Huston Smith: Islam

Background

Question: what is background for Islam

1. Only one God Allah shared with Judaism and Christianity

2. Islam shares the story until Ishmael went to Mecca and Isaac remained in Palestine

Thesis: Islam is monotheism diverged from Judaism

The Seal of the Prophets

Question: what is the meaning of the Seal of the Prophets?

1. Muhamed completed Islam as the last prophat.

2. people felt almost no obligation to anyone outside their tribes before Muhamed, which caused a hostile and chaotic situation

3. he was a normal guy who lost their parents at the young age yet remained compassionate and trustworthy.

4. the general immorality and cynicism of his day disgusted him.

5. he was appointed as a messenger of God’s words, which panicked him to distrusting himself however his wife, Khadija settled him into becoming a believer.

6. he devoted his life to spreading God’s words and it caused hostility from ruling tribes, however, eventually he succeeded to attract people.

Thesis: Muhamed is called the Seal of the Prophets because he is their culmination that completed Islam.

The Migration That Led to Victory

Question: how does the migration help him achieve victory?

1. Muhamed gave rise to a revolution and in reaction to that, dominant groups were determined to get rid of him.

2. they tried to assassinate him but he bailed out on them to Yathrib.

3. he became a statesman and assimilated all the different ethnic groups.

4. the rulers from Mecca tried to crash his status by putting the city in a siege however they failed to succeed and Muhamed returned to Mecca as a ruler.

5. he died in A.D. 632 with all the Arabia under his control

Thesis: Migration helped him to take control of Mecca, which is a headquarter for Arabians and settle Islam as the primary religion.

The Standing Miracle

Question: what is the standing miracle?

1. Muhamed considered Koran the only major miracle God worked through him.

2. illiterate Muhamed wrote down contents that cover magnificent knowledge with grammatical correctness as well as elaborate expressions.

3. the created Koran is derived from the uncreated Koran that cannot be written in human language but the created Koran still holds significance of God’s words.

4. he received revelation at random moments, which had physical weight.

5. The Koran is continuation of earliers revelation, Old Testament and New Testament, lacking the defects that they had.

6. the power of the koranic revelation lies not only in the literal meaning of its words but also in the language in which this meaning incorporated, including its sound.

7. Koran is directly doctrinal and indirectly historical unlike the testaments with stories in them

8. God himself talks in the first person in Koran

Thesis: the standing miracle means the Koran written by Muhamed, which has extraordinary features, compared to the other religious texts.

Basic Theological Concepts

Question: what are basic theological concepts in Islam?

1. the theological concepts of Islam are virtually identical with those of Judaism and Christianity except for a few.

2. of them, most important concepts are God, Creation, the Human Self and the Day of Judgment.

3.God is immaterial but no Muslim doubt him, unique so to eliminate confusion of faith, ultimately godly unlike human, fear-inspiring to guide his people, merciful to create the world.

4. the world was created by a deliberate act of Allah’s will so it is real and important as well as good.

5. Humans are created by God in a divine way, so it’s a sin to forget their divine origin, showing gratitude and selflessness.

6. they are accountable for actions and will be judged by them on the Judgment Day. It is encouraged by the idea of Hell and Heaven.

Thesis: they are God, Creation, Human and the Judgment day, similar to those in Judaism and Christianity to a certain extent.

The Five Pillars

Question: what are the Five Pillars and why are they important

1.Five Pillars are instructions on how to live a life, given by the Koran.

2. the first is Shahadah that can be condensed in a sentence “There is no god but God and Muhammad is His Prophet”.

3. the second is five times prayers in order to illuminate gratitude for existence as well as keep life in perspective.

4. the third is charity that enforces equal democracy.

5. the fourth is the observance of Ramadan that helps understand hunger and self-discipline.

6. the fifth is pilgrimage to heighten devotion to God as well as a reminder of equality and mediation.

Thesis: they are instructions that Muslims follow and each have a purpose.

Social Teachings

Question: what are social teachings in Islam

1. Muhamed changed the social order on prosperity of Islam where intertribal violence was prevalent previously.

2. the Koran deals with economics in a realistic way so that wealth can be well distributed while stimulating economics with capitalistic competition.

3. the Koran has improved the status of women with all the basic democratic rights, compared to the pre-Koran era when they were regarded as possession, not holding any right whatsoever.

4.the Koran debases racial discrimination, advocating interracial co existence.

5. the Koran doesn’t condone the use of force as considered to do by Westerners, but necessary use of defensive force such holy wars.

Thesis: the Koran deals with society with elaborate details that could only be found in modern democracy.

Sufism

Question: what is Sufism?

1. Sufis are the mystics of Islam who practice Islam apart from Sunnis or Shittes.

2. they believe in hidden meanings and inner symbolism rather than practical and explicit guideline from the Koran.

3.they constituted a spiritual elite, aspiring higher than other Muslims and willing to assume the heavier disciplines their extravagant goals required.

4. they contemplate over God’s love, go into a trace state to experience the truth of God and decipher symbolism in the Koran.

5. they consider their own existence is a sin because it doesn’t conform to Allah.

Thesis: Sufism is a denomination of people who pursue the spiritual truth rather than be satisfied with what’s given to him.

Whither Islam?

Question: how does the future of Islam look?

1. it is adjusted for Westernization and industrial modernization, not opposing the Koran

2. the number of followers is increasing

Thesis: it’s looking GOOD. It is adapted as the time demands and consequently people realize the benefits of Islam, converting to it.