World_Religions

The Moslem View of Life

The heart of the Moslem view of life is the duty of obedience to God. God is most great, and deserves our complete and total submission. That submission in turn will bring us eternal salvation.

The Emergence of Islam

The Arab peoples before Mohammed worshipped numerous gods and spirits. Sacred stones, trees, and springs were venerated, and spirits were believed to inhabit the desert. The inhabitants of Mohammed’s native city, Mecca, worshipped a high god named Allah together with other divinities, including three goddesses known as the “Daughters of Allah”. The name Allah is a combination of “al”, which is the definite article “the”, and “ilah”, the usual word for “God”, and thus means “the God”. An important center of this worship was a cubical structure called the Ka’ba, containing a sacred Black Stone, which remains a center of pilgrimage in Islam.

There were also Jews and Christians in Arabia. Furthermore, according to Islamic tradition, there were native Arab monotheists called hanifs, neither Jews nor Christians, whose belief in the one and only God had descended in an independent tradition from Abraham (whom the Koran views as a Moslem).

Mohammed (Arabic: Muhammad)

Mohammed was born in Mecca, a member of the dominant tribe there known as the Koraish (Quraish), probably around A.D. 570. His father, whose name was Abdullah, or “slave of Allah”, died before he was born, and his mother Aminah died when he was six. He was brought up first by his grandfather, who made a modest living by providing pilgrims with water from a well sacred to Allah, so that the boy was early associated with the religious life. When his grandfather died, after only two years, Mohammed was transferred to the care of his uncle, Abu Talib, also a religious man, and later one of his strongest personal supporters (though Abu Talib never embraced Islam).

In his twenties Mohammed came to be employed by a wealthy widow, Khadija, as overseer of her camel caravans, and journeyed with them to Syria.

When he was twenty-five, and she forty, they married, and she bore him six children.

In time Mohammed became more and more contemplative. He associated with the hanifs, and would go off into the hills for several days at a time in order to pray and meditate.

Revelation

During these excursions Mohammed began to have a series of extraordinary experiences. One night while he was asleep a spiritual being of great power appeared to him, identifying himself as the Angel Gabriel, and announc-

ing that Mohammed was to be the messenger of God. On subsequent occasions and throughout the rest of his life, Gabriel made many revelations to him, which Mohammed was able afterwards to remember exactly. These revelations were couched in an exalted poetic language, which speakers of Arabic consider of unsurpassed beauty. They were committed to memory by his followers and eventually written down. Collected after Mohammed’s death, they make up the Koran, the Sacred Scripture of Islam.

Koran (Arabic: Qur’an)

The chief message of the Koran is the absolute supremacy of God. There exists only one God, and His power is unlimited. He is in complete control of the universe, and human beings owe Him total obedience.

The Arabic word for obedience is “islam”. The word “Koran” or “Qur’an”, meaning “recitation”, comes from the command of the Angel Gabriel to Mohammed. The Koran is organized in chapters, called Suras, of various length, some very short, some quite long. With a few exceptions, the statements of the Koran are all placed on the lips of God and are addressed to Mohammed.

To Moslems (Arabic: Muslims) the Koran is a miracle of beauty and inspiration, the only miracle to which Islam lays claim.

The Hegira (Arabic: Hijra)

In his native city, Mecca, Mohammed made little headway. His revelations aroused violent opposition from the merchants, who feared for their trade, which depended on the traditional religion. He made few converts. In the city of Medina, some 300 miles to the north, however, he was regarded much more favorably. The city was torn by strife, and leading citizens of Medina secretly invited Mohammed to move there and serve as religious leader and arbitrator, promising to become Moslems and obey him. This he did. In the year 622 of the Christian era, under cover of darkness, he left Mecca and traveled to Medina. This event is called the Hegira (or Hijra), “emigration”.

It is considered the founding event of Islam as a religion. The year in which it took place was adopted as the first year of the Islamic calendar.

Mohammed in Medina (Arabic: Madina)

Gradually Mohammed became the sole ruler of Medina, and transformed it into an Islamic society. The worship of all other gods but Allah was eliminated, the forms of public prayer were established, with Friday as the weekly day of prayer, and the mosque was created as the place of prayer. The brotherhood of all Moslems was stressed, and an official system of almsgiving was organized to help the poor.

In addition, Mohammed organized armed raids on the caravans traversing the desert. The owners of the caravans, who were especially Meccans, replied by sending guards to defend them. The armed forces on both sides grew, lead-

ing to a series of battles from which Mohammed’s forces emerged the victors. He became the chief political power in Arabia.

The return to Mecca (Arabic: Makka)

In A.D. 630 Mohammed resolved to capture Mecca. He gathered together a large army and proceeded to the city, which surrendered to him. He transformed it into an Islamic city on the model of Medina, smashing the images of the gods, and setting the Ka’ba up as the central shrine of Islam. Two years later he died.

The expansion of Islam

After Mohammed’s death many Arab tribes began to withdraw their allegiance to Islam. His successors, the Caliphs, declared them apostates, sent armies out against them, and quickly overcame them. Finding they were so easily victorious, the Moslem armies continued to advance into more remote territories subject to the Persian and Roman Empires. Both Empires were unpopular, and the Moslem armies were welcomed. Within a few short years they were masters of an enormous empire stretching from Afghanistan to Egypt and as far west as Spain.

