad, through medieval times up until today.  This review relates especially to chapters 4-6 of Frederick M. Denny, An Introduction to Islam, 2nd ed. (New York:  Macmillan, 1993). 

MUHAMMAD 

    First, we need to get our terminology straight.  Which of these sentences is correct?

1. Judaism is based on the worship of Judah.
2. Christianity is based on the worship of Christ.
3. Mohammedanism is based on the worship of Mohammed.

    Sentence #1 is incorrect.  Judaism takes its name from the southern kingdom of Judah, which was the last survivor of the ancient twelve tribes named for the twelve sons of Jacob.  Sentence #2 is correct.  Christians worship Jesus Christ as Son of God.  Sentence #3 is incorrect.  The followers of Mohammed do not consider Jesus or Mohammed to be divine; thus they do not worship either religious leader.  Mohammed is regarded by his followers as a human being, and only God, not human beings, may be worshipped.  So there is no such religion as "Mohammedanism," and the followers of Mohammed do not call themselves "Mohammedans," although these names have sometimes been used by persons outside the religion.  Instead, Mohammed's followers prefer these names:

• Islam as a noun for the religion,
• Islamic as an adjective describing the culture, and
• Muslim as a noun describing a member of the religion, or as an adjective describing a characteristic belief or practice.  

    All three of these words come from the Arabic root s l m, meaning "yield" or "submit."  So Islam is the religion of submission to God, and one who yields his or her will to God is a Muslim.

    The story of Islam begins in Arabia in the 600's C.E. with the Prophet Muhammad.  His name is often transliterated into English as Mohammed.  Over against the polytheism of most people in Arabia, Muhammad declared that Allah, God, is One, and there are no other gods.  Like the biblical prophets, Muhammad proclaimed a message of God's judgment on his society.  According to Muhammad, God sets high ethical standards of truth, purity, generosity, and justice.  Failure to live up to these standards will bring drastic consequences in both this life and the next life.  Muhammad was especially concerned about the ways in which powerful, wealthy aristocrats in his home town abused their privileged position to take advantage of the poor and the weak.  Do you remember the name of Muhammad's home town?  It was one of these three:  Damascus, Dante, or Mecca.

    If you were thinking of Damascus:  I'm sorry -- Paul had an interesting experience on the road to Damascus, but Muhammad never made it to Damascus.  He would really have enjoyed hiking with Jim Harrison on the Appalachian Trail, eating at the Burger Queen, and worshipping at one of the friendly churches in and around Damascus.  There is even a Syrian city which must be named after the Virginia town!  But Islam came only later to Damascus, Syria.

    If Dante came to mind:  I'm sorry, but Dante in his Inferno gave Muhammad a very low place, as you know if you've studied Great Books.  Maybe that's why he didn't make Dante, Virginia, his home town.  

    No, Muhammad grew up in Mecca.  Mecca was a major commercial center on the west coast of Arabia.  It was thriving, but Muhammad's message was that Mecca's prosperity was not benefiting all its citizens.

    You could probably name several of Jesus' leadership team of twelve disciples.  How about Muhammad's first disciples?  His first four followers made up the earliest umma, or Muslim community:

• Khadija was Muhammad's wife.
• Abu-Bakr was a highly respected Meccan businessman.
• Ali was raised by Muhammad and treated like a son; he was actually Muhammad's cousin.
• Zayd was a slave whom Muhammad adopted as a son.

    Opposition to Muhammad's prophetic messages led to his emigration from Mecca to Medina, a key event which is known as the hijra, "emigration."  The hijra took place in the year known to non-Muslims as 622 C.E.  That year is identified by Muslims as the year 1 A.H. (the first year after the hijra).  The Muslim calendar is a lunar calendar rather than a solar calendar, so it is used for religious purposes, not for economic or political matters.  The current Islamic year is 1424 A.H.

