The entire reading was so interesting to me because I am doing Islam for my paper and because even though I grew up hearing various things about Islam, this article taught me numerous things that I have never heard before. In regards to the environment, I liked how Fazlur Rahman stated how, in Islam, the entire universe and its content are declared by the Quran to be Muslim, but whereas nature obeys God’s law automatically, humanity ought to obey it by choice. This brings up many issues about the complexity of the human mind and human action. I like how he said that nature doesn’t have a choice but humanity does. I guess this is why we have “good” and “bad” people and why heaven and hell also exist in this religion. Another very interesting fact I learned was how Rahman makes the statement about how Islam originated out of Arab roots, not Judeo-Christian roots. This is intriguing to me because I feel that most people, including myself, would say that because Islam is the third monotheistic, Abrahamic, religion that it originated out of the religions before it. According to Rahman, “Islam grew out of the problems existing in an Arab Meccan society.” The reading did a good job in discussing Sufism, which is very foreign to me. I liked how they were basically credited the spread of Islam because many were merchants and spread the religion in their travels. Also contributing to the spread of Islam was the Islamic acceptance of the Iranians. As an unrecognized nationality, acceptance of the Iranians was a huge thing for them, and many converted to Islam. One of my favorite parts about the article was the brief explanation about the expansion of Islam and the treatment of Muslims to non-Muslims. Rahman uses the word “jihad” here to describe how the Muslims just established Islamic rule. Muslim rule in conquered territories was generally tolerant and there was no policy to convert non-Muslims, “the purpose of jihād was not conversion but the establishment of Islamic rule.” Nowadays, we think of jihad as a religious war, mass killings of people because they aren’t Muslims, or suicide bombing in the name of God. That is obviously not how the word was originally intended to be used. Overall, I really enjoyed the article and all the information it had to offer.
Soraya
I find Islam to be incredibly complex. While the discussion about the intracacies about Islam could go on for volumes, I will stick to some of the points that I found most intriguing. I found Muhammad’s way of conquering Medina and his desired implementation of Islam as insurmountably important to the way Islam is practiced today. When he became “the head of the existing polity” he did not take on any official secular title as head of government. Instead he insured the binding of state with religion by proclaiming himself “the messenger of God”. As the text explains Islam is more than just a set of instructions to sanctify your relationship with God, but to live with it in your life everyday. The pious Muslim must not leave their faith or their belief at the Mosque gates. Because of this adherent Muslims must always act according to religious doctrine and not merely practice Islam, but live it . Thus Islam became more than just a religion, but an empire. The birth of the Caliphates married Islam with state maintaince. The strongest Islamic empires emerged around the 15th and 16th centuries with the Moguls at the battle of Panipat (circa 1514) in modern day India, the mighty Ottoman Turk’s peak point in power occurring in 1453 with the sac of Constantinople, and the Safavids in modern day Iran with Ismael. The interesting thing is that while these empires frequently feueded with each other over resources, all of them were still glued together by Islam which no doubt permitted the extension of their legacies.
ReplyDelete- Alex Leeds
After I read those two articles, I started to think about the difference between the religions. It seems stupid to compare different religions, however, I really think that some religions are similar. Let’s take Christen for example. From the Bible, we can know that God created the earth and all living things and human can use them for good. In the Islam, God is Allâh. From Koran, we can know that their God made the earth in 6 days. I just wonder if all the people on the earth believed in the same God, but they made some changes basic on their cultural. Anyway, that is my question about similarity of religion, which bothered me all the time. By reading those two resources, I found out that Muslim cannot eat some food such as pigs and blood; they also cannot drink beer and wine. The only kind of meat that they can eat is Graminivorous. Muslin only can use their right hand to take food. I also learned that Muslin also want peace. They are respected to the nature even though they know that their God give their rights to demonstrate the rest of living things. They also think that people should explore the nature in order to find some useful things to help people reach higher life standard, but they think that people also should concern about the capability that earth can bear.
ReplyDeleteAs Soraya mentioned, the idea that human's must choose whether or not to obey 'God's law' is a concept quite relevant to our study of religion and the environment. When I first read this, I immediately assumed it meant that, according to doctrine, the Islamic faith believes that it is the obligation of the individual to respect the environment. I was surprised, because I had never though of Islam as one of the more environmentally concerned religions. With exceptions of course, I have always connected the Eastern religions as being more generally related to the environmental movement. After reading the statement a second time, I realized that the true meaning of the statement depends on the definition of 'God's law'. As the article discusses early, medieval and later development of Islam and the teachings of the Qur'an, there is little mention of the natural world. This suggests that 'God's law' is an anthropocentric one. The word "uswah hasanah" translates to "good model" or "good example", and is defined in relation to the human race: setting a good example within the community. Never does the 'good example' mention the environment or an obligation to nature. To me, this proves my original understanding of the religion to be somewhat true. The basic teachings of the Islam tradition, including the five pillars, mention little about the environment for the environment's sake. Islam seems to fit in with the Western religions in it's anthropocentric view of the environment.