The status of Mohammed

Moslems do not regard Mohammed as divine, or as a savior, but as a mere man. Although a mere man, however, he is the Prophet, the man through whom God has made His final revelation to mankind. This is expressed by his title “the Seal of the Prophets”, that is, the last and decisive prophet. There are no more prophets after him, for there are no revelations from God after the Koran.

Although not divine, Islamic tradition regards Mohammed as sinless, and takes him as the highest model of behavior. The strongest argument on behalf of any belief or action is that it follows Mohammed’s example.

Sunna and Hadith

Because of Mohammed’s immense prestige, the Koran is not the only authority in Islam. Everything that Mohammed said or did is authoritative, and constitutes a sunna, an approved custom or tradition. As a result, a large body of literature has developed tracing various actions and sayings to him and his companions. A report attibuting some saying or action to Mohammed or his companions is called a “hadith”, or “statement”, and in practice they play as large a role in Islamic life as the Koran itself. The hadith is a special Islamic literary form. Typically it begins by giving the chain of witnesses, called an isnad, who have handed the report on to one another: A told B, who told C, who told D, etc., that Mohammed did or said such and such. (The proper plural of hadith in Arabic is ahadith; however, hadith seems to be widely used in English for both singular and plural.)

The Doctrines of Islam

The main doctrines of Islam are usually summed up under five headings.

One God

The most basic belief of Islam is that there exists a single personal God. This is a belief it shares with Judaism and Christianity. Perhaps even more strongly than those religions, if possible, Islam emphasizes that there is only one God. It rejects polytheism with the utmost intensity.

This emphatic monotheism is expressed in the Witness, or Shahada, uttered daily by devout Moslems: There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet.

The force of this belief is, first, to assert that all the other divinities that mankind has worshipped in the course of its history are mere myths, empty figments of the imagination.

Second, the belief provides the true God with a definite historical identity. God is not a mere abstract idea. One of the gods men have worshipped is actually the true God, namely Allah, the god worshipped specifically in Mecca by Mohammed’s tribesmen even before he was born. It was he, and no other, who revealed the Koran to Mohammed. (The Arabic language has no capital letters, and so no way of distinguishing between “god" and “God”.)

Third, the belief implies the absolute supremacy of Allah. He is in complete control of the universe. Whatever happens, happens only by his will. He is unique. Nothing can be compared to him or put in the same category with him. The Moslem theologian Al-Ghazali says:

He in His essence is one without any partner, single without any similar, eternal without any opposite, separate without any like. He is One: prior with nothing before Him, from eternity, without any beginning, abiding in existence with none after Him, to eternity without an end, subsisting without ending, abiding without termination… Measure does not bind him and boundaries do not contain Him.

(Quoted in Duncan B. Macdonald, Development of Muslim Theology, Jurisprudence and Constitution Theory, New York, 1903, p. 303; see also Cragg, House of Islam, 1975, p. 14)

To place any created thing on the same level as God is to commit the sin of shirk, tantamount to blasphemy. This is why polytheism is so strongly detested, because it is felt to insult the unique dignity of God by associating imaginary beings with him. In the Moslem view, Christians also commit this sin by believing in Jesus as the Son of God, for God cannot have a son, that is, another being of the same nature as himself.

Angels

The Koran was revealed to Mohammed not directly by God, but by the Angel Gabriel speaking on behalf of God. It is therefore a doctrine of Islam that

there exist spiritual beings in addition to man. The highest of these are the angels, the messengers and servants of God who carry out his will in the world. The Koran mentions Michael in addition to Gabriel. Some of the angels are fallen, however; the Koran mentions Iblis, or Satan, and Harut and Marut.

Besides the angels there is another kind of invisible being called the jinn (a plural; the singular is jinni, the origin of the story of the “genie” in Aladdin’s lamp). The jinn were created by God out of fire, and, unlike the angels, eventually die. They are of both sexes and can be good or evil.

Prophets and scriptures

Although non-Moslems view Islam as the youngest of the major religions, Islam does not think of itself like that. It sees itself as identical with the first revelation God gave to mankind. The Koran mentions some twenty-five individuals to whom God gave the Koranic message in earlier times. These are the prophets. A prophet in this sense is not necessarily a person who predicts the future, but one who speaks on behalf of God. They include Adam, Noah, Abraham (Ibrahim), Joseph (Yusuf), Moses (Musa), Aaron (Harun), David (Dawud), John the Baptist (Yahya), and Jesus (Isa). All of these were Moslems.

To each one God entrusted a scripture, containing essentially the same message as the Koran: to Moses, for example, he gave the Torah; to David the Psalms; to Jesus the Gospel. But in each case the scriptures were corrupted and falsified by evil men. As a result these texts as they now exist are completely unreliable. It was to correct these distortions that God sent Mohammed, revealing to him again the true Koran. It alone is now the pure scripture, possessing the original form given it by God, and so it supersedes all the earlier ones.

Islam, then, is simply the true form of what Judaism and Christianity ought to be, and would be if they had remained faithful to their original inspiration.