    In Medina, Muhammad continued to receive prophetic revelations and to build up the community of Muslims.  After several years of battles and negotiations with the Meccans, he was able to return to Mecca and establish it as the religious center of Islam.  He dedicated the Ka'ba, a great shrine in the center of Mecca which had served as a worship center for many different deities, to the worship of the one God.  That black-draped cubical shrine in the center of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, houses the Sacred Black Stone in one corner.  It is also a special place for pilgrims who come to Mecca from all over the world.  By the time of Muhammad's death, Islam was well on its way toward becoming a major world religion.

THE QUR'AN

    One of the earliest decisions that had to be made soon after Muhammad's death was how to maintain the continuity of leadership.  A series of caliphs (successors) were chosen, and they had to develop procedures to compile and edit the revelations which had been given to the Prophet during his lifetime.  The task of collecting these and publishing them was entrusted by the first caliph, Abu-Bakr, to Zayd, another of the first four disciples.  Since Zayd was twenty-two years old, he had the youth and energy to be able to complete this task.  It took him a quarter of a century, but finally he was ready with the authoritative edition of the revelations to Muhammad at Mecca and Medina.  The first word of the first revelation to Muhammad by the angel Gabriel, in a cave outside Mecca, was  iqraa, "read" or "recite."  So the book compiled and edited by Zayd was named the Qur'an or Koran.  Caliph 'Uthman declared the Qur'an to be the only authoritative scripture for Islam.  All Muslim beliefs must be solidly anchored in the teachings of the Qur'an.

    Before we review some significant things about the Qur'an, I must ask you a very important question:  Do you know any Arabic?  If you automatically respond "no":  then you should wait to study the Qur'an until you've learned a little about the language in which it was written.  Remember that you've learned a number of Arabic words in this unit.  If you don't remember them, look at the paragraph above, and there's the word iqraa.  So you can say "yes"!  The Qur'an cannot be translated into any other language, so it would be best if you could read it in Arabic.  Since the bookstore ordered the wrong edition of the Qur'an this semester, you have a copy with the Arabic right alongside the English, and Arabic 101 will be taught at Emory & Henry this fall.  Don't forget to preregister for it!  :) 

    If you don't know very much Arabic, you may want to use an English interpretation which tries to express the basic meaning, even though it will fall short of the original.  My favorite English version is the English part of the Qur'an which you got from the bookstore:  N. J. Dawood, The Koran, 5th edition (New York:  Penguin, 1990).  I'll relate my interpretations closely to Dawood's renderings in this program.  I also recommend Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (New York:  NAL, n.d.) and A. Yusuf Ali, The Holy Qur'an:  Text, Translation and Commentary (n.p., 1946).  I have only a few glimpses into the Arabic language, but I appreciate the understanding of the beauty and richness of the language that I have gained from two Arabic teachers:  Kermit Schoonover of SMU and Khaled al-Masri of the University of Virginia.  I also deeply appreciate Samir Saliba of E&H, who in so many ways has helped me to understand many subtle nuances of Arabic language and Arab culture.

    Where should we start?  Why not go with Muhammad back to the cave for that first encounter with Gabriel?

Recite:  in the name of your Lord who creates,
he creates a human being out of a tiny speck.
Recite:  Your Lord is most bountiful;
he teaches with pen and ink
what people have not known.   

      As we have seen, Qur'an means "reciting" or "reading aloud."  Muhammad's revelations were intended for memorization and recitation.  Just as Christians find comfort in reciting the Lord's Prayer, or Buddhists find serenity in reciting the mantra Om, Muslims find recitation of their scriptures a source of religious fulfillment.

    That first revelation is now identified as Surah (Chapter) 96:1-5 in the Qur'an.  In it we can see two key themes:  God as Creator of human beings in the complex mystery of life, and God as Teacher, revealing to human beings all that they need to know.  Both these themes are also present in Surah 2.  There God is portrayed as conducting a contest to see who could name all the things that he had created.  The only being who was able to name all the things in God's creation was Adam -- because he was willing to learn what God taught him!  Adam recited the names of everything to the angels, showing that human beings deserved the trust that God had place in them.  Throughout the Qur'an we see God as guiding people in the way that they should live.  We have a responsibility to learn God's will for us.  We are to be open to God's presence in all of creation.