ReplyDeleteI was also really interested in the Murji'ah, the members of the community who were accommodating and welcoming to non-Muslims. In a region so rich in religious conflict, the idea that religious toleration and even religious plurality is encouraged is inspiring.
Zoya Mufti
ReplyDeleteLike Soraya, I am also writing my research paper on Islam. I really enjoyed reading about how the Earth and all its contents are supposed to be Muslim, according to the Qu'ran. I had never thought of this connection between the environment and Islam. Where Rahman states that nature obeys God’s law by itself and how humanity should obey it by choice as well, I was surprised because Islam is not a religion that is usually connected to the environment. As I write my paper, I am beginning to see Islam and how many parts of prayer and worship in Islam are correlated with the environment. Each movement of the actual prayer represents a different connection as well as a different significance with the environment. Islam is a complex religion with many aspects to it, but what makes Islam special to me is the fact that it is not just a religion, it is a lifestyle. A Muslim is not just a Muslim when they are in a mosque; they are Muslims because of the way they conduct their everyday lives.
Islam has always been one of the most interesting religions for me. On the one hand, it gets forced into the very specific role of being entirely radical extremists who allow for no women's rights, want only to harm others and ends up being a religion that would be insulting for our president to be a part of. On the flip side, every person I have heard talk about engaging with Muslims face to face, and every Muslim I have ever met defy all those stereotypes. In actuality, Islam is one of the most peaceful religions and is comprised of followers who are extremely down to earth, as well as being very gracious and peaceful to be around. I also have a lot of respect for Islam because in my eyes, it seems to take much more discipline and "work" than some other religions. Praying five times a day, abstaining from alcohol and pork, adhering to a semi-strict set of moral laws as well as charity and loan-free practices make this religion extremely virtuous to me. Although almost all of these practices can be found in other religions, the combination of them and the dutiful obligation that most Muslims see them as, make this religion that much more impressive. In comparing Christianity, Islam seems to expect much more devotion to the practices and rituals, and even in some ways, I see Islam as requiring a more strict belief and faith. Islam has always been a point of interest for me in that its popularity is growing extremely fast but so does its reputation as being a violent extremist religion.
ReplyDeleteI find Islam to be very interesting. I was truly surprised at its complexity. I understand how every religion is more or less complex, however Islam is on another level. The statement in the article where it stated that Earth and all its contents are declared by The Qu'ran, the holy book of Islam, to be Muslim. However, it's up to humanity to decide whether to believe or not believe. It is an ultimate test of faith, where you are in an environment with different faiths and it must be the choice of the believer to follow or not. Islam seems to be a way of life as well a religion. Overall, reading about Islam was intriguing.
ReplyDeleteI'm also writing my paper on Islam. I found this text to be very informative and helpful and very interesting. I chose to write about Islam because I'm interested in learning more about the religion. There were lots of things that I learned from this text. For example that the law is a central part of Islam. It was also interesting to learn the background history of Islam. How the tenants were formed and the history of the Islamic people really tells a person a lot about the faith. When one understands how and why parts of Islam came from it helps them understand the religion as a whole better. I really enjoyed this reading and it's going to be very helpful to me when I'm writing my paper.
ReplyDeleteI read the wrong text for today, but I’m still posting my blog and I’ll do the blog on the Encyclopedia of Religion on Monday! In comparison to the other religions that we’ve read about in this text, it seems as if the significance of nature and the environment is more prominent in Islam. The fact that the Qur’an describes the religion as one of fitra “the very nature of things” stood out to me. Another thing that interested me was the fact that the book uses a lot of example of Rumi to show relationship between Islam and the natural environment and because Rumi lived hundreds of years ago, it goes to show how long his ideas on the importance of nature has lived on over the time. As I continued to think about this, I thought about another Rumi quote that I had heard millions of times “Beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-ding, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.” Oddly enough, it wasn’t until I read the section on Islam and Ecology in the book that I realized the incorporation of nature in the quote. The rest of the quote describes the importance of friendship and relationships, etc. however, it astounded me how a piece of nature was slipped into the quote—a piece of nature that is more idealistic (the “field), but still in the quote nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteI think of all the major abrahamic religions Islam incorporates environmental ethic the most. Although their views of the natural hierarchy of nature and man are similar to Christianity, it is there desire to protect Gods creation that separates them. In the Qu'ran it states that "Finally, the universe has been created for the benefit of human beings, and all its forces have been “subjugated” to them; of all creatures, only they have been created to serve God alone (e.g., 31:20, 22:65)". This verse reminded me of the passage in Genesis in which mankind was given dominion over the land and all creatures. ALso nature is bound to obey Gods commands at all times but mankind has free will to follow God or not. Free will also separates man from nature. In Islam, mankind does have a natural supremacy however Muslims treat nature differently. For example, a christian see a wild field as wasted land that is better refined as a farm. However in Islam Muslims see the divine beauty in creation of all things that reflect Gods love. So everything is created perfectly in the eyes of God. In a course on Sufism that I am taking this semester my Professor noted that Muslim armies would respect that land in which they fought. While other armies would divert rivers or alter the land to their advantage, Muslims would not. Although this wasn't mentioned in the reading, it is interesting to note that the most common color used in Islamic architecture, art, and writings is green. Green was the favorite color of the Prophet and it represents nature and life. In essence Islam is a very environmentally based religion with a deep history and beautiful practices.