Resurrection and the Last Judgement

As mentioned above, the Koran describes itself as a book of warning. What it warns mankind about is the Last Judgement. Almost every page of the Koran contains an urgent reminder that at the end of time, in an earth-shaking cataclysm in which he will raise all the dead to life, God will pass an eternal sentence on every human being. That sentence will hinge on whether the person was a believer. Those who believed the revelation given through Mohammed will be rewarded with the delights of heaven. Those who did not believe will be consigned to the unending torments of hell.

A true believer is not a person who merely accepts mentally the truth of the Koran, but one who puts it into practice by carrying out the divine law.

The divine decree and predestination

Since the Koran lays so much emphasis on the judgement of God, it plainly believes that human beings have free will. Those who are condemned to hell receive that punishment only because they deserve it, since God is just. But this

must not be understood to mean that human actions lie outside the scope of God’s control. Nothing lies outside God’s control, and that includes the free actions of men. It can be said, then, that God predestines some to heaven and some to hell. Yet this does not abolish man’s responsibility for his own deeds and misdeeds.

This doctrine is much more controversial than the other four, since it seems to imply a contradiction. In general Moslem thinkers have been content to admit it is a profound mystery, and leave it at that, emphasizing that what counts in Islam is not theory but practice.

A consequence of this doctrine is that Moslems will very often react to events, even to the worst of crimes, with die exclamation: It is God’s will! (Insh’Allah).

The Law: Shari’ah

The Koran reveals the will of God for mankind. This constitutes a Law, which all are bound to obey on penalty of eternal condemnation. This Islamic law in its totality is termed the Shari’ah, meaning “the right path”. The Shari’ah includes not only laws concerning strictly religious matters, but also many other aspects of life, such as marriage and the family, inheritance, divorce, and government.

The Five Pillars of Islam

There are five religious practices that Islam enjoins on its followers as a minimum.

The Shahadah

This is the Witness or profession of faith mentioned above: There is no God but Allah; and Mohammed is his prophet.

The statement itself made in the Witness bears the title of the Kalimah. It is this statement that makes a person a Moslem. Anyone who utters it during the course of his life, even if only once, is accounted a Moslem. It also forms part of the formal daily prayer, described next.

Worship: Salat

All Moslems, both men and women, are required to perform ritual or formal prayer, called Salat. This prayer is not so much a request for favors or blessings as a public recognition of the sovereignty of God. It includes various bodily postures such as bowing, sitting, standing, and prostration with the forehead touching the floor, while reciting such phrases as “God is most great” (Allahu akbar) and the Shahada. This public prayer is not the same as private prayer (du’a), for which no special formula is prescribed.

The ritual must be performed five times a day: at dawn, midday, midafternoon, sunset, and in the evening before going to bed. The form of this prayer is given in the section on Islamic texts at the end of this chapter.

The prayer is to be recited facing Mecca. The direction toward Mecca from wherever one may happen to be is called the qibla. In the mosque it is marked by a niche in the wall, called the mihrab.

Ideally the prayer should be performed in a mosque, but if that is not feasible any clean place will do, indoors or outdoors. Moslems often use a prayer mat for this purpose.

At a mosque, shortly before the time for prayer, the muezzin (mu’adhdhin) chants the call to prayer (the adhan) from the minaret.

The sacred day of the week for Moslems is Friday. It is not a day of rest, unlike the Sabbath in Judaism and Sunday in Christianity. However, all men (though not women) are required to take part in the Friday noon prayer at a mosque, if one is available. The Friday service follows a special form, including a sermon by the leader (the imam). The word “mosque” comes from “masjid”, meaning a place of prostration. Strictly speaking it does not have to be a building but can be simply a piece of open ground dedicated to prayer. The mosque can legitimately be used for many purposes related to religion: as a school, meeting place, or even for eating and sleeping, if necessary.

Legal almsgiving: Zakat

Moslems are strongly encouraged to provide help to those in need. In addition to private charity, Islamic law requires the payment of a special tax for this purpose, called the Zakat. It is to be paid at the end of each year, in proportion to one’s possessions.

It is paid only on certain classes of goods above a minimum, such as animals, agricultural products, precious metals, and objects intended for sale. According to one authority, for example, the taxable minimum of camels is five, and on each group of five a goat is due (Al Firuzabadi, Kitab al Tanbih).

As this example may indicate, the traditional prescriptions for the tax were not laid down with a view to a money economy. As a result, in practice today the Zakat is widely considered more as a general obligation to give money to charitable causes than as a law to be obeyed according to the details of the letter.

Fasting: Sawm

For a month each year Moslems are required to fast. The fast occurs during the ninth month, Ramadan, and consists in abstaining from all food and drink from sunrise to sunset.

The fast of Ramadan is not exactly like the Christian Lent. There is no limitation on eating or drinking during the night, and this is usually a partytime, when families and friends get together and celebrate. There is an espe-

cially joyous celebration (the ‘Id al-Fitr) at the end of the month, one of the two chief feast-days of Islam.

The official Islamic year is lunar, consisting of twelve months each of four weeks exactly, and is therefore shorter than our regular, solar year. As a result the month of Ramadan cycles backwards throughout the regular year, and occurs in every season. Consequently the length of the fast from sunrise to sunset varies greatly, from the middle of summer to the middle of winter. Ramadan is relatively easy to keep when it occurs in winter, but in midsummer it is more difficult.