    Certain individuals throughout history have been called to declare God's will to their people.  In the Bible and in the Qur'an, such individuals are called prophets.  According to the Qur'an, the Prophet Moses delivered the Children of Israel from Pharaoh's people, who had oppressed them cruelly.  God sent manna and quail to the Israelites, and when Moses struck a rock with his staff, God caused twelve springs of water to gush from the rock, one for each of the twelve tribes.  (Over near Glade Spring is an area known as Seven Springs, which had a famous health spa in the 1800's, where people drank from each of the seven springs to overcome illnesses.)   The Prophet Moses was also guided to sacrifice a yellow cow to God.  Through Moses, God made a covenant with the Israelites and on a mountain revealed to them his precepts.  That covenant included the following commandments, recorded in the Qur'an (2:83):

• Serve only God.
• Act in kindness toward your parents, your relatives, orphans, and the poor.
• Urge people to live righteous lives.
• Say your prayers.
• Fulfill the duty of almsgiving.

    The Qur'an describes three prophets from the time of Abraham who are not mentioned in the Bible:  Hud, Salih, and Shu'aib, all of whom proclaimed God's justice and oneness.  Shu'aib prophesied to the people of Midian (near the Sinai Peninsula):  "Serve God, for you have no god but God ... Give just weight and measure; do not cheat other people out of their possessions.  Do not corrupt the land ..."  (7:85)  The Midianite chieftains rejected his message of justice, and they were wiped out by an earthquake.  The prophecies of Hud and Salih were very similar in the message, in the people's rejection of the message, and in the consequences.  The stories and message of all three prophets are described in Surah 11 (Hud) of the Qur'an.

    According to the Qur'an, an old man named Zacharias once prayed to God:   "My bones are brittle, and my hair is turning gray ... I am afraid that my relatives will have to succeed me, because my wife has been unable to bear a child.  Grant me a son to be my heir ..." (19:4-5)  As a sign that his prayer would be answered, Zacharias was made unable to talk for three days.  The child born to Zacharias was named Yahya, or John, and he would be known by Christians as John the Baptist.  Muslims consider John the Baptist a prophet; good Baptists also consider him an important religious leader!

    The Qur'an has a description of Enoch or Idris, which is about as brief as the biblical description of him.  The Bible simply says that "he walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him."  (Genesis 5:24)  The Qur'an says, "he, too, was a saint and a prophet, whom We honored and exalted."  (S. 19:56)

    Many of the prophets had the duty of warning their people about God's judgment, so that they might avoid calamity.  Often they became discouraged.  The Prophet Noah prayed:  "Lord, I have pleaded with my people day and night, but the more I plead, the more they reject my message.  Every time I call on them to ask you for mercy, they stick their fingers in their ears and pull their robes over their heads ... Lord, don't leave a single unbeliever on the earth ... Forgive all the faithful men and women, and hasten the destruction of the sinners."  (S. 71:5-28)  How long could the unbelievers tread water?  Noah's prayer was answered.

    The Qur'an describes the Prophet 'Isa, Jesus, who was strengthened with God's Holy Spirit.  He healed blind people and lepers and restored the dead to life.  When Jesus was asked by his disciples to bring down food from heaven, he prayed, and God sent down from heaven a table spread with food.  The Qur'an states that Jesus said to the Israelites:  "I am sent to you from God to confirm the Torah which has been revealed, and to proclaim the news of a messenger that will come after me, whose name is Ahmad."  (S. 61:6)  The name Ahmad, "The Praised One," is seen as a reference to Muhammad, a name with the same linguistic origin.  Muslims believe Muhammad to be the "seal of the prophets," the last person in a long series of persons chosen by God to proclaim his message.