ReplyDeleteBefore reading this, I had a very vague understanding of Islam. This is surprising because the Muslim world includes nearly a quarter of the worlds population. Being an Abrahamic faith, Islam has many similarities to both Christianity and Judaism, two religions about which I am familiar. Islam does have many differences from its two cousin religions, although it recognizes both Moses and Jesus as prophets. Like Christianity, it seems that Islam can be interpretted many different ways and that each interpretation will have a different view of the environment. Because of this, it is difficult to describe Islam's stance on the environment.
ReplyDeleteAlex Belak
I have always been very intrigued by Islam and I have learned a lot more about it at GW because two of my really good friends are Muslim. This article helped supplement the basics that I had not learned thus far. Like Zach said Muslims have a strict adherence to the "law" of Islam which I find fascinating. In the article they discussed the difference between the Muslims living by the law and other religions following the way of God. Muslims, by obeying their law are following God. I remember on the first day of class we said that someone could be Christian and never really go to Church or pray. I don't think this is the case in Islam. Without following the rules of Islam I don't think Muslims would considered themselves truly Muslim because the law is key.
ReplyDeleteI was also interested in the part of the article that discussed the Muslim tolerance of other monotheistic religions. They have a problem with Judaism claiming itself as the ultimate religion but overall they believe all monotheistic religions can live in harmony because they are all following God.
I Like Soraya, part of the article that caught my attention was the portion that states that the entire universe and its content are declared by the Quran to be Muslim, but whereas nature obeys God’s law automatically, humanity ought to obey it by choice. The first portion of this statement that refers to nature obeying God’s will seems to denote that there is a structure in nature that follows God’s will. In this sense, nature is ordered and balanced and in a state that will ensure continued sustainability. However the troubling aspect of that statement is the latter portion. Humanity also ought to follow God’s command and be in sync with nature, but in some cases this is not the case. Humanity has the option to deviate from the will of God and in that break, humanity is free to degrade and destroy nature. Because the opportunity is presented to disobey the will of God, the opportunity also presents itself to destroy nature. It might be beneficial for the environment to remove the choice to disobey God to ensure the balance and structure remains intact.
ReplyDeleteSimilar to Soraya, I too found it interesting that Rahman does not consider Islam and Abrahamic religion. I was surprised by this because I always group Judaism, Christianity, and Islam together as the three monotheistic, abrahamic religions.
ReplyDeleteI also found Islams' connection with the an environment to be an interesting one. I was surprised to read about the idea that humanity should obey God's law by choice because nature naturally obeys God's law. This is an interesting concept that not only did I not connect directly to Islam, but I had never thought about it in terms of any other religion either.
I also found that Islam focuses more on the laws than I think most other religions. Muslims are very much encouraged to follow the Islamic law pretty strictly.
All in all, I found this reading to be surprising and very interesting in many ways.
Of all the selections of basic introductions to religions, this one on Islam was definitely my favorite. Somehow, it was easier to read than the others—it was succinct and read rather story-like. It is very interesting that Islam accepts the entire line of prophets (i.e. the same people—Jesus, for example—as Judaism and Christianity idolize) as other religions. Mohammed, however, the last, is the most revered. I also think it is interesting that Islam in its crusading years was extremely tolerant. This worked to the tremendous advantage of the Ottoman Empire. I think it’s also important to note that, centuries ago, the Islamic world was at the forefront of technological advancement—inventing, for example, the compass—but, somehow, after the Crusades, were surpassed. Jared Diamond, in his books, I think covers why this is. Islam, then, is not the “backwards” religion as it is often depicted as. Also, though I have yet to read the Qur’an, I have read a bit about Islam and I have found it to be (aside from some inflammatory passages regarding the end of the world, the infidel, etc.) rather docile.
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