Pilgrimage to Mecca: the Hajj

So far as circumstances permit, every Moslem should go on pilgrimage to the sacred city of Mecca at least once in his lifetime. The city of Mecca is sacred because it was the site of the original, pre-Islamic worship of Allah. In that capacity it had been a center of pilgrimage long before the time of Mohammed. Only Moslems are allowed to enter the city.

The proper time for the pilgrimage is a period of four days during the twelfth month of the Islamic year, and so, like Ramadan, it cycles backward through the seasons.

Men must wear a distinctive white two-piece garment in place of their usual clothes. Those who have taken part in the pilgrimage agree that this uniform clothing, submerging all outward differences such as race, age, and wealth, conveys a profound experience of the unity and brotherhood of Moslems. Women may wear the costumes of their regions, but also now usually wear white.

The high point of the pilgrimage is the commemoration of the sacrifice carried out by Abraham. (As we have seen, Moslems view Abraham as a Moslem.) God had commanded Abraham to kill his only son Isma’il in sacrifice, as a test of faith, and Abraham made preparations to do so, but at the last moment God instructed him to kill a ram instead, which he did. (In the Hebrew Bible the son was Isaac.) To commemorate this, the pilgrims perform animal sacrifices, and thousands of animals are killed in the space of an hour, creating a considerable problem in the disposal of the carcasses.

The day on which this is done, the tenth of the month, is celebrated not only in Mecca but throughout the Moslem world as the Feast of Sacrifice, and is the second of the two great Moslem feast-days.

Jihad

This term, often translated as “holy war”, literally has the broader meaning of “struggle, exertion”. It signifies the general effort to advance the cause of Islam, a duty sometimes ranked as a sixth Pillar. Mohammed spoke of a twofold jihad, one internal or spiritual and harder, the struggle against oneself, against

the unbeliever within one’s own heart, the other external and easier, against the enemies of Islam.

According to the Koran armed warfare should be used only in self-defense.

Fight in the way of God

With those who fight with you, But aggress not.

God loves not the aggressors. (2, 190-1)

There shall be no compulsion in religion. (2, 256)

In practice, however, self-defense has often been understood loosely. Jihad has often been waged by one Moslem group against another.

The People of the Book

The People of the Book are those who possess sacred books, chiefly Jews and Christians. Although Islam condemns Judaism and Christianity as distortions of the true religion, it accords them a special tolerance not shown to other religions. Within Islamic territory, according to Moslem law, polytheists must be given the choice of conversion or death. The People of the Book, however, must be allowed to continue to practice their faith. On the other hand they are prohibited from making converts, and they must pay a special tax and wear distinctive clothing. In practice under Moslem governments the enforcement of these rules varied greatly from place to place.

In time this classification was extended to the Zoroastrians, in Persia, and to the Hindus, since they also possess sacred books.

Clean and Unclean

In order to take part in the ritual prayer and many other observances, a person must be ritually clean. Ritual uncleanliness is caused by various events taken to be polluting. It is not the same thing as sin, for it does not necessarily imply any moral guilt, but if it has been contracted it must be removed before prayer. Pollution may be acquired from

(a)external sources (this is called najasa), such as contact with a wet discharge from an animal or human being (blood, urine, pus, feces),

(b)or it may come about as the result of an action (this is called hadath). Hadath may be major or minor…

Purification is obtained by washing, in the case of minor hadath, or by tak-

ing a complete bath, with the major hadath. For this reason every mosque has facilities for washing.

The left hand is always regarded as unclean. It is never used to greet, to give gifts, or to touch another, but is used for toilet activities. Similarly the left foot is considered to be inauspicious, and is not to be used to make the first step into the mosque or on a journey.

Circumcision

Circumcision is considered a form of purification (it is often called simply tahara, which means purification) and is obligatory for all Moslem boys, although the age at which it is done varies from region to region; in some areas it is performed in infancy, in others as late as at the age of ten or twelve. The operation is sometimes carried out privately, but often in public, and is traditionally accompanied by some kind of festivity, including music and feasting. Although it is not mentioned in the Koran, it is recommended in the Hadith.

The Organization of Islam

Ideally Islam has no priesthood or clergy. The prayer service in the mosque can in principle be led by any believer.

There is, however, a recognized class of those who are knowledgeable about the religious law. This class is called the ulama. One becomes a member of it mainly by establishing a reputation as an expert on religious matters and attracting disciples. The question as to what belongs officially to Islam and what does not is settled authoritatively by the agreement (ijma’) of the ulama. Mohammed is reported in a hadith to have said, “My people will never agree together on an error”.

The title Mufti is sometimes given to an expert outstanding for his knowledge of the law, frequently one who occupies an official position. When consulted on a particular question involving the interpretation of the law, the Mufti issues a formal opinion called a fatwa, which has considerable authority.

Official decisions on matters of the religious law in particular cases, such as property, marriage and divorce, and inheritance, are made by a judge called a qadi. The qadi is appointed by the civil ruler from among the members of the ulama.

Islam and Society

Islam is not only a private or individual religion. Many of its laws can be carried out only in an Islamic society, where the civil law follows Islamic principles. For example, Moslem law requires that property be inherited according to certain rules, with sons typically receiving twice as much as daughters. The Zakat, or Charity Tax, needs to be collected and distributed by the government, as we have seen. Moslem law regarding marriage and divorce has many provisions that can only operate if supported by the civil law; for example, the woman cannot sign the marriage contract, but it must be signed for her by her male legal guardian. This Islamic law in its totality is called the “Shari’ah”, a term meaning “the right path”.