    In addition to stories and pronouncements of the prophets, the Qur'an contains other fascinating stories.  Here's one.  God created the first human being out of clay, and Satan out of smokeless fire.  After breathing his spirit into the man, God ordered the angels to prostrate themselves before that first human being.  All of the angels obeyed except Satan, who refused, because he felt that he was superior to a being made out of clay.  Instead, he said that he would spend the rest of his days tempting human beings.  God declared that Satan would have no power over God's servants, but only over the sinners who were already destined for hell.  (S. 15:26-42)

    The jealousy of Adam's son Cain led him to threaten to kill his brother.  Abel replied to Cain:  "God accepts offerings only from righteous people.  If you stretch out your hand to kill me, I will not stretch out my hand to kill you, because I revere God, the Lord of the Universe."  But in the Qur'anic account, even the first murderer could learn repentance and find God's forgiveness.  God sent a raven, a bird of prey, which dug up the earth and showed Cain how to bury the body of his brother with the proper respect due to a dead person.  Cain repented of what he had done, crying out:  "Alas!  I must have strength enough to do as this raven has done and bury my poor brother's naked corpse."  (S. 5:30-31)  Maybe that's why the raven quoth "Nevermore!"

    King Solomon was given the ability to communicate with animals and jinn (spirits that live in the desert).  He lined up his forces of men, jinn, and birds in battle array.  When he came to the Valley of the Ants, he heard an ant warning her colleagues to burrow deep into their hills, to keep from being crushed by Solomon and his soldiers.  Solomon smiled at her words and prayed to God for guidance and protection.  He then called the roll and found that one of his bird soldiers was AWOL.  The bird arrived late, because he had been on a spy mission, overflying southern Arabia.  The bird gave Solomon a report about the Queen of Sheba:  she was virtuous and a good ruler, but Satan had misled her and her people into worshipping the sun rather than God.  Solomon used some of the powers of his jinn to bring her to the right path of submission to God.  (27:16-44)

    We also find in the Qur'an basic theological and ethical principles.  Muhammad's farewell message at the time of his death is a quotation from God's declaration:  "This day I have perfected your religion for you and completed my favor to you.  I have chosen Islam to be your faith."  (S. 5:3)  As we have seen, Islam means "submission."  So when the Queen of Sheba submitted to God, in effect she became a Muslim, because Muslim is the equivalent Arabic participle, meaning "one who submits."  Christians have a hymn which expresses a similar thought:
    "Have thine own way, Lord!  Have thine own way!
    Thou art the potter, I am the clay.
    Mold me and make me after thy will,
    While I am waiting, yielded and still."

    Most religions have some definitions of what their adherents may eat and drink.  The Qur'an says,  "Believers:  wine, gambling, idols, and divining arrows are abominations devised by Satan.  Avoid them, so that you may prosper."  (S. 5:90)  Pork is also prohibited in the Qur'an:  "You are forbidden to eat carrion, meat with blood in it, pork, or food dedicated to any deity other than the one God."  (S. 5:3)

    The Qur'an defines the basic worship practices of Islam -- daily prayers, ritual purifications, fasting, and pilgrimage.  All of life is to be dedicated to God, as we see in this passage:
    "Every matter in which you are involved,
        every verse from the Qur'an that you recite,
            every action that you take,
    We [God] will witness it.

    Not the mass of an atom on earth or in heaven escapes your Lord,
        and every object, small and great, 
            is recorded in a glorious book."  (S. 10:61)

    We will find out what is in that glorious book on the Day of Resurrection.  Then God will open up the book and say, "Here is your book.  Read it.  Today you will be judged by your own soul."  (S. 17:13-14)  All people will be judged with fairness.  Those whose record shows them to have lived in sin and injustice will be taken to Hell.  Those whose book lists deeds of kindness and mercy will be taken to Paradise.