Traditionalist Moslems cannot be content to live in a secular society in the Western sense, which provides freedom of religion to all. Islam requires a soci-

ety in which the government is Islamic, and Islam is the official religion. Ideally the whole world should be a single Islamic empire.

Further than this, Islam requires not only political dominance but also economic and cultural superiority. The Islamic society ought to be the most advanced, the most prosperous. For many Moslems the combined political, economic, and cultural predominance of the West in modern times is a cause of dismay. This is especially true because of the sexual freedom widely permitted in the West, which is offensive to traditional Moslems.

Some Moslems consider that the chief reason why their nations have declined in power is because they have not implemented the Shari’ah strictly and fully. The Ayatollah Khomeni’s rule in Iran was inspired largely by that view.

Sunni and Shiite Islam

The division between Sunni and Shiite Islam is a question of the form of authority in Islam. On Mohammed’s death, a majority of his followers recognized his kinsman Abu Bakr as his successor or “Caliph”. Abu Bakr in turn was followed by three successors, all four being known as “the rightly guided Caliphs”. Moslems who recognize their authority are termed Sunni, meaning “the tradition”. In Sunni Islam the ultimate source of authority is the Moslem community. This is the most widespread form of Islam.

Some of Mohammed’s followers, however, maintained that Mohammed during his lifetime had designated his son-in-law Ali as his successor, and they refused to recognize the authority of Abu Bakr. These were the Party of Ali, the Shi’at Ali. In the view of Shiite Islam, authority resides not in the community but in the divinely appointed leader, the successor of Ali, called the Imam. God provides an Imam in every age, even though sometimes hidden. Shiite Islam predominates in Iran, and has large communities in Iraq and Syria. There are several different Shiite sects, recognizing different Imams.

While Sunni and Shiite agree on the broad principles of Islam, Shiite Islam has distinctive practices of its own. One of these is the celebration of the Tenth Day of (the month of) Muharram, commemorating the death of Ali’s son Husayn in battle against other Moslems. Husayn’s suffering quickly came to be interpreted as voluntary self-sacrifice. It is regarded by the Shia as redemptive, and it is celebrated in a dramatic “Passion Play” in which the participants flagellate themselves with chains and smear themselves with blood, ritually sharing in Husayn’s fate.

Sufism

A Sufi aims to attain spiritual union with God through love. Conscious of God’s love, the Sufi makes it the central goal of his existence to love God in return. The high point of this life of spiritual love is sometimes described as a mystical marriage with God.

The Sufi emphasis on love for God and union with him tends to relegate the details of the law to a matter of secondary concern. For the Sufi, it is often the spiritual significance of the law that is important, rather than its literal fulfillment. For similar reasons Sufism is relatively indifferent to political concerns.

Sufism exists both in Sunni and in Shiite Islam. It is organized in brotherhoods or orders which each typically owe allegiance to a particular spiritual master.

Orthodox Sufism maintains the distinction between the individual and God, viewing them as two separate realities. This is important if the individual is to be said to love God and obey him. Some Sufis have gone further, however, seeing the individual as essentially only an appearance of God, like a reflection in a mirror. This is the conception we earlier termed monism, that there exists only a single reality. As we saw, this view also occurs in Hinduism, for example, in the doctrine of some of the Upanishads, that Brahman alone is real; as well as in Mahayana Buddhism, in the view that the Buddha nature is the true identity of all that is. Consequently there are some fundamental similarities between these otherwise very diverse viewpoints. Some Sufis have expressed this monistic outlook by saying that they were identical with God, a statement that has called savage persecution down on them from orthodox Moslems, for whom it is blasphemy.

Sufis have produced some of the finest poetry in Islam, and also, of all Islamic literature, some of the most accessible to non-Moslems. For a nonMoslem who wishes to understand the spiritual life of Islam, Sufi poetry provides perhaps the best introduction.

At the present time Sufism is the object of heated dispute. While many view it as the highest and noblest achievement of Islam, others see it as largely responsible for the decline of Islam as a political force, and are bitterly opposed to it.

Summary of Islam

1.The chief message of the Koran is the absolute supremacy of God.

2.The main doctrines of Islam are:

The existence of a single God, Angels, Prophets and scriptures, Resurrection and the Last Judgement, The Divine Decree and predestination.

3.The principal duties incumbent on a Moslem are the Five Pillars of Islam: Recital of the Shahada. Formal prayer, Salat. Legal almsgiving, Zakat. Fasting, Sawm. Pilgrimage to Mecca, Hajj.

4.Islam is not only a private or individual religion, but a social one.

Question for discussion:

Several of the Founding Fathers of the United States, such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson were Deists, that is, they believed in the existence of God, a divine Providence, and a life after death. How does this differ from Islam?

Test questions:

1.Explain the Moslem doctrine of God.

2.Explain what is meant by saying that social Mohammed is the “Seal of

the Prophets”. What is the significance of this for the Moslem view of Judaism and Christianity?

3. Explain why Islam is not merely a private religion for individuals, but a social religion requiring adoption by the civil society.

PART IV

BUDDHISM

History

Buddhism was founded in Northern India by the Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama. He was born circa 563 B.C.E. in Lumbini which is in modern-day Nepal. At the age of 29, he left his wife, children and political involvements in order to seek truth; this was an accepted practice at the time for some men to leave their family and lead the life of an ascetic. He studied Brahmanism, but ultimately rejected it. In 535 B.C.E., he reached enlightenment and assumed the title Buddha (one who has awakened). He is also referred to as the Sakyamuni (sage of the Sakya clan). He promoted The Middle Way, rejecting both extremes of the mortification of the flesh and of hedonism as paths toward the state of Nirvana. He had many disciples and accumulated a large public following by the time of his death in his early 80’s in 483 B.C.E.

Two and a half centuries later, a council of Buddhist monks collected his teachings and the oral traditions of the faith into written form, called the Tripitaka. This included a very large collection of commentaries and traditions; most are called Sutras (discourses).

Buddhist Beliefs

Buddhism, like most of the great religions of the world, is divided into a number of different traditions. We will deal in this essay with Theravada Buddhism.

Buddhism is a religion which shares few concepts with Christianity. For example, they do not believe in a transcendent or immanent or any other type of God or Gods, the need for a personal savior, the power of prayer, eternal life in a heaven or hell after death, etc. They do believe in reincarnation: the concept that one must go through many cycles of birth, living, and death. After many such cycles, if a person releases their attachment to desire and the self, they can attain Nirvana.

The Buddha’s Four Noble Truths may be described (somewhat simplistically) as:

to be fulyl/understood – the universality of suffering;

to be abandoned – the desire to have and control things which cause, suffering;

to be made visible – the supreme truth and final liberation of nirvana which is achieved as the cause of suffering is eliminated. The mind experiences complete freedom and liberation;

to be brought into being – the truth of the eightfold ariya path leading to the cessation of suffering.

His Eightfold Path consists of:

1.right understanding,

2.right thinking,

3.right speech,

4.right conduct,

5.right livelihood,

6.right effort,

7.right mindfulness,

8.right concentration.

Buddhist Sects

Buddhism is not a single monolithic religion. Many of its adherents have combined the teachings of the Buddha with local religious rituals, beliefs and customs. Little conflict occurs, because Buddhism at its core is a philosophical system to which such additions can be easily grafted. After the Buddha’s death, splits occurred. There are now three main systems of thought within Buddhism which are geographically and philosophically separate. Each tradition in turn has many sects. One source (J.R. Hinnels, A Handbook of Living Religions, Penguin, 1991) divides the religion into three main groups by their location:

Southern Buddhism (known as Therevada Buddhism) has 100 million followers, mainly in Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka and Thailand, and parts of Vietnam. It started in Sri Lanka when Buddhist missionaries arrived from India. They promoted the Vibhajjavada school (Separative Teaching). By the 15th century, this form of the religion reached almost its present extent.

Concepts and practices include: Dana – thoughtful, ceremonial giving;

Sila – accepting Buddhist teaching and following it in practice; refraining from killing, stealing, wrong behavior, use of drugs. On special days, three additional precepts may be added, restricting adornment, entertainment and comfort;

Karma – the balance of accumulated sin and merit, which will determine one’s future in the present life, and the nature of the next life to come;

The Cosmos – consists of billions of worlds grouped into clusters; clusters are grouped into galaxies, which are themselves grouped into super-galaxies. The universe also has many levels: four underworlds and 21 heavenly realms;

Paritta – ritual chanting;

Worship – of relics of a Buddha, of items made by a Buddha, or of symbolic relics;

Festivals – days of the full moon, and three other days during the lunar cycle are celebrated. There is a new year’s festival, and celebrations tied to the agricultural year;

Pilgrimages – particularly to Buddhist sites in Sri Lanka and India. Eastern Buddhism is the predominant religion in China, Japan, Korea and

much of Vietnam. Buddhism’s Mahayana tradition entered China during the Han dynasty (206 B.C.E. to 220 C.E.). It found initial acceptance there among the workers; later, it gradually penetrated the ruling class. Buddhism reached Japan in the 6th century. It underwent severe repression during the 1960’s in China during the Cultural Revolution.

Eastern Buddhism contains many distinct schools: T’ein-t’ai, Hua-yen, Pure Land teachings, and the Meditation school. They celebrate New Years, harvest festivals, and five anniversaries from the lives of Buddha and of the Bodhissattva Kuan-yin. They also engage in Dana, Sila, Chanting, Worship and Pilgrimage.

Northern Buddhism has perhaps 10 million adherents in parts of China, Mongolia, Russia and Tibet. It entered Tibet circa 640 C.E. Conflict with the native Tibetan religion of Bon caused it to go largely underground until its revival in the 11th century. The head of the Gelu school of Buddhist teaching became the Dalai Lama, and ruled Tibet. It has been, until recently, wrongly dismissed as a degenerate form of Buddhism.

Ceremony and ritual are emphasized. They also engage in Dana, Sila, Chanting, Worship and Pilgrimage. They developed the practice of searching out a young child at the time of death of an important teacher. The child is believed to be the successor to the deceased teacher. They celebrate New Years, harvest festivals and anniversaries of five important events in the life of the Buddha. Buddhist and Tibetan culture suffered greatly during the Cultural Revolution when an attempt was made to destroy all religious belief.

Buddhism in the West

Southern Buddhism became established in Europe early in this century. The Zen Buddhist tradition of Eastern Buddhism has also developed a large following, particularly in North America. Canadian Buddhists totaled 163415 in the 1991 census.

History of Buddha

Siddhartha (Buddha) was born around 563 B.C.E. in the town of Kapilavastu (located in today’s Nepal). Siddhartha’s parents were King Shuddhodana and Queen Maya, who ruled the Sakyas. His history is a miraculous one...

One night, Queen Maya dreamed that an elephant with six tusks, carrying a lotus flower in its trunk, touched her right side. At that moment her son was con-

ceived. Brahmins (learned men) came and interpreted the dream. The child would be either the greatest king in the world or the greatest ascetic (a holy man who practices self-denial). The future child would be named Siddhartha, which means “he whose aim is accomplished”.

Later when Queen Maya was going to her father’s home to prepare for the birth, she stepped off her chariot in the Lumbini Gardens and held the branch of a sal tree to rest. In that instant, Siddhartha emerged from her right side without any help. The infant walked seven steps each in four directions of the compass, and lotus flowers sprouted from where his foot touched the earth. Then the infant said, “No further births have I to endure, for this is my last body. Now shall I destroy and pluck out by the roots the sorrow that is caused by birth and death”. Seven days later Queen Maya died. Mahaprajapati, Maya’s sister, looked after Siddhartha. King Shuddhodana shielded Siddhartha from all kinds of suffering and hardship. When Siddhartha was about 20, he married Yasodhara, daughter of one of the King’s ministers, and one year later they had a child named Rahula (meaning “fetter” or “impediment”). At age 29, Siddhartha asked his charioteer, Channa, to take him out of the city two times without the consent of the king. During these two trips, Siddhartha saw “Four Sights” that changed his life. On the first trip, he saw old age, sickness, and death. The second trip, he saw a wandering holy man, an ascetic, with no possessions. Siddhartha started questioning the holy man, who had a shaved head, wore only a ragged yellow robe, and carried a walking-staff. The man said, “I am... terrified by birth and death and therefore have adopted a homeless life to win salvation... I search for the most blessed state in which suffering, old age, and death are unknown." That night, Siddhartha silently kissed his sleeping wife and son, and ordered Channa to drive him out to the forest. At the edge of the forest, Siddhartha took off his jeweled sword, and cut off his hair and beard. He then took off all his princely garments and put on a yellow robe of a holy man. He then ordered Channa to take his possessions back to his father. Siddhartha then wandered through northeastern India, sought out holy men, and learned about Samsara (reincarnation). Karma, and Moksha. Attracted to the ideas of Moksha, Siddhartha settled on the bank of Nairanjana River, and adopted a life of extreme self-denial and penances, meditating constantly. After six years of eating and drinking only enough to stay alive, his body was emaciated, and he was very weak. Five other holy men joined him, hoping to learn from his example. One day, Siddhartha realized that his years of penance only weakened his body, and he could not continue to meditate properly. When he stepped into the river to bathe, he was too weak to get out, and the trees lowered their branches to help him. In that instant, a milk-maid named Nandabala came and offered a bowl of milk and rice, which Siddhartha accepted. The five holy men left Siddhartha after witnessing this. Refreshed by the meal, Siddhartha sat down

under a fig tree (often refered to as the Bo tree, or Tree of Enlightenment) and resolved to find out an answer to life and suffering. While meditating, Mara (an evil god) sent his three sons and daughters to tempt Siddhartha with thirst, lust, discontent, and distractions of pleasure. Siddhartha, unswayed, entered a deep meditation, and recalled all his previous rebirths, gained knowledge of the cycle of births and deaths, and with certainty, cast off the ignorance and passion of his ego which bound him to the world. Thereupon, Siddhartha had attained enlightenment and became the Buddha (enlightened one). His own desire and suffering were over and, as the Buddha, he experienced Nirvana... “There is a sphere which is neither earth, nor water, nor fire, nor air ... which is neither this world nor the other world, neither sun nor moon. I deny that it is coming or going, enduring, death or birth. It is only the end of suffering”. Instead of casting off his body and his existence, however, Buddha made a great act of selfsacrifice. He turned back, determined to share his enlightement with others so that all living souls could end the cycles of their own rebirth and suffering.

Buddha went to the city of Sarnath and found the previous five holy men that deserted him earlier at a deer park. When they saw Buddha this time, they realized that he had risen to a higher state of holiness. The Buddha began teaching them what he had learned. He drew a circle in the ground with rice grains, representing the wheel of life that went on for existence after existence. This preaching was called his Deer Park Sermon, or “Setting in Motion the Wheel of Doctrine”. Siddhartha revealed that he had become the Buddha, and described the pleasure that he had first known as a prince, and the life of severe asceticism that he had practiced. Neither of these was the true path to Nirvana. The true path was the Middle Way, which keeps aloof from both extremes. “To satisfy the necessities of life is not evil”, the Buddha said. “To keep the body in good health is a duty, for otherwise we shall not be able to trim the lamp of wisdom and keep our mind strong and clear”. Buddha then taught them the Dharma, which consisted of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. The five holy men and others soon joined Buddha, accompanying him everywhere. As more joined, Buddha organized the Sangha, a community of bhikkus (dedicated monks and later nuns). The Sangha preserved the Dharma, and allowed bhikkus to concentrate on the goal of Nirvana. On raining seasons they would settle in Viharas (resting places in cave dwellings). Upasaka, followers who believed in Buddha’s teachings, but could not follow the strict rule of the Sangha, were taught to follow the Five Precepts. Buddha returned to his birthplace in Kapilavastu, and his father was mortified to see his son begging for food. Buddha kissed his father’s foot and said, “You belong to a noble line of kings. But I belong to the lineage of buddhas, and thousands of those have lived on alms”. King Shuddhadana then remembered the Brahmin’s prophesy and reconciled with his son. Buddha’s wife, son, and cousin (Ananda) later joined the Sangha.

When Buddha was about eighty, a blacksmith named Cuanda gave him a meal that caused him to become ill. Buddha forced himself to travel to Kushinagara, and laid down on his right side to rest in a grove of shala trees. As a crowd of followers gathered, the trees sprouted blossoms and showered them on Buddha. Buddha told Ananda, “I am old and my journey is near its end. My body is like a worn-out cart held together only by the help of leather straps”. Three times, Buddha asked the people if they had any questions, but they all remained silent. Finally Buddha said, “Everything that has been created is subject to decay and death. Everything is transitory. Work out your own salvation with diligence”. After passing through several states of meditation, the Buddha died, reaching Parinirvana (the cessation of perception and sensation).

Five Precepts:

1.Do not kill.

2.Do not steal.

3.Do not lie.

4.Do not be unchaste.

5.Do not take drugs or drink intoxicants.

The Body, Speech and Mind of a Buddha

The Body of a Buddha

What is a Buddha? A Buddha is someone who has abandoned all unwholesome action, all obstructions to knowledge and their remnants. When one abandons unwholesome action, an imprint remains on the mind which acts as an obstructions to knowledge, just as when one drops an onion from one’s hand, a smell remains on it. The Buddha has abandoned even the last remnants of these obstructions to knowledge. He perceives the reality of all phenomena directly and has fully developed compassion through meditation, so he spontaneously works for the welfare of all beings. Over countless aeons, he has accumulated limitless merit through the practice of the perfections of giving, ethics, practice and effort and has meditated with a firmly stabilized mind on the antidote to the conception of an inherently existent self-emptiness.

From the point of view of Tantra, he meditated on deity yoga, employing the many subtle and powerful means of Tantra, which enables one to attain Buddhahood in one lifetime.

Although there may be countless Buddhas in any aeon, in the present aeon 1002 Buddhas are to appear as such, of whom four have already appeared. They are already enlightened, but take birth as humans to demonstrate the twelve deeds of a Buddha and guide sentient beings towards enlightenment. The tantric path to enlightenment is peculiar to Shakyamuni’s teaching and is otherwise very rare. Shakyamuni taught the sutras to ordinary disciples, in the form of a

Buddha. However, he taught superior disciples the tantras in the form of a king or in the aspect of various meditational deities.

There are many ways of representing the body of the Buddha. Though they may reveal different aspects, all are the Buddha’s body in nature and offerings made to them are equal to those made to Buddhas themselves. Thus, the Buddha may be portrayed as a monk, like Buddha Shakyamuni, as slightly wrathful meditational deities such as Heruka, or Guhyasamaja, or as female deities such as dakinis, as wrathful male or female deities with ugly forms and animal heads, or as embracing consorts. There are also occasions when Shakyamuni Buddha is represented as a rabbit or an elephant, recalling exemplary deeds he performed in such lives during his career as a Bodhisattva. Similarly, religious images are also made of Arhats, those beings who have attained personal liberation, religious protectors and Lamas. If the image is a statue, it can be made of any material, whether clay, stone, wood or metal and while there are no restrictions on size, it must strictly adhere to the prescribed proportions and so forth. Whatever material is used, such images should be respected equally, a statue should not be valued more highly than another because it is made of gold and the other of clay. The same is true of two-dimensional images, which in Tibet were most commonly paintings on cloth, block prints or murals.

The Buddha’s Speech or Dharma

From the point of view of experience, the Oharma is ultimately the abandonment of afflictions and obstructions to knowledge in a being’s mental continuum. The way to attain this true cessation is to follow a true path. The means of communicating this understanding is the speech of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, which in written form comprises the collection of scriptures. Both of these are also referred to as the Dharma. When the Buddha spoke, countless beings each found in his words what benefitted him or her most and could understand it in his or her own language. Shortly after the Buddha’s passing away, memorised collections of his teachings were recited in four different Indian languages, including Sanskrit. Later these were translated into Tibetan, Chinese, Mongolian, Korean, Japanese and so forth. The Tibetan canon includes the Kangyur, about 108 volumes consisting of translations of Buddha’s own words, and the Tengyur, about 200 volumes of commentries to teachings contained in the Kangyur composed by Indian scholars, and some commentaries to those written by later Tibetan scholars. Recently, translations of Buddhist texts have also begun to appear in Western languages. No matter what language is used to convey them, what distinguishes such texts or teachings is that their meaning is conducive to sentient beings’ achieving enlightenment. This is reflected in the subjects dealt with by Buddhist teaching. The Buddha is said to have given 84000 instructions, which elaborate on all the afflictions and the means of overcoming them. When condensed, these can be included in the Three Baskets of