ISLAMIC HISTORY

     The primary source of authority in Islam is the Qur'an, since it is eternal, unchanging, and infallible.  But any religion also needs human leaders who function as authoritative interpreters of the faith.  We have mentioned the caliphs (successors) who were chosen by the majority of the people after Muhammad's death, to succeed him as leaders of the Islamic community.  Not everyone agreed with those decisions.  So the first three caliphs -- Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman, governed by majority consensus but not unanimity.  Some Muslims felt that the leadership of the community should have gone to Ali, Muhammad's cousin, who had married Muhammad's daughter Fatima, and who had played a leading role since the earliest days of Islam.  

    Finally, after the deaths of the first three caliphs, Ali became the fourth caliph.  But by then the Islamic community had become so fractured that he was not able to restore the unity that it had during Muhammad's lifetime.  Ali had to fight to establish his leadership, and he was assassinated before he could reunite the warring factions. After Ali's death, the Islamic community found itself even more torn apart by civil war over the question of legitimate succession.  The supporters of the majority position came to be known as Sunni Muslims, from the Arabic word sunna, "custom."  They still comprise the main body of Muslims in the world today.  The minority party, which supported Ali and his descendants as the legitimate successors to Muhammad, is known as the Shi`a ("Party") of Ali, and its members are called Shi`ite Muslims.  They believe that the Sunnis usurped the caliphate, so that it is their divinely ordained duty to restore their own leadership to its rightful place in the Islamic world.  Today most Iranians are Shi`ite Muslims.

    During the Middle Ages, a number of Islamic empires rose and fell.  Several outstanding individuals held the title of caliph.  Abd al-Malik, for example, built mosques in the city which ranks third holiest for Muslims, after Mecca and Medina:  Jerusalem.  In Arabic, Jerusalem is called al-Quds ("The Holy City").  Muhammad in a vision traveled there on a winged horse, which then took Muhammad up into the seven heavens.  Abd al-Malik built the beautiful Dome of the Rock over the rocky area in which the horse left a hoofprint.  It was that same rock foundation on which Solomon's Temple had been built in biblical times.  Jerusalem is thus sacred to Muslims, Jews, and Christians.

    The Middle Ages also saw the expansion of Muslim scholarship, as writings of Greek philosophers and scientists were translated into Arabic.  During the decline of the West, many of these writings were lost in Europe.  Fortunately the Arabic manuscripts provided a way to retranslate them back into the original Greek!  A less fortunate means of interchange among the cultures of Islam and European Christianity came with the Crusades, a series of medieval wars between these two peoples, led by knights who wanted to liberate the Holy Land of Israel from Muslims.  They were named from the sign of the Cross (Latin crux) which was often sewn on the clothes of the knights.  The Crusades marked the low point in Muslim-Christian relationships.  The consequences of those years are still with us, contributing to feelings of distrust and lack of understanding between Muslims and Christians, even in our age of close global interconnectedness.

    On the other hand, the Qur'an contains a number of passages that are positive toward Jesus and Christianity.  Jews and Christians are called People of the Book, because they share with Muslims a written scripture.  We have seen that many of the persons important in the Bible are described in the Qur'an as prophets.  The Qur'an gives an especially significant place to Jesus and to his mother Mary; both are treated with reverence and respect throughout the Islamic scripture.  You remember that Jesus is the last in a series of prophets who came into the world before Muhammad.  Muhammad himself is the seal of the prophets, the culmination of the series; his message is consistent with the messages of the earlier prophets.  Jesus taught and performed miracles, but according to the Qur'an, he did not die on the cross.  Instead, he was taken to be with God.  Some Muslims believe that he will return at the end of time.

    The end of time for this review of Islamic history is now; I hope it has been helpful for you.  Comments, suggestions, and corrections are welcome.  If you like, you can send me e-mail: fkellogg@ehc.edu

To look at one of my other syllabi or to review a unit in a different course, go to my Home Page.

To review a different unit in this course, go directly to one of the following:

    Unit 1, Foundations of Judaism
    Unit 2, Modern Judaism
    Unit 4, Modern Islam

If you prefer, you may return to the Emory & Henry College Home Page.

Last updated:  April 25, 